Article in the Switzer report (Nice when our stock starts to get some attention)
April 12, 2018
With stock markets entering a period of volaitility, there's plenty going on to keep investors of gold interested. Here are two gold mining companies you may be wanting to keep a particular eye on.
West Wits Mining (WWI) 2c
The gold minnow has taken a unique approach to the rush in the Pilbara to find the equivalent of South Africa’s Witwatersrand, a region that has produced 40 percent of the world’s gold.
True, West Wits has joined the throng pegging ground in the Pilbara, where watermelon seed nuggets lie waiting to be kicked with a Blundstone just below the surface.
But the company’s main pursuit of Witwatersrand mineralisation is in the actual Witwatersrand Basin, where it owns a producing open-cut project with a local partner.
As far as we can see, that makes West Wits the only ASX-listed stock with projects in the ‘real’ and ‘fake’ Witwatersrands.
Until recently, West Wits fortunes lay with a project in Irian Jaya (West Papua) called Derewo. While it’s still on the books, the venture stalled because of problems with the local partner, a common refrain for an Indonesian project.
West Wits’ Witwatersrand Basin Project (WBP) was mined by giant DRD Gold up until 2000, producing 41 million ounces at an average five grams a tonne gold over six conglomerate reefs.
But a sagging gold price and concerns about the post-apartheid political climate meant that DRD (as well as other majors) scurried elsewhere.
“They just opened the doors and ran, leaving 30,000 mine maps covered in owl poop,” says executive chairman Michael Quinert.
To date the open-cut phase has been a simple operation based on a contract miner and a toll treatment arrangement.
But it’s been a handy source of cash, generating $300,000 a month compared with the targeted $200,000-250,000 a month.
To supplement its current resource of 3.26 million tonnes West Wits has identified 17 open pit and underground targets, initially focusing on two.
West Wits also sits on two Pilbara projects, Tambina and Mt Cecelia which – you guessed it – “show similarity to the famous Witwatersrand gold deposits.”
Tambina has three granted mining licences and management is pondering a mining start up later in the year “once the geology team identifies suitable conglomerate-hosted targets”.
Meanwhile, investors can expect the small-scale South African stuff to fund the company for the next 12-15 months.
But the company is confident of finding more, citing an exploration target of 25,000-40,000 ounces. It harbours plans to be an eventual 100,000 ounce a year producer and we guess there’s nothing wrong with reaching for the stars.
While many miners have shunned South Africa because of its political and economic uncertainties, new Cyril Ramaphosa was sworn in without incident last month.
The Nelson Mandela associate is making the right noises to the business and mining community, although there a few nervous white farmers feeling less than comfortable and relaxed despite Peter Dutton’s pledge of support from across the seas.
While West Wits is generating useful cash, with production and cash flow in January and February in line with internal targets.
West Wits’ $10m market cap (including $2m of cash) looks cheap in comparison weith peers such as Stonewall Mining (SHJ), which has a three million ounce resource project in South Africa and is valued at $30m despite not yet being in production.
The king of the Pilbara stocks, Artemis Resources (ARV) is valued at $122m ahead of its plans to drill a super-deep hole of 3300 metres in its Balmoral tenement package.
This program is expected to provide clarity on the geology of the much-hyped Pilbara Witwatersrand story. In the meantime, the stock is in trading halt at the behest of the ASX.
Artemis and Canadian partner Novo Resources sparked the new-age Pilbara rush by finding ‘watermelon seed’ nuggets at its Purdy’s Reward project south of Karratha.
WWI Price at posting:
2.5¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
(20min delay)
