Central Asia Metals – Site visit to Kazakh operations
Marten & Co’s analyst, Paul Burton, shares his impressions from his site visit to Central Asia Metals (CAML)’s Kazakh operations.
In late April, QuotedData’s analyst visited the plant site with a group of London-based analysts. The group witnessed the first copper (in solution) being leached from the new Western dumps at Kounrad. The commencement of production here reduces the perceived risk in the expansion project. Overall, we were very impressed with the efficiency of the operations. The focus of extraction is transitioning to the Western dumps and the visit suggested that CAML will be able to continue to produce low-cost copper from Kounrad.
Our observations on the new Shuak exploration property suggest that the prospects for finding economic copper mineralisation are much better than had been previously thought (based on initial reports).
If the transition continues to be smooth, CAML should have a long and stable future production profile. It is one of the lowest-cost copper producers in the industry and this supports its ability to continue to deliver a high dividend yield for many years.
The company had cash of US$40m at the end of 2016 and is debt-free.
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CAML : Central Asia Metals – Site visit to Kazakh operations