Native Minerals: ticking all the right boxes on gold

The impetus for the continued rise in the gold price to > US$2,920/oz early last week seemed to be the story that China is allowing its top 10 insurance companies to invest up to 1% of their assets in bullion. If accurate, this makes another US$24Bn available to create demand for gold. The bull market is gathering momentum.

Continuing the thematic of looking for good value in smaller prospective gold producers, we cover Native Minerals Resources Holdings (NMR) this week with the benefit of a site visit to see how the refurbishment of the Blackjack treatment plant is progressing. Located inland from Townsville and nearby Charters Towers, NMR seems to tick all the boxes I have been specifying in recent Weeklies; granted mining licence, processing facilities with minimal capex to recommission, mineable resources and experienced management with early cashflow and rapid capex payback on the agenda. Now that NMR has raised the $20m to get the operation going again it is all systems go with a schedule of first gold in June/July 2025.

There was a useful improvement in the sentiment over the week such that equilibrium has been achieved. The improvement can be attributed to investors switching money into the junior gold sector. Expect more of it. 

 WeeklyComm15Feb2025.pages.pdf