Good afternoon
Retail Sales as well as Industrial Production in the US were much weaker than expected last Quarter…alleviating concerns in bond markets. But not the reason for the small sell-off in base metals, which took place hours before these numbers. I have no idea, why that happened…but later, Nornickel announced, that their large mines in Siberia, which are affected by flooding, will be be impacted by much longer than expected. This lead to a strong uplift of nickel, and palladium prices .
Little action in bonds today, but equity markets are generally stronger.
Volkswagen staged theri “battery day” yesterday, outlining very ambitious plans and making everybody bullish for EV´s. But they are also convinced, that lithium-ion batteries will not be the final story.
Northern Star - will fall out of the Junior Gold Miners Index, because of it´s size since the merger with Saracen. 4% of the company is held by the ETF, I believe. Silver Mines will be included in the Index, triggering an estimated 20 mill shares of buying.
Evolution - there were a few midsized takeovers in gold yesterday…Newmont, Gran Colombia etc. Evolution made an add-on aquisition , buying a company, which surrounds their Red Lake Mine for 350 mill Can$. They have an excellent ground position, and a mill - 75.000 oz yearly production , starting late 2021 make a lot of sense for EVN. This is not a major story, I guess - but very useful . Very hard for me to comment - I had not even heard the name of the company before! But Jake´s track record in aquisitions is a very good one…I am sure, that he has done something sensible here. I will report more on it, when I hear something…
Venturex - quite sensational, what´s happening here….Apparently - and not officially announced as yet - Mineral Resources have bought out the majority of Northern Star´s stake at 40ct/share! And if talk in Perth is right, this is a friendly move! Bill Beamont, ex MD and founder of NST, in bed with Chris Ellison, founder and MD of Mineral Resources - these two are absolutely outstanding. And Mick McMullen, the ex CEO of Stillwater ( before it got taken over ) and Detour ( before it got taken over! ) as Managing Director! These guys are planning something big! They will not end up running a smaller, Western Australian copper mine - this is only the start! I think one should have a foot in the door here…If these guys do halfway as well as they have done in their respective , previous companies( in the case of Ellison, he still runs it ), this will be a billionen $ company in the not too distant future!
Foran Mining - announced some excellent drilling results from McIlvenna Bay…26m of continous mineralisation ( 5m with 8% copper eqv/ 21m with 2,12% copper eqv ) are excellent, to say the least. Drilling is in full swing - so many more results expected"! This is exactly what they need to potentially justify a much higher valuation. Their mining resource is on the way to 20 millt I had to sell a few, once again, as the holding has hit my internal 5% weight cealing…but I think we can see a lot more here, with copper trading above 4$/lb despite today´s 2% fall!
Have a nice evening
WS