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The Energy Report: Kevin or Paul, Sprott Resource Corp. (TSX:SCP) bought $74 million of physical gold in 2008 and 2009, which is held in vaults at Scotiabank. How much is that holding worth today? Paul Dimitriadis: It’s worth roughly $105 million, I believe. TER: It sounds like you’re still bullish on gold. Do you think of it as a hedge, a store of value, insurance against catastrophe or all of the above? What is your investment theory here? Kevin Bambrough: I believe that it’s all of the above; but, more so, it’s that I place no value in paper money. Fiat currency is worth exactly zero. Right now, we’re in a unique time in history in which the populace, as a whole, perceives currency to have value; so, therefore, it does. But I believe that faith is going to continue to dwindle. Ultimately, investments like gold are a much better store of value. TER: Do you believe that Sprott’s stock price will typically underperform its internal rate of return (IRR) until there is some catalyst that causes dramatic inflation or something similar? KB: In terms of market volatility, I think the market will overvalue our assets at times. Other times, it will have a very negative view and undervalue our assets. The greatest example is to look at the history of Sprott Resource Corp. When we first started the company, we had basically $1.50 per share in cash—that was it. But sometimes the market traded us above $3/share, so we were trading at 2x cash—having done absolutely nothing. Then, after making significant gains and during the pessimism of late 2008 and early 2009, the stock traded down to about half cash. We had $3.55 in cash and gold per share and we traded down to the $1.80 range, which made no sense. Our goal is not really to trade in line with our asset value at any given point, but rather to be given some value for management’s ability to source transactions, create companies and take them public, which we have already done repeatedly. SCP should get a premium value for our ability to involve the right people, including investors and directors, and marry business plans with high-quality assets so our companies outperform their peer group. KB: Paul, did you want to add to that? PD: In the oil and gas (O&G) sector, people have no trouble trading companies above their net asset value (NAV) due to their strong management teams. Investors are willing to pay a premium for that. Our hope is that, over time, they’ll also be willing to pay a premium for our stock. KB: With that in mind, we want to make sure we maintain at least a reasonable valuation relative to our assets. Management has committed and demonstrated that we will buy back our stock when it trades at what we believe is an unreasonable discount to the market. So, that really helps to mitigate the risk. We’re very aware of the fact that closed-end type vehicles typically trade at a discount because what they do could be replicated fairly easily. You can look at the contents of a mutual fund or a closed-end fund and say, “Well, I could go buy those stocks.” But the difference here is that we create businesses in unique sectors with unique opportunities well ahead of when they’re properly valued. TER: Give me an example of that. KB: We’ve gotten some significant gains that have come from what initially appear to be very minor investments or very little capital being committed. For example, Stonegate Agricom Ltd. (TSX:ST). In that case, we started with an option agreement totaling $53,000 that turned into a mark-to-market gain of nearly $100 million over a couple of years. And we have made much larger investments, buying things like PBS Coals Limited (LSE:SVST) or Orion Oil & Gas Corporation (TSX:OIP) that were very cheap relative to the public market comparables. TER: You wanted to get into the fertilizer business with Stonegate because it’s a play on agriculture (Ag), a sector on which you’re bullish. But doesn’t a mining operation add risk to what you already believe is a relatively safe way of playing agriculture? KB: Let me first say I agree that resource exploration has got to be one of the riskiest sectors in which to be involved. Typically, the odds are insurmountable but Stonegate is not a grassroots exploration. Both of Stonegate’s properties had proven historical merit; and our agreement was structured in very low-risk terms, which would minimize any material damage to our assets or the NAV of our company. We approached the transaction, got involved and advanced the asset to the point of going public. We started with a small investment of $53,000, which was an option agreement that we rolled into a private company, and we ended up with 80% of that company. We were in a very, very comfortable position as far as the money that we had to put in. Stonegate went public with a $50 million offering and, post-IPO, we