Tired of waiting for nothing
I've been a shareholder for four years and have been checking this place for almost as long. In all that time what have we, as a company, accomplished? Revenue Silver mine? Gone. Arctos? Gone. NICO? Nothing. Refinery? Nothing. Substantial increase in value? No. Shareholder dilution? Yes
The only thing that's been consistent is managements ability to somehow find the most incompetent course of action. They're still getting paid though, so there's that.
So where do we stand now? PwC was recently released from their services to the company. That's PricewaterhouseCoopers, the second largest professional services firm in the world! 2017 revenues of US$ 37.7 billion. Are we honestly supposed to believe that Robin Goad in London, Ontario is going to get a better financing deal than them? PwC has a long history of success. Fortune Minerals has nothing but a string of failures.
We supposedly have 25 confidentiality agreements? Pretty vague and not all that reassuring. Management can't even hint at the way they want to proceed. Joint venture? Off-take agreement? Buy-out? We deserve to know the general direction of the company's future!
How about that feasibilty study? This one - "The Feasibility Study update is expected to be completed in early summer (2017)." Where is it? We needed it months ago. Oh but it's cool because Hatch and Micon are always late (by a year), we knew that when we hired them. Incompetence hiring incompetence, plain and simple. But I like to go to restaurants that take an hour and a half to serve my meal, so I kind of understand where they're coming from.
So why haven't I sold out if I'm so disgruntled? Probably the same reason that most of you are hanging on. Because we believe in the underlying value of the cobalt and gold in the ground at NICO. Cobalts time is now, especially if it's ethical cobalt from a nation like Canada. 1.1 million ounces of gold doesn't hurt either. The mine is the only path forward, and it needs to get going asap. The refinery in Saskatchewan is just another one of managements delusional pursuits. It's a waste of time, energy, and money. What exactly are they thinking of refining? Our imaginary supply of...?
NICO is our path to wealth and success as a company and current management isn't capable of getting us there. Any CEO that dispatches the services of PwC but retains Hatch and Micon isn't fit to lead. It's as simple as that.
I propose that we try and find smaller investment firms with an activist bent and see if we can get someone who can bring about a change in top managment. An up and coming Bill Ackman of sorts. Someone who will bludgeon,embarass, and hopefully remove all those who have done nothing but waste our time and resources.
If Robin Goad stays on as CEO, we will never get valuation that we deserve.
Happy May long