JOHANNESBURG — It is good to be Jones
today.
R. Michael Jones of Platinum Group Metals has a company that is building one
platinum mine and creating a second project, one that holds what could be
almost 30 million ounces of platinum group metals.
That’s platinum, palladium, rhodium and gold
— Inferred estimate — according to USA and Canada reporting guidelines.
Pas mal, as they say in French.
Mr. Jones is a Canada geologist who spends almost
as much time these days in South Africa as he does in British Columbia.
He tells his audience, speaking from South Africa today, that PTM (ticker in Canada; PLG ticker in USA) has a
larger office with more workers in Jo’Burg than it does in Vancouver, Canada.
Believe me, that is a good thing. Fewer
distractions. Vancouver holds perhaps half of the world’s speculative wanna-be
miners and prospectors, and their principals are infamous for overreaching
promises, exorbitant salaries, misplaced chutzpah
but almost always, carefully manicured manis and pedis.
Mike –a tallish fellow with dirty fingernails —
has spent well more than a decade with a team of engineers, financiers and even
PR people — folks who have stuck with his platinum wet dream. I recall once,
when we were touring the mine that is nearing production by late 2015 that
people don’t believe … “until they believe.”
Understand, now, Mike Jones knows how to talk
fast. His own staff sometimes asks him to slow down. Still, I mostly believe
him. It is good to see his presentations as they are almost always technically
precise and without that clownish chutzpah
commonplace in the biz of junior prospectors and miners. Including the one
today via webcast, with fresh slide deck.
Now again, his little company’s market worth in
Canada and on the NYSE is approaching that of its (approx.) $750 million
physical neighbor: the company that gets nearly all the wanna-be platinum-miner
headlines in that part of the world — Ivanhoe Mines (IVN in Canada and
IVPAF in USA).
Platinum Group Metals shares are rising while
Ivanhoe’s are falling. See chart.
So. This might be a good time to own physical
platinum, and palladium.
There is a protracted labor outage — with
prerequisite violence and political overtones — going on in the Republic of
South Africa. Mining platinum is difficult in that nation because of incredibly
deep shafts and mostly thin reefs of mineral.
Mr. Jones, along with other platinum executives,
are hopeful the big platinum miners in South Africa (two-thirds or more of the
world’ platinum comes from here and becomes coins, jewelry, parts of catalytic
converters, wrist bands, etc.) will make nice.
Most folks with mettle in this business expect
supply constraints in the wake of any type of labor settlement in South
Africa. Mr. Jones, the company’s CEO, today — before presumably preparing to
watch the opening World Cup FIFA game from Brazil with the rest of Africa,
Latin America and Europe — was detailing an increase in resource at his Waterberg
project in South Africa’s Bushveld Complex.
“We think difficult decisions will be
made” on platinum projects with harsh and dangerous working conditions, he
said. Palladium reached a three-year high this week. Platinum and palladium
prices fell sharply today in the wake of possible progress in
five-month-and-running labor talks.
Platinum has been up and down crazy all week, all
month, and much of the springtime (northern hemisphere).
TCR Take: Probably a good time to purchase actual platinum for a two-year
or greater hold. We here at home recently dealt a treasured family heirloom, a
cherry-condition 1967 Mustang, to a
well-known mining writer and investor for a bag full of one-ounce platinum Maple Leafs 2009
date.
Wealso own shares of Platinum Group Metals on
the hope its joint-venture mine that is partnered with the Japanese and a black
empowerment group will approach 300,000 ounces of platinum equivalent per year.
We have owned the Jones thing a long, long time.
Yes, we also own that Ivanhoe Mines (IVN in
Canada), which is active in the Bushveld. For a long, long … well, a
l-o-o-o-o-o-n-g time. (Even as a private-co.)
Together, those two, with the commodity platinum
and not considering family wealth holdings, are our top position in market
worth. Even booking the steep Ivanhoe Mines decline since the company went
public in Toronto almost two years ago. (October 2012).
Mr. Jones in his update to investors Thursday
made comparisons to the nearby Ivanhoe project. He’s worth a listen.
No matter what happens in the workers’ strike
against the platinum belt’s Anglo American Platinum, Impala Platinum and
Lonmin, labor costs will rise. Those greater costs will include wages and, one
hopes, safer conditions for workers in difficult and deep mining
scenarios. I have seen both projects on the Bushveld.
PILOT GOLD & GSV: Always satisfying to see shares of a TCR 7
member continue their ascent after positive metal assays. That’s the case with
Pilot today (PLG in Canada and
PLGTF in USA). Pilot published details about the discovery of a fresh Turkey
gold-copper porphyry this week. … Also gaining in the wake of fresh
Peña de Oro mineral results is Cayden Resources, a Mexico mine builder and
prospector. Cayden is CYD in Canada and CDKNF in USA. I own it and shares
of Pilot Gold. … Looking for potent drill results in coming days,
or weeks, from Gold Standard Resources at its newly acquired Piñon
property in Nevada. GSV is one of the TCR 7. After spending time with
company principals and shareholders, I believe that GSV will regain $1 status
imminently based on Piñon, next to the flagship Railroad project. All
this ñews deserves a one-day branding to mark Piñon and Peña de Oro – thus, we
rename TCR this edition The Calañdra
Report. … Worth speculation:
kissing cousin Tanqueray Exploration Resources (TQY in Canada).
Gold Standard Ventures owns part of it via a property sale. GSV’s longtime
exploration chief and senior geologist, David Mathewson, is spending all
of his time with Tanqueray now. It’s in Nevada and due for a name change to
something like Trend Exploration Ventures. I do not own the shares; they are
hard to come by. Mr. Mathewson, a successful gold and silver finder in the
state of Nevada, receives from GSV properties called Crescent Valley, East
Camp Douglas and East Bailey. Dave also is interim CEO of the Tanque.
Good to hear from Stuart Moller, the Reno,
Nevada, geologist who is credited with exploration success and development of
Continental Gold’s Buritica gold-silver underground project in Colombia.
Stuart is looking at various projects in Latin America and elsewhere. Wherever
he goes, money is likely to follow … Finally, it is happening, as discussed
in TCR: Shares of Greenland ruby
mine developer True North Gems (TGX in Canada and TGNMF in
USA) continue to head in the direction of the company name. This one is a
triple or greater by year’s end, as long as we see rubies — deep red,
sapphires and more — from the ongoing project. Northern European investors are
learning about it.
And yes, I own the shares and have for a long
time. Got to believe? Or at least, convince yourself into believing these days
of rapscalian resource equities.
NMGRF: That is the OTC “proxy” ticker, or indicator, in USA
for
(NOU in Canada). I own the tiny company’s shares
now on the possibility our tiny graphite property owner in Nouveau
Monde
Mining (Quebec) will
seal a deal with nearby Timcal and its evaporating graphite mine
nearby. Eric Desaulniers, the CEO, is a geo-physicist, and he is bent on
becoming a project generator for Quebec.
That generator might include another form of carbon product: diamonds.
Congratulations to our featured research
candidate: Abitibi Royalties, whose
shares approach $3 amidst our coverage of the Abitibi Belt (Quebec, Canada)
joint venture partner at CHL Malartic. We
here at home own a metric ton of that one. Please see our continuing TCR
coverage of ATBYF (RZZ in Canada) on CEO.ca, on SmallCapPower.com AND OTHER
VENUES.
I hope some of you will take the time to
subscribe. We have a big surprise for our TCR
family JUST AHEAD.
THE CALANDRA REPORT: Subscribe**
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