A Clear Perspective on the Mining Industry
A Clear Perspective on the Mining Industry
Merlyn Consulting’s core business is the provision of independent technical and economic appraisals of exploration and mining projects. We work with investors in the mining industry to identify hidden risks and upsides in mining projects to enable them to make more informed decisions, which ultimately lowers the risks associated with mining investments. Reports are clear and concise and easily accessible for the non-technical audience.
Merlyn also works with the board members and management of exploration and mining companies, to provide independent assessment and advice on projects in all stages of the development cycle.
The mining world today faces many challenges including: rising costs, lower grades, more stringent and lengthy permitting processes, whilst at the same time companies face greater competition for limited capital in the face of volatile markets.
These and many other factors add to both operator and investor risk. The need for high quality independent assessments has never been higher.
Merlyn Consulting was conceived as an idea by a group of mining professionals and financiers during discussions throughout the aftermath of the financial crisis. With the reduced access to capital and the fall in commodity prices, the mining industry has been particularly hard hit, and continues to face many challenges in delivering value to shareholders. The Company itself was founded by Dr Toby Strauss in 2015 and is based in Dublin, Ireland.
Merlyn’s focus is on helping our clients gain a clearer understanding of the mining and exploration projects in which they are interested. We utilise our broad experience and wide network of contacts in the mining industry to look “beneath the hood” of these projects and to identify the hidden risks and upsides that are so critical in making the correct decisions, whether it be from the perspective of an investor, or from the company management or board member looking for an expert, independent viewpoint.
We can flex our resources to meet your precise needs, but in all cases, we deliver professional, independent reports, which cut-through the technical jargon and are easy to understand.
We work with clients from both the Investment and the Corporate side of the mining world.
For Investors, we carry out company and project appraisals.
For Board Members of exploration and mining companies we provide independent project reviews.
For Exploration and Mining companies, we offer a suite of geological services as well as project management services and general strategic advice.
There is a large information gap between what mining companies report and what investors need to know to be able to make well informed investment decisions.
Technical reports published by exploration and mining companies are typically long, jargon-heavy documents, constrained in format and content by regulations. This makes it difficult for investors to quickly grasp the facts and to find and discern the real risks and upside potentials associated with a project.
Project risks go beyond the obvious technical risks of resources or processing (to mention but a few), and include risks such as timelines, permitting requirements, social and environmental risks that may have an equally significant impact on the project economics and viability.
Merlyn Consulting draws on its first-hand experiences and broad network of mining professionals to deliver an assessment of where the risks are associated with a project.
Merlyn’s approach typically entails a quick, low-cost desktop study, to identify the main areas of concern. This is delivered to the client in a concise and clear report, with recommendations for more in-depth analysis where required.
Very few Non-Executive board members come from a technical mining background and yet boards are asked to approve significant financial commitments based on technical requirements and issues they don’t fully understand that may have future operational implications they don’t always appreciate.
Merlyn Consulting carries out quick, cost-effective, independent reviews of projects and proposals. This provides a technical double-check on the company operations with a fresh pair of eyes to highlight areas that may carry some hidden risks or uncertainties.
Ultimately, this provides comfort to the Board Members that they are making their decisions based on an objective, independent review of the proposals put forward by management, and follows good corporate governance.
Merlyn is able to draw on its extensive experience to provide more traditional geological and mining consultancy services to Exploration and Mining Companies.
Geological services range from geological evaluations of prospects through to providing detailed three dimensional ore body modelling and resource estimation.
Other services include providing advice on project management, covering all disciplines associated with the development of a mine, in order to minimise future delays on the development path.
Toby has over 20 years of experience in the mining industry, with roles ranging from Exploration Geologist to Chief Operating Officer of a producing company, as well as executive and non-executive board positions. He has worked with a broad range of deposit styles covering Base Metals, Gold and Diamonds.
His specialties include exploration targeting and geological modelling; resource modelling and the preparation of NI 43-101 Technical Reports and project management. He has been closely involved with the corporate side of the mining business including financings, and negotiating joint ventures and acquisitions.
