The latest Investing Matters Podcast with Jean Roche, Co-Manager of Schroder UK Mid Cap Investment Trust has just been released. Listen here.
The accountants amongst us are waiting to evaluate the eoy results but those results will only show:
.sales of coal by train between June 2022-end March 23;
.production of HvB coal from just the #71HWM;
.production of HvA from the underground CM between October 2022-end March 23;
.downtime as the 77HWM was relocated to the new permit bench site;
.costs of production between April-November using JMAC contractors;
.costs of production between November-end March 23 using Bens' recruited staff and purchase of new Komatsu yellow iron;
.clarification on Realisation (shipping etc) costs which may have risen in line with fuel costs;
.confirmation of trucked pitcoal ROM sales via CSX during bench prep?;
.broker % discount from PLATTS coal price (some holders say 10%, some say 30%?);
.confirmation that CLNs were all paid off;
.payment for the rail track and how much is still outstanding;
.cumultive debts and the capex loan taken out on the yellow iron in November 22.
None of us expect the report to look great although the coal price started off the year at $450/T when margins were high.
By the 27th September the 81 HWM will have completed a full month of mining along with the other 2 mining rigs (HWM & CM). IMO we should get a Quarterly update(s) for April onwards tagged on to the end of the eoy report RNS and a better understanding of what costs are in full production with both HWMs in double shifts without having to wait for the interims or next year's report. Printed in official RNS to avoid FUD from the naysayers although a video interview and AGM next month will answer a lot of questions, mostly financial ones as operationally everything seems great, the Company have reached full production just short of 2 years since IPO. Maybe they will confirm production of 77Kt+ clean coal/month, which is enough to fill 7 trains/month or 924Kt/yr!
As the coal price rises, the profits rise, the debts & loans get paid off. That done, the Company will be able to announce dividends next year all being well. I doubt all that $21.57m has been spent yet so if coal continues to rise or even if it should plateau at current levels then a lump sum could be paid back early to reduce interest? I don't understand these sort of things, what is in best interest of the Company. Hold on to the cash for contingency against unexpected price falls/force majeures or pay it back asap? Anyway, all looking great at last for Bens and shareholders. Still dumbfounded that I can still pick up my daily 81 shares for just 16p which is what I paid for my first BEN shares back in November 2021. I so should have skimmed at £1 but that is on me, still got a 43p average, but still optimistic.
1 week to eoy RNS. GL all.
Latest update on X and Linkedin:
..installed a direct line of power to one of its highwall miners, which is expected to result in further cost savings on power use. Every dollar saving is a dollar margin which might add a further $792K-$960K to the annual profits.
MtF, with a term of between 18-24 months it seems fair to expect all $21.57m loans paid off by December 2024 if coal gets to & stays above $225/T. If that happens dividends could indeed be awarded by Christmas just like Adam suggested last year...but Christmas 2024 not 2023 ;)
All summer we were waiting for the #81 to commence mining and the coal price to rise. That all happened this week and straight into full double shifts production. We even got news that the underground mining is pouring out more coal than expected, but the market still has us below Avani's 18p.
Now we wait on the eoy report due 27/09 to see what costs were using just one HWM until April 2023. WHI will be putting a new broker report out after the 27th September based on the revised production volumes using both HWMs; sales; costs; royalties and capex. Their previous DCF suggested a sp of 86p at $225/T .
Other pending news: appointment of CFO; AGM; Quarterly results April-July and July-October; final payment for rail lease; end of soft lock-in; permits and stockyard widening. If production is 70Kt/month and if 6 trains take away 66Kt then each $1 increase in coal price above today's coal price will add (66Kx12)= $792,000 annual profit ontop of existing profits. A $27/T rise in coal price would pay off all the $21.57m loans in full within 12 months.
The WHI broker report based the DCF on $225/T coal prices when they gave their 86p sp valuation. Not quite at the volume they forecast and had a few loans since that DCF but even half of that valuation would put the sp at near 3x the current sp!
2nd December 2022 RNS stated ""For the first time we have produced c.40,000 tons in a month. ..... Armed with our fully operational fleet and the deployment of our 2nd High Wall Miner, we look forward to 2023 with confidence. We remain on track to meet our monthly production targets and achieving in excess of 70,000 clean tons per month."
Today's RNS stated that Bens produced 2Kt more than December thanks to the 81 in those last few days of August. The eoy report should show if 40Kt was produced Jan, Feb & March too and logically April onwards except for a brief period recovering the 81's cutter head although we did have the 81 mining as well as the 71 for a few weeks to offset that interlude. IF 40Kt was produced each month since that December RNS then it equates to 120Kt/Qtr which was enough to fill 3-4 trains each month. Got another 2 weeks until the official eoy report comes out but 40Kt a month gives us a head start in guesstimating what the sales might look like in that report and for this year.
