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Examining Retirement Revival’s “Is This Junior Mining Company Your Next 10-Bagger?”

Opening up a teaser solution from a September Friday File

By Travis Johnson, Stock Gumshoe, October 31, 2016


I’m going in for an eye treatment today that will keep me from being able to type for most of the day, so… expecting that I won’t get a new article written for you during the day, I’m opening up this Friday File commentary that I originally shared with the Irregulars on September 26.

There isn’t any huge news since then, the company did release earnings late last week, with their development and expansion plans more or less on track, but the stock isn’t really moving on the fundamentals of their specific mines — it’s moving right in line with other miners, gold is down 5% and most of the gold miners are down an average of about 10% in the five weeks since this article originally appeared, and this “secret” junior mining company is also down about 10%. So if you’re enthused about this one, I guess the good news is “you haven’t missed anything yet.” What follows has not been updated, edited or revised since it was first published on September 26.> Thanks for reading!

After the wild move that gold stocks have had this year, everyone is once again intrigued by junior miners — the 500-1,000% moves of some of the most promotional and headline-generating little gold stocks during the first six months or so of 2016 has created another frenzy. A frenzy of investment newsletters pitching mining stocks.

But this one is a little different… it’s not about gold. Well, it’s a little about gold, but it’s mostly about two much more boring commodities that have not had huge recoveries this year (not yet, at least): Copper and zinc.

And it’s from a newsletter I’ve never heard of before, and haven’t written about.

So that’s two little points of interest, which is enough to tip the balance and get my attention.

The ad we’re looking at today is from a service called Retirement Revival, published by Investiv and written by Thomas Moore. I’ve seen some options-related pitches from them in the past, and they also are responsible for the Market Trend Signal charting/alert system, but this is the first time I’ve noticed them teasing a specific stock.

So what is Moore saying that caught our attention? Here’s a taste:

The Copper Jewel

“Is This Junior Mining Company Your Next 10-Bagger?

“It provides a blue-chip like safety – a 5% dividend – and the last time this happened it turned every $10,000 into
$267,000…and it’s about to do it again.”

What’s not to like, right? Blue chip safety, big dividend, junior miner, has generated huge gains in the past? Well, what’s not to like other than the obvious “that’s too good to be true” response that should be our knee-jerk reaction to these kinds of promises.

What else do we learn about this “junior miner?”

“… the best time to buy junior mining companies is right after a major bear market low, before the next bull market begins….

“… you can still buy this company near the bottom, but it is urgent. Once it begins to move it will happen very quickly.

“After the last bear market low in 2008, the share price of this small cap miner rose from $0.27 to $7.50 in just over two years.”

And this…

“Right now the share price is down -62% from its old high and is trading “dirt cheap.” However, all indicators are pointing to a possible 300% rise… which could happen in as little as 12 months.

“But it won’t stop there. Ultimately, I believe the share price of this particular junior miner will rise by 1,000% and possibly as much as 4,000% from today’s price. Here’s why:

“The two metals this company specializes in are two of the most important economic metals in the world and both have gaping supply deficits over the next 20 years – unlike anything we’ve ever seen in modern history.”

So why hasn’t this stock already been on fire this year, like those super-hot gold juniors?

Mostly, it appears, because it’s not primarily a precious metals stock. Here’s a bit from the ad:

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“… this junior miner specializes in copper and zinc with some gold too. And even though investors haven’t yet recognized it, I believe investing in copper and zinc right now could prove to be the trade of the decade.

“You see, just like gold and silver, the price of copper has been clobbered over the last 5 years. Down -55% from the 2011 high.

“And while the price of gold and silver have already started to recover, in large part because of all the monetary easing the world over, the price of copper hasn’t yet started its new uptrend.”

Other clues?

“… it has no debt, is among the lowest cost producers in the world, and is flush with cash on its balance sheet.

“In other words, as far as junior mining companies go, this company is blue-chip grade. It even pays a 5% dividend, which the company grew by 100% during this last devastating bear market.”

