I have to say, I strongly contest the mentions of this not being...

I have to say, I strongly contest the mentions of this not being tightly held

The worst of pump and dumps play out as follows:
a) big news (defined however you like it, but the market swallows it), with high volume
b) CR
c) Immediate share price drop to that CR level, with large volume out the door due to the disgruntled nature of those buying above CR price
d) a slow / medium cascade back down to an underwhelming price, and there will be much whining

I don't see this playing out that way. The Top 20 held 44% of the company. In 2 days after the recent nickel news, we saw the entire SOI roll over, which means that if you assume no move on the Top 20 the traders would have had a field day, trading every liquid share at least twice in that time.

Fast forward to today.... <5% of the SOI traded, and we still haven't yet hit the price of the CR. $65k on market buy sits between us and ending the day on a higher share price. $10m was traded on the nickel news.

That's 150x more volume than today, on open after a CR. If that doesn't define *tightly held* then I don't know what does.
I also note that they are one of the minority of ASX explorers that put their capital structure at the back of their presentation - they are hero-ing the projects

--------

With respect to what's next - I just had a half hour chat with the Technical Director, as I wanted to ask about the REE assays and timeline. Somewhat embarrassingly my phone cut out 3 times on me asking when they're expected, and being British I couldn't bring myself to ask a 4th time, but I got the impression that the Nickel was prioritised and so the REE fall in line as the next item, potentially a few weeks away (and I get that from the presentation), but I could totally be wrong!

I had a great discussion with Jordan, and frustratingly just missed Damon in Sydney and can't make it to the Goldie to talk to him, so he was kind enough to give me his time. Obviously I've learned nothing that's not out in the public domain, aside from the genuine excitement that the whole team has. A few takeaway points:

• They're super pleased to have Damon on board. As an engineer by trade, he brings a technical understanding but also a very structured and clear approach for the team and for shareholders to follow. That's clear as day for me, just look at the timelines in the presentation
• Quicksilver is weird. They've mentioned that it doesn't adhere to your classic geology of other deposits, and that's why it's already exciting.... Nickel, Scandium, other rare earths all in one place, clays, and they've not even tested the source beneath? Next next two months, for a geologist, are fascinating. The next two months, for a layman shareholder with no interest in geology (note: shouldn't be in exploration), could be game changing.
• Because of the 'weirdness' of the project, it does suggest that there might be the option to separate out difference and valuable concentrations of nickel separate to REEs etc. The ability to dig and ship without building a mine is what bumped our value last week - it's now a real possibility, but it needs proving. Because of this weirdness, it suddenly shows the hallmarks of being able to produce a profit in a scaled up approach, without massive mine build capex up front
• The gold is a real wildcard.... if that turns up anything interesting then you have the genuine problem of identifying which shiny ball to chase with what percentage of time and funding, but let's get there when we get there. Highly analogous to a nearby 3Moz ish deposit, I see holding shares in G88 with the backing of quicksilver giving me a type of free-carry opportunity to reap the rewards (if any exist) in a very interesting gold opportunity

If anyone's going to the GC tomorrow, I'd love to hear what Damon speaks to (and if anyone gets answers to my first question, great!). There's a small, focussed, very excited team of very professional people here.

These shares are bottom draw for holding tenure, top draw for interest

Changing my sentiment back to Buy again