A thread set up and dedicated to Gold and Mining stocks.

Gold could be set to bounce up again in the near future and throughout the autumn and winter. Higher oil prices and inflationary worries both here and in the states mean its an excelent hedge against the falling dollar and weaking markets.

Please post which stocks you feel may benefit other posters. Lets all try and make some money from Mining.

cheers GF.

Intercept,

That's a very harsh statement IMHO, they were certanly guilty of being "overly optimistic", but more than that you can't say for sure.

Changes at the top resulted from that let down, and now they are doing it properly it would appear.

The facts are, They have bought the equipment, it has been shipped from Cape Town, S.Africa, to Luanda, Angola, then cleared customs, and been loaded upon a number of flat bed trucks for the trek to C9, a 4 - 5 day jouney across Angola.

The convoy was due to leave yesterday, so that's where we are now.

The Badhorst brothers are reputed to be experienced alluviam miners, and are onsite.

Not too much time to wait for initial grades now, I'm holding, probably adding, in the realisation that there is risk, and a good potential reward, and my position size within the portfolio reflects that.

I figured it was you.

Every one to their own investment style I suppose, and far be it from me to pffer any advise, but not sure what you're achieving by buying single 6p shares and paying dealing costs each time.

You seem very bitter about NML, did you take a hit early this year?

Is it Testex again with yet another name change? lol

intercept,

Well I am not blinkered, and do change my view from time to time, when circumstances change.

I still beleive NML are on track to be mining within the next month or so, and we just need confirmation of the grades IMHO.

Please feel free to tip away, I have an open mind.

I have started an NML thread, to avoid dominating this thread with discussions on one share.

Bisichi just goes from strength to strength as does Anglo Pacific on the ever increasing coal price. Rumoured that Cambrian Mining will have a pit mining and selling coal in the last 1/4 of this year.

Well worth further investigation.

cheers GF.

Almost 2 Million shares traded on AFE so far today. Does anyone know what is going on?

Further to my recent post regarding South African Resources (SFU), the SP continues to rise steadily, up 6% today.

Regards

PTH

hi guys
have you got any views about bhp billiton. it seems the share price is stuck at around 520p. i have got a bet (BUY) on it 533-503. I THOUGHT THE PRICE WOULD RISE QUITE QUICKLY DUE TO VERY GOOD COMMENTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS. PLEASE FEEL FREE TO SHARE ANY VIEWS.
CHEERS

Be carefull Zeb, have a gander at the home page on here and the outlook from the US second item down, a suprise profit warning from commodity and alluminium giant Alcoa. Could affect the sector
cheers Gf.

hi goldfinger
thanks for replying. There will be as well a report about the china's growth state on monday which will be very important for the mining sector. I personnally think there will be a little slowdown . IF there is a downtrend hope 505 p (bhp billiton) will be a good support.

cheers

Seb thanks for that info on the China report , I wasnt aware and I have a fair % of my portfolio in metals. I will be looking out for the report.

cheers GF.

Feature Story
Date: September 09, 2004

Anglo Pacific Now Has To Get Real Value For Its Unlisted Investments In Canada

It is never the easiest of tasks to dissect the results from Anglo Pacific Group and the interim results to end June show the pattern has not changed. Profits before tax were up from 1.74 million to 2.7 million, but 718,000 of this increase was accounted for by the sale of fixed assets. Peter Boycott, the chairman, says that With the increasing demand for energy products from China, India and the Far East, the outlook for coking and steaming coal prices looks to remain buoyant. Developing our coal energy interests in Canada and elsewhere will remain a major focus for the group. The coal royalties from two mines in Queensland, Australia, are the engine room for the company but they only increased by 510,000 so presumably the full impact of high coal prices is yet to come.

The other problem of which investors have to be aware is that the royalty interests do not necessarily provide a steady and rising stream of income. They arise when the two producers are mining from the private rather than the Crown areas of the mines and are paid in arrears. Last year mining at the Kestrel mine operated by Rio Tinto and the Crinum mine of BHP Billiton took place predominantly in the Queensland Governments area of the coal deposits. This year it was expected to switch back again, but there is not too much evidence of this as yet. The directors are maintaining their strategy of paying out between 40 and 60 per cent of net royalties after 30 per cent Australian tax as dividend, but will not make up their minds about the interim until November. Provided the mining takes place in the private areas and sales of coal get full benefit from higher prices, investors could be in for a treat. At the beginning of August a final dividend was paid for the year to end December 2003 which makes clear just how much in arrears the word arrears implies.

The company lays great store by the value of these coal royalty interests which rose from 44.3 million to 47.1 million in the half year. Anglo Pacific also has a 65 per cent interest in the 665 million tonne Groundhog coal deposit as well as owning the 121.5 million tonne Trefi deposit in the well established Peace River coal field. Both of these are in British Columbia and work is continuing on them encouraged by the much increased activity in that part of Canada during the last six months with projects going ahead at Perry Creek, Burnt River and Willow Creek amongst others. With higher world prices for metallurgical, thermal and domestic coal, Groundhog and Peace River have now become valuable assets which are still carried in the books at negligible cost. Discussions on developing them with joint venture partners continue, but it has to be admitted that Groundhog is in a pretty remote area.

