My AGM Report
I've taken time to digest everything and leave Phoenix very satisfied. I really feel
IPM is coalescing -- things are really coming together. Again, as in my last trip
out to the Maxam AGM, when I got meet IPM's management, the people are
making a world of difference. To quote a UK fund manager/broker who 2 weeks
ago had the benefit of an mining analyst visiting IPMs labs, "These people are
for real..." and I couldn't agree more.
Here's a run down of some of the newer or less talked about IPM people:
First ALAN DOYLE: I had never met him, and had preconceptions he far
exceeded. This not just a "moneyman"; this a thoughtful, prudent business man
-- sincerely committed to IPM and the black rock project becoming a mine.
Though I believe he also runs a resource banking company, I believe we will see
Alan Doyle more and more involved with the project. I heard Dale Runyon say
something interesting: that he started out as a business consultant, eventually to
mining ventures, and he found the vast majority failed due to lack of proper
financing. And that reminded me again, of what a significant asset Mr. Doyle is
to IPM, and amazing job he has already done.
JIM POTTER. Mr. Potter is a major shareholder who has been in the
background advising Le Furlong for a some time as I understand it, and a few
weeks ago became our COO -- Chief Operating Officer. The aura of
competence, integrity and business savvy around him is immediately palpable. I
don't have the full bio yet, but among his experience has been coming into
troubled tech and computer companies and completely turning them around. I
think the addition of Mr. Potter is extremely significant -- I get the feeling this guy
didn't "need a job" and we are very lucky to have him. His presence tells me
many things including that Le Furlong is a wise enough CEO to know how to
delegate responsibility, and continually attracts quality personnel to IPM like a
magnate. It tells me once again, that a critical mass of intelligent, experienced
and thoughtful people are convinced "this thing's for real." I asked Jim about the
corporate restructuring, and he replied, "It's time for IPM to grow-up". And this
was not a derogatory statement. It was a statement of conviction in how much
this company is poised to achieve and grow in the near future.
JOHN YELLICH. Another geologist recently joining IPM, who I understand to be
an expert in _permitting_ ... And I believe he has done quite a bit of this around
the world. Dr. Sam Shaw was very enthusiastic about the addition of Mr. Potter
and Yellich, and told me, "These are my kind of guys". So, we have a world
class mining engineer talking about mining permitting expert and business
management expert with great enthusiasm -- Anyone starting to get a picture
here?
I reached my ultimate equilibrium with IPM when I met DR. SAM SHAW III on my
last trip. I went home and dropped my nasdaq level 2 service, and really let go
caring about the daily ups and downs or inevitable "delays"... I wanted to
do a longer post on Sam, back then, but felt my posts couldn't be heard at that
time of blistering waves of attack posts. Dr. Shaw is amazing, and has my
complete trust and confidence. In my write up of the "new" people, one should
not forget about TOM DODGE, IPM's head Geologist. Tom is also an amazing
asset -- both down to earth and incredibly knowledgeable. I also find him
incredibly candid and sincere, with a completely pragmatic ,critical, scientific approach.
My trip out to Phoenix started with a good omen. I set out to meet up with CL's
tour and arrived at Black Rock an hour early. There I ran into the Vercombes,
the husband and wife Geology team from Australia, studying Black Rock. These
two are right out of a National Geographic Special, with safari hats and boots,
and great scientific backgrounds. They were amazingly patient and gave me
some Geology 101, including an explanation of stockwork (a good thing). I
found out they really are out of the loop on all the "business" of the company,
and have a blanket policy not to buy stock in companies while they are
consulting for them. They left me with two primary impressions, one that based
on the geology, black rock was "a bloody good place to explore for precious
metals", and second, that the final chapter on the book on Platinum has yet to be
written. When I asked about "ultra-mafics" they mentioned that hydro-thermal
platinum deposits did exit and in particular mentioned Coronation Hill in
Australia as such (and I think also having gold) ... Once again, I found these
people to be credible scientists of high integrity.
The AGM was fine, and I won't rehash the details. Needless to say, IPM "put
metal on the table" -- and though we heard exactly this without caveat as a
refrain for over a month from some hecklers here, I'm sure it won't satisfy them.
At the AGM, from some shareholders there was dissapointment over a BD sign-
off not being in yet, though most didn't expect it this soon. Someone posted
here on SI about when BD was recently doing the bulk runs and I myself didn't
see enough time logistically for a report to be in hand from them -- and I've been
talking about that here for a while. I don't know what the stock will do on
Monday, don't really care, but really feel the "market" has already anticipated
this. I got to meet most of the fund managers/largest shareholders and brokers
and really sensed overwhelmingly they are in this for the long haul.
Interestingly, the mood among individual shareholders became more and more
upbeat as the weekend progressed. I think the news of a fire assay and how
incredibly important that is began to sink in. Those that went on the IPM tour
came back impressed... I remember how in the midst of increasingly shrill and
desperate "attack" posts one even remarked "... and what about this mobile
processing plant, how do we know it even exits?" ... Uhh, well, they could have
_come_ to the AGM and seen it working, but now there are 60 people who have,
so perhaps they'll believe them -- but of course there will be a new laundry list of
things and people to doubt and attack. These are getting so voluminous and
seemingly desperate, that I know several lurkers it has convinced to buy the
stock.
I had a great time, making a vacation of it with my girlfriend, met a lot of neat and
notable people like Ron Struthers and Jay Taylor. Myself, I have grown tired of
the "battles" here. The more obviously IPM keeps moving forward, the less
enthusiasm I can muster to fight the petty battles. It seems a losing proposition,
that when certain attack only posters have no relevant facts or reasonable logic,
they just call someone a Shill among some other nasty accusations, and some
even promote wild conspiracies -- with out ever bothering to _meet_ the people in
the company they care so much about running down. It seems they can't accept
some intelligent and decent people sincerely believe this company has a shot at
something big. I was thinking of this as I got a copy of Jay Taylor's newsletter
and on the back it lists _all_ his picks and the winning and losing performances.
And it is obvious, Jay's goal is to sell subscriptions, and to do that by building
the best possible winning performance record he can. He and many, many
others I met sincerely believe in this company, these people and this project...
And so do I.
Lew Green |
