Good comments. I think there is definitely something about Gwalia that brings out the ego in these management teams (Genesis’ Saracen crew as well). Objectively it’s been a struggling asset for the last few years and has declined significantly from what it was back in 2016-18. That was despite huge capital investment to set it up for the future (prob $200M+). It’s unclear why everyone wants this mine.
Maybe it’s the history of it all with Herbert Hoover etc. Maybe it’a a bunch of mining engineers embracing the operational/technical challenges at extreme depth and thinking they can turn it around.
One of the funny things in the SLR media release was the line about a combination bringing ‘A superior capital markets profile to enhance appeal to gold and generalist investors.’
I can’t think of a worse company to takeover Gwalia to enhance the market profile and appeal to generalist investors. Aside from the fact that the combination would be a bigger company, it’s hard to see how the SLR mgmt team would enhance the profile based on their form.
SLR Price at posting:
$1.18 Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held