OK, so we add copper and zinc to our cauldron of clueishness, stir it all up with a dividend and a good balance sheet and a low-cost operator with strong management, and what company do we get? Once we pour that mixture into the Thinkolator, the answer comes pretty quickly out the other end: This is Nevsun Resources (NSU in both Toronto and New York).

Nevsun, which is really a midtier miner (not a junior, at least not in my book) has been prospecting in Africa for 20 years or so, they sold a couple of their earlier discoveries and for the past decade they have mostly been focused on developing and operating the Bisha mine, the gold/copper/zinc mine that they control and operate in Eritrea (Nevsun has 60% ownership, the remainder is owned by the Eritrean government). Bisha has been in operation for about five years now, and production has moved in phases to some degree — they went after a layer of gold mineralization first, then copper, and now they’ve put a zinc mill into operation and are working on the copper/zinc parts of the mine. This mine is low cost, it has produced positive cash flow for years even with copper prices not being all that exciting, and it’s the reason Nevsun has been able to pay a pretty nice dividend.

They’ve also continued their exploratory work in the neighborhood, they bought a bigger license area and have a second significant deposit nearby called Harena that has been incorporated into Bisha’s reserves, along with expansion potential at the original Bisha site and in other target areas that could extend production beyond the current estimated mine life of eight years.

But the big change for Nevsun didn’t come from Eritrea, it came from their acquisition of Reservoir Minerals a few months ago.

You might remember Reservoir Minerals — they were teased a few times in 2011 because of their gold discoveries in Serbia, and it’s one of those assets, the Timok Copper-Gold project, that now becomes the growth focus for Nevsun. Reservoir’s assets get a bit confusing once you start to look through the details, partly because some of their properties were subject to joint venture and “right of first refusal” deals, but apparently they’ve now consolidated ownership of the upper tier of the Timok project.

So that’s the compelling logic of the story here — Bisha is generating cash flow, which may improve a bit when the zinc production comes online and begins to improve the economics at Bisha over the next few months (first zinc shipments have already been made)… and the cash from Bisha, as well as the large cash position on the combined Reservoir/Nevsun balance sheet, will be enough to push forward with development of a large mine at Timok.

From Bisha, Nevsun expects eight years of pretty steady production that will gradually become more zinc-heavy — but as of now the revenue mix is anticipated to be roughly 40% copper, 40% zinc, 15% gold and 5% silver.

The Timok project is not built yet, but the preliminary economic assessment (PEA) released by Reservoir earlier this year put a $1.5 billion valuation on just the upper zone (the part they’ll mine first) based on $3 copper and $1,200 gold and a 12-year mine life. We should take that with a giant grain of salt, since copper prices are struggling to hold $2 a pound and those PEA’s tend to use very low discount rates to get to the current value, but it does have the potential to be a large and meaningful copper and gold mine.

They’re drilling to firm up the reserves, continuing to work with Newmont (which has a JV on the lower zone at Timok), and buying up the farmland in the area to prepare for the possibility that they might be able to start mine construction over the next couple years and begin production within five years. So this is not immediate, but it’s getting closer — they say they’ll have another PEA to release in the second half of next year (usually with miners, when you say “second half of the year” you mean “late December” … nothing ever works as smoothly or quickly as you would hope, and mining executives are usually steeped in optimism).

So while it’s true that they do have the cash to maintain the current dividend for several years even if they don’t increase profits, it’s also true that they have a potentially large capital project in the Timok mine that will call on their resources… so if things go poorly for a couple years there’s no guarantee they’ll keep the dividend going.

This does look like an interesting mid-tier miner, and these kinds of companies often don’t get a lot of love (they’re not as fun as the explorers that can go up 500% on big news, or as stable as the giants who own a dozen operating mines), so it’s possible that the projects are more valuable than they’re getting credit for. This is very much a play on copper prices recovering over the long term, with zinc also an important driver and gold coming in as a “someday” bonus, largely from Timok which has some high-grade gold in parts of the potential mine.

