Ken, I just found this thread and I have some info that I think may be
of interest to you. Stillwater is not the ONLY palladium/platinum producer
in North America. North American Palladium (PDL-TSE and PDLC-NASDAQ) operates
a 2800 tonne per day mine about 1.5 hours north of Thunder Bay, Ontario.
In fiscal year 1995, they produced 77,000 oz of Palladium, 5,000 oz of Platinum,
5,000 oz of gold, 1.2 million pounds Copper, & 1 million pounds of Nickel, from
a total of 750,000 tons of processed ore. The company posted a net loss of
$2.5 million after tax in 1995, however they had an operating income of $1.5 million.
This is a "sleeper company" as it receives very little coverage, and management
does little, if anything, to actively promote it. The mine has been operating since November, 1993.
It only has 11 million shares outstanding.
If you, or anyone else on this thread, is interested in this company, I can
provide much more information as I am close to the company. Although this company has
had a tough time of late (it has reported significant losses in the most recent 3 quarters)
I feel that there is significant potential for improvement. The company is just finishing
a major capital improvement program which included a $7 million hydro power line to the mine sight.
Up until now they have run on expensive diesal generators. The new power source alone should
improve the bottom line significantly. In addition, work is continuing on a new indoor crushing
circuit, which will be likely be completed by January. The current crushing circuit is not large enough,
and is outdoors which presented serious problems in the kind of weather that is prevalent in Thunder Bay
in the middle of the winter (-30 C is not uncommon). Many other improvements (flotation circuit, maintenance buildings, etc
have also been recently completed).
Jason |
