Member Info for TigerByTheTail

Rhdoium up slightly at $29,100 this morning (JMAT prices).
Johnson Matthey also released a strong trading update this morning. Here are a few excerpts:
Catalytic Converters - "Following the disruption from the pandemic at the start of the year, we saw a strong recovery in demand across all regions towards the end of our first half. This strength continued through the second half, with global auto production better than previous expectations. As a result, Clean Air full year operating performance is expected to be only moderately below the prior year. We expect a significant improvement in margin in the second half to above 13% and approaching pre-COVID-19 levels, driven by an improvement in volumes and early benefits from our transformation programme. In our final quarter, there was limited impact on automotive OEM customer production levels from the shortage of semi-conductor chips."
PGAM refining: "In PGM Services performance was exceptionally strong in our refinery and trading businesses, benefiting from more volatile and higher average precious metal prices. We made excellent progress in reducing our refinery backlogs and we expect to end the year at historically low levels, representing a significant improvement in precious metal working capital volumes." (n.b. no refinery backlog = no metal in stock = shortage!)
Hydrogen Economy: "Fuel Cells continued its rapid growth, with sales expected to be up over 20% for the full year. We are supplying key fuel cell components for a range of automotive, non-automotive and stationary applications. Most recently, we signed a memorandum of understanding with a major European automotive supplier for the long term supply of components for automotive applications. In addition, we have existing supply contracts with fuel cell players including Doosan, SFC, Unilia and Sino Fuel Cell plus a number of joint development programmes in place with automotive and truck OEMs, stack and system manufacturers. We have completed the doubling of our manufacturing capacity in the UK and China to give an overall capacity of 2GW and, given the sizeable opportunity, we are already working on major capacity expansion plans.
Our green hydrogen business builds on our fuel cells technology, leading pgm expertise and circularity offering. We are making fast progress and have received positive feedback from testing with leading electrolyser manufacturers. We recently announced new manufacturing capacity for products used in green hydrogen production, with the ability to scale to multi-GW capacity as the market continues its anticipated growth."

Hi JS!
It's from a Vast presentation. My own take on it is that anything Vast CEO Andrew Prelea says is not to be trusted. According to him, the granting of the Marange concession in Zimbabwe has been "imminent" for 3 years. This claim normally gets wheeled out when Vast need to get yet another share placing away, which I suspect to be the case this time as well.
I think good things are coming BOD's way - but because of Thorny River and the Botswana assets, not because of Marange.

THS was trading at about 50p this time a year ago. So, no, "the price doesn't always go down".
Right now a large seller (Fidelity, who had well over 10% of the company) is clearing, and the market is waiting for the hard numbers that will come with the interim results. I think that will take us up to 200p+. There should also be a fairly hefty interim dividend to come as well - THS is making a lot of money at the moment.

This is Micheal Every of Rabo Bank's take on things political-military. I met him back in the early 90s in Moscow - he's one of the best commentators around.
www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/rabo-there-strangely-little-coverage-major-russian-military-mobilization-underway

Hi Bozi!
No, I think clueless about business is a pretty fair comment based on your childish and offensive posts.
And, of course, there will be corporate action here sooner or later. (That could be a JV at project level, as well as a takeover). It is the only possible way forward for Alpala.
Anyway, I'll go back to sleep here now. As said, you and your cohort have made this board one of the worst on LSE - rude and utterly useless.

No Bozi,
You close the door on your way out.
It is numbskulls like you and Quady that make this board unusable. Both of you are utterly clueless about business.

Well, you've got to hope that the new ~CEO takes this company in the new direction. If Bozi is right, and that's the grand strategy, there is absolutely no point in holding these shares. It'll just be dilution and more dilution...

Hi TotalTrader!
I did a rough reckoning on Fidelity yesterday, taking account of volume traded. It's impossible to be precise, of course, but I think I'm in the right ballpark with about 3.5%.
Your chrome price is surprisingly pessimistic - I'm hoping for an average price for the last quarter in the region of $156/t to $158/t. And, of course, all current spot prices for both PGMs and chrome are well above their averages for Jan-Mar.
So we are set fair...

Hi Nimrod!
By the way, iridium just hit a new all-time high of $6,100 / oz this morning, (JMAT prices).
Rhodium back at $29,000/oz. I haven't done the maths, but I'd guess SLP's 6E PGM basket price is at a new all-time high (again).

Hi TotalTrader!
By my count, Fidelity don't have that many shares left now. (I do believe they are selling down to zero, BTW). They passed the 5% notification limit on 12th March - I'd think they are down to about 3.5% now. It's possible that the quarterlies (next Monday) will generate enough volume to clear them out for good.
I must say, I have no idea what Fidelity are playing at. Not only should they not be selling at all, IMO, but they have sold down their stake in the most clumsy and costly way imaginable. I suppose it's just another example of people not giving a damn when it's not their own money.

