15:34 BMD Birch Mountain: Small Cap Profile; pure-play on the oil sands (8.57 +0.52)
This afternoon, BMD challenged its 52-wk highs near 8.50 on above average volume. The oil sands in Alberta, Canada have been widely reported as an enticing and now feasible (with crude at $70/bbl) way to extract crude from the ground. Birch Mountain is an interesting play on the trend. The co has an enviable position. Its Athabasca landholdings are in the midst of the booming oil sands industry in Alberta, Canada that has created a robust demand for aggregate. The limestone on its property includes high-quality units, suitable for calcining into quicklime, of which oil sands operators will use an estimated 350,000 tons per year to treat air and water emissions. This gives the co a strong position as competitive sources of aggregate and quicklime are limited. Birch Mountain has the only high-quality limestone identified in the area, and controls virtually all surface-accessible limestone. Currently, quicklime is trucked from Southern Alberta, more than 500 miles away. Conversely, BMD's plant will be minutes from many oil sands operations, reducing the cost to buyers and increasing delivery reliability, an important factor as quicklime has a limited storage life. The co has little financials to speak of, but with its exposure to the oil sands projects and is enviable competitive position, it's an interesting pure play on oil sands. (see) Mkt cap $699 mln, avg vol 749K. (PROFX)
(Briefing.com)
Up 9.3% today on nearly 3 x average volume, perhaps in anticipation of the delayed and expanded feasibility study; Yahoo posters suggesting it will be released May 11 or May 15.
stockcharts.com
Last week's news shows they are able to attract some experienced people:
Birch Mountain Appoints New Director
07:32 a.m. 05/04/2006 Provided by
CALGARY, May 4, 2006 (Canada NewsWire via COMTEX) -- Birch Mountain Resources Ltd. (BMD: TSXV and AMEX) ("Birch Mountain" and the "Company") is pleased to announce the appointment of Douglas Annable, who recently retired as President, Energy & Mining Division, AMEC Americas, to the Company's board of directors.
A professional engineer with a masters degree in chemical engineering, Mr. Annable has almost 40 years of executive, management, business development and engineering experience in the oil, gas and petrochemical industries on all fronts - engineering, construction and plant operations. He has been responsible for operating and leading major business units of large, national and international engineering companies and an independent, employee-owned engineer-procure-construct ("EPC") company. Doug has been directly involved with the development, negotiation and implementation of many large EPC projects in the Canadian oil sands, as well as off-shore and conventional oil and gas.
From 2003 to 2006, Doug was President, Energy & Mining Division, AMEC Americas and from 1992 to 2003, held various executive positions including Executive Vice President, Energy, AMEC E&C Services (formerly AGRA Monenco). AMEC plc, is an international engineering services company with more than 45,000 employees in 40 countries.
"Doug's experience and direction will provide a valuable contribution to the continued creation of value as Birch Mountain transitions through the engineering, procurement, and construction phase of our quarry and limestone processing complex," said Kerry Sully, Chairman of the Board.
The Board has approved the issuance of 125,000 options under the Company's stock option plan to Mr. Annable. The options are exercisable at $8.00 per share.
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