A1M - AIC Mines

[peter2]

No stopping it now that the POC rallies higher. Break-out also on AIS.

 

[greggles]

A1M riding high the last couple of months on the back of a bullish copper price. Looks set to continue. Volume has spiked substantially.

 

[greggles]

Perfect storm brewing for A1M. Booming copper price plus good drilling results equals share price gains. I always knew this company would eventually have its day. They are perfectly positioned to morph into a mid-sized copper producer.

Management is what has made this company prosper. These guys know how to run and grow a successful mining company. I expect that they will be on the hunt for another acquisition and it wouldn't surprise me to see them shift focus entirely to production to fast track revenue growth as they already have enough exploration projects.

 

[Dona Ferentes]

A lot of interest of late - hitting 2 year highs, on volume

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the mining lease for the Jericho Copper Mine has been approved by the Minister for Resources and Critical Minerals Queensland and subsequently granted by the Queensland Government, Department of Resources.

OVERVIEW.
• This approval allows for surface works at Jericho to commence within a maximum 10ha area and mine development activity to take place with a maximum of 20 people employed on site.
• Jericho mining optimisation studies to reduce initial schedule risk and also longer-term operational risks are currently being finalised. The major component of this work is investigation of direct underground access to Jericho from the Eloise portal via a 3.6 kilometre link drive.

AIC Mines’ Managing Director Aaron Colleran said:
“AIC Mines acquired the Jericho copper deposit in January last year. To have the Mining Lease granted after only 16 months of ownership is testament to the quality of the project, the work ethic of the AIC Mines team and, importantly, the consistent and well-understood Queensland mining approvals process.”
“Granting of the Jericho Mining Lease is an important milestone on the Jericho development journey. It allows us to advance surface works in preparation for mining, commit to long-lead time items, and confidently advance negotiations with lenders. The project will employ approximately 150 people over a 24-month construction period and then 100 new permanent employees when in production.”
“Development of a new underground mine at Jericho is a game changer for our Eloise copper mine. It provides a pathway to expanding annual production at Eloise to over 20,000t of copper and 10,000oz of gold in concentrate. Mining at Jericho will be lower cost than Eloise as it is much shallower, commencing below only 50m of cover. Expansion of the Eloise processing plant will further reduce operating costs through economies of scale and equipment improvements.”

 

[Dona Ferentes]

A lot of interest of late - hitting 2 year highs, on volume.

trading halt is requested in connection with the launch of an institutional placement.
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well, der. 59c

 

[Dona Ferentes]

trading halt is requested in connection with the launch of an institutional placement.
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59c

Successful $57.2M Placement to Develop the Eloise to Jericho Link Drive
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Placement Details
110 million New Shares will be issued under the Placement, which represents 23.8% of AIC Mines’ existing issued capital.

The Placement price of $0.52 per New Share represents a:
• 11.9% discount to the last closing price of $0.59 prior to the Placement
• 9.3% discount to the 5-day VWAP prior to the Placement
• 3.9% discount to the 10-day VWAP prior to the Placement

As part of the Placement, and subject to shareholder approval, Directors of AIC Mines have applied for 1,592,308 shares under the Placement..
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and down to 52c

 

[greggles]

Successful $57.2M Placement to Develop the Eloise to Jericho Link Drive
.
Placement Details
110 million New Shares will be issued under the Placement, which represents 23.8% of AIC Mines’ existing issued capital.

The Placement price of $0.52 per New Share represents a:
• 11.9% discount to the last closing price of $0.59 prior to the Placement
• 9.3% discount to the 5-day VWAP prior to the Placement
• 3.9% discount to the 10-day VWAP prior to the Placement

As part of the Placement, and subject to shareholder approval, Directors of AIC Mines have applied for 1,592,308 shares under the Placement..
.
and down to 52c

A very well executed placement taking advantage of the recent boom in the copper price and recent share price gains. Timing is everything and to get a placement of this size away at 52c when the share price was under 30c three months ago shows how important it is to sell the company's story and a detailed vision of its future. Congratulations to the A1M team.

Please take note other companies that piss away $40 million on drilling and don't bother to take any time to develop a long term strategic plan or sell the company and a clear vision of its future to the market. No ex-footballers involved here, just very focused and experienced mining industry executives, which makes a huge difference.

 

[peter2]

Selecting this little copper miner for the July24 romp. Price has been falling along with the falling copper price. Not certain that we're at the bottom yet.

AIC achieved their production guidance of 12500t Cu and 5000oz Au at Eloise. Their cost AIC of A$5.2 /lb Cu is a little high for me. Full results being released mid July.

 

[greggles]

Quarterly Activities Report released on Tuesday and superficially it all looks good. However, production costs are still a little high for my liking with AISC coming in at A$5.15/lb Cu and an AIC of A$5.39/lb Cu. These numbers are fine if the copper price is high but margins get squeezed when the price comes back down and I think management's focus should be on getting both the AISC and AIC to under $5/lb.