retained about 54% of the company. We put $12 million into that IPO, which basically gave us a claim on 54% of $50M through our shareholdings. So, there was very little risk. TER: You’ve said you’re bullish on uranium. Could you tell me your investment thesis there? KB: The investment thesis on uranium really stems first from the fact that I’m a believer in peak oil. The major oil discoveries were made in the 1960s and 1970s, and the world’s major oil fields on most continents have already peaked in terms of production. Now, the discoveries are getting smaller and those that get headlines from time to time are really irrelevant compared to the scale of global consumption. We still get something like 50% of our energy from oil. That statistic—and the fact that the U.S. is a massive importer of oil and runs a substantial trade deficit—has led me to the view that energy prices in the U.S. will go up dramatically. Also, in looking at the cost of coal production, we don’t properly account for the environmental costs. I don’t think we’ve begun to come close to accounting for greenhouse gases or general pollution. So, I think nuclear fuel and nuclear power will grow out of necessity. There’s really no other choice than to see significantly higher uranium prices to spur production to meet what I believe is going to be burgeoning demand. In the U.S. in particular, where 90% of uranium is imported, I believe that it’ll become an issue of national security that the government will get behind; it’ll advocate increasing production in order to protect our energy security. TER: How are you playing uranium? KB: We own approximately 20% of the Coles Hill uranium project in Virginia mostly through a private company, of which Virginia Energy Resources Inc. (TSX.V:VAE) owns roughly 30%. TER: The stock is up more than 300% over the past six months. Back in mid-October, the company announced an NI 43-101 preliminary assessment that stated the net present value (NPV) of the Coles Hill uranium project was more than $400M. Do you see more upside to this stock? KB: Well, if you look back on that study, you’ll see that with higher-priced uranium, the NPV rises dramatically. That’s what we’ve seen recently, as the price of uranium has moved up. And I think you need to see uranium in the $75/lb. area on a sustained basis to encourage supply. Then I think the NPV will be in the $600 million area. But I don’t think that study really optimizes uranium’s value because, if you were to increase production rates, you would potentially get a higher NPV; and I think that ultimately is what should happen. The reason it’s still trading at such a discount to that NPV is purely due to the lack of a uranium mining law in the state of Virginia. We’re hopeful that, eventually, it will be resolved in a positive way so the project can go forward. TER: Sticking with your peak-oil view, you mentioned Orion Oil & Gas a moment ago. Tell me about that. PD: We completed the transaction in September of 2009. It was a private company that had been distressed. The banks were closing in on some of its lines. The company was looking for recapitalization. We co-invested with Gary Guidry, who, as CEO of Tanganyika Oil Company Ltd., sold his company to Chinese refiner Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical Company Ltd. (NYSE:SHI) for CAD$2.2 billion. We purchased 80% interest in Orion for $107 million with a mixture of cash and stock; the total purchase price of the deal was $130 million. We just announced that Orion had released updated reserve numbers demonstrating an NPV of $440M on a 10% pre-tax basis—an increase of $106M over the prior year and a 34% increase in reserves from the prior year. Those results stem principally from the large capital program that was put in place this year. The assets are 50% oil and natural gas liquids (NGLs) and 50% natural gas. TER: You invested $107M. How much have you made on this? KB: Mark-to-market, it’s more than double today. TER: Orion is 50% gas weighted. Kevin, you’ve said cheap gas is a myth. KB: Gas is cheap today, obviously; I think it’s very cheap. But I think it’s too cheap compared to the level at which it should be trading. I believe the average gas company is engaging in production despite the fact that it can’t make money at current prices; and, ultimately, we may find that reserves are overstated and companies can’t produce at these prices. TER: Then why produce gas? PD: They’re doing it for a variety of reasons. First, they have commitments on leases that they must maintain, so they are forced into drilling those properties even though it may not be economic. Secondly, we’ve seen some alternative forms of financing emerge in the form of joint ventures (JVs) and other creative-financing techniques that are enabling these companies to continue their drilling programs. But I think, slowly, you’ll start to see