That copper focus makes them a bit contrarian these days, though there are other folks who are also seeing potential in copper projects — the ad makes note of the expected supply/demand imbalance for both copper and zinc, and the folks at Altius Minerals (ALS.TO, ATUSF), which I’ve owned for a long time, also tried to be opportunistic in predicting a long-term rebound for copper earlier this year when they bought a stream on one of Yamana’s major mines (as Sandstorm Gold also did last year).

So copper may not recover, of course, that depends both on future global demand and on the cost to develop all the new copper mines that are in the planning stages… but there are other smart people also betting on copper in the long term (including Carl Icahn, who is cited in the ad as a reason to invest in copper now — he bought up about 8% of Freeport McMoran starting last year).

I found the Altius presentation on copper to be useful, you can see that here (make sure to scroll all the way through the Chapada deal economics to look at their appendix, that’s where they provide some analysis of the incentives for copper production), and I expect copper will probably work out well in the long run… but I’m pretty happy keeping my metals exposure mostly in the streaming companies, so although Nevsun does look like a reasonably valued midtier miner, with some attractive growth potential both in Eritrea and in Serbia, I think I’ll stick with Altius and Sandstorm and let them find copper potential for me.

See a brighter future for copper? Any thoughts on Eritrea, Serbia, or Nevsun’s potential? Other copper miners that you might prefer over Nevsun? Let us know with a comment below.

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mtchills
Member
mtchills
September 26, 2016 3:56 pm

TRQ maybe?

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dmontieth
dmontieth
September 27, 2016 12:33 am

Glad to hear some positive comments on the price of copper! I own stock in Amerigo Resources (ARREF or ARG.TO) an innovative Canadian company that processes fresh and historic tailings at the El Teniente mine owned by Codelco, the world’s largest copper producer. Amerigo’s cash cost to acquire copper by this process is $1.70 per pound – so a $3.00 copper price would be a huge success.

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22over7
22over7
September 27, 2016 12:44 am

I’ve been invested for almost two years in Ivanhoe Mines Ltd ( IVPAF), a Friedland operation. They’ve got a mega copper deposit in the DRC (Congo) which is nearing production. They sold half of the rights to Zijin which is contributing to the costs. A good relationship with the government, too.
Also, IVN has a large PMG tract in South Africa which has potential. I held on as the stock went from $.90 to .23….and this up to $1.70. What’s your take on it, Travis?

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hendrixnuzzles
September 27, 2016 11:40 am
Reply to  22over7

22over7…You have a strong stomach to stay in from 90 to 23 cents.

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hendrixnuzzles
September 27, 2016 4:38 am

Copper…hi mtchills and dmontieth, hi Travis,

I moderate a thread mostly devoted to gold and silver stocks. I hang out there and on Dr Kss’ biotech threads most of the time. Travis lured me over here with his nicely written article.

I don’t do much with copper, nor do I know a lot about it. I suppose ignorance is bliss. But I am aggressively long bullish on $IVPAF Ivanhoe Mines. There are a lot of posts and links to due diligence on Ivanhoe posted on my thread, I invite you over to check them out; if you don’t want to jump over there, I suggest you check out Ivanhoe on your own.

Here’s a link to one of my numerous postings on IVPAF:

http://www.stockgumshoe.com/2016/06/microblog-gold-bull-investments-for-the-next-leg-upjune-2016/comment-page-6/#comment-4898622

You both mentioned points that caught my eye as relates to Ivanhoe. First is TRQ.
It is very attractive, although I currently have no position in it. I bring it up because Robert Friedland is the one who found the TRQ deposit and led it to development;
and Mr. Friedland is the principal executive at Ivanhoe. He is one tremendous
mining executive. He will not get just a plaque in the Mining Hall of Fame,
he is likely to have a statue or an entire wing devoted to him.

Second, copper production costs were mentioned. Ivanhoe’s Kamoa/Kakula deposit,
a JV between Ivanhoe and Zijin mining, will produce copper with a cost of 70 or 80 cents a pound…maybe even lower. New drilling has found ore that is 80% copper by weight. This will be fantastic for economies of extraction and production. Since the cost forecasts were done with lower ore grades, one can reasonably expect improvements if they process the new higher grade ores first, which they have stated they will do.

