news from minesite

January 16, 2010

That Was The Week That Was ... In Australia

By Our Man in Oz / www.minesite.com

Minews. Good morning Australia. It looks as if the most exciting event down your way last week was the cricket.

Oz. Almost correct, though watching Pakistani batsmen run themselves out is hardly cricket. At one stage yesterday they had a batsman on 28 who could also claim two wickets in the same innings, which in other circumstances might have been enough to earn him the title of the ultimate all-rounder. Shame the two wickets were of his team mates. Bit like a pair of own goals.

Minews. And have you had time to watch your stock market?

Oz. Yes, but when you have a week in which the all ordinaries slides lower by 0.25 per cent, the metals and mining index closes down by 0.29 per cent and the gold index falls by 0.74 per cent you can understand why watching self-inflicted run-outs in cricket is more exciting. In fact, watching the weather in Britain has been more exciting than our market, thought admittedly thats from 20,000 kilometres away. Hows the global warming debate going up there?

Minews. Thats enough of the chit chat. Time for prices. There must have been some action?

Oz. There was..........(continued )
Minews. Gold now, because it is so widely followed.
(continued)
Minews. Base metals now, please.

Oz. Zinc has become the interesting metal in that complex, thanks largely to deals involving Blackthorn (BTR) and CBH (CBH), though these have had different results. Blackthorn investors welcomed the companys tie-up with Glencore on the partly-built Perkoa mine, news which lifted the stock by A23.5 cents to A97.5 cents, although at one stage the stock did get to a 12 month high on Friday of A$1.02. CBH, which is making slow progress with a takeover proposal from Nyrstar, slipped A1 cent lower to A13.5 cents. Other zinc stocks were mixed. Perilya (PEM) added A8 cents to A76 cents, while Terramin (TZN) fell A3 cents to A88.5 cents. Interestingly, one of our old favourites, Mt Burgess (MTB) caught the eye of a few investors, adding A0.7 of a cent to A2.2 cents which, on a percentage basis, is quite a jump.

Minews. We might take a closer look at Mt Burgess next week. For now, lets finish base metals, and move across to uranium and any specials.

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