the switch to more liquids-rich deposits by some of these producers. In order to sustain the production needed to meet demand, we’re going to need higher prices than those currently in the market. TER: What are you doing in private equity? KB: We have two entities that are the hardest to value but potentially the most exciting assets. Right now, very little value is being given to them in the Resource Corp. share price but, eventually, their value could be very large. These are the One Earth companies—One Earth Oil & Gas Inc. and One Earth Farms Corp., both of which are private. One Earth Farms is something we started working on in 2007. It’s taken a few years to get there, but we’re very pleased that it’ll be the largest farm in Canada and one of the largest farms in North America in 2011. It’s also positioned to be one of the largest farms in the world in the coming years. One Earth Farms has synergistic cattle and grain operations. Its real goal is to change the typical farming model, wherein the average farmer buys retail and sells wholesale. By that, I mean he buys his equipment, fertilizer, etc., from a local dealer or store, and then sells his crop as a commodity at harvest time based on wholesale prices. With the size and scale we’ve already attained, we’ve established that we can buy wholesale. And now we’re working on the model that can allow us to capture some of the retail margin by partnering with food processors or retail outlets. It’s almost impossible to find good investments in the Ag sector, and there are very few corporate farms in which to invest around the world. We’re building one that, hopefully, will provide inflation protection, as well as food security for potential investors and partners. By the way, One Earth Farms is, in our minds, the only way you can invest in Canadian farming in a large way. That’s because it is in partnership with the First Nations groups of Canada, which are federally regulated and permitted to allow public companies and foreigners to lease land. Typically, non-First Nations lands in Manitoba and Saskatchewan are restricted under provincial law from public company ownership or leasing or foreign participation. TER: How will you exit this company in the end? KB: I think that One Earth Farms is a company that ultimately will be highly valued and coveted by three different types of investors. First, large pension funds might find it very desirable for the inflation protection it could provide pension fund holders. Also, I think that the sovereign wealth funds and the Ag ministries of the world that are trying to get food security for their nations would find this to be very strategic. Lastly, we feel it would be valued by ordinary institutional and retail investors if it were publicly listed. KB: Paul, would you touch on One Earth Oil & Gas? PD: The One Earth Oil & Gas concept is related to that of One Earth Farms in that it’s in partnership with First Nations of Canada. On One Earth Farms’ management team, we have former Grand Chief of Saskatchewan Blaine Favel. He was instrumental in creating One Earth Farms. Through his relationships and knowledge of the First Nations sector, we’ve been able to sign agreements with a number of First Nations with the hope of developing some of the O&G prospects on their lands that have thus far remained undeveloped for a variety of reasons. We’ve managed to tie up a significant amount of acreage to date, both in Canada and in Montana. This year, we’re in the process of drilling some of those prospects and further defining some of their resources, and then we’ll bring on production through various plays. KB: Just to clarify, when Paul says a “significant land package,” we’re talking about more than 300,000 acres and growing. We’re optimistic that we’re going to increase our optioned acreage. This is a very, very significant land package, which, in my mind, gives us an eventual opportunity to have real upside to oil and gas prices as we prove up the plays. PD: Again, we’ve invested only about $10 million to date in this business. It’s another example of us starting a business for a very small amount of capital that could potentially be worth significant sums of money. The risk/reward, in my opinion, is exceptional. TER: Kevin, you don’t have much faith in paper currencies. Do you foresee a time when people will be holding gold, silver or other metals in bank vaults and writing checks based on their value, or using a debit card based on the value of the resources they are holding? KB: I think that we’re going to come up with different monetary instruments that are reflective of precious metal or other holdings. Sooner or later, I envision we’ll have a currency that may be reflective of a basket of commodities that we may trade in units tied to something tangible. Ultimately I think we could have an energy-based currency. TER: I enjoyed