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Wow that means we should have a great next quarter in sales.
How do we know that the delay in the 2nd mill to Sept. isn't because of a lack of sales? Easy come easy go.
Does this impact us??
Author: James Regan
Posted: Sunday , 08 Jun 2008
PERTH (Reuters) -
Western Australian miners, which supply the world with metals and iron ore, fear sharp falls in productivity and lay-offs after a gas-plant explosion robbed them of power, industry and local government officials said on Sunday.
"This is very serious," Reg Howard Smith, head of the state's Chamber of Minerals and Energy, said after crisis talks with some of the world's biggest resources firms, including BHP Billiton BHP..AX(BLT.L), Rio Tinto (RIO.AX)(RIO.L) and BP (BP.L).
"We're seeing some stand-downs of staff occurring and we're still deciding what needs to be done," Smith told Reuters.
Western Australia lost about a third of its energy supplies last week when an explosion crippled a gas-handling plant on the tiny island of Varanus, about 100 km (62 miles) off Australia's northwest coast. The Varanus plant, close to offshore gas fields, is operated by a unit of U.S.-based Apache Corp (APA.N).
Tim Wall, managing director of Apache's Australian unit, said on Sunday he was sticking with an earlier estimate of "months, not weeks" before damage to the plant and associated gas pipelines was repaired and operations could restart.
Western Australia's state government is trying to import more diesel from Asia to offset the drop in gas supplies, state premier Alan Carpenter said, noting that BP, which operates a diesel refinery in the state, was already at maximum production.
But getting diesel to remote, outback mines could take time.
"There is no wand to make this crisis disappear," Carpenter told reporters on Sunday. "It's one thing to get the diesel here on ships and another to where it's needed by truck."
Western Australia supplies about a third of the world's iron ore, 20 percent of the gold and tens of thousands of tonnes of copper, nickel, zinc, lead and other industrial staples.
Carpenter said stepped-up gas production from other gas suppliers would help but it could not eliminate the problem.
Smith of the Chamber of Minerals and Energy said large sectors of industry hurt by the shortage could expect little if any relief, even if more diesel arrived.
"There are large parts of our industry that are involved in processing, where there is no substitution for the gas they need," he said.
Nickel smelting and refining had been among the hardest hit, since those operations can only run on gas, Smith added.
BHP runs the Kalgoorlie nickel smelter in Western Australia, one of the world's largest, churning out 100,000 tonnes of the steel-alloying metal each year. A BHP refinery 800 km (500 miles) away, near Perth, refines a further 65,000 tonnes annually.
"This comes at a very critical time for the nickel miners, who are struggling to keep on top of demand," said Eagle Mining Research analyst Keith Goode.
"The impact on supply is still not clear."
BHP said late last week it was so far coping by conserving gas and finding other suppliers, though another nickel miner, Minara Resources Ltd (MRE.AX), which produces about 33,000 tonnes of nickel annually, said employees normally working on making nickel had switched to plant maintenance during the crisis.
Other industries also dependent on gas for production included ammonium nitrate for explosives, cyanide used in gold mining and other key parts of the mining process, Smith said.
"Those issues of how to keep up are going to take a long time to work through," Smith said.
Western Australia's biggest source of gas supply was cut off after two pipelines feeding offshore gas ruptured, causing an explosion at the Varanus island plant. Apache has since invoked a force majeure clause in its contracts.
(Editing by Mark Bendeich and David Cowell)
© Thomson Reuters 2008. All rights reserved
AYSI post EPS of 0.068 vs (0.002)
From the 10Q:
Increased sales due to:
"The sales increase is attributable to increased orders from new mining projects in Australia."
Gross Margin improvements due to:
"The increase in gross profit margin has been achieved through negotiation of better raw materials prices for some supplies during the period, as well as increased production through the mill without the need to increase direct labor costs."
Chinese Stocks
Wonder if UTVG and CNEH movements have anything to do with this article
---------------------------
HONG KONG (MarketWatch) -- Chinese banking and securities regulators signed an agreement with their U.S. counterparts Monday that will help lay the groundwork to enable mainland investors buy and sell U.S. securities, according to multiple reports.
Under the plan, Chinese banks will be able to buy U.S.-listed stocks and mutual funds for their clients.
The agreement signed between the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the China Banking Regulatory Commission marks a further expansion of the Qualified Domestic Institutional Investor program (QDII) , and brings the U.S. in line with similar agreements signed between Beijing regulators and counterparts in Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan and the U.K.
"It's significant in the sense that in the long run Chinese money will invest in the U.S., but this is just part of the ongoing process," said Lan Xue, Citigroup's head of China Research in Hong Kong.
The QDII program enables authorized financial institutions in China to channel investors' funds abroad under approved products such as equity funds.
CNEH
They went through a financing and got $15 million, you would think that there was a complete DD performed by the lender.
Wade: HSOA
"I bought back in big at $.61-$.64. I believe this is a great risk reward"....you wrote this on the 8th of Feb. I thought you were still in. It's going to take a long time to repair the image of this company and no sane analyst will follow this any longer.
