RE: Transcript of AGM30 Jul 2023 10:45
There's a question here about do we have a good relationship with Russian authorities?
Well, I think the fact that I've been working now in Russia for 20 years,
we have local teams who have been largely Russian professionals working on our behalf
everywhere,
and certainly we have never encountered, apart from some traditional sort of football type
of attitude from some Russian officials, we have not met any serious objections to anything we
do,
and in fact I've always been impressed by the way in Russia that they very much follow the
rulebook,
with everything to do with licensing, regulations and compliance, and you must comply.
So for example, the fact that we can't give the details of the DFS is very much part of their
regulatory scheme.
Here's a personal question.
Do I intend to retire after the asset sale, and are I going to retire this year?
Well, all I can say to that is I've been working with the company for 20 years,
I'm still a very significant shareholder in the company.
I want to see the asset sale completed successfully.
It's very much my, I don't like the word "swansong",
but clearly it's something that needs to be done, and with a view, I'll answer this question later,
but with a view to where Eurasia will go in the future, as we have spoken about in general
without being specific,
I think it's fair to say that at 70 years old I deserve a rest.
There's a second question about the accounts, which I think I've already answered,
the 28 million, and as I said, it's all the expenditure that we've made of significance ourselves in
the projects in Russia.
There's a question here about the dividend, and so on.
All I can say is that's our plan.
A dividend should we make a successful sale, there should be a special dividend.
It's very much what we plan to do, but first of all, we have to get the sale done,
and that is on which that's a particular question is related.
There's a question here regarding what the variations in remuneration for directors.
Basically, I'm not quite sure what this is based on, except to say that the Japan office does have
different workloads throughout the year,
and that can vary the amount of expenditure under the headings of the Japanese directors.
A question about the drag line. It's performing very well.
At the moment, it has carried out a lot of stripping work, and is also now stockpiling ore for
treatment.
So, yes, it's working very well now.
There were some hiccups in mid-2022 when it first commissioned, but they've all been sorted
out.