Truly sorry to hear that Axe ... I'm fortunate to have been...

Truly sorry to hear that Axe ...

I'm fortunate to have been retired (for a decade now) ... but as a self funded retiree I need to make more cautious decisions. When I still working I would cop the bad decision on the chin (and believe me I've had my share of odd $100K loss but also have had more go the other way ... although I remember the losses more "vividly" - you learn from them I suppose). The decision of how much to invest (or how much to lose) is not easy. I do it somewhat emperically to take some of the emotion out of it. Mostly works (you just can't get attached to a stock).

Stocks shouldnt need a cheer squad. Everyone loves an underdog and when a "penny stock" strikes gold (whether that's yellow, black, white, red ...) then its cheers all round and party this and party that and HC is full of that. I enjoy discussing stock scenarios and peer market comparisons ... helps me undertand what I own at that point in time (and that's important). Who knew that capital sunk into RKLP would end up effectively "stranded" (like the folks who own Escalones ... who knew a sanctuary would be decreed).

I talk to PL about every month or so. I always try to have something relevant to share with him (copper market much much bigget than lithium market but share that common theme of "electrification") - easier to get people engaged in conversation when there is common ground. I actually think he has done a pretty decent job of managing the equity capital contributed to the company. He has plenty of skin in the game too, so a higher stock price is his prize (there's no incentive based on EV, or MCap or anything else). With 23% of the equity in the company that should be obvious. If there is a fault it may be that the equity raises were "too small" and PAM/FLG was underfunded. In hindsight this is true ... would have be great to have raised more during the last lithium hype cycle to fund diversification (like Rosario).

So how PL gets the capital to make the copper discovery at Rosario is going to make or break this company (I think). We have ~200M SoI and Mcap of ~US$6.5M. It might take US$6.5 to get us to a PEA completed stage for Rosario (assuming we make a discovery). Think about it. Where/how will that be raised? There is a lot of work to done (even to attract the right partner). Think about it
* Basic field level work - soil sampling, rock chip sampling, geophysics, geochemistry - sort of complete - Outcome = Drill target locations
* 1st phase exploratory drilling ... soon to start? - Outcome = Discovery hole(s)
* 2nd phase drilling around the discovery ... test the envelope (strike length, width, depth) ... Outcome = Maiden MRE (Inferred)
* Resource drilling and basic met testing ... get to an MRE that will support a PEA ... Outcome = MRE (Indicated & Inferred)
(All investors want to know the parameters of the project - size/grade/recovery)
* PEA ... Capex, Opex, IRR, NPV, Payback, etc. What are the planned project phases? How will we make money?
There is a lot of work to be done. PL & Rosario are competing for capital against 100's of competing projects. What makes ours better? Those are some of the things I think about. Its sobering (or maybe the opposite effect).


I see also the big may potentially get much bigger ... Rio merging (so they say) with Glencore being openly discussed. I do like Rio, but hate Glencore (and that combo would certainly create a copper behemoth).