Topic: Growth Stocks

AMERIGO RESOURCES $0.27 – Toronto symbol ARG

AMERIGO RESOURCES $0.27 (Toronto symbol ARG; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (604-681-2802; www.amerigoresources.com; Shares outstanding: 173.6 million; Market cap: $48.6 million; No dividends paid) processes copper and molybdenum from waste rock at Chile’s El Teniente, the world’s largest underground copper mine. The rock comes from the mine’s current production and tailings from the nearby Colihues deposit. This contract runs at least through 2037.

Amerigo gets 94% of its revenue by processing copper. The remaining 6% comes from molybdenum.

In the three months ended March 31, 2015, Amerigo’s copper production fell 12.7%, to 8.9 million pounds from 10.2 million a year earlier. Molybdenum output declined 21.7%, to 97,883 pounds from 125,016.

The lower production and a drop in copper prices cut the company’s cash flow to $1.2 million, or $0.006 a share, from $4.5 million, or $0.026 (all figures except share price and market cap in U.S. dollars).

Amerigo is moving ahead with plans to build a plant to process material from the Cauquenes tailings deposit, located near its current operations. This is a big growth project: the company expects it to help double its production, to 90 million pounds, in 2016.

The Cauquenes expansion will cost $140 million. However, Amerigo has used its cash flow to pay off all of its debt over the last few years, and it holds cash of $14.2 million. It also has financing in place through Chilean banks and Export Development Canada.

Copper prices have dropped to $2.47 U.S. a pound from around $3.25 in mid-2014, but the metal should rebound with the global economy.

Amerigo is still a buy for aggressive investors.

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