EMX Royalty Corp (EMX)

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Eurasian Minerals (TSXV: EMX) – BUY; Medium Risk ($1.42)

Eurasian got its first payment from Ciftay, the Turkish construction and mining company that bought its Akarca project in August. Ciftay agreed to pay US$2 million on closing plus 500 ounces of gold (or cash equivalent) every six months from February 1, 2017, until EMX has received 7,000 oz. Eurasian also retained a sliding-scale royalty on gold production. Since it is now February, Ciftay has made its first 500 oz. payment, which is worth US$601,825.

The money is nice, but so is the validation of Eurasian’s business model. EMX discovered the epithermal gold-silver mineralization at Akarca in 2006; over the next ten years a series of project partners completed 300 drill holes delineating multiple zones of mineralization.

When the last project partner walked away from Akarca in the bear market the project returned in full to Eurasian, who then inked this deal with Ciftay. Ciftay already operates mines in Turkey and is planning to put Akarca into production. Eurasian’s active efforts to sell projects, combined with its rising royalty revenue (currently dominated by Leeville but soon to include several other producing assets), mean the company is almost cash flow neutral. That’s an admirable rarity in the exploration world.