This board is for discussing junior miners in both base and precious metals. The commodities boom appears to be a longer term issue so these stocks should become more important as investors try to find small companies that are discovering new deposits.

The typical scenario is that the big companies have such high overhead that they can only look for huge deposits. However as commodities rise in price and all producers max out production, the larger players struggle to replace reserves. The junior miners typically fill that role by finding deposits and then selling out to the cash rich bigger players.

My normal investing strategy is to look for profitable stocks with low p/e's. That strategy is difficult with mining stocks because most are not in production or are losing money.

My alternative strategy is to look for miners with near term potential to begin production. Those are the stocks that I will attempt to focus on along with any stocks that are actually profitable.

Bobwins

Vancouver Resource Investment Conference Update(1/23/07):
http://investorshub.com/boards/read_msg.asp?Message_id=16411032

FAVORITE JUNIOR NICKEL MINERS:

 

The dramatic fall in the price of nickel and the economic slowdown that will undoubtedly reduce demand for stainless steel makes most nickel producers economically marginal.

FAVORITE JUNIOR ZINC MINERS:
 

Same story for zinc.  Dramatic fall to .60 level means that many zinc miners are operating at close to or below their costs.  Many zinc miners are facing mine shutdowns.   The financial crisis has dried up funding for explorers.  Several large zinc projects are struggling to find financing or larger partners to develop quality projects.


FAVORITE JUNIOR COPPER MINERS:
 

Copper was the last of the base metals to fall.  Increasing inventories do not bode well for copper prices going forward.  Copper is now below $2 but still remains well above the cycle lows below $1.  Most copper mines are still profitable but the margins are shrinking and shutdowns could become common if we have a severe economic slowdown.  China remains the most important barometer of base metal fortunes.  If their economy continues to slow, copper usage and prices could fall further.

Capstone Mining Corp CS.to/CSFFF.pk
F.D. 82.1M, The company is buying back 10% its shares from mid 07-mid 08. Holding ~20m shares of SST.v plus warrants.
Cash cost about 40c copper net byproduct credit, going lower as smelter charges drop in 08 and lead price jumps.
Recently increased its mill output by 120% under budget. Guiding 26 M lb of copper, 11.3M lb of zinc and 4.1M lb of Lead in 08.
New resource update by sep 07.
http://www.capstonemining.com/

EQUINOX MINERALS (has near term uranium also) EQN.to/EQXMF.pk
http://www.equinoxminerals.com/


QUADRA MINING QUA.to/QADMF.pk
S.O. 38.1M + 3.9M (InterMoly) + 12M (PP, fully allocated)=54M
F.D. 42.6M + 3.9M (InterMoly) + 24M (PP, fully allocated)=70.8M
2007 guidance: 125 M lb copper and 60 K oz gold
Q1 2007 production: 36.6 M lb copper and 31 K oz gold. Cost: ~$1.5/lb
http://www.quadramining.com

Taseko Mines Ltd. (TGB)
S.O. 113.6 M
F.D. 126.4 M
2007 guidance: 60-70M lb copper and 1 M lb of moly. Cost: ~$1.5/lb
Production set to increase to 120 M lb copper and 1.4 M lb of moly in late 2008 and cost will go down to close to US$1.1/lb area.
http://www.tasekomines.com


FAVORITE JUNIOR GOLD MINERS:


Aurizon Mines AZK
http://www.aurizon.com/



GOLD RESOURCE GORO.ob
http://www.goldresourcecorp.com/

Gold Resources is a US based gold company looking for gold in Mexico. The company is run by the Reid brothers. They recently sold US Gold to Rob McEwan, formerly CEO of Goldcorp. They have started 6 mines and their goal is a low cost producing gold mine that can operate profitably without worrying about gold prices falling. They have recently made the decision to build a mine.
In addition to low cost, they want to be able to dividend cash to shareholders and develop multiple mines on this property.
Here is the PR.

