Despite silver having a moment in the market and copper being hot stuff, the Sweden-focused Alicanto has been losing traction over the past three years, so the executives have stepped up with a plan to light a fire under the stock.
The group wants to bring in new assets, and the initial step is restructuring the board.
Shorrocks will stay as chair but take on executive duties, leading a new board that will be boosted by ex-Bellevue geologist Duncan Grieve and former EY partner Russell Curtin.
After two years, Rob Sennitt has stepped down as managing director, while Naylor will hand the chief financial officer’s role to Susan Field.
With Naylor and Parsons still in Alicanto’s orbit as consultants, the new team will review the existing assets in Sweden while examining complementary options.
Grieve, who has worked on the projects before, indicated that recent drilling results warranted further exploration.
The company has more than 310sq.km of tenure in the prolific Bergslagen mining district, but the combination of a tier one jurisdiction and in-demand metals don’t seem to have garnered investor interest.
The recent Falun drilling provided evidence for the potential of more copper-gold discoveries along trend from the historical mine at Krondiket and Galgberget, west and south of the mine respectively, while holes at Skyttgruvan-Naverberg indicated a much larger mineralised footprint than previously anticipated.
Alicanto is already planning its next round of drilling at Falun, including at the priority Albenius copper-gold prospect and Gruvriset, which sits along a parallel structure to the mine from which 3.6Moz gold and 1.1Mt copper were recovered prior to the operation closing in 1992.
Alicanto controls some 60km of strike around the Falun copper-gold and polymetallic skarn project that has seen little exploration since the 1990s.
It also has a resource of 15 million ounces silver, 44,000 tonnes lead and 311,000t zinc at the historical Sala mine from which more than 200Moz high-grade silver was recovered.
The deposit is described as analogous to other world-class zinc-silver-lead systems, including Boliden’s nearby Garpenberg mine, and the explorer has made two new discoveries it thinks could indicate repeats of the Sala mine.
It has made positive comparisons with Adriatic Metals’ Rupice development.
Alicanto, which started the quarter with A$1.7 million cash, is seeking to raise $1.6 million via a 1-for-5 non-renounceable entitlement offer priced at 1.3c, a 24% discount to recent trading levels.
Subject to shareholder approval, directors will participate for an additional $123,500.
Despite its recent brownfields drilling, and the improved sentiment for copper and silver, Alicanto’s shares have fallen from 5.5c to a recent low of 1.4c over the past year, and interest in the stock has been limited.
There was substantial trading action today, with the stock up 21% to 2.3c.
While the explorer is only capitalised at $14 million at that level, Auteco Minerals was valued at just $69 million 12 months ago before ‘Team Bellevue’ tilted it towards Canadian copper and, as Firefly Metals, it is now worth $378 million.
Mitre’s move into the high-grade Cerro Bayo project in Chile last December has prompted its valuation to rise from $12 million to almost $70 million.
