Iron-ore pellets producer, Ferrexpo (FXPO), has announced - despite operational constraints following Russia's invasion of Ukraine - “production of 2.7 million tonnes in the first quarter of 2022, representing a figure in line with the same period in 2021, and 11% below the previous quarter… Sales in 1Q 2022 of 2.6 million tonnes… net cash position of approximately US$159 million”.

Earlier this month HERE, I observed that the ‘Methodist Church threatens to pull stake from Rio Tinto (RIO) over damning sexual harassment report’. I am not sure if its investment committee listened to the mining sector giant’s conference call earlier today but – if it did – it will be pleased with the huge amounts of ESG mentions in the first few minutes of the call. Most investors though will be more excited by the news of ‘record financial results and total dividend of 1,040 US cents per share for 2021, a 79% payout’, equivalent to over a 10% dividend yield. Whilst some of this was a special dividend reflecting remarkable metals sector prices during 2021, how should investors feel now about the FTSE-100 giant with a market cap of just shy of £94 billion?

Shares in mining giant Rio Tinto (RIO) have performed well for me ever since I realised back in October here that ‘investors should focus on China not cultural heritage’.  Actually if truth is told, it is more than just China because demand for the iron ore, copper and aluminium exporter is centred on a broader changing world.  Or as Rio Tinto put it on a chart in its second quarter numbers a few days ago, ‘we produce materials essentially for a low-carbon future’.  

I am massively ahead on the Red Rock Resources (RRR) shares I bought at about the 0.625p offer price when we tipped the shares. Though initially frustrated by news that the company has raised another £1 million at 1.05p, I have considered the rationale and I have bought a few more shares today after recording an interview with Andrew Bell you can watch HERE. Here is why you should also buy the shares.

Back in August here, I observed that mining giant Rio Tinto (RIO) had been silly not to square off the various interest groups being a big mining group means you rub up against.  I did also observe that ‘the trajectory of the Rio Tinto share price remains centred fully on the demand levels or not from China for iron ore…for all the ESG excitement this situation will induce, that is the cold hard reality’.  

With a Market Cap of £11 million and 2.4 billion shares in issue, at first glance Keras (KRS) looks like a typically pointless resource company the bottom end of AIM.  Having been around for years in different guises, it would seem its main product is more shares. As it is not a bulletin board darling, it is largely ignored by the market.  On Friday it announced details of how it was going to split itself into 2 with a demerger. Unsurprisingly, this news did not set the market alight. So what is the point of all the legal and other costs, having diluted shareholders a few weeks ago to raise the money to fund the move?

Back in May I suggested buying shares in Ferrexpo (FXPO) at 207p on the basis that the sharp fall in the share price on the news of the resignation of the auditor was overdone and that a rally to 250p was likely. The good news for those that saw 250p as a target was that it was hit in short order, with the shares going on to 285p...

Hello, Share Punchers. Are you getting along with your 2016-17 tax return? Only about a week to go now before the end of January when you’ll have to pay more if you don’t file in time. Luckily, many Armchair Tycoons are no longer troubled too much with capital gains tax as most of our holdings are in ISAs. For this reason, it’s well worth keeping your ISA topped up.

Hello, Share Squeezers. As opposed to gold, silver and diamond mines, there’s something down to earth about iron ore. Gold is more glamorous, but it’s a very speculative area in which to dabble. Whereas iron gives a more secure feeling, somehow. Which brings me to an iron share suggested by this glorious website’s good friend, Wildrides.

It was around a year ago that I wrote an article about one of my then tips of the year BHP Billiton (BLT) observing that the world's largest mining company had just made billions of dollars of losses...but correctly the share price was going up. Billiton was a nice solid pick for 2016 but so far this year the share has been more volatile than remunerative.

This is interesting research from Palisade and the answers may suprise you. And should inform your investment decisions. Before reading, take a guess at the three best and worst performing commodities of 2016 and 2017! Ok now go…

Hello Share Gallumpers. One of my longtime shares is Glencore (GLEN). Hitherto, it’s been a disaster for me. Though a boost in mining share in recent times is turning the corner for me.

