I'll give a go at trying a difficult thing, writing a brief overview of Asiamet' s projects as to not get any readers lost in the Indonesian jungle. Shares are trading in London under the ticker $ARS.L.
People:
Directors Tony Manini & Peter Bird are leading the team here. Tony Manini has been through the process of creating a billion-dollar mining company before with Oxiana. He also co-founded the private incubator Tigers Realm group, from the same stable he brought us ceo.ca famous Nexgen $NXE and more recently Carube Copper $CUC. In the field they are relying on geologist Stephen Hughes, aka Mr. Copper. With 10+ years of experience on that other famous Indonesian deposit (Grasberg), he is proving time and time again he is worth his weight in gold, or in this case, copper. Management is fully aligned with the shareholders as they are not taking a paycheck but are banking on a stellar SP performance to reward their hard work.
Share Structure:
A tricky one for our North American friends who like it tight… Asiamet has fully diluted 984m shares outstanding. Undiluted, JP Morgan is holding 8.4%, Mgmt 4.7%, Asipac 4.6% & Namarong Investments 3.9%. The Dutch based CDFund is also a shareholder. Speaking of the interest of institutions, Asiamet just raised $10Mil at 11 pence, the PP closed in one afternoon & without warrants. Kudos to the team. This fresh money will be used to speed up and expand the drilling and ground work across the several projects.
Indonesia:
On 26 March 2018 Asiamet announced they found an agreement with the local authorities on amendments on the existing CoW (Contract of Work). With this Asiamet secured a 50 year tenure for all projects., agreed royalties & taxes and extended divestment requirements (positive!). An important note, Asiamet will produce Copper Cathodes (and has enough local interested off-takers), avoiding IN FULL the difficulties Freeport is experiencing now at Grasberg, which is shipping unprocessed ore instead of using/building a local smelter.
Beutong:
Asiamet's Flagship project. Measured Resources of 20.5 million tonnes at 0.7% Cu, Indicated Resources of 28.7 million tonnes at 0.6% Cu. based on historical drilling, partly by Freeport. Two discrete near surface higher grade zones identified in drilling provide an opportunity for higher grade starter pits early in the potential mine life. Initial assays confirm the East section (BEP) is potentially leap leachable with Met work ongoing. The first short hole returned 64.9m @1% Cu from 7m depth (16/04/18). Drilling is currently ongoing (second hole has a 675m target, depth was 205m at 16/04) and a second drill hole (up to 1700m) should arrive at site shortly. The aim is to expand the deposit and for the first time, look if mineralization continues below 500m. The total inital program will consist of 12000m drilling. Fingers crossed here.
KSK District:
1) BKM:
High margin open-pit copper deposit, heap leachable. Anticipated start of production: Q1 2020, 25ktpa, +8y LOM. The BFS is expected in Q3, followed by a financing deal with a local partner for the limited capex (estimated $164M). All details in the PEA and company presentation, but with a current (PEA numbers) after-tax IRR of 38.7% it's the ideal cashflow generator to fund Asiamet' s other projects.
2) BKZ:
Two resource estimates imminent. One for the upper poly-metallic resource (starting near surface), one for the underlying copper zone.
For the PM zone, max dimensions are 225mx110mx40m with an inner center of near 20% ZnEq and an outer shell of approx. 10% ZnEq. That's some serious numbers many other zinc explorers can only dream of. BKZ would piggy-back off of BKM's infrastructure and is currently envisioned to go into production in the third year of BKM production (BKM Q1 2020 - BKZ 2023). BKZ is located just 800m north from BKM.
The underlying copper zone is currently only defined by a handful of drill holes, Asiamet is planning to bring in a bigger rig to test the potential at depth. Shareholders are hoping the BKZ and BKM deposit connect at depth (a potential porphyry? The big word is out).
3) Others:
A lot of high potential prospects are scattered across the KSK district. BKM was just drilled first because of the easiest access at the time. One example of another mouthwatering prospect is Baroi, showing 24m @ 4.59%Cu & 31m @ 3.62% Cu near surface (no typos!). A forestry permit is requested and is an outcome is expected in Q3. Once the permits are received Baroi will be drilled asap.
Key notes:
- Great team in place, check their history, they have done it before
- Beutong: 6x the size of BKM
- Final agreements with the government have been made and released to the market, providing a strong base for mutual benefits
- BKM: easy cash-flow rich open pit operation to kick-start the other projects, BFS expected in October
- KSK District wide open for similar discoveries
Upcoming Catalysts:
Company Presentation: http://www.asiametresources.com/i/pdf/20180321-Asiamet-Presentation.pdf
Company Website: www.asiametresources.com Investor communities: http://www.ceo.ca/ars.l & on Twitter #ARS
