Personal current assessment of Hycroft Mining OK. I'm starting here. The reason for this is the new CEO Diane Garrett.
Diane Garrett was named CEO and Director of Hycroft yesterday. Reaction on the stock market: minus. Reaction in forums: zero point zero.
It may be that Sprott, with an investment of 140mUSD in Hycroft and me, assess the current situation overly optimistically. But take a look on Track Record from Diane Garrett:
- Haile project at Romarco developed for takeover to OceanaGold
- Director of NovaGold Resources Inc., 50% / 50% joint venture with Barrick Gold, 39moz M&I Gold, $ 3 billion market capitalization.
- a doctorate in engineering and a master's degree in mineral economics
The largest single shareholder in NovaGold is Electrum Strategic with 25.7%. For the past few years at Nickel Creek Platinum, Electrum Strategic NCP (Diane Garrett) has primarily financed NCP and currently owns 33.9% plus warrants.
My prediction: Garrett will need $ 225m within 5 years to start up Hycroft. Electrum Strategic will fund a nice part of it!
With her experience, Diane Garrett is not at the beginning of a career; but at the peak. I'm not assuming that a woman of her Track Record and expertise would embark on a rash adventure and ruin her professional life.
One more thing about DG's performance at NCP: She really cannot be held responsible for the collapse in the nickel price and the delayed EV revolution.
Briefly about Hycroft:
- P&P 18m AuEq, M&I 31m AuEq.
- 2/3 gold / 1/3 silver. In-situ worth $ 60B,
- $ 400m investment made on site.
- FS with $ 1,300 Au / $ 17.33 Ag and an NPV of $ 2 billion.
- Current market capitalization $ 450m. Listed on the NASDAQ
Link ppt presentation:
https://www.hycroftmining.com/wp-content/uploads/Hycroft-Presentation-Sprott-July-2020-SMJ.pdf
Problem with Hycroft: Absolute low grades with 0.4g / tAuEq. Technically very demanding; Mine should be run up to a gigantic 110ktpd, with a new - on a large scale not yet tested - Leach process, where soda ash (Trona) is added.
Allied Nevada (former owner of the mine) did not go bankrupt due to technical problems. The gold price of $ 1,200 / oz was too low and the debt too high.
We will see!
urai58