The latest Investing Matters Podcast episode featuring Jeremy Skillington, CEO of Poolbeg Pharma has just been released. Listen here.
Hi Mattjos, I remember you from the days I was invested in AAZ, more or less the same point MTL are in today, about to be debt free, I know you did very well with AAZ, are you still invested there today? I foolishly let go before the massive rise to 173p and learned a huge lesson to be patient when the going is good, I grabbed a profit (120%) then watched it sail away missing out on (600%) and dividends on top.
Good to your incite, I’m positive we about to repeat the early AAZ days with MTL, but I’m even more positive as we are in a better world location with a very ambitious CEO.
About Metals Exploration Plc
Metals Exploration is the 100% owner of the Runruno Gold-Molybdenum Project, which it developed from greenfield to production. The project is located approximately 200 kilometres north of Manila in the province of Nueva Vizcaya in the Philippines, an area which has been known to be prospective in gold and other precious metals since the early 1960s.For the FY2023 the Company announced Record production of 85,194 ounces, exceeding Company’s updated FY2023 gold production forecast of 81,000 ounces. AISC were $1,126 per ounce which was only slightly above the FY2023 lower guidance forecast of $1,120 per ounce. The Company also achieved excellent gold recovery in the processing operations – with FY2023 gold recovery of 88.7%.The Company’s strategy is to continue to focus on further operational improvements at Runruno to lower costs and increase margins – aiming at increasing recovery in the processing plant and further optimising operating costs. The Company is also continuing to significantly deleverage its debt and strengthen its financial position, with net debt at FY2023 now reduced to US$19.9 million and expected to be fully repaid in Q2 2024. The Company is also looking to create a larger and more structured business with multiple mines, which will deliver significant shareholder value through acquisitions within the Philippines and ultimately the broader region, leveraging the Company’s established in-country knowledge, experience, and strong technical team. The first such acquisition was announced in January 2024.
Next results for Q1 released in April, Darren Bowden also released info a debt free position expected for April.
A little bit of info for any new investor, good to have you onboard.
Business as usual, those selling recently is utter madness, why? I cannot fathom the logic, we are literally weeks from transformation, a debt free company with 4 years gold at an average of 1.29g per ton for the remainder of the mine life, $250 to $300 million profit before tax, to be had from this mine alone, A CEO who’s committed to running multiple incomes from additional low cost small scale high grade mining plants and longer term a large scale mine utilising the current equipment to continue from our current mine, the Abra tenement is already in the process of being proven up, and you can bet if Darren is excited about this acquisition, it’s got gold in it, and I imagine gold grades well beyond what we are use to, we are literally at the beginning of a new fresh start, government approval is high, our track record is beyond comparison, “bell of the ball” other miners want to join us, gold at record highs, plant running reliably and beyond design efficiency.
Darren Bowden has much bigger aspirations than one mine, one income, we have the largest share holders on side, strictly no share dilution, we will have a war chest accumulation from April, enough to build what ever MTL desire, no borrowing required, our market cap is utterly ridiculous, we all know it, the market has a lot of catching up, hold tight as the ride is just beginning.
Let’s be clear, MTL has absolutely no right to be in the 2p range, it’s long overdue a correction, so those wanting to get in silly cheap need to take advantage sooner than later, because time is seriously running thin, waiting for a cheap entry? It is already a cheap entry, the market cap is less than 1 years profits, $130 million debt cleared in April, gold at historical highs, and the soon to aquired Abra tenement is already in the pipeline to expanding the remaining 4 years gold in front of us, MTLs bell of the ball in the Philippines and a committed and proven CEO running the show.
No problem, AAZ were literally going bust without an investment or loan and hit a low of 4p per share when a life line was given and they borrowed around $50 million, this is before I invested in the company, but the $50 million got them to a point where they were nearly debt free from gold revenues, and yet the share price see sawed around 30p, a good income for those who had held from the lows, but I was perplexed by the low market cap at 32p of £35 million pounds and nearly didn’t buy the £5k worth because of its poor valuation, but sure enough they paid off the loan the next quarter and it raced to 75p in a few weeks, I sold out making 120% patting myself on the back, only to see AAZ reach 170p 2 years later, so I have learnt my lesson and now I collect and hold, because we are in exactly the same position as AAZ were at 32p, undervalued, perplexingly undervalued, but the facts remain, we are undervalued, a share price worth less than 1 years gold profits, 4 years profits in the ground now, and many more about to be proven up, this is an opportunity of a lifetime, Darren Bowden has basically told us, yes you can cash out from your 1p days if your happy, fine, but the 10p days are around the corner, the 100p days may be a long way in the future, but the 2.5p days are about to be gone forever, have a great weekend, don’t worry about the day to day price, take advantage when you can and look forward to an amazing future ahead of us.
