News

October 07, 2008

Serabi Counts The Cost of Defeat, As Potential Buyers For The Palito Mine Mull Their Options

By Alastair Ford

You’ve got to hand it to the management of Serabi Mining: they’re not hunkering down in bomb shelters while an irate City rains down heavy ordinance upon their heads. On the contrary, following the company’s disastrous news that it’s winding up operations at its Palito property in Brazil, finance director Clive Line hits the road to tell the world exactly what’s gone wrong and why, while chief executive Mike Hodgson works hell for leather down at Palito to try to salvage something from the mess. This is certainly a rearguard action worthy of respect, and of that old phrase not heard so much these days, “the Dunkirk spirit”. On the other hand, it doesn’t yet look as if Serabi will come back from the disaster at Palito in quite the same style as the British came back from the defeat at Dunkirk, so perhaps we’re over-egging the pudding somewhat. Still, it’s nice that someone somewhere is prepared to face the music and accept responsibility.

What happens next is less clear. Clive Line is clearly restricted in what he can say. “We’re pursuing a number of different alternatives”, he says, in a perfectly rehearsed rendition of corporate speak. “There are parties that we’re talking to”. Roughly translated that means: “it’s out of our hands”. The key actions that Mike and Clive took as the failure of Palito began to shape up as a reality was to make sure that they pulled the plug early enough to ensure the survival of Serabi as a...