Latest news with #Garimpeiro
Mercury
04-07-2025
- Business
- Mercury
Glenburgh gold gets Benz revved up
Don't miss out on the headlines from Stockhead. Followed categories will be added to My News. 'Garimpeiro' columnist Barry FitzGerald has covered the resources industry for 35 years. Now he's sharing the benefits of his experience with Stockhead readers. Euroz Hartleys resources analyst Kyle De Souza has shown he has a dab hand at writing headlines for his research reports. His recent tome on the dual-listed gold explorer Benz Mining Corp (ASX:BNZ) was titled 'BNZ: Spartan had a baby. Named it Benz.' It was a neat way of highlighting that Spartan Resources (ASX:SPR) of Dalgranaga/Never Never/Pepper fame in WA – and now the subject of a friendly takeover by Ramelius Resources (ASX:RMS) – sold Benz its non-core but advanced Glenburgh and Mt Egerton gold projects in WA's Gascoyne for shares and some cash, giving Spartan 14.9% of Benz. Announced in November last year and taking effect in mid-January, the acquisition has led to Benz motoring from 26c a CDI (Toronto is its home market) in November to 34c in mid-January, and 53c mid-week for a market cap of $134 million. Now Benz should have been motoring anyway on the strength of its 1Moz high-grade gold resource at its Eastmain project in Quebec due to gold prices taking off this year. But it is the unfolding potential at Glenburgh – 285km east of Carnarvon – that has fired up interest in the stock. Glenburgh: A history Glenburgh was considered a development option back in 2015 for Spartan when it was known as Gascoyne but it was pretty much parked up when Dalgaranga in WA's Murchison region was developed. Benz picked up Glenburgh with a restated 510,000oz resource grading 1g/t gold. But it was recognised as being underexplored with the potential for more high-grade shoots, which is what Benz is now pursuing in an aggressive and fully-funded drilling program, with impressive results starting to flow (including 10m at 12.9g/t from 299m). De Souza is a big wrap for Glenburgh, saying 'grades and thicknesses like this continue to demonstrate the capability for this project to exceed expectations.' He has an 81c target price on the stock. (The firm was lead manager to a Benz equity raising at 40c and has disclosed it has received fees for corporate advice). When Garimpeiro says De Souza is a big wrap for Glenburgh he wasn't joking. In his June 30 research note on the stock De Souza mused that it can be hard to differentiate in the junior explorer world between what is a real 'discovery' and what is not. 'Whilst some get lucky on 'one hit wonders' – most end up with subsequent 'dusters' and erosion of wealth,' he said. 'The real value in exploration is picking companies with assets that have the potential to sustain production profiles of more than 100,000ozpa for more than 10 years.' Price target lift In De Souza's eyes, Benz is one of them, saying their discovery 'should not be overlooked', especially in the contest of Glenburgh's existing 500,000oz resource also providing a solid base. 'We model an average 102,000ozpa and 7-year life of mine based on what we believe the company has in the ground – and thus, a 10 year LOM at more than 100,000ozpa doesn't seem unreasonable,' he said. De Souza pointed to Glenburgh's thick intersections from surface and the high grade underground kickers yet to be tested at depth. 'We maintain our Speculative Buy recommendation but increase our price target from 60c to 81c. The FY2025 is set to be a transformational year for Benz,' De Souza said. No surprise in knowing that Benz CEO and former new developments specialist for US gold giant Barrick, Mark Lynch-Staunton, is also keen as mustard on Glenburgh's potential. Announcing the recent high-grade exploration hits, Lynch-Staunton said Glenburgh has the potential to host a significant gold system, and the latest results strongly supported that view. He said there was a dual-track approach to advancing the large-scale open pit potential at the Icon-Apollo deposits alongside the high-grade underground opportunities at the adjacent Zone 126 lens. The views, information, or opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the columnist and do not represent the views of Stockhead. Stockhead does not provide, endorse or otherwise assume responsibility for any financial product advice contained in this article. Originally published as Barry FitzGerald: Euroz analyst takes a liking to WA explorer Benz
Herald Sun
06-06-2025
- Business
- Herald Sun
Barry FitzGerald: Katanning ticks all the boxes for an Ausgold re-rate
