Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
If you can see those backlogs(i.e. delays) then so should any half competent bods. JP will obviously have included time for this in his target dates. No?
I am trying to get it clear in my head what the plan actually is. Am I correct in thinking that :
1. The previous operator is being paid to tell us who much it will cost to open LD/L.
2.We intend to finance this unknown cost from cash flows from LC.
3. There is an increased likelihood that LC will be producing next year because the price of copper has gone up.
4.We do not have a PEPR for LC but we have had a nod and a wink that we could have one soon.
5. We do not have any finance to open LC.
Doesn't sound like a plan that has much of a chance of being achieved. Sounds more like another string-along while we(the BOD) extend the period over which we continue to milk the shareholders.
It is not bunkum and the increase in the price of copper would only be relevant if the BOD was believed to be competent to take advantage of thet increase. Unfortunately we have a BOD that has demonstrated that it is not able to do that. If the BOD cannot be believed then the price of copper is irrefutably irrelevant. If the co. assets were up for sale then the copper price may be relevent to the purchase price.
Troajan, do you know what the difference would be if as you say we measured Tungsten and Tin by their weight per ton for comparison purposes? Would it make any difference?
But not lemons again!
We cannot afford to do anything with Redmoor, not now and not in the short/medium term. If it is the outstanding asset that it is ramped to be then it should be easy to sell instead of sitting on it watching SML fall apart. That way we have more than enough cash to get LCCM in to profit and save the company. Or is it all just one big story with no substance? Sadly SML has joined the long list of firms going nowhere existing only to generate a lifestyle for the BOD which most of the mugs(PIs) can only dream of.
Fira: Have you "cut & paste" that post from the old Quindel board? It sounds awfully reminiscent.
While we are reminiscing does Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck still sign on at a London office, are there still many taxis parked in office car parks, have all the "ghosts" been exorcised, does the Indoor Patrol still operate, are three times as many people scheduled to work at one place at the same as there is physically room for, does the workforce refuse to move to a new office unless a bar is provided? Bring back the good times, maybe they are still with us.
We've had "potential" and "maybe" pushed at us for years, sorry but it doesn't wash anymore. I remember all the hype about how fantastic it is for us that Sirius found product "just the other side of the fence". Potential is worthless if we have little or no ability to develop and bring it to the market. We have no practical/definitive plans that I can recognise of any ability to do this. Arbitration is nothing more than a smoke screen behind which the reality is hidden.
If we can't use this potential it is no more than an illusion and the only way to benefit from it is to sell it. If this potential is so valuable why are buyers not buying our massively under valued shares with a view to a take over?
It's only a net loss and a declining business because reality has not yet hit. The sooner people come to terms with the fact that RM in the UK can only survive as a successful company if it dumps the legacy attitudes locked into the Letters operation and becomes primarily a parcel carrier. There are plenty of other parcel only companies out there that continue to thrive while RM still thinks it is a letter carrier (or at least the CWU wants to believe that it is). Get real, smell the coffee!
Never have so many turkeys tried to hasten an early xmas. When that happens we will see the CWU and their letter business(not industry) float off down the river into oblivion. When will these people realise that they have no place in the future, they are sitting on the dead branch and sawing it off.
Maybe this client would find it more financially beneficial to buy SML than pay any amount awarded against them, sell off Redmoor/everything else and come out showing a profit, what do you think?
Maybe the CEO considers that at time of crisis he should be where the future of the company lies. Perhaps he regards the UK arm of the business as a less important part than operations in Europe. With the constant hassle/agro. and non cooperation from the CWU/workforce preventing realistic progress in the UK who can blame him. When everyone is in the dole queue they will be able to say "we showed 'em brothers".
Pre privatisation Royal Mail was not a proper commercial enterprise it was more like a branch of the Social Services dominated by politics the main aim being to provide employment not to make profits. The unions had the whip hand because the top management were controlled by Westminster where I.A. could not be tolerated for political reasons.
Todays problems in RMG are a consequence of the necessary change from the old culture to that of a sustainable 21st. century business. If that change is not made there will be no half decent future for RMG.
When the "one day bringing massive profits" arrives will SML still exist? Chances are that we will have sold Redmoor years previously just to survive.
Would it not be cheaper for the mystery major client with whom we are in dispute to buy us than pay the amount we are claiming?
Maybe we should sell something - HC, Redmoor? Neither are contributing to keeping the company afloat!
Any Executive/Senior Manager who needs to be paid extra over and above their salary to achieve what they are already paid to do does not have enough integrity to be employed in their role. Bonus etc. should only be paid for performance over and above what people should be expected to achieve by virtue of the position they hold.
To those according to their needs, from those according to their ability. Very noble, but who decides on needs and abilities?
Am I correct in thinking that our access agreement to the Cobre Magnetite ends early next year, and renewal is normally only for 12 months at a time?
The size of the stockpile is therefore meaningless in terms of what we can sell. It can't be easy to sell when continuity of supply cannot be assured. What customer would sign a contract knowing that they can only be certain of being supplied for such a short period of time?
DerekR. Would you define what you mean by "...successful in public ownership" is that relative to other publicly owned businesses? I don't think Blair privatised the Letters Business did he? If he did he obviously had great foresight in knowing that the Letters Business was/would become a millstone around the neck of RMG and would continue to be so as long as it was publicly owned. It is obvious now and has been so for many years that there is no future for a business dominated by the RM Letters Business mentality.