Just
about everyone who’s ever had an interest in the mining sector hopes
Wayne McCrae really has found a massive copper deposit – but every
day’s prevarication, delay, bluff and bluster makes it less likely.

The
detailed drilling results to justify McCrae’s enormous claims didn’t
arrive as promised last week, or on Monday, or at yesterday’s
extraordinary general meeting in Cloncurry. And those claims just keep
getting bigger, according to The Courier-Mail:

(McCrae) was reluctant to compare the deposit to other
copper mines but said it had the same type of structure as nearby
Ernest Henry and was “looking good” compared with the world’s biggest
copper mine, Escondida in Chile.

At this rate, Rocklands will be bigger than Escondida, Grasberg and Ok Tedi combined by next week.

Now
AMI – to be renamed CuDeco after yesterday’s meeting – is in trouble
with ASIC, the watch puppy stepping in to prevent the EGM granting
large options packages to McCrae and two other executives. At the
prices inflated by McCrae’s hyperbole and scanty drill results, the
options were worth many millions. The proxy record shows the options would have been granted by the EGM. Wayne reckons it’s unfair.

Despite all the promises to disclose all, the Courier‘s report
from Cloncurry paints McCrae as an elusive character yesterday. He
managed to accuse other companies of spying on him in a two minute
phone call with the SMHbefore hanging up when the questions turned vaguely negative.

As Elizabeth Knight pleads, we need a reason to believe, but Wayne isn’t providing one. The behaviour so far just doesn’t make sense.

We can maybe still hope just a little – but it’s looking more like CuDeco’s gone troppo than it’s found a new Escondida.