Maybe you can buy zinc like any other commodity in the hope that someone will buy it off you for a higher price in the future. But for the ordinary investor there is really no option for physical zinc exposure but exchange traded funds or ETFs such as ZINC:LN that are backed by zinc. More … Read more
As credit tightened in China over the last while it became popular to use metal inventories in the warehouses of Chinese ports as collateral for loans. The problem occurs when dishonest people get involved in pledging the same stock of metal as security for multiple loans from several banks. Apparently there could be as much as … Read more
Elliott Management owns 27.7 per cent of AIM-listed gold miner Avocet Mining PLC. Avocet also owes Elliott US$15.8 million dollars. The loan was due for repayment on the 31st of December last year. Avocet which owns the Inata gold mine in Burkina Faso and the permitted Tri-K gold project in Ebola-struck Guinea has a market … Read more
I will be away for the next couple of weeks in Andalucía. I hope to wind my way up from the coast and get up to the pueblo blanco of Ronda again and to stroll in the shadow of Hemingway but this time not in the early afternoon heat when all sensible people are enjoying … Read more
It was good to finally see a private equity investment in a development zinc project announced this morning. Greenstone Resources LP announced a $12 million dollar equity investment in North River Resources plc to reopen the old Namib Mine in Namibia. It is a well structured investment but it is a drip feed of funds … Read more
In April the global economic report of the International Monetary Fund said that China’s hunger for commodities is far from being satisfied any time soon. Most importantly it said that demand is likely to switch from and emphasis on iron ore and copper toward higher value commodities such as zinc. Maybe this is because zinc … Read more
In London this week I spoke with a private equity fund specialising in the mining and metals sector which has a keen interest in zinc. They cast a critical eye over the limited pool of development-track projects held by Juniors and the conclusion was that athose reviewed lacked quality and some had significant flaws or red flags. … Read more
We land with Air France in Bamako, the capital of Mali on the Niger River. Bamako means “crocodile river” in Bambara. The French under general Gallieni built a railroad at the end of the 19th century all the way from Dakar on the Atlantic to reach the Niger at Bamako. This was an extraordinary engineering … Read more
There are very few places left in the world where a prospecting geologist can come across a gold mining camp with over nine thousand hand-dug pits. A gold mineralising system which has never been drilled! That is the singular experience I had on the 16th of April 2010 and one I never expect to forget. As usual … Read more