The Best One can do Now !

  The best one can do now is hold onto sections of stocks one knows are going to be needed in future to supply the needs of the world popula...

About Me

Retired but always looking for new challenges.
Showing posts with label Chrome. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chrome. Show all posts

Thursday, December 1, 2016

The year that was !

This has been a year  in which there have been more financial  and political shocks worldwide than normal.Growing  populations have become more restive and even rebellious as the recession lingered on. At year end America is well on the way to recovery and the first sprigs of recovery are seen in Europe and Asia. As always Africa is lagging. 
How ever a pleasing change has been seen on the African Continent as populations strive for more accountability and less graft  top of government officials. This is playing itself out especially here in  South Africa as we strive to avoid  downgrades in our borrowing to junk status. As many other major countries have failed this test of morality we have for a second time avoided this fate.
It must be remembered that we produce 80% of the world platinum group metals and also a full range of base metals and minerals.
How ever at the present price of platinum, around $900 per ounce it is being produced at a loss. There is already a shortage of 20% in  ounces, per annum, built up and as fuel cells and other catalytic converters are needed for cleaner air become the vogue. In the last ten years the price has suddenly spurted by a couple of hundred USA dollars per ounce! this exciting event can happen again. Do remember it takes five years to ramp up and open mothballed areas in existing mines and a great deal longer in new developments!
I wish all our readers,Google and our advertisers all the best for 2017.




Thursday, August 1, 2013

RESOURCES THE WORLD NEEDS

Central and Southern Africa have many strategic minerals in abundance and are amongst world leaders in producing these.
South Africa produces over 72% of the Platinum used in the world
and 83% of the Rhodium for Catalytic converters and other industrial uses.
See rest of this article beneath Alerts and Notes
28/8  ALERT
Tensions are rising world-wide this morning as the Syrian crises is likely to spill over into
more bloodshed with the world powers taking sides.In South Africa we have serious trade union wars in a fight about turf escalating now.The more moderate NUM union has also upped its demands to compete with the more radical unions.Most of the demands now are completely unnatainable,which could bring our country to its knees.The mining of minerals is likely to decrease to a trickle and many mines would forced to close permanently.

9/8 ALERT
SOUTH AFRICAS gold and platinum production continues to decline,year on year.Figures are issued by the governments stastistical department.Bad news for labour and balance of payments.Gold the once dominant metal is down YOY on June by 14%.
Platinum Group Metals is down by 18%.Not good news for these labour intensive industries also bad news for our GDP.
Coal is now our number one export ,bringing the most money.Iron ore also brings more than Gold

3/8 ALERT
We are not the only country with a foreign exchange deficit it seems! India also is having problems at the moment.They have banned the import of physical gold to help balance their books.Soon they will only allow the import of gold that will exit in jewellery.As gold pays such a big part in their culture,this move has sent the price of their own gold sky high!
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NOTE 6 See Naomi's recource updates above in the index
Note 5 See international property update on 8/8/2013 above,"PART A"
Note 4. Whats happening to Naomi?....bnlifestyle10.  blogspot .com
Note 3 . See the NEW resource pages on large caps by Barry in the index above.
Note 2. Use the LABELS in the side-bar and at the bottom of articles to group subjects you might want to research.
Note 1 . Remember the newest updates are at the bottom of the index above.


According to the world bank and South African chamber of Mines last year over half a million people were still employed in the mining industry.We are also the fifth largest producer of gold ,also produce 47%of the worlds chrome used in super alloys,also a large exporter of coal and diamonds.
Our immediate neighbours sharing borders with us name Namibia is a large exporter of Uranium alsoDiamonds,Botswana diamonds and Mozambique coal and one of the few producers outside China of Rare earth minerals. In Central Africa there is the DM Congo that supplies rare earths such as tantalum,cobalt and also diamonds.

Friday, March 1, 2013

Major resources present OPPORTUNITY !

The sell-off of South African

 mineral resources has been

over done. One finds it is

usually the overseas mutual

funds that are the most

skittish. (See the rest of the article below the Alerts and notes)
ALERT.26/3/2013
Utah in the United States passed a law a couple of years ago to make trading in SILVER and GOLD COINS LEGAL TENDER. Now Arizona is considering similar legislation.This all very revelent in the light of the Cyprus government seizing bank deposits of its citizens.
Now in Utah the holdings of silver and gold which private citizens use as currency has doubled.There is no tax upon currencies .This can have  a stabilising effect upon Gold and silver.The coins are valued at their intrinsic value which varies daily.Many are kept in depositries or as we keep our coins at home.Then a coin card can be swiped.


