Congo Copper | Shipper Poised | Xtra Funds

Inside: European Shipper As Commodities Indicator

Plus: alluvial cash funding exploration, equipment, 
salaries at Ghana's Xtra-Gold. 
Mourning for Victor Nkansa -- below. 
TCRs, Ivanhoe Mines’ Robert Friedland is raising a copper cup to the U.S. Department of Energy‘s placement of the metal in its yearly critical metals  review.

 

The inclusion of  copper in the DOE report s a first.

Robert Friedland, founder and co-chair of the Africa copper-miner, just led his company’s quarterly with the  DOE review.

 

Aluminum, copper, and siliconwill become near critical in the medium term due to increased demand in solar energy technologies, global electrification, and vehicle lightweighting,'” the DOE states. Please read the review.  It is a 15-minute primer on necessary elements for maintaining our human lifestyles. Report is here. 

 

Ivanhoe, our largest nat-resources holding, continues to blow out the global copper landscape with grades at DRC Congo‘s Kamoa-Kakula; mine life length (42 years with projected adjacent mine additions and construction); mechanized mining, profit-increasing technologies such as flash smelting (in the works); recovery test processes; cash reserves; village buildouts, schools, clinics, soccer fields … I could go on; read on.

 

Ivanhoe’s Kamoa-Kula Copper Tailings Above Global Head Grades

Of great interest, Ivanhoe, amid power interruptions, managed to report spot-on mined ore and hefty profits and low cost of copper production. The company says it likely will raise its projected copper output for 2023.

As for Western Foreland in DRC, “We don’t need a partner but there sure are a hell of a lot of partners interested,” Robert said. Western Foreland is likely to report the first resource statement for its exploration there.

The MDA MANAGEMENT DISCUSSION has it all: Kamoa-Kakula copper, Kipushi copper and zinc, those both in DRC Congo; Western Foreland copper exploration in DRC  — “my favorite subject,” Robert, co-exec chairman, said today; Platreef nickel-platinum-palladium-gold-rhodium project in South Africa. Also, risk factors, valuation projections, currency calculations; road improvements; accelerating on-time deliveries; optimizing copper tailings recovery; accelerating time lines for delivery via flash smelting. See please Ivanhoe’s Flash.

 

See the released MDA: here. 
Listen to today’s webcast. Well worth the listen. Wait for the questions at the end regarding China’s restricting of germanium, gallium exports that are needed for semiconductors. “You may literally need a telescope to see the price of gallium and germanium, Robert Friedland said. Kipushi mine for Ivanhoe has zinc. germanium, gallium and copper.

 

Also, the call I believe had honest answers from other executives and operators at all of the projects in South Africa and DRC Congo, including the looming DRC election … and U.S. policies.
Brien Lundin’s Yearly NOLA Show — November 1-4, 2023

Quarterly update release here. 

 

As stated: “Kamoa-Kakula‘s Phase 1 and 2 concentrators milled a record 2.2 million tonnes of ore during the second quarter at an average feed grade of 5.2% copper. This included high-grade, run-of-mine ore from the Kakula Mine, supplemented with ore from the surface stockpiles to achieve throughput over original design capacity. Strong copper recoveries continued for the quarter averaging 87.2%. For July, Kamoa-Kakula’s Phase 1 and 2 concentrators milled 0.6 million tonnes of ore at an average feed grade of 5.8% copper and recoveries of 88.0%, producing 35,636 tonnes, just short of a monthly record. The record second-quarter production at Kamoa-Kakula was achieved despite maintenance shutdowns in June and intermittent (power) grid instability. “

 

Poised Commodities — Buy Signal?

Snowline Gold‘s 553.8 meters of 2.5 GRAMS PER TONNE GOLD  at Yukon’s Rogue Project. SGF SNWGF Results here. Snowline and Ivanhoe are our best performing stocks this year and last. SNWGF shares rose 12% today to firmly above $4 USD.; Thursday August 3, 2023. We own the shares here at home.

DHT Maritime Holdings: DHT shares touched $10 USD amid terrific volatility for spot and contract contracts for very large crude carrier shipping rates this year. Results later this month, and the quarterly dividend from the European shipper of nat-gas and crude oil could be a doozy.

The stock notched $10 a share  USD Friday (updated). Likely an indicator of gaining commodities prices. https://lnkd.in/gWeS2Ekp. See Bloomberg Commodities Index please, with notations courtesy of Brien Lundin of New Orleans Investment Conference (November 1-14, 2023). We own the shares.

Xtra-Gold Resources‘ alluvial cash is funding all exploration, equipment, salaries at all of the Ghana properties. I have owned XTG XTGRF since first touring the company’s projects in the alluvial cash funding all exploration, equipment, salaries at Ghana’s Xtra-Gold. We have owned XTG (main TSX board) and XTGRF since 2009, when I first toured the properties in Ghana’s Kibi Gold Belt. 

Victor Nkansa
Tearful condolences to Victor’s family and friends and Xtra-Gold colleagues. May Victor and his memory thrive in Ghana.

I just added more shares again, for probably the 15th time in 14 years. In that time, I have visited Xtra-Gold’s self-funded camps 5 times.

I am as you know, TCRs, searching for another company that buys back and cancels its shares once or twice a week; funds everything, and I mean everything, with its own cash — probably $11 million right now, approx. 25 cents a share of its 63-cent USD stock price, in steady alluvial Kibi cash, some $1.5 million USD and more a year, for many years.

That includes a couple of insightful energy-producer stocks in Alberta, Canada. Xtra-Gold also sports a limited and selective choice of private placements in gold-cos, including, Jim and his Toronto brokers hope, an obscure Canadian copper explorer with outsized trading activity of late.

Numbers for the quarter out next week; further assays likely for Boomerang East targets at the Kibi in August or early September. Drill rigs, company owned and operated, are looking to score core that will boost a 750,000-plus ounce resource to 1.3 million ounces. Market cap: $38 million CAD at 80 cents CAD.

I speak with founder CEO James Longshore twice a month. Jim and XTG just lost its chief financial officer, No. 1 employee, controller and secretary Victor Nkansa in a horrific rural Ghana car crash. Jim tells me, “Very sad to lose our first employee and a business friend.”  See release please.

Xtra-Gold Core Yard At Apapam Base Camp

Victor was on his way to a family reunion in northern Ghana. Head-on vehicle accidents are one of the leading causes of death and injury in Ghana and in many nations on the Africa continent. Unmarked gravel two-way roads; poor lighting; trucks and more trucks; oil slicks. Victor, a Ghana-educated MBA, was 65.

— Thom Calandra 

 

 
 

Thom Calandra ​is a ​writer and an investor. Research and material are meant as editorial opinion.​ He is not a professional investment adviser. Please do not consider his reporting as a recommendation to buy or sell securities.