ASX Round-Up: Saracen and Atrum Coal at a Glance

For investors focused on the resource space, a good way to track companies listed in Australia is to look at the S&P/ASX 300 (INDEXASX:XKO). The index includes all S&P/ASX 200 (INDEXASX:XJO) companies as well as about 100 smaller-cap companies, and as of April 2015 accounted for 74 percent of the Australian equities market. Specifically, the S&P/ASX 300 Metal & Mining (INDEXASX:XMM) division is a great source for companies to watch.
The Investing News Network is thus profiling companies on the S&P/ASX 300 Metal & Mining index. This week’s companies are Saracen Mineral Holdings (ASX:SAR) and Atrum Coal (ASX:ATU).

Saracen is a debt-free gold producer with two operations located in Western Australia: Thunderbox and Carosue Dam. The company has been working to advance Thunderbox, which contains a gold mineral resource of 2.8 million ounces and gold ore reserves of 783,000 ounces.
Recently, Saracen announced that first production at Thunderbox is anticipated in Q2 2016, noting that expected output has doubled to 300,000 ounces per year. First ore mining is anticipated in Q4 2015, and plant refurbishment has already commenced. Saracen has locked away 40,000 ounces of hedging at an average price of AU$1,600 per ounce to further underpin the first year of production at Thunderbox.

ASX-listed Atrum Coal has various projects in British Columbia, with a focus of developing the world’s largest high-grade anthracite deposit at its Groundhog project, which is in the feasibility stage. The project has a mineral resource estimate of 1,567 million tonnes (Mt) of coal, with 16 Mt of coal in the measured category, 553 Mt in the indicated category and 998 Mt in the inferred category.
Earlier this month, Atrum announced that it has closed an institutional investor discretionary placement of AU$3 million, which will go towards completing the proposed sale of part of the Groundhog North Mining Complex. The sale’s aim is to raise funds to facilitate development.
 
Securities Disclosure: I, Kristen Moran, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article. 
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