when will lynas rally?, page-10

jn
I ask in good faith because I'm obviously missing the 'penny dropping' on the issue. LYC for simple maths we will say 1.7b@$2 for 3.4b MC.
If LYC paid premium and bought back 1b shares@$3 would the 700m left not drop the MC to $2.1b? For it to still be $3.4b would mean the $3 buy back was a ripp off because the SP would have to go up to $4.85 to equal the original cap. If the share price did go to $4.85 to up the market cap why can't it do that with 1.7b issued shares, not because the volume decreased. Is it a supply/demand issue, rarer share. If so, something rare can be worthless if it has no appeal.
I gather AVL has approx 90m shares to give a MC of $700m. Maybe it's only worth $2 also and MC of $180m.
I thought it was based on the value of a share(being the company) and then x no of shares, regardless. Meaning, if people were willing to pay $8 for LYC our MC jumps to 12.8b, a big ask, but just for example purposes.