deldestino, The last Murphy up date of March 1, 2007 said that PBLS was free to mine the Murphy site for at least a year and another 6 months after that before the court could hear any further arguments. It appears PBLS will frantically dig the Murphy site while acquiring and preparing the new site. We have at least 16 months before any further legal action at Murphy and all judgements have been in our favor to date. The Murphy pit is a hot potato and all parties want a piece of the action. Lawyers will certainly encourage both sides to do everything possible to gain advantage and continue the case. In the mean time we want to see sand and gravel flying in every direction.
deldestino, Your concern regarding the legal issues at the pit? The April 10,2007 court date was about the seizure of the dredge and shaker plant by the Mississippi bank. We are still waiting the decision but it only regards compensation for illegally seized equipment and will not affect production at the pit. PBLS stands to gain if a favorable decision is reached but will not be penalized if found in favor of the bank. It should not affect PBLS adversely in any way as they have already suffered losses when they paid for equipment that was later seized.
You've might have already read them, but I still stand by them. The only change in opinion I have is due to the recent pit acquisition. After my conversations with management, now I believe that Ron probably wanted out of the Pit business having an airplane background but Paul wants to stay in. So while the pit has been represented as 10% of NI, and was supposed to be phased out completely when the Murphy Pit was exhausted, now it looks like they plan on staying in the business because of the growth in their construction biz.
IMO mining these pits is just part of Phoenix's base, but not the primary block that some suggest. I think the other parts of the foundation come from construction, Progas and Best Jets engine overhaul repair. Then above that in the business model is the Lear Jet overhaul/refurbishing. And above that is maybe/potentially other oil & gas revenues, though news has been silent on those areas for some time. So the pit is part of the "core" business, but maybe only 30-50% of NI, and construction and Progas represent the other 50-70% of NI (where Progas shows the big Revenues but has slim margins in the 3-5% range). This "base" hopefully will all add cash to the bank account to allow PBLS to some day go after the more "speculative investments" it has in sight, like deep drilling for oil out west. It's these investments/PBLS businesses that take lots of cash to get going & are the ones that make me see the biggest returns coming in 2008-2010 if things keep progressing they way PBLS claims they are.
Again, just an opinion on things I've developed while digging to get solid information from a mostly silent company. Do your own digging, but IMO not catestophic as some suggest if we lose the pit. The ones saying it are typically the same ones saying a) they don't follow the company any more when in fact they still personally own millions of shares since late 2005/early 2006 b) claim Preferred Shares in the amount of 250M are all outstanding while surprisingly PBLS still has Preferred Shares available for the common exchange hmmmm (and even with preferreds they consistently speak out of both sides of their mouth....and c) that the O/S is 1.5B+, when not a single investor who has certs in hand has a cert that shows the new A/S for common, a sign that PBLS indeed upped the O/S only to increase Preferreds, not to dilute common shares. Hmmm...I wonder why they're so negative all the time? Hmmm...I wonder why they don't claim to own PBLS shares and yet repeatedly post charts, "facts", tongue-in-cheek "opinions," and follow PBLS like a hawk? I'm sure it's because they really care about you and me and want to protect us and our investment. Gee, they're so swell for looking out for me and you.
Don't listen to me. Don't listen to them. Form your own opinion based on the facts we do have. And there are positive facts out there. There are negative facts out there. That's why this is a pinky now and hopefully not in the future...
And like others say, if you buy or sell because of me, you're crazier that I am.
deldestino, I say the pit owner is in a bluff . He sees his tenant going to leave the pit way before he wanted him to and now he is nervous.I wonder if there are tenants lined up for the pit.I doubt it best he can do is to settle.jmho