As the world gradually shifts to renewable energy, advancement of technologies involve a lot of renewable energy projects, the demand for copper just keeps on increasing. A lot of companies struggle to provide and respond to this demand, but there are recent issues going on with bigger companies.
Due to the restrictions caused by the pandemic, BHP’s Escondida mine has issues in operation, resulting in a drop in their copper production. Codelco’s copper production took a dip recently, going down by 6.7% with their produce after a strike in one of their mines. Now this is critical, since both companies are mining Chile, and the country is known to be top copper producer in the world.
But as the world grapples with the copper shortage and the price surges this year, I believe smaller companies that already started producing and some that are still drilling are showing great potential to help provide and match the demand.
One miner that could be an excellent player would be Copper Mountain Mining (CMMC). Their flagship asset is the 75% owned Copper Mountain mine located in southern British Columbia near the town of Princeton, and they are currently producing approximately 100 million pounds of copper equivalent, with average annual production expected to increase to approximately 140 million pounds of copper equivalent. They recently released drill results at their Cameron Copper Project in Australia, where three large mineralized zones are identified.
Solaris Resources (SLS), on the other hand, boasts the Warintza copper project in Ecuador, and this mine is along a mineral belt that hosts Lundin Gold’s Fruta del Norte Mine and a Chinese consortium’s Mirador mine, about 40 km to the south. They have a massive cash cushion and their cash burn is way under, which can be considered as a good sign. They have about $60 million on the balance sheet right now and approximately $20 million needed for the remaining 2021 CAPEX. Their shares increased more than 8% recently after the price of copper increased throughout the week to $4.2435.
I am looking forward to seeing the growth of Fortitude Gold (FTCO). They’re a small producer, but it is worth considering that they have no debts. They also reported positive metallurgical test results from its Golden Mile property with column leach tests reporting up to 85% gold recovery. They also recently increased its monthly dividend by 14% and intercepted numerous high grade gold intercepts in untested open areas.
With global climate goals demanding for more copper, copper mining companies will need to strive to produce. There have been issues going in Peru and Chile, since its governments is threatening to increase mining taxes and regulations. With the increasing demand and the increasing prices, a lot of industries that utilize will encounter a lot of issue unless the need for the precious metals gets matched by production.
Submitted October 22, 2021 at 09:17AM by HistoricallyMeans https://ift.tt/3jpJEAe
