Latest News
- The Summer Exploration Season - Sans Fanfare
- Commodity Recovery or Death-Rattle?
- Hiatus Over
- Government Spending Supports Canadian Mine Development
- Chidliak: Peregrine Diamonds Discovers New Hope for Arctic Diamond Exploration
- Selling Diamonds at the PDAC
- 2009 PDAC Convention
- Hoping for a Copper Comeback
- Silver Linings
- Sorry for the wait
5034 Aappaluttoq Aber Diamonds ABX ACS AEM Ag Agnico-Eagle Mines Agrium Amarillo Amaruk AMEC Amerigo Archangel Diamond Archon Minerals Ltd. Arctic ARG Argentina Argyle Ashton Mining Canada ATW ATW Venture Corp. Au Australia AUY Aviat Barrick Bathurst Beluga BHP BHP Billiton Bling Blue Note Mining Blue Pearl Cluster BN BRIC Buenaventura BVN Candente Caribou Castillian Chariot Resources CHD Chidliak Chile Chris Jennings Chuck Fipke Churchill Churchill craton CL Co Codelco Coloured Gemstones Contact Diamond Corporation copper Cu DDN DeBeers Diamond Diamondex Diamonds Diamonds North Dianor Diavik Diopside dividend DNT DO-27 DOR DSP Eastmain Resources Ekati El Teniente emerald ER EuroZinc FALC FGT First Nickel Inc. Fiskenaesset FNI FNV Forest Gate Fort a la Corne Foxtrot Franco-Nevada Gahcho Gahcho Kue Gem Diamonds geologic terms glossary gold GPR Great Panther Resources Greenland Grib Gualcamayo Guanajuato Guaniamo Harry Winston Hearne Hibou Hunter Exploration HW HWD IME In Indicator Minerals indium interview Jericho Jericho Diamond Mine Jigsaw K K-2 Kahuna Kennady Lake Killiq kimberlite Kinross Lac De Gras Las Aguilas lead Leadbetter Letseng limestone Lockerby LUC Lucara Lukoil LUN Lundin Mining Lynx Mapimi Marifil Mines Ltd. market hype Metalex Ventures Mexivada MFM Mina El Carmen Mo molybdenum Monument Diamond Project Motapa Mothae Mountain Province Diamonds MPV MTP MTX Muskox Kimberlite natural gas NEM Neuqen Basin Newmont New Nadina Diamonds Ltd. Ni NI 43-101 nickel NMC NNA Notch Nunavut oil Orion Otish Pascua Llama Pb Pd PDAC Pedernal Peregrine Diamonds PGD PGE PGM placer Pogo Mine potash Potash Corp. pre-feasibility PST003 Pt Punta Colorado Qavvik Quebec Raytech Metals Corp. Re Renard Restigouche rhenium Rio Colorado Rio Narcea Rio Tinto RSC RTP ruby San Antonio San Juan San Roque sapphire Saskatchewan SGF Shear Minerals Shore Gold silver SL Snap Lake Sola Resource Corp SOQUEM Inc. SRM Star Stewart Blusson stockhouse.com Stornoway Diamonds Strateco Resources SWY TAH Tahera TCK.A TCK.B Teck Cominco Tesla TGX TIF Tiffany & Co. Topia Topia Mine True North Gems Tsa Da Glisza Tuktu Tuktu-1 Tunerq Tuzo U VALE-INCO Veladero Venezuela Victor Western Troy Capital Resources WRY WWW International Diamond Consultants Ltd. Yamana Gold Inc. YRI zinc Zn
Categories
Monthly Archives
Sponsors
Churchill part 1
Posted by admin
“We shall fight on the beaches…we shall never surrender.” (Sir Winston Churchill)
In regard to this speech by the famed leader and orator, the diamond exploration and mining industry will have to do plenty of fighting in terms of good results and investor relations in order to regain positive investor sentiment.
At least one small producer seems to have surrendered already in terms of Tahera Diamond Corp. (TSX-TAH), the operator of the Jericho Diamond Mine, Nunavut. Underestimations of production costs and overestimations of reserve tonnage (e.g. Muskox Kimberlite) and $ value/t led to the company filing for protection from its creditors despite hiring some big names in the diamond business (e.g. former DeBeers Canada CEO Richard G. Molyneux). Big investment backers such as Teck Cominco (TSX-TCK.B) and Tiffany’s (NYSE-TIF) did not seem to help either.
Juniors have been hit the hardest, with many having seen their share price cut by well over half since last year. Even companies with advanced projects such as Shear Minerals (TSX.V-SRM), Stornoway (TSX-SWY), and Peregrine (TSX-PGD) have been hit heavily.
In part the banking/credit crisis is in part to blame as many juniors depend on financing to get started, and the more advanced of the group depend on loans to provide capital for building their mines. The lack of available cash banks are willing to loan leaves many companies with no option but to issue more equity to finance their projects. This is very bad when their share price is already depressed due to general bearish market sentiment. This creates a vicious cycle as companies that cannot raise enough funds see their share price drop further due to perceived lack of activity by potential investors and/or further dilution.
On the production side of things, even big names such as Harry Winston Diamonds (TSX-HW) (formerly Aber Diamonds, and yes, a weak connection with Sir Churchill) have seen their share prices drop in spite of the only major concern being the rising Canadian dollar (or rather the dropping US$) as their costs are in Canadian currency and diamonds are sold in American dollars. Although even this should be offset by rising diamond prices, mainly in response to the lower US$ in addition to rising demand.
Hopefully the banks will get their acts together soon so that a major economic organ of this country: mining and exploration, can return to full function.
As for the remainder of the Winston Churchill connections, that will have to wait until next post.
One Response to “Churchill part 1”
Leave a Reply
May 5th, 2008 at 9:22 am
[...] Original post by KIM Report [...]