Sow 's ear = silk purse with CIAThese guys are fantastic. They have turned a 42 million investment in 2016 into a 3 billion operation in 2022 and are about to expand on that using internally generated $. Hard to believe in 6 years.
Along the way they found time to reinvigorate local interest in mineral processing through a technical society, The Canadian Mineral Processors, by opening a local group and organising an annual symposium in Sept-Iles. Until last spring I was able to see and hear the CIA story evolve annually. Their crew of presentors were always energetic to a degree that would please any upper management.
They purchased bits of the Consolidated Thompson Bloom Lake adventure after Cliffs had purchased it, at a way over valued amount, and then put it into bankrupcy. All because they did not do Due Dilligence in any serious manner. Yes the big boys can have trouble with DD too. I followed Bloom Lake from 2006 to 2011 when it was sold. Made a 5 banger on it. Richard Quesnel, the Bloom Lake CEO, held quarterly CCs, and, if you understood what was between the lines, he was very open about what was happening and about to happen. Many things were said that never came back in analysts reports. Do not trust stock analysts. As it turned out operating a mine is not building a mine and the Cliffs story came to an abrupt end when problems surfaced.
Cataford reminds me of Quesnel. He has the benefit of not being saddled with the owner of an investment bank, Stan Bharty and his bank Forbes and Manhattan. To say that CIA will triple in three years is an understatement, however paying now for what may happen in three years is not a good idea. They do not seem to be up for sale, but that was the same with Bloom. They are at a point where they seem to have things well under control and are chasing marginal improvements to raise recovery and reduce costs as any mature operation should do. Good on them. Once they are generating dividends the SP will get a kick and then the expansion will be delivering another kick.
What they do with Kami is going to be interesting as Kami had head grade problems with too much manganese in the product. It is a problem because all mills do not want it and it is difficult to eliminate since there is a chemical bond that has to be broken so mechanical grinding is not sufficient. Blending ore to reduce the Mn % was the Kami approach, but that is a nightmare for operators to sustain. Nuff said about that.
The actual SP is a great getting into point as there are two positives in the near future, divs and increased production, which are not reflected in the SP at this time ( IMHO ).
Cheers and GLTA in the new year.