GARIMPEIRO last had a look at Chinese-backed YTC Resources in November last year, when it was a $50 million company on the strength of its gold/copper projects in the New South Wales Cobar mineral field.
It has since grown to a $100 million-plus company (51¢ a share on Friday) on expectations that it could be on to something special at its Nymagee copper project, 4½ kilometres to the north-west of its Hera gold/lead/zinc deposit.
The interest in Nymagee has not been restricted to the big share-price gains for YTC, either.
Pegging by other mining companies, notably OZ Minerals and China's MMG, in the region suggests more than just your average investor in junior miners is watching the Nymagee story unfold.
YTC has five drilling rigs whirring away at Nymagee and Hera with a view to them being developed on an integrated basis.
Hera already stacks up as a development project, with its 50,000 ounces-a-year gold equivalent production capable of generating an annual operating surplus of more than $30 million.
The Hera resource could well get bigger as a result of the aggressive drilling program that is under way, with an updated resource estimate due in April.
But it will be the flow of exploration results from Nymagee - and the release of a maiden resource estimate in April/May - that could really fire things up for YTC.
High-grade exploration hits from drilling beneath historic workings at Nymagee (which yielded 400,000 tonnes, grading 6 per cent copper) has YTC and others drawing comparisons with Glencore's CSA mine to the north-west.
CSA, under various owners, has produced more than 1.5 million tonnes of copper in its time.
And at current copper prices, the high-grade underground mine would be making money hand over fist for Glencore, the commodities trader that owns a controlling stake in Xstrata.
However, there is a long way to go before Nymagee can lay claims to being ''another CSA''.
But either way, the expected completion of a definitive feasibility study into an integrated development of Hera and Nymagee by June-July means that the group's transformation to producer status is well under way.
As a side event, YTC's major shareholder, China's Yunnan Tin Group, will be happy to see the group's tin interests also coming into sharper focus in 2011.
An exploration program on the Tallebung tin prospect is planned and the group's New England tin assets are to be shunted across to a new company, Taronga Mines.
Taronga is planning to list on the ASX in the near future. YTC owns 25 per cent of Taronga's shares and 50 per cent of the listed options before Taronga's initial public offering, one in which YTC shareholders will receive a priority entitlement.
Tin prices are at record levels, so the entitlement could be worth having.
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