My point is that they didn’t actually need the money to keep the...

My point is that they didn’t actually need the money to keep the show rolling on at a fair clip. Maybe the brokers stumping up the coin were happy at 32cents but unhappy at 42cents meaning they wouldn’t have been offered the money at any higher levels (until this project is producing cash flow cash is king), in which case they wouldn’t have had the options on the table that this new money brings with it. Somehow I just get the feeling the future will be brighter with what this money can bring, opening up the world class potential and accelerating development by being able to present the best outcome to the debt funders or the predators. The company is likely to soar past 3 million ounces in resources and I won’t try and estimate the reserves accurately but one would image 1 to 1.5 million ounces shouldn’t be out of the question as a starting point, just within the broad sphere of the current drilling. In my opinion they are better delaying the second feasibility a bit until some of the gains of this new fire power can be factored in.

As far as talking about speculative gold stocks, the larger the resources/reserves, the higher the grades and the better the quality of the management the more you can differentiate between speculation and investment. I’m happy to look at this story as an investment even at this stage. The only problem is just like when the predators came for Orbis Gold, the long term investment benefits are all lost as the short term money is happy to flip for a 60% -70% premium. That’s how stupid the Australian capital markets are. This sort of project is one that could keep delivering for decades.

I remember in the 1990s I wrote a letter to Plutonic who had a small tenement (containing the Moonbeam deposit) in the middle of the Kundana area near Kalgoorlie and advised them that whomever controlled the tenements of Tribune/Rand would end up controlling the bulk of the gold on the Zuleika shear. This was when TBR was trading at less than 10cents per share with a market cap of about $5 million. I got a polite letter from Plutonic thanking me for the advice but telling me in no uncertain terms that they can do their own strategising. Not long after I wrote that letter the newly floated Gilt-Edge Mining took a 51% share in the TBR/RND ground. After having proved up some resources at Kundana Gilt-Edge got taken over for 50cents per share and the directors were not able to defend the offer as the expert report assessed it as fair and reasonable and they were forced to recommend it to shareholders. The short sighted and grubby Aussie share flipping brokers ensured that the take-over happened and missed out on the long run benefits of owning a world class gold mine. That share of the Kundana ground is currently owned by NST and is still producing gold after 18 years from one of the best and highest grade gold mines in Australia. It probably has another 5-8 years in it with any luck.

That is the problem with our capital markets. No one is interested in the long run. I can’t see that Richard will be able to fend of the offer when it comes either, which is the great pit. Esh