Trans Hex hugs Table Mountain

[miningmx.com] --

Trans Hex

Dare we suggest Cape Town-based diamond group Trans Hex has revised its investor relations policy and decided not to venture past the Hex river - the boundary between the civilised world and the rest of South Africa according to most Capetonians?

It sure looks that way given Trans Hex’s decision not to hold a presentation in Johannesburg for the release of its results for the year to end-March. It will give one only in Cape Town which will be webcast.

Trans Hex CEO Llewellyn Delport says such allegations are without foundation. Instead, the group is trying out a new approach using state-of-the-art communications technology following requests from investors and suggestions from his investor relations advisors.

The thing is - and with all due respect to financial powerhouses like Old Mutual and Sanlam which are based in Cape Town as well as the various “boutique” hedge funds that have sprung up there - nobody in Cape Town ever asks any questions.

It’s the hard-assed analysts and fund managers in Johannesburg who get stuck in and grill management on the nitty-gritty details not clear from the financial statements.

Delport again says this is not the case and that there is plenty of interest from Cape Town investors. In fact, he’s got a day full of one-on-one interviews lined up for after the formal presentation.

Maybe it’s just sour grapes on our part. We will no longer be able to watch at first hand Delport flinching when hit with questions about Angola.

Rockwell

It’s being conducted largely by “uitlanders” (Afrikaans for foreigners) but the fight for control of Rockwell Diamonds is the closest thing we in South Africa have seen to an old-fashioned "boere twis" (a bitter feud) in years.

Lengthy circulars have been put out by Swiss-based Pala Investments and the Rockwell “executive directors” - John Bristow, Mark Bristow and chairman David Copeland referred to by Pala as the “minority directors” - who they want to remove from the board.

Pala is also disparaging about Mark Bristow – who is CEO of highly successful gold group Randgold Resources - referring to him as “John’s younger brother”.

The executive directors reckon Pala is out to get control of Rockwell for nothing.

Pala reckons Rockwell faces a lack of leadership which they intend rectifying through a new board one of whom is Hennie Van Wyk, the founder of the private diamond firm Rockwell bought to get ownership of a number of its mines.

Van Wyk has since parted company with Rockwell but, as Pala points out, his previous contribution and technical skills were highly praised by John Bristow.

Message from the Rockwell side now is that they are actually getting on better without him. In fact, there were problems with the new treatment plant Van Wyk built at Saxendrift which have been sorted out by Pangea Diamond Fields project engineer Boris Kamstra who is “on loan” to Rockwell.

For more on the Pala/Rockwell feud we would direct readers to the “bullboard” section at www.stockhouse.com where the comments regarding T.RDI - the Toronto Stock Exchange code for Rockwell - are flying.

Central Rand Gold

Irrespective of the merits or demerits of its proposed mining plans Central Rand Gold needs to do something radical about its investor relations.

The webcast/conference call it held last week of its annual general meeting followed by an operational update presentation was the worst we have ever listened to and was later described by one of the participants who dialled in as “horrific.”

The general sound quality was poor and it was difficult to pick up answers from some of the executives.

There was also no control over access to the conference call. Usually participants dialling-in are put on “listen only” mode during the presentation.

Once management has stopped talking you are requested to indicate whether you want to ask a question - normally by dialling *1 – and the process is controlled by an operator who sets up a queue of questions.

Not at this one which was a free-for-all. There was no operator. All the lines were live so you could hear background conversation and, in one case, loud music from the other participants who had dialled in.

Combine that with the unconvincing answers that management gave to many of the questions posed and it’s no wonder the share price got killed later that day.