Cannaccord Genuity stays at 'speculative buy' on Petropavlovsk

Cannacord Genuity reiterated its 'speculative buy' recommendation for shares of Petropavlovsk ahead of the miner's Capital Markets Day, telling clients that the company's latest interims showed that its operational and financial recovery was continuing.

They key to Petropvalovsk's first half results had been the smooth ramp-up of production at its Pressure Oxidation Hub (POX), so that over 40.0% of the company's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation was now generated from the refractory ores at the Malomir mine.

It had also allowed the firm to lower its guidance for full-year total cash costs from $850.0-950.0/oz. to $750.0-850.0/oz..

And with a new flotation line being built at Pioneer, the miner would be able to double its refractory ore processing capacity from 3.6 metric tonnes per year to 7.2Mtpa and process increased amounts of third-party concentrates.

The Canadian broker also highlighted the return last June to Petropavlovsk of Pavel Maslovskiy as its chief executive officer, Alexey Dubynin as its finance director and the appointment of three new non-executive directors in the final three months of 2018.

Canaccord analyst Nick Hatch kept his target price for the shares at 12.0p.