RE:RE:role of management and shareholders@AlfTanner - I knew it you re a good guy just angry. One can read that between your lines so all cool :)
To explain a little bit sth about Caribou: Caribou was making a constant loss for TV due to the care & maintenance costs. I dont remember the amount - it was published last year, but the costs were substantial. So thats why the decision was taken to open it and let it work for a small profit, fully hedged. The net outcome of the reopening therefore is positive, avoiding these costs.
Of course - looking back - one could have waited for zinc prices to rise. But we now have a management playing things conservatively and with more caution than the last one. I think thats good, as Trevali has that big RP2 investment in front of it and just has to make sure that theres a great positive cashflow to partly finance these works.
As one poster here asked the question if RP2 could be financed solely with cashflow, the answer is no. Debt is reduced and will be reduced even more, but as TV wants to start RP2 this year to be come a low-cost producer starting 2023 and therefore cannot wait another 2 years collecting cashflow, the company will either need shareholders to participate again or co-finance it with debt or co-finance it with a JV-partner or co-finance it selling other parts of the business. Lots of alternatives and I think thats a good thing.
The main thing is that with reduced debt and positive cashflow, the need for co-financing still exists, but is much lower than in the past, which makes the project absolutely economically feasable.
From a technical and an economical point of view, I am absolutely fascinated by this project. Trevali will be a low-cost producer after it and therefore not fight for survival anymore in each zinc price downcycle. And therefore be priced at around 2 times book value in the very very long term.