Fair response, I'm in at 20 cents and 44ish cents, I think it...

Fair response, I'm in at 20 cents and 44ish cents, I think it depends on individual timeframes a lot as well. My preference now is to be out of ESS next FY, however, if this scheme falls through and management are forced to develop Pioneer Dome on their own I see a fairly material downside in SP for at least the next year, possibly longer if there was a campaign undertaken to unseat the board, as this takes time.

Ideally, I would like to see a superior offer valuing ESS in the region of $150m-$175m, which would preferably be executed early next FY. Failing that, I guess I'll see where the vote takes us. I think the above figure is reasonable, not amazing, but it compares fairly well I think to GL1 were they to receive an offer at a similar premium to the prevailing price.

Pioneer dome is a reasonable asset, worth developing in my opinion. But the risks in development are high enough with a quality team to take it there, and I think the reason, or at least part of the reason the board recommended the offer is that they don't think they are the people to do it, either that or they lack the ambition. Both of which make me not want to be involved with ESS long term.

ESS management strike me as the type of lifestyle directors who like to flit from project to project, following the in demand commodity of the day, as evidenced by their decision to sit on the already defined Pioneer Dome for two years to chase gold while lithium prices were low. Had they stayed the course like LTR and CXO, they would likely be in a similar position to CXO at the moment. Possibly further advanced than core due to having less environmental factors delaying construction and production as there are in the tropical north.

There was nothing stopping the board putting the scheme to shareholders without their recommendation, had they done this, I suspect many including myself would have somewhat more confidence in management.

Edit: @dynofish that was meant to be in response to your post. My quotes boxes have been disappearing a bit lately.