14/7/2025: I've been looking to add further diversified gold exposure to my SMSF and I did that today by buying back into Cap Metals (CMM) at $9.33 after selling out of MAQ (Macquarie Technologies, a data centre builder/owner/operator that operate mostly in Canberra and Sydney) @ $66.77 average (sell prices ranging from $66.70 to $66.88) after they popped almost +8% this morning on an announcement of a Sydney land purchase option agreement and a positive update on their IC3 SuperWest data centre development progress (Proposed-Land-Acquisition.PDF). I had built a position in MAQ during recent months at prices from $58 to $62/share after their SP had fallen from $90/share at the beginning of this year. I still like the company, but I think CMM has more near term upside, so I took the profit on MAQ and switched that capital into CMM.

I note MAQ got up to $67.80 earlier this morning, but was falling when I sold out late morning at $66.77 (average) and they're now trading at around $65 as I type this, so the spike in their SP might be short-lived.

It wasn't much of a profit, but it was the company in my Super that I had the least conviction in over the short to mid-term, despite remaining bullish on their longer term prospects, and I want to have most of my investable capital invested in my very best ideas most of the time, so I had to cut them loose to make way for Cap Metals again.

The main things to know about Capricorn Metals (CMM) is that they have great management, led by their Executive Chairman Mark Clark, who have great form for getting gold projects built and producing on time and on budget, not just with Karlawinda, Cap Metals' flagship gold mine, but also back in the early Regis Resources (RRL) days at Duketon and before that at Equigold, which was bought out by Lihir, which was bought out by Newcrest, which was bought out by Newmont (the world's largest gold company), AND CMM have great projects as well.

Karlawinda is their producing gold mine, and Mt Gibson is their big development project. The main things to know about Mt Gibson are that they have a lot of gold there, and;

• The Mt Gibson site was a previously producing gold mine under earlier operators:
• Gold production commenced in 1986, exploiting laterite and oxide ores through shallow open-cut pits (up to ~100 m deep), including some limited underground operations, and between 1986 and 1999, the mine processed approximately 12.5 Mt of ore at ~1.99 g/t, yielding about 799,600 oz of gold via CIL, with an additional ~68,900 oz recovered from heap leach – totalling around 868,500 oz. Operations were placed on care and maintenance in 1999 and the site remained inactive until Capricorn Metals acquired it in 2021. They have found a heap more gold there since then of course.
• Capricorn Metals’ Mt Gibson Gold Project (MGGP) is currently undergoing its final environmental permitting phase. Capricorn lodged the Public Environmental Report (PER) for Mt Gibson with the Australian Commonwealth Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW) in December 2024. Permitting time was expected to be within 6 months. It's now been 7 months. It's important to remember that this was a previously active gold mine so there should be no objections to getting it back into production.
• Argonaut’s latest research indicates that their opinion is that: “Securing the final environmental approvals for Mt Gibson is expected to occur in the next few months” (as of May 2025). Source: https://www.argonaut.com/capricorn-metals-cmm-on-track-for-fy25-guidance/
• That aligns with an approval timeline sometime in mid-2025, preceding the onset of full-scale project construction in early FY26 (which has just begun).
• Main point being, their final permit is imminent now. Could happen any day, but regardless, it should not be far away.

Another positive is that the company is now debt free and fully unhedged:

Here's a brief overview of what I'm getting with exposure to CMM:

They're an ASX200 company with a current m/cap of just over $4 billion, so they are one of the majors now. And they have very competent management who have a history of making sensible capital allocation decisions.

In my opinion they do have a quality / management premium in their share price, so they are not cheap, however the recent pullback in the gold price has presented an opportunity for me to get back into CMM at around $1.50 less than their recent high point of $10.80 (reached only 4 weeks ago on the 16th June).

In summary, they're not cheap, but I'm willing to pay up for quality management in this space, because management matters a LOT, particularly in mining, and the imminent final approval for Mt Gibson (when it happens) should provide a decent positive catalyst for a further leg up on their chart from here, IMO.

Disclosure: Holding (again).