Surely, the continued ups and downs in QMNM.ob are due in part to the speculation birthed by a lack of company news. However, I had the chance to speak with the Chief, Eugene today and our conversation definitely left me optimistic with regard to what is going on both at Pond Creek and with the GWENCO BK hearing.
What's Going on with Quest?
It's getting late here, but here's some of the most important nuggets of information from my conversation with Gene today:
1. BK - I don't have my notes in front of me at the moment, but the gist of it is: GWENCO, has received verbal agreement from the previous contesting debtors and will send out another revised plan in the first week of October. Gene has stated time and time again that this situation is under control and should be completely wrapped up by the end of '08. I am working on him to issue a press release on this topic just to keep us all informed and equipped with solid time lines and dates to look out for.
2. Production: Gene continues to state that they are mining coal. He also stated that they have been having problems with their continuous miner (piece of equipment, not one miner) and that when it does go down, which is sporadically, it can take about 4 hrs to fix, ceases mining for the time that its down, and is not the easiest fix in the sense that it is in a hole (the mine) and I would say an overall pain to deal with.
Solution: Gene mentioned that they would soon be utilizing a second continuous miner which would greatly help the flow of coal because if one miner is down, there is still one running , hence no complete cease in production.
My Beef: Since I can understand Gene not wanting to issue press about equipment being down for hours or shifts here and there and also is not yet prepared to issue tonnage reports, I commented that it's not fair for either those at the mine or those calling the mine or mining company to have access to info not disclosed in publicly available documents, namely press releases.
Also, as Gene and I agreed, if you call the mine and get a hold of a pissed off employee that has been trying to fix equipment for 6 hrs, you may get told just how horrible things are this week. That may not be completely true in the grand scheme of things which the worker may not be aware of or be expected to be aware of.
Conversely, you could potentially speak to a miner that worked a great shift and is going home to a nice home cooked meal. He may tell you all is good at Pond Creek, but that may not hold true in regards to the big picture. No offense to the miners, they put their lives at risk everyday which is more than a desk jockey like myself can say, but they are most not likely the ones who should be fielding investor calls. Sure, some of them may be master traders, but I bet most of them are far from it.
Either way, I suggested that Gene tell the miners not to answer the phone or field investor calls and my associates ask investors to call the proper personnel for reliable info. I'd just hate to see the stock move in any direction based on what one miner coming out of his 2nd consecutive shift in a dark hole says about the operation in its entirety. Either way, I'm pushing for at least some periodic updates on the status of equipment. Let's see how that goes.
On another note, Gene did explain that to get closer and closer to the main seam at Pond Creek, their continuous miner has cut through something ridiculous like 20,000 tons of rock. I can understand how that could cause some damage. Either way, with a 2nd miner soon to be in action, things appear to be on the "up and up" at Pond Creek. Moreover, Gene said he'll likely hold off on a tonnage report until the end of October unless he hits a massive vein here in the very near future.
AI