meeting you both. Thank you. KB: Thank you. Kevin Bambrough founded Sprott Resource Corp. in September 2007. He is a seasoned financial executive with more than a decade of investment industry experience and is a recognized leader in the commodity investing space. Since 2009, he also has served as president of Sprott Inc., one of Canada’s leading asset managers, which has more than $8 billion in assets under management. Between 2003 and 2009, he held a number of positions with Sprott Asset Management, including market strategist, a role in which he devoted a significant portion of his time to examining global economic activity, geopolitics and commodity markets in order to identify new trends and investment opportunities for Sprott Asset Management’s team of portfolio managers. Paul Dimitriadis is chief operating officer, general counsel and corporate secretary for Sprott Resource Corp., a position he has held since 2008. He evaluates and structures transactions; coordinates and conducts due diligence; and is involved in the oversight of the operating subsidiaries. He serves on the board of directors of Orion Oil & Gas Corporation, Waseca Energy Inc. and Stonegate Agricom Ltd. Prior to joining Sprott, he practiced law at Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP. Mr. Dimitriadis holds an LLB from the University of British Columbia and a BA from Concordia University. He is a member of the Law Society of Upper Canada. The federal government released its long awaited plan for Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae today, where it announced that it plans to wind down the two companies by slowly increasing their guarantee fees, reducing the maximum amount of money that they can lend on a home, and selling off their existing loans at a rate of about 10% per year. These changes, combined with increasing interest rates, are expected to have a negative impact on housing prices, so here is a look at a few high end markets that could see the greatest impact from the end of Fannie and Freddie: Maui: Maui’s real estate market is still recovering from a decade long bubble as housing prices continue to decline, and are expected to show further weakness throughout 2011. There is hope for an improvement in the Maui real estate market in 2012, but average home prices that are significantly above the national average, continued weakness in the tourism sector, and the large number of vacation homes in the market could continue to hold prices down. Manhattan: Home prices in Manhattan appear to be stabilizing and even improving as condo prices increased between 7.5% and 14% in the third quarter of 2010 compared to the previous year. This gain was attributed to the rebound in the financial services market, which added jobs over the last year and saw the stock market continue to post gains, but high prices and tighter lending standards are expected to keep prices from rising too quickly. Washington DC: Home sales in the nation’s capital showed a strong gain in January, with sales volume up 31% over a year ago, and home prices up 7.5% compared to January 2010. Despite having some of the most expensive housing in the country, Washington area home sales have continued to show strength as the area’s economy remains strong. Join the forum discussion on this post - (2) PostsPhilip Williams, Pinetree Capital’s VP of business development, says the spot price for uranium will likely explode above $100/lb. in 2011, much as it did in 2007 when it topped at $137. The good news, Philip says, is that even when uranium comes off its high, it will likely only fall to around $80. It’s around $73 now. If Philip’s right, we’re on the cusp of another round of uranium market madness. And you will want to read this Energy Report exclusive for some of Pinetree’s favorite uranium and lithium plays. The Energy Report: In January, Macquarie Research said it expects the uranium spot price to reach $75/lb. in the first half of 2011 with the main driver being China’s growing energy demands. Where does Pinetree Capital Ltd. (TSX:PNP) see uranium trading at in 2011 relative to Macquarie’s forecast? Philip Williams: We continue to be very bullish on the price of uranium. It’s had a very good run of late and we see that continuing for many of the same reasons that Macquarie does. I think for the early part of the year $75 is a good number, but it could surpass that substantially by year-end. By then, we think that the price will be at the $100 level and maybe even higher. We’ve got China doing quite a lot of stockpiling, especially on the spot market. We see the producers as being overcommitted right now. We also think that financial-speculator activity will come back to the market. All those events will culminate in a much higher price. TER: The last time we saw a similar price spike in uranium was in 2007, when prices for yellowcake rose above $130 