Forbes Mining Favorites For 2023, 4 Jan 2023 Philip MacKellar,...

Forbes Mining Favorites For 2023, 4 Jan 2023
Philip MacKellar, Contra the Heard
SSR Mining (SSRM) is a top pick for 2023 that falls into the speculative and growth-oriented camps. SSR Mining had a terrible 2022: in June a cyanide leak occurred at its flagship Çöpler Mine in Turkey, prompting the country’s Ministry of Environment to halt production.
This rare operational, but material, mishap crushed the organization’s third quarter production results, generated an uncharacteristic net profit loss, and forced management to reduce its full year outlook. Finally, in late September, SSR was given the green light to restart operations.
While this was certainly an unwelcome event, the operating team was proactive and used the downtime to conduct site maintenance that would have resulted in idle time later in the year. Moreover, the projection for next year looks promising, and gold — which has been flat this year — is returning to form as the US dollar gives back some previous gains.
Supporting SSRM’s thesis is a solid balance sheet, a history of strong revenue growth, and even a modest dividend. It has one of the longest mine life cycles in the industry, and a handful of low-cost assets scattered across Turkey, Canada, the US, and Argentina.
These operating mines have upside development opportunities and exploration potential too. The company also has a strong operating team, having completed the Çöpler development project on time and under budget years ago. These underlying strengths, plus restarting operations at Çöpler and gold’s potential to rally, should bode well for SSRM owners in 2023.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/moneys...orites-for-2023-gold-silver-uranium--lithium/