Member Info for Nickqj

Unless I have missed something ECR still does not have a replacement for Craig Brown. Assuming the board find someone suitable should we expect a boost in the share price when the appointment is announced? I dare say it takes quite a while to find a good candidate and to persuade him to join but it does seem to be taking quite a while. Any of you more experienced people have any opinions?

1st time lucky, I too closed my HL account for being too expensive. I use X-O run by Jarvis Investment Management and II. I prefer the former because it is cheaper and I cannot fault the service. I think you need to look into the matter carefully first, you could otherwise lose significant amounts of money in sneaky charges.

I think you are correct to sell when the price is high even if you like the long term prospects. However "experts" advise investors to buy and hold because it is difficult to get the timing right. A consequence of frequent trading is that you might hold significant amounts of cash waiting for the right time to buy.

PaulFG, A good point. Bias is what I suspect in the two articles I have mentioned. I do not know enough about the subject to be certain though. While he may exaggerate I think it unlikely his facts are wrong and unlikely that the companies he praises are truly hopeless.

I should add that Alan Green has an article in What Investment equally enthusiastic about POW. Is he so enthusiastic about every company? Search for "A surge in metals and mining is empowering a commodities supercycle"
I have invested my own money in both ECR and POW since last Spring. With both these companies I am hoping for growth like EUA and GGP. ECR may be further advanced.

Lochranzalad, I am a bit like you , impatient. I want to do something now. However for ECR and similar companies we just have to wait. We can read some news and decide whether we like the prospects at ECR more than elsewhere but that is all. Other contributors to this chat are more optimistic.
Alan Green has a podcast with a good summary of the recent history of ECR and is full of enthusiasm. Search for "Share Talk Ltd - The ECR Minerals (ECR.L) Gold Rush is already underway (Podcast with Alan Green)" This will cheer you up!

I bought 20,447 shares and they are shown as a sale in red. Something seriously wrong here.

I agree with Elguiri. I worked in metal matrix composites for 25 years. We had a world beating coating. It failed to achieve any significance because of scientifically illiterate management, inertia and patents. I think copper is safe for now but I will consider investing in Tirupati Graphite.

Torreaguas, you are asking the right questions. I agree with Bottmzup that what he says seems to be way chart followers see situations. I am not keen on following charts in this way. I prefer to use RNS releases and read into them how I think the management are going about creating a multi £million success. I bought into JLP on this basis. Today's RNS tells me CB knows he is on to a winner at Creswick and is moving on with realising the assets. I also use video interviews; I like to see someone prepared to take risks and aim high. CB is not the best performer, Paul Johnson of POW is better.
It is worth bearing in mind that all the calculations are based on the figures contained in the past share prices. I look at the graph of share prices and draw my own conclusions without bothering with MACD and RSI calculations.

"also" should be ALS. I hate auto correct!

There is an article in MoneyWeek giving a qualified case for investing in gold. also is described as "extraordinary value at this price". At the time of writing ALS was at 60p. Is this what caused the recent rise in price?

Kums, I have been buying and holding for years. That makes sense for investment trusts but I am not sure about exploration companies on AIM like PALM. I would have made good money on ECR had I sold when it was 4p and bought a few days ago at 1.5p. The good news in the ECR's RNS did not raise the share price and today's PALM RNS may not do so here. I remain invested here because I prefer the CEO to most other explorers.
My ex makes it a policy and put me to shame. She sold all her shares, mostly at losses, to invest in EUA 18 months ago and turned her £180,000 into £1,600,000.

Just sold. I bought a year ago because what is in the ground looks promising. The minerals in Ireland and Finland still do look promising but it seems something else is wrong. Maybe the CEO.
There are many predictions that companies like this one will do well as the value of metals rises so I am transferring to another similar company. I will however keep a close eye on CGNR.
Many thanks to all the polite and constructive contributers here.

I agree. Some have too many posts to read and most are not worth reading. I have had MIGO and UIL in the past. My opinion is that one has to be quick and ruthless when it is time to sell. Buy and hold may not be the best strategy.

Lots of similar exploration companies have fallen today, although not as much as ECR. I am going to wait and hope for the best. I am no expert but I thought today's RNS was OK, most drillings will not find gold. ECR needs to find a large amount of gold once, it does not have to be today.

To be exact an ounce of gold is usually a troy ounce, 31.1 grams. Avoirdupois ounces are used everywhere else and are 28.35 grams.

I was a technical manager/ chemical analyst in the electroplating industry for 40 years.
I found XRF to be fast, typical measurement times were 30secs.
A semi technical person has to set the method up and then anyone can get a result.
Gold shows up well. All heavy elements do because they have many electrons. Nickel, iron, copper also give signals but weaker than gold, platinum, tungsten. Gold gives a distinctive double peak.
The Xrays target a small area, mine looked at under a sq mm. In order to collect as many emitted Xrays as possible the detector had to be close, this limited the size of the measurement chamber and therefore the size of the sample. The Xrays penetrated several microns (millionths of a metre), I could not measure a thick sample directly. I could measure a wide area by moving the sample under the incident Xray beam but the sample had to be flat.
Usually there are no suitable standards. I mean a piece of ore containing a known amount of gold and comparable amounts of all the other elements. Without standards the analyst relies on the computer program to calculate the gold content based on assumptions the manufacturer made. If you want to dig up and process millions of tons of ore you have to get the drill samples into a laboratory. The results will be slow and expensive but reliable. If you want to know where to drill next, an XRF may be good enough.

The waste deposits at Phalaborwa contain 0.5%rare earths. That is 0.15% praseodymium and neodymium and 0.35% less valuable rare earths. 35m tonnes. At £74/Kg and £94/Kg respectively the value when refined will be £4,4140m, 50 times the market cap. On that basis I think there is room for a price rise. Is my thinking on the right lines? I hope so as I have just bought some.

As Greardo27 says, it is not for the faint hearted. I first bought 10 years ago and have been buying ever since. It is at a small discount now and I think is a buying opportunity. On average the past has been good and nothing has changed in the way SMT operates so I am prepared to remain invested.
Star managers fail from time to time. Someone mentioned Neil Woodford. I would add Nick Train. Maybe Baillie Gifford has got to grips with hubris and failure because there is more consistency in their range of investment trusts.

Capncarrot. If you like the idea of a company exploring several areas at once you have a look at Panther Metals, PALM. It has not been rising or falling much for many months but shows promise. At least, it does to an optimist. I hold both but more in POW.