I've had some very interesting conversations about Hwini-Butre. Among those were the people at Crew Development including John Darch, it's CEO, and Jon Steen Petersen, the original geologist from Mindex at H-B. Petersen has a very definite model in his mind about the potential of this deposit and what needs to be done.
CRU is a company with talent and resources in Africa, and would like to see things happen. I can also tell you that Michael Terrell is not working with this partner, or as yet has not established a relationship with them. To me that's another in a series of lost opportunities for SJD shareholders.
Of course egos and control issues are involved here, but just the same when you pay yourself $217,000 a year to run a company (What is this, Franco-Nevada?), ultimately you have to represent or at least communicate your goals and intentions to shareholders. If you don't, you risk losing your influence (or your position) even if you are right. At this point I don't feel Terrell is the man to run our company. I think he is comfortable collecting an exorbitant salary and since nobody cares, can get away with running an orphaned company that is ignored by brokers and analysts.
Unlocking shareholder value is the only course of action. By unlocking value I don't mean some sleazy hump and dump a la the internet, tech or e commerce. How does management best unlock value? 1. By utilizing all the talent that might be available to explore this deposit. To me this means using Crew. 2. By using cash to buy net net stock (prices below cash value). 3. By taking a salary in line with the market cap of the stock. Probably closer to 50K than 217K. 4. By making a minimal attempt to sell the story.
There is an annual meeting in July, I call on SJD shareholders to influence management to change. Failing that I call for replacing them. |
