"Am I missing something here?" You are missing a number of...

"Am I missing something here?"

You are missing a number of things, either through acts of commission or omission.

For starters, your "recent high" is a level after which the stock had gone ex-dividend having more than carried the FY2022 final 40c dividend (i.e., it when up after going ex-dividend). That might not count for much for you, but for shareholders that's effectively free money.

Second, you are making the cardinal error of differing starting points, so you're comparing apples with oranges. When PLS was at its highest, WHC was only around $9.40.

Third, 10% or 15% variance in investment returns for resource stocks, whose share price volatility is naturally high, is really only within the parameters of normal market randomness. So, small variances in returns are really just a reflection of normal share price "noise.

Fourth, even if PLS's share price performance over the past 10 months is ahead of WHC's, that excess return needs to be risk-adjusted for factors such as:

1.) Market maturity and transparency: Coal markets are mature: I know who the suppliers and the consumers are and what they are going to be behaving over my investment time frame; lithium is a sector in its infancy. Who can possibly know what supply side shocks might occur in the foreseeable future?

2.) Operational risk (WHC's production base is spread over a number of discrete operations; PLS's is concentrated in one facility),

3.) Capital blowout risk and project commissioning risk (WHC is effectively in run-down mode; PLS is still building stuff).

So, in essence; really big nothing burger.

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