Reflecting on what @BaltasarG said about many funding options. I...

Reflecting on what @BaltasarG said about many funding options. I think, the reason for the current slowdown on funding is that management know/believe that they can get some government funding via part of the total debt funds. The advantage of the government from past experience (like it REE) is that it is independent of the banks and is more like mezzanine funding in that it rates lower than bank loans (in a windup) but before equity. However ,it won't attract the higher interest rate for that risk ( and it will be around that of US govt. debt).

This gives them immense flexibility that they can turn into returns. Usually with a project you need say 65% debt and 35% equity of the FID determined costs. But if you can get to FID, then issue streaming that accounts for some of the total funding requirement as US gov. funding that replaces some of the bank debt. You end up with a lot lower equity piece and a higher return on equity for the project. I think that's why they raised from instos. at 2.0c.

I don't know how much govt. debt they can get but if they can get $50M to $70m it's going to make a big difference, effectively allowing some extra leverage and reducing borrowing costs (or reducing bank risk). So thye are doing what s required to ge tit.

A lot of my thoughts/experience come from REE's developers like ARU where they are finding it hard to get funding because for REE prices (artificially subdued by the Chinese) and the Aust. government is giving them a hand with cheap loans (ARU, ILU and ASM). Also, the battles we had with finding RXM , which in the end got bought out.

I think the board are both aware of this and we can see them shoring up their financial management capabilities. They'll play the streaming card as an Ace or a Trump (no pun intended).

All IMVHO.