DD,

You are correct in your point that the shift in focus was not as clearly communicated as it should have been. This was one of the questions/complaints raised at the AGM....looking back to my notes on the AGM from December 3rd, I recorded as follows:

Why have we not met the production estimates that were given in the last AGM?

Two reasons primarily:
1. With a change of plan in mid-year after finding new high grade zones, the focus shifted to mining those. That has meant spending time to provide access to those zones and preparing them for production mining. That took away from production in existing areas.
2. Lack of miners – there has been a shortage of workers. They have now brought in contract miners (12 so far and more are expected) to help speed up progress. These contracted miners are working mostly in the lower levels. They cost more per hour than the regular employee miners, but their experience level allows them to work with higher efficiencies so that actual cost relative to production is a bit less).

Why was this information on the change of plan, causing previously issued production estimates to not be met, not shared before? Why were we left wondering why they were not meeting targets without explanation?

The fact that there was a change in plan was shared in news releases. They did not expect that it would have affected production numbers as much as it did as they didn’t expect to have the labour shortage they did.

So the answer is that management thought they had communicated the change adequately, even though many investors felt it was inadequate, and that management did not expect the change to affect production as much as it did.

This brings back to the surface a complaint which you have had for a very long time - there is not adequate communication or disclosure by the company to the shareholders. As much as I believe in and support the management of this company, I concede that this is a legitimate beef. They have taken some steps to improve that (e.g. the new website is a great step forward from the old), but I think this issue will likely remain one of the characteristics of this stock. The focus is on exploration, development and mining (which is good), but there is not a high concern on keeping all of the shareholders totally up-to-date on every development.

It can also be argued that to expect constant updates is also out of line and would be a misplaced focus of management's energy and time. Most public companies do not have constant news releases. Perhaps we feel it more because we feel more personally involved in this one and there is such high anticipation of what is about to unfold (the "event" you refer to in your post). No doubt there is a point between the pattern of news releases we now have and the extreme of a constant barrage of news and fluff, that would provide a good balance.

I think we are going to have to accept that this will be one of those things about this company/investment. In spite of that, I continue to be long as many others are, not because the company is doing everything right in dotting i's and crossing t's, but because we believe that they are developing a huge gold resource that will eventually return a great reward to those who are patient and hang in there. JMHO.

NorthLion