Strategic Minerals Share Discussion Threads

[smlwebsite] 22/12/2015 19:28

Today’s RNS had $1.27m (or less) in sales forecast for 2015. GP 50% = $600k GP for the whole of 2015. SML spent $788k in Q3 alone plus $670k in H1.

SML best year to date was 20,000 tonnes. To cover 2015 spending they would need to produce 60,600 tonnes in 2015. So far they have reported a total of around 13.000 tonnes for 2015

[smlwebsite] 22/12/2015 19:20

I can see how some people might be happy that SML is still producing from Cobre but its wrong to suggest they have improved sales. The RNS today said that Revenue would be the same as last year or less. No improvement whatsoever. Also note the lack of a total for December which was given in the December update last year.

The two record breaking weekly sales mean absolutely nothing without knowing what was sold in the other weeks. No sales for a few weeks then whack through a lot in a fortnight does not give you more sales – it just allows you to say you had two good weeks. Bit like when we were told that September was a good month yet the two months before it were probably the worst on record. Peters basically confirms that about the December sales in the Proactive interview ‘and luckily for us it picked up some slack they had from the previous month’.

Best case scenario they will have produced no more than last year and there is no way that the potential gross profit of around $600,000 is going to cover the $2m expenses for 2015.

[d4vis] 22/12/2015 17:04

New interview on the Proactive site... Not able to post the link for some reason

[letsnotpanic] 22/12/2015 16:36

So you think the 2m sell was caused by a mm triggering their stop loss? I'd be fuming!

[loverat] 22/12/2015 15:51

I think SML is a stock which tends to react later to news. Perhaps they are triggering stop losses to take this up over the next few days. The news this morning was good.

[fenseal3] 22/12/2015 15:43

Well the crooks are at work my stop loss has been triggered, have sent an E-mail to FSA......out of here now and not happy the 2m seems like a mm causing trouble, have asked to look into it.

[ajseabright] 22/12/2015 14:35

Does look that way!

[letsnotpanic] 22/12/2015 12:42

did some really buy 2090006 shares and sell them an hour and a half later with a grand loss!?

[fenseal3] 22/12/2015 08:33

Wow....didn't see that coming, great news and great progress.

TIDMSML

RNS Number : 8464J

Strategic Minerals PLC

22 December 2015

22 December 2015

Strategic Minerals Plc

("Strategic Minerals" or the "Company")

Confirmation of Extension for Cobre Operations

The Board of Strategic Minerals Plc (AIM: SML; USOTC: SMCDY) is pleased to announce that its wholly owned subsidiary, Southern Minerals Group LLC ("SMG"), has obtained agreement for the extension of its rights to operate the magnetite operations at the Cobre mine in New Mexico until 31 March 2017 (the "Agreement").

SMG's rights at Cobre were due to expire at the end of February 2016 and the Directors of Strategic Minerals believe that reaching this Agreement well ahead of expiry highlights the strong relationship created between the mine owners and SMG.

The Agreement comes after two record breaking weeks of domestic sales from Cobre. In the week ended 13 December 2015, SMG recorded a record domestic sales week of US $75,596 only to outstrip this in the week ended 20 December 2015 with sales of US $77,981, versus an average for the year of circa US $25,000 per week. These higher level sales help to offset the lean period experienced in the middle of the year and total sales are expected to be broadly in line with the previous year (US $1,270,000), if not marginally lower.

The President of SMG, Clovis Hooper, said:

"The recent upswing in sales has been the result of the work put into clearing logistic impediments and to the delivery of the magnetite, and, while we anticipate a slowing of sales during the Christmas period, 2016 is looking like being a good year".

Commenting, John Peters, Managing Director of Strategic Minerals, said:

"The efficient operation of SMG's access to the magnetite stockpile has been highlighted by its recent sales performance, and, when combined with a typical profit ratio of 50% on Cobre, it underlines Strategic Minerals' fortunate position as a resource company with regular cash flow."

For further information, please contact

[smlwebsite] 14/12/2015 19:39

You can tell that its not the official SML website because its nearly up to date and covers the bits that the official website does not ie. the downside and the inaccuracies of various public statements by the company. Some of the errors are truly unbelievable.
‘Perhaps the best example is Other Expenses. For H1 2014 this was given as $340,000 yet the total for the year was only $183,000. The total for the year is $157,000 less than the total for the first six months of that year.’


I would welcome a list of points detailing the differences between the last management and the current one. It would be a very short list.

SMLs financial year comes to a close at the end of this month. If they are as short of cash as I think they are they will need some sort of finance before the end of the year or at most before the auditor can sign the company off as a going concern. Note the current direction of the share price

Overheads have gone up including existing Director salary increased by up to 50% since June 2015, and the added employment of Alan Broome Chairman, Lincoln Smith acting Tatu Mine Manager and Vince Martin Tatu Project Manager, plus the $30,000 a month to pay off PART of ONE creditor’s outstanding invoices. Even if SML get Tatu funded they are still going to need well over $1m to cover overheads next year which means a minimum of 30,000+ tonnes of sales from Cobre. Best year ever was 20,000 tonnes and that was in 2012 – the start up year.


'Cash of US $1.347M’ means absolutely nothing. You might have £1,000 in the bank but it doesn’t mean much if you have £2,000 of debt to pay off.

[panicinair] 13/12/2015 22:10

That is not the SML website! That looks like a parody site of the companys official site! Something you've knocked up! Lol just a tad obsessive pal, not healthy at all, you've been screwed by previous management thats clear to see, you have an axe to grind with the company, an investment gone wrong from 10p days? Time get over it and move on lol


Its under a new board & its 'Cash of US $1.347M as at 30th September 2015'

[smlwebsite] 13/12/2015 20:05

In an IG Index interview on the 30 June 2015 John Peters said (3m 50s) that “We have been very honest about the money we raised is not for working capital”. Looking at the accounts for H1 2015 it is plain to see that Strategic Minerals had a Net Free Cash balance of MINUS $566,000. In effect over a third of the money raised in the placing had already been spent on overheads.

