RE: Article on EUA28 Nov 2019 09:01
To me, all of this suggests that Monchetundra may not be quite as good as it is cracked up to be, as even at lower palladium prices I would still have expected it to be very profitable if all of the figures had stacked up and met expectations.
In terms of palladium itself, I remain to be convinced that the prices that we are currently seeing is anything more than a temporary bubble, as a lot of the rise has been as a result of a move away from diesel vehicles, including some of the emissions scandals we have had. Diesel vehicles tend to use platinum catalytic converters, whereas petrol cars use palladium ones, at the moment anyway. Given the current price difference at the moment, with palladium costing almost double platinum, at around $1,800/oz, I would be amazed if car manufacturers haven’t been working on the use of platinum instead for petrol vehicles.
Although that probably isn’t all that relevant anyway as I would be amazed if any sort of offer comes in for the assets at a surprise which even supports the current market cap of £72 million, following a pull back in the shares to the current level of around 2.7p.
By my reckoning the total warrants exercised so far have brought in just over £1 million in total funds, which at most would keep the company going for the next six months, and should see it through to the beginning of the mining season.
But even once mining begins I wouldn’t exactly expect to West Kytlim to be generating free cash flow, as even in 2018 when it produced a total of 165kg of platinum, and ignoring exceptional items, it still recorded a loss of around £1.5 million for the year.
I’m happy to be proven wrong on this one, but based on everything I have mentioned here something feels very wrong to me and even following the sharp pullback in the share price, I would still view this as one to avoid, or sell if you are sat on a profit, as I think there are a lot of games being played out behind the scenes.
I also think it will be interesting to see if Suschov remains as a non-executive director, given the new appointment and others who have been brought in. Plus of course what the update on the Sinosteel contract will include when that eventually materialises.
In light of the last two updates, and the way that they have dropped after the warrants had finished being exercised when I believe that they should have come much sooner, I’m not sure I would trust the company either.