oppies at discount, page-24

Lovely pick up Dogabone

It Seems Robin Bromby likes the stock indeed and why not

Phosphate interest

PHOSPHATE prices have kept on rising, but it took a corporate move to set fire to shares in tightly held explorer Celamin Holdings (CNL).

News that the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) had taken a 5 per cent stake in the lightly traded junior made investors snap out of their torpor.

The stock, which has seen little interest of late and closed at 42c on Thursday, shot to 79c on the CBA news, then settled to end 66.7 per cent up at 70c.

To have the country's largest bank move into a company with a market cap (after the Friday jump) of just $24 million does indeed make the eyebrows rise, but a couple of institutions are already parked on the Celamin register -- African Lion and Rand Merchant Bank.

Celamin's appeal was dented by the uprising in Tunisia, where its phosphate project is located, but work is back to normal, a preliminary offtake agreement is in place and the company expects to be producing at about $US35 a tonne against a market price now of $US170/tonne.

The junior's strategy is to get away from being seen as a speccy trade. We'll be able to judge the astuteness (or not) of CBA's move when the pre-feasibility study and JORC resource are posted before year's end.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/mining-energy/chinese-demand-keeps-gold-soaring/story-e6frg9ex-1226060685878