Wednesday, March 28, 2012

graphite / graphene

the hottest market sector right now? yep, u got it: graphite / graphene ... it melts at 3,700 degrees celsius :-)

well, maybe there are also other hot sectors out there i do not look at (military, nuclear industry, government bonds, ...), but among my commodity based stuff is graphite the only one which performs well recently. so what are the carbon heroes of my portfolio?
  • focus metals / focus graphite
  • graphit kropfmühl
  • lara explorations
  • northern graphite
  • SGL carbon
  • standard graphite corp 
  • strike gold / strike graphite
  • zimtu capital
well, standard graphite corp (TSX-V:SGH) was the company which was presented by its CEO, the highly gifted public speaker chris bogart in munich 2day. ive bought few shares (very few) 2 days ago @ CAD 0.61 in order to generate some relationship to its story ... the price 2day? CAD 0.73 with a plus of 13.64% in the early market hours. what the hell is going on? it isnt abt the road-show only? and why did i buy only so few shares? u know why, dont u? of course, i dont really like 2 buy stocks which has tripled in the last few weeks/months, so i just made a small pilot buy and gonna watch this small canadian company from now on.

btw, the main reason ive attended the 2days presentation was dietmar siebholz. folks, thats the guy who called the precious metals rally, the rare earths mania and the graphite madness way before theyve started. so you better listen when dietmar speaks, u see? and yes, his suggestion focus metals from last munichs precious metals show is one of very very few of my stocks which are up since then. imho dietmar is an engineer whos investment approach is often driven by the newest technological developments, so u can be sure the demand for graphite will go up like crazy soon. of course, he told many things where is this stuff going to be used like batteries, green energy, etc and so on. just ask wikipedia, my dear. but if u asked me, we shouldnt ignore the classical lead pencil use case as well. not every blogger blogs via internet like me, there are still many millions paper diary writers out there, arent they? lol

anyway, as long as china cornered the supply side of graphites supply-demand-equation, im not going 2 worry abt any usage of that black lightweight conductive fire resistant metal which looks like plastic 2 me.

what the hell is graphene? some very pure graphite i guess. pls dont ask me any details, u know ive no clue abt technology and i dont care 


any additional insights? coming soon or never :-)

~~~~
folks, thx 2 TecTonics post here (extracted from: Feb 14, 2012 | Posted by: MiningFeeds.com) i can enhance few graphite basics:

Supply and Demand

The natural graphite market is 1-1.2 million tons per year and consists of several different forms of graphite – flake, amorphous and lump. Historical applications primarily use amorphous and lump graphite, most newly emerging technologies and applications use flake graphite. Of the up to 1.2 million tons of graphite that are processed each year just 40% is flake.

China, India and Canada are responsible for most graphite mining and processing with China producing the lion’s share at 70–80%. China’s production is 70% amorphous and lower value small flake graphite.

Currently China imports a significant amount of North Korea’s large flake graphite production raising considerable doubts in regards to China’s abilities to ramp up its graphite supply. Indeed China has already taken steps to retain its graphite resources by restricting its export quota - China imposed a 20% export duty, a 17% VAT and also closed state owned enterprises.

“The days of cheap, abundant graphite from China are over.” Industrial Minerals Magazine May, 2011.

It’s thought that the increased use of lithium-ion batteries could gobble up well over 1.6 Mt of flake graphite per year by 2020 - only flake, upgraded to 99.9% purity and synthetic graphite (made from petroleum coke, a very expensive process) can be used in lithium-ion batteries.

“Annual flake graphite production will have to increase by a factor of six by 2020 to meet incremental lithium carbonate requirements for batteries.” Canaccord research report.
~~~~


damn! if u asked me, this graphite madness is more an advertisement/promotion driven sector than a real supply demand issue ... it is simply too hot 

you still remember all these 'issues': gold, silver, solar/wind energy, uranium, oil, wheat, base metals, potash, lithium, rare earths, ... of course, there is some need for the stuff, but the promotion machinery runs the prices up like crazy and some time later they fell by 50%-80% ... hmmmm, this could be an exit strategy game, isnt it?


folks, next 'prove' that the graphite market is too hot? there is not enough independent information out there! the most media just copies the 1 or 2 existing analyses all over the web / print media, even the pictures are often the same (e.g. projected demand) ... OMG 

btw, if you are interested in some future hot market, you should prolly consider VANADIUM. of course, its also used in batteries, but dietmar siebholz thought that the techn. research isnt that far yet to already proven that this technology would really work fine 

