Artemis Resources Limited – Q&A
Today we have a Q&A with Alastair Clayton Executive Director at Artemis Resources Limited. An experienced geologist and mining executive from London.
Alastair specializes in appraising, optimizing, and financing large-scale mining projects across the world. Honours Degree in Geology from the University of Western Australia and a Post Grad in Finance and Economics.
Artemis Resources Limited - ASX/AIM:ARV, Frankfurt: ATY, US OTCQB: ARTTF
Artemis is a listed company a gold and copper focused resources company with a focus on base, battery and precious metal deposits. With two Pilbara projects, the first being the Greater Carlow Gold-Copper-Cobalt Project in the West Pilbara and the second being Paterson Central exploration project in the East Pilbara.
Artemis Question Time….
1. Prior to Artemis you have been involved in a number of other company listings, namely Extract Resources & Universal Coal, can you tell us a little more about your prior experiences with those two companies?
Thanks Spencer. Yes two to very different companies but both great results for our retail and institutional shareholders. Extract Resources Limited was an ASX100-listed Uranium exploration company that discovered the Husab Uranium Deposit in Namibia. As a Director of this company representing the largest (~43%) shareholder (AIM-listed Kalahari Minerals PLC) I was part of the team that completed a US$100m drill out, investment from Rio Tinto PLC and eventual full sale to China Guangdong Nuclear Power Company for ~A$2.2B in 2012. The mine is now the second largest Uranium mine in the world.
Universal Coal, of which I was a founding Director and helped finance the A$20m capital raise as part of the ASX IPO was a true cornfields to dividends mining story. In the space of 8 years went from exploration to operating 3 mines for approximately 8mpta of production and paying quarterly dividends until eventual hostile A$175m takeover by ASX-listed Terracom in 2020.
2. Can you tell how you first started to get involved with Artemis?
I knew some of the old Directors and it was actually my idea to secure the Paterson Central ground that surrounds the incredible Havieron Gold-Copper discovery near Telfer in WA. In late 2019 the Company was out of money and in need of a full reboot. I saw the opportunity to grab the reigns and fully rebuild and optimise the project portfolio to where we are today, with 100% ownership of our two premiere projects and well-funded.
3. I like the fact you are an investor in Artemis personally, which gives you skin in the game, what made you take the plunge on a personal level?
Easy decision. Value. I think I’ve spent nearly A$750,000 of my own money buying on market and id buy more at these ridiculous levels if I were not in possession of knowledge of upcoming things that preclude me from doing so!
I expect to make a very handsome profit on my investment.
4. ESG is an industry Buzzword and is playing a more integral role in investors reviews, can you tell us more about the sustainability role Artemis is applying to its business to ensure?
Most obviously we are exploring as much for copper as we are gold. We expect to update our copper resources soon and it’s all about sourcing metals from safe and responsible jurisdictions, none better than Western Australia. We also have an interesting Cobalt angle but that needs more work before I can give you a sensible answer.
5. Carlow Castle is the site at West Pilbara with gold, copper and cobalt deposits, can you give us an overview on where you are today with that site?
Located only 20km from the regional city of Karratha, Carlow is a gold-copper and in places copper-gold deposit where we are taking “higher-grade” approach to what has already been discovered and what remains out there. Grade is always king in mining and in our upcoming resource update we are aiming to have a resource well on its way to 1Moz of gold equivalent (gold + copper) at a grade that is well above regional peers. Furthermore we will continue to explore adjacent to known resources to further grow the inventory. Quality resources are robust through metals price cycles and always attract the best premiums on share prices or takeovers. Watch this space!
6. Paterson Central project is a Gold & Copper project based at Paterson Province of Western Australia with some very large producing neighbours, where are you on that project today and what does the future look like?
Paterson Central is a high-alpha exploration project that is as good an opportunity as you get in this industry. Why do I say that? Our 605sqkm licence surrounds on 3 sides and is in places on 2000m from the 10Moz (going to 20) Havieron gold copper discovery near Telfer in the world’s best and safest mining investment jurisdiction, Western Australia. Due to an historical quirk and some plain good luck we managed to get the licence only 20min before Rio Tinto applied for the same ground. We have just begun a large drill programme to test our targets on the licence. Should we be successful in making a discovery, well the upside is huge. Take a look at the share price performance of AIM-listed Greatland Gold (GGP.L) back in 2019 when they made the discovery. Havieron is now under construction with first gold/cooper to be poured in 2024.
