Good afternoon
unbelievable - I just tried to get a price for Rusal in London, and Bloomberg is displaying: Security is subject to US and/or EU and/or UN sanctions! It does not even give a price for the stock anymore! Whatever we think about sanctions - but I think this is really bad...perhaps I will not get a price for Glencore by tomorrow, as they have contracts with Rusal????
Producer Prices in the US are rising quite strongly....is inflation finally coming? Gold at least is pretty strong, as are base metals and equities.
Mr.Xi trying to be friendly.....and markets like that! Trump must be thinking, that he is just about to move into the ranks of the greatest American presidents ever!!
Strike Energy - the company has entered into a very interesting JV in Western Australia, just a few km away from the recent high profile discovery Waitsia, and teh producing asset Beharra Springs. Very little, initial outlay, but up to 11 mill$ to spend over 24 month to earn 50% for Strike. The JV is targeting conventional gas, similar to Waitsia, which was discovered by AWE two years or so ago, and led to the current takeover of the company by Mitsui. This could be great fun for STX...but rather in 2019, than 2018. For now, all financial resources are to be used for the big well in the Cooper Basin, which is progressing towards completion. The well is a few days behind, and will be finished in late April/early May, before fracking/testing can begin. I do like STX´s new aquisition - just in case something is going wrong with Jaws, the company has an interesting fall-back project. Important from a de-risking view point - but without any doubt, the huge upside is in the Cooper Basin, and not in W.A.
Mineral Resources - have instigated a takeover for Atlas Iron, a smaller, Pilbara-based iron ore producer. Similar to MIN, Atlas will be hard presse to make any moeny from their iron ore production at current prices/discounts, as their iron ore has got grades of just under 58%, attracting a large discount to BHP/RIO -quality ore. The biggest problem for Atlas: They are trucking the ore to Port Hedland, which will cost them up to 25 A$/t - roughly 50% of cash costs! For MIN, the added production from Atlas should make the new, automated railway system more feasible, as economies of scale are imperative here. The other attraction of Atlas is, that they have access to some lithium via their JV with Pilbara, and especially, a lot of spare port capacity, which is attractive for MIN. At this stage, I am not surfe, whether I like teh transaction - will wait for tomorrow´s conference call.
Have a nice evening
WS