Haven't had a chance to read through the comments on here yet, so not sure how controversial this opinion is. But I actually walked away from yesterday's AGM feeling much more positive on VRX. I felt similarly to most other on here prior to it - worried about the lack of communication, off-takes, EPA delays, etc.
I thought Bruce's explanations were genuine and reasonable. We thought he was misleading us, however, it was really the EPA misleading him. The delay in the EPA is not because of an outright issue with the project, but just pure government bureaucracy (its understandable why he couldn't outright update the market with this). The lag in off-takes was due to VRX developing new patented processing capabilities to actually improve the end product. Now that it has been finished, the end product test tested, and validated by a top Korean buyer, more off-takes should come. Yes, he overpromised on timing and should have updated us to what was happening on off-takes and R&D. But I think the decision to delay off-takes and optimize the product prior to locking in buyers was the right one for the long-term, especially given the extra time via delays with the EPA.
The company feels like its on a very strong footing and the EPA feels like a question of not if but when. And luckily VRX has the equity capital in place already to develop AN. Has Bruce handled market communication in the best possible way? NO. But is it nearly has bad as we thought, now that we understand the backstory? Also NO.
At today's valuation, the risk/reward is looking very favorable IMO. Keeping VRX as a core part of my silica sands portfolio, which also includes DRX (who just had a high-profile Chairman add) and MLM (who's CEO just bought in the open market).
VRX Price at posting:
17.5¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