He is a Fellow of the Geological Society of London with the Chartered Geologist (CGeol) and European Geologist (EurGeol) accreditations. He is a committee member of the Association of Mining Analysts as well as a member of the Society of Economic Geologists.
He is currently Consultant Mining Advisor to Grant Thornton UK LLP, and is also serving as a non-executive Director of several companies including Talmora Diamond Inc. and Strauss Partners Ltd.
David is a Chartered Geologist and a member of the Society of Economic Geologists with over 25 years of international experience in the mining industry, with roles ranging from Exploration Geologist to President and CEO of a listed company that successfully made the transition from an exploration company to a producing company.
He has worked in many jurisdictions including Australia, Venezuela, Canada, Indonesia and Scandinavia across a broad range of deposit styles, from epithermal gold, orogenic gold, porphyry copper, IOCG, sedex, VMS and magmatic nickel sulphide.
His specialties are 3D geological modelling, exploration targeting, project review and project troubleshooting. He has built up mining teams, overseen the shutdown and restart of mining operations and negotiated offtake and co-operation agreements.
As a corporate executive, he has led; acquisitions, joint ventures, successful financings and served on the board. He has been involved in industry advisory roles on mining law reform and sustainability forums.
Mr. Martin Kostuik is a mining engineer with 20 years of experience in both Canada and the United States. His background includes engineering, operations, exploration and development in both open pit and underground mines producing coal, base metals and precious metals. Mr. Kostuik holds an MBA from University of Tennessee and a B.Sc. Mining Engineering from Queen’s University at Kingston.
Jamie Strauss is the founding partner of Strauss Partners Ltd, he has worked as a stockbroker in the City of London for over 25 years, specialising for nearly 15 years within the resources industry.
He was previously Managing Director of UK Equity product at BMO Capital Markets, prior to which he was a director of Hargreave Hale Ltd where he founded, developed and then sold a Mining institutional sales and research department. Jamie started his career in 1986 at Strauss Turnbull (subsequently bought by Société Générale). Jamie has experience in sales, research, transaction structuring, IPO’s and syndication.
He is a non-executive director of Altius Minerals, Gold Standard Ventures, Wildhorse Energy and Appleton Resources. He was on the board of Extorre Gold Mines until its successful sale to Yamana in 2012. He is also a trustee of The Julian Baring Scholarship Fund.
“Toby has a deep knowledge of his subject and is hard working and honest. His contribution to any project would be invaluable.”
“I have called on the expertise of Toby Strauss for a range of mineral and resource opportunities for our company, McCarthy Ventures Limited, which is involved in private equity funding for major projects in South East Asia and the Far East.
His expertise in assessing assay data and samples has been crucial to our investment strategies, specifically for a gold prospects in Cambodia and copper in Papua New Guinea and he has brought potential operating partners through his extensive connections and experience in the industry.”
“We have worked with Toby for many years and have used his insight and technical skills to inform our investment decisions. He has always been totally responsive to our objectives and timescales, communicates the key issues in a concise and commercial manner and is a pleasure to work with.”
Presentation to the Association of Mining Analysts, 20th April 2016, London
Sensor Based Sorting (SBS) has been an accepted part of processing in the diamond industry for a considerable length of time. However, SBS has a much wider applicability to the mining industry, especially in the role of pre-concentration of ores.
The economic benefits of this technology are potentially huge both in the downstream reduction of material handling costs as well as in the upgrade of lower-grade deposits. However, the benefits of early stage sorting can go considerably beyond this, with implications for capital costs, mining rates, and tailings disposal, to name a few. It is likely that this technology will become more widely applied to the early stages of mining in the future, especially in an environment where projects have become marginal or even-uneconomic due to a combination of low commodity prices and cost inflation.
The presentation will look at the available sorting technologies, and will examine the various parameters that need to be optimised, which will determine the efficiency and economics of sorting for a particular project. The talk will identify some of the key questions a mining analyst should be asking when faced with a project that is contemplating ore sorting as part of the process route.
If you have any questions or queries regarding any of the services we offer please do not hesitate to contact us.
+353 87 9870344
2 Merlyn Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4, Ireland
