KIM Report

Canaries in the coal mine: resource juniors first to feel effects of slowdown.

Posted by David

As the American market for consumer goods contracts and the greenback devalues, the level of imports to the U.S. greatly reduces. Countries that have economies strongly dependent on manufactured goods to the U.S. (and other troubled countries such as Britain) are affected by this loss of consumer base and start to experience recessions of their own. As the U.S. imports less melamine-enhanced milk and children’s toys with Pb-bearing paint, the world’s most vibrant manufacturer – China, loses jobs. The next dominoes to fall in this depressing little game are the countries with resource-based economies: Canada, Australia, Brazil, South Africa, Chile, etc. With reduced manufacturing, there is less need for raw materials used therein. Also, as the manufacturing countries lose jobs, their own consumer base contracts. Construction in countries like China is reduced as there may not be a demand for homes or office space due to closed wallets.

 

The first sign of dire economic consequences experienced here in Canada is how producing juniors are affected by lower commodity prices. These juniors often have much smaller profit margins than do the seniors and feel the pinch much harder. The most common route of action for these companies when the price for their commodity (metal, potash, oil, gas, etc.) unexpectedly drops is to cease production and put the mine(s) into caretaking mode.

 

This occurred with Blue Note Mining (TSX-BN) when they recently announced they were temporarily halting production at their Pb-Zn-Ag Caribou and Restigouche mines at Bathurst, New Brunswick. This is a far cry from when initial commercial production was achieved last January and its grand opening in June. BN has had excellent technical success in streamlining production at their mines. An example of this was when Caribou exceeded the specifications for maximum tonnage per day milled by 0.2% for August. The have also vastly improved recovery since the start up. The company has also had success in expanding the deposit and thus mine life by further drilling on site.

 

A second example, First Nickel Inc. (TSX-FNI), a Sudbury Ni producer, has also put their Lockerby Ni mine into mothballs as of this week. Acquired from Falconbridge in 2005, this is FNI’s only producing mine. Although they do possess numerous exploration properties in the Sudbury and Timmins areas.

 

So why, in the face of this success, have BN and FNI put their mines on “temporary care and maintenance”? Although it leaves the company in life-support mode and hoping they can remain solvent until metal prices recover, it was the most logical course. Zn has fallen from highs in 2006 at $4000/t back to levels from 2004 at $1100/t. Pb has fallen in a similar fashion from ~$3500/t last autumn to $1300/t levels. Ag is also down from $19/oz to about $10.50/oz in mere months. Ni prices have been reduced from about $8.00/kg to $4.50/kg in just over a month. Price drops of such magnitude will quickly transform a rich deposit into one that is entirely uneconomic. This happened to the deposits at Bathurst and Sudbury and will continue to occur with numerous junior/small-cap producers until people are willing to pay reasonable prices for metals.

 

A company with the potential to go the direction that BN and FNI have gone is Great Panther Resources (TSX-GPR), a silver producer in Mexico. This company has two mines: Topia (Ag-Pb-Zn) and Guanajuato (Ag-Au), and two exploration projects: Mapimi (Ag-Pb-Zn-Au) and San Antonio (Au-Cu). The company has found numerous rich ore zones across their properties and has had success in fine tuning their mining operations to achieve high recoveries. However, GPR has had to cut back on exploration expenditures and had to focus on efforts to reduce cost per ton to process their ore. Their current cost to produce Ag is between $10/oz and $12/oz. As Ag prices flirt with $10/oz, these mines may no longer be profitable to operate in the short term.

 

The individual junior can do nothing to affect world commodity prices. Some may have been lucky or wise enough to hedge a portion of their production at prices from six months ago. However, even those contracts will run out. There may be a slight recovery in metal prices in the short term, but it will take a number of months to years to return to prices seen a short while ago. When metal prices are such that it is economic to return these mines to production, metals like Pb can once again flow from Canada to China and be used in manufactured goods such as children’s toys to be sent back to Canada. Until then, these companies and their investors will have to sit tight and hope that unlike the canary, they can withstand the toxic fumes emanating from the credit market that started this whole mess.