7. What can you tell us about the Radio Hill Processing Plant?
The Radio Hill Plant is a nickel processing plant the company owns and is located only 15km from Carlow. Previous management spent about A$37m on the acquisition and some enhancements, It is not immediately ready to be used but its value over and above the A$20m book value we carry the asset at is in its strategic location and the fact its largely permitted for processing activities. Again, watch this space for how we are going to create value of this asset.
8. The Munni Munni PGE Project, what is the latest situation with respect to this project and the involvement of Alien Metals PLS (LSE AIM:UFO)?
With our two core projects plus the Radio Hill Plant we had our hands full we had to decide what to do with the projects we didn’t have the time, money and personnel to progress. Munni Munni is a PGM project in the West Pilbara region, about 20km from Radio Hill. We only owned 70% of the project with ASX-listed Platina Resources owning the remining 30%. Platina signed and agreement to sell their 30% stake to Alien and we followed suit. The deal was largely in Alien script as is customary for such deals. We are now the largest shareholder in Alien and those shares have a current value of about A$4.25m. A useful pot for us to potentially draw down on in the future.
9. What are some of the issues you are facing currently that are outside your controls such as supply chains etc?
As with all industries globally, supply chain wheels are moving slower than we would like. Staffing is an issue and specifically geologists and drill rigs have been harder to come by than usual. The turn-around time from our laboratories for our assay results has been unacceptably long but I am pleased to report some lessening of all these stresses in the last month or so.
10. Can you tell us more about the relationship between Artemis and GreenTech Metals Limited (ASX:GRE)?
As with Munni Munni, we had another group of copper, zinc, nickel projects that we did not have the bandwidth to move forward. We did not own 100% of these projects but our minority partners agreed to our strategy. As such we decided to parcel these up into an IPO “spin out” in early 2022. Incoming new investors put in A$5m into the IPO and retained a circa 15% of shares in the company. Again a long term source of liquidity for us in the future.
11. How does Artemis look in terms of its cashflow?
We are unashamedly an exploration company and thus have no cashflow from operations. We have about A$11m-12m in cash and liquid investments and thus don’t envisage any need to capital raise from some time. A nice position to be in given the poor share price and general market.
12. Artemis listed on AIM back in February 2022, since then we have seen an uptick in price which was followed by a sell off to current levels, what do you believe is behind the share price decline?
The general market has been terrible for some time. Disappointing yes, but we keep our eye on execution whilst markets find a bottom and we will see the rewards. I’ve seen these kind of bear markets before, key is to retain the quality ideas and get positioned for the upturn. The supply-side for commodities (new mines etc) is a bad as I’ve ever seen. Once investors stop fixating on doomsday demand-side scenarios they will realise that new supply and security of supply will drive a new commodities super-cycle and Artemis will be there to capitalise.
13. Positive news on Artemis has been very light so can the investors expect any news to come out in the near term?
Absolutely. Great assays from Carlow last week. More to come. New Carlow resource to come and progress at Osborne (GreenTech JV) and Paterson drilling. Like London buses news all comes along at once.
14. How can people connect with Artemis to follow for more updates?
You can reach Alastair Clayton by Email: Alastair.clayton@artemisresources.com.au
Artemis Resources on LinkedIn
Follow us on Twitter @artemisresource
Camarco PR in London – emily.hall@camarco.co.uk
Cannings Purple Communications in Perth – pkermode@canningspurple.com.au
You can listen to Alastair on the Mining Gold And Copper in The Pilbara Area With Alastair Clayton Podcast
Artemis Resources Limited Contact Details
Place of Business
Ground Floor, 1 Centro Avenue Subiaco WA 6008
Registered Office
Level 8, 99 St Georges Terrace Perth WA 6000
Mailing Address
PO Box 5638 St Georges Terrace Perth WA 6831
Telephone: +61 8 6261 5463
**Disclaimer – Spencer Campbell the Author of this blog post has personally invested In Artemis Resources and reached out to Alastair Clayton after the investment to find out more about the company and did not know Alastair Clayton or any staff at Artemis Resources prior to the investment.
Spencer Campbell
Director SE Asia Consulting - Precious Metals Consultant
