Latest news with #IanMiddlemas
News.com.au
23-07-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
The next junior to make a move in the hot Murchison gold fields has emerged
Odyssey Gold is emerging as one of the deepest value gold plays in the Murchison goldfield Technical studies kicking off on ODY's 80% owned, 407,000oz Tuckanarra gold project Drilling under way after $4m raise backed by quality institutions With over 30 million ounces of historic production and two competing multi-billion dollar fiefdoms, few gold territories in the world have become as coveted as WA's Murchison. On one end, building its empire around the towns of Meekatharra and Cue, is Westgold Resources (ASX:WGX). To the south at Mt Magnet is Ramelius Resources (ASX:RMS). Between them, the mid-tier miners are among the most closely watched in the ASX gold space. But they don't have the ore to support the continued expansion and even filling of their milling capacity, a fertile environment that has enabled small gold miners and explorers in the region to thrive. The latest to really plant its flag is Odyssey Gold (ASX:ODY). Part of the Apollo Group of companies led by former Normandy Mining executive Ian Middlemas, ODY has been a sleeper in the heart of the Murchison for years. It acquired the 80%-owned Tuckanarra gold project for a song in 2020, when gold was floating around A$2500/oz. The boom of the past two years has doubled that price to over A$5000/oz, while Tuckanarra has grown into a 407,000oz open pittable project at 2.5g/t, 311,000oz of those found on existing mining leases. It even has a processing solution set up, with material likely to be trucked and milled through 20% minority JV owner Monument Mining's mothballed 260,000tpa mill at Burnakura, where plans are being drawn up to reopen and expand the plant to 750,000tpa. "At the moment there's about 7.5Mtpa of capacity within 120km of it and there's every chance that will go to 10Mtpa with some of the mill upgrades that are being planned in the area," Odyssey Gold managing director Matthew Syme said. "Most of those are literally on the highway." Where would you rather be? Value gap Or maybe it should be where the bloody hell are ya? Odyssey Gold has a substantial resource in the bank with 5000m of drilling on the way. Its mining plans at the moment are likely to involve cutbacks of oxide-rich pits, material highly desirable to plant operators because of its smooth, free-milling nature. Close to 100,000oz was mined by Metana Minerals in the late 80s and early 1990s, and processed at its nearby Reedy gold mine, now part of the Westgold empire. Technical studies are under way, with work ongoing to extend the share of indicated ounces in the Tuckanarra resource so a JORC-compliant scoping study can eventually be delivered. At a market cap of just $22 million, there's plenty of upside not yet included in the company's valuation, especially with gold sitting at over US$3400/oz (A$5200/oz). While gold juniors have historically been valued in the order of 10% of the in situ value of their resources, today juniors like ODY are trading at closer to 1%. "Normally speaking we're not gold bulls per se because we just take the gold price that's in front of us, but it's been fascinating to watch the increasing levels of excitement in the space," Syme said. "It really hasn't yet flowed right through to the junior explorer end in any meaningful way like it did in the 1980s and other bull runs. "I think there are signs that's just starting to happen. Junior gold mining companies like us have resources in the ground trading at 1-1.5% of the value of the mineral they own. It's easily the best exposure to gold in the world and gold is a pretty important investment category in the current environment. "You can make a compelling case for the gold price and especially the junior gold equities market to keep on going a lot stronger than what it even is so far." Big backers There are certainly institutions though who can see the forest for the trees. One of them, Melbourne's Collins St Asset Management, is heavily invested in WA's junior gold space and recently upped its stake in Odyssey on market from 8.14% to 9.15%. That came despite dilution from a $4m placement which will fund the current RC drill campaign and the technical study, looking at mining high-grade open pit resources at Tuckanarra through Burnakura. "Collins Street are very active in the area and they've expressed a view about the potential in the Murchison area and the potential for consolidation given the alignment of resources and milling capacity," Syme said. "It's interesting that as well as increasing their investment in their current round, we also started to see some other smaller institutional investors come onto the register. "I think we're just at that cusp of being appealing to institutions given the potential for a significant re-rate now that we're fully funded, actively exploring and presenting as a very compelling near-term development." The value proposition can be seen in full view down the road at New Murchison Gold (ASX:NMG). Its shares have lifted 70% to a market cap of $150m after that company began mining at the Crown Prince South gold project, which will be processed via a deal with Westgold. "That's a really interesting comparison. Obviously they've got a cracking deposit up there at