Zimtu Capital Corp. (
TSX: V.ZC,
Stock Forum), a company that emerged on investor radar screens during last year’s graphite bubble, is adding another industrial mineral to its asset portfolio.
The Vancouver company has snapped up a basket of mineral claims in central British Columbia that yielded high grade silicon dioxide in rock samples, material that would be suitable for the production of silicon metal if mined in sufficient quantities, according to a geological assessment report completed in 1986.
The hope is that Zimtu will create a vehicle to “monetize’’ this latest asset by spinning the silicon claims into a shell company and taking it public, potentially in late 2014.
In an interview, Zimtu President Dave Hodge said the claims are located about 80 kilometres east of Prince George and were held for many years by
Silver Standard Resources Inc. (
TSX: T.SSO,
Stock Forum) but never developed.
When he heard that they had recently become available for staking, Hodge moved quickly to bring them under the umbrella of Zimtu, a company that is known for building companies up from the grassroots level.
Companies in the Zimtu portfolio include
Commerce Resources Corp. (
TSX: V.CCE,
Stock Forum),
Western Potash Corp. (
TSX: T.WPX,
Stock Forum)
Big North Graphite (
TSX: V.NRT,
Stock Forum)
Artic Star Exploration (
TSX: V.ADD,
Stock Forum) and
Prima Fluorspar Corp. (
TSX: V.PF,
Stock Forum).
Those companies provide exposure to a range of minerals and metals, including Niobium in British Columbia, Saskatchewan potash, diamonds in the Northwest Territories and Ontario graphite.
Given the grass roots nature of the silica property near Prince George, Zimtu is many years away from being a miner of silicon, an element that is widely used in integrated circuits, the basis for most computers. Hence the creation of the term Silicon Valley.
However, Hodge says he sees an opportunity to challenge dominant players like
Dow Chemical Co. (
NYSE: DOW,
Stock Forum) affiliate
Dow Corning Corp., by offering end users a potential alternative source of supply.
“From my experience, when a market is controlled by one company there will be a number of end users that are buying from that company that will be pissed off because the big company pushes them around,’’ he said.
“I know I can appeal to them because they want diversification in their supply chain,’’ he said.
Zimtu shares closed at 30 cents Thursday after falling 13% and leaving the company with a market cap of $3.4 million, based on 11.3 million shares outstanding. The 52-week range is 56 cents and 27 cents.