Would-be Swedish iron ore developer Beowulf Mining (BEM) is diversifying into graphite projects in Finland with the purchase of Oy Fennoscandian Resources AB, a private company boasting four early-stage projects, in an all-share deal which could eventually put a value of £440,000 on Fennoscandian at today's 6.5p AIM price of Beowulf, three the times the level at which I highlighted the company in June. Steered by chief executive officer Kurt Budge (of the coal clan), Beowulf, which is waiting for what it hopes will be imminent confirmation from the Stockholm government of an exploitation concession for its key Kallak iron ore project in northern Sweden, is issuing shares to Rasmus Blomqvist,

BHP Billiton (BLT) certainly hasn’t had much luck recently, with an environmental disaster adding to its low commodity price woes.

Disgraced International Mining & Infrastructure (IMIC) has today announced that it has managed to raise more cash ($22 million) by issuing yet more bonds. The answer to debt is not more debt, especially when you are not generating any cash. But when in a hole…just dig deeper.

There are some events which transcend normal investment analysis.  The shocking scenes of devastation over the last few days from the area around the Samarco iron-ore mine in Brazil following the unintended release of mine tailings received a lot of press coverage.  As the co-owner (along with the Brazilian business Vale) BHP Billiton (BLT) correctly in a regulatory disclosure earlier today ‘offered its full support to help the immediate rescue efforts and to assist with the investigation’ and made its ‘immediate priority…the welfare of the Samarco workforce and the local communities’. None of this of course will bring back those who have lost their lives.

Dual-listed iron-ore play Ferrum Crescent (FCR) released its latest quarterly figures this morning and they contain an ominous warning for shareholders. A placement is coming, almost certainly before Christmas.

Long-suffering Swedish iron ore play Beowulf Mining (BEM) has taken cheer at a letter from the Mining Inspectorate of Sweden to the Stockholm government recommending the AIM-quoted company be granted an exploitation concession for its Kallak iron ore project in the north of the country, holding an estimated 151 million tonnes with between 26.2% and 27.5% iron. Shares in the company, for long out of favour with investors, have surged from a 12-month low of 1.15p and 2.07p when highlighted here in June to 3.9p, still a mere fraction of former levels, helped by the Inspectorate’s favourable reply about the project to the Swedish Department of Enterprise, which had inquired after the local County Board of Norbotten, where Kallak is situated, had pronounced ‘a mining project at Kallak can bring significant economic benefits.’

Iron ore is hardly flavour of the month in metal markets, China’s well-ventilated economic woes having sent the price down from nearly $192 (£138) a tonne in 2011 to a recent $44 before reaching $53.210c a tonne now. But AIM dog Sable Mining Africa (SBLM) is disposing of coal and other ‘non-core’ assets to concentrate on its West African Nimba iron ore project in south-east Guinea.

A recent 6% bounce in iron ore prices at the Chinese port of Tianjin to $53.3 a tonne may or may not prove to be the harbinger of a significant rally in the metal’s depressed price after falling from $110 a tonne last summer to a recent low of $44.10c. But it might bring some comfort to bombed-out Sable Mining Africa (SBLM), which has announced sine encouraging metallurgical test results from its key Nimba iron ore project in the West African state of Guinea.

Nick Warrell, chief executive officer of West Africa-focused Sula Iron & Gold (SULA), declares the company ‘looks forward to the remainder of 2015 with optimism’, after losses up 30% to £890,000 in the six months to March, amid encouraging exploration indications for coltan (tantalite), as it awaits gold trenching results from its Ferensola project in Sierra Leone. Sula, which floated on AIM three years ago at 6p and lost a reduced £1.4 million in the year to last September, has seen its shares wither to 1.5p, between a 12-month high of 2.9p and a 0.8p low, amid gloomy iron ore and gold markets, but Warrell, a former Welsh gold mine owner and an honorary Paramount Chief of the local Dinga tribe, insists ‘the company remains on track.’

Kurt Budge, since October chief executive of unloved iron ore hopeful Beowulf Mining  (BEM), is determinedly optimistic as he reviews prospects for winning an exploitation licence for the company’s low-grade project at Kallak in northern Sweden. If all goes well, he suggests the AIM-quoted company, which is currently ‘looking for a big investor or partner’, should be taking Kallak to production ‘in four to five years’ time’ from an estimated resource of 152.3 million tonnes. 

If ever a case were needed for reform of the Alternative Investment Market then surely the disgraceful downfall of African Minerals (AMI) provides it in spades. Some might argue that the collapse of the iron ore price is behind the total destruction of over £2billion’s worth of shareholder value, but the reality is this merely provided the backdrop as I now reveal.

