2 weeks have passed since my last post on this subject.
As expected the company has failed to announce a successor to BT as company CEO after 5 months of searching and with the AGM now less than 2 weeks away.
As guided, there was a company announcement on 31/10 to say that the E15 shaft had achieved 'practical completion' with a picture of miners exiting from the man cage at level 10 of the E15 shaft to confirm it was useable and at some level of completion and commissioning. This was good news and the least that could be expected after all the prior delays.
What effect has this had on sentiment and the sp?
Zero. There is low liquidity in the shares and the sp is rooted to 32-35c range.
AGM to be held on 22/11/2018.
AT is standing for re-election as Chairman and acting CEO.
AT is standing in the way of any progress by the company. He is secretive and not trusted.
What was the real reason for BT leaving? It's highly likely it was not the one given in June.
He doesn't communicate with shareholders in any upfront way - look at the months he gives himself for the simple matter of commissioning L15, the joke guidance for current year production, the joke guidance for AISC.
In the last Quarterly under AT there was this:
"All-In Sustaining Costs (“AISC”
for the quarter included surface civil works for future infrastructure." No explanation. What future infrastructure that has never been announced and at what cost? What else is there? There is never any end to capex spend at the mine and the need for more development. All these projects just come out of the blue and are dumped on shareholders who are given no forward view.
AT is an accountant who comes from a background of long service with BGC, a private company. He runs MML in a detached way as a bookkeeper with BGC, whereby shareholders don't exit or can be ignored. Open communication and participation is not welcome. He has even appointed a young analyst, Patrick Chang, as CDO to interface with shareholders so he does not have to give any personal accounting or answer questions directly.
Where is there any mention of restoration of dividends to shareholders or even an aspiration for this?
AT has been presiding over MML during a long period of no growth, incompetance, market distrust and share price collapse.
Background:
On 22/11/2013 Geoff Davis retired as Chairman of Medusa after 2 years as non-exec Chairman and 9 years as the founding MD and director. His replacement as Chairman was Andrew Teo who has now had 5 years in that position to prove himself.
Unfortunately what was a great, go-ahead junior gold miner under Geoff became a basket case under AT.
The company has made little progress in these 5 years. Production has seen no increase despite the completion of a new 200k oz/year mill 5 years ago. Nearly all available resources have been ploughed into the Co-O mine but for no tangible return. Production today is no higher than at any time in the past with a mismatch between mill capacity and mine production of around 100k oz year. The E15 shaft which was supposed to address this mismatch has taken 3.5 years to build and is now expected to boost production by only approx 17%.
There is something radically wrong here. 5 years under AT and 5 years standing still.
The sp which reached $8.50 in 2011 was around $2.00 when AT took over has lost 84% since then being rooted below $1.00 for the past 4 years due to no progress by the company and no confidence in management. Shareholders have suffered massive losses whilst directors have continued in their well paid positions and seem to be prepared to continue in this way if shareholders vote for AT's re-election at the upcoming AGM.
