Perched: Africa Copper Miner Shares Above $10 USD

TCRs, thank you for what is 
a 12th year of our subscriber 
reports. -- Thom Calandra

TCRs, some metals stocks are rebounding or showing resilience late this first week of 2024.

Ivanhoe Mines IVN IVPAF shares are back above $10 USD, for one. (Even as copper’s price remains in neutral.) FYI, IVN closed Thursday at $9.86 USD, seeing in the North America market day’s final 90. minutes approx. 800k of 2.1 million shares traded.

I believe the late-week rebound recognizes belatedly this week’s earlier headline: Ivanhoe Mines’ Copper In DRC Congo Stsrt Shipping Along Lobito Atlantic Rail Corridor. The cathode goes to a town on the DRC/Angola border and the shorter transporting could reduce shipping costs dramatically. Thus, 8 days by rail vs. as much as 25 or so days by truck to Durban, RSA. See release please.

This is a brief report: other rebounders late this week include Western Copper & Gold WRN, albeit mildly; Alamos Gold AGI, as always when gold is looking primed; several others.

Getting hammered is Alaska explorer-future producer Contango Ore CTGO, whose NYSE-listed stock at the very least is getting some volume. I own a good amount, now underwater. CEO Rick van Nieuwenhuyse tells me he is not aware of any changes in his company’s plans to start production at 50-50 venture Manh Choh (with Kinross Gold KGC).

I am not one to repeat annual letters from execs to shareholders. Unless their shares are crushed, pummeled and minced. Thus: Maple Gold Mines MGM MGMLF new CEO, Kiran Patankar, has since August 2023 been grappling with a BIG LETDOWN after deep-drilling results in the Abitibi Greenstone Belt, Québec. The brief letter here please.

Kiran in a conversation acknowledges Maple overspent on drill programs at the 100%-controlled Eagle Mine Project and the 50%-owned Douay and Joutel Gold Projects. What the geo-engineer and Yale MBA does not mention, at least in his letter, ​or to me, is whether Maple will seek partners with nearby gold projects. 

​Still, Orford Mining ORM ORMFF​ has ​a Joutel property in the same Abitibi region ​and it is getting no respect from shareholders. I own Orford.

​Kiran told me, “I am a geological engineer (Colorado School of Mines) … and I do not spend money like a drunken sailor. I know accretive deals.”

‘He told me, “I am a geological engineer (Colorado School of Mines) … and I do not spend money like a drunken sailor. I know accretive deals.”

DHT Maritime Holdings: DHT’s NYSE stock continues to reflect a turbulent Red Sea passage for shipping-cos. I own it. The stock is rising each day this week.

Here is a Reuters update about surging spot leasing rates for carriers in the region, which is beset by Houthi (Yemen) rebel attacks.