The last five years have been tough for shareholders of Bellzone Mining (LSE:BZM). Once valued at over £1billion the company’s shares now languish at 0.76p on the mid, giving the company a market cap of £12million. Doc caught up with Bellzone CEO Julian Cheong, to find out why this Guinean-focused iron and nickel explorer could be on the verge of achieving a comeback.
The interview can be listened to below, but there are some points worth noting about Bellzone beforehand. The company has strong support from its major shareholders, who have backed it throughout the last few troubled years. These holders have provided about $17million in working capital over this time. Without this Bellzone might not have survived, but now that iron ore and nickel prices are on the rise again the company’s huge assets could be about to come back into play
Bellzone’s key metrics are:
6bt JORC Resource, putting it in the world’s top 3 undeveloped iron ore resources
$80m invested directly in exploration and feasibility work at Kalia
Major shareholder has invested >$150m in Bellzone, from 2011-2017
$43m government-backed infrastructure investment in local road network and $120m investment in port completed
Kalia is 350km from coast – can be developed with road or rail access
Strategic gateway to unlock Simandou
Near-term focus on ferronickel project to exploit nickel occurrence surface layers
Steel intensity of use per capita in China remains low vs. developed countries. Very low in India too.
Iron ore price set to continue gains as global demand consistently grows 3-4% CAGR
