Bigminty, if you are concerned about how much is hype be wary of...

Bigminty, if you are concerned about how much is hype be wary of how the comparisons to FMG are interpreted. The comparisons are being made because BAU has (like FMG) secured tenements given up by the big players, which cover a large area and potentially have a huge resource.

However, IMO there is not the potential to emulate FMG and go to $25b market cap or turn 20c shares into $100 shares as the global aluminium market is nowhere near the size of the steel market and therefore the volumes (and profits) are going to be nowhere near the level of FMG's.

Also, FMG are still the only iron ore player of significance that I am aware of to emerge in the last four or five years, and the majority of the other potential emerging iron ore players are a lot smaller and still a long way off production. In Bauxite there are quite a few emerging players with similar sized tenements:

- HRS and HGL have just signed a heads of agreement with a private company that has 4000 km2 of bauxite tenements in the Weipa area (unfortunately Í haven't been able to locate information on the tenements).
- UMC (I think) also has sizeable bauxite tenements.

I believe both of these are some way behind BAU in terms of progress, however there is another private company that looks like they are a couple of years ahead of BAU as they have 2,500 km2 of tenements and they have been drilling for two years, had a resource at January 2007 of about 54mt at 50%+ Bauxite, although Silica content looks high and the product requires beneficiation and they already have a major Chinese aluminium producer as a 17.5% shareholder. They're aiming for 5-7mtpa bauxite production which will make a bit of a dent in excess demand.

In my opinion BAU still has plenty of potential even with those factors, just that if you're looking for an FMG like run to $90+ per share I don't think you'll get it from BAU.

You should only use Hot Copper as a guide and do your own independent research as you have no idea of the motivations of other posters (it is not uncommon for posters to be selling out whilst spruiking a share to keep the price up - there's one person on the HC top 30 Favourites who I have seen do this - and that person is not currently posting on BAU).

Finally, in relation to your broker beware of brokers promoting stocks their analysts don't cover (or even stocks their analysts do cover) - ask them why they are recommending it and if they have researched management. My portfolio would be looking a lot healthier if I had not taken any recommendations from my broker - every one of them is 60% down on what I paid for them (two of which a bit of research on their management would have been handy). Luckily I have several stocks I have bought without broker input which are up 75-200% in the last six months. BAU/BAUO was one of the stocks my broker had zero input into.