Hello everybody,
Batavia were on a Roadshow in Germany last month,where I was able to meet the new interim CEO Greg Bittar. So here are my first thoughts on the company and their Roper River Iron Ore project:
Overview:
Name: Batavia Mining,Perth Australia, ASX:BTV
Shares outstanding: 133,028,645 (as of 12.May 2010) ! see details below !
Marketcap: 28.6 Mio AUD (shareprice of 0.215 AUD-12.May 2010)
Website: http://www.bataviamining.com.au/
Company presentation: (from site 4 onwards) http://www.bataviamining.com.au/images/batavia---ephoh.pdf
1.The (potential) resource
1.1.Location
The (in July) 100 % owned Roper River Iron Ore Project is located 425 km southeast of Darwin and about 100 km east of a railway line. (see presentation)
1.2.Exploration Target
Batavias property consists of 4 adjoining licenses: EPL 24101,24102 and EPL 27411,26412.A direct neighbour to the East is Western Dessert Resources,another iron ore explorer (ASX:WDR)
First targets for exploration are EPL 24102 and 24101 (in that order) which have been explored by BHP in the 50s and 60s.BHP discovered the gigantic Mt.Whaleback deposit in Western Australia about the same time,thus loosing interest in Roper River.
BTV is confident it can reach initial targets of 80-150 MT on EPL 24102 grading 50-60% FE and ~ 300MT at EPL 24101 grading 40 % FE. (easily upgradeable to 60% by simple crushing and gravity) Impurity levels are low with 0.04% of phosphorus and less than 2.5 % of Alumina.
A first JORC resource is due in August 2010.
BTV didnt set any exploration targets for the remaining two licenses yet,but a look on the picture shows that a continuous mineralisation seems likely with EPL 27411 possibly connecting the first two exploration areas and EPL 26412 being an extension of WDRs resource.So these may account for future upside potential.(see presentation)
2.The Capital Structure/Cash/Investments
2.1.Capital Structure
This point needs special attention,as it will be misleading to just take a look at the outstanding shares.
Batavia has entered into an option agreement to aquire the project last december (which it undoubtedly will do according to the company) for an initial payment of 5 Mio AUD (already paid) and further payments until the 29.July 2010 of 10…
