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This year copper price has held up well, and both lead and zinc have trended higher with lead pulling back recently but still in a channel trending upwards, with all the metals doing well good to see they have chosen to make extra payments to corporate debt, which they state will be gone all together by next August.
Seems as though this is a signal a new acquisition will be made sooner rather than later, as we will be cash positive by now.
Strong balance sheet, metals prices holding up well, and in general close to production forecasts.
Nice to see Mr market in agreement for once.

The background noise has been good regarding prices increasing, also production from competitors being hit helping but our price has been stubbornly trading in consolidation mode for the last six months.
I thought we would have trended higher on production increase, less capex and firmer prices maybe folk like to see the figures as confirmation.

THS gets a short review on VSA capitals morning miner, this was also tweeted by THS great news.

https://twitter.com/VSACapital/status/1445296097736417290?s=20

The key metric for a thermal power generator is the dark spread, the margin over the coal price. OPG primarily uses Indonesian coal, where prices have more than doubled in recent months. Freight costs have also been rising. OPG is partially covered through fixed price agreements for coal and freight in FY22 but remains exposed to market fluctuations for the unhedged element. Hence management feels unable to provide forward guidance until there is greater stability.

Platinum outlook file to download ref semi conductors chips and vehicle demand.

https://platinuminvestment.com/files/993245/WPIC_Platinum_Perspectives_September_2021.pdf

Just been reading about the electricity blackouts in China, complete cities in darkness, also shutdowns in the manufacturing Provence's as well, so I would imagine this will result in a slowdown of the world economy if the bits and pieces we think are being made and only need shipping to advert our shortages, think again if they don't even exist.
They seem to be falling in line with world emissions reductions with the consequence that everything is going to cost more, bearing in mind a lot of what China does cannot be transferred elsewhere at least not in the short term at least.
Guess what China is hosting the 2022 winter Olympics and is loathe to be seen as smog polluted venue while the world watches, so that might also be a contributor.
I don't know if China produces any chips or if the major supplier might be Taiwan, however my reading of the situation is that the chip shortage is not going to end any time soon, nor for any other supply chain components we rely on China to supply.
If Rh maintains its current level of over $14k which October 2020 levels that's a result under the circumstances.

Great results today, however these are backwards looking, the elephant in the room is coal prices and zero information is given regarding this other than we expect the coal price to remain high.
We don't know their hedging policy, of how much for how long, tied into existing tariffs, so can't pass on expenses that are beyond their control.
The good thing is net debt, which has been brought right down to very manageable levels.
High coal prices in the past in conjunction with high debt brought this company to it's knees, with one of those areas now brought under control they have a bit more flexibility.

There are two ways of looking at those production figures, we did have a price crash so what's the point of having superb production figures and getting a pittance for our gas and oil, far better to be ramping production back up now with higher gas and oil prices, in my view they were better off with restricted production, it's a blessing in disguise.

I must admit that crossed my mind when I saw today's news of the successful drill coming online.
Even so well done to company increasing production when oil prices are on a high, they couldn't have timed this news better when it seems the wider OPEC producing nations are struggling to meet increased quotas.
JSE to fill the void lol.

SQZ have operationally manoeuvred themselves into an enviable position, production increasing prices increasing and the cash pile increasing.
The market is supposedly forward looking I know we have had a good rise but these results are backward looking, the best is yet to come.

New broker note out from VSA Capital today on Research Tree.

Tectonic Gold (TTAU NXX) has announced the completion of the first stage of the current drilling programme and the visible success of the project has prompted management to immediately extend the campaign to follow up on that success. In particular the maiden hole intercepted two mineralised intersections of copper of greater than 20m from 100m and 1,171m deep respectively. These are material intercepts of greater significance than anything that has been drilled to date.

Markets make no sense whether its going up or going down, we posted our update on Maari on 8th and the business update on the 9th of this month to muted response.
Oil price starts to rise on the 21st from about $74 and continues so that today we are pushing $80 Brent and up like a rocket our sp goes.
Do fundamentals not matter at all or do we just follow the oil price?
If its just the oil price then down we will go if it drops, having said that it seems there is not as much of the black stuff about as people thought, and even with a robust price the OPEC members feel they just can't go the extra mile and meet their new increased quotas.

