TO ALL: STATUS OF RUSSELL WORK AND CAMPBELL'S POSITION:
Russell spent 8 intense days through 6/23 in the U.S. studying every aspect of the J/L technologies (plural). The results of the lab assays of all this work have now been held up for THREE weeks, by Norton's initial refusal to pay the bills; then trying to involve himself in the environmental concerns of one of the two labs; and subsequent capitulation as shareholders interceded, crying foul. This effort at impeding the results is clearly aimed at keeping the Russell study from being available to shareholders by the AGM, in my humble opinion.
This Monday, "management" capitulated and agreed to honor all the bills for the study. However, as of tonight (Thursday night in U.S., Friday AM in S. Africa), payment by at least one of the labs STILL has not been received, and until it is--now promised for tomorrow--the lab will not FAX its results--now awaiting payment for 2-3 weeks--to Russell in South Africa. Norton is directly involved in the other lab, so no one knows where it stands; but this is the lab he tried to involve himself in on environmental as well as payment matters earlier.
Russell is sitting there twiddling his thumbs as this political charade plays out here, aiming to "run out the clock" before the AGM. Since Russell is a round-the-clock workaholic, if payment to the first lab hits tomorrow, the results will go out and Russell can start working--at last--on them over the weekend. But he has other commitments, and shareholders may or may not get the report before the AGM--essentially, Norton willing. It looks like it will be real close!
Campbell had to put some lead time on all this, in view of the lead times for voting, mailing in proxies, etc.; and get awareness rolling. I believe he had Russell's eight intense days of study of all phases of the technology in mind when he said "his technology has been closely studied." He most likely went on Russell's apparent attitude of enthusiasm in saying that his "reaction, in terms of whether this is a technology worth pursuing, is definitely yes."
Rest assured that neither Russell nor anybody else knows any of the quantitative outcome, as of tonight, since payment STILL has not been made...and "tempus is fugiting" (time is flying).
Someone said that "personalities" are the issue. That's partly it, but as you can see, character is also at stake; i.e., integrity. The above behavior is not conducive to a tranquil relationship with J/L or anyone else. Of course, Lett is not above these criticisms either.
The Board is apparently aware that it's in a quagmire. Fred Arkoosh is apparently again riding to the rescue as interim COO--yes, again! Campbell in his letter also seems to suggest him as a neutral interim CEO and/or Director to replace Kemp as such, to both (a) fairly represent us in the J/L matter, and then (b) help us as a seasoned executive, running a $50 million business, to land the real, strong, likable, industry CEO that we can certainly attract once we have our technical house in order. Seems reasonable to me.
I think things are gradually falling into place.
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