Mining’s old guard needs strong medicine
A new report details subpar investor returns in the mining industry over the last decade, particularly big cap diversified companies which have not adapted to new realities.
Stornoway Diamond Corporation involved in the discovery of over 200 kimberlites in seven Canadian diamond districts will join S&P/TSX SmallCap Index at the end of the week.
The move announced on Monday should increase the appeal of the counter among institutional investors and lift liquidity from the roughly 100,000 daily trades currently. It’s a new milestone for Stornoway which flourished under the leadership of Eira Thomas, the renowned diamond explorer whose spectacular success in the 90s transformed Canadian diamond mining.
Thomas left in August following the acquisition of Stornoway’s lead asset – the 100%-owned Renard Diamond Project – on track to become Quebec’s first diamond mine. The project is inferred to contain 17 million carats worth some $7 billion.
Stornoway (TSX:SWY) said that at the close of trading on Friday, September 16, Standard & Poor’s Canadian Index Operations will add the Vancouver firm to the list of companies on the S&P/TSX SmallCap Index following the annual index review. Stornoway was changing hands at $1.80 in early afternoon trade in Toronto on Monday giving it a market cap of some $215 million with 118 million shares outstanding.
“The addition of Stornoway to the S&P/TSX SmallCap Index is another important step in our corporate development”, said Matt Manson, President and CEO. “Our inclusion will increase Stornoway’s exposure to a broader range of potential investors and enhance trading liquidity.”
MINING.com reported at the time of her resignation Thomas vaulted into diamond mining lore in the heady days of the early 90s when, as a newly minted geologist, she made a discovery in the High Arctic that would change her life and the direction of the diamond mining industry in Canada.
Working alongside her father, colourful Welsh mining engineer Grenville Thomas, the younger Thomas discovered a mammoth kimberlite pipe underneath the waters of Lac de Gras. The site of the core sample was to become the Diavik mine, a multi-billion-dollar diamond deposit.