The SP performance over the last six months has been disappointing and hasn't kicked on even though news from the company has been good, production, cash generation and prospects of other ventures, all should have made an impact, but have failed to push us higher.
Even the company has stated they think they are undervalued.
So as an out and out copper play the article below with be easy reading as it paints a bullish outlook for copper.

http://blog.gorozen.com/blog/the-potential-earnings-power-of-copper-miners?utm_campaign=Weekly%20Blog%20Notification&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=163171011&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8suRFDWc4nBKKxtNBGiYvg87dG8XCbGZvAE1S1-Kk3GetsbtytpT_zgJzPRwlKqxoYduXV2Rk99u6MG7bm6os9nin19PlKB3GOMXAucR9ZgnE4e5Y&utm_content=163171011&utm_source=hs_email

Major shorting of Platinum and Palladium, could it all go pear shaped this article thinks there is very chance.

https://seekingalpha.com/article/4456012-platinum-palladium-shorting-grows-extremes

I don't think it was negative at all, a reality check if anything, as stated absolutely proven to be hopeless at exploration over many years, ageing infrastructure does not come without pitfalls, as seen by last year's shut down, and something unexpected could and will probably crop up in the future, these shortcomings are easily overlooked when the gas price is booming and extra production coming online, and a cash pile steadily growing.
If anything it shows only a producing asset should be considered looking ahead, there must still be plenty of opportunities kicking about for a cash buyer.

Excellent review of Serica from past to present highlights the issues with aging infrastructure as well all the upcoming news we know is coming.
https://youtu.be/UdB9XLiHVJ0

Just read an article about the power cable connecting the UK to France has been damaged by a fire and expected repair will be into the New Year.
This does not bode well for us seeing as we rely on our neighbours to top up our shortfall as we are not self sufficient.
With the current demand for gas to replenish low storage volumes I think we will rise further as panic sets in and the realisation that rationed electricity may raise its head if a cold snap hits.
Sometimes I wonder how these situations come about ewe knock down most of our coal fired power stations, so no back up, rely on wind, its not blowing today what could go wrong?
Its okay we are linked to France.

Ice are not going to disappear overnight, plus the EV revolution is over hyped, a status symbol, where are the charge points for terraced houses and flats? could you charge your vehicle at work? perhaps we can all queue up at the supermarket.
The infrastructure has not happened here in the developed western world to a significant degree, heaven only knows were it is at in the less developed countries of Africa, India, South America etc even Australia a vast continent try driving across that in your EV.
The vast majority of car makers production will still be ice for a few years yet, at least till the end of this decade, and will probably get pushed further back as per the gas boiler debacle.
There is life to be had out of PGMs for few years, and who knows what part they will play in the green hydrogen space and other green agenda new world order scenarios which are being pushed, and we do have chrome, there are other refiners out there who are in the PGM space now but diversified into other commodities as well eg lithium uranium gold etc.

I think you have that the wrong way round, the rise was caused by demand for more PGMs for use in catalytic converters to meet stricter emission controls, the demise in output from car manufacturers due to the chip shortage results in reduced demand for PGMs.
No speculation involved simple supply and demand, which IMO will return some time in the future.

THS has taken a bit of a battering of late, even with a reduced basket the company will still be turning a profit.
The car market will at some point return to normality, ravaged by the chip shortage.
It makes me wonder how this situation was allowed to arise in the first place.
Demand will return, its not like PGMs can be substituted by alternatives, the market has not gone away nor replaced its in hibernation.
I wonder whether the refiners thought about producing less to maintain demand? Logic says to me when car production ramps up so will Rh + Pd prices emission controls the world over are tightening not relaxing so there is not a fundamental collapse of the PGM market space.
The price action at present is as though PGMs will never be needed again in the quantities that they once were.