Ann: Quarterly Activities Report, page-194

If management has any remaining fantasies of acquisition, job #1 is to get the share price up.

At this share price level, I would think an NCIB is a no-brainer.

SLR has A$365 million in cash, gold in circuit, and listed investments. For a market cap of A$839 million (at current 0.89/sh price), that's an enterprise value of A$474 million; an almost-bizarre 43.5% of market cap in cash (plus gold and investments).

At guidance midpoint (225k @ A$1950/oz AISC), and A$2947/oz gold, that's an enterprise value/annual AISC margin of 2.11. During better times, any solid gold miner that ran under 10 was worth careful study.

Then you can get really crazy. SLR has roughly A$434 million in tax credits, combining those in Australia and Canada. Gold mining CFOs typically value those at 30% of face, as an asset. Factor the value of the credits in (A$434M x 0.3), and SLR's EV drops to A$344M, and it's EV/annual AISC margin drops to 1.53.

Again, at this price level, I would think a significant NCIB is a no-brainer. Even if management is looking at more acquisitions, higher-valued shares would seem to be more attractive to the boards of potential targets.