I think it comes down to just ignorance and intelligence re: Brand these days. I feed certain social media into some analysis programs I have even though I personally dislike social media and do not use it much. I know too much about how the behind the scenes works on all that stuff to want to use it. Though I guess some people would say this site is social media, but I was on sites like this before it was called that so to me it is different.
But If self minting would cost MKR millions when they are already tight I wouldn't even put the idea forward for them. They already have some I.T. department working for them on at least a part time basis to manage their existing site and announcements, and an online shop is quite simple these days. I've dealt with systems 2-3 decades ago that make the current systems look its painting by numbers. So you just need some basic average IQ people to handle the shop system, and since the order numbers would likely only be in the hundreds per month it isn't going to overwhelm 2 people. But sure if it is way more popular they might need to hire a few more 50k/year people.
With regards to refining to 999 pure I think they would be better off doing that inhouse as it will cost them less and then they have authentic chain of custody over the metal. They can 100% for sure say it is Wonawinta silver or Mt Boppy gold and take the 15-25% bump over spot fully themselves. They likely have a lot of what is needed already and certain people already that know how to get it done. But if not maybe hire one guy to do the refining, pouring and finishing. One guy can pump out hundreds of bars per month without a sweat. I would start off with just hand poured bars since it costs so little and if popular enough move to coins and other stuff which will require more capital investment.
We aren't talking about making it the most efficient refiner in Australia, it just has to be profitable enough to break even because it will increase their branding significantly which is something that can be measured in MILLIONS of dollars of benefit, even if the actual selling is only breaking even. But they should be able to make a profit along the whole way from my estimations.
The days of a public company just being this one thing and forgetting everything else is over. Not that most of Australian execs know it
. You should hit all the low hanging fruit on your way through whatever it is you are doing especially if you have a public facing aspect to your company like MKR does. This being said I expect MKR to not do it because I expect, at best, average performance from the people involved in everything I invest in. If you assume they are average to slightly below average you won't go investing in unicorn projects that will lose you money for sure.
None of this will impact an investor who invests today from making insane amounts of money on MKR when silver moves. I just post it because I like to provide unsolicited advice into the universe.
