Went into this company at 16.4p this morning and added twice, its now up 29% and could go a lot futher over the next few days. Of all the gold juniors I thought it to be the most undervalued this morning. It is a company that as issued shares after shares, but as POG continues to stay strong and rise I feel this one will go from strength to strength. It has been over I think 32p already this year so thats the benchmark for the price.

REMEMBER this is a gamble and just that, there are no re- assurances from me on this one. If you like the story please DYOR and remember youd better be quick the way its shooting forward.

You are responsible for your own buying and selling actions.

cheers GF.

By the way I forgot dont think for one moment this price increase is over, because its not. Dont forget they have quite a distance to move yet to their yearly highs. The opportunitys there go for it, but as usual DYOR.

cheers slater.

Profit taking in Canada pulled this one down as the day went on. If POG stays up its still worth sticking in there for more upside.

cheers GF.

GF,

Like Thistle, but wary of S.African gold stocks at the moment, so only watching, god luck though.

You mean the dollar v the rand ??, and its implications????.

cheers gf.

I am SURE Andy meant the dollar vs the rand and it's implications! It's no longer enough to have great production and huge resources, unfortunately, if you operate in a country which has a very strong currency against the dollar.

In spite of last week's upbeat news, go and look at the company's numbers. The latest financials are available from their website, and are well presented and easy to read. Alternatively you can find them at www.sedar.com, as Thistle is dual listed.

This was one of my favourites at the beginning of the year, but in spite of their currency hedging, and consequent massive debt repayment (which is continuing), the strength of the rand has trashed Thistle's profits over the last 6 quarters, and driven their mining CASH costs up to $399 an ounce by the end of their 1st half in June.

They registered a loss for the first half of over $2.1 million, compared with a profit for the first half of the previous year of $5.7 million. That was with turnover up by 50% to $34.8 million from $23.5 million.

They desperately need those new gold resources and reserves, because only by increasing throughput can they bring down unit costs. Recent moves with the trades unions to improve working practices may also help. And I understand that they currently have - or are about to have - outside consultants to study mining practice at President Steyn and advise on improvements.

Willie McLucas is a sharp cookie, and the company has great promise. He has just raised another $24 million in convertible loan notes to finance the Massives and Masbate, but while the rand stays strong, he will have a very hard row to hoe to start getting back into profit before Masbate, with its lower costs, comes on stream in 2005. He has been quoted as saying that $400+ gold and a rand standing at 10 to $1 could put him back into profit in S Africa. We may soon have $400 gold, but the dollar is still very, very weak against the rand....

Q3 numbers are due out any time, and I cannot see them being good.

Thanks for that well informed piece Wendy, very much appreciated. Yes I have heard that the figures could concern when they are released, but I have also seen a report were WM says there will be no nasty suprises or words to that effect. If I can find it I will post it.

There certainly are issues over the exchange rate here, and one of the main reasons I rec'od this as a a gamble and no re- assurances from me. I guess its a matter of keeping ones eye on POG and the relative currencys.

cheers GF.

ps, any thoughts on BEMA?, they would be much appreciated.

GF,

I have been continuing my research on this one (TMG) & have reached some conclusions - see:

www.sharecrazy.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=3&t=009950

Wendy, I have been informed that you are a very knowledgeable poster on the Michael Walters site especially where mining companies are concerned. I am relatively inexperienced & would appreciate your comments on the above link!

Many thanks,

SB

Wendy, here the article I refered to in my last post.

Thistle down on rand
By: Stewart Bailey

Posted: 2003/11/12 Wed 19:18 ZE2 |

JOHANNESBURG – Toronto-listed Thistle Mining has fallen on hard times with more than a fifth knocked off its share price since the start of this week. Analysts were at a loss to give a firm reason for the dramatic fall in the share price, but most speculated that a stubbornly strong rand had raised concerns over the profitability of the group’s marginal South African operations.
The rand is tormenting the entire South African resource industry, given that it has appreciated by more than 50 percent against the dollar since the beginning of last year. The upshot of its performance is that the rand-denominated price of gold has sunk from highs of R120,000/kg last year to its current level of about R83,000/kg.

Thistle has been at the thin end of the wedge, with its older South African mines producing at close to the gold price. Operational problems earlier this year pushed the operations into the red.

After two “nightmare days” of trading, the usually garrulous company president Willie McLucas was in no mood to explain the reasons for the flagging share price. He promised a news release sometime on Thursday, which he said might provide some clarity.

What Mineweb did glean from McLucas, however, was that an unfavourable report in the Dines Letter, the monthly missive from US-based investment guru Jim Dines, had sparked a stampede of Thistle stockholders looking to exit their positions. “That’s how it goes, isn’t it? He tips you one week and sells you in another, that’s where a lot of this volume is coming from,” said McLucas.

