I suspected that you would raise this point of shares on issue as I know it has been a concern for you.
I look around at the other small cap copper plays and think we have held our own well in comparison (even with our shares on issue).
I am not perturbed by the number of shares on issue as I don't see AVB as a one mine company with limited growth prospects. Given the confidence of a firmer copper price, a higher exploration budget can provide the more aggressive exploration campaign. Advancing known deposits surrounding both the Stage 1 Antas mine and the Stage 2 Pedra Branca, will add to the global JORC and lengthen life of both mines. We are in very good ground to aggressively grow the global resource across both plants.
I also look at the competitive advantage of the AVB product being very clean high grade cu. I would certainly be worried if we had low grade, dirty deposits, which is certainly not an issue for AVB.
So if I look in isolation at shares on issue, I would say yep, I agree. But when I look a bit deeper, I see the potential for the company to add it its resource reasonably quickly and as the commodity price cycle turns for the better, I see potential for the company to build a MC to support the shares on issue. I look at profitability measures of a company and these will become increasing more important as we are now a producer. IRR on the project at AN is extremely healthy and I suspect PB will be similar result.
I am looking for the company to progressively expand its revenue through increasing production at AN whilst also increasing its JORC resource and add to life of mine through exploration and JV's. Its not an easy game but by my assessment they are in good shape to achieve these aims.
Given a healthier PoC, increasing JORC resource, increasing production and some success with a JV, the market cap and SP should look after themselves. Sounds easy doesn't it but lets hope the worst is behind us now.
AVB Price at posting:
6.1¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