 

Disclaimer: The author holds 1000 shares of BN, 500 shares of FNI, and 500 shares of GPR. This article is in based on the opinion and experience of the author. Please do your own due diligence when investing. To the author’s knowledge, BN ships all of its metal concentrate to Europe.

Diamonds North works to turn high diamond counts into high share price

Posted by David

A rather vocal minority of Diamonds North (DDN) shareholders responded quite negatively to earlier criticisms of the company in regards to discussion on whether or not it was reading too much into rather high diamond counts from its Amaruk property.

 

Having attended the CEO’s (Mark Kolebaba) presentation to a sparse crowd at the 2008 Toronto Resource Investment Conference (Wake?) October 4th, it appears that DDN is not resting on its laurels and is attempting to make something of the encouraging results seen thus far from its arctic properties. Mr. Kolebaba gave a strong presentation outlining the importance of further diamond exploration in a market were the last significant deposit to start producing was Diavik in 2001 (no, Jericho does not count).

 

DDN’s main property, Amaruk, consists of ~2 million acres in Nunavut containing 29 kimberlite bodies. Many more geophysical targets remain to be drilled for kimberlite. Garnets from till samples in the region show strong G10 and G9 geochemical signatures (strong indicator minerals for peridotitic diamonds), with a minor eclogitic garnet component in terms of chromium and calcium contents.

 

One major criticism of the news release last March regarding the ~7 diamonds/kg result was that only 81.75 kg of rock from the Tuktu-1 kimberlite was sampled. Such a small sample is easily skewed to economic or uneconomic numbers by the addition or subtraction of a few carats, respectively. Mr. Kolebaba’s company is working to firm up the numbers for Amaruk by taking mini-bulk samples of 20 t from Tuktu-1, -2, and -3, and 15 t from the Qavvik body.

 

Larger sample sizes lower uncertainty and are especially important to diamond mining as even economic pipes have low absolute concentrations of diamond (well below 1% by weight). These samples have a higher chance of capturing economically viable macrodiamonds, rather than just the microdiamonds found do far. The mini-bulk sample is an important step as the Amaruk property moves from the reconnaissance stage towards the evaluation stage.

 

Interestingly, DDN’s share price has not been pounded down as badly as some other diamond juniors. It closed Friday at $0.40 down only 50% from its traditional support level at $0.80. Part of this may be due to loyal investor support, and the other part is that it has stumbled upon a potential base metals deposit also on the Amaruk property known as the Tunerq prospect. Rather than put it aside or option it out, DDN has decided to run with the prospect. Grades of up to 2.49 % Ni, 0.56% Cu, and 0.05% Co have been encountered in sulfides during drilling. An opportunistic and adaptable attitude by management should help keep the company’s head above water in a market that currently does not favour any sector, let alone diamonds.

 

Disclaimer: The author owns no shares of DDN. This article is based on the personal opinions and experience of the author. Please do your own due diligence when investing.

2008 Toronto Resource Investment Conference

Posted by David

For those of you who are in the Toronto area this weekend and would like to grill company reps face-to-face, here is the opportunity. The 2008 Toronto Resource Investment Conference is being held at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre October 4th and 5th by Cambridge House International Inc. Many resource/mining/exploration juniours will be there to present their companies to current and potential investors. A lower-key affair than the PDAC in March, this conference is much cheaper to attend and focuses more on individual investors. Numerous investment speakers such as Jay Taylor, David Coffin, and John Kaiser will also be there. The only downside is that this conference lacks the free booze, food, and swag of the PDAC. In addition, considering current market happenings, the atmosphere may resemble a wake more than a party.

The conference link is: http://www.cambridgehouse.ca/ch_tor2008.html