per pound. After that, prices dropped off dramatically. If these financial speculators are just looking for short-term money and getting out again, could we see a similar price drop? PW: I think there are two things to think about. In 2006–2007, the uranium price was driven up mostly by financial speculators and I think they’re coming back into the market. When the run-up in the price was on, in some cases, a very small amount of uranium actually changed hands. With China’s recent uranium stockpiling, we’ve seen quite a lot of material go through the market at these prices. I think we’ll probably get a spike similar to the last one and it could be even higher, and then it will pull back. But I think we’re going to have a much higher base price this time than we did last time. After 2007, the price came back to about $40. I think it’s going to be substantially higher; it could be a price that falls back into the $80–$100 range. TER: You mentioned China is stockpiling uranium, and China National Nuclear Corp. just received governmental approval to work on four new reactors. The European Commission just published a 10-year strategy plan that encourages development of nuclear energy as a means of clean energy. Japan’s Kyushu Electric Power Co., Inc. (TKY:9508.T) has submitted plans to build a third reactor at the country’s Sendai Plant, and India just brought a new reactor online. Where is North America in this global nuclear buildout? PW: In a word North America is lagging. When it comes to nuclear, the U.S. is the largest generator of nuclear power with 30% of worldwide nuclear generation; but a reactor hasn’t been built in the U.S. in decades. While there are quite a few on the drawing board, only a handful is expected to come online by 2018. The real growth here is in the developing countries that you mentioned, China, India, etc. TER: What’s largely responsible for the U.S.’ lagging nuclear growth? PW: I think government policy is improving toward new nuclear energy but cost is still a big issue. Some of the numbers Macquarie recently published listed the cost of a new reactor built in China at about $2 billion versus $7 billion in the U.S.—that’s a huge factor. And natural gas-powered plants compete against new nuclear reactors. I think there’s still a lot of public opinion against new reactors being built. There are 104 reactors in the U.S. right now, so adding four is a very small growth rate compared to what’s happening in China and India. The U.S. was very successful on its first nuclear energy buildout but has since lost a lot of that technical knowhow, especially when it comes to building new reactors. Now, the U.S. is climbing back up that curve. TER: Late last summer and into the fall, we watched big uranium producers like Cameco Corp. (TSX:CCO; NYSE:CCJ) and BHP Billiton Ltd. (NYSE:BHP; OTCPK:BHPLF) dip into the uranium market to meet their supply contracts because it was cheaper to buy uranium on the open market than bring on more production. What minimum price level is necessary for new uranium producers to be profitable? PW: I expect the spot price will get to around $85 soon, and I think everything that’s in—or very close to—production will be profitable at that level. Lots of groups out there have done cost-curve analysis for future production that suggests we need a much higher number. It’s hard to give just one specific number but I think it’s at least $80/lb. It could even be higher depending on cost inflation. The next generation of uranium projects are lower-grade, more technically challenging and farther from infrastructure and major markets than most of the current mines. So, these new projects require a significantly higher uranium price to make them profitable. You need a higher incentive just to get them into production. TER: But just a few months ago, we had $40 uranium. What’s going to sustain the uranium price at $80? PW: You need to distinguish between the spot price and the term price. The spot price tends to be a lot more volatile. That price was $40 but the term price was above that at the time. Now, the term price is below the spot price. But it’s that long-term price that applies to new projects because a lot of these projects will forward sell their production into that price. Fundamental supply and demand issues are ultimately going to sustain the price. Going back to that Macquarie report you quoted, we’re seeing a lot of strategic buyers like utilities from Asia and other places buying projects outright. At some point, it’s going to be very difficult to get production at any price because it will be all tied up. The end users will be integrated in such a way that they’re already contracted for any material produced. When you get into that type of environment, the price can be as high as it needs to be. TER: But JP Morgan was far less bullish on the short-term price for uranium. It