One measure of a company’s health can be determined by analyzing its sources of capital. This is especially true for mining companies, since capital requirements are much higher in comparison with other industries. A miner’s leverage can be assessed through several ways, including the Assets/Equity ratio (depicting the amount of assets financed through equity, with a larger multiplier representing higher amount of debt being used to purchase assets), Debt/Equity ratio (showing the proportion of debt to equity financing), as well as Long Term Debt/Total Capital (measuring debt maturing in a year or more, as a percentage of total financial capital). That being said, the companies on our list today have high levels of long-term debt in relation to its total capital.
Atlatsa Resources Corp. (TSX: ATL) – $0.13
Gold
Atlatsa Resources Corporation (Atlatsa) is engaged in mining, exploration and development of platinum group metals, consisting of platinum, palladium, rhodium, ruthenium, osmium and iridium mineral deposits (PGM) located in the Bushveld Igneous Complex, South Africa. The Company also holds a 100% indirect ownership interest in the Central Block Project through Plateau.
- Market Cap: $72,151,174
- Assets/Equity: 3.19
- Debt/Equity: 0.62
- Long Term Debt/Total Capital: 25.2%
Endeavour Mining Corp. (TSX: EDV) – $0.62
Gold
Endeavour Mining Corporation (Endeavour) is a Canada-based intermediate gold mining company with four mines producing at a combined rate of approximately 500,000 ounces per year in West Africa. As of December 31, 2014, Endeavour’s producing gold mining properties consisted of the Agbaou mine in Cote d’Ivoire (Agbaou), the Nzema mine in Ghana (Nzema), the Tabakoto mine in Mali (Tabakoto), and the Youga mine in Burkina Faso (Youga). Endeavour also has an exploration portfolio in regions of Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Mali and Ghana, with a land package totaling over 6,529 square kilometers. As of December 31, 2014, Endeavour had combined attributable proven and probable mineral reserves of approximately 4.0 million ounces of gold and attributable Measured and Indicated mineral resources (inclusive of reserves) of approximately 6.9 million ounces of gold.
- Market Cap: $248,208,445
- Assets/Equity: 2.02
- Debt/Equity: 0.63
- Long Term Debt/Total Capital: 39.1%
Golden Queen Mining Co Ltd. (TSX: GQM) – $0.81
Gold
Golden Queen Mining Co., Ltd.is engaged in the development of the Soledad Mountain Project (the Project), an open pit, heap leach gold and silver project located in the Mojave Mining district, Kern County, California.
- Market Cap: $83,048,625
- Assets/Equity: 3.03
- Debt/Equity: 0.52
- Long Term Debt/Total Capital: 2.3%
Barkerville Gold Mines Ltd. (TSXV: BGM) ) – $0.245
Gold
Barkerville Gold Mines Ltd. is a Canada based company engaged in the exploration and development of gold properties. The Company continues production with ore from its Bonanza Ledge Mine trucked to the QR Mill facility. In conjunction with gold production, a number of drill programs have taken place on the Company’s Cariboo Gold project. The Company has developed an additional resource estimate at the neighboring Cow Mountain in central British Columbia. Barkerville Gold Mines produced 2.5 million ounces of placer gold and over 1 million ounces of load gold from the region.
- Market Cap: $32,454,571
- Assets/Equity: 4.34
- Debt/Equity: 1.51
- Long Term Debt/Total Capital: 15.1%
