The Avz Minerals Ltd (ASX: AVZ) share price was amongst the better performers on the market on Thursday with a 2.3% gain to 22.5 cents before the lithium-focused mineral exploration company requested a trading halt.
According to the release, AVZ Minerals has requested the trading halt until the earlier of commencement of normal trading on Monday April 16 or the release of an announcement regarding a response to an ASX query.
What is the ASX query?
At this stage it is unclear whether this is a new ASX query or a continuation on its previous query that has led to its shares being halted twice before in the last two weeks.
The previous ASX query related to Twitter posts made by a paid strategic advisor from Airguide International Pte Limited that leaked potentially market sensitive images onto social media.
While the company does not consider the images from these Twitter posts to have contained material information, it does appear that those that saw the images interpreted them to be material.
The Twitter posts were made as the market closed on March 28 and, with no other news being released by the company, its shares jumped over 8% on March 29 before being abruptly halted.
The posts (images excluded) were as follows:
What now?
As I have said before, while AVZ Minerals itself may not necessarily be to blame for this, if it doesn't act on this incident internally then I just wouldn't class it as acting in the best interest of its shareholders.
As such, I wouldn't consider it to be investment grade and would point investors to Kidman Resources Ltd (ASX: KDR) or Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX: PLS) instead.
Which is a real shame because its Manono lithium project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has the potential to be a world class asset.