predicted uranium prices in the neighborhood of $60–$65 in 2011. Why is one big bank so much more bullish than the other? PW: I think the difference, which Macquarie discusses in its report, is that they missed the China stockpiling. Again, you’re talking about what’s happening today between buyers and sellers that need material today—not what people are looking for in the future. When China comes in and buys close to 3,000 tons of uranium oxide in December alone, that really impacts the spot market. Because the spot market represents just a fraction of the total uranium required in any given year, it is subject to much more swings in price than the term price. TER: How large is that fraction? PW: I think it’s 20%–30%. Last year and the year before were particularly active years on the spot market. That’s what gives us the confidence that this move on the spot market is real and can be sustained because of the volumes that are trading on the spot market. The spot price is much more transparent; the term price is far less so. It’s a referenced price that’s provided by the pricing groups, but it’s not as transparent as the spot price in terms of where it might actually be on any given day. It could be higher; but until an actual contract transacts that meets those specific criteria, it doesn’t actually change. TER: What’s the term price right now? PW: About $73. TER: As of Sept. 30, 2010, Pinetree Capital had 55 different investments in uranium. That accounted for 18% of your holdings. I dare say that that’s even greater now based on stock-price appreciation since then. Either way, that’s a sizeable bet on uranium. Could you tell us about your investment thesis and why you own so many positions in so many different plays? PW: That September number also includes coal. We have one very significant coal position that represented a large portion of that amount and that’s Cline Mining Corp. (TSX:CMK). Cline has done great since the end of September and we think there’s a lot of potential there. As you pointed out, there have been some tremendous performances by the uranium stocks since September. We’ve always been big fans of this space. We saw the long-term picture early on, or our Chairman and CEO Sheldon Inwentash did. This is a very simple macro argument—the world needs more electricity, especially clean power, and nuclear is in the best position to provide that. With that in mind, we wanted to have a big exposure to the uranium space, especially after the price pullback from $138 to $40. There were junior explorers and developers whose stock prices went so low that their value was basically being discounted to almost nothing. At that point, we decided to take a very proactive position in the space and rebuild the portfolio. We sold quite a few of our uranium names at the peak in 2007. We made a strategic decision to return early to the space and identified a number of juniors that were well positioned. I think our thesis has proven correct to this point. TER: What are some of your more promising uranium holdings? PW: We have a number of names. We focus mostly on the junior and the development-stage companies. We like names that have great assets but have been mispriced in the market and good management teams that can see those assets forward. Some of companies we are most bullish on would be names like Mega Uranium Ltd. (TSX:MGA), a long-held holding. It’s an Australia-focused uranium developer, and Australia has the most uranium of any country in the world. There are some mines in production now. A change in politics and philosophy in the country called for even more uranium mines. Mega’s Lake Maitland Project could be the very first, or possibly second, new mine to be developed. It’s in the feasibility study stage and soon the company will have some detailed information about the economics of that project. TER: And it has a Japanese partner at Lake Maitland Project, correct? PW: Yes, Mega has a very strong partner in the Japanese group JAURD (the Japan Australia Uranium Resources Development Co. Ltd.). And shortly it will be in a position to capitalize on the increasing price and shortage of advanced-stage uranium projects and companies. We’re excited about that one. One of our names that’s had a tremendous amount of success in the last few months and really has just started to get a following is a company called Rockgate Capital Corp. (TSX:RGT). It has a growing resource in Mali, West Africa. We’ve seen a number of African names build and be taken over, including Mantra Resources Ltd. (TSX:MRU), which was taken over by Russia’s AtomRedMetzoloto (ARMZ) Uranium Holding Co., a Russian uranium miner that is wholly owned by Atomenergoprom OAO—a subsidiary of Rosatom and an extension of Uranium One Inc. (TSX:UUU) for a very attractive premium to the price that Rockgate’s trading at now. We’re starting to see monies that