RE:Insiders own nearly 20% of the sharesYes, but you might be surprised at their priorities. That insiders are so heavily committed means that they are very cognisant of the ticking time-bomb of too much debt; particularly having lived through the past two years. I am sure that, like all of us, they want to see a dividend again, but before moving on to that, they will want to make that ticking to stop.
Free cash flow is great, but finding the right point to begin paying out again will depend on debt going way down; prices staying up (and stable and sustained); cap-ex getting caught up (there will have been things put off that now need to be addressed); reserves being revalued on current prices; and bank terms being re-defined based on all of these. I would argue for no dividend until there is cash in the bank that can sustain one through any burbles in the up-cycle that appears to (finally) be upon us.
A penny of dividend costs Surge about CA$3.4M; if paid monthly (where we left off) that’s about CA$40M/year. We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves...