I have been surprised at the rapidity this has sunk. So, doing a...

I have been surprised at the rapidity this has sunk. So, doing a little clean up today, I found the 2008 Ann Report and decided to have a critical look. I am not real hot on Financial Statements but this is what I have noticed.

On page 15 they state they are in "a very strong cash position, with $179 million in the bank at the end of June."

That looked good to me with Production beginning 1st Q 2009.

Then in the Balance Sheet on page 37 it says "Cash and Cash equivalents" and this amounted to $183,148,000. This seemed a strange thing to write, what is a cash equivalent?
I ws then directed to Note 14 on Page 54. In this table there is a figure for "Bank balances" which amounted to $183,148,000. I wondered about this bank balances. Then one was directed to Note 26 on page 65. This was concerned with Credit Risk. The maximum exposure to credit risk included "Cash and cash equivalents" of $191,268,000. Then immediately below the table that contained the numbers was another table with: "Cash and cash equivalents" of $3,937,000, and "Other receivables" of $172,713,000.

I never found how they got $179 million cash in the bank from all that. I still do not know what "Other receivables" is or where it comes from but it is a lot of money that, surely, can be counted as "money in the bank".

Given the way the terms were switched around in the course of my wander through the report, I am beginning to wonder if the Auditor is guilty of dereliction of duty.

As I said, I am not good at Financial statements but it looks fishy to me.