And another batch
SSL Sandstorm Gold
This one is a little different because it is a royalty/streaming company rather than a miner. Normally this reduces risk a lot compared to the average mining company, and it still does in these turbulent times, but probably not as much as usual. It should also be noted that a proportion of their earnings come from diamond and copper streams.
Since their income streams are so diversified geographically, the amount of pandemic risk varies widely, but it is notable that they have withdrawn their 2020 guidance due to the uncertainty. That said, if the PoG stays high that will likely more than make up for any disrupted streams and royalties.
As well, if you like their prospects you can increase your leverage through their tradable warrants, which expires Feb. 9, 2022 with a strike price of $6.66. (But do not ventures into warrants unless you know what you are doing; they can make you lots of money, but they also often expire worthless.)
RIO RIO2 Limited
RIO's biggest asset is their management, which has already successfully taken two similar projects through into production and sold them off to majors ( and made me a lot of money in the process). They are a very competent no-BS bunch and I have full confidence they will pull this one off too.
'This one' refers to Fenix, a large low grade gold project in northern Chile just across the border from Peru. They are following their usual scheme, starting with a smaller project targeting the higher grade core of the deposit and then using the proceed to build out the rest.
Fenix is well-situated wrto Covid-19, being a remote mountainous open pit/heap leach mine far from population centre. With such competent management I doubt they will have problems managing the risk.
They are planning to start construction late next year, but there should be steady newsflow as they work on permitting, water supply, etc. DO pick your spots, as trading volume can be low during low news periods.
USA Americas Gold and Silver
USA is currently undergoing a transition from being a silver producer with base metal credit to also producing gold from the Relief Canyon mine in Nevada they recently acquired through a merger.
As well, their Galena silver mine in Colorado, which had suffered a number of setbacks and is not currently producing, is being reconfigured and brought back into production after the ubiquitous Eric Sprott bought into a JV. Their Cosala mine in Mexico, acquired when they merged with SPM, is on a more solid footing.
All this makes USA another high risk/high reward play. If the PoG/PoS cooperate, and Relief Canyon comes on line without too many hitches, and they can get Galena back into profitable production, the share price will do very well. If not...
IPT Impact Silver
I am mentioning this one in case silver goes ballistic. They are a small time producer, generally breaking even as they pick through old mining districts in Mexico, moving from deposit to deposit as they find them. In the past my main criticism has been that they primarily seemed a way to get money into a sister company that does their drilling and shares the same management, but that company has had difficulties and may shut down, which in the end might be a positive for IPT.
Management has always seemed to me to lack ambition, happy to just putter along and collect their salaries and options, but to their credit IPT has a low float and no debt, so if silver does take off this could be a very profitable trade.
LC |
