Constructing a compelling case for re-rating

The achieve this, Adriatic brought in Burson Buchanan in September 2021 ahead of raising US$243m in funding for the construction of Vares, a fund raise well oversubscribed – putting Adriatic firmly on the map of London’s intermediary mining companies.

Following the successful fund raise, Buchanan was challenged with maintaining the momentum achieved by Adriatic through the ‘Lassonde Curve’, where miners traditionally lose significant value during the construction phase.

The major challenge Adriatic also faced was the construction period from 2022 to mid 2024, was set against a backdrop of global inflation, challenging supply chain logistics, war in Europe and significant ‘sell-off’ of high- risk companies.

Various strategies were implemented by Burson Buchanan in order to achieve the goal of increasing the value of Adriatic during the construction phase. This included organising a site visit to Vares for 30 leading investors and analysts, to the mine in Bosnia in October 2022.

This immediately demonstrated to a wide range of stakeholders the significant progress which the Adriatic team were making, despite severe global headwinds caused by inflationary pressures plus the impact of the Ukraine/Russia war.

During this period, Adriatic also published its first Sustainability Report in 2022, written, designed and produced by Burson Buchanan, which put the company and its operations firmly on the map as one of the best exponents of responsible mining in Europe.

With Vares now in production and ramp up to nameplate and commercial production due to complete in Q4 2024, Adriatic has managed to achieve what very few mining companies ever do – to go from exploration, through development, to becoming a leading producer of critical metals.

Not only has this been achieved in less than seven years, but has also happened in Europe, which is regarded as one of the hardest regional jurisdictions in the global mining industry.

Adriatic has not only seen its share price significantly outperform the global mining indices during what is the most challenging period for a company looking to build a mine.

It also raised $100m additional equity financing to maintain the momentum in its aggressive exploration campaigns and accelerate mine development by becoming owner/operator of its mining fleet.