PGMs = 'precious group metals' sometimes called PGEs for 'precious group elements' - platinum, palladium, rhodium, and several others i either can't recall or don't know how to spell ... basically the precious metals other than gold and silver ... the term dates back to when the latter were in fact more precious than say fiat paper, for example, lol ... but i digress
'ethnic cleansing thing gives me pause' - me too ... political risk is hard to gauge, and it's always present in mining, takes many forms from the violence of revolutions to the litigation of 'environmentalists' ... check out the chart for six years or so, and you'll see how suf has already been whacked hard by realised political risk in two major ways -
1. they hit nicely at Marsfontein, smallish but rich diamond pipe, and quicker than you can say 'greedy bastids' some 'heirs' are 'discovered' and the local mafiosos end up with the greater part of the deal
2. they make a fairly reasonable deal on Camafuca, but it's in, um, Angola ... which seemed at the time to be getting pacified, but then the tide turned back
Then when they bought a good chunk of Messina for cheap, i think there was the perception that they were out of their field of expertise, going from diamonds to PGMs ..... but imho that doesn't apply - they became quite proficient at narrow-vein mining in the course of Klipspringer, and that's what Messina is - narrow-vein in structurally difficult ground ..... also, Messina is quite close to Klipspringer, so it wasn't like they had to set up a new division or anything .... but there are far more knowledgeable suf-erers on this thread than me, i've followed the stock and been in and out for about six years, don't keep up with all the details though, never met management, etc ... pretty shallow touch on it really .... you think the P&F says direction is north? .... cheers |
