A Melman Minute
| By | Leonard Melman |
|---|
This morning’s Melman Minute is being written in my hotel room adjacent to beautiful Downtown Vancouver’s Convention Center where the Cambridge House “Vancouver Resource Investment Conference” is underway. Given my very limited time this morning, I can only offer a few early impressions and a more complete report will be presented in Wednesday’s “Melman Minute”
The size of the crowds and the number of companies exhibiting at the conference have both been pleasant surprises. At latest count, approximately 250 companies are “exhibiting their wares” so to speak and total attendance is estimated at over 6,000 – both numbers being well ahead of recent similar conventions.
My early impression from these figures is that many investors are beginning to believe that a turn in fortunes for the metals is either already underway or at least near at hand and they are out in droves seeking to find value in many under-prices stocks while the companies are present in order to attract that type of investor. In any case, this has been a particularly lively convention so far.
Quite naturally, presentations have focused on either of two points of view. In the pessimistic case, the good metals performance so far during 2014 is nothing but a rally within a generally declining market, with some additional pain yet to come. In the positive case, the “double bottom” which was formed by gold’s initial decline to near $1,175 in late June and $1,180 just a few weeks ago will hold and the metals will begin to rally, showing growing strength as the year progresses.
I also have noted that many of the mining companies are present to indulge in a little bargain-basement shopping, hoping to acquire valuable prospective properties at below-wholesale prices as cash strapped juniors must divest themselves of some of their holdings in order to simply survive. One executive described a property he had just acquired for only $100,000 which just two years ago had been purchased for $7,000,000.
Another feature of the convention has been the increasing level of discussion about governmental interference within mining in particular and the total society in general. The Cambridge House organization itself has been promoting awareness among the mining community of over-regulatory threats to the industry’s well-being and another organization, the Mises Institute of Canada, held an event last night to promote free-market, libertarian thinking as a means of combating the tidal waves of regulatory intrusions into our commercial and social lives.
Due to technical problems with the hotel’s Internet service, we are unable to provide trading charts or current quotes from our usual sources. However, the American Martin Luther King Holiday has resulted in the closing of many U.S. financial exchanges and early commodity quotes obtained from TV networks show gold near $1,355 and silver at $20.34.
All quotes US$ unless otherwise indicated.
Our next scheduled “Melman Minute” is Wednesday, January 22, 2014