ASX Round-Up: Highlighting Terramin Australia and Atlas Iron

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 Terramin Australia (ASX:TZN) and Atlas Iron (ASX:AGO).

Base and precious metals development company Terramin Australia holds advanced zinc and gold projects in Algeria and South Australia. Those include the Algeria-based Tala Hamza zinc project, which Terramin is involved in through its 65-percent stake in Western Mediterranean Zinc Spa, the Bird-in-Hand gold project in South Australia and more.
Most recently, Terramin released its interim financial accounts for the first half of 2015. The company said that during the period it made “significant progress” at Tala Hamza, as well as at Bird-in-Hand. On the financial side, it undertook a debt restructure that reduced its overall group debt from about $34 million to $8.3 million.
Atlas Iron mines and exports direct shipping ore from its operations in Western Australia’s Northern Pilbara region. Aside from established mines, the company also holds near-term ore reserves and a slew of exploration projects. And while iron ore is its focus, Atlas owns the Ridley magnetite project as well; prefeasibility studies show that it has the potential to produce 15 million tonnes of high-grade magnetite concentrate per year for more than three decades.
Like many iron ore producers, the low iron ore price has pushed Atlas to pursue cost reductions. Just this month it provided an update on the methods it’s using to lower its costs, noting that it’s made a number of executive changes that will result in total annual savings of about $1 million. Furthermore, at the end of August, Atlas said that in July it was able to reduce its cash costs to AU$55 per WMT CFR — that’s down from AU$66 per WMT CFR in the June quarter.

 
Securities Disclosure: I, Charlotte McLeod, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article. 
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