XRF has been diversifying so that it's less dependent on...

XRF has been diversifying so that it's less dependent on conventional mining and can use its technology to assess holdings of rare earths etc. I also hold shares in ALS, which at one point was discussed as a possible suitor for XRF. ALS used to be mainly into mining, but has since diversified into food safety, health and environmental assessment. I suspect this is the way many of these mining services operations will go. They have the skilled people and the patents to offer services around the world.

And in reply to the numerous commentators who have observed that XRF's share price can respond to relatively small sales, you should check the list of major shareholdings. Frederick Grimwade, the current scion of one of Melbourne's most established commercial families, is the chair of the board and has a significant holding, as does David Brown, who I suspect is one of the Browns from Brown's Wines. I'm not a fan of either, but their presence on the register probably reduces the risk of a meltdown.

I've held shares in XRF since it was 27c a share, and since then I've seen nothing to suggest that I should sell out, or even lighten my holdings. The dividend isn't generous as a proportion of the current share price, but it's regular, fully franked and increases in value as the share price rises. My last dividend was worth 14.4% ff of my starting price.

I'm not a frequent trader, so I rarely look at Hot Copper, but reviewing the comments on XRF makes me realise that you can spend a lot of time fussing about short-term share movements when you should be looking at more fundamental things. The point with XRF is that they pretty much have a global monopoly on the technology they use, so they can decide who they do or don't want to work with. If they lose that monopoly, I'll be the first to bail.