Monday, June 30, 2008

Goonight John, Goodnight Vic...

Marathon Resources founding Directors Dr John Santich and Dr Vic Bogacz “have elected to retire to pursue new business interests” according to a just-released statement to the Australian Stock Exchange.

Santich and Bogacz profess to be explorers rather than miners, and are known to have interests in other companies and other sites, notably the Warburton Ranges in Western Australia and in Poland’s Silesia.

Their departure from the Marathon Board, where they were seen as political liabilities in the wake of the scandal that erupted over the unlawful disposal of waste at Mt Gee, prepares the way for a renewed Marathon push to get approval for a license to mine uranium within the Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary.

In an effort to push the Marathon Board as now having cleaner and greener credentials, it has also been announced that Dr John (Shad) Linley has been appointed as a Non-Executive Director.

Linley’s claim to fame rests on his position as CEO of the Korean-owned multinational Sun Metals Corporation, owner of Townsville’s zinc refinery.

The ASX announcement states, “Dr Linley brings a wealth of experience to the Board which will support the company in fully addressing the challenges ahead.”

No prize for guessing what those “challenges” are!

It continues, “Dr Linley was CEO at Sun Metals in Townsville, the world’s most efficient and environmentally sensitive zinc refinery successfully built and operated on the edge of the Great Barrier Reef’.

I bet Marathon shareholder, now Director and Labor Party identity Chris Schacht, has waved that little line under the noses of his erstwhile colleagues Premier “Miner Mike” Rann, State Treasurer Foley and Primary Industries Minister Holloway.

And I’ll equally bet that Tourism Minister Lomax-Smith is overlooked; after all, she’s done nothing to defend South Australia’s major tourism icon, Arkaroola, to date and is conveniently missing in action in her other portfolio area, education, where there is currently a major industrial campaign being waged by the Education Union.

We’ll have to wait till tomorrow to see how the share market reacts to this latest little piece of spin from Marathon, but with shares currently trading at a low $1.43 it’ll take a major buyer to inject any optimism into MTN on the Exchange.

Perhaps there’ll be some big bundles of shares being offloaded soon…..

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