METS

Signs of life in exploration

Imdex says demand is picking back up

Staff reporter

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The company recently reported its best March quarter of revenue on record, but had warned its June quarter results would be impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a presentation to a Goldman Sachs virtual conference last week, Imdex said business disruption appeared to have stabilised as more countries, particularly in South America, lifted restrictions.

Late April brought an increase in demand for Imdex's services.

Imdex chief operating officer Paul House said the company was fielding inquiries from clients looking to resume operations.

"As we see restrictions being lifted, we are receiving inquiries from our clients asking for confirmation of supply to remobilise on drilling projects around the world and we expect this to continue through May and June," he said.

"We are establishing new ways of working internally and with our clients, which will continue and be beneficial when the pandemic eases."

Imdex sees research and development as a competitive advantage and will continue to invest heavily.

"We have always worked with industry to solve problems and this period is no different," House said.

"It just means that we have to think creatively — and we have some of the best in the business at doing that."

Imdex has a positive growth outlook based on underlying industry fundamentals.

"Major and intermediate resource companies have strong balance sheets and are focused on replacing reserves," House said.

He added that new discoveries were under cover and at depth, which equated to more drilling and longer development times.

Imdex is also encouraged by the strong gold price, which is trading near seven-year highs.

About half of Imdex's commodity exposure is in gold, followed by 25% in copper and 7% in iron ore.

Imdex shares fell to a 52-week low of A76c in March, but have recovered and were last trading 3.6% higher at $1.145.

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