[Also Just In: Wesdome Gold Mining Assays Look Strong — Kiena Complex in Quebec]
Take II: A note to say the ownership of IG Copper in the original report is simplified. There are a number of entitites and individuals with stakes in Tom Bowens' IG Copper. More to come on that. Also a correction: As David Broughton at Ivanhoe Mines points out just now, "Kamoa-Kakula is not a porphyry, It's a sediment-hosted stratiform copper deposit, a class of deposit known for high grades (most of the Congo Copperbelt deposits average 2-4%) as well as (for the big ones) impressive tonnages. Porphyries - like the example in Russia - are typically on the order of 0.5%."
KHABAROVSK — EURASIAN MINERALS' 40 percent stake in majority owner of Russia’s Malmyzh copper and gold spread could receive transaction attention in coming months.
Malmyzh's 226-square kilometers of project land in far eastern Russia is on scale with Kamoa and Kakula copper porphyries in Ivanhoe Mines’ DRC Congo.
The Russia copper-gold porphyry is NOT the 1 percent and higher grades of copper that Ivanhoe Mines trumpets rightfully. Still, EMX/EMXX's intrusive cover at Malmyzh is 16 by 5 kilometers and probably one of the most shallow covers of mineralized ground in this past of the world.
Thus, low so-called strip ratio of perhaps just 1 to 1 — good stuff to useless rock.
In addition, Malmyzh shapes up as efficient to mine ore and transport ore and concentrates on available roadways and rail. The lead city of the region, Khabarovsk, is a pleasant cultural surprise thus far: 600,000 people, fresh architecture and few of the massive concrete blocks other Russian cities call buildings. It is on the Amur River, which acts as the natural boundary between Russia and China in these parts.
Blow By Blow
Eurasian Minerals spent $8 million gathering the 40-odd percent stake in IG Copper starting in 2011.
The fully diluted stake is more like 36 percent. IG and Eurasian saw something big and cheap at the time. If you do the math, Eurasian owns approximately of IG Copper, which owns 51 percent of the joint venture to heavily indebted metals conglomerate Freeport McMoRan’s 49 percent.
IG Copper is a private western company that operates the Malmyzh project.
West Virginia-raised Tom Bowens, formerly a Lundin mining executive, is the geologist and CEO of that company and the joint venture.
The JV, named Amur Minerals, is mostly Mr. Bowens here in Khabarovsk Krai. For rough Russia aficionados, the now icy city of Khabarovsk is a three-hour flight north of Seoul and a one-hour flight north of the city of Vladivostok in the Far Eastern District of Russia. It’s a balmy 5 degrees Fahrenheit today/Wednesday.
Malmyzh's Russia-compliant reserves in all categories total 1.26 billion metric tons of ore with 5.2 million tons of copper at a grade of 0.41 percent . The gold comes in at 278 tonnes of gold at a grade of 0.22 grams per ton.
I have been an owner of Eurasian Minerals shares, under advisement from a couple of potent and patient (and large) USA and Canada investors, since perhaps 2009. David Cole's company (he is another American geologist) is a holder of ventures, projects and net smelter returns in at least 12 countries.
At a market worth of $88 million USD, EMX is sure to see cash that will help make this Colorado company into more than a $1 billion company in coming years.
TCR Take: The last time EMX/EMXX turned an equity stake in a company into lucre was in a 2006 transaction: the USA's Energy Fuels' buying of Standard Uranium. Result: almost $5 million USD (realized gain) for Eurasian Minerals. This time, I believe, the cash will come to EMX from a sale of all of
its stake in IG Copper and probably not a parceling of the pieces of Amur Minerals or of Amur’s many project licenses. [I believe, at any rate.]
Other strategic equity and "otherwise" stakes in mineralized ground, mines, deposits, projects, even geothermal n Slovakia, include net smelter returns in Nevada; property or project sales already being wrapped up in Turkey; other prime projects that could see bankers scurrying happily in Chile, possibly in Sweden and in Norway.
There are pieces of the EMX footprint in Australia, in New Zealand and just about everywhere except the continent of Africa and the country of Canada.
The Malmyzh stake alone via a sleeve IG Copper, with Kremlin approval in Moscow (because this thing is a “strategic” national asset), could mean $100 million or more for Eurasian Minerals.
Once again this is my take.
We'll see. Moscow and its leadership, Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev, are sure to develop the project to the advantage of both the company’s stockpile of strategic minerals such as copper and gold, and to the benefit of regional work force in the Krai. Already, some 70,000 meters of diamond-tipped exploration drilling have increased family incomes at the most active Malmyzh porphyry targets.
Amur Minerals and Mr. Bowens kept the Malmyzh Camp on "care and maintenance" for two years until a Kremlin approval from a Medvedev-led Strategic Industries Law panel, That came just this autumn.
Much as TCR Network operates. Eurasian Minerals is "people first,” country next.
EMX/EMXX, with a ticker change coming on the NYSE any day now, stakes shareholder money and its people in situations where it has a "competitive advantage."
This, Canada? Too picked over. Mexico -- security concerns in certain part of the country. Turkey? Selling assets there actively.
As for valuation, Eurasian Minerals owns a bevy of publicly held stakes accumulated these past 10 years.
The visit to Malmyzh is my first with Eurasian and my fourth to Russia. I am so convinced that Eurasian Minerals will benefit in the short term from Malmyzh, after 5 years of ownership in IG Copper, that I have a multiple-entry visa into Russia for the next three years.
More color on all this will come later in the week. And here -- TCR Network: please continue reading about Eurasian Minerals in this TCR Report.
Also: please, while I am here in the far northeast of Russia this week, reach out with queries, as always.
I am looking at several fresh names (a new minerals stream builder, Excalibur Resources, is looking for a name change to reflects its new status, along with a one-for-three consolidating of shares in Canada).
On the biomedical side: Celceutix, Immunovacine and BioCryst Pharma — all still actionable. Immunovaccine might turn heads soon with the economics and safety of its DepoVax injection of treatments for a number of ailments.
I also own a timely stake in gene-editing laboratory Intella Therapueutics (NTLA on NASDAQ). That area of biomedical has several relatively fresh companies that have suffered drops from their initial public offering prices.
Finally, I expect fresh reports soon from Mexico project spawner Riverside Resources. The tiny company is a mini-version of Eurasian with projects backed by other companies’ money. Ticker is RRI in Canada and RVSDF in USA. The shares are among the best TCR Network performers of the past 11 months in mining and exploration.
-- Thom Calandra
Valaurum.com -- my kind of currency. I am an investor in privately held Valaurum.
-- Thom Calandra (None of these companies pays me -- not a one.)
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