Big picture!Newcrest paid US$804 million for a 70% JV interest in Red Chris which means that Imperial's 30% interest is worth about C$460, or $3.60 a share. Add the option value of the other properties, and other net assets, and we are looking at a potential share price of $4.00 or $5.00.
NC would have preferred to buy 100% of RC (why would it want a weak JV partner) but I believe that ME capped it at 70%, to settle all Imperial's debt and leverage its 30% interest. Recall that NC plans to move rapidly from costly open pit to underground block cave mining - it is currently deep drilling and preparing a feasibilty study. This shift could add significant value to Imperial's 30% interest.
I recall a similar situation: in 2017 Polaris Materials was trading at about $0.96 when it was bought out by US Concrete for $3.40 per share.
The market and analysts are not focusing on this big picture - they are getting bogged down in the detail of the latest quarterly which is pretty meaningless because the cut-off between discontinued and continuing operations was badly blurred. Next quarter's operations should be clearer.