Latest News
- Bending Clifford’s Rule
- Conference-Induced Hiatus
- The long and winding road to a Quebec diamond mine
- More potash for Marifil Mines Ltd.
- Large carats at Gahcho Kue, worth the wait?
- Glossary Up!
- Diamond report from New Nadina needs some polish
- Further asset diversification by Marifil Mines
- 9th International Kimberlite Conference
- The Stornoway without a Dion
5034 Aappaluttoq Aber Diamonds ABX ACS AEM Ag Agnico-Eagle Mines Agrium Amarillo Amaruk AMEC Amerigo Archon Minerals Ltd. Arctic ARG Argentina Argyle Ashton Mining Canada ATW ATW Venture Corp. Au Australia Aviat Barrick Beluga BHP BHP Billiton Bling Blue Pearl Cluster BRIC Buenaventura BVN Candente Castillian Chariot Resources CHD 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 Diavik Diopside dividend DNT DSP Eastmain Resources Ekati El Teniente emerald ER EuroZinc FALC FGT Fiskenaesset FNV Forest Gate Fort a la Corne Foxtrot Franco-Nevada Gahcho Kue geologic terms glossary Greenland Guaniamo Harry Winston Hearne Hibou Hunter Exploration HW IME In Indicator Minerals indium interview Jericho Jericho Diamond Mine Jigsaw Kahuna Kennady Lake kimberlite Lac De Gras Las Aguilas limestone LUN Lundin Mining Lynx Marifil Mines Ltd. market hype Metalex Ventures MFM Mina El Carmen Mo molybdenum Monument Diamond Project Mountain Province Diamonds MPV MTX Muskox Kimberlite natural gas NEM Neuqen Basin Newmont New Nadina Diamonds Ltd. Ni NMC NNA Notch oil Orion Otish Pb Pd Peregrine Diamonds PGD PGE PGM potash Potash Corp. PST003 Pt Punta Colorado Quebec Raytech Metals Corp. Renard Rio Colorado Rio Narcea Rio Tinto RSC RTP ruby San Roque sapphire Saskatchewan SGF Shear Minerals Shore Gold SL Snap Lake Sola Resource Corp SRM Star Stewart Blusson stockhouse.com Stornoway Diamonds Strateco Resources SWY TAH Tahera TCK.A TCK.B Teck Cominco Tesla TGX TIF Tiffany & Co. True North Gems Tsa Da Glisza Tuktu-1 Tuzo U Venezuela Victor Western Troy Capital Resources WRY WWW International Diamond Consultants Ltd. Zn
Categories
Monthly Archives
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.
This post was first published on my stockhouse.com blog on March 20th, 2008.
One Response to “Churchill part 1”
Leave a Reply




May 5th, 2008 at 9:22 am
[...] Original post by KIM Report [...]