In today’s stock pick of the month we look at Vortex Metals. With Gold and Silver breaking out, Copper is being somewhat ignored, but Copper is needed for the advancement of EV production and other green energies that are being promoted. As I wrote in June 2024 Cooper is near its all time high of just over $5 a pound. There have been shortages in Copper supply for years which is leading to this strength in prices. In addition, it is estimated that copper demand could double on a yearly basis by the year 2035!! As we are already in a supply deficit imagine the price potentially in 2035 if this type of demand takes hold.
However, the smaller copper equities and juniors have lagged the metals.
A small junior Cooper company which came across our radar is Vortex Minerals VMS.v . Vortex is a newer company having only traded since 2022. When you are in a new bull market cycle for resources and junior mining equities I prefer newer deals. The reason being, is you do not have a huge amount of shares out of shareholders who were caught at the top of the last cycle who are willing to sell on the way up to cut losses. Virtually every company over the years that has done well has been a new deal ready to take advantage of the new cycle.
In 2019, the first deal that I marketed in Stock Pick of the Month was a company of Vortex’s current CEO. Mike Williams ran Aftermath Silver which I also participated in a private placement at 8 cents at the bottom of the resource cycle and eventually the stock rallied to $1.50 a share. Mike also ran Full Metal Mining, a stock that in the 2000’s went from a quarter to over $3.00 a share and Underworld Resources which was sold to Kinross for north of $139 million. What all these three successful deals had in common was all were started at the bottom of market cycles and went up as the bull market continued.
Vortex’s Main Property is the Illapel Copper project which it just signed the final agreement to acquire potentially 80 percent of.
Illapel Copper Project Highlights:
Three mineral leases totaling ~6,000 Ha
ROFR on the currently operating Rio 27 Copper Mine with average grade of 1.39% cu for processed ore
Proximity to the El Espino copper project, with an estimated value of US $380 million
North & South of Rio 27 Mine: Mineralization extending along strike from the Rio 27 mine
Permitted for drilling – Epithermal Gold-Copper Targets: Mapping and drilling of epithermal veins in the concession’s western portion
Proximity to major infrastructure, paved roads, power grid and water
Low elevation – 1,500m above sea level with year-round drilling conditions
The initial conditions of the financing to get the first 60 of the 80 percent interest in the property are $1.1 million dollars payable over a 4 year period and 23 million shares, totalling 10 million dollars issued. This is nice cause well it is a bit dilutive the company does not have to worry about coming out with much cash etc… Which could be a lot more difficult than issuing shares.
The company is also beginning an initial drilling campaign.
The stock has been in a range of roughly 9-15 cents for most of the last 12 months. It only has a roughly $9 million Canadian market cap and its recent private placement was oversubscribed. Like Mike Williams Aftermath deal was with Silver in 2019, I feel Vortex is an excellent levered play on the price of Copper.
Disclosure: Mike Swanson is the editor of WallStreetWindow. Because Vortex Minerals is a small cap stock with a market cap of less than $50 million he has put himself in a trading blackout on the stock and will not buy or sell a share of it for at least 30-days from the date of this post (06/03/2024). Wallstreetwindow.com, is owned by Timingwallstreet, Inc., which is being compensated by a third party (Leadgopher LLC DBA Pinnacle Ad Network) to conduct an investor awareness advertising and marketing campaign for Vortex Minerals. This third party paid Timingwallstreet Inc., $3,100 to publish and disseminate this articles and send traffic to it through paid advertising campaigns for 7-days from the date of 06/03/2023. This compensation should be viewed as a major conflict with our ability to be unbiased, more specifically: This communication is for entertainment purposes only. Never invest purely based on our communication. For more on trading risks read our policy statement by clicking here.
