Good afternoon
well - it got even worse on Friday! European equities are actually holding up reasonably well today, in light of the late sell-off in the States on Friday. Metals not bad either - down by 0,5% or so. - OK - this was written by early afternoon…but as I am finishing, the rout continues…metals halfway ok at minus 0,7% or so….Huawei/Trade War, BREXIT, Italy, now India - just too much for markets to contend with!
Chinese import/export numbers pointing to more pressure on their GDP growth rate, while German export numbers were better thane xpected. Also, import numbers for copper were down in Nov, which worries some analysts.
Some profit-taking in gold, but holding well at 1245 US$ or 1727 A$/oz - very nice price for the Australian producers.
Bellevue Gold - announced some more, strong exploration results, indicating more strike length of their Viago lode. They have 4 drill rigs working - more results shoudl come out relatively soon, and if they can continue with these results, another resource increase will be on the cards in Feb/March.
Highland Pacific - interesting result from the feasibility study for the Frieda River project in PNG…HIG own 20%, the rest is held by the Chinese owners of PanAust. Pre-production capital of 2.8 bill US + 500 mill US$ for mining fleet and slurry pipeline for 175.000 t of yearly copper and 230.000 oz of gold. On top of this, a hydro-electric powerstation for 3.2 bill US$, which will also be used as tailing- and waste rock facility. Even though the power station would also supply other customers, I dare to say, that this project ( which has a time line of 7 years anyway ), will not go ahead until we will see substantially higher copper prices. A good example for how hard it is to establish a sizeable mine in remote locations!
Sheffield - completed a 16 mill A$ capital raising, and announced a SPP for retail shareholders to apply for up to 15.000 A$ at the placement price of 65ct. The proceeds will be used for advaning the project, working capital, and enough time to look for a suitable JV partner. The announcement also details capex , working capitala nd etc costs - looks too high for me and I will need to ask a few questions first. In any case, numbers eem to include 50 mill$ in cost overrun facility, and excessive working capital requirements for 3 years. More tomorrow…
Have a nice evning…
WS