ASL has gone from about 83% Au/Cu to 73% with the acq of...

ASL has gone from about 83% Au/Cu to 73% with the acq of Barminco. And then Wodgina might reduce that a further 3% or so. Also underground mining is going from 14% to 46% roughly and African exposure falling from 65% to 50%. Subtly different dynamics from macro forces compared with the past. I suspect that with the lack of new discoveries, resources companies will be needing to squeeze more out of their mines.

I suspect that drilling services could expand a bit over the next decade, unless ASL decides to get out of it, only 12% of revenues pro forma, there may be some opportunity to grow this off the Barminco part of the business. Imdex - IMD - has a good presentation on world mineral exploration - pages 10 to 16 of their recent results presentation. It has charts of annual recent gold and copper discovery sizes, and annual world exploration budgets. These really do seem to be in a trough, and at some stage will need to be replenished. The other interesting thing is that 65% of gold financings come from the TSX. Could be a good for a dual listing. Well worth a look at that part of their presentation anyway.