Golightly, I deleted both my accounts from ADVFN so if someone is using my old name(s) of penstocks or sellatthetop then be fair warned, it ain't me! I do not use that chatboard anymore as it is not moderated and full of nasty people.
I didn't say the Company would get 7 trains or that they had set a target in today's RNS, although they did in past interviews/podcasts. I said that I stick by a target of 77Kt/month. Each train hauls 11Kt of coal so simple math equates 77Kt to 7 trains. The Company got 4 trains last month. They might get 4 this month and 6 next and grow a stockpile. However, now in FULL production, the stockyard will fill quick. Hence the assumption that the brokers have managed to get more trains booked despite what PATT may have said on ADVFN the other day.
Chill out Golightly, should be celebrating an awesome RNS today. Even PATT must be impressed with the Company's achievement. Adam has only gone and done it! Well done Ben-ders for keeping the faith, it will all come good.
KTFIWACG
Pash: my new Tgm group is ...penstocksBENgroup
Is 200Kt your target or the Company's? "I am all for saying Adam needs to deliver, but let him deliver against his own targets not anyone else's."
All I did was use the figures from the RNS to calculate the expected production levels for a full month on double shifts. The stockyard has not been enlarged so that implies the trains will come. Chill out. It is all good news so far today. Happy to pay a bit more for 81 shares today. Avani paid 18p when the 81 was only in single shifts.
I shut one BEN Tgm group down as it had people bleating and shorting in it. I relaunched one this week that will not have those people in it. You forgot to include the facebook group I am Admin of. I deleted my ADVFN chatboard account as members were being very rude to others in it which detracted from the chatting about the stock.
The Company made their own statements via PR last year that didn't come to fruition. Today we should be celebrating that the FULL PRODUCTION milestone has been reached at last rather than bickering.
The 81 only started single shift 28th August. So yeh OK take 1.5Kt off that 31.5Kt production figure for the 71. However the 81's elevating head means the push beam can stay in place longer resulting in less downtime where extra beams have to be added to push deeper into the mountain. That results in a larger volume of coal coming out of the mountain per shift than the 71. That is my understanding of it. So I stick by a target of 77Kt = 7 trains per month.
OK using figures from today's RNS: 42Kt clean coal produced last month of which 10.5Kt were from underground. The 71 must have contributed 31.5Kt to that amount. The RNS said underground will ramp up to 12Kt clean HvA. If the 81 just contributes the same as the 71 then the total monthly output of both HWMs in double shift plus the underground CM output will be (31.5+31.5+12)=75Kt/month. However, the 81 is a HWM300 rig with a rotating head that can be elevated to mine taller seems and extract a larger volume per shift. So even just an extra 2Kt extraction would see Bens produce 77Kt, enough to fill 7 trains.
Yes but thankfully I was wrong about the 81 not going to double shifts until 2024. I was told there weren't enough trains or stockyard space to ramp up. Clearly both brokers have managed to secure more than 4 trains a month to handle the increased production that started on Monday.
43% recovery rate of the HiVolA is obviously better than 35% but less than the recovery rate of the HiVolB as the underground mining must be pulling out more waste rock with the coal mined. Till now I had been assuming 13Kt/month HvA ROM adding 6.5Kt clean coal/month to the stockpile. Great that that figure is actually 10.5Kt and about to rise to 12Kt! If recovery rate of the HiVolB is still around 60% as stated in previous interviews then both HWMs should contribute up to 84Kt clean coal each month in double shifts, but to err on caution I'll drop that to 70Kt/month which added to the HiVolA will still achieve that 80Kt/month target. Bens just started FULL production! Well done BEN, Avani and anyone whom afforded to bring their averages down (I can only afford to buy 81 each day so my average is still 43p). The coal price is rising, so the profits are rising. Avani paid 18p, that seems like an easy 20% rise for anyone buying in today. Job done, lets get those loans paid off.
