Strategic Minerals optimistic as copper price rises
Last updated: 08:16 07 Mar 2024 GMT, First published: 14:41 15 Apr 2021 BST
Snapshot
- Strategic Minerals sees Cobre sales at six-year high
- Strategic Minerals kicks off 2024 with shot in the arm from returning client
About the company
Strategic Minerals PLC is a profitable operating minerals company actively developing projects tailored to materials expected to benefit from strong demand in the future.
It has an operation in the United States of America along with development projects in the UK and Australia.
The company is focused on utilising its operating cash flows, along with capital raisings, to develop high quality projects aimed at supplying the metals and minerals likely to be highly demanded in the future.
How it is doing
Strategic Minerals PLC (AIM:SML, OTC:SMCDF) said sales from its Cobre iron ore tailings operation in New Mexico hit a 6-year monthly high in February.
To help cope with the demand, SML’s subsidiary Southern Minerals Group is now acquiring a Caterpillar Excavator (Trackhoe 320) as volume increases.
Tonnage in the month reached 4,898 tons, making it the highest monthly sales tonnage since March 2021.
SML added that as a portion of SMG's clients are fertilizer companies, where demand seasonally increased in February and March, the 6-year high tonnage sales augurs well for the remainder of the year.
Strategic Minerals PLC (AIM:SML, OTC:SMCDF) said it expects revenues from its Cobre tailings subsidiary to double this year after it landed a second sizeable contract.
After its major customer restarted orders last month, a new client has now signed up and is expected to take 5,000-7,000 tons (t) of iron ore a year, the company added.
Strategic Minerals PLC (AIM:SML, OTC:SMCDF)’s shares jumped 68% on Thursday after the biggest customer of its Cobre tailings operation in New Mexico returned with a new order for 30,000 tonnes of iron ore.
The (unnamed) customer halted supplies in 2023, knocking a big hole in SML’s deliveries for the year just ended, but this contract is 50% bigger than anything it ordered previously and will give a boost to cash flows this year, said John Peters, managing director.
What management says
Strategic Minerals PLC (AIM:SML, OTC:SMCDF) Managing Director John Peters speaks to Thomas Warner from Proactive after the minerals company announced the return of sales to a major client from the company's Cobre operations, marking a positive shift after a 14-month hiatus.
This client's return, boasting an order size 25-50% larger than previous dealings, promises to boost the company's cash flow. Additionally, a potential new client is in discussions.
Peters says that the company has successfully negotiated bimonthly billing terms and a 15-day payment window, easing previous cash flow constraints.