RE:RE:RE:“Mind the Gap”CC -- the following point you made cannot be emphasized enough -- "share structure is tight".
In fact, the current share structure is exceptionally difficult to find for retail investors and offers a unique opportunity to truly "ride" a company to riches. Many times, as an investor in this industry, I've found a rising star that then gets ripped out of retail investor hands as management accepts an offer that provides immediate financial benefit but the asset gets absorbed by larger entities.
Ownership here is very simple -- Kettle / Sprott / Laviolette / Mgmt own 60% with another 10% in friendly hands of NOVO.
Thus a measly 30% = ~50M shares is available to the marketplace (institutions & retail combined) which means that if anyone wants a piece of this motherload they are going to have to legitimately buy it from this same small pot. It is unlikely that the control group will minimize their positions by selling out any shares and should they ever need funds for a new house their shares will surely be orchstrated into friendly hands and not sold via the open stock market.
The last opportunity to establish a position outside of this structure was the McEwen share block which (via sale into the markets) has been distributed individually vs in a single voting bloc. Frankly this may well be the last gift to retail - a "gentleman's entry" price for those that were not aware of NFG a year ago.
However, once this block has been absorbed (is it finished yet?), NFG will be free to move in whatever direction the three key shareholders identified above decide it should.
Thus the investment decision becomes the drill bit (we already know this) and ownership / management -- are these morally and ethically sound people looking to create the greatest CDN success story ever while concurrently growing obscenely wealthy --> without skewering the same retail shareholders that enabled them to get this far?
We now know NFG can raise hundreds of millions without diluting the share structure in any significant sense. A further discovery of jewellery boxes D, E, F etc. could set off a feeding frenzy the likes of which have not been seen for 25 years with only ~50M shares available.
And this time - retail may well have the unique opportunity to FINALLY ride a junior exploration company from the very beginning knowing that it cannot be stolen out from underneath them.
We just need our leadership can maintain control without skewering it up and allow those those that helped get NFG started to stay for the ride.
They have done pretty darn good so far!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!