SPX and partner CHN, page-15

All in my opinion.

VMC

• - discoveries are not going as well as SPX and are under pressure to perform, despite owning the land around SPX
• - are low in cash and need attention of investors so this is a great opportunity to get attention
• - do not have the cash funds to support a court case and will need a CR to fight it. Again great for VMC holders if they can get more capital.
• - VMC gains by pushing for some sort of a deal with SPX e.g mining or at least get a royalty, % share, or money from Directors.
• - Prospecting is grades are not going so well as they had hoped so they need a delaying tactic while they do more drilling
• - As much as there are many benefits for VMC, and BoD may be confident with this action, shareholders may also see this as bad faith or an inability of VMC management to secure good deals like SP

Conspiracy theory:
Large & Institutional Investors ( i.e 1832, CHN, Pattina, A Barton, etc):

• Are cashed up and want to buy shares cheaply so this is a perfect platform topping up so they can. Just remember these guys are heavily invested and they want more.
• These guys may know that at best they lose $50K in cash (original SPX purchase price) + maybe a small % to settle legal disputes. If SPX's value keeps increasing it won't matter. It does however bring in a large risk if there is any truth to it
• In the worst case this dispute could go on for years, the directors are found guilty. Some shares/money will exchange hand no one really wins other than the laywers. If the directors are guilty let them burn!
• 
  

Fundamentally: Retail investors may lose out with the short term SP drop but SPX looks like it has the upper hand and a lot more going for it.

Balance sheets inc cash reserves from SPX ($4M) vs VMC ($1.3M) as at 30 June 2019.
Note: Recent CRs not shown on the balance sheet.

SPX announced $7.25M CR on 1/8/2019
VMC announced $1.2M CR (from Chris Wallin) on 31/7/19

SPX Capital structure:


VMC:

SPX: