DENR have already acknowledged that LAF have met all the criteria for the PLO (refer their investigation reports from Nov last year on their website), the only issue has been thay cannot issue a PLO to a facility that is not operational as that would be a contradiction of terms.
There isn't any doubt that LAF will get their PLO - the issue with LAF is that it has been tarnished with a lot of bad press over the last 18 mths and it has a large hedge book liability hanging over its head (interestingly the hedge book liability is actually decreasing as base metals prices have fallen from their recent highs).
The 2 keys to LAF achieving a decent share price are:
1. Production resuming, getting the PLO and then meeting production quotas & hedge book deliveries on a consistent basis
2. The exploration program that begins in Feb having some success in expanding their known reserves
This assumes that the financiers continue to support LAF in the short term - something which I think they are happy to do given their options in LAF (excercisable from around 9 cents up to around 16 cents from memory). I guess you could say that if the financiers are happy to stick their fingers in the pie, then the pie must edible......
And then there is the broker forecasts for LAF's EPS - ABN Amro are forecasting EPS in the first full year (FY07) of operation will be $0.0223 and for FY08 will be $0.0536 (ref: http://www.lafayettemining.com/documents/ABN%20AMRO%20Research-121206.pdf )
I don’t think LAF is going to have a rocket trajectory on the graph over the next few months but it does have a long term future and it will make money for those who have been patient.
dyor - my opinion is just that
LAF Price at posting:
0.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
