One of the bigger trends of 2023 looks like being the reopening of China following 3 years of the COVID-19 pandemic. There are several ways to play this thematic – Chinese funds/ETFs, iron ore, but how about tin? The tin price is up a staggering 22.76% over the past month (at the time of writing).

Trading Economics states: “Tin futures were trading around the $30,000 per tonne mark, a level not seen since June 2022, as top consumer China made efforts to reopen and support its economy, thus lifting the outlook for demand.”

The 10 year tin price chart shows tin prices recovering in 2023 now at US$29,536/t

Source: Trading Economics

Tin is a key metal for the green energy transition as it is used in electric vehicles and solar panels. This is mostly because tin is used in solder (49% of tin demand comes from solder). Solder is used in practically every electronic product in the world today. As production and demand for consumer electronics recover in China that bodes well for tin prices.

Tin is the hidden green energy transition and consumer electronics metal of today and the future

Source: International Tin Association

Alphamin Resources Corp.

Alphamin Resources Corp. (TSXV: AFM) (Alphamin) currently produces ~4% of the world’s tin (Sn), or ~12,000tpa. Alphamin state: “At a tin grade of roughly 4.5%, Mpama North is the world’s highest-grade tin resource – about four times higher than most other operating tin mines in the world.”

Alphamin is a low-cost tin concentrate producer from its high-grade deposit at Mpama North at their 84.1% owned Bisie tin mine in the DRC.

The 2022 Resource estimate is an Indicated Resource of 0.84 million tonnes at 2.53% Sn (21,400 contained tonnes of Sn) and an Inferred Resource of 4.99 million tonnes at 2.5% Sn (124,750 contained tonnes of Sn). Alphamin has recently managed to increase the Mpama North Resource as you can view in the video here.

The exciting part is that Alphamin is a low cost producer so is nicely leveraged to tin prices. Even better is that Alphamin intends to expand the mine’s production from 12,000tpa Sn to ~20,000tpa Sn from FY2024, which would equate to about 7% of the world’s tin supply.

As announced in October 2022, Alphamin’s Mpama South development project is progressing according to plan. Alphamin stated: “The project is progressing on schedule for targeted commissioning in December 2023. Overall project completion is at 18.6%, and 84.3% of the procurement requirements have been finalised and ordered. The project is not expected to exceed its total cost estimate of US$116 million.”

Alphamin’s milestones and goals and Mpama North & Mpama South shown below

Source: Alphamin company presentation

Alphamin exploration continues

In addition to drilling for resource extensions at Mpama North and Mpama South, Alphamin is exploring for more tin deposits on its license areas. The Bisie Ridge Phase 1 new discovery has been accelerated with ~90 drill holes planned on six highly anomalous targets, following which a Phase 2 campaign will delineate any discoveries or else in fill the most prospective targets.

Closing remarks

Alphamin Resources is a pure tin play highly leveraged to the tin price. Being a low cost producer allows Alphamin to remain profitable throughout the tin price cycle. As China reopens early price indications are suggesting 2023 will be a good year for tin, and hence the quality tin miners.

If Alphamin can successfully bring on Mpama South into production and further grow their resource, then the outlook is very bright for Alphamin this decade.

Alphamin Resources trades on a market cap of C$1.273 billion and a PE of 8.33. One to watch out for in 2023, especially if tin prices keep rising.

In this InvestorIntel interview, host Tracy Weslosky talks to Alphamin Resources Corp.‘s (TSXV: AFM) CEO Maritz Smith about their recent news, including an updated Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) and Mineral Reserve estimation for their Mpama North Mine and a declared dividend for shareholders. Alpahmin produces about 4% of the world’s mined tin from its high-grade operation in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

In the interview, which can also be viewed in full on the InvestorIntel YouTube channel (click here to access InvestorChannel.com), Maritz tells InvestorIntel that the result of Alphamin’s updated Mineral Resource and Mineral Reserve estimates and updated life of mine schedule is that all contained tin depleted by mining since 31 December 2019 has been replaced in the new LoM schedule for the Mpama North Mine. “The Mpama North mine is really the backbone for where we want to go,” Maritz says. “This mine was commissioned in 2019 we increased its production from around 10,000 tonnes of tin a year to 12,000 tonnes of tin a year, and it’s important that this mine continues to deliver consistently for us in terms of production and sales.”

In a market that having trouble keeping up with tin demand, Maritz says that “we are on a growth path of unlocking additional tin resources which will lead to additional tin production… because we believe the tin market has a significant supply issue.”

Talking about the recent dividends paid by Alphamin, Maritz tells Tracy that “in addition to our various growth initiatives which we’re funding organically from our balance sheet, we have commenced declaring dividends to our shareholders” with the first dividend declared in February 2022 and a second “At the moment we’re running at about an eight percent dividend yield.”

To access the full InvestorIntel interview, click here

Don’t miss other InvestorIntel interviews. Subscribe to the InvestorIntel YouTube channel by clicking here.

About Alphamin Resources Corp.

When investing in miners, investors love to see rising commodity prices, growing production numbers, growing EBITDA or cash flows, falling or zero net debt, and ideally some dividends. Today’s company has achieved 4 of the 5 and will potentially have the 5th component ‘dividends’ added soon.

Alphamin Resources Corp. (TSXV: AFM) (“Alphamin”) is a pure-play, low-cost, tin concentrate producer, from its high-grade deposit at the Mpama North, Bisie Tin Mine, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Alphamin has a Resource Reserve of 3.33MT @ 4.01% Sn (tin) resulting in 133.4 kt of contained tin.

