The Greatland Gold share price (LSE:GGP) is up 629% in the last six months. Is it a bubble, or a treasure still waiting to be discovered?
Consider this. Western Australia is packed with high-grade gold, and UK AIM-listed Greatland Gold is all over it.
Greatland picked up the rights to the Haveiron project in 2016 in a cash and shares deal. It was worth A$750,000 to the seller, private Melbourne firm Pacific Trends Resources. And the Greatland Gold share price has boomed in recent months on repeatedly good drill results.
High-grade profit
With gold prices at all time highs above $1,700/oz, selling into this market is definitely a money-maker.
And if you’re dabbling in gold mining shares, you need to understand some basics. First, the higher the percentage of precious metal found in rock, the more economical it is to mine. Higher-grade equals more potential profit. Gold is measured in grams per ton (g/t) and copper as a percentage of rock composition.
“Analytical results released today from the Haveiron project are considered outstanding,” said CEO Gervaise Heddle , “and include 109m @6.3g/t gold and 0.71% copper from 668m.”
Heddle certainly isn’t shy about throwing around positive language. These results are “truly spectacular“, he told the market this week. And I must admit, the numbers do look good on paper.
Drilling intercepted one short section of around four metres showing very high-grade metals include one section at 76g/t gold and 1.2% copper.
The addition of a large farm-in partner is encouraging. The ASX-listed A$24.2bn market cap Newcrest Mining is one of the world’s biggest gold mining companies. It also has existing resources 30 miles down the road from Haveiron, at its economical gold and copper Telfer mines.
Greatland Gold share price issues
The Greatland Gold share price is much discussed on Twitter. It also commands a fervent, cult-like bulletin-board following. These facts alone would usually mean I steer well clear. If the figurative ‘bloke down the pub’ is urging you to buy, I normally run in the opposite direction. Not that pubs are open. But you get what I mean.
The Greatland Gold share price could continue to rise on momentum and news buzz alone. But can its potential be turned into real cash?
The history of the FTSE is littered with the bones of trendy hype stocks. High upfront cost-intensive mining shares represent a large proportion of these. And the gold price continuing to break records? By no means guaranteed. From 2011 to 2018 gold lost 34% of its value against the dollar.
It’s not unusual for gold miners to spend a vast amount of cash without ever making money.
Take Eurasia Mining, for example. I covered this AIM-listed minnow in November 2019. Buying back then means you would have tripled your stake by now. But like the £426m market cap Greatland Gold, it too has not turned a profit. Yet.
So if you know your stuff, sure, the Greatland Gold share price looks like a great story. If you can’t tell one end of a shovel from the other, I would be wary and would look to make my million elsewhere.