Accomplished explorer Talisman is actually “creating value for shareholders” – something every listed company says in their mission statement – by putting $40.9 million from a project sale right back in their pockets.

That’s more than the explorers’ current market cap.

In October, Talisman (ASX: TLM) sold its 30 per cent interest in the Springfield copper project to major miner Sandfire Resources (ASX: SFR) for $72.3 million in cash.

The only meaningful discovery near the massive DeGrussa deposit so far – the small but high-grade Monty deposit at Springfield – was made in May 2015 by this experienced joint venture between Talisman and Sandfire.

The explorer ended up with $58.15 million after repaying some loans.

The 15.625 cents per share capital return (worth about $29 million) to shareholders follows a special dividend of 6.375 cents per share ($11.8 million) in December.

That’s 22 cents per share (or $40.9 million) all up.

Pretty incredible stuff for a company with a pre-open share price of 22c and market cap of $40 million.

The Talisman share price over the past year.
The Talisman share price over the past year.

Talisman keeps a handy $13.4 million in the bank to fund 2019/2020 exploration programs at the Lachlan copper-gold project and Sinclair nickel project in Western Australia.

It says it has found the right balance between returning most of the cash from the sale to shareholders while also keeping enough fund planned exploration activities “aimed at creating further value for shareholders”.

The deal with Sandfire also means that Talisman keeps a 1 per cent Net Smelter Return (NSR) revenue for all copper and gold extracted from Springfield project above the 74,000 tonnes Monty mine plan.

NSR is net revenue that a miner receives after transportation and refining costs.

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