Wade:HSOA
Have you seen this train wreck news release. I don't know if this is salvageable...looks like they've brought in some bankers to look at some alternatives for the company.
http://biz.yahoo.com/pz/080215/136506.html
AYSI
Littlefish, didn't you say that sales would be impacted this quarter because they take 1 or 2 weeks off during the Christmas and New Years holidays?
Would margins be impacted since they added more staff and the training cycle to get these people up to speed.
Thanks Tbone:DGLY
That interview was quite informative.
Codehappy data:
I'd be interested in companies reporting on Monday and Tuesday versus reporting on Thurday and Friday's.....I generally try and sell any shares in a company that annouces they are reporting on a Friday.
CNEH
How many shares are we talking about that were "gifted"?
cl1000: Gold
What are your favorite gold producers?
Re: DGLY
Looks like they should have stay on the BB. Is the change in CFO the cause of the price drop or was it over bought?
DGLY
Anyone watching this one catch fire again.
AYSI question
Littlefish, are you absolutely certain that earnings don't include a foreign exchange gain.
What about recognizing the NOL....the auditors may require them to recognize some of the previous years losses which may inflate the EPS.
I think this preannounced quarter is for the 4th quarter....and sometimes you get funky adjustments at year end.
AYSI
Looks like they have a Sept year end.....last year they filed their 10K on Dec. 22.
CNEH
My concern is that the mgmt of this company is quite young and maybe inexperienced....if their doing a financing, the last thing you want to see is a convertible with a death spiral conversion pricing.
HSOA:
Quite the rollercoaster ride Wade....this past hour points to bad news....but we'll see tomorrow.
CPHI
shows 8 cents for the quarter and the receivables have grown significantly
CNEH
Northernlight will send you a copy of the presentation.
Who was the poster who kept posting that the lawyers just needed to cross the "t's" and dot the "i's" and then the sales announcements would start to flow?
Watch CPHI go
Dang I should have bought more at $1.60...but it sat there for so long until someone or something lit the fire.
Sell the clay for making China
The clay is still worth something, at least it can be still sold to manufactures of fine China. Did Jacobson pull one over us?
re: HSOA
Wade, aren't you concerned with the analyst that asked about the contract for the Upper East Side project in NY? Where the company issued a press release earlier this year(April?) that they had a SIGNED contract for this project.....whereas this isn't the case. Gives me a lot of concern that the SEC will target this.
What do you think they'll say on the CC
Will they:
a) separate/spin off the halloysite co from the mining co.
b) tell us that a contract for the clay is imminent.
c) tell us they found more clay or that the current "bed of clay" goes a lot farther than they anticipated.
d)tell us that they are having a hard time marketing to someone other than for "fine china" use
e)not to expect revenues next year for the contract mining division similiar to this year.
Trading Halt???
My streamer shows 1.50 x $4.00 all of a sudden....is it a trading halt or just my Streamer.
I'll take Pittsburgh this week.
Where's our favorite poster
Isn't it time for our favorite poster to tell us that a contract is imminent and that the only thing holding it up are the lawyers?.......uuuhhhuh sure it is.
You sure you read the filing correctly
I think he SOLD 105,000 shares @ $2.70.
Close to announcing?
Weren't you the same person who said this 3 months ago?
Great move
My take is that they are "managing" the stock with some very friendly investors. At $3 they can get an AMEX filing and get off the BB. Also they may have alot of potential people looking at the clay and are anticipating an announcement but need to get the stock up to a more reasonable level b/f they announce....much easier to do this on the BB than AMEX.
What happens if a big company likes the clay (say Dupont) and instead of buying the clay they determine it's cheaper to buy the company and hold all the clay to themselves. Maybe the investment bankers are moving this up...who knows but I'm throwing out some possibilities.
We might need a couple of weeks to consolidate at $3 or an announcement needs to be pushed out to ensure this thing stays above the $3 mark.
from NanoClay Technology website
--------------------------------------
Visitors to NIST Nanotechnology 2007 in Santa Clara can visit us at our booth #1014.
We will preview our new functional silane coated HNT. Initial customer reaction to the new products indicates improved ease of blending with polymeric systems. These new functional silanes improve physical properties of HNT filled polymeric composites.
We have had several customers using our HNT in Nylon, Polypropylene and Polyolefin polymers report improved physical characteristics and improved fire resistance when blended at rates between 2% and 30%. In addition HNT do not deluster polymers as other common fillers are capable of doing.
In addition we are shipping cosmetic grade clay to customers for use in natural cosmetic products.
Nice move today
Guess Dr. Price is a good smoozer or good public speaker.
UTVG falling quick
Anything to account for the big % drop?
Link
Got this from the Yahoo message board.
http://www.wsw.com/webcast/brileyco8/gasf/
update on planes
Apparently they have planes 11 and 12 in their hanger now. Expecting Avolar to have 18 planes by the end of 2007.
Any mention of Avolar
I couldn't log on to the webcast but the slides showed that Avolar at 10 planes? Is Avolar not adding planes?
OT: anyone negotiate margin rates
I'm with Ameritrade, I know some here including myself have negotiated commission rates. Has anyone negotiated margin rates? I was surprised to see that the "base rate" so high (9.5%) and then tack on to that a rate based on the amount you borrow and it easily will be around 11%.
Investor relations group
The Investors relations group that you have posted in the preamble, no longer has CHNG as a client.