RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:What happens when the takeover is done?This a snippet from the Diamonds in the Q/A:
"Diamonds is – so today, we have two mines. Do we like the diamond as an industry? The answer is, yes. You know Dominic, what I'm going to say is if people think that copper is difficult, we always use copper as a baseline between the time you have a nice rock and the time you've got cash flows it's only 25 years in average, in diamonds only 30 years.
So it is a very attractive industry, but it is very difficult to find world-class asset in that space, right. So are we spending money or resources in the context of exploration of diamonds? The answer is, yes. And you see it in the QRRs and so on and so forth. We have an extensive program of exploration in that space.
So in that sense, to answer your question in a very direct way, is diamond is important for us. Now we need to acknowledge we only have only two mines today and they are on their last leg. I mean, we can see the closure coming. And the work, a big chunk of work is taking place as we speak to make sure that when the time is right and when we have to close those mine, we will do it the right way.
So yes, we like diamonds, yes, we're spending money on resources in the exploration space. We're going to have to be patient, but trust me I'm putting your friend from exploration under the massive pressure to move fast in that space and I will continue to do it. And, I would love, absolutely love to find a new pink diamonds mine to be honest. But I may have to wait for 30 years. So where he is standing here in 29 years, we may have a good piece of news, but not for me to tell, right? [Indiscernible] I think you can…"
Then this was a couple questions later:
"
For us, it's about delivering high-quality growth. I know some people have the mantra of being big. The mantra of Rio is to be focused and to be profitable and to deliver returns for our shareholders, right. So it's better to be very focused, making sure they deliver the project on time with the right quality, the right safety performance and so on and so forth.
And just growing for the sake of it and then not having your A-team working on it and ending with lots of overruns and so on and so forth, which if you look over the last 10, 15 years, the industry has been a [indiscernible] industry. So I would rather grow below GDP if I'm honest, but it has to be high quality growth and making sure we delivered on time and as I said, on budget, so that's where we are.
M&A, what I'm going to say. Everybody knows which asset I would love to have in the portfolio, but we are not going to do anything stupid, absolutely not. We'll keep the watching brief. If there are – if there were to be – what would be described as smart M&A where you have synergies because you've got the logistic advantage or you've got technology advantage or whatever, yes, we will look at it. But you need to have the right level of synergy to justify any kind of premium.
Do we have teams looking at all kind of options? The answer is, yes and we've been very transparent with this one. We have a wishing brief on M&A, but today, at this point in time, there's nothing that really excite us. We have to be patient. Mines better than anybody else I guess that sometimes the mining business you have to wait for 20 years for the right asset to come at the right price and so on and so forth.
........So we're pushing hard on the organic growth option and we keep a wishing brief on the M&A."
Looks like they have a great CEO answering those questions...because I can't find many lines to read between.
LONG....whiteknight
EKIM