Your thoughts are well considered but continuous disclosure rules are quite simple and rigorous about what’s to be disclosed and the test is also not just ‘aware’ but ‘ought to know’.
These are two test questions ASX asks companies to consider on whether to disclose information on events that possibly can affect the project’s material progress:
(1) “Would this information influence my decision to buy or sell securities in the entity at their current market price?”
(2) “Would I feel exposed to an action for insider trading if I were to buy or sell securities in the entity at their current market price, knowing this information had not been disclosed to the market
There’s a lot more. Sections 6&7 show how rigourous the ASX is asking a company to be in being objective.
Back in 2017 under Gary Steinepreis (Steinepreis brother a top corporate lawyer) the MMCS1 claim was announced. This affected the share price after release. I held on having checked that administrative appeals in DRC jurisdiction are endless. And decided to buy more. The right decision retrospectively.
Hence DRC either wants you or they don’t. They decide. It was clear AVZ was wanted for its geological expertise
In late April, early May 2022, before any ASX announcements on subject there was social media speculation on AVZ conflicts with JV partners. The share price dropped from around a dollar towards 70cps, oscillated before and after Decree announcement then suspension less than a week later set it at 78cps.
The thing about the decree announcement is that it came out embedding an address on media speculation. IWe can not see clearly market reaction to AVZ views on Media speculation to share price because a very positive ministerial decree for mining license was also announced. The decree however did mention a change in zoning for the 13359 tenement but this was still for Dathcom’s licensing. Sometimes people consider such announcements on decrees as fluff announcements they are not quite material in the same way as saying “we’ve got it the license, stupid” and will sell into this news. Hence why I say it’s not clear to attribute cause of share price collapse.
I consider the dramas with JV partners more material than the MMCS1 claims and yet AVZ treated as speculation.
I just know that if I had known about the the dramas officially from AVZ as early as Dec -January 2022 (Dathomir attack) I would have taken some shares off the table and assess and obsess over the degree of materiality.
And I’m not sure where the Sp was in January will be visiting us again near term. We will need blockbuster announcements to weather the reputation fall out after 4 months of suspension.