With the imminent delisting of OZL quite the dearth of Copper...

With the imminent delisting of OZL quite the dearth of Copper exposure on the ASX with many projects brought on the cheap by US, Canadian and South African interests and not so accessible to ASX investors anymore.

That Cannacord Research book is a pretty good place to start, for actual Cu producers its really down to RIO, BHP, SFR, AIS, A1M and 29M but as discussed by others, with RIO & BHP you also get taken hostage by the iron ore price, SFR has good management and operations in decent jurisdictions and 29M has had a very unlucky turn of events at a most inopportune time and AIS and AMI suffering the usual cost blowouts/margin squeeze/rainfall events and cost inflation issues.

My process was pretty much to put all the following jurisdictions in the rubbish bin for now - Peru, Chile and Mongolia, so bye bye to STM HCH and XAN, then leave the US stories alone for the moment AW1, NWC and EM2 as they seem to have decent projects but the permitting delays and lack of traction in these ASX listed but US-based developers seems to be a common theme, possibly related to AUD USD exchange rates and lack of awareness.




Then once restricted to Australia my summary is as follows:


CVV - big WA inflationary risk with such a low-grade high volume operation
CYM - incompetent management trying to resuscitate a company killer operation
HMX & CNB - early-stage success but could be years away from permitting and production
AIS - often overlooked but have considerable Cu exposure but also high-cost issues (at least they are producing)
AMI - similar story to AIS but further behind thanks to previous bad decisions/management
PEX - never actually do anything, so lazy management need to get out of the way
DVP - a lot of big talk from Bill Beaument but not much actual action so far
KGL - remote location and still some permitting to complete
HGO - possible state-based Nimbysm problems
RXM - best part of Orebody already gone due to previous incompetence and, again, Adelaide Nimbyism
HAV - low grade, permitting delays and lack of progress


As you can see - they all have issues of one sort or another usually crippling capital costs/inflation and previous mismanagement having taken the best part of the orebody away in a futile profitless past, and any of those above would need an Andy Cole or someone like him to grab these second-rate or early-stage Cu exploration & development stories by the scruff of the neck and force them into some sort of progress.

Andy Cole himself + any of the above would be my preference.