Took another 200k and holding 6 million now, will look to buy more Monday as this has become an unbelievable opportunity, licence to print money, the usual pattern between results is still happening, but I really didn’t expect another chance like this, absolute madness selling at these prices, 100% confident every share at these prices will double in the next few months.
AAZ followed this pattern, I couldn’t understand the low share price at around the mid 30s, talk of debt free next quarter had me scratching my head, lots of selling pressure as I was buying, had me questioning my logic, and once it was announced in black and white at the next results, 75p in a few week, onto 170p in a few years, I regretted not filling my boots as I only took £5k at 32p.
The CEO has just made an interview only days ago making it crystal clear the mine is running like clockwork, they have mastered the process, debt free by April, $2 billion company value ambition, the interviewer perplexed by the current low share price with the amount of cash generated, you couldn’t get a clearer future vision, it’s obvious to me these dirty cheap shares are soon to be gone forever and you should be taking advantage, a few million sells for what ever the sellers reasoning is has not changed a thing.
I think he should pay a small dividend this year because we generate more than enough free flow cash to save, invest and pay a dividend, if he wants to bring the share price up quickly it’s definitely the way to do it, a maiden dividend will hit the news and it attracts many a new investor, as some only buy shares that give them an income whilst exposing them to growth.
Just $10 million in dividends for the year would jack the share price up dramatically, gaining more exposure.
Of course $2200 plus gold will have the same effect, and that’s a huge possibility within a year as well.
300k purchased at 10.36 but not showing yet.
Well that interview was exactly what we need, you can see now that Darren is committed to grow the exposure of our company to the masses, he definitely wants to grow the undervalued share price, the interviewer made a comment about how cheap our market cap looks with the cash we are generating, $70 million free flow cash at average grades of 1.29g for the next 4 years is reassuring news, that’s about $240 million, with only $5 million costs to close our current mine, and repurpose the equipment to the Abra reserves, again saving future build costs.
I love the idea of bringing on additional income from sharing 28g per ton grades in small scale affiliations, $10 million spend and up and running in a year or two, saying they can produce as much income as our current lower grade large scale operation blew my mind.
Major shareholders have made it clear, no share dilution, we now know we are debt free in April, from the horses mouth, we have the cash generation to grow and Darren Bowden has a $2 billion market cap ambition, a CEO that oozes confidence, straight talking and honest.
I’ve took another 300k this morning, 5.8 million shares and counting, I will continue collecting month on month whilst we still can at these few penny prices, double figures next year as the cash collects and the news on Abra grades and additional aquisitions flood in. I’ve said it numerous times but it’s never been more clear that MTL is a crystal clear investment and STRONG BUY recommendation.
Excellent update, easy for new investors to see the potential in one easy read, for me, I picked up on Abra tenement as being 1 of a few possible acquisitions, seems they are currently considering a few others, The Abra tenement looks amazing, I’m excited to see the results of near term exploration later this year, but its history and previous small scale mining, it looks to be extremely promising, I am so happy to be invested here.
Thank you for posting the article, nice to see reviews on the company at last, it’s been over 2 years since I’ve seen any other review, along with the IG interview it looks like MTL are starting to expose the potential to the larger market.
The short term 4p plus is definitely conservative as the debt free position by May in my mind will blow that number by a fair margin, it’s hard to get the facts in a short article but it failed to mention that the 74k to 80k ounce production prediction made in Jan 2024 is actually a higher production target for 2024 than was predicted for 2023 production back in Jan 2023, the fact we sold 85.5k ounces over 2023 is because the mine performed significantly better than predicted, the same was achieved in 2022 too, it’s becoming clear Darren Bowden prefers to under predict and over perform, a sensible trait.
So the performance this year is predicted to be as strong as last year but hopefully at a higher gold price and virtually no loan interest charges, the 2 combined will should increase free cash flow beyond 2023 heady $73 million, can you believe 1 years profit is our market cap at the moment.
Metals Exploration – Q4 update, remains a balance sheet-improving, gold production…BUY
By HotStockRockets | Friday 2 February 2024
I haven’t a subscription to the Share Prophets, just seen the headline though, anyone able to read the thread it in full?