The reason for Dines’ ‘sell’ call is unclear, but what is certain is that the strong rand is punishing the company’s margins. To compound matters, an underground fire during the June quarter – the second in a year – pushed the South African mines into a loss making position at the half-year mark. Cash costs of $399/oz were substantially higher than the $346/oz gold price received.

McLucas would not comment on the group’s September quarter results due out next week. He did say, however, that that although the group could always do better operationally, there would be no unexpected disaster in the number.

The rand has stirred up enough concern to prompt Thistle’s bankers, Standard Bank, to deploy independent mining consultants to assist management in re-establishing respectable margins at the mines.

South African mining industry sources said the engineers were working with Thistle to re-establish mining flexibility at the old President Steyn operations. The company has paid off loans to Standard Bank South Africa and has all but paid back $27.5 million it owed Standard Bank London, with only $6 million of the loan still to be repaid.

David Hutchins, fund manager at London-based Resources Investment Trust, which owns about 5 percent of Thistle, said the strong rand may have contributed to the slump in the share price.

“Fundamentally, though, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the company,” said Hutchins. “I’m certainly not a seller at this price, if anything we might be consider buying.”ENDS.

Wendy you will probably have already read this article but the Guy does seem to have put his head on the block over the production figures, which does give me a lot more confidence. As Ive already said Im taking it as a gamble and have already earned a very decent return. If there is more upside and the present markets never fail to suprise me I will stay in for the ride, but Ive got a beady eye out.

cheers and good luck, GF.

cheers GF.

Looks like a bit of profit taking going on but buyers moving back in. Not a time to panic, will we hit the $ 400 mark on POG today????, it could be on as we have hit $399 on a few occasions. Will this lead to a stampede for all gold stocks????, it could well do. Keep your eye on the price of gold.

cheers gf.

Just topped up my holding in this company seems investors taking advantage of the profit making.

cheers Gf.

found this gf

THISTLE MINING (THT : TSX : C$0.60) - BUY -
12-MONTH TARGET PRICE: C$1.75 ... Mike Jones

Comment: Thistle announces that it has restructured its hedge book

Thistle announces that it has restructured its hedge book to
crystallize a US$7 million cash gain and increase the benefit it will gain from a rising gold price. The cash raised will be used to further develop the
expansion at the President Steyn Gold Mines complex in South Africa, with
production set to rise from the planned 220,000 ounces per annum to at least
280,000 ounces per annum. The company has also announced the completion of the
acquisition of the underlying royalties and convertible notes via the
96.8% accepted acquisition of the JSE listed PS Gold. The company will
now move to compulsory acquisition of the remaining minorities. The
effective cash funding, buying in of the royalty and convertible, and telegraphed production profile increase have led us to raise our target price to
C$1.75 from C$1.60.

I said on another site that Gold seems to have good potential
www.goldmoney.com as well

Slipped back again. Wonder what stage we are at in the speculative cycle? Time to get in again? GF any thoughts?

Must admit after taking top half profits its slipped back, but it was a gamble as I stated. There are production figures out this week sometime. Its just one big gamble with this one. SA miners always are. Watch out for YAMANA floating on Friday. Canadian miner in Bema class. May transfer my thistle funds over to this one.

If you have a look at Yamana can you please pass on your thoughts, oh and its pulling it out of the ground in brazil.

cheers GF.

Yamana far less speculative. Had a look at the website, as you say it is already producing in Brazil. Given recent political events in Georgia et al, Yamana in a less dangerous part of the world too. For anyone interested www.yamana.com and trades on Toronto exchange around C$3.70 (Ticker YRI). (about one pound 70p). Dunno the float price in London this Friday and don't want to steal others' thunder, who know more about this than I do!!

Apologies for advertising another BB on here, but for reference see Yamana at

http://www.sharecrazy.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=3&t=010078

GF recommended these to me, expect a thread from him on here shortly!...

Blimey what are you doing up at this time SB, Yamana could be a a real gold mine. I was very impressed with the first look at its 'geting out of the ground' in Brazil, not the SA republic and the rubble, not Russia with all its problems.

Around $200 to extract, then mining oncosts say $50 at most and POG at say $400, very nice profit per ounce.

See you later SB, glad you like it thought you would, note my figs of top of my head from a little research last night. SBs will be more accurate.

Cheers GF.

Too many stocks to research, not enough time! God only knows why the markets open for 8.5 hours! Why don't they open at 9am, close at 12pm. Bugger all happens after midday anyway! We could all spend the afternoon researching and actually get more than a few hours sleep/night! LOL!

Goodnight mate, will be up at 7am to read the NAE results!

SB

Your right there SB, actually during the dot com boom years there was talk of after hours trading in London.

cheers GF.

Forget the NAE results, I completely forgot it was the AVM Results!!! As expected, but I was hoping for more in the way of new reserves found. Have taken some profits (25%) & will hold the remaining 75%.