Springtime for General Moly

Morning Miners!

The ole Colonel is off the road and ready for some "V" time. Don't worry; the daily reports will still be coming at you, I'm just not waking up before the markets open! With a little extra time on my hands, I sorted through my "good pile" for something to read last night and came across the Spring 2008 edition of Mining Quarterly.

The cover story read, "General Moly ready to roll with its Mount Hope project near Eureka." There's a cool picture a chunk of rock containing significant amounts of molybdenum on the cover, remember? I imagine the article was written sometime after gold prices broke $1000 and before oil courted $150. What a difference a year makes.

Through no fault of their own, General Moly (GMO) got hit with the same financial tsunami that everyone on the planet has endured since last Fall. The Colonel is not one to groan and moan so here are some positive thoughts. We know from their recent quarterly report that GMO is in pause mode and good to go once the global recovery gets some legs. Rereading the Quarterly article, reminded me that POSCO, No. 3 steel producer, has a 20% interest in the Mt. Hope project. South Korean POSCO is investing in the joint venture through its Canadian subsidiary, POSCO-Canada.

"Eureka!" the ole Colonel cried out as his eyeglasses hit the floor, "POSCO should be directly benefiting from China's recent stimulus plan!" I checked the numbers and lo and behold PKX (ticker symbol for POSCO) is up 70% from this March's low. We've been tracking the rally of Arcelor Mittal (MT), No. 1 steel producer and another investor in GMO, for sometime in the Report. I'm adding POSCO to our list today, I can't think of a better way to assess the future of Mt. Hope than by watching the fortunes of their benefactors. Think POSitive, think POSCO!!

Enough talk, let's walk the walk:

Oil is up in midday trading at $57.58(June contract). Gold is down $6.7 to $908.8 (June contract); Silver is down $.175 to $13.855; Copper is steady at $2.1690 (July contract); Molybdenum sits at $9.25.

The DOW is up 66 points to 8,475.80; the S&P 500, up 6,51 points to 913.90. Miners are good today:

Barrick (ABX) $32.81 up 0.37%
Newmont (NEM) $42.76 up 0.02%
General Moly (GMO) $1.73 up 0.58%
Freeport McMoran (FCX) $50.64 up 3.25% (a bellwether mining stock spanning gold, copper & molybdenum)

Steel stocks are rockin'