Torque Metals Ltd (ASX: TOR) shares have piled on hefty gains over the past year, but it's the announcement of a new management team with a proven track record that has the analysts at Morgans sitting up and taking notice.
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Proven track record
Earlier this week, the company announced that the former Spartan Resources management team had joined the company and would be driving its gold exploration and development strategy.
Those joining the company were Simon Lawson as Chair-Elect, Craig Jones as Chief Executive Officer, and David Coyne as a Non-Executive Director.
The company added:
Collectively, the incoming team played key roles at Spartan Resources Limited during the exploration success that led to the high-grade Never Never and Pepper gold discoveries at the Dalgaranga Gold Project, widely regarded as one of the most significant high-grade gold discoveries in Western Australia in recent years. The discovery ultimately transformed Spartan from a junior gold explorer with a poorly performing low-grade open pit operation into a major high-grade gold developer, culminating in its $2.5 billion merger with Ramelius Resources Limited in July 2025. The incoming directors and management team bring deep technical, operational and capital markets experience across the Western Australian gold sector.
The current board said they believed the new management team would bring the skills and experience needed to unlock the "significant exploration potential" of the company's Paris gold project and its broader tenement package across the Kalgoorlie district.
Mr Jones said he believed the company "presents a compelling opportunity".
He added:
The company holds a highly prospective project portfolio, and we are now enhancing with individuals who have a proven track record of delivering discovery and development success in Western Australia. With the projects located on granted mining leases just one hour from Kalgoorlie — one of the world's major gold mining hubs — we are well positioned to accelerate the development of any new discoveries in this infrastructure-rich region.
Skin in the game
Torque said the incoming trio had also agreed to be the cornerstone investors in a $3 million capital raise at 27 cents per share, "demonstrating strong alignment with shareholders and confidence in the Company's exploration potential.''
The analyst team at Morgans issued a research note to clients this week, rating the ASX gold company a speculative buy and setting a price target of 90 cents per share.
They added:
Our valuation remains conservative, based solely on a toll-treated mining scenario underpinned by the existing Paris resource. As exploration success and resource growth continue, we see potential for material valuation uplift beyond our current assumptions.
Torque shares were changing hands for 47.5 cents on Friday, not far off their 12-month high of 52.5 cents, and well above the low of 7.3 cents over the same period.
The company was valued at $299 million at the close of trade on Thursday.
