Metal Tiger posts £4m loss as development work continues

Strategic natural resource opportunities investor Metal Tiger reported a loss of £4m before tax in its final results on Friday, despite a recorded gain on the sale of its interest in T3, which it partially blamed on the decline in the share price of its partner MOD Resources between the recorded gain and the financial year end.

The AIM-traded firm said its net asset value rose to £18.95 in the year ended 31 December, from £15.44m a year earlier, equating to 1.40p per share on a fully-diluted basis, which was up from 1.33p.

It noted that the sale of its 30% interest in the T3 Copper Project in Botswana to MOD Resources for shares, options and royalty interests totalling £16.8m generated a profit of £12.5m.

The company increased its interest in the Kalahari Copper Belt through a £0.86m investment into Kalahari Metals (KML), in exchange for a 34% interest in KML with an option to increase its interest to 50% for a further $0.5m, which was exercised post year-end.

In August, the firm successfully raised £6.1m, including £2.6m from the Sprott Group.

The board said it had made “significant progress” in its joint ventures with its partners MOD and KML through exploration workflows around the Kalahari Copper Belt, leading to the identification of multiple potential high-grade exploration targets.

It said the Thai government’s ‘Minerals Management Master Plan’, which was completed in December, gave it clarity for forward planning for its interests in the Boh Yai lead-zinc-silver mine.

Strategically, the directors of Metal Tiger said continued investment across both direct projects and direct equites were creating a “balanced portfolio of opportunities”, with varied exposure to several strong management teams and commodity classes and the potential for “significant” returns.

Post-period end, Metal Tiger raised £1m through a private placing conducted by SI Capital, and £2m through a non-brokered private placement conducted by Sprott Capital Partners and one of its affiliates, Sprott Global Resource Investments.

The definitive feasibility study for the T3 Copper Project was completed in March, with MOD expecting to update the T3 resource model during the third quarter of 2019, following the completion of the ongoing infill drilling programme and metallurgical recovery test work.

MOD apparently expected those workstreams would also permit the upgrading of part of production within the first two stages of the T3 open pit into the higher confidence JORC-compliant measured resource category.

Significant operational progress was also reportedly achieved by KML at the Okavanago and Ngami Copper Projects since year-end, with several potentially high-value targets identified by airborne electromagnetic surveys, and diamond drilling of 2,100 metres planned to start shortly.

Exploration work had also started at the Logrosán Project in Spain, with “encouraging” results reported that that could add “significant” value to the project.

Those consisted of five high-grade tungsten intersections averaging three metres at 0.3% tungsten trioxide, as well as associated tin credits, confirmed at depth.

Logrosán also yielded three high-grade, one metre wide gold intersections ranging between 9.7 grams per tonne and 96.2 grams per tonne of gold across two separate targets, delineating subsurface gold for the first time in the Logrosán area.

“The board believes that 2018 was a transformational year for the group with significant progress being achieved across our investment portfolio thanks to the hard work of the Metal Tiger team, as well as the continued support of its shareholders,” said chief executive officer Michael McNeilly.

“Most notably, the sale of the T3 Project has set the group up for potential future success through the group’s increased footprint in the highly prospective Kalahari Copper Belt, whilst eliminating the cash exposure associated with funding the development of the T3 project.

“We have continued to make good progress in 2019 across both our direct projects and direct equities divisions, and look forward to further value realisation across our portfolio.”