were invested in Mantra start to shift over to Rockgate as the company grows its resource. Rockgate’s recent financing puts the company in a very strong position to expand its resource and move its project ahead through economic studies. One of the geographic regions we focus on that a lot of people have not is in South America. One of our key positions there is a company called U3O8 Corp. (TSX.V:UWE). U308 has projects in Guyana, Colombia and Argentina. This year, U308 is slated to expand its NI 43-101 resources at all of those projects by almost tenfold. We think there’s a lot of upside as other investors start to see South America the way we saw it two years ago—as the next frontier for uranium development. One company in the U.S. is Energy Fuels, Inc. (TSX:EFR). We’ve been around that story for quite some time. What we saw last year was a very strong management team moving toward a new license to permit and build a mill in the U.S.—something that hasn’t been done for a long, long time. It paid off when the company successfully got that approval earlier this year. We think Energy Fuels is well ahead of the pack in terms of conventional uranium mining in the U.S. In the U.S., there’s a scarcity of uranium supply. We see Energy Fuels as a consolidator in the space. It’s just in a tremendous position to capitalize on what we think is a very strategic place to be in the U.S. TER: And there’s some vanadium in the mix there on the Colorado Plateau. PW: Yes, these Colorado Plateau projects, and even those in Utah contain certain ratios of vanadium to uranium. So, you get a nice kick from the vanadium byproduct, even though they’re still fundamentally uranium projects. Energy Fuels is well positioned to deliver new production and the first new mill permitted in the U.S. Another one that we’re quite keen on right now is a company called Mawson Resources Ltd. (TSX:MAW; OTCPK:MWSNF; Fkft:MRY). This is in an interesting story because it’s much like Energy Fuels, but it’s actually uranium and gold. I would say almost freakishly high-grade gold and uranium. The company acquired a portfolio of projects in Finland from AREVA (PAR:CEI) last year. In prospecting at one of the projects, the company found probably the highest-grade gold and uranium anyone has ever seen on surface—over 20,000 grams per ton (g/t) gold in some places and more than 40% uranium in some places. It’s very early stage exploration at that project, but the company’s been able to delineate a 6 km. strike length to the trend at over 200 meters in width. These high-grade showings are pervasive across the trend and it’s never been drilled. It’s a new discovery with very limited work; but when you see those kinds of results on surface, it’s very, very encouraging. TER: Does that mean Mawson is putting some of its other projects next door in Sweden aside for the moment? PW: To a certain extent, yes. There’ll be some money spent on those projects but the bulk of the funds will be directed toward the Rompas Project, the high-grade uranium/gold project in Finland. Why? It’s the results. Mawson is waiting to get the final permits for a drill program that could commence as early as February. There’s just a lot of blue sky in that story and a lot to be learned about what could be there. TER: Let’s move away from uranium, toward another clean energy commodity that’s getting a lot of play—lithium. Increasingly, lithium is being used in batteries to power electric vehicles (EVs). Those were nickel-metal hydride batteries just a few years ago, but now they’re mostly lithium-ion batteries. Lithium is also finding its way into some other new technologies. Judging by the number of investments that you have in lithium plays, Pinetree is betting heavily in its investment potential. Why did you get into lithium? PW: A couple of years ago, we saw the potential in this space in terms of electric cars. Our analysis showed that even though some other battery types would fit into the mix, lithium would ultimately be the dominant player. There are a very small number of players that dominate on the production side; in fact, there’s a lot of room for juniors to come in and acquire projects—brine, hard rock or clay projects. You can acquire projects for relatively low costs and add a significant amount of value through exploration and development. We saw that as a great opportunity to make some very strong returns. TER: Does Pinetree show a preference for brine versus hard rock lithium plays? PW: We have in the past but we don’t like to make general statements about one type of project versus another. We really look at the individual investment opportunity. In some cases, the hard rock assets might be so mispriced that you could make a much better return even if you took a stance ideologically that the brines were going to be the better projects overall. For example, we’ve been quite positive