Sunday 8 February 2015

Franco Nevada look to deploy $1bn

Reported at Bloomberg
Franco-Nevada Corp., a Canadian company that provides financing for energy and mining projects, sees sagging commodity prices as an opportunity to complete deals worth more than $1 billion this year.  
“I’d like to deploy all my cash this year,” David Harquail, chief executive officer of the Toronto-based company, said in an interview in Vancouver Monday. “That would be my ideal.” Harquail, who put more than $900 million to work in 2014, said mining and energy companies need more financing for projects hurt by falling prices. Franco-Nevada and other buyers of royalties provide financing to developers in exchange for a discount on future output.

AME BC 2015

AME BC 2015 took place at the end of January
Companies Below .....

Greg Gibson moves to Barkerville Gold - Callaghan Out

In October 2013 we noted Greg Gibson's industry moves.
Things haven't worked out well at San Gold, Northern Gold, Temex or Kerr Mines (formerly Armistice) during this bear market.
We now see Gibson and Thomas Obradovich (formerly Aurelian) recruited, ousting promoter Frank Callaghan at Barkerville Gold.
Barkerville became notorious, and their stock was suspended, for putting out an extremely optimistic resource statement in 2012.

Premier Gold JV with Centerra Gold

Breaking the usual pattern of junior buyouts here we see Premier Gold, a significant junior with multiple projects, entering a 50:50 Joint Venture where Premier's contribution is the Trans-Canada Gold property and Centerra fund $300m of development. PEA was completed Jan-14 and Feasibility is underway. PEA indicated 19% IRR @ $1250 Gold, with Capex at $410m including an $83m contingency.
With falls in the $CAD vs $US and depressed general commodity markets mine-building costs in Canada should be favourable.

The Trans-Canada property is in Ontario's Geraldton Beardmore camp which saw a great deal of speculative investment after Kodiak Gold made spectacular drillholes in 2007 and raised substantial funds but never pulled together a successful deposit. Goldstream Minerals now hold the properties they call Hardrock East, with Kodiak's Brian Maher involved.
Kodiak merged with Golden Goose to form Prodigy Gold and developed the Magino deposit bought out by Argonaut, but needing higher gold prices for development.
Meanwhile Roxmark and Ontex developed old mines, Brookbank and Bankfield amongst others in the region and merged to form Goldstone Resources subsequently bought out by Premier Gold. 

Saturday 7 February 2015

Baker Steel & EMR Capital raising over $600m for Mining Investments

EMR Capital raising $450m for mining investment fund.
EMR Chief Executive Jason Chang said the fund will focus on copper, gold, coking coal and the fertiliser potash, and had attracted a mix of institutions, endowments and private investors....."We think now is a good time to deploy capital into these markets," Chang told Reuters in an interview. "We're looking at the medium to long term and not worried about the day-to-day fluctuations."
Baker Steel (additional link HERE)   looking to increase assets 6 fold by $180m
The Baker Steel Resources Trust – which has lost nearly three quarters of investors’ money – is asking for clients to pile in millions more in an audacious call that the commodity slump will soon be over.The investment trust, managed by David Baker and Trevor Steel, has lost investors 72.3 per cent in the past three years, according to FE Analytics.Investors have been fleeing from anything related to commodities in the belief that the ‘super cycle’ sparked by China’s rapid growth had come to an end.The £31.4m trust is planning to increase its assets sixfold through a £79m share issuance and a further £100m capital raising to be outlined at an extraordinary general meeting later this month.
While he admitted it was impossible to call the exact bottom, he said with valuations as low as had been seen in many years, much of the “smart money” in the private equity space was also poised. “We are at or somewhere near the bottom,” he said. “Whether we have actually seen it or whether we will in another six or 12 months, I don’t know. But the risk-reward of the potential upside looks positive.” He thought the current conditions would not “last forever”. “The sector is on its knees and we would like more capital to take advantage of that. Mr Steel said with the new money he would be interested in adding a handful of development-oriented stocks, of which he had already identified a pipeline of potential names.
“There is very little competition in our space and it gives us an opportunity to do attractive deals,” he said. “It might be companies that need the last bit of capital to get their projects into production, or if they have a lot of debt. We can get involved in refinancing that debt – effectively exploiting that weakness – and getting in at a good entry point for our investors.” He said that while the sector could continue to fall, he wanted to raise the money now because the risk of waiting to get the deals done at a better price was too great.

Top Holdings   - currently including private company holdings include deeply out of favour iron and coal aswell as silver, gold, platinum and copper

Martin Armstrong's Writings & Presentations

Martin Armstrong's forecasts and cycles work foresees a key turn point in September 2015, "Big Bang", and currently points to a problem in the bond markets, a strong dollar and US stock market.
He currently sees gold weak but later gains as the bond markets weaken.
Most recent interview HERE (part 3 discusses the September-15 turn)

  • Seeing beginnings at the periphery now in Greece, China.
  • Only US strong, pushing up US$. If US stockmarket chops then initial sell off then take off to upside in 2017. Phase transition as capital flees bonds to stock markets.
  • Current concentration of capital in bond markets. Sitting on money because don't know what to do.
  • If Stock market increases then Fed will raise interest rates, then higher dollar.

Armstrong Papers and you-tube links below.....

Mickey Fulp on Buying the Best Junior Miners

Interview from VRIC at Small Cap Power. Stock picks are sponsors.

Wednesday 4 February 2015