Macarthur Minerals Limited (ASX:MIO) (CVE:MMS) has hit the ground running for its listing on the Australian Securities Exchange today as it prepares to transition from explorer to producer in the near-term.
The company opened at 28 cents this morning with shares trading more than 10% higher at 31 cents.
Listing on the ASX complements the companys existing, 10-year-old listing on the TSX Venture Exchange in Canada while its securities are also swapped over the counter in New York.
“I shall return”
The companys CEO, vice-president and executive director Joe Phillips told a recent Melbourne meeting of potential investors that the company was named after famed American General Douglas Macarthur.
He said it was appropriate that the General was famous for the words I shall return uttered when he left the Philippines during WWII because the Australian listing represented a return home for the company.
Focus on Lake Giles
Supporting the companys ASX listing is the advanced Lake Giles Iron Ore project in WAs Yilgarn region, about 175 kilometres northwest of Kalgoorlie-Boulder.
Macarthur also has conglomerate and hard-rock greenstone gold assets in Western Australia and hard-rock lithium holdings in the battery metals powerhouse of Nevada.
Strength in the iron ore market, a positive future outlook and impressive Lake Giles fundamentals have seen the company take great strides towards production with 2020 to be an important year in the transition from explorer to producer.
Iron ore companies on the ASX have been doing well this year with Fortescue Metals Group Limited (ASX:FMG) up around 140% year-on-year (YOY) and Champion Iron Ltd (ASX:CIA) up around 77% YOY.
Six-month price target of 43 cents
Macarthur opened an offer to list on the ASX in early November seeking to raise up to A$7.5 million via the issue of shares at A25 cents.
This offer was well supported, prompting Breakaway Research to provide a buy recommendation and set a 6-month price target of 43 cents.
Breakaway said the listing would enable the company to profile its “valuable” Lake Giles Iron Ore Project “to an investor base more familiar with the earnings and cash flow potential of the project and its strategic positioning which is driven by rail and port access”.
Lake Giles is 175 kilometres northwest of Kalgoorlie and has substantial magnetite resources at Moonstone project and hematite resources across a number of deposits at the Ularring project.
Moonshine has an indicated and inferred resource of 1.31 billion tonnes at 30.1% iron and metallurgical test work indicates this can be upgraded to 68.5-69.1% iron.
Ularring has an indicated resource of 54.46 million tonnes at 47.2% iron and an inferred resource of 26 million tonnes at 45.4% iron.
Further resource updates are expected with drilling results imminent.
Magnetite focus
Macarthur plans to exploit the hematite resource through tribute mining and to focus on the high-value, high-grade magnetite resource.
After working the project for the last 7-8 years, Macarthur has positioned the project to optimise future and growing demand for high-grade magnetite concentrate, supported by positive studies, strong eRead More – Source
