RE: RM Has His Head Spinning!doingthejob/aatozz/PVB (Pinheaded Vacuous Boor)
I see you have avoided discussion of the $10 million drop in cash and short term investments during ISM's last fiscal year. Also no comment on the working capital determination that confuses both you and the authors of the Management Discussion and Analysis - that would be your savvy business man and his advisors, wouldn't it? You sure do have difficulty admitting to your past blunders. You hoping that if you ignore them, they'll go away?
We'll see about this latest game that Randy Miller is playing with ISM's deteriorating cash resources. He's played some doozies in the past. Some did reward him - such as ISM laying out $2 million for an NSR with a worth closer to zero than $2 million. (Ever wonder how he ended up with one third of the NSR in the first place? Or how he convinced his fellow Directors to so obviously over-pay?) Then there was the Nitinat/Jasper debacle - you'd think the Randy Man and friends would have learned from that embarrassment. But no, they go merrily ahead with the Langmuir/Metal Mines spin-out - thankfully someone reported them to the authorities on that one. It got shut down when the damage was still minimal - but we got a clear indication of the lack of ability of management and consultants on that one. One thing you'll notice is that when the smoke cleared on all these past strategies - not once was the outcome positive for the shareholder. The jury is still out on the URSA caper - that recent whining Press Release tells me the Randy Man got outfoxed in the first inning - maybe the whole game. There's another similarity to past strategies emerging - the promise of another legal action. For an outfit that has accomplished so little, it has certainly been a huge consumer of legal services, consulting services, investor relations services, management fees, etc.
I'm not sure what gem from this savvy business man's past to high light, so I'll paste a summary of the achievements in the company he guided, a comparison I posted on the URSA forum:
Just to put things in perspective, lets compare my opinion of the achievements of UMJ to that of the company that presumes it is qualified to judge the management of UMJ.
UMJ
The company was given equity capital of about $24.5 million, it put $18 million into exploration properties, and $6.5 million to expenses. The company is at the point, that it is beginning to show cash flow that seems to indicate a reasonable return on the $18 million properties.
ISM
The company was given equity capital of about $75 million, it put $26.5 million into exploration properties, and $30 million to expenses, and has about $18.5 left that is being used to cover continuing losses, and expend in mainly non-mining strategies . The company at this point is experiencing negative cash flows from an operation with only minor investment income, there has been no indication, as yet, that the $26.5 million in properties will yield economically viable operations.
In my opinion, UMJ is in a position to grow slowly but steadily with the present capital base - or grow substantially if capitalized to produce its resources at a faster rate. My opinion of ISM is that it is in danger of continuing its decline into oblivion - unless it can hit a home run. In my opinion it has always been a team of pitchers - when it comes to getting a hit, they strike out.
doingthejob, maybe you could post that list of Randy Miller achievements you seem unable produce. I need a topic for my next example of the business savvy exhibited by this CEO you admire.