The governance question every listed mining and international company should ask — and most haven't answered honestly.
In 2014, London Mining PLC had a board described by external advisors as operating to the standard of a FTSE 250 company. Award-winning governance. A respected chairman. Experienced, independent directors. A first-class institutional register — the Government of Singapore, Norway's sovereign wealth fund, BlackRock, JP Morgan, Schroders.
That board still faced three simultaneous forces no governance framework had been designed to absorb: a 70% iron ore price collapse; an Ebola epidemic that shut down West African operations; and a creditor withdrawal that made an otherwise manageable situation unmanageable.
What followed was a period of sustained regulatory scrutiny — the kind that UK companies operating in complex international environments can face when something goes wrong. The process ran for over ten years and concluded in February 2026 with a full legal resolution and no findings of wrongdoing against any individual or the company.
That experience — and the governance architecture built from it — is the foundation of this practice.
"The question is not whether your governance is adequate for the conditions you have anticipated. The question is whether it is adequate for the conditions you have not yet faced."
For the Board — Six Scenarios to Stress-Test
These scenarios are drawn from direct experience. Most boards can address some of them with confidence. Very few can address all of them with clarity, real alignment, and tested protocols in place.
Most boards can answer some of these questions. Very few can answer all of them — with clarity, genuine alignment across the board, and protocols that have been tested rather than assumed. The distance between those two positions is where value is most frequently lost.
For the CEO — Four Questions Only You Can Answer
Governance frameworks protect the company. The CEO also needs to be personally prepared — for decisions that cannot be delegated, conversations that cannot be scripted, and pressures that no board paper addresses.
If a regulatory inquiry arrived at your office on Monday morning, would you know — specifically, not theoretically — who to call first, and what authority they have to act?
If a major institutional investor called on a Friday afternoon with a concern about your development programme, what would you say — and who would you have spoken to before answering?
Do you have a trusted, confidential source of counsel with direct experience of these situations — someone without any agenda other than your performance?
If a founding team you are leading is approaching an inflection point — a major capital raise, a listing, a strategic transaction — do you have a trusted principal alongside you who has navigated that exact point before, with economics aligned to the outcome?
I work with a small number of boards and individual CEOs — typically four to six active relationships at any time — across mining, natural resources, and internationally operating companies on AIM/FTSE 250, TSX, ASX, and NASDAQ/NYSE. If the questions above identify a gap that has not been addressed, I would welcome a conversation.
Contact Graeme