As the zircon and rutile prices were increasing again in the past few months, we wanted to check up on Kenmare Resources’ (KMR.L) performance as this highly-levered company might be a good way to benefit from increasing mineral sands prices.
Unfortunately, when we checked the Chinese imports of zircon in July and August, we noticed 8,100 tonnes of zircon were important from Mozambique in July but zero tonnes in August, meaning no shipment from the Moma mine has arrived in China during that month. This could mean two things. First of all, Kenmare could have shipped the material to another buyer outside of China, but secondly, and this is the worst case scenario, the Moma mine hasn’t shipped any cargo in August.
This doesn’t necessarily mean there have been issues and one could always hope the next Moma shipment only sailed to China in the first few days of September with a second cargo setting sail shortly thereafter. We hope Kenmare had some shipment delays because otherwise its Q3 financial results will look extremely weak and the company will have no other option but to accept the offer from Iluka Resources (ASX:ILU).
> Click here to go to Kenmare’s website
Disclosure: The author holds no position in Kenmare Resources. Please see our disclaimer for current positions.
