Agree with you with regard to extracting value, accountability and scrutiny, my 2 lines wasn't meant to cover all responsibilities.
With regard to finance (loans) market cap is but one of many factors a financial institution will look at. Doc Mike knows our finance requirements, he also worked in the finance field at Taurus for many years including financing African projects. He knows better than most how to position the company for the best deal. I personally know very little about financing African projects, I just have to trust Doc Mike who is responsible to the Chairman & Board. A very experienced Board which no doubt monitors operations very closely.
With regard to cap raises, agree it's best to have a high sp going into any raise. The 40c placement was done after the Ganfeng JV was announced, management made the market very aware they expected a deal to be announced prior to the end of the Q. The share price went up quite a bit in anticipation. If they did the raise before the JV I'd complain, they gave it the best chance of being done at the highest price, of course ousting the PM didn't help. Some here wanted to see Viper being mined earlier, that would involve doing the cap raise 2-3 months earlier - probably at 30c or less.
Of course it's easy to sit back with hindsight & say they should have raised earlier/later. No one can guess the market.
The SPP is available to all shareholders, it favours smaller holders over larger holders. Yes it would be nice to do it after the updated DFS or better still after the FID. But where do you draw the line & say we'll do it now. There's always upcoming price sensitive announcements on the horizon. They obviously need the money now - maybe that's to get a better loan facility, maybe to pay the bills - we just don't know, only management does.
I'd say they are saving quite a bit of money doing the pre-strip on Viper & then having the equipment go straight to N'Tiola - saves 2 mobilisations, unfortunately that's one of the biggest expenses in mining.
FFX Price at posting:
64.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