[smlwebsite] 13/12/2015 09:53

A little flurry of buys on Friday perhaps to lift the SP? SML free cash getting close to zero by the end of this month. Placing or borrowing followed by a placing (like H1 2015) needed very soon. In the next few days/weeks expect the announcement of something that sounds like good news followed by a placing, a change of broker ,or a change of broker with a placing.

SML free cash end of September $493,000 with a monthly cash burn of $163,000

[panicinair] 09/12/2015 22:57

Yes looks a great stock to be in! Appreciate if your holding from 10p days or multiples of current share price then it must be painful (you may want to consider using the current share price to average down, good opp imo)....but this is under new management now & Peters been at the helm for a short time, he & his team have restructured and set this on a recovery path, any shake up is painful at the outset but his strategy looks on the money & management look completely aligned with shareholders with options at 1p vesting at 1.5p & 3p something of a rarity on AIM to see directors setting themselves stretching targets & they've got skin in the game as well! at this MCAP its a strong buy!

This could be THE recovery play of 2016!

[smlwebsite] 09/12/2015 20:43

Ever wondered why someone who managed £7bn in funds is working for a company worth £2.5m? It was £5m before Peters did his version of PR.

What Peters has said is that there is no chance of him raising any cash so it will have to be private funding or nothing. Wonder if that has anything to do with him screwing Cornhill at the last placing?

The bulk sample comes from a large coal field so it will be the same as every other mine producing the stuff from that coalfield. The problem will not be the quality of the coal but getting customers to sign up to a mine that has not been built yet. A mine which still belongs to KCM and SMLs 51% can be bought back by the owner for $1. We talk about a mine but there is not even a hole in the ground let alone a mine.

When was Chisholm buying above 8p? He got 29.9m shares valued at 10p each when Ebony Coal got bought by SML. He bought 15m in the 2013 placing at 4.5p and appears to have bought nothing since then even after putting his own management into the company. Does not show much faith in the company when he did not take part in the placing at 0.6p.

Julien McInally got the overheads down and they were $250,000 for H2 2014. Peters got them back up to $670,000 for H1 2015, and SML has already spent over $700,000 in Q3 alone. Management has increased from Julien McInally and Lyle Hobbs to Peters, Hobbs, Broome, Smith, Martin and McInally.

[panicinair] 09/12/2015 15:38

I expect the bulk sample to return positive results later this month and offtake agreements to be signed in the new year, funding to see Tatu over the line will be at project level as indicated.

[smlwebsite] 29/11/2015 12:58

I generally agree with your post but perhaps a couple of points to consider.

SML said The heat value of the Tatu coal is expected to be ADB (air-dried basis) 24.43 MJ/kg. Air drying removes moisture (Calorific value of water 0.0042MJ/Kg) so cannot be directly compared to the figures for Rotowaro of around 22 MJ/kg with a moisture content of 21%.

The New Zealand government drill hole 7864 near Tatu gave varying values of 16.6 – 24.48MJ/kg at an average of 12% moisture.
www.asx.com.au/asxpdf/20140131/pdf/42mg246bl9kk50.pdf

Also the Huntly power plant was designed to burn ‘typical’; Rotowaro coal and the operation of the Glenbrook steel mill is optimised for the Rotowaro coals.

Lower prices for Indonesian coal does not mean higher prices for New Zealand coal in fact would suggest the opposite. NZ imported 326,000 tonnes of Indonesian coal in 2014 so I have no idea why SML stated In New Zealand, there is approximately 1,000,000 tonnes per annum of lower quality thermal coal imported from Indonesia.

Interesting statistics here
www.mbie.govt.nz/info-services/sectors-industries/energy/energy-data-modelling/publications/energy-in-new-zealand/Energy%20-in-New-Zealand-2015.pdf

[d4vis] 25/11/2015 20:24

I agree it is hard to know exactly how much coal is left at Rotowaro or how easy/expensive the remaining coal is to get at. The article below is interesting on that subject...



Coal quality based on the information we have would also appear to suggest better coal at TaTu 24 MJ/kg vs 22.

In 2014 New Zealand was a net importer of Thermal coal with indonisian coal filling the gap... I've not seen figures for 2015 anywhere... Might be a bit premature to look.

A lot of Indonisian Miners are losing Money at the moment on contracts they are tied to... Indonisia is reducing supply.

I agree there is pressure from the greens on coal... There are also price pressures on industry that make coal a viable choice.

[smlwebsite] 25/11/2015 14:34

That is a good point regarding reserves as Rotowaro has a maximum of 5m tonnes, and could be considerably less, depending on which articles you read. Tatu has around 4m+ tonnes recoverable coal available. The main problems for all New Zealand coal producers is the shrinking domestic market, countrywide protests against the use of coal as a fuel, and competition from oil, gas and renewable energy.

[d4vis] 23/11/2015 13:14

Here is the research note...

[pvw] 23/11/2015 12:36

See link below for a decent summary from a fellow investor - worth a read for everyone



I was conservative in valuing #SML (Strategic Minerals) Tatu mine - Predicted margins are better than I thought!
hxxps://t.co/RajHanuMPC

[d4vis] 20/11/2015 19:45

How many years of reserves are there now left to mine at Rotowaro?

In 2010 they found more reserves that would extend the mine life to 2016


hTTtp://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/business/3827007/Mines-future-up-in-the-air

Both links are a little old the PDF dated 2011. both would seem to indicate that Rotowaro may be nearing the end of its mine life