Where’s the ASX asking the sort of
questions of Australian Mining Investments that The SMH‘s Jamie Freed poses this morning? Out to lunch or just happy to
see the volume run?

The dramatic AMI share price run has all
the hallmarks of something not quite right. There is a possibility that the
little Gold Coast company might have found a massive copper deposit, but the
way the announcements and rumours have been conducted, you’d be a brave soul to
bet on it.

With some most fortuitous option purchases
by chairman Wayne McCrae last month and the share price soaring on little
information, you might think the ASX
would be all over the stock with “please explains” – but it isn’t happening.
Instead, AMI has made a brief announcement this morning that merely fuels the speculative fire without providing
substance, saying drilling is continuing and they’re finding more
mineralisation and promising an updated report on Friday.

The company is teasing the market by saying
it has drill hole results but not releasing them.

It’s part of the job awaiting incoming ASX CEO,
Robert Elstone. With SFE shareholders yesterday voting overwhelmingly in favour
of being taken over by ASX,
it will become Elstone’s duty to lift the disclosure performance of AMI and the
like.

But that’s not why key SFE shareholders
insisted on their CEO taking over the ASX job from Tony D’Aloisio before
approving the merger. It wasn’t disclosure and governance that made Elstone’s
name at the SFE, but his ability to cut costs and lift revenue.

More effective policing of our stock market
would add to costs and do nothing for revenue, at least in the short term. It
is nonetheless the ASX CEO’s job to run an orderly and informed market – unlike
that in AMI shares.