RE: Newcrest to cease Half Year Resource Updates7 Dec 2022 11:35
The following is my view only.
I'm sure that on the ground, the relationship between Newcrest and Greatland is fine - however, as much as I try to believe that all is rosey higher up, it has become increasingly apparent over the last 18 months that there appears to be a concerted effort by our partners to avoid what has previously been referred to as "price discovery events". Going through the 5% process we had as little update as possible from Newcrest as to knowingly "protect" the price from being high. Most were expecting the 5% offer to be taken up by Newcrest but they decided that it didn't fit their cost mitigation and capital discipline strategies once their valuation was rejected by the third party adjudication - the impression that leaves on the market, whether true or not, is that "the price is too high". There was the lack of a mention at the denver conference, the lack of MRE which cost Greatland a lot of money to put their own forward, there are the comments about the delay in FS to "derisk" the project. I am little interested in "conspiracy theories" but I feel there is now enough information out there to see that at board level Newcrest are not aligned with ours.
Whilst powering on with exploration and the decline, Newcrest simultaneously seem to be trying to take the oxygen of the project away. So I (for one) am delighted with these new additions to the board and their obvious Wyloo / FMG / Andrew Forrest links as it gives me hope that Greatland can defend their corner.
I hope I am not reading too much into this. I am a believer that SD genuinely has Greatland's future as his priority. I've never seen anyone engage with their shareholder base as much as SD, and that also gives me hope that they can get through this period to the holy grail of production.
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