Sure, $3 copper would be great. But Ivanhoe’s new mine will do just fine with $2 copper. So why fool around with a company that processes tailings that cost $1.30 a pound to get copper, when Ivanhoe is going to produce it from high quality ore for 75 cents a pound ?

Third, El Teniente was mentioned. This is Goliath, the worlds largest copper mine. Ivanhoe’s new find is not as big as El Teniente…but is in the same league, and has not been fully defined yet

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Opposeablethumb
Irregular
September 28, 2016 2:45 pm

Travis: Do you have concerns with $CRTO. allegations by Steel House that they are using click farms, 25% of clicks are from three users. Do they get paid by sales results or clicks? Have been in $CRTO, currently out but interested at this price.

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SoGiAm
October 31, 2016 10:07 am

Join the Gummites on the current PM thread, hosted by HendrixNuzzles, if you desire: http://www.stockgumshoe.com/2016/10/microblog-gold-and-silver-and-hard-asset-investmentsfall-2016/comment-page-2/#comment-4905463
Happy Halloween and beyond all 🙂 Too fun 🙂 ~ Ben

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lee
Guest
lee
October 31, 2016 10:47 am

I would like to know about the new gold marijuana. Anyone on board before the election which will determin legal use of marijuana. What are you putting in your pirtfolio?

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SoGiAm
October 31, 2016 10:51 am
Reply to  lee

4 your convenience there is a 420 (Marijuana) thread that is updated daily: http://www.stockgumshoe.com/2016/03/microblog-420-investors/

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Garry
Garry
November 1, 2016 6:47 am

I looked at Nevsun a few weeks ago and passed because one can never know whether or when the regions overseas are going to explode; Serbia must still be a medium risk! Altius and other royalty companies would seem to be much better risks over the coming two years or so. I have held ALT for three years and was about to bail until Stansberry started to push it; the potential in new recently purchased royalties are worth a gander.

takeprofits
Irregular
December 19, 2016 4:05 pm
Reply to  Garry

I invested in Nevsun years ago and eventually sold at a good profit and being an early investor in Reservoir Minerals which has given me a nice return as well, as soon as I heard that Nevsun was making an offer for Reservoir I bought back in to Nevsun. Mgmt is superb, they have a great balance sheet and pay a 5% dividend, what more could you possibly want from such a low priced stock with huge growth potential?

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Andrew
Member
November 2, 2016 5:43 am

Good call on NSU, tough to find a good D/Y in gold stocks, SBGL and POLY also http://eqibeat.com/top-20-global-gold-miners-market-cap-2/

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BAYGREEN
Member
November 10, 2016 8:49 am

Yes extremely correct in my view, this has the TO GOOD TO BE TRUE LOOK! Blue chip,divy, junior, 10 bagger, all those key words or verbs/adverbs spell watch your money! Yes take a picture because it will not look the same when it ferments in your dreams. Good reporting as I guess you can not give advice but everyone should take heed and also the SAND and ATUSF are very bang for your $.
Here is a recent prediction and I usually don’t harp on these so called Pro’s that speculate. Before the Pre. Election JIM RICARDS explained all his points to why Donald Trump would win the election, and also gave his best stock pick either way . Saying this pick is the safest long term investment and all the reasons behind it. Now looking at all he said and back testing his points to get to why the future bodes well for this stock makes much sense in my book. The stock is a little more pricey but as with a comp. like SAND, the outlook for this is more secure but SAND might get a bigger look at because of the stocks cost. His choice was FNV and now after following his reporting and looking back and some of his older articles I get some validity because of how detailed he was on every aspect to the Election. Read his article and all the facts and not just a couple reasons why the result was TRUMP but his detail left nothing out and it went to play out right on the money. Gumshoe is GREAT STUFF and I would like to hear your thought’s on the FNV for a good buy and hold but also buy when the timing looks best!

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