AGM Update 124 Jun 2024 18:09
Hey all. I am typing this from memory so forgive me for any inaccuracies. First off, I can confirm that the leaders of the company do read this LSE board! There was a rumor that the shareholder and keyboard warrior/activist “Hunniford” would be in attendance, and Eileen sought me out immediately to say hello and gave me a very warm welcome. In fact, the entire leadership team—Clare, Bob, David, Martin, and Eileen—were extremely professional, courteous, and seemed genuinely happy to have some shareholders at the meeting. I believe there were four shareholders present, which, it seems, was four more than the last AGM or the one before!
The business portion of the AGM concluded very quickly, covering all the resolutions. The team then walked us through a presentation (which I’m sure will be shared online) and discussed the various assets that Oriole holds. The key focus of the presentation was on the assets in Cameroon. There seemed to be genuine enthusiasm from the leadership team about these assets. They are particularly excited about MBE, which has the potential to be an extremely large resource. They mentioned that as soon as BCM saw the results from ORR testing, they immediately wanted to conduct their own testing at MBE, which we saw the soil sample results for. Another company also spent just one day on-site and wanted to explore the potential of MBE. Clearly, MBE was a significant factor in attracting BCM to join.
They also discussed the legacy assets and the challenges they face, for example, in Turkey, where the legal system moves at an extremely slow pace.
Bob walked us through the finances for 2023 and was very candid that it was a brutally hard year. The wider market acknowledges there wasn’t much money being invested in junior miners. As a result, ORR was very conservative about operations and essentially went into conservation mode. One of the topics they touched on was the Lanstead deal, acknowledging it was not the most palatable to shareholders. Bob said it took almost a year of negotiations to finalize the deal. He reiterated that both Lanstead and ORR benefit from any share price increase, so both parties are motivated to see the share price rise.
They spoke very positively about the relationship with BCM, describing it as a strong partnership where Oriole is in the driving seat, actively managing the relationship while also drawing upon BCM's expertise, including their geologists.
One thing I will say is that I would encourage anyone who can, to attend the next AGM if they get the chance. Obviously, a year is a long time, but once the business portion of the AGM and the presentation were out of the way, the leadership team actively encouraged questions and spent the next 90 minutes or so answering them. The meeting ended at 1 pm, which is probably a record in terms of Oriole AGM length! Most AGM’s I’ve been to the directors cut and run after a couple of questions so it was refreshing to see the team answer a
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