Gold Hits New High as ASX Gold Producer Mounts Turn Around Story
With a change in management, renegotiated creditor terms and millions spent upgrading its processing plant, one junior Australian gold producer is looking to take the next step on its journey and turn things around for its shareholders.
An investment in this ASX stock is not for the faint hearted – but long term, contrarian investors, please read on.
After a few years that this gold producer would rather forget, the company is seeking to embark on a new era, and realise the true value of the multiple high grade, low tonnage deposits that dot the landscape at its Mineral Hill Project in NSW.
Mineral Hill has seen over 20 years of historical multi-metal production, and this company’s current resource size equivalent amounts to seven years of production, which could be extended by further exploration.
The company has faced a host of issues recently including an aggressive attempted takeover, plummeting base metal prices, a plant that was delayed and over budget and to top it off, an extreme weather event that caused a crack in the haul road to its open pit mine taking away its profitable ore source. All this led to large outstanding debts that in turn delayed the long-term development plans of the company, and many frustrated long-term holders.
The haul road has now been fixed, normal pit production has resumed, and the company is now raising $6M in an effort to finally sort out its balance sheet – and with that things should hopefully pick up for this stock.
The company is currently capped at less than $4M. Once the $6M capital raise is complete, and taking into account the current debt of $6M, the Enterprise Value of this company will be around $16M.
With its open pit / shallow underground producing mine now cashflow positive, the company has put a big dent into its outstanding debts – a welcome sign for investors.
Furthermore, installation of its 100% owned Carbon-in-leach (CIL) processing plant as well as significant improvements to the flotation circuit have seen its ore recovery rate increase by over 50% since the end of 2015.
The state-of-the-art processing plant, which is within 1km of the producing open cut mine and other deposits held by this company, has received $30M worth of upgrades over the past few years.
The CIL plant is the only plant of its kind in the region, allowing the company to bring in additional revenues from processing regional ore.
In 2015 the company commenced production of gold concentrate at its processing plant and by January 2016 poured its first gold bar.
With that vital haul road having just been reinstated, and production set to increase, all debts are on schedule to be paid off by the end of the year.
KBL Price at posting:
0.9¢ Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held