Shootings

We haven't had a shooting at our mine site since August 30. We haven't had fatalities since the first few early in the security issue. We haven't had injuries in several weeks. As all of our press releases indicate, we've experienced no impact to production. All of this is the good news.

The bad news is our employees are tense. When you work in the natural resources industry, it is very common for your production locations to be, literally, company towns. We built the hospitals, the hotels, the schools. We manage the grocery store, the electricity, and provide the cable. It therefore becomes a logical extension that the company is responsible for the safety and security of its workers.

To a large extent, we are. We have one of the industry's best safety records, we take safety extremely seriously and one of our executives is the Chairman for an international mine safety organization. We are not responsible for crime prevention and prosecution. That has been, always will be, and always should be, a government function. When the lines between the role of a private enterprise and a government enterprise blur, employees attack what they know. The entity over which they feel they have influence.

What that means for us is we have had demonstrations. The union representing the drivers of our supply trucks staged a peaceful demonstration demanding safer operating conditions. The reality is, the company is doing everything it can. We've applied what influence we have with the Indonesian government who have recently agreed to increase the military presence from 125 to 600. Hopefully, this will affect the change we seek.

The other negative impact is the resignations. Locals and expats alike decided that economic uncertainty is more appealing than the chance of being shot. Some resigned, others asked for transfers. One of our contracting companies, I'm sure after extreme pressure from their employees, air lifted all of their employees out and has made no commitment to them returning.

But production keeps churning. Capitalism always wins. Famine, war, pestilence and psychotics cannot stop the engine of capitalism. I think everyone who stayed are still having fun, too.