A Million Acres Worth of Mineral Rights and a New Mine Opening Soon

Sitting on $3.4 Billion Worth of Copper

I’ve been following this stock casually for a long time. I’d check up on this company once, maybe twice a year but never pulled the trigger. Recently it’s been looking like current conditions may be presenting investors with an opportunity to buy in. This $36 million market cap owns over one million acres of mineral rights, mostly in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula (AKA the U.P. to Michiganders) but also Michigan’s Lower Peninsula (AKA the L.P. to Michiganders), and their properties also reach into Wisconsin a little bit.

The GAAP Land value for this company is stated at just $50k while the company’s mineral rights are valued at just under $8.0 million. If this company were to sell off their 1,060,855 acres worth of mineral rights for just $100 per acre (what they sold land for this past year) the company would get over $106 million for them. I don’t think the catalyst for a share price increase in the near-term is related to land sales however. I think this stock will see a share price bump when the first mine opens up on this land and the company starts receiving royalties from the $3.4 billion worth of the critical minerals estimated to be on a 505 acre patch of this property.

I’ve never thought of this company as a potential buy because they have never had a large catalyst to rerate. Now however the company has restructured its business away from timber to focus on income generated through royalties from the company’s mineral rights. The company has been able to cut out almost all of its COS and has greatly reduced their SG&A expenses. If their costs to operate can stay low this company should be able to just sit back and collect their royalties.