'Garimpeiro' columnist Barry FitzGerald has covered the resources industry for 35 years. Now he's sharing the benefits of his experience with Stockhead readers. After its dramatic rise in the opening months of the year to record levels, the Aussie gold price has settled into a bit of a groove around the $5,200/oz level. Nothing wrong with that. It's a fantastic price and delivers fat margins to even our highest cost gold mines. And it is not to suggest that gold can't take off again and set new highs or fall significantly for that matter. The observation is that for the last six weeks or so the Aussie price has been as steady as it could be in these turbulent times. It means that share prices of ASX-listed gold producers and developers have also gone into a sideways trading pattern. Need to differentiate So more than has been the case in recent times when gold took off to record levels, the producers and developers now need to differentiate themselves from the pack with strong newsflow of the re-rating inducing type. It means that if the gold price continues to trade sideways, the stock involved has a reason to go higher. Alternatively, if the gold price heads south, the damage to the stock could be more limited than it would have been otherwise. Taking all that on board, Garimpeiro had a look at his calendar during the week to find which of the gold producers/developers have re-rating event(s) on the horizon. Ausgold stands out Ausgold (ASX:AUC) stood out for the pending release this month of a definitive feasibility study (DFS) into the development of its Katanning gold project, a three-hour drive from Perth in WA's southwest Yilgarn region. Katanning is one of the biggest undeveloped gold deposits in the country at 3.04 million ounces and has previously been scoped as having the potential to produce 136,000 ounces annually from open-cut ore sources for more than 10 years. All-in sustaining costs were put at $A1,549 and preproduction capital costs weighed in at just under $300m. But those are 2023 figures and things will have changed, including the reserve component of the resource thanks to infill drilling work. Gold prices have increased dramatically since those 2023 figures but so have construction costs. Having said that, the expectation is that the DFS will confirm Katanning as a very robust project with a super quick capex payback capability. Take that and the scale of the project – production in the early years will be higher still because initial higher grade ores - and Ausgold's $240 million market cap at 67c share looks to be on the mean side of things. The company has the lowest resource ounce valuation metric of its peer group for no apparent reason, except perhaps the project has been in the works since 2010 under Ausgold ownership. So the story of the resource growth since, and the pending release of the DFS leading into a development decision by year end, has been overlooked to a large degree by the market on a fatigue basis alone. Katanning momentum Momentum for Katanning is now the order of the day under John Dorward, Ausgold's executive chairman who arrived on the scene in May last year. A can-do sort of guy, Dorward was the former president and CEO of TSX-listed Roxgold, a West African gold group acquired by fellow Canadian Fortuna Silver Mines in an all-scrip deal worth $US884 million in 2021. Two weeks in the job at Ausgold and Dorward put Katanning on the development pathway by pulling in $38 million in equity, including $1m from his own pocket. That is being spent getting to the DFS stage and on a three-pronged strategy of establishing a bigger mining reserve component in the mineral resource estimate, extending the scale of the resource and making regional gold discoveries. Morgans' 94c target Morgans' veteran analyst Chris Brown has a 12-month price target on the stock of 94c. 'Our expectation is that delivery of a DFS broadly confirming or improving on the preliminary feasibility study, and employing a higher gold price, should prove positive for the share price,' Brown said. He also flagged that a final investment decision on a project development – expected by the end of the year - should also prove positive depending on the terms of the project's financing package. ''Our valuation will likely lift with the delivery of the DFS, and again when the final investment decision is taken,'' Brown said. The views, information, or opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the columnist and do not represent the views of Stockhead. Stockhead does not provide, endorse or otherwise assume responsibility for any financial product advice contained in this article. Originally published as Barry FitzGerald: Katanning ticks all the boxes for an Ausgold re-rate
News.com.au
06-06-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