Hi Kempey!
Haveiron is something of an exception to a rule. Telfer was running out of ore to process, so Newcrest have been very quick to act upon Haveiron.
I shall now stop typing, as DJ has already said the same thing...

There's some strange action on the book after hours.
After trading normally at about 142p all day, the 16.35 uncrossing trade settled at a surprising 147p. But it was only for a tiny amount - 100 shares. But then somebody has bought £70,000 pounds worth of shares after hours at 147p as well.
Does this drop back first thing tomorrow, or does it hold the gain?

Hi Antharry!
It might be worth looking at RMM's (Rambler Metal's) presentation for info on this new X-ray ore-sorting process and their timeline for its introduction. Ore sorting is worth it in the long run, but it is far more expensive and it will take far longer to introduce than Vast are implying. It's not a quick fix.
All told, I'd recommend investors here carry out a comparison between Vast, Ramber (RMM) and Phoenix Copper (PXC). All three are small London-listed copper miners with low market caps. The results should prove quite illuminating.

Rhodium up strongly this morning at $28,500/oz (JMAT price). Its rollercoaster price graph seems to be making a series of higher highs and higher lows.
Given that platinum is back over $1,200 /oz and palladium over $2,500 /oz, and iridium and ruthenium are trading at their all-time highs, this must add up to a new record (or very near new record) PGM basket price.

Rhodium up strongly this morning at $28,500/oz (JMAT price). Its rollercoaster price graph seems to be making a series of higher highs and higher lows.
Given that platinum is back over $1,200 /oz and palladium over $2,500 /oz, and iridium and ruthenium are trading at their all-time highs, this must add up to a new record (or very near new record) basket price for SLP.

This is the last news I can find about Salene Chrome...
www.miningmx.com/news/platinum/44830-tharisa-extends-option-to-buy-90-shareholding-in-salene-chrome/
The option was indeed extended to March 31st. But I can't find any confirmation that it has been exercised.
All in all, you would think so, but...

FastMarkets were quoting $140/t for chrome (42% content) at the start of the year. This rose to $180/t, before dropping back to $172/t on March 5, the last price that I have. So, my guesstimate for the average chrome price for the quarter is $156/t.
Chrome production should have brought in decent profits for Tharisa this quarter (allow $100/t for an approximate AISC for chrome); although expect higher shipping costs to China to have been a headwind.
Of course, PGMs have been the star performers for Tharisa, especially rhodium and iridium.
In other news, Eskom have just increased electricity prices by another 15%, about four times SA inflation. This isn't such a huge problem for Tharisa, which doesn't use vast amounts of power, but it will affect South Africa's remaining ferro-chrome smelters, making a bad situation for them that much worse. Electricity supply remains patchy as well.
As far as I can tell, no recent news on the chrome tax. It was first mooted back in October, and it wasn't included in the budget. Hopefully, it has been quietly dropped. It's just a bad idea.

Hi LunaNera!
I'm not sure I'd say there were red flags here. Sylvania is a remarkably well-run debt-free cash-rich highly profitable dividend paying business. Other AIM companies have "red flags", not this one.
But you're right, there is a question which begs an answer - what next? There are chrome / PGM tailings around which SLP could buy and process (I mentioned one possible takeover target for them a couple of days back - Eastplats). Or they could expand into reprocessing the tailings from other metals; they have the expertise for that. And there are plenty of opportunities in this field both In South Africa and worldwide - amazingly, it is estimated that there is more metal contained in the world's tailing dumps than in all the world's working mines.
All told, "what next?" is a question which needs an answer sooner or later. But, for now, I'm content to see the company taking full advantage of the current PGMs bonanza.

Lucky, you are repeating Russian propaganda talking points.
In the distant past Crimea has been Greek, Byzantine, Genovese (yes Genoa!), Tartar, Turkish, and Russian, before it became Ukrainian in the 1950s.
Crimea was taken by force by Russia from Ukraine in 2012 (who had governed it as an Autonomous Republic). The Kharkov Treaty of 2010 only covered the Naval Base in Sevastopol, no more. Prior to the Russian invasion the majority of the Crimean population (which included Ukrainians and Tartars as well as ethnic Russians) wanted to stay with Ukraine. After the invasion, the Russians suddenly became so popular that no less than 124% of the population of Sevastopol voted to join the Russian Federation. And all kinds of bad things happened to anybody who spoke out against the new regime.
I was there. I know exactly what happened.
Anyway, here is the well-respected Pavel Felgenhauer's take on the current situation. Note the detail about the landing ships; that's ominous.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9433075/Russian-military-analyst-warns-European-world-war-possible-month-tensions-rise-Ukraine.html
Frankly, if I still had FXPO shares I would sell them. But fortunately I sold them a few days ago, so I'll just stay out until all this over.

Lucky Luciano!
Either your are really, really bad at history or you are a Russian troll.
E.g. Nobody "gave" Crimea to Russia; they took it by force.