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South Africa will go under lockdown for 3 weeks over coronavirus
From CNN's Max Ramsay in London

South Africa will enforce a three-week lockdown due to the coronavirus outbreak, the country's President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a televised address Monday.

The lockdown will start at midnight on March 26 and end at midnight on April 16, Ramaphosa said.

During this time, "all South Africans will have to stay at home," Ramaphosa said. People who are exempted from the order include emergency and security services and those involved in critical services like food production and banking.

- Presumably this means that PAF will have to stop production for 3 weeks?

I suspect that almost no rhodium is being traded right now, so there isn't a reliable "price" as such. Hence all the different quotes.
Almost all car manufacturing in Europe has now halted. Pretty much the same picture in America.
Sylvania are a low cost producer of PGMs, so they should be OK, but I wonder if some of the higher cost miners won't suspend operations to save money.
God only knows how this ends.

I make today's RNS really good news. The required refinancing of the debt was always the single biggest risk factor here, and now it's settled. And on good terms as well. The banks must have confidence that operations at Syama (in particular) have improved.
The next news here should be the formal completion of the Ravenswood deal. I think it will still go through, but I'm not 100% confident, given the state of the markets.
If this company is truly back on track, then its shares are amazingly cheap.

Nope - it's $2,000 according to Kitco - which is as good as it gets for rhodium prices.
(Rhodium is all directly traded, so the true price is always shrouded in a bit of mist).

According to Kitco, rhodium has now dropped back to $2,000 per ounce. (Palladium at around $1,500 and platinum just over $600).
I'd like to know what volumes of Rh-Pd-Pt are currently being traded. Has the market simply frozen up? I.e. are these prices "real" or basically artificial.

That said, I do agree about EUA being like a cult religion.
It's going to be a hard awakening for their shareholders when the scales drop from their eyes..

Hi Kalan!
Yeah, I'll throw some stuff at you for your post on SLP. I think you need to take a closer look at the company's accounts. Not only is it swimming in cash ($33.6m "official" cash pile as of 31/12/2019), but it also has a big positive "trade receivables" minus "trade payables" - a very rare thing in business. And of course Q1 2020 this year will include two months of super profits.
It's a very low cost producer of PGMs, and (when all this is over) rhodium and palladium will still be deficit metals. I'd say the current price (30p ish) already reflects a great deal of fear and hysteria. Lower than that, and we're talking bargain of the century levels.
IMO, JLP is harder to analyze currently. I'm waiting for the hard figures in the interims before taking a viewpoint on it.

GDX up 12%, GDXJ up 22% today, POG at $1540 and climbing...
HUM is lagging...

Hi Rebess!
I'd guess a large part of HOC's woes are that the market sees it as a silver miner - even though more of its revenues come from gold than silver. And silver is getting hammered into the ground.
The poor forward guidance for 2020 can't be helping, either. HOC is well-managed, it isn't particularly indebted, and it will recover for sure, but it could take a while.

Hi Chas!
Yes, Friday should be unusually "interesting". The tide has gone out a long way, but so far we haven't found out who has been swimming naked. Judging by the crazy pace of liquidation, I'm expecting a few big boys to get thoroughly exposed over the next few days - I think some big hedge funds first, then some banks.

Hi Ragnar!
I've bought a few shares at 30p. In the medium term, this is (of course) astounding value.
I'm holding off buying more until I'm more confident the wider market has found a bottom. I've no idea where that is.

Hi Capehake!
I share your frustration about not being able to get a test for it.
I think I have a mild case - a dry cough, low fever, general sensation of weirdness (it's unlike any cold or flu I've ever had). But I can't know for sure.
Also, self-isolating. And trying not to spend too much time looking at the stock market. Fortunately, the garden needs a lot of work...

There is still very little discrimination in the market's wholesale liquidation.
Yes, a few vulnerable companies (airlines, tourist operators) are getting particularly heavy punishment. But, in general, almost everything is being sold off equally.
I wonder when it will be when the market begins to assess each company on its own merits again? I can't see much of a threat to Hummingbird's operations from Covid-19; at worst we are looking at short term disruption. The drop in diesel prices will make a big difference to Hummingbird's costs. And I can't see the product Hummingbird produce ever going without a buyer, either. In fact, all told, I imagine the gold price can only go up in the medium term.
So when does the market stop panicking and start analysing again?

Many thanks, Mr. Tibbles.
That's one less thing to worry about this weekend!

Hi Supercharger!
I agree that the Centamin board really should be thinking about increasing the dividend or announcing a share buyback when the annual results are published.
A takeover is becoming only too easy for Barrick / Newcrest / A.N. Other Gold Mining Major.
I'm hoping Hedgehogg is wrong about freak weather being the reason for the plunge today. A flooded pit would be all we don't need right now.

Hi Cowichan!
Centamin is now about to break back under a pound.
I take your point about the general sell-off of goldies, but it seems to me that Centamin has performed exceptionally poorly. Hopefully, it is just a forced / motivated seller pushing the share price down, rather than some bad news to come.

There are some really strange things happening out there.
The Fed just announced some urgent QE, and bond yields duly dropped - as surely the Fed envisaged. But now they have shot back up again as people are still selling. This simply must be forced liquidation.
All in all, these are weird times all round, not only for Centamin.

CEY went straight down after the US open. Somebody is selling down hard and fast.
In general, the US stock market opened more than 5% up, but that rise is now being sold into. Gold also falling back.
This ain't over till the fat lady sings, and she's not even in the building yet.

It's across the board selling - not even gold is escaping today.
My guess is that the widespread liquidation is driven by margin calls and forced deleveraging and lack of liquidity and general panic and desperation. It's a case of "sell what you can for what you can get" rather than "sell what you want".
It's quite noticeable how rhodium (which doesn't have a futures market) is holding up better than palladium. I guess all the "hot money" (i.e. trading money) that flowed into palladium over the last few months is now getting out as quick as it can.

I stick by my basic thesis that a debt-free, cash-rich, dividend paying gold miner should offer good value over the next few months.
Obviously, there is some risk, even here. But there will always be a market for what Centamin produce. And I don't think the virus poses a big risk to Centamin's operations.
I'm watching and waiting for now. But I may be back buying in the next few days.