Miners that go through an identity crisis are not going to see their share price rise, says one expert.

It’s not uncommon for resources companies to start heading down one path only to find out that they have a dud project or they’re not in the right commodity.

But Austex Mining executive director Rob Murdoch says the market won’t show these guys much love.

“If you go back four years and we look at the companies that are listed today and we look at what their name was and their code was and what they were involved in four years ago, well those that have the same name and the same code have actually done a lot better than those that have changed their name and changed their code,” he told delegates on the final day of the RIU Explorers Conference in Fremantle, WA.

“So basically, what does this tell us?

“The reason people change their name, change their code is because one project is not working, and they get into another one.

“When you invest in a company, you’ve got to look for companies with a good project, and a good project is sustainable over a period of time, to see share price growth.”

Another thing that will likely see share price growth is companies sinking dollars into the ground.

Companies that spent more than $4m, at least $1m a quarter, in 2018 saw their share prices rise 2.2 per cent since things started to pick up in December last year.

Meanwhile, those that spent between $2m and $4m only witnessed an increase of 1.4 per cent.

Mr Murdoch says 12 per cent of companies estimate that they’re not going to spend anything on exploration, 30 per cent say they will spend less than $100,000 and 43 per cent expect to spend less than $200,000.

“Basically when you’re looking at a company to invest in, look at what they’re spending in exploration and I reckon unless they’re spending a million dollars a year give it a miss,” he said.

The explorers that are looking to spend big in the first quarter of this year include Bellevue Gold (ASX:BGL), Gold Road Resources (ASX:GOR) and Breaker Resources (ASX:BRB).

Though Bellevue did undergo a facelift — changing its name from Draig Resources (ASX:DRG) — its project hasn’t changed.

The company has four rigs turning on its Bellevue gold project and it expects to spend nearly $6m on “exploration and evaluation” in the current quarter.

Bellevue had $13.7m in the bank and no debt at the end of last quarter.

Its share price has gained over 400 per cent since mid-June last year when it dipped to a low of 12c.

Bellevue Gold (ASX:BGL) shares over the past year.
Bellevue Gold (ASX:BGL) shares over the past year.

Managing director Steve Parsons told Stockhead on the sidelines of the RIU Explorers Conference that Bellevue is a “multi-million-ounce system”.

“We’re only just scraping the surface in the top 500m and they typically go down to 1.5-2km, maybe even deeper than that and that’s what we’ll be hoping happens at Bellevue,” he said.

Earlier in February, Bellevue bumped up the resource by 43 per cent to 1.53 million ounces at a grade of 11.8 grams per tonne (g/t). Anything over 5g/t is generally considered high-grade.

It has only taken a little over 12 months from discovery to this latest resource and Bellevue is on track to release yet another resource upgrade in the second quarter of this year.

Breaker Resources and Gold Road both estimate they will sink around $3.4m into their projects this quarter.

Breaker says its Bombora gold deposit “continues to grow with every round of drilling”.

The project so far hosts a resource of 1.1 million ounces and Breaker expects add more ounces to that early in the June quarter.

Breaker’s share price has more than doubled from its 52-week low of 21c in early September last year to 44c.

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