Just under 7 months ago, EQR raised 9.5million through a placement on the following terms :
View attachment 6674760Since then, we’ve been told by management from their webinars and presentations that :
- We are the largest tungsten producer in the ‘Western world’
- Management have done an amazing job since acquiring Saloro and have improved recoveries from 35% to 65% with possibility of achieving 70%+ recoveries;
- Saloro achieved record production in the latest quarter;
- Mt Carbine achieved record production in the latest quarter;
- EQR are now supposedly cash flow positive;
- EQR are on the verge of extracting high grade tungsten from Mt Carbine which will significant improve production;
- Geopolitical tensions have supposedly resulted in everyone scrambling to secure supply of tungsten and there has been increased interest in EQRs tungsten;
- The latest planned acquisition of TMG will allow the company to diversify through vertical integration and improve EQRs margins by 20% through the sale of ferrotungsten;
- Observations from the latest tungsten conference showed lots of downstream players keen to support tungsten projects in order to secure Western supply;
- It is currently a sellers market and “EQR could probably sell 3 times the amount of tungsten that they had available”;
- Secured a 5 year $30million offtake contract with Elmet.
- In relation to the QIC loan, Kevin stated “We are pleased that the opportunity has arisen for such extensive and ATTRACTIVE funding support from the Queensland Government”.
and yet, just 7 months since achieving all the above improvements, EQR “turned down” the “ATTRACTIVE” QIC loan supposedly in the “best interest of shareholders” and are diluting shareholders yet again but this time at a lower price of 4 cents with 1 for 1 free options instead of 1 for 3? So instead of accepting the $20million loan at 10% interest and giving 100million free options, we are now raising $4million at a 20%+ discount and still giving 100million free options. How is this in the best interest of shareholders and how is it a better deal than the QIC loan?
With all the improvements in both the company and the outlook for tungsten, shouldn’t EQR be able to raise capital at a better price and on better terms? What happened to all the “downstream players keen to support tungsten projects in order to secure Western supply”?
Something doesn’t add up… and I wish management would be more transparent and honest and explain what went wrong. Why did the company get itself into a position where they were forced to raise money at such terrible terms.
(20min delay)