Neomagnus, I agree with most of your thoughts. You hit the nail on the head with "One of the biggest challenges we may very well continue to face investing in equities is the lack of any decent numbers of equity investors in the market at any one time compared to in the past."
This has been a serious problem with the ASX since the GFC and its not about to change in the foreseeable future. That said, its obvious investors will spend their hard earned money if they see some substantial reward in the not too distant future.
IRL is renowned for under-delivering for many years, most investors have just given up. A few of us here on HC get excited about some of the projects but as we've seen from the Aravalli update recently these announcements will not offer any short term rewards. Its unfortunate that IRL management don't spend much energy in promoting the business, I'm surprised as the Aravalli approval announcement presented an excellent opportunity for some publicity.
I'm feel sure that management are currently more focused on getting the AUD$4.5 million from HCL, but after a year of excuses I wonder how they actually plan to extract the money from HCL. Its now 16 months since the arbitration decision and since IRL management haven't managed to get the payment to date, you'd have to wonder what is the likelihood that IRL will be paid in the next 6 or 12 months. ( or maybe never)
The lack of payment cannot drag on forever, something needs to done, its about time HCL gets some publicity about how it treats contractors. I note that Arvind has been very quiet on this issue, maybe its time to name and shame. One thing for sure, I wouldn't be reopening Surda mine once approval is granted unless all monies due are paid in full.
I'm sure we all agree, IRL is worth more than .006c, but how much more is it worth?
6c would a good start.
IRL Price at posting:
0.6¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held