Monday, March 26, 2012

great panther silver


great update on great panther silver (TSX: GPR) 2day ... any details? despite the current share price which is down approx 50% from the level it was at a year ago everything looks fine @great panther ... and yes, silver was close to $50 per ounce then instead of the current $32, hmmmmm ....
  • 2 producing silver mines in central mexico
  • profitable
  • $40m cash
  • steady rising production, earnings, profits, ... what abt steady rising share price? haha, 2 nice 2 be true, isnt it?
  • stable political jurisdiction
  • growth through expansion of own activities and/or acquisition ... just in case u asked yourself what is the $40m cash for ;-)
  • moving from junior 2 mid-tier silver producer soon (5m ounces a year)
  • GPR = 74% Ag + 20% Au + 6% Pb & Zn

of course, the CEO bob archer answered not only questions abt the company itself but also abt equity markets, silver, gold, ... btw, what do u think would the price of silver be if there was no investment demand (ie only industrial supply + demand pattern)? any idea out there what level bob thought abt?

meow, miau ;-)

Sunday, March 25, 2012

sightseeing in bavaria

monastery ettal
linderhof castle
neuschwanstein castle

folks, my sister + brother + their dears visited me in munich. so lets show them part of the beautiful bavarian countryside:
few more pictures + insights? HERE WE GO ;-)

and what about table tennis? ping pong by night! what a fun :-). wanna see the video?
eof

Sunday, March 11, 2012

time2think @ the top of germany

a view from an orange cab ;-)

the winter is over! well, at least for me ... last weekend ice skating, 2day the last skiing of the season => my winter feeling is satisfied .... and yes, on friday there should be 20 degrees celsius in munich ...

bad, bad, bad luck 2day ~ foggy clouds over there (all the time) ~ wtf, dark room skiing?!?
the better moments, here i see 2 track marks ...

any cold comfort? yep, i was alone, didnt see much, so i could think a lot abt me, my life, the universe ... and you know what? im such a lucky alien, just look: im healthy, have one of the prettiest wives in the universe (no, u will not get any pictures, phone numbers and the like ... but if u need a hypnosis therapist, u could ask the best of all women), two sweet and almost self-reliant children, rich parents, a website with 1,800 readers a month (or at least that many clicks), .... quite a lot, isnt it?

well, so what 2 do? easy, lets save the democracy + the nature/planet ;-)

few more zugspitze pics? here :-)

Saturday, March 10, 2012

StrengthsFinder occupies Ohlstadt, chakka!

folks, i've just spent 2 nice days in ohlstadt / bavaria trying to find any strengths inside my personality via clifton's gallup strengtsfinder approach ... not easy, my dears😃

source: here ;-)

yep, that was a work-life-balance team event where 3 groups of our department joined together  for a personality development and team work improving workshop. well, based on the gallup's StrengthsFinder test there were 34 talents and we have evaluated the top 5 of ours and spoke 2 days about it. well, now i know which colleague is best for which tasks based on his/her strengths and yes, we are going 2 concentrate only on strengths and even improving them. who cares about weaknesses?

of course, i've welcomed the opportunity to present my #OccupyWallStreet + OccupyYourStreet + OccupyTogether + PEACE + SaveThePlanet ideas in front of such a big audience (approx 25 folks) when i've introduced myself, my hobbies + goals + etc :-)

could i win 'the middle class' for the occupy / real-democracy-now movement? not really, my dears ;-(. for this i would probably need some other strengths, i think ... of course, there were few fellows who later told me how nice my goals + how admirable my passion is, but i don't think they will march on may 12th through the streets of munich .... i guess they will only act if THEY THEMSELVES are hit by some inconvenience / job loss / poverty / etc ... friends, don't worry, our current western fiscal + monetary policies will teach them to feel the pain not later than the fraudulent fiat money system breaks apart, anyway :-)

what about my talents / strengths? here we go, see my (not by occurrence) top down arranged house of talents (for english see the 2nd picture below):
strategie, kontext, (ver-)bindungsfähigkeit, selbstbewußtsein, autorität
 
hell, is that true that i have no green talents? damn, have i really only a lot of pink ones (strategy) but no 'doing' capabilities? ok, lets try 2 establish some alliances. any green people out there? my talents/strengths in english? here we go (to find @ gallup.com or directly here):
damn, in english do my talents sound somehow different, don't they?
 
btw, that are all 34 defined strengths grouped by colors green, yellow, blue, pink ... and if u asked me, just black (humor) is missing in the galup world 😎
a part of ohlstadt close to our hotel:
6 more pics? here :-)

Saturday, March 3, 2012

ice skating


what a strange day :-) ... im prolly getting older, panicking, ice skating ... wtf? yep, i couldnt convince (or buy?) any of my 3 women to come ice skating with me the whole season and next week is the ice skating season over. hmmmm, i love them anyway. any outcome out there? easy, i went alone 2day => my winter feeling is satisfied :-). well, we had plus 13 degrees celsius in munich, sun, water on the ice ... unlike the many small children i didnt fall too often, of course ... 

so everything perfect 2day? yes and no, my dear. the kiosk was already closed and therefore instead of a tasty hot wine punch i had only toilet water ... but dont worry, ive survived :-). well, next time im going 2 wear my ski helmet as few other folks did 2day, lets teach the kids some good behaviour by way of illustration. my agenda for the next weekend? skiing, skiing, skiing ... cos up 2 date i have been just once this winter, u know?