Yep, I was optimistic enough, too, to keep holding when my first "money management doubts" surfaced after receiving the too glossy PR Xmas Card. ... See tho' that most hc posters on MON were wiser and don't hold.
Still struggling to understand MK's sudden volte face, the best explanation (psychological)that I've read for the debacle so far is from minsite:
""Precisely what happened, and why the one-man bulldozer who drives the company, Michael Kiernan, called time-out is yet to be fully explained. But, what seems most likely is that he got tired of being pressured by Monarch’s creditors and said something like: “I’ve been trying to save this business, and you’re not helping, so let’s all go down together.” Minesite’s Man, who knows Mick reasonably well, has no way of knowing whether he actually said that, but it’s a fair bet it was along those lines.""
Then this light little touch at the bottom for any optimists left out here - lol.
"Significantly, before it failed, Monarch was also boasting of an iron ore discovery on ground close to its Hill 50 operations. Perhaps it might come back as Monarch Iron? "