Crown Prince, essentially 4g/t open pittable," Syme said. "But there are some good indicators there for what we are looking at with Tuckanarra. "For example, they converted more than 50% of their resources to reserves, that's a pretty good benchmark for us with the 407,000oz resource. "The other compelling thing there is the metrics for the market rating. They're trading north of $500 per resource ounce, we're at a tenth of that." Long-term potential While there is a keen focus is on the known resources at Tuckanarra which will factor into the mining studies, the potential to find additions at targets outside the existing Bollard, Cable, Highway Zone, Kohinoor, Bottle Dump, Lucknow and Maybelle deposits remains significant. "We did an aerial EM survey of the Tuckanarra area back in March and it highlighted a lot of the conductor targets there," Syme said. " The mineralisation at Tuckanarra is generally associated with pyrrhotite – sulphide replacement mineralisation. "Pyrrhotite of course is magnetic and conductive and so we get a pretty good signature from EM surveys. " Southern Geoscience highlighted 32 geophysical anomalies that we're now starting to work our way through and drilling those as we speak. "We've got a pretty high level of confidence about the EM as a targeting mechanism." There could be the potential to find ore sources at depth below the existing open pit resources as well. "Of course you never know, particularly in that Murchison environment, a lot of these deposits go hundreds of metres and even kilometres deep," Syme said. "Westgold and Co. have been mining for years there now. "Generally speaking the deposits we have are just the weathered, surface expression of primary fresh rock ore shoorts coming up from deeper. "Historically, the miners wanted to mine the high-grade quartz veins or the weathered material. "We know on all of those deposits ... there are very strong indications that those high-grade fresh rock leads keep going at depth." Between Tuckanarra and the separate Stakewell project, ODY controls roughly 30km of fertile BIF and greenstone belt between Meekatharra and Cue.
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
This Sovereign Metals Insider Increased Their Holding In The Last Year
Looking at Sovereign Metals Limited's (ASX:SVM ) insider transactions over the last year, we can see that insiders were net buyers. That is, there were more number of shares purchased by insiders than there were sold. While insider transactions are not the most important thing when it comes to long-term investing, we would consider it foolish to ignore insider transactions altogether. AI is about to change healthcare. These 20 stocks are working on everything from early diagnostics to drug discovery. The best part - they are all under $10bn in marketcap - there is still time to get in early. In the last twelve months, the biggest single purchase by an insider was when Non-Executive Director Ian Middlemas bought AU$283k worth of shares at a price of AU$0.71 per share. So it's clear an insider wanted to buy, even at a higher price than the current share price (being AU$0.66). It's very possible they regret the purchase, but it's more likely they are bullish about the company. We always take careful note of the price insiders pay when purchasing shares. As a general rule, we feel more positive about a stock when an insider has bought shares at above current prices, because that suggests they viewed the stock as good value, even at a higher price. Ian Middlemas was the only individual insider to buy shares in the last twelve months. You can see the insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last year depicted in the chart below. If you click on the chart, you can see all the individual transactions, including the share price, individual, and the date! View our latest analysis for Sovereign Metals There are always plenty of stocks that insiders are buying. If investing in lesser known companies is your style, you could take a look at this free list of companies. (Hint: insiders have been buying them). Another way to test the alignment between the leaders of a company and other shareholders is to look at how many shares they own. We usually like to see fairly high levels of insider ownership. It appears that Sovereign Metals insiders own 10% of the company, worth about AU$43m. This level of insider ownership is good but just short of being particularly stand-out. It certainly does suggest a reasonable degree of alignment. There haven't been any insider transactions in the last three months -- that doesn't mean much. But insiders have shown more of an appetite for the stock, over the last year. Insiders own shares in Sovereign Metals and we see no evidence to suggest they are worried about the future. So while it's helpful to know what insiders are doing in terms of buying or selling, it's also helpful to know the risks that a particular company is facing. Case in point: We've spotted 1 warning sign for Sovereign Metals you should be aware of. But note: Sovereign Metals may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies with high ROE and low debt. For the purposes of this article, insiders are those individuals who report their transactions to the relevant regulatory body. We currently account for open market transactions and private dispositions of direct interests only, but not derivative transactions or indirect interests. Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
