The news yesterday that Ian Ball had resigned as president of McEwen Mining (MUX) (MUX.to) just a couple of days before the company’s AGM came as a surprise to the market and has been the subject of conversation between your humble scribe and several different shared mail exchanges with “people involved with mining” (let’s say). Including here the head count is precisely eight, for what that’s worth.
To lead up, I’ll say out loud that for me at least Ball seems like an OK guy, I don’t know him personally but the impression comes from other people and from watching his actions. With that said I do know he raised more than a few eyebrows in his time as president of MUX, both inside and outside the company, due to his relative youth (and his youthful appearance magnified that, being around 30 years old if memory serves but with the appearance of a 22 or 25 year old). But hey, I don’t have an issue about that and from most reports, the guy is full of energy and beans and was a dynamic person in his post. How successful and efficient he was isn’t something for me to opine upon.
So this post isn’t really about Ball, it’s more about relaying the two common threads in all the opinions offered and received about yesterday’s news.
1) Near unanimous opinion is that MUX is at best fully valued to peers considering what it is and what it’s got. More likely it’s overvalued. It’s not one I’d touch (and have said so on previous occasions, both here and in the subber’s weekly).
2) Unanimous opinion is that Rob McEwen is a complete fucker to work for. Nobody in mining is surprised when a high-level officer working with or for McEwen throws in the towel, last night was no exception to that.
So now you know.