This thread has been quiet for some time, so I thought I would post my thoughts on MAE to get things going . . .
In my opinion, since the new CEO (Anthony Walsh) took over in March 1999, MAE has made all the right moves. They came to an agreement with the striking workers, re-started the Con Mine, took over the Giant Mine (with great synergies and at a very low cost), bought a 50% interest in the Hope Bay exploration project, and have cut SG&A costs.
When gold was at an all-time low and other companies were cutting back, they used their cash to acquire and position themselves for the coming recovery.
I first started buying MAE on a "sum of the parts" basis when it was valued at Working Capital + the value of its NNO shareholdings. (MAE owns 62.8% of NNO.) The gold mine and resources could be had for free! So, after a 35% price move in the last couple months, where do we stand today? (All numbers are $CAD.)
Today's Market Cap = 60 m shares x .93 $/sh = $56 m
From the 3/31 earnings report, Working Capital = 29.4 m
Value of NNO holdings today = 63% x $17.8 m = $11 m
Today we've got working capital + NNO = $40 m.
So, what do we get for the remaining $16 m of Market Cap?
1. A 130,000 oz. gold mine operating at a cash cost of US$265 per ounce. (A nice option on the POG.)
2. Newly realized gold tailing and refractory resources, and, through its take-over of the Giant Mine, additional gold resources of 1.31 million ounces. Summary is here:
miramarmining.com
Full story here:
(See the February 24, 2000 news release.)
miramarmining.com
3. An exciting exploration project at Hope Bay. Recent Boston results:
biz.yahoo.com
Doris results:
biz.yahoo.com
Finally, to top it off, I discovered that they have a re-vamped web site! -g- (It actually is quite a bit nicer than the old site.)
miramarmining.com
Comments welcome . . .
Best regards, John. |
