Equity Research | MINING – PRECIOUS METALS
TIMMINS GOLD CORP.
Brian Szeto, MA, CFA
bszeto@stonecapsecurities.com
416.342.9918
August 2, 2012
OUTPERFORM
Target Price: $3.20
Operationally Back On Track And Refocused On Expansion
— Initiating Coverage
Operationally Back On Track And Refocused On Expansion
Timmins Gold Corp. (Timmins) is a junior gold producer currently focused on its San Francisco mine located in Sonora, Mexico.
• Ramping up to 130,000 ounces per annum: After successfully increasing the capacity at the mine to 18,000 tpd, the company is now aiming to again increase the capacity to 22,000 tpd. In 2012, the company should produce just shy of 100,000 ounces and has a mediumterm goal of producing 130,000 ounces per annum going forward once they reach 30,000 tpd.
• Growing organically: When commercial production initially began in April 2010, the company had barely more than one million ounces at the property. However, the company has been very successful in adding ounces to the deposit where the total global resource now sits just under three million ounces. With San Francisco and La Chicharra both open along strike to the northwest and southeast, the opportunity to keep adding ounces through exploration drilling looks promising.
• Trading at a discount on multiple metrics: Timmins is trading at a discount no matter which metric we look at, including EV/oz, P/EPS, and P/CFPS. It is currently trading at 4.0x and 2.9x its 2012 and 2013 P/CFPS, respectively, compared to its peer group, which is trading at 8.1x and 6.0x. We believe as the company’s operations continue to stabilize and expand, we should see a gradual re-rating of the stock.
Valuation
Our valuation is based on a discounted cash flow (DCF) approach for valuing the San Francisco project where our NAV estimate for Timmins is $2.88/sh. After applying a 1.1x multiple to our NAV, we arrive at our target price of $3.20. We are initiating coverage with an Outperform rating.
Conclusion
We view Timmins as a successful junior gold company that effectively made the jump from an exploration/ development company to a producer within a relatively short time frame.
Although there may have been some operational hiccups along the way, we believe that those days are largely behind us and the company is well on its way to 130,000 oz/yr of production.