The Mining Report: Australian mining shares had a great July. Was that a one-off or indicative of a trend?
Luke Smith: July tends to be good because the fiscal year-end for most personal investors in Australia is June 30, so there is tax-loss selling up to that date. That said, this July was better than average. The gains slowed down at the end of the month, but we've seen a liftoff again from the middle of August. Hopefully, this trend will continue, and we'll see the revival of Australia's small-resources sector.
TMR: Asian countries such as China and Indonesia are moving toward added-value mining. What implications does that have for Australian mining?
LS: Indonesia is a large supplier globally of tin, nickel and pig iron. The decrease in tin from there is counteracted to some degree by Myanmar becoming a tin producer overnight. The decrease of Indonesian nickel has already been positive for Australian nickel producers and explorers and the nickel price on the London Metals Exchange.
"Syrah Resources Inc. owns the Balama project, which contains close to 1.2 Bt with about 10% total contained graphite."
TMR: Newcrest Mining Ltd. (NCM:ASX), Australia's biggest gold miner, has suffered a lot of bad news lately, including a $2.5 billion ($2.5B) write-down and a class action suit. To what extent do its woes mirror that of Australia's gold industry as a whole? Continue reading "Five Aussie Companies with Cash Flows, Low Costs and MOUs"
