Good afternoon
US GDP got revised upwards from 3.2% to 3.3% for the 3rd Quarter, Pending Home Sales strong.
Not much movement in markets at the end of the European day.
Cobalt is trading at a new high - 69 US$, after trading around 60$ for a while. Perhaps successlos attempts by VW to secure long term supply have helped? They at least created attention!
I have to bore you with an amazing story, Santa Barbara:
When I started working back in 1985, at a time of the first gold boom in Australia in more recent history, Santa Barbara moved up by 600% in 2.5 years.
Then things became quiet for a while, and the stock subsequently dived from 5$ to 10ct - only to move up 134x over the following 3 years - but to crash back to 30ct over the next 3 years!
From 2004 to early 2008, the share price increased from 22ct to 5.20$ = 23x over 3 years, doing it again! But you will have guessed it - it crashed , this time taking a bit longer, 7 years, to 7ct! Over the last 3 years, SBM have gone up 46x, to the current 3.22 A$ ( + a dividend ).
A truly incredible history! They have had their AGM today - all chearful, as you will imagine. And for the right reasons - management have done a fantastic job to get the company - mainly, the Leonora Mine, which started production in 1985, then with a 5 year mine life - from heavily indebted and nearly bust, to a cash-rich ( more than 200 mill cash ) and long-life, prime mining asset/company. As I have said before - unless they pull a great aquisition out of their head, the stock is fully valued. Mining is now down to 1700m, and will go to 2000 m or more. Conventional wisdom will tell you, that the mine - and therefor SBM - are currently at it´s best! Mining is not get any easier at 2000m below the ground! SBM have today increased their shareholding in Peel Mining, which is an interesting story - but that is small beer compared to the market cap of SBM.
In any case, the history of the Leonora Mine can tell you all lessons about the vagaries of mining, Mother Earth, good/bad management, and booms and busts!
Highfield - expected, but might have been forgotten by a few: The issuance of 50 mill performance shares has been cancelled. They expired in October and were to be issued only, if full mining approval etc would have been reached at that stage. As these shares would have been dilutionary, good news. The public hearing process has been finished, and ( hopefully), the Enviromental Approval could be issued any day now. We have seen delays before - but this time, I think we should be there. It has been a long time!
Have a nice evening
WS