In addition the company has a 15 per cent interest in the Merritt coal bed methane project. Coal bed methane is an emerging industry in Canada and the US is well ahead of it in the development of natural gas resources. Merritts resources consist of 31 billion cubic feet of coal bed methane and 218 million tonnes of bituminous grade coal. This interest is in process of being reversed into a Canadian quoted vehicle where funds will be raised locally to take the projects forward. The background for developing Merritt remains positive as the move will put real value on the stake at a time when the directors have seen a distinct shift in sentiment towards coal energy and oil in the first half of 2004.

In the period under review Anglo Pacific therefore took some profits on its gold and precious metal investments as indicated by the sale of fixed assets and has increased its exposure to base metals as well as coal and coal energy. Few details are given, but certainly the investment in Kirkland Lake Gold was reduced. The company still has a holding of nearly 20 per cent in Platinum Australia , however, which has recently announced projects in South Africa. These involve the process technology developed at the Panton project in Australia which produces a PGM concentrate of a grade high enough to go direct to refiners, cutting out smelting. As a result the technology could produce good revenue returns without the requirement for substantial inward investment. It is somewhat ironic, nevertheless, that a company which has tended to shun South Africa finds itself transported there, like it or not, as it would be difficult to liquidate this holding without crystalising a significant loss.

The company has a number of stakes in other quoted mining companies which are concentrated in North America, Canada and Australia. These include a stake of nearly 20 per cent in Canadian listed Alto Ventures for which the interest in the Oxford Lake gold property was swapped. Together with the coal and coal energy projects in Canada these were valued at the end of June at around 7.45 million net of the realised profits. Cash amounted to 1.5 million with no borrowings and unused bank facilities of 300,000. Anglo Pacific is therefore in a strong financial position and still has 29 million of tax losses to be carried forward against capital gains. For its next trick it has to come up with a deal, or deals, which will put real value into its Canadian unlisted interests.

cheers Gf.

All blue for NML and TSG this morning, lots of small buys, but no trades for POG so far, CDN is a share that can drive investers mad, with these kind of shares its just a waiting game and investers in these shares not like waiting.

NML up 0.25p

Hows this, from todays Investors Chronicle

149p - Oil & gas - Emerald Energy is not an obvious stock to buy from among the list of small oil explorers. Its recent history has been marked by a series of debacles and the company almost went under last year. However, there are reasons to believe that a new management team has the company on an even keel, and that there could be considerable upside.

This is the story so far. A previous management pursued a strategy of high- cost, high-risk exploration in Colombia. They found oil alright and, by 2000, the Gigante 1 well was producing at 3,000 barrels a day. Then it blew up, killing a worker and destroying the production rig. The loss of production cut off cash flow and crippled the company's finances. This time last year, Emerald was in serious danger of going bust.

At that point, Alastair Beardsall approached Emerald Energy with a rescue package involving a rights issue backed by Russian investors. One condition was that the entire board resigned. They had little choice, and the guard was duly changed last August. The current board includes Mr Beardsall as chairman and chief executive, industry veteran Paul Ellis as chief operating officer, and three senior non-executives, including former National Power boss Keith Henry.

The new team has got off to a sensible start. They have cut costs hard - the annual report is now monochrome and factual - and the group hopes to persuade its 28,000 or so shareholders to accept more electronic communication to cut down on administration costs. They have abandoned the high-risk strategy of deep wells, in favour of shallower ones in established areas.

Emerald's first new exploration well in years, Campo Rico 1 also in Colombia, has now struck oil and is producing more than 1,000 barrels a day. The company was also awarded a new 'association contract' covering a different licence area. So what was once a single-well company now has two producing wells and three licence areas. With some degree of credibility restored, Mr Beardsall again came to the equity markets. Emerald has just raised 9.3m to finance further exploration drilling. The shares have also undergone a 100-into-one consolidation.

Emerald plans to drill at least two more exploration wells on Campo Rico this year, and possibly an exploration well on the Fortuna prospect in the first quarter of next year. The company currently has 11m barrels of proven and probable reserves, while Mr Beardsall thinks he could add another 9m this year and much more next year. Longer term, there is the possibility of another well at Gigante and of exploration outside Colombia.

This is where Waterford Holdings might come in useful. Waterford, which is controlled by Michael Kroupeev, a young Russian entrepreneur, holds 46 per cent of Emerald. Mr Beardsall stresses that Waterford is a passive investor and does not get involved in running the company. But, if Emerald were to seek opportunities in the former Soviet Union, it would be logical to use Waterford's connections there.

Obviously, a company that has come so close to failure is a risky investment and Emerald comes with a prominent health warning - it's not for widows and orphans. It is still small, and depends heavily on operations in a tricky political and operational environment. It faces the geological risks that are inherent in oil exploration. It barely registers with City analysts. And its biggest shareholder - Waterford - is likely to want an exit at some stage. But the company now looks financially stable and is back doing what small oil companies should be doing. In an overheated part of the stock market, Emerald looks like a little gem of a recovery story. Buy.

Your on the wrong thread this is gold & mining.

Hi all, you guys have any thoughts on AGU?

http://htt://aol.fool.co.uk/valueinvesting/2004/vi040917