Financing delayIf rumors are true that financing has been delayed, that's probably a good thing. Mason has something like $26mm in cash, holds 21 mm GRA shares @ $1.20 and owns the Lac Guret graphite deposit. How much would that go for? What about Imerys? Their lower grade graphite mine (7 % C) at Lac des Iles is nearing the end of its life and their recent attempt at mining low grade graphite in Namibia (6% C?) has just been shuttered after only a year in operation. You would think they would perhaps be interested in one of the highest grade graphite deposits in the world (27 % C for the first 25 years of operation), fully permitted and with infrastrature and some equipment already in place. Lets say minimum value $20mm, although probably much higher. That puts Mason's beakup value at $71 mm or $0.52/share.
Another option might be to turn Mason into a royalty streaming company. Hold on to the GRA shares and wait for commercial production of graphene, sell the graphite mine to Imerys for a share future production and perhaps invest the $26mm cash in the Nemaska refinancing (better to participate in a fire sale financing than to be victimized by one). In a couple years Mason might then have royalty income from three different streams.
But seriously, the most likely option is to simply wait this situation out until GRA is further along toward commercial production of graphene and their the spherical graphite pilot plant is better established, at which point offtake agreements should be easier to come by.
Mason has a number of options that are worth more than $0.39/share. When the vultures come to the realization that they won't be giving the company away at these firesale prices, the price will probably start to recover. In the meantime the vultures can refocus their attention on Nemaska.
The Mookster