nice words in the smh

http://www.smh.com.au/business/it-seems-hunkydory-but-expect-the-unexpected-20110213-1as4j.html

Focus Minerals (ASX: FML), which joined the ranks of producers back in April 2008, is a case in point.

Subject to final audit, it expects to report a record interim profit of $6.2 million pre-tax on gold production of 36,339 ounces from its flagship Tindals operation near Coolgardie.

More in terms of production and profit growth is on the way thanks to ore from the high-grade The Mount operation, 80 kilometres to the south at Widgiemooltha, becoming available in March.

Broker Hartleys likes the Focus story. It reckons Focus, which last traded at 5.5? a share, is cheap compared with its peers. Hartleys has a sum-of-parts valuation of 10.3? a share and has set a target price for the stock of 9.5?s.

A call for a near-doubling in a stock price is not something you see every day. It has to be said that with 2.9 billion shares on issue, a move to around the 10?-a-share level is a big ask, given it would equate to an additional $130 million in market value.

But Focus has something up its sleeve that just might get the share price motoring in the next couple of months. It is a prospect called Treasure Island, some 50 kilometres south-east of Kambalda.

It sits on Lake Cowan, on the southern end of the Boulder-Lefroy fault, home to a number of monster gold deposits up north like the Super Pit and St Ives.

Focus picked up a 75 per cent interest in Treasure Island from the prospectors last year and is as keen as mustard to test its early encouragement with some drill holes. No wonder, with rock chip sampling of outcropping material returning grades as high as 59 grams of gold a tonne.

First results from the eagerly awaited drilling program are expected around the end of March.