On November 3^rd last year the Executive Chairman of African Minerals (AMI), Frank Timis, torpedoed his company’s critical strategic relationship with Shandong Iron and Steel Group (SISG). Mr Timis swooped in to devour the carcass of London Mining (LOND) and took personal ownership of the Marampa iron ore mine, Sierra Leone. African Minerals’ board “formally allowed” Mr Timis to proceed with this staggering act of reckless corporate greed, while the company’s discredited Nomad, Jefferies International, didn’t so much as utter a peep. On Friday African Minerals’ shareholders paid a bitter price for this abysmal regulatory oversight and devastating failure in corporate governance.

How much longer will the London Stock Exchange permit discredited Nomad Jefferies International to cover up the scandalous behaviour of its clients? After enabling IGas Energy’s (IGAS) lying CEO Andrew Austin to disguise his deeply discounted £7,000,000 share sale, it now looks like Jefferies has failed even more catastrophically in its duties to shareholders of African Minerals (AMI).

Buccaneering Frank Timis’s African Minerals (AMI) may have put its 12.8 billion-tonne flagship Tonkolili iron ore project in Sierra Leone on care and maintenance and had its shares suspended at a small fraction of their float price as the company pursues urgent negotiations about its financial future. But Sula Iron & Gold (SULA), with a somewhat more modest West African iron ore project next door to Tonkolili at Ferensola, is taking a determinedly upbeat view of its own prospects, in the wake of a 50% increase in Ferensola’s technical value in 12 months to $56 million (£37 million), accorded by ubiquitous consultancy group SRK.

Depressed iron ore prices and a heavy capital expenditure programme, not to mention the ebola virus, had pushed shares in Guinea-focused iron ore play Sable Mining Africa (SBLM) through the floor not so long ago, sending them crashing from an 11.25p year’s high to 0.65p, as the bad news seemed to pile up. Now, however, they have rallied to 2.05p, helped by an ‘Infrastructure Development Agreement’ (IDA) with the government of Guinea’s West African neighbour, Liberia, to facilitate the shipment of iron ore from Sable’s key Nimba project by rail 270 km. to the Liberian port of Buchanan.

So second day back at school and today I will give you my thoughts on the Mining sector which really has had a torrid time for about 3 years now and you have to start thinking it cant keep falling forever..............but that also doesn't mean it is ready to be invested in.

Miners have had a very bad time of late, but that can also lead to some long term bargains like BHP Billiton (BLT) cropping up. 

For a company which has lost 94% of its stockmarket value in six years and has chalked up a $3.3 million (£2.1 million) first-half loss, funding a $300 million project to mine a mineral whose price has dropped  50% in a year must present certain challenges. Yet Sable Mining Africa (SBLM) is exuding characteristic confidence as its directors consider the alternatives open to the AIM-quoted outfit to bring its Nimba iron ore project in Guinea, one of the West African countries in the ebola front line, to fruition.

As iron ore struggles to find friends following a 50% price slump to less than $70 a tonne, amid the collapse of London Mining and the finance crunch at African Minerals, and gold languishes unloved at $1,189.69c an ounce, Sula Iron Ore & Gold (SULA) is determinedly seeking to shift its focus and how it is perceived. Based in London and quoted on AIM, the West Africa-concentrated company, whose primary asset is the Ferensola project in northern Sierra Leone, a state in the front-line for ebola, has raised nearly £1.2 million to explore and develop what it regards as promising prospects there for niobium and tantalum.

Given the heaps of abuse I took for calling this one as a nil (that is to say worth 0p) HERE and HERE and several other times on BearCast, I may be forgiven for having a celebratory ouzo today as African Minerals appears to have bitten the dust. Needless to say “its tits up time” was announced at no-one is watching O’Clock , 5.36 PM.

Today I look at a bulletin board favourite Savannah Resources (SAV), a mining tiddler operating out of Oman and Mozambique. Investing in mining companies is as much fun as shooting yourself in the foot at the moment so is Savannah that special diamond in the rough or is this a case of SAVe yourself.

Mining guru, and chair of Women in Mining, Amanda van Dyke is to float a company of which she is Chairwoman on AIM, I can exclusively reveal.