Barry FitzGerald: Katanning ticks all the boxes for an Ausgold re-rate
'Garimpeiro' columnist Barry FitzGerald has covered the resources industry for 35 years. Now he's sharing the benefits of his experience with Stockhead readers. After its dramatic rise in the opening months of the year to record levels, the Aussie gold price has settled into a bit of a groove around the $5,200/oz level. Nothing wrong with that. It's a fantastic price and delivers fat margins to even our highest cost gold mines. And it is not to suggest that gold can't take off again and set new highs or fall significantly for that matter. The observation is that for the last six weeks or so the Aussie price has been as steady as it could be in these turbulent times. It means that share prices of ASX-listed gold producers and developers have also gone into a sideways trading pattern. Need to differentiate So more than has been the case in recent times when gold took off to record levels, the producers and developers now need to differentiate themselves from the pack with strong newsflow of the re-rating inducing type. It means that if the gold price continues to trade sideways, the stock involved has a reason to go higher. Alternatively, if the gold price heads south, the damage to the stock could be more limited than it would have been otherwise. Taking all that on board, Garimpeiro had a look at his calendar during the week to find which of the gold producers/developers have re-rating event(s) on the horizon. Ausgold stands out Ausgold (ASX:AUC) stood out for the pending release this month of a definitive feasibility study (DFS) into the development of its Katanning gold project, a three-hour drive from Perth in WA's southwest Yilgarn region. Katanning is one of the biggest undeveloped gold deposits in the country at 3.04 million ounces and has previously been scoped as having the potential to produce 136,000 ounces annually from open-cut ore sources for more than 10 years. All-in sustaining costs were put at $A1,549 and preproduction capital costs weighed in at just under $300m. But those are 2023 figures and things will have changed, including the reserve component of the resource thanks to infill drilling work. Gold prices have increased dramatically since those 2023 figures but so have construction costs. Having said that, the expectation is that the DFS will confirm Katanning as a very robust project with a super quick capex payback capability. Take that and the scale of the project – production in the early years will be higher still because initial higher grade ores - and Ausgold's $240 million market cap at 67c share looks to be on the mean side of things. The company has the lowest resource ounce valuation metric of its peer group for no apparent reason, except perhaps the project has been in the works since 2010 under Ausgold ownership. So the story of the resource growth since, and the pending release of the DFS leading into a development decision by year end, has been overlooked to a large degree by the market on a fatigue basis alone. Katanning momentum Momentum for Katanning is now the order of the day under John Dorward, Ausgold's executive chairman who arrived on the scene in May last year. A can-do sort of guy, Dorward was the former president and CEO of TSX-listed Roxgold, a West African gold group acquired by fellow Canadian Fortuna Silver Mines in an all-scrip deal worth $US884 million in 2021. Two weeks in the job at Ausgold and Dorward put Katanning on the development pathway by pulling in $38 million in equity, including $1m from his own pocket. That is being spent getting to the DFS stage and on a three-pronged strategy of establishing a bigger mining reserve component in the mineral resource estimate, extending the scale of the resource and making regional gold discoveries. Morgans' 94c target Morgans' veteran analyst Chris Brown has a 12-month price target on the stock of 94c. 'Our expectation is that delivery of a DFS broadly confirming or improving on the preliminary feasibility study, and employing a higher gold price, should prove positive for the share price,' Brown said. He also flagged that a final investment decision on a project development – expected by the end of the year - should also prove positive depending on the terms of the project's financing package. ''Our valuation will likely lift with the delivery of the DFS, and again when the final investment decision is taken,'' Brown said. The views, information, or opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the columnist and do not represent the views of Stockhead. Stockhead does not provide, endorse or otherwise assume responsibility for any financial product advice contained in this article.
