I have spoken with Simon in the past few weeks and while clearly unable to say anything of a market sensitive nature, he was keen to point out the positive response he has had from both brokers and investors during his time in London. The main takeaway for me is that he is still working hard at it.
When the share price takes a battering like ours has its easy to take swipes at management, but as another astute poster pointed, nobody saw the sale of SKO coming. NST compounded the issue by stringing us along for a few months before telling us its not worth their time...…….leaving us with a serious shortfall of revenue and quite possibly a stranded asset. I was more than happy with the plan of using the Cannon money to fund Korea, but sometimes S##T happens in business...…….particularly when your the small fish.
Having said that, we had a "please explain" from the ASX on the 8th of Feb and two weeks later we were well funded for the immediate term.....with extra finance in place should we need it...….without hanging existing holders out to dry . Not a bad outcome all things considered.
What I have found interesting is that nobody commented on the Appendix 3B we received on the 15th of Feb. A quick google search of Aetas Global Markets will show we are not dealing with a Hartleys or a Pattersons type of brokerage here...….and this company were happy to take shares in lieu of cash for its consultancy services. Their bill was only $11k...…… I'm sure we had enough to cover that. It wasn't in relation to the Funding announcement on the 21st of Feb IMHO. They were either Australian investors or already on the register.
Its all pivotal on the Permit to Develop IMHO, when we are holding that, potential backers have the certainty they need and we will have the legal right to proceed and I have no doubt that BMV will move swiftly. As I have said before, anyone that can make money from abandoned gold mines in South Africa, Vietnam and the Philippines can do it anywhere in the world.
I would say the aim of the game is to tap a pool of investors who are both familiar and comfortable with the jurisdiction. I also still believe that the Korean government will provide financial support in some form provided they are happy with the proposal. At the end of the day it is in their interest as well to have a profitable mine operating. While I will be more than happy to see these mines up and running, I remain invested for the Hishikari I know is lurking on the South Korean peninsula
Good luck to all of us
