Red Rock Resources Plc, the natural resource development company with interests in gold, manganese and battery minerals, announces that Jupiter Mines Limited (“Jupiter”, ASX: JMS), an Australian public company in which Red Rock holds 18,524,914 shares (0.95%), has held its general meeting for the year ending 28 February 2019.
Jupiter owns 49.9% of the Tshipi Borwa open pit manganese mine in South Africa.
Highlights
· Sales in the current financial year are in line with the business plan, with 0.84mt of ore sold in Q1 (3.51mt sold in FY 2019)
· Manganese price remains firm with cash costs $2.13 per DMTU (dry metric ton unit) in Q1 and sale price for 37% ore $5.32 per DMTU (both FOB)
· Chinese steel production up 6.5% in 2018, with domestic Mn production continuing to fall, and new regulations for rebar requiring more silico-manganese
· Tshipi now biggest single Mn mine in S Africa, with 9% of world seaborne Mn market
· With 432mt Resource base, 5m tpa fast load-out station, and 3.6m tpa crushing capacity, Tshipi has both 100-year life and capacity for continued expansion
· EV market may start to impact demand: BASF expects 70% Mn content in its EV battery cathodes by 2021
· Jupiter price up 71% since end 2018 to A$0.41 (market value A$803m) with historic yield 18.2%, historic PER 4.2x, and historic Price to EBITDA 2.8x
· First half dividend payout so far this financial year A$0.025, with a further instalment expected at the interim stage.
The Investor Presentation, with an analysis of the manganese market and Jupiter’s place within it, can be found at www.jupitermines.com
At the closing price of Jupiter shares on the Australian Stock Exchange today of A$0.41, Red Rock’s holding is worth A$7,595,214 (£4,251,876).
Andrew Bell, Red Rock Chairman, comments: “Jupiter continues to demonstrate the stability, consistency, and simplicity of the first-rate business it is. With a stated policy of a 70% payout ratio, it achieved 90% payout last year and is on course to provide a continuing strong earnings and dividend stream this year.
We expect organic growth and consolidation of its interests to drive the business over the next four or five years, with EV materials potentially providing a significant source of incremental demand at the end of that period.
The significance to us of our holding in Jupiter is demonstrated by the fact that the value of our holding today is 34% in excess of our market value of £3,177,433”.