Alphamin operates the high grade, low cost, producing Bisie Tin Mine in the DRC

Source: Alphamin company presentation

High tin prices

The tin market continues to go from strength to strength, the tin price is currently at US$34,930/t. Tin prices are up 93.28% over the past year, driven by strong demand (consumer electronics and other green energy related products) and weak supply (notably from COVID-19 impacted Malaysia & Indonesia). For 2021, tin supply is forecast to be in deficit by 10,200 tons which should continue to support tin prices in the short term.

Growing production numbers and growing EBITDA

Alphamin has taken full advantage of the stronger tin prices in 2021 by increasing tin production an impressive 17% in the last quarter (measured as over the June quarter). This has resulted in a record Q3 EBITDA guidance of US$53 million, up 56% for the third quarter, 2021,from the prior quarter.

Debt falling to zero

All of this has put Alphamin in a great financial position of being able to reduce their debt to zero. This is an outstanding achievement given the net debt was US$59.9 million as of 31 December 2020.

As announced on October 4, Alphamin stated that for the quarter ended September 2021:

“The Company moved to a net cash position at 30 September 2021, compared to a net debt position of US$29.5m the previous quarter. Our intention is to fully settle the outstanding senior loan of US$36m during October 2021. The Board will establish an appropriate treasury strategy during Q4 2021 with the objective of balancing capital allocations between ongoing exploration drilling, the potential fast-track development of the Mpama South deposit and shareholder distributions.”

Dividends

As suggested in the quote above, investors should potentially be able to look forward to some dividends (“shareholder distributions”) in 2022. This will considerably strengthen the appeal of Alphamin to a broader group, including those investors seeking an income.

Exploration upside (Mpama North expansion on the existing resource, Mpama South, and Bisie Ridge)

• Drilling at Mpama North is to test the strike and dip extension of the current producing orebody.
• Considerable drilling at the Mpama South deposit is expected to lead to a Maiden Mineral Resource to be announced by year end 2021. More details here.
• Drilling at Bisie Ridge (13km strike length) is expected to commence on delivery of additional drill rigs. Exploration has identified several high potential drill targets less than 8km from the current operating mine which match and are co-incident with the soil sampling results.

Alphamin’s stock price has tracked the tin price higher boosted by strong global tin demand

Source: Alphamin company presentation

Closing remarks

Tin has been named “the forgotten critical mineral” for good reason. It is because tin is used in electrical and electronic solders, and it is therefore found everywhere in electronics and green energy products. Some say that tin is “the metal most impacted by new technology“.

Alphamin Resources is now ticking all the boxes – A pure play, low cost, high grade tin concentrate producer with exploration upside; high tin prices supported by strong demand from electronics and new and green technology; growing production numbers and growing EBITDA, debt falling to zero, and the very real prospect of dividends commencing in 2022.

Alphamin Resources Corp. trades on a market cap of C$1.039 billion and a forecast 2021 PE of 11.5, even after the stock price has risen 295% over the past one year. Some DRC risk applies but for now, the Company is making all the right moves.

In a recent InvestorIntel interview, Tracy Weslosky speaks with Maritz Smith, CEO of Alphamin Resources Corp. (TSXV: AFM) about Alphamin’s recent milestones including substantially reducing net debt and fully commissioning and commencing production at its fine tin recovery plant.

In this InvestorIntel interview, which may also be viewed on YouTube (click here to subscribe to the InvestorIntel Channel), Maritz went on to say that the fine tin recovery plant is expected to increase production by 5-10%. He added, “Alphamin is a high-margin pure tin producer with margins in excess of 50%.” Alphamin currently produces 4% of the world’s mined tin from Mpama North which is the world’s highest-grade tin resource – about four times higher than most other operating tin mines in the world. Maritz told InvestorIntel that Alphamin is expected to be debt-free in this calendar year and is progressing well with its various drilling campaigns with an objective to substantially increase the resource base and double the current production rate.

To watch the full interview, click here

About Alphamin Resources Corp.

In this episode of the Critical Minerals Corner with Jack Lifton, Jack is joined by Maritz Smith, CEO of Alphamin Resources Corp. (TSXV: AFM) and Christopher Ecclestone, Principal and mining strategist at Hallgarten & Company to discuss the ‘price rally’ in tin. A critical material, they discuss the increasing demand for tin in the EV market, the rising shortfall and why “tin is the glue that holds the electronics and technology world together.”

In this InvestorIntel interview, which may also be viewed on YouTube (click here to subscribe to the InvestorIntel Channel), Maritz went on to explain why there is a shortfall in tin supply. Alphamin’s Mpama North is the world’s highest-grade tin resource – about four times higher than most other operating tin mines in the world. Currently producing 4% of the world’s mined tin, Alphamin is the first tin major since the 1970s. Maritz added that Alphamin has robust margins and cash flow and the Company is allocating internal cash flow to fund drilling campaigns to double its current orebody and discover another high-grade deposit south of Alphamin’s operating Bisie mine.

To watch the full video, click here

About Alphamin Resources Corp.

In a recent InvestorIntel interview, Tracy Weslosky speaks with Maritz Smith, CEO of Alphamin Resources Corp. (TSXV: AFM) about the growing market demand for the critical material tin in technology advancements, Alphamin’s Mpama North is the world’s highest-grade tin resource – about four times higher than most other operating tin mines in the world.

In this InvestorIntel interview, which may also be viewed on YouTube (click here to subscribe to the InvestorIntel Channel), Maritz went on to say that tin is the metal expected to be most positively impacted by new technology advancements. Primarily used in soldering circuit boards, tin is a vital component in the manufacturing of electric vehicles, robotics, renewable energies, and advanced computing. With one of the world’s highest grade producing tin mines in the world, Maritz said that “Alphamin is well placed to take advantage of the significant growth in tin demand aligned to the electronics industry.”

To watch the full interview, click here

About Alphamin Resources Corp.