Wackoo, i had a look at ATV. I think the things holding it back atm are the court proceedings and they need a whopping 150m and only own 60% of the project. But definitely worth a punt if they can be fully funded.
My punt is on MSR for emerging producer (their DFS is coming out next week and initial review compared to the optimization study has been found to be largely consistent) Here is how they rack up on your list.
1) Management. No doubt about that. MD of Perseus mining (An asx200 goldie) as a director. PRU holds 24% of MSR and they provide technical expertise. Recent appointment of operations manager who is experienced and recently did a project with Sino-gold. Interesting point is that management opts to be paid 60% of their remuneration in options with exercise prices from 20-28c. Current SP is 13.5c.
2) Project quality. They have 1m+ jorc all within 7km of each other. A lot of their resources are refractory but this is expected because they are looking for a Carlin deposit like the one in Nevada which mines 79% of all gold in USA. Google it, these Carlin deposits are massive. MSR have decided to start small and mine the oxide material first at their 100% owned Shambesai project first. The beauty of this is that the capex is 19m and cash cost will be 40000oz(average) at 370$ for the first four years (5 year mine life). Cashflow from this will fund aggresive exploration on their 4000km2 tenemants.
3) Sadly this boxed is not ticked. The catch? It is in Krgyzstan. My homework tells me this is an issue but peaceful elections have been held and this is a country starved of $$$ in need of mining revenue. Kumtor gold has been operating even throughout the unstable period 2 years ago. Kentor Gold will be an upcoming one as well. (they are having trouble with unhappy locals so that is a seperate issue, nothing to do with govt). It will always trade at a discount to safer jurisdictions but bear in mind that the corporate tax is 10% in Krgyz. Thats how desperate they are for mining investment.
4) Balance sheet. Extremely strong. Last quarterly showed 13.5m cash. The market cap is 29m. Capex needed is 19m so i expect them to either debt fund or do a small cap raising. This will have little impact on SP because the last cap raising was at 20c and recently the options were underwritten by PRU and majors at 20c as well (SP is at 13c atm). Shortfall will be chomped by the majors looking to get a bigger slice. Not desperate for funding at all.
5) Exploration mainly covered above. Massively underexplored and have a 4000km2. Biggest in kyrgz. Remember that MSR is a spin-off of PRU. PRU split their central asian operations into MSR in 2009. Future exploration will extend mine life even though 5 years is more than enough atm... sulfide material that is mined is set aside and not included in current calculations. These will be stockpiled for future plans (Biox probably).
6) Valuation. Will be producing in q4 2012 or q1 2013. Very near China so parts and construction can be done within 6 months. Net cash flow about 50m+/year average first four years at current gold price. SP has dropped during carnage of 2011. However due for a strong bounce once the DFS is out and i suspect institutions like Asian Lion and Macq Bank are waiting for it before they commit more $$$.
What is important is the motivation of management to get this up succesfully. The chief operating officer has opted to be paid 73% in options...with the lowest options having an exercise price of 25c. (The rest are at 30,40 and 50c). He is also given a bonus 1.25 million options ex price of 40c if he can get 50koz in the first year.
