Meridian Mining is a resource development and exploration company focused on gold-copper projects in Brazil. It's headquartered in London, and the company listed on the London Stock Exchange on the main market in May, having successfully raised 25 million pounds from both institutional and retail investors. At the helm is chief executive Gilbert Clark. So, Gilbert, Meridian, what projects does it have, and what differentiates them and you from other development companies?
Well, Lisa, it's lovely to be here. Meridian, gosh, so we're focused on Brazil and South America on copper and gold. We're looking at developing a project called Cabaçal. And Cabaçal is, for us as a small company emerging, you know, and aiming to become a mid-tier, to have such a prospective project with such strong economics, but have such an extensive exploration portfolio at the same time. It really is one of the few opportunities in the market for near-term development based on some of the best economics that the mining industry has seen in the last 10 years.
So, just remind investors why are the commodities that you'll produce so attractive today? And is the idea to become a producer, or will you allow somebody else to do that?
Our shareholders have been very clear from the start. They want us to be a production company. They want us to grow this into being a mid-tier asset. So, it's copper, gold, and silver we produce. Going to fit, I guess we could say sort of 50/50 gold and copper depending where the commodity prices are. So, as we are going to produce, what we are going to produce is one of the best blending copper concentrates in the market. And by saying that, a lot of times when copper's mined, it's not always optimal to produce smelting. It's got impurities. So, we produce a very high-grade copper concentrate, which can be used by the smelters to blend. And at the same time, we produce gold. So, we've seen a lot of buying by the central banks across the globe, because a lot of them now want that reserve of that metal, that currency. And that's what we provide.
How big is the initial project at the moment? And is there a broader district opportunity out there?
Well, we've just last year completed our PFS, pre-feasibility study. We're very advanced now in our definitive feasibility study, whereby we're going to initially go through a production of 2.5 million tons. And after 4 years, we'll take it up to 4.5 million tons. So, with a life of mine throughput of over 141,000 oz of gold equivalent. Now, when we look forward to this, we also have multiple exploration and another resource development project called Santa Helena, which we're also permitting. So, in the long term, we could have up to over five, what is it, 5.6, 5.7 million tons of throughput along this belt. And it's a volcanic massive sulfide belt, VMS. And VMS belts, they're not just a one little deposit. They're always clusters. And having over 55 km of continuous tenements is a fantastic opportunity for our investors.
Okay, so you sound as though you know exactly what that acronym VMS stands for. So, apart from being very good with your geological abbreviations, you know, what skills does management have? Why should investors trust you with their money?
Oh, well, that's a really good question. So, my background's in private equity. I've always been an equity manager. This company, when we took over the management of it in 2018, was in a stressed state. We brought it back from the brink of a disaster. So, from that, we actually then protected our shareholders' equity all the way through to today, we're approaching over, what is it, over half a billion pounds sterling in valuation. And by doing that, we've always raised money from our shareholders. We've avoided the fast money. We've got good retail. We've got an amazing suite of long-term institutional investors, which quite frankly a lot of companies do not understand what we've got this institutional share registry. And what it comes down to is we don't take risk with our shareholders' capital, and that's reflected in the strength of our equities.
So, how will shareholder value creation be achieved with what you have now?
