I think the question regarding whether the new exploration is a good or bad sign is pretty much the epitome of a market. Two different people read the same news and see two different scenarios. Which is right? We'll find out eventually I suppose.
Personally, I'm inclined to think this is a good sign. We know that RMC has an excellent prospect in the high sulfidation sweet spot. Most of us believe this becomes even better with the porphryr below that. We also know that RMC owns several other properties/prospects. They have the JV with Orogen Gold. They had the decent grab samples in Africa, not that that means much, but still.
I think this is a way to show Freeport we're still an independent company and that we don't have to wait for them to make a decision as we can create value by ourselves and for ourselves.
In thorgb1's post today, the article says that the discoveries RMC/Freeport have made "were largely targeted from the CSAMT surveys", which is what RMC is about to do now on the adjacent holdings. Did RMC do those surveys before getting Freeport to JV, or was this after? I can't tell from the article, and I don't remember... if the surveys were done alone and then Freeport JVed, I would definitely take this as a bullish sign. Even if not though, let's not forget that RMC is a well cashed up company with no real expenses, at least currently. This is a good way to use the money for a possibly very accretive project.
Here's a question that I have though. Let's assume that a buyout is in the cards. Would Freeport buyout the whole company or just the project? Or maybe it would buy out the Serbian prospects as they probably have similar geology? While I haven't really tried to come up with a concrete number for what the shares could/should be worth besides just "a lot, please!", it's rather difficult to value this. Does anyone have any experience with prospect generators and buyouts?