The reality is that the zinc price will stay on a low level...

The reality is that the zinc price will stay on a low level during 2008 and 2009. A recovery may be seen in 2010 depending of zinc export of China and the economic situation worldwide especially in USA, China, India. If AIM really starts with production we may see a slightly recovery in the share price. With raising transport and energy costs I doubt if the NPV is really around 50 m, I have more the feeling that it will be very probable far below this level. For 2010 the world could then look much more brighter for AIM. The production could be on full speed and the zinc price could recover for different reasons. My conclusion:
Scenario 1 (worst case): AIM is not able to get financing and offtake agreement. SP will go down to levels around 4-6 cents for the next 24 months till we see a recovery in the zinc price and better situation on the credit markets. Scenario 2 (most probable): AIM get the offtakes and financing and starts production alltough they will not make a lot of money. SP will recover to levels around 12-15 cents (if the zinc price stays at this level). Scenario 3 (possible but probably only wishful thinking): AIM gets everything together, they find more zinc at Perkoa and some interesting findings in Mumbwa (gold, copper). SP raises to levels well above 20 cents, maybe to the old highs.

Actually last night I had another idea. For me it is interesting that alltough we see another delay in announcement respectively progress report the share price did not really collapse. After all the bad experiences of the last months this would be the logical conclusion. Sell the whole stuff and stay away of it. With relatively low volumes it would be possible to dump the share price. I guess that the big boys are still quiet and are still fully invested. So why should they do that ? If AIM would be "dead" they probably would try to get out of this investment. Obviously this has not occured till now. So in my view the are 3 options: 1. they are really really long term investors and are of the opinion that sometimes in the next 5 years they could make a lot of money out of their investment or 2. they have lost any hope and have already write off their invesment or 3. they are believing that there could be another solution.

Could it be therefore possible that for example NS or somebody else is orchestrating something behind the curtains ? Could it not be possible that the try to put together a nice package (Perkoa, Mumbwa) maybe helped by some exciting(not yet communicated) drilling results (maybe this the reason why the put a such a lot of emphasis on the drillings, VTEM and so on) with the aim to sell AIM as whole to an interested investor ? What would then AIM be worth ? 10, 20, 30 or more cents per share ? I have not the feeling that NS is somehow emotionally connected to AIM (like maybe some of us are) but for them this is just a (so far) bad investment and they want to turn the investment at least to an reasonably average investment. This is just a thought from my side but I would not be surprised if something completely unexpected would happen in the next 6-12 months.