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/070411/law024.html?.v=101


SAN GOLD SGR.v SGRCF.pk

San Gold is a tough call. They have continued to report outstanding drilling results from their reopened deep gold mine.  They have many reported bonanza grade drill results from their existing mine as well as newly discovered ore bodies.  The problem with SGR is their lack of ability to profitably mine gold.  The mine/mill has been reopened for well over a year and they continue to report losses and negative cashflow, even though gold is several hundred dollars above cycle lows.  San Gold holders are betting on the reserves continuing to grow and eventually for a major to take out San Gold due to the rich ore grades.  San Gold continues to issue shares since operations are not providing cashflow. 

 
http://www.sangoldcorp.com/

SEMAFO SMF.to/SEMFF.pk

Semafo is a profitable Canadian miner operating in Western Africa.  They have three smallish mines in three different countries producing about 20K oz of gold per month.  The company built all three mines from scratch during the past 6 years so mgmt is very experienced in building and operating mines.  The third mine is the biggest and has moved Semafo into a profitable operating mode. They made .05 eps each of the last two qtrs as the Mana mine has become commercial and improved it's performance.  The company has large acreage positions around each of the three mine sites so there is substantial exploration upside.  The company is using their cashflow to finance exploration.  They are guiding for 185K oz in 2008, 240-260K in 2009 and 300K in 2010.  They recently improved ball mill capacity at Mana.  At current earnings, SMF.to is undervalued by a factor of 2 or 3 times other profitable producers. 

http://biz.yahoo.com/cnw/081111/e_semafo_3rdqr_2008.html?.v=1

http://www.semafo.com/

FAVORITE JUNIOR SILVER MINERS:


AURCANA AUN.v AUNFF.pk
S.O. 90.4M
F.D. 105.5M
http://www.aurcana.com/



SABINA SILVER SBB.v SBBFF.pk
http://www.sabinasilver.com/

SCORPIO MINING SPM.to SMNPF.PK
http://www.scorpiomining.com/

SILVERSTONE RESOURCES CORP SST.V/SVRCF.pk
http://www.silverstonecorp.com/
The next silver wheaton, trading at 50% discount!
S.O.~100M

FAVORITE JUNIOR URANIUM MINERS:

Uranium continues to struggle as a sector.  Uranium spot prices have fallen from over $100 to the mid $40's recently.  Uranium stocks are a fraction of their peak prices.  Even profitable producers have fallen sharply.  The fundamentals remain relatively unchanged.  Worldwide, there are hundreds of nuclear powerplants on the drawing board.  The current mining supply is well below current usage.  The deficit is being supplied by Russia from deactivated nuclear warheads.  That program is going to end in 2012 and Russia has indicated they will retain whatever is remaining of their inventory for their own nuclear powerplant use.  As that deadline approaches, there is more and more likelihood that uranium will increase in price.  The current crisis has killed many uranium juniors and producers have not substantially increased production.  The lower U308 prices makes many projects marginally economic.  So the current financial problems are increasing the likelihood that the deficit will remain and could be worse by 2012.  The stocks listed here are non producers and most will have difficulty surviving until they either enter production or get bigger JV partners.  STM.v has 3 projects moving forward and their main project has Mitsubishi as a partner.  Japan relies heavily on nuclear power so Mitsubishi has a vested interest in becoming a producing uranium miner. 

CROSSHAIR EXPLORATION & MINING CXX.v CXXUF.pk
http://www.crosshairexploration.com/

ENERGY FUELS EFR.v EFRFF.pk
http://www.energyfuels.com/

POWERTECH URANIUM PWE.v PWURF.pk
http://www.powertechuranium.com/

Strathmore Minerals STM.v STHJF.pk
http://www.strathmoreminerals.com
S.O. 70.2M
F.D. 76.4M


Uranerz Energy URZ
http://www.uranerz.com

FAVORITE JUNIOR MOLYBDENUM MINERS:


BLUE PEARL TCM.TO TCMRF.PK
http://www.bluepearl.ca/

Blue Pearl remains the largest publicly traded Moly miner in the world.  They have several mines and are profitable.

ROCA MINES ROK.v ROCAF.pk
S.O. 74.2M
F.D. 94.2M
http://www.rocamines.com/

Roca finally opened their moly mine but have yet to produce profits.  Startup has been slow and I sold my position.  The mine has a 2 to 3 year reserve of very high grade ore but unless they demonstrate the ability to mine profitably, the stock will likely continue to decline. 


FAVORITE JUNIOR TUNGSTEN MINERS:

DYNACOR MINES DYN.to MSDRF.PK
http://www.dynacor.com/

FAVORITE JUNIOR LEAD MINERS:


IVERNIA IVW.to IVWFF.pk
http://www.ivernia.com/

MontyHigh's blog, quite informative: http://montyhigh.typepad.com/world_of_wallstreet/

A Good web site for juniors: http://miningpedia.com/ style="text-decoration: underline;">