I don't think they have much choice. They need cash and having...

I don't think they have much choice.
They need cash and having reached 2.3B shares and you can make that 2.5B if all the options are exercised. They will be in a more healthy position once they get the demo plant producng MgO continuously, because they will then have revenue coming in. When they get to ingots production, the revenue should cover cost of operating the demo plant.

We won't see much movement in the share price until the Demo plant becomes operational and they announce first revenue. It's interesting that in the update, they did not give any dates. There are some unknowns there because they still have to hire 3 operational shifts of people. If we read between the lines, they are disposing of contracted operational staff and hiring new ones as employees of LMG. To date they have been using contracted staff through consultants to operate(commission) the plant. That's very common in the oil/gas industry(very high cash turnover industries), however it's very expensive. Contract a plant operator through a consultant and you could be paying $250 - $300/hr whereas if you hire them as an employee it can cost you less than $100/hr despite oncosts(holidays, super, sick leave. etc). There is overhead in that you have to provide admin services for them, payroll services etc. It's going to take time to hire them in and train them. Hopefully they will get some of the past contracted operators to come on as employees.

This is also an interesting bit:
LMG has commenced discussions for the debt funding of its Commercial Plant with Societe Generale, as well Australian government finance agencies who have indicated initial interest in supporting the Commercial Plant. LMG will also be making grant applications under existing programs from the Federal and USA governments during the next 6 months.

If LMG is going to secure investor funding, then LMG is going to stump up some cash as well to share the risk. Grant funders will also want to see some of LMG's own cash co-invested in any grant application. It will probably be easier to get money out of the US than the Australian grant schemes.

This was a very cautious update being careful not to set fixed expectations. They need to get that demo plant operating 24hrs and broadcast to the world that they are in production. 80% purity for MgO is quite good I think, given that SCM is mixed in and the plant has not been optimised yet.

Cguv, I would like to see the Board take long holiday and appoint another one for a year. I guess we shouldn't be surprised at the delays given the last 3 years. We may see some sell-off this week for people who want to claim tax losses so that may provide an accummulation opportunity.

I am still cautiously optomistic but unfortunately I don't think we will see MgO production for a while - just not sure how long but should be in first quarter of 2024/25.