For starters they are in a blackout period... meaning they...

For starters they are in a blackout period... meaning they cannot conduct any form of buyback until their audited 31 December accounts have been made public. The board is meeting in Feb as I understand to approve these accounts and discuss, amongst other things, capital management plans including buyback and dividend options.

Management deserve a lot of credit and some respect given how operations have performed and taking the company from a debt position to now sit on a ~A$220m cash pile (and growing). The buyback has been active and was last approved up to a 40cps limit... and 10m shares were purchased in Q4 at ~40cps. Again - I'm sure this limit is reviewed at the upcoming board meeting.

The other thing mgmt have done well is work to develop a number of options for that cash pile including Rentails (~A$200m MLX share), acquiring the remaining amount of First Tin (~A$35m) and developing Taronga (~A$180m), acquiring the remaining amount of Renison via Greentech (maybe ~A$150m) and developing the Ringrose deposit (tbd) along with other potential M&A. The cash pile provides optionality and a second project derisks the companies cash flows from a single non-controlled JV entity which should see a multiple rerate on the stock. The company has also said franking credits should soon build as tax losses deplete this year which provides a further option to spend that cash pile (via dividends). Lets give mgmt the time and respect to make a decision on how to spend this cash pile - I think they've earned it.