ALERT.20/3/2013
We hope tht government does not fall into the trap the rest of Africa has in believing the mines are making a killing when they have an extra big pay out of dividends to their share holders as this is an event that happens rarely these days.They forget that a mining company can go years with out paying a dividend and such an event compensates the long suffering shareholders for their patience.They should stop talking about "windfall taxes" !
ALERT. 13/3/2013
1.The poor performance of the Rand is now caused by our foreign exchange deficit.The immediate way to improve the deficit is to attract more investment capital to South Africa,a difficult task as there are government politicians that discourage investment by their utterings at every turn.Also the tax regime on foreign investment should be made less onerous.A great many countries are vieing for these funds by giving all kinds of incentives.
2.The wild cat strikes at EXXARO over production bonuses is regrettable.This can lead to coal shortages and electriccal shortages this winter.
DAY 13  PM
THE STRIKERS ARE STARTING TO RETURN TO WORK.UNFORTUNATELY WILD CAT STRIKES SEEM TO BECOMING THE NORM ON ALL KINDS OF MINES FOR FRIVILOUS REASONS.THIS MUST BE BROUGHT  UNDER CONTROL

ALERT. 7/3/2013
SHARES ON THE DOW HAVE REACHED THEIR HIGHEST POINT EVER.IF ONE REALISES THAT THE LAST TIME THAT THEY REACHED THAT POINT WAS FIVE YEARS AGO THEN REALLY THEY STILL HAVE A WAY TO GO THEY REALLY BECOME OVERBOUGHT.

THE PE RATIO NOW AVERAGES AROUND 14.  AT THE HEIGHT OFTHE DOTCOM BUBBLE IT WAS AROUND AN AVERAGE OF 19.

THAT SAID,IT MUST BE REMEMBERED THAT ITS THE FED  PUMPING MORE MONEY INTO THEIR ECONOMY(US $) THATS LETTING THEIR SHARE PRICES RISE AS ITS THE ONLY PLACE THEY CAN GET A DECENT RETURN ON THEIR CAPITAL.THEIR ECONOMY IS STILL SLUGGISH.

NOTE 1.The latest updates are  at the bottom of the index list above
NOTE 2.Visit  the NEW page six of Small/Mid cap shares on index above for the latest share movements.
NOTE 3.In the absence of Naomi I am updating Technical analysis this month-Barry see above.
NOTE 4. The Platinum report has been replaced by THE GOLD AND PLATINUM REVEIW .   See the First new report above.
The major resource holding companies and mining groups continue to hold and increase their holdings when appropiate as now bargains abound.Since 1894 when Gold was first discovered in South Africa the mining of all kinds of resources has been fairly turbulent.How ever those that stayed invested were justly greatly rewarded.Of course our government does not always act in the best interests of mining and should be critisised for their actions,but it is worth mentioning that it is not government policy to nationalise the mines and this stance is unlikely to change.As with most of the world at the moment there is a great deal of discontent with a high unimployment rate.As the world recovers there will be more opportunity for jobs in industry and mining and then tensions are likely to ease.

Thursday, November 1, 2012

NOVEMBER A slow return to normality ?

The after effects of the labour disruptions,are being felt by every one in our country,but we are ever hopeful that the worst is behind us and in time the economy will recover fast enough to give us all a sustainable better life ! (See article below)
SEE NAOMI'S RESOURCE UPDATE ABOVE
NAOMI SAYS SHE HAS NEVER SEEN THE MARKET SO OVER SOLD GO TO HER TECH ANALYSIS ABOVE FOR MORE INFO 19/11/2012

USE LABELS UNDER POSTS TO CLUSTER LIKE SUBJECTS TOGETHER.ALSO SEE LABELS IN THE SIDE-BAR .
IF YOU WISH TO FOLLOW BY  E-MAIL SEE BUTTON NEAR BOTTOM OF SIDE-BAR

The Gold mines are using collective bargaining which seems to be working for them,how ever the Platinum and Chrome mines in mostly North West ,Mupumalanga and Limpopo provinces are working towards this model,but are finding the going sticky.
I for one cannot see how this is going to work as there so many different types of mining procedure and richer on poorer ore bodies,opencast and tunnels etc.
The workers in these provinces as well as those coming from the Eastern Cape are highly politicised and seem to have a political agenda as well.There is a rumour that some of their basic needs are been seen to ,by elements unknown. The National Union of Mineworkers which is reconised held a meeting this week which was well attended,when  rival organisions turned up armed to teeth half way through their meeting and tried to disrupt it.The police had their hands full keeping the two groups apart!
The platinum mines are now looking for various ways to save money as they are mostly working at a loss and raise money to carry on.
THE WORD MECHANISATION IS BEING BANDIED ABOUT.Let us not forget that about ten years ago Lonmin went ahead with such a scheme.At the time the other majors did not.Well it was an absolute flop as they lost out and made much less money at a time that platinum was thriving than their rivals .Some ore bodies of the platinum group are more than a thousand meters below ground!


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