For those unfamiliar with A1M an Investor Presentation was released today that makes for interesting and informative reading.

 

[peter2]

Totally agree with you there @greggles. Currently the POC is US$4.1/lb approx A$6.00/lb.

A1M doesn't have much of a margin without reducing some costs. Word on the street is that wages will stop rising and may reduce with all the WA nickel miners looking for work.

 

[Miner]

Hope to see some postings here from @greggles @peter2 @Dona Ferentes @Sean K , @DrBourse @tech/a and others for sure.
DNH but looking

There is a suspicion of increased production cost affecting gold and copper and A1M.
The CR was at $0.52 (poor investors then to be richer when ?)

https://www.spglobal.com/commodityi...pper-markets-fear-bump-up-in-production-costs

Trading View chart

 

[Sean K]

Hope to see some postings here from @greggles @peter2 @Dona Ferentes @Sean K , @DrBourse @tech/a and others for sure.
DNH but looking

There is a suspicion of increased production cost affecting gold and copper and A1M.
The CR was at $0.52 (poor investors then to be richer when ?)

https://www.spglobal.com/commodityi...pper-markets-fear-bump-up-in-production-costs

View attachment 183360View attachment 183359

View attachment 183361
Trading View chart

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Too small for me and not sure about exploration prospectivity.

AISC $5.15lb? Yikes.

I'm surprised in doubled in the first half, must have been when copper went on a failed breakout.

 

[peter2]

I've selected A1M for the Sept comp as I'm keeping an eye on it anticipating the next price rally. Price is back at the lows seen Feb/Mar 24 before the aggressive rally in the POC. It's disappointing to see price back at these lows as it would seem there's been no lasting improvement in investor sentiment for A1M in spite of their record production year.

A1M will need a rally in the POC to get it's share price moving higher. IMO copper isn't ready to rally yet and won't until China's economic growth improves.

 

[greggles]

Hope to see some postings here from @greggles @peter2 @Dona Ferentes @Sean K , @DrBourse @tech/a and others for sure.
DNH but looking

There is a suspicion of increased production cost affecting gold and copper and A1M.
The CR was at $0.52 (poor investors then to be richer when ?)

https://www.spglobal.com/commodityi...pper-markets-fear-bump-up-in-production-costs

View attachment 183360View attachment 183359

View attachment 183361
Trading View chart

View attachment 183362

Current challenges are copper price pull back and getting their AISC down. Biggest positive is management and the vision they have for the company. Read the last Investor Presentation from 18 July. It will give you a good overview of their current position.

 

[greggles]

Too small for me and not sure about exploration prospectivity.

AISC $5.15lb? Yikes.

I'm surprised in doubled in the first half, must have been when copper went on a failed breakout.

They took over DRM a couple of years ago and inherited some prospective exploration projects through that transaction, along with a lot of very prospective land adjacent to their flagship Eloise project. But I don't think green field exploration is a real focus for them at the moment.

They seem to want to grow through acquisition, or that's their plan at least.

 

[greggles]

Director Josef El-Raghy acquired 500,000 A1M shares through on-market purchases between 3 and 5 September 2024.

Director Aaron Colleran exercised and converted 500,000 Performance Incentives into A1M FPO shares on 29 August 2024.
Director Linda May Hale exercised and converted exercised and converted 228,183 Performance Incentives into A1M FPO shares on 29 August 2024.

 

[greggles]

Quick exploration update from last week. Jericho continues to deliver high grade copper mineralisation, albeit mostly at depths of over 100m.

With a strike length of over 5km, there's still a lot more ground to explore.

 

[houtman]

A1M has tracked the cooper price for most of the year but has fallen away over the last couple of months.

As mentioned above, they are currently mining Eloise deeps, which as the name implies, is deep.
AISC of $5.22 and AIC of $5.50 reflect this.

They are developing the nearby Jericho deposit which should bring down unit costs.

Production is forecast to be lower this year before improving with Jericho coming on line.

Copper price currently about AUS$6.50 so they are leveraged to the copper price both up and down.

They have about $70m cash and an EV of about $125m

 

[greggles]

A1M has tracked the cooper price for most of the year but has fallen away over the last couple of months.

As mentioned above, they are currently mining Eloise deeps, which as the name implies, is deep.
AISC of $5.22 and AIC of $5.50 reflect this.

They are developing the nearby Jericho deposit which should bring down unit costs.

Production is forecast to be lower this year before improving with Jericho coming on line.

Copper price currently about AUS$6.50 so they are leveraged to the copper price both up and down.

They have about $70m cash and an EV of about $125m


View attachment 185509

Great summary and a timely reminder that AISC and AIC for Eloise should improve in 2025. A1M needed Jericho and the Demetallica takeover was a necessary and critical move for the company. Copper starting to look bullish again.