Posted by crazydik on AG - MUST READ"Irwin called me this morning as a follow up to my discussion witjhhis proxy agent last week. At that time I posted my concern that themessage of the dissidents might offend the laws of libel (the printedmaterial) and slander (the spoken word).
We covered several points for which I sought clarification.
Thefirst was with respect to the printed material that indicated that thecurrent management had squandered 15 Million on Windfall. I asked himwhether that was a figure in excess to the PP funds raised in December2006, which you will recall was raised before McFaulds was an area ofverified interest, and had been raised for the purpose of rampingunderground to the 52 oz/ton gold core.
Irwincould not provide any specific information that additional funds hadbeen spent by Noront on the Windfall project. He could provide nospecific figures as he admitted that he had not examined, in any way,Noront's financials.
I asked him by whatmechanism he would have had Noront spend this PP money on McFaulds whenit had clearly been invested for the purpose of Windfall. He could notprovide a response.
He did volunteer that hethought Windfall was worthless and that the entire project was a bigwaste of money. He queried why Noront had not simply gone to open pitmining as opposed to the expensive route of underground ramping.
WhenI pointed out that there were laws and regulations in place to stopcompanies from simply digging a big pit in the earth, and that thepermitting process (never mind the NI-43-101 requirements) to commencemining operations were rather formidable obstacles to satisfy, hemumbled something about Quebec being a friendly place to mine, andchanged the subject.
We next moved on to his concern that Noront is burning through their war chest in a cavalier manner.
Hespoke of how his proposed new slate of directors had considerableexperience in allocating funds efficiently, and waxed enthusiatic about"appropriate committees being set up to consider expenses" based on"expert advise" as to how to spend the money best. In this vein, hesaid "we need a real chrome guy up there, maybe someone from SouthAfrica!".
I asked him if he had any firsthand knowledge that the moneys expended on a monthly basis wereexcessive or ill spent, or that the "burn rate" was in fact too highconsidering the actual costs of drilling etc. I wanted to know if hehad done an actual cost calculation which would allow Noront to proceedat a lower cost without sacrificing results.
Irwindid not have any first hand information. His opion was entirely basedon anecdotal information from unidentified sources that certaincompanies were able to drill for less money.
Hedid raise the valid (in my view) point that Noront would need to findnew financing within the next few months, which he felt could be bestachieved through flow through financing. He opined that none of themajor sources of funding would be at all interested in investing inNoront while Richard Nemis was at the helm.
Ipointed out that he himself had invested in Noront with Richard at thehelm, and had done so well before the extent of the resource had beendefined. He responded that "there are no more suckers left on Bay Street".
Interesting.
Iasked him his view (without considering the present market meltdown) ofthe value of Noront. I wanted to know how he viewed this company thathe is fighting so hard to control.
His answerwas candid. He feels that there is no value in Noront beyond the moneyin the war chest. He opined that Noront had not made any significantdiscovery to date. Windfall is worthless, the chrome may be worthless,there is not enough Nickle to be of interest, etc.
He opined that if he loses this take over attempt, Noront will be bankrupt in less than a year.
He is the saviour of the company. He and his team of experts.
WhenD12 wrote in an earlier post that "this was just business" , I wishthat he could have heard Irwin speak. The type of language used wasemotionally charged and bombastic. Richard Nemis "had been lying to himfor the last nine months", had "been blowing smoke up his ars", Norontwas being run "by a bunch of yahoos" etc.
I wanted to retch.
Myimpression of this fellow remains intact. He is a corporate raider whobypassed the SCC rules of disclosure (10% minority interest) by stayingjust under that number but banding together in common cause with otherlike minded institutional investors.
He isprepared to say anything to seize control of a company that he wouldhave you believe is without value : "Let me do you a favour and takethat off your hands..."
I heard nothing thatsuggested that he saw this has a long term hold and develop investment.Far from it. Although he tried to offer reassurance that he would beguided by the advice of his experts in terms of the companies long termprospects, this rang hollow in terms of his current views.
Hislast response was most telling. I asked him candidly what he would doif his bid was unsuccessful. He said that he would sell all of hisshares, take the loss, and see the stock at .20 cents.
Soundlike somebody who gives a crap about this company? This is a merchantof fear. A manipulator and opportunistic master of the weakened market.
I don't want him having any say in the future of my company.
Do you?"
If this is what you want running Noront, go ahead and vote your shares for him. Any rational person would steer well clear of these guys and their 'expertise'.