That's a good read. Thanks, TPO ...and thanks, Barry.Need a...

That's a good read. Thanks, TPO ...and thanks, Barry.

Need a reminder occasionally of just what's on offer here at KIN. And it's none too shabby! ...Plenty of exciting prospects, a decent gold inventory, and a Market Cap below cash backing!


The junior explorers are swinging into watch-the-pennies mode. Apart from those in the uranium space, the juniors face a cash squeeze as sentiment sours across a broad range of commodities early in 2024.

Short of putting away massively dilutive equity raisings, many are set to go in to hibernation mode, which will only put further pressure on depressed share prices.

It is not a problem for all of the juniors. Those with a cash kitty beyond a standard two-year outlook for an active explorer can expect better than average support for their exploration programs, as well as a steady procession of new opportunities being presented to them by the cash-starved.

It is a situation that Kin Mining (ASX:KIN) finds itself in courtesy of some neat investing in Dacian (ASXCN) when Raliegh Finlayson’s Genesis (ASX:GMD) had Dacian in its takeover sights, and a latter sale of 610,000 ounces of in-the-ground gold from Kin’s Cardina project near Leonora/Laverton to Genesis.

The value of the share consideration for Kin’s 7.34% Dacian stake, and the cash and shares consideration for the 610,000 ounces, currently stands at about $77 million, which is more than Kin’s market cap of $72 million.

Apart from the cash and liquid Genesis shares coming to hand, Kin retains two-thirds of the gold resource at Cardinia and its Mertondale projects to the north, both of which come with exploration upside that the company now has plenty of cash to pursue.

It also recently added a bit of a wildcard to its portfolio – the discovery of high-grade VMS-style base metals mineralisation at Cardina East. Follow-up drilling at the “exciting new discovery” is imminent.

Clearly executive chairman Rowan Johnston and the company have a lot of thinking to do about the best way forward beyond continuing to grow and monetising Cardina/Mertondale and following up the VMS discovery.

Johnston is slotted to present at the Resources Rising Stars “Summer Series” conference in Brisbane on February 1. Other not-so-well cashed up presenters will no doubt be full of ideas for him.