Nicola Mining Inc. (TSX-V: NIM) / (
OTC: HUSIF) has three primary, potential company-making assets, two nearing high-margin, steady-state cash flow. The third,
Treasure Mountain, offers both a shovel ready, up to C$9 million profit opportunity (
see below)
plus, longer term, a potential company-making silver-lead-zinc mine on a past-producing mine site. Regarding the first two assets, there’s the valuable, (
virtually impossible to replicate in BC) gold-silver
Merritt Mill and processing facility centrally located near Merritt, BC, and an “
Exploration & Material Purchase Agreement” with
Teck Resources(NYSE: TECK) / (TSX: TCK) to monetize waste rock from Nicola’s 100% owned
Thule Copper project (
another potential company-maker).
Merritt Mill in BC, Canada
At current 200 tpd capacity, grade assumptions and precious metal prices, the Mill should be good for about ~$2.3 million in operating income this year.
NOTE: (
based on publicly available information, including data from peer toll milling operations). Add an additional ~$2.5 million/yr. from the
Teck Material Purchase Agreementfrom 2018 on. Combined, Nicola’s sitting on two assets that could generate ~$5 million next year, with considerable upside from higher grade ore, higher spot prices and expanded Mill capacity.
Below is an estimate of what (I think) the milling operations could look like
in 2017. This is an indicative model, a composite of various milling & profit share agreements, based on Company press releases.
All else equal, if the Company were to process 20% higher grade ore (
from some of the profit sharing agreements), cash flow would grow from ~$2.3 to ~$4.2 million. In a scenario with 10% higher spot prices, Nicola’s share of operating profits would be ~$6.0 million, with more upside from ramping up throughput. Adding ~$2.5 million from the Teck waste material deal approaches ~$8.5 million in company-wide cash flow from 2018 on.
NOTE: {
this is not a forecast by me or the Company and does not contemplate the potential for increased throughput}.
Both earnings streams are high quality and expected to be long-lived, attributes that typically command strong market multiples. For example, precious metal streaming companies
Franco-Nevada (NYSE: FNV) and
Silver Wheaton (NYSE: SLW) trade at an average 20x Enterprise Value (“EV”) to EBITDA. Unlike FNV and SLW, Nicola has $77 million in tax credits, shielding it from paying cash taxes for years to come. The following chart shows implied share prices across various EBITDA and market multiple scenarios. Nicola Mining is currently at $0.22/share, (
down 25% from $0.29 on February 17th).
Thule Copper Project
Nicola has achieved the elusive dream of most junior mining companies, positive cash flow to meaningfully self-fund exploration. Even better, both exploration projects are on past producing sites. They could be, yes I’ll say it again,
company makers. Past production on Nicola’s
Thule Copper property featured
Craigmont, the largest open-pit copper mine in North America at the time. It operated at
1.28% Cu open pit, and closer to
2% Cu underground.
Thule Copper is located 14km northwest of Merritt, British Columbia and covers 10,084 hectares (
~24,920 acres) along the southern end of the Guichon Batholith.
The Company recently completed a diamond drilling program designed to test 3 distinct zones on the property, referred to as the
Embayment,
Titan Queen, and
Eric. Total diamond drilling for the 2016 program was 1,084 meters in 5 holes through the Embayment Zone located approximately 1 km northwest of the past-producing Craigmont Mine. A follow-up drill program will be designed to determine continuity of mineralization further west along strike and at depth. Drill results represent an important near-term catalyst.
Craigmont produced high-grade copper in a skarn setting but never encountered what management believes is an underlying porphyry. New evidence of possibly something Big was uncovered during the Company’s aforementioned drilling last year. Drill results were a success, all holes hit mineralization and blockbuster hole
THU-002 in the Embayment zone returned
1.11% copper over a remarkable
86-meter width.
Treasure Mountain
100% owned Treasure Mountain, a former operating mine, has a shovel ready, opportunity to mine already permitted
Level 1 Stope 2 and ship mill feed to its Merritt Mill. Treasure Mountain’s silver, lead, zinc endowment consists of 51 mineral tenures, 21 legacy claims, 100 cell units and five crown grants totaling 2,850 hectares (~
7,040 acres). The Company maintains the option of reopening Level 1 to extract silver from Stope 2 at any time and could realize indicative economics as shown below. Given that the Company is not starved for capital and that management believes precious and base metal prices are likely to move higher, there’s no rush to exploit this opportunity.
This indicative, up to C$ 9 million, one-time cash flow (
over ~9-month mining period) would mitigate (
but not necessarily nullify) the need for equity dilution. Combined with potential cash flow outlined above, Thule Copper could be robustly explored this year and next.
As mentioned, Treasure Mountain has tremendous blue-sky potential. One of the best reported holes is
TM11-36, with a 1.2 meter interval containing
1,565 g/t Ag (45.6 opt), 13.5% Pb & 9.9% Zn. Below is more dill data.
Conclusion
Nicola Mining Inc. (TSX-V: NIM) / (
OTC: HUSIF) can be viewed as 3 companies in 1, it’s not a cash burning, single-asset junior mining company. Importantly, the sum of the parts is greater than the whole because internally generated (tax-free) profits from Milling can be invested into the Company’s other highly prospective projects (
Thule Copper & Treasure Mountain). These two assets are not merely lottery tickets (
like most green field projects), each is host to very significant prior mining, development & exploration activities in a world-class mining jurisdiction.
Nicola’s Merritt Mill is not just a $30 million+ (
invested capital) 200 tpd processing facility, it’s the only Mill in BC allowed to accept feed from anywhere in the Province, and in many cases the ONLY place otherwise stranded mines can send ore. Therefore, on both an operating basis (
cash flow multiple) analysis (
see above), and on replacement value, the Mill more than covers the entire market cap of the Company.
That means an investor today gets Thule Copper & Treasure Mountain for Free. But wait, don’t take my word for it, check out
Nicola’s website and click on the “Projects” tab.
Still not convinced?
CEO Peter Espig is happy to hear from prospective investors, please email me at
epstein.peter4@gmail.com to discuss.
Disclosures:
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