The ARU story has been a long one and that has taken its toll in...

The ARU story has been a long one and that has taken its toll in terms of market sentiment. What I see is a company that is being meticulous in terms of de-risking the project by proving every stage in the mining and particularly the production process. It trades at a fraction of the amount spent getting to where it is now and the stars certainly seem to be aligning if demand projections for key rare earths, particularly for EVs, are realistic (and I think they may well turn out to be conservative). The location in a first world mining friendly jurisdiction is also a massive plus.

I have a large (for me) shareholding and I am of course talking my own book here, but I feel this story is getting close to coming good and all it will take is a cornerstone investor or a joint venture, or maybe even a takeover by Lynas (why not - that's what I would do if I was the CEO of Lynas?) to get this project back in the spotlight and back up to a level that better reflects its value today.

Non-renounceable share issues by small mining companies sadly almost always drag the share price back to the issue price as some holders sell to take up shares rather than pass them up, but at this level I can't help thinking there is plenty of value in taking them up.