Billionaire New Zealand family breathes new life into proposed Sisson mine

The company behind New Brunswick's proposed tungsten and molybdenum mine near Stanley, which was running so low on cash six months ago it was borrowing money at credit card interest rates, is suddenly looking alive again, thanks mostly to a bailout from a billion-dollar family business in New Zealand.

The Todd Corporation, a 130-year-old company based in Wellington — with remarkable similarities to New Brunswick's own Irving family enterprises — has emerged as the chief backer of Northcliff Resources Ltd. and the beleaguered Sisson Brook mine it has been attempting to create.

Paul Renken, an analyst with VSA Capital in London who used to follow Northcliff, says the company is fortunate the Todd Corporation came along.

"It was sustaining capital when they needed it," said Renken.

"[Todd's] activity to date is that they are a long-term shareholder. They haven't been ones to move in and out of a particular position, or to take a hostile position in a firm with the intent of breaking it up."

The Todd Corporation traces its roots back to the 1880s and a wool business run by patriarch Charles Todd.

The company was run by a succession of Todd descendants and is now estimated to be worth more than $3 billion with interests in oil, gas, mining, commercial property and health care.

In January, the New Zealand Herald called the Todds "New Zealand's richest family."

Todd spokesperson Libby Middlebrook said the company has nothing to say about its Sisson investments.

"Todd Corporation is a private company, and has no wish to make any comment about the project," Middlebrook wrote in an email to CBC News.

Todd Minerals Ltd. already owns part of a tungsten mine in the United Kingdom and earlier this year created a sensation in western Australia by proposing to build a $5-billion iron ore mine near Pilbara.

But it's also been increasing its stake in New Brunswick, financially supporting the Sisson project for the past four years, even after international tungsten prices collapsed in 2015 and other investors sold off their Sisson stock.

Nearly $25M to date

So far, Todd Minerals has invested $24.6 million in the Sisson project, including the purchase of 48.5 million shares in Northcliff to help relieve the company's chronic money problems. Todd is now Northcliff's largest shareholder.

Its latest purchase of 27 million shares for $3 million in December rescued Northcliff from its ugliest financial crunch yet.

In its regulatory filings, Northcliff has disclosed it has no income from operations and no lines of credit to sustain it.

Last August, its finances were so bleak it borrowed $100,000 from one of its directors at 18 per cent interest to continue basic operations.

Todd's $3 million December lifeline, followed by a February announcement that six Maliseet First Nations communities were dropping their opposition to the mine in exchange for over $20 million in potential royalties and other benefits, has suddenly breathed new life into Sisson.

The company's stock rose 144 per cent over a 10-week period before hitting a two-year high of 23 cents per share last Tuesday.

Renken says tungsten prices are still too low for developments like Sisson at the moment, but Todd's continuing financial support suggests it still believes the mine might have a future.

Tungsten prices are "still pretty low, but definitely have seen improvement over the last five months or so," Renken said. "Still some room to go of course, but it's moving in the right direction."

Sisson's feasibility study was conducted in 2013 and assumed long-term prices of $35,000 US per tonne for tungsten and $33,000 per tonne for molybdenum.

Prices were well above that at the time but have since sagged considerably. Tungsten spent much of 2015 and 2016 below $20,000 US per tonne and molybdenum below $15,000 US per tonne.