It’s hard to overstate the advantages of operating in a safe jurisdiction. |
In a world where the best deposits often reside in places with confiscatory mining polices (or virulently anti-mining constituencies), a gold miner’s ability to make, develop and profit from gold discoveries is no sure thing. That’s what makes a location like Western Australia so valuable. |
This is a jurisdiction with a large gold endowment, mining-friendly permitting, an experienced labor pool and clear rules around government royalties and taxation. |
Having projects in places like Western Australia gives mining and royalty companies a real competitive advantage over companies who operate in riskier locales. And among the growing universe of junior gold royalty plays, Vox Royalty’s (VOX.V; VOXCF.OTC) Western-Australia-heavy portfolio makes it perhaps the sector’s most attractive story. |
Massive Exposure To Western Australia |
The team at Vox view Western Australia as the best jurisdiction to explore for, develop and operate a gold mine in the world… and so does the Fraser Institute, the leading rating agency for mining jurisdictions. That’s a big reason why, out of Vox’s total portfolio of 47 royalty and streaming assets, 31 are in Australia and 25 are in Western Australia. The map below makes this bias toward the jurisdiction clear. |
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In Q4 2020 alone, Vox’s royalty properties saw ~32,000 meters of drilling, 20,000 meters of which was in Western Australia. Two of the company’s producing assets (Koolyanobbing, Higginsville/Dry Creek) are in the state and a third (Bulong) is expected to begin mining later this year. |
Consistently Among World’s Top Five Mining Locales |
Why is Vox so bullish on Western Australia? Well, consider that in 2019, the Fraser Institute’s Annual Survey of Mining Companies for Investment Attractiveness ranked the Australian state its number one mining jurisdiction. Over the past five years, it has consistently ranked among the Top Five Mining jurisdictions. |
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Mining is part of the culture in Western Australia, which means that the local population features a skilled labor pool and a bias in favor of getting projects into production. It shows in how quickly the government responds to permitting applications. In a world where mines in many places can take 10 years or longer to build, it takes as little as three or four years to build them in Western Australia. Two recent examples are the DeGrussa copper-gold mine (discovered in 2015, in production in 2019) and the Nova nickel-copper-cobalt mine (discovered in 2012 and constructed in 2015/2016). |
A Rich Gold Endowment |
Certainly, a big reason Western Australia consistently ranks so highly is its large mineral endowment, including an impressive amount of gold production. Western Australia produces 70% of the country’s 11 million ounces of annual gold production and makes Australia the second largest gold producer globally. In 2018-2019 alone, $673 million was spent on gold exploration in the state, which accounts for the majority of the ~2.5 billion meters of drilling completed in Australia in 2018-2019. |
Locational Advantage In A Cash-Flow Race |
In the royalty mining game, a big marker of success is getting as much of your portfolio as possible into production so you can reap positive cash flows. |
That need to become cash flow positive underscores why Vox Royalty’s Western Australia focus is such a big deal. |
The Fraser Institute’s 2020 survey showed that 70% of respondents expected a wait time of less than six months to get permits, licenses and notice of work to conduct exploration in Western Australia. The logic here is straightforward, a faster timeline for exploration (and development) means gold projects get into production faster, and therefore begin generating cash flow faster for their royalty holders. No doubt, that’s a big reason why a good portion of Vox’s producing and near-term producing assets in the graphic below are located in Western Australia. |
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With its exploration development timelines compressed relative to the rest of the world, Western Australia gives Vox a leg up on its competitors in the race to become cash-flow positive. |
Perfect Timing |
So what makes now such a great time to invest in Vox Royalty? In a word: catalysts — an abundance of them — including: |
• Organic news flow from more than 40 operating partners • First production pending from the Segilola and Bulong projects • Upcoming feasibility studies and PEAs from key projects • Resource updates from the Higginsville, Segilola and Kookynie projects • Continued royalty portfolio growth |
All this activity, much of it in Western Australia, has the potential to translate into exponential cash flow growth for Vox — the turbo-charger of royaltyco share price appreciation. Bottom line: If you want to position yourself for big profits in gold’s upcoming run, you’ll want to look at Vox Royalty…and you’ll want to do it now. |