Future Milestones & 2023 Summary, page-19

CXO is/was a marginal producer. That is, they had higher costs than peers whilst also miscalculating capital requirements for ramp-up. Marginal producers do best in a rising commodity price environment but are also the first to die when prices collapse.

If CXO had "hedged" by adding value to the resource, they'd be in an even worse position than they are now.

CXO on life support is not good for AEV. CXO received $6m from the Federal Government via the Modern Manufacturing Initiative (MMI) to assess the feasibility of a lithium chemical plant
in Darwin. That money is now sunk cost with little chance of recovery via economic activity.

To add my 2 cents to the oppies discussion: oppies can offer great leverage provided there's enough liquidity to take a position. AEVO are thinly traded and as such, the last sale at 0.008 represents 70% premium over my Black Scholes calculation on their true value (0.0047).