Ann: Departure of CEO, page-3

So, Wade Evans has departed. There is no explanation. My guess though is that he left voluntarily as I heard from a reliable source at the Gold Coast RRS Conference 29 May that he was looking for a new job at that time. I think that after the vote, he would have felt uncomfortable as I gather that he was more aligned to the 2 ousted Directors.

But Bronwyn Barnes is still there of course, and judging by today's report it seems that the Company believes that it is stuck with her until her appointor (Investmet/Michael Fotios) gets around to replacing her. He was asked to nominate people for consideration by the Board (excluding BB you'd have to think) on 18 May but hasn't responded yet.

This intolerable situation must end. The Board has sent just 0ne letter? - and 7 weeks ago too. C'mon Neville, that's not good enough. You should have sent at least 3 more, and the last one giving an ultimatum stating that unless he nominated at least 2 suitable people by say 5pm 6 July then the Board would deem his silence to be a cancellation of the appointment agreement.

I have stated my legal opinion on this crazy saga on the other thread. BB has no legal standing. She is a persona non grata vis-à-vis the Company Board.

We are all made out to be mugs!!

And now we have what appears to be an inactive or uninvolved Board. "The Board is actively forming and evaluating work programmes for the next 12 months." One view could be that without a CEO now, it does not know what to do or where things are at. We have 2 new members who probably haven't had the time to get a handle on everything. maybe they haven't tried.

However, there is another possible view as the other thing about this report is that it says nothing about seeking a new CEO. Ok, there is a consultant accountant/secretary appointed to keep the admin going for 3 months - 'oversee the day-t0-day management...' - but what else is happening about getting the show back on the road!! Nothing it would seem.

So, what could this mean? We will be in a 'care and maintenance' situation for at least 3 months. Now, coupled with the Board's totally inadequate advice as to what the hell is going on exploration-wise, could this mean that the Company is waiting for something big to happen? - such as a takeover offer by Sandfire?

We know that the 2 brokers behind the spill, the ones who selected Neville Bassett and Brian Thomas I'd say, had a big pow-wow (along with Rob Martin, the continuing Director) in about April last year and worked out a farm-out/farm-in deal with SFR which was put to the then Board of AUR but was rejected. Since the upheaval at the top I have been expecting an announcement about expanding and tightening the relationship, but so far none has come. Is one imminent?!