Why did Strandline (STA) shares tumble today?
STA -5.45%: the mineral sands producer struggled today despite putting out a seemingly positive announcement that they have now shipped a total of 65kt of heavy mineral concentrate (HMC) from their Coburn asset in WA. The issue falls into two parts. Firstly. the latest shipment, while a slight increase in price received per tonne, was around 20% smaller than the previous shipment, and took an extra week to set sail given shipping issues and constraints on mining equipment availability. Secondly, Strandline have struggled with the ramp-up of the mineral separation plant (MSP) which will now come online months after initial expectations. Strandline is trading ~35% below where we took profits on the position last year, but we remain on the sidelines given the ongoing issues.
