Ann: FY2018 Financial Results Summary, page-18

insto investors dont buy gold exposure for dividends unless mgt is a1 rep and cost base is low quartile - they are too leary of the gold price volatility impacting earnings

and gold stocks almost never pay a competitive dividend unless they are bought in 2015 style market

i agree people conflate sp with mgt which is generally more untrue than true

but i would also agree slr made a series of bad decisions in 2011 - and still pays for it to this day with trying to pull itself up by its bootstraps - which means it doesnt drill out the reserve to a level that will give instos confidence in the mine plan

thats in essence the problem - mgt says 'we think' - then it gets revised - because they are making decisions based on lower quality info

that doesnt make the current mgt bad in and of itself - it reflects more the mineralisation style and the business  state they are evolving from

imo that cash in bank should be used more aggressively to add significant LOM reserve so the market will accept forward looking statements with more confidence

that said - b grade miners offer investors big capital appreciation oppprtunities if and when the commodity runs - precsiely because their b-gradeness leads to undervaluation

i highly doubt a higher quality operator would dilute themselves with a t/o

a merger of b-grade 'equals' though is a reasonable prospect at some point.

but unfortunately both boards tend to see that as a job losing option so hard to see the trigger

@pez - v nice economic readthrough. accords with my own view albeit i doubt an aussie recession is in frame in next 2 yrs.  3+ then i think that becomes far more likely