Over the last five years it has generally been profitable to pick up Rio Tinto (RIO) shares – or RTZ as we old farts still refer to them as - at 3000p and below because as the share price graph shows, this has been the point when the investor risk reward ratio has been more heavily weighted towards reward than risk. Moreover, on a year’s chart the share price seems to be well supported; take a peek. 

Iron ore hopeful Beowulf Mining (BEM) takes heart from encouraging assay results at its Kallak South and Kallak North projects in northern Sweden, despite snags over local mining authorisation, as it prepares to produce new formal resource estimates in a few months and talk about future off-take agreements with iron users. Emboldened by evidence of high grades and long intersections, the AIM listed company, whose shares have flickered from a year’s low of 2.28p to 2.7p while remaining well down from their 7.99p 12-month peak and a small fraction of 60p-plus levels reached in 2011, intends to start a pre-feasibility study in the New Year on Kallak, where earlier estimates suggested a potential overall deposit of more than 120 million tonnes.

The large mining stocks have in general been hammered over the past month or so, but I see that as a great opportunity to buy in cheap. One of my current favourites has to be BHP Billiton (BLT), which has seen more than 15% wiped off of its share price during that period.

Dave Reeves, managing director of manganese and iron ore hopeful Ferrex (FRX), says he is looking for ‘cornerstone investors’. He wants them to back the AIM-quoted company’s plan for a ‘low-cost’ manganese mine in the West African republic of Togo and a smelter to produce a high-carbon ferromanganese alloy from this and other material.

I have been goaded into looking into African Minerals (AMI) by Bulletin Board Morons laughing at Evil for being short given that the stock shot up by 47% yesterday. Evil went short at 20.5p the stock is now 25p (valuing African at c£85 million) and falling and I agree with him that the target is near as matters c0p. Here’s why.

This week's Financial Orbit looks at a tale of two worlds. In the world of sentiment everything is great for stockmarkets. It seems that we are all bulls now. However...

In my last note on Rio Tinto (RIO) in late July, I finished with an observation that the shares looked attractive on a 4% annual dividend yield and an expectation that the company’s cash flow is likely to improve now that its Australian super efficient iron ore estate at Pilbara is about to come fully on stream. This is after some pretty massive capital investment in its infrastructure. I note that there is increasing talk of the company’s cash prospects and a growing preoccupation with what the company is likely to do with such cash, as and when it starts to flow from better operating margins and cuts in the capital expenditure that produced them. One phrase used in a paper of a decidedly pink hew (I speak of its appearance not its politics or life style inclination) that caught my attention was a reference to Pilbara as the “iron ore cash machine”.  

The management of Bellzone Mining (BZM), a company henceforth known as Bellend Mining, has put its own interests ahead of those of shareholders. It continues to do so. And it is not telling investors everything. Oh No. What follows is more nauseating than Tony Blair explaining how he brought peace to Iraq.

Last week, Bellzone Mining (BZM) featured on my list of AIM companies which might be at risk from the Ebola outbreak. I warned that any companies operating in the Ebola-stricken countries of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, which had question marks over their funding, were probably stocks to avoid, or at least scale back on. Operating in Guinea, Bellzone definitely fell into this category and this morning the company announced a possible emergency funding facility, which it seems probable will result in it giving up its flagship Kalia Mine. Bellzone urgently needs to find a new backer, but given that its primary income stream derives from the depressed iron ore market this doesn’t seem likely. The writing is now officially on the wall and I’d be amazed if Bellzone remains as a listed company beyond the end of this year.

Many iron ore bosses are wringing their hands at its price halving in three and a half years. But Anton Mauve, managing director of Jim Mellon's Isle of Man-based West African Minerals Corporation (WAFM) is not one of them, even though these woes have sent the AIM-quoted iron ore explorer’s shares down from 32.75p to 5.88p over the past year, for a stock market value of £22.1 million. Following encouraging exploration results at West African’s properties in Cameroon and Sierra Leone, Mauve, a former head of Lonmin Platinum, declares ‘the gloom makes us happy’. But why?

Ferrum Crescent (FCR) is an iron ore company in South Africa with a tasty measured resource. I covered the company in January – this was a share tip (see HERE) at 1.75p and initially all seemed well.

2013 to date for Baobab (BAO) has perhaps been as much about gauging the effects of the drawdown in January of its debt facility, taking £1m of the £17m equity line. Ironically the immediate result in share price terms for the Mozambique focused iron ore explorer was for a further spike to the upside and a 35p plus peak.