More on the Swiss raclette below. (Those of interest to TCR include Alamos Gold, Vista Gold, I-80 Gold, GoGold Silver & Gold, Contango Ore, Canagold.)
First off, trading update:
-- GLOP (GASLOG PARTNERS -- NYSE) purchase, indicated The Calandra Report/TCR March 23, is working out thus far. The trade will prove fortunate only if a corporate bidder or bidders raise their offer(s) for the European cargo shipper.
-- AFTER the GOLDSHORE RESOURCES GSHR GSHRF purchases ($2,100 USD approx.) earlier this week, Brett A. Richards unveiled an equity placement offer to raise approximately $5 million CAD, if successful. It’s for Goldshore's 4-million-ounce resource at Moss Lake in Ontario.
Brett, from Ontario, told us then, ”I need to cut the retail market at the knees like Snowline Gold (Yukon) did with the B2gold investment.” Translation: (hopefully) individuals will have to chase higher GSHR shares in the open market -- after this equity sale of shares/warrants, anyway.
Line in Moss Project sand: a coming resource estimate that could add 2 million ounces to the deposit resource there, some of it, once again hopefully, into the economically valid category of indicated. Brett and board also must fortify GSHR shares' trading, which until this past week has been thin trading in Canada and USA.
More investing fondue includes as stated earlier in the week (March 20-24):
— sale of approx. half my Nouveau Monde Graphite NMG at break-even after many years and now ready to add back at far lower prices;
— sale of about 15% of long-held and profitable Orford Mining ORM ORMFF:
— continued purchases of l-o-o-o-o-n-g-held Québec and Ontario concessions holder and groomer Val-d’Or Mining VZZ VDOMF;
— and of even l-o-o-o-o-o-n-g-e-r held Ivanhoe Mines (below);
— and, as are most of us, I await James Bay’s Elmer Gold Project update and first-time mineral resource estimate, long delayed, from Azimut Exploration AZM AZMTF in Québec. I hold.
SWISS METALS INVESTMENT SHOWS
Zürich metals investing shows abound this year :
— just concluded SWISS MINING INSTITUTE (Bally Capital Advisors);
— expanding conference organizer PRECIOUS METALS SUMMIT of Beaver Creek, Colo., September fame — which I will attend this year for the first time in 4 years); Take II — I must add
PMS’s 2023 Zurich Summit (Nov 13-15) will be the show’s 10th staging.
— the one I am attending and helping to moderate, longtime metals trade organization DENVER GOLD FORUM's Europe gathering in April, right at the Easter break. [I also help moderate the flagship Denver Gold Forum gathering in September at Colorado Springs (formerly Denver), the grandpappy of all of these metals investment gatherings.
[See: https://www.denvergold.org/gold-forums/300x300-m-egf/]
The Denver edition of Zürich in two weeks (April 10-13) will see producers, such as Hecla Mining, Agnico Eagle and one of my favorite holdings, cash-flow extraordinaire Alamos Gold; and wanna-be gold producers, developers and up-and-comers such as I-80 Gold, Contango Ore, Vista Gold.
In Europe, classy yet expensive Zürich is a required stop for continental family offices, generalist investors and hardened metals fund operators.
At SMI, a show (last week) staged by a Swiss investor relations firm (Bally), several attendees/exhibitors weighed in:
Rudi Fronk of Nevada, British Columbia, etc., copper-gold project developer SEABRIDGE GOLD SA SEA ($1 billion USD market value) says he saw SMI draw about 80 exhibitors, a high mark for the emerging show.
"I found the SMI conference worthwhile. Over the 2 days I had about 20 1:1 meetings with family offices, fund managers and high net worth investors," Rudi said. The Colorado resident has been at the Seagate executive helm for more than 20 years.
Rudi used the Swiss stop not just to assay the rösti, a traditional Swiss menu item, but also to visit shareholders and wanna-be ones in Munich, Frankfurt, Geneva and Lugano (Italy).
Scott Berdhahl of SNOWLINE GOLD (Yukon) SGD SNWGF was there and said he sensed "seemingly decent sentiment and extra interesting to be there amidst the backdrop of Credit Suisse tumult."
Scott, a mid-30s geologist and CEO who looks to me like his lean (head)frame would welcome Swiss raclette, fondue and rösti,
noted, "SMI was weighted towards lithium, it seemed to me, in terms of company participation.”
Stephen Stewart of tiny QC COPPER & GOLD QCCU QCCUF (Québec), like all cash-requiring, obscure mining wanna-bes, said, "It was a lot more issuers which sort of dilutes things from my company perspective."
Oh, the tidal wave of lithium-cos with no lithium production? "I ignore the lithium companies – too frothy and not serious; and I would short 90% of them, if that was my business." Bravo, Stephen.
INDUSTRIAL METALS
LOOK AWAY for a moment and prices of the industrial metals (copper, zinc, nickel, iron ore, silver (I guess), cobalt, silicon, graphite, la-la-lithum, etc) are down, no, up, no down.
Fact is, all of the non-precious metals are holding their own in price this winter and spring 2023. Global economy headwinds and tailwinds smack around the 'specialty' and infrastructure metals almost every day.
I use (dunh ... ) IVANHOE MINES IVN IVPAF, Africa copper, zinc, nickel platinum metals) as my gauge of how the world is rating global growth or contraction. I add IVN shares, as I have all of this week and even today, when prices for copper skirt that $4 cusp USD level, and are stagnant or down, thus slimming Ivanhoe's $14 billion USD market value.
In other words, I buy or fortify stakes in most of my investments, and desired ones, when prices are falling. Not always a winner but in line with a l-o-o-o-n-g view of most of the copper-opolis metals as way too cheap given coming supply shortfalls.
Other pub-co gauges (A SMATTERING HERE) that reflect industrial metals from the investment POV (and not necessarily the dollar-denominated spot and futures contracts, LME and CME/NYMEX, China metals exchanges and so on) include some of the China-Asia pub-cos:
NICKEL ASIA CORP https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/nikl?countrycode=ph&mod=se
GRAPHITE INDIA https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/509488?countrycode=in&mod=search_symbol
Jinduicheng Molybdenum Co. https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/601958?mod=mw_quote_switch&countrycode=cn
Yunnan Chihong Zinc & Germanium Co.
https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/600497?countrycode=cn&mod=search_symbol
YUNNAN ALUMINUM ... JUANGXI COPPER CO. … SINO-AMERICAN SILICON PRODUCTS …
... the list of big industrial metals producers is l-o-o-o-n-g.
-- Thom Calandra
