A share buyback removes the crazy dilution brought on in the early stages of development, so I disagree with your view. Now that they have some revenue (or will soon once the stockpiles go to smelting), they can use the cash flow to reduce the outstanding share count and tighten up the float, also reducing the amount of shares available to be shorted. I actually posed this question to Rich on the phone - Will SFMI wait to be fully profitable before buying back shares and retiring them? He said No. They will use cash flow in the next 6 months, after they have solid smelting data and incoming cash, to purchase and retire the shares. Remember, the Earnings per Share will go up with less outstanding shares, and if the PE Ratio is any indicator of share price, that means less shares, more EPS, more Share Price. The other option is to use the cash flow to expand operations, but it is clear they are taking things one step at a time, and this would re-assure shareholders that we are in their best interest. Happy shareholders - more shareholders for future operations. Order of Operations is to run the tailings, go to smelting, sell the refined gold into the market as needed for cash flow, Get that sinker tunnel done.
AI
