west australian, page-56

Here is what I think.

To call a halt for a cap raise just hours after releasing amazing results and interrupting a daytrading frenzy is SO bizarre, and SO inappropriate, and disadvantaged so many traders (especially T3 traders who now have to come up with however many thousands of dollars they weren't planning for and in some cases don't actually have), and OGX management absolutely must have known how this would be perceived by the market and the ensuing backlash -

That the timing of it must actually have a genuinely legitimate reason - otherwise they would not have dared be so blatantly disrespectful and in breach of ASX/ASIC protocol.

The only legitimate excuse for calling a trading halt at the time they did was if a separate party/investor (haven't read the WA article so apologies for my ignorance if it is clarified there) saw and read the ASX announcement along with the rest of us, thought the results indicated potential for a massive silver deposit, and contacted OGX management literally hours after the announcement was released to offer funding in exchange for 25c shares - as they could obtain far more shares this way, and at a far lower price, than if they tried to buy on market in the midst of the frenzy or afterwards.

If I had enough cash that's what I'd do every time I saw an amazing resource announcement that I wanted in on, from a company that wasn't loaded with cash... instead of buying on market and pushing the price up just contact the company and throw cash at them at a price much lower than prevailing on market trade. Help the company fundamentals at the same time as acquiring shares at a discount to what they were worth even before you personally improved the financial position of said company.

Why wait for a company to approach you for a cap raising, especially if you or your company is not the type that would generally be approached.

A similar thing happened with BCC when they were in market favour, as they were commencing their onshore Austin Chalk drilling program in Texas. A wealthy individual offered them cash at 10c per share off his own bat... which at the time was a slight premium to market price. That didn't work out to well for him as BCC diluted and diluted him into oblivion, after less than inspiring results.

I've thought about doing it myself, and would have, if my personal finances permitted.

Anyway... my point is that the above scenario is the only possible way that OGX could not have known about the cap raise BEFORE they released the announcement, and thus the only way their behaviour/decision can be justified.

All speculation on my part and probably absolute rubbish.