The video posted on facebook using Adam's voiceover sustains the suggestion that eoy financials are being held back until a full month's production using both HWMs can have proforma sales added to the RNS.
https://www.facebook.com/691285185/videos/268261656073038/
adam (ceo) has stated break even with 1 hwm are $200/t, more than most were led to believe. with 2 hwms i assume a $27/t reduction to b/e at $173/t. that would imply that bens are now $37/t in profit but that is just my *** packet calculation so dyor on that.
ok back to offtake again, avani broker to india so they will be looking to get the top price to take a decent brokerage fee and increase value of the stock for which, as a near 30% holder, they will benefit too. just hope they don't buy more shares to take them to 30%...not until 60p+
Cheers Erik but I never mentioned whom any offtake were with. Integrity's deal was to supply 22Kt/month starting January 2022 which was slightly delayed and compensated for by trucking out ROM until both washplant and rail were complete in June 2022. After that train numbers were up and down from none to four with just the underground mining starting in May 2022 and the 71HWM in single shifts. At back end of 22 the 71 switched benches to the Wildcat mountain with bigger seams. The 77 joined in January and left just tracks in the dirt as it was hauled off again by Mega with electrical faults. Mega had to wait till the 81 had finished mining a site in Kentucky that was it's end of life before they could pull it to use at Bens. A few weeks later the cave-in and the 71 had to be pulled off job to recover the 81's damaged cutter head. The 81 was fitted with a replacement head and continued mining until MSHA told them to move further down a bench that was not long enough to support both HWMs. The 1250 excavator, trucks and extra staff were brought in to rapidly extend the benches while the 81 sat idle and the 71 continued to mine, washplant continued to process the ROM, the replacement underground CM continued to pull out HiVolA and trains continued to take away the clean coal.
End of August the benches were cleared and the 81 signed off by MSHA to Active status in single shift mining the wall again. The 71 on Lower Alma C and the 81 on Lower Alma A iirc. 5 seams in total so years of mining left. OK that was a brief catch up for new onlookers.
Back to offtakes. The Integrity offtake deal signed 2021 was a roll over as of January 2023 as I understand it. A one off deal was brokered to supply the Indian steel company (Acelor/Tata/ who knows?) for a specific amount by end of July and there was a recent RNS to confirm they expected to fulfil that order despite the setback with the 81/benches. Avani came onboard as a large shareholder, reducing MBU's majority shareholding by purchasing shares from them at just 18p just prior to the 81 being made idle. One would have assumed that once the 81 started mining again and PLATTS' coal price started rising that the sp would return to 18p or higher. That hasn't happened yet. Tere has been $21.57m loans since Avani joined of which Avani were the major lender with caveat that no dividends be paid until $6m of the loans has been paid off within 18months.
Tbc...
Bens Creek are still supplying HiVolB coal to India. No formal offtake Agreement has been announced and yet the trains still come each month to take the coal to port.
Both HWMs are pouring HiVolB coal. The underground CM is pulling out HiVolA coal. The price of coal is rising. These were the catalysts required to create profits. If you didn't get involved below 15p then IMO you missed out.
A reasonable rise to 20p would see a 33% ROI.
Once coal gets above $225/T then it will be interesting to see a revised WHI report. Can't see 86p being on the cards anytime soon but with the recent increase in mining, production and supply of trains the 30p conversion price that MBU paid should be a fair target by eoy. Forget dividends as they can't be made until one of the Avani loans has been paid off within the next 12 months or so.
All waiting to see official printed figures to determine costs using one HWM so we can guesstimate reduced costs using two. Having Avani as both large investor and broker to India is good longterm as long as they don't buy more shares before 30p although I'd prefer nearer 60p .
Got till 30th September for a bumper packed RNS. Summer seemed like forever, 3 weeks is going be the same unless we get news sooner.
Still 3 weeks left for financials deadline.
No RNS today notifying annual AGM. That requires minimum 21 days notice. To me that implies that the financials will be released at the end of this month and the AGM will follow it next month. All speculation so let's just see what happens between now and 30th September.
All 3 rigs are mining and coal price is above $200/T so just a case of getting more trains booked from NS now so the 81 can ramp up to double shifts.
As for AGM you get a circular 21 days b4 by law. If we don't get RNS about it tomorrow then AGM will be in October as I don't think they do weekend AGMs?
AGM last year was a month after the eoy results and annual report. It does seem like they want to wait until the 81 has added a full month's output of coal to the stockpile so they can mention it at same time as the financials. If AGM is next month maybe we will get an insight to both Q1 and 1H sales and revised costs and a new WHI report?
Maketh no sense to me that no big buying is happening even though I do my but by buying 81 each day ;) With the #81 mining again now and the price of coal increasing it would make sense for the sp to follow the commodity chart as it rises. It seems to have been the longest summer ever and groundhog day looking at Bens' sp. Well as long as Bens are making profit now it is all good. Couple of Chinese metcoal mines have shut due to accidents so that may perk the price up a bit.