Yahoo
18-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Sovereign Metals Limited (ASX:SVM) stock most popular amongst retail investors who own 54%, while public companies hold 21%
Sovereign Metals' significant retail investors ownership suggests that the key decisions are influenced by shareholders from the larger public The top 25 shareholders own 45% of the company 11% of Sovereign Metals is held by insiders A look at the shareholders of Sovereign Metals Limited (ASX:SVM) can tell us which group is most powerful. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 54% to be precise, is retail investors. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk). Meanwhile, public companies make up 21% of the company's shareholders. In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of Sovereign Metals. See our latest analysis for Sovereign Metals Many institutions measure their performance against an index that approximates the local market. So they usually pay more attention to companies that are included in major indices. As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in Sovereign Metals. This can indicate that the company has a certain degree of credibility in the investment community. However, it is best to be wary of relying on the supposed validation that comes with institutional investors. They too, get it wrong sometimes. When multiple institutions own a stock, there's always a risk that they are in a 'crowded trade'. When such a trade goes wrong, multiple parties may compete to sell stock fast. This risk is higher in a company without a history of growth. You can see Sovereign Metals' historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story. We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in Sovereign Metals. The company's largest shareholder is Rio Tinto Group, with ownership of 20%. In comparison, the second and third largest shareholders hold about 7.7% and 2.8% of the stock. Ian Middlemas, who is the third-largest shareholder, also happens to hold the title of Member of the Board of Directors. Our studies suggest that the top 25 shareholders collectively control less than half of the company's shares, meaning that the company's shares are widely disseminated and there is no dominant shareholder. While it makes sense to study institutional ownership data for a company, it also makes sense to study analyst sentiments to know which way the wind is blowing. There are a reasonable number of analysts covering the stock, so it might be useful to find out their aggregate view on the future. The definition of company insiders can be subjective and does vary between jurisdictions. Our data reflects individual insiders, capturing board members at the very least. Management ultimately answers to the board. However, it is not uncommon for managers to be executive board members, especially if they are a founder or the CEO. I generally consider insider ownership to be a good thing. However, on some occasions it makes it more difficult for other shareholders to hold the board accountable for decisions. Our information suggests that insiders maintain a significant holding in Sovereign Metals Limited. It has a market capitalization of just AU$576m, and insiders have AU$63m worth of shares in their own names. We would say this shows alignment with shareholders, but it is worth noting that the company is still quite small; some insiders may have founded the business. You can click here to see if those insiders have been buying or selling. The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a substantial 54% stake in Sovereign Metals, suggesting it is a fairly popular stock. This level of ownership gives investors from the wider public some power to sway key policy decisions such as board composition, executive compensation, and the dividend payout ratio. We can see that Private Companies own 4.4%, of the shares on issue. It's hard to draw any conclusions from this fact alone, so its worth looking into who owns those private companies. Sometimes insiders or other related parties have an interest in shares in a public company through a separate private company. We can see that public companies hold 21% of the Sovereign Metals shares on issue. This may be a strategic interest and the two companies may have related business interests. It could be that they have de-merged. This holding is probably worth investigating further. While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important. Consider for instance, the ever-present spectre of investment risk. We've identified 2 warning signs with Sovereign Metals , and understanding them should be part of your investment process. But ultimately it is the future, not the past, that will determine how well the owners of this business will do. Therefore we think it advisable to take a look at this free report showing whether analysts are predicting a brighter future. NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the last twelve months, which refer to the 12-month period ending on the last date of the month the financial statement is dated. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures. Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned. Sign in to access your portfolio
