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Gold/Mining/Energy : North American Palladium(AMEX:PAL)- PGM Producer -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Richard Mazzarella who wrote (169)	12/11/1997 11:46:00 AM
From: Randall E. Brubaker	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 976

Richard: I think PDLCF is a candidate for a double or so after tax loss season is over. Especially if PGM prices stay the same or move up. Further operational improvements by the company would be a bonus.

To: Richard Mazzarella who wrote (169)	12/11/1997 2:50:00 PM
From: Claude Cormier	Respond to of 976

<< Silver is doing a stutter step forward for now, consistent with perception of inflation. >> Don't think it has anything to do with inflation. More a question of imbalance in the physical market. <<However, I am not so sure that silver is a metal with a future. Kodak even sells digital cameras now. Experience has that technology advances in the "digital" area move faster than forecast, computers etc. >> the truth is that market acceptance of these are good...but are not making a differnce in this growing world of traditional photography, for now... Traditional photography will continue to grow for at least the next 5 years. DUring that time, silver is being used in more and more electronics components. Here 1 article among many others: -------------------------------- Digital Cameras Not Seen Threat To Silver Demand NEW YORK - Digital cameras are selling well, but conventional cameras are likely to dominate the photography market for the foreseeable future, sustaining the photographic demand for silver, said Peter Krause, an industry expert and consultant to the Washington DC-based Silver Institute. "The number of digital cameras sold in the U.S. last year was around 600,000-700,000 and worldwide sales probably amounted to about one million," Krause said in an interview with Reuters. "In 1997 estimates for digital camera sales worldwide range up to three to four million, compared to about 33-35 million sales of conventional cameras," he said. "Only by the year 2000 could the number of digital camera sales have risen to about 13-15 million." Digital cameras store their pictures electronically on discs or in their own memories just like computers, and a liquid crystal display can let the user see the picture immediately. The picture can also be transferred quickly to a computer and used in multi-media presentations. But the picture quality is not as good as that produced by traditional silver halide photographic film. "As a result the total camera population, including conventional and digital technology, will keep on growing as people don't throw away their old cameras," Krause said. ------------------------------------------------------------------- "So by the year 2000 the total camera population could be about 800 million 35mm cameras, plus about 15 million digital cameras," he said. ------------------------------------------------------------------- "What that tells you is that we're talking about digital technology accounting for only about two percent of the industry, because everybody agrees conventional silver halide photography is still going to be the system for the mass market. " "Where digital cameras will make inroads is in the professional field where the advantages of computerized reproduction and delivery outweigh the disadvantages of production quality." Strong growth in amateur photography using conventional silver halide technology will push photographic demand for silver to 233 million ounces this year, up three percent on the 1996 level, according to a mid-year industry outlook published last month by the Silver Institute. Demand for color film, which rose 11 percent last year, will rise another four percent in 1997, Krause said. And color paper demand, which jumped 17 pct last year, will also increase four percent this year. Photography accounted for about 226 million ounces of silver demand in 1996, out of total fabrication demand of about 803 million ounces, according to the Silver Institute. After amateur photography, the second most important use of silver in photography continues to be medical radiography, in which silver-backed black and white films are almost exclusively used for image recording and storage. The use of these materials in medical radiography will rise about three percent annually for the next five years, Krause said. In other photographic industry developments, the new Advanced Photo System (APS) products are continuing to fall behind original sales projections, especially in Europe and the U.S. The APS is based on a smaller film format which uses about one-third less silver than the traditional 35mm film camera. "Projections for this year put the APS market share at about five percent in the U.S., less than people hoped," Krause said.