Great post Chris, you have got the measure of our current situation, as said by you and another one or two, the Abra tenamant is huge, 7.9 miles by 7.9 miles, it's twice the size of Hull City, that gives you an idea of the aquisition, the thought of trucking any near surface gold from the Abra plot for processing at Runruno is a possibility to monetise the plot quickly, Runruno is a conventional drill and blast open pit mining operation, so I could see that being the same at the Abra tenament, should future drilling shows high grades at near surface we can exploit the material with little infrastructer using the Runruno processing plant, an additional income stream on top of the 80k ounce prediction this year would be crazy at $2k gold pricing.
As for traders, the trolls have evaporated again, those who trade this share will more than likely it wrong, Roy talks about dips and spikes, but with a rising trend you have to very lucky to call it right, and even Roy will admit, he's sold short trying, those who hold and add will win the day, without the risk of watching the ship sail without them, for me we really have never looked stronger, sit tight and wait, the debt free announcemt will rerate us, its just around the corner, drilling results if good will put strong winds in our sails, and a maiden dividend will just blow us to whole new level.
Fantastic insight to Darren’s Bowden’s thinking, and he’s made a few really tasty comments, as said earlier he’s expecting to be debt free by April/May and as such will offer share holders the vote in June on going ahead with YMC, without lenders interference, as they will be finished with, there are no barriers.
The other point that blew me away was our current mine has 4 to 5 years before its ran its course, not 3 as we have been led to believe, after which he then plans to repurpose the mine equipment and staff as the Abra location is so close to the current mine, it will vastly reduce costs, with plans to be online without a break in production, costs to the company will be relatively small….and free cash will be a plenty, that’s gotta lead to dividends in my mind.
89% efficiency and increase costs kept to just 1 to 2% per annum because of continued cost reduction schemes, he sees 2024 to be a strong continuation of 2023.
I thought the Q4 results were OK and not amazing, but a quarter can be effected by the wet season and unplanned repairs, it’s why the annual figures are so important, and they were bloody brilliant, as in over $20 million more income for the year than Darren Bowden predicted in Jan 2023, and it’s put us ahead of where he had predicted, we are 100% debt free in the first half of this year, something Darren expected in 2025, hence why we can make acquisitions now, 1 of few in my books, Darren said in 2022 he had 20 offers narrowed down to 4 that fit MTLs plans.
We have 80k ounces this year, and definitely 2 more years gold after that, with new gold reserves in the pipe line.
I can say the mine now runs like clock work, the income stream will be huge, 3 times our current share price not including future reserves, if that not a no brainer I don’t know what is, let’s look at other investments, banks? like Lloyds take 7 years profits to match their share price, offer 6% dividend and in my book quiet risky, yet they are most likely the most privately owned share the U.K.
We could offer $20 million in dividend next year, 25% of future income, which equates to a 30% dividend at today’s share price.
No brainer…..patience
Gold has averaged between $2035 and $2040 for January, seems the new base for gold has been set over $2k, Q1 numbers off to the best of starts
Those are the realities this year, we have drilling on the Abra tenement, debt free by H1 and dividends to come, 80k ounce at record gold levels, just keep adding as it’s a no brainer.
Very poor, what are you smoking? They achieved a year exceeding a revised upper forecast of 81k ounces by 4.5k ounces, and have set next years upper gold prediction to 80k ounces, and you can bet they will exceed that like they have for the last 2 years, that’s excellent news, we know the grades expected next year are still strong.
The figures for Q4 are strong considering the poor weather and maintenance both planned and unplanned, that mining.
This year has been exceptional and next year looks to continue, the interest on the remaining debt is still up in the air, but with debts so small the impact is becoming just as small, but it’s a legal document that will be followed at some point, we will get the 7% in time.
The gold beyond stages 4 and 5 was always a bonus, but it’s put to bed, we have 3 years gold and the Abra tenement is the immediate longer term gold, along with another one or two further acquisitions no doubt.
It’s been a transformational year and it’s forecast to carry on this year.
We were priced at 3p a share soon after refinancing out debts, and have since paid off over $100 million dollars from those loans at 2023 Q3…..that’s literally 4p per share, when we clear the last $30 million with 2023 Q4 and 2024 Q1 earnings that is another 1.25p per share, we will have generated 5.25p per share income and we still sit at 3p per share today, that’s how crazily undervalued this company sits, crazy but true, that’s not to mention all the other positives, gold near record highs, acquisitions, stability, high efficiency, etc etc.
We must be one of the cheapest stocks on the market?