on Canada Lithium Corp. (TSX:CLQ; OTCQX:CLQMF) even though we’ve spent most of our time focusing on the brines and names like Lithium Americas Corp. (TSX:LAC), Orocobre Limited (TSX:ORL; ASX:ORE) and others in South America. But really we try to find those mispriced or misunderstood assets where management has the wherewithal to move ahead, add value and realize the right price in the market. TER: Yes, but some of those brine lithium deposits have potassium in the mix. If your processing circuit is developed properly, you could get potash as well as lithium. PW: Absolutely. There’s tremendous opportunity in those kinds of plays. TER: What are some that Pinetree is rather bullish on? PW: Lithium Americas is at the top of our list. We’ve been involved in that story from the very early days, and it’s just blossomed into a tremendous story. It’s one of the largest brine deposits on the planet. The company’s made tremendous strides on the technical side, as well as understanding the economics. We’re going to see two major studies published this year with a prefeasibility study first, and then a feasibility study by year-end. The story has come together in a very short amount of time, but we see tremendous upside. TER: And Lithium Americas’ Salar de Cauchari lithium project is not far from one owned by another company you mentioned, Orocobre. PW: In fact, Cauchari and Orocobre’s Olaroz project are abutting each other. TER: Given the proximity to each other, did Pinetree make its investment in Lithium Americas with an eye toward potential consolidation? PW: In general, we always look for assets that we think will ultimately be consolidated or could be the consolidators. We certainly see that as something that should happen in that particular region. We’re not sure whether Lithium Americas will be the consolidator or not, but the company has tremendous partners and could easily go it alone. As I said, it’s one of the largest brine resources on the planet; so, it’s not a requirement but it’s certainly an exit that’s possible for LAC. TER: Are you vested in Orocobre, too? PW: We’re not a disclosed holder of Orocobre. TER: Could you leave us with thoughts on how these clean technologies are influencing the mining sector and some of the opportunities they are creating? PW: One area that we didn’t touch on is rare earth elements, which are used in a lot of cleantech applications. We also have quite a few investments in that area. We believe there will be strong opportunities in the cleantech space over the next few years for many reasons. China is dominating rare earths production, and finding supply outside of China is an absolute must for companies that want to be in those cleantech spaces. We’re tremendously bullish on rare earths, at least for the next year or two. Clean energy is certainly one reason we’re in the uranium space. When you stack up nuclear versus coal-generated power, uranium is a hands-down winner. We see more and more people getting behind nuclear energy, and it’s a great place to be vested. TER: Thank you for talking with us today, Philip. Philip Williams joined Pinetree Capital in January 2009 and was appointed to the position of resources analyst. Philip brings almost 10 years of financial market experience to the company. Prior to joining Pinetree, he spent five years working for several institutional brokerage firms in the equity research department. Most recently, he was a uranium analyst focused on companies with advanced development projects in Australia, the United States and Namibia. At 8:30 AM EST, the International Trade report for December will be released. The consensus is a deficit of $40.5 billion, which would be $2.2 billion more than November. At 9:55 AM EST, Consumer Sentiment for the first half of February will be announced. The consensus is that the index will be at 75, which would be an improvement of 0.8 points from the level reported in the second half of last month. Join the forum discussion on this post - (1) Posts |
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Kevin Bambrough founded Sprott Resource Corp. in 2007 to take advantage of a future in which he believes trust in paper currencies will diminish. The idea is to invest in natural resources, including precious metals, energy and agriculture, which represent tangible value from which investors will benefit as necessities become more precious. Unlike closed- or open-end mutual funds, the business is a corporation that can buy private equity to ultimately sell, spin out or even take an active investor approach through majority ownership in publicly traded companies. The company also looks for distressed deals. In this exclusive interview with The Energy Report, Kevin and Sprott COO Paul Dimitriadis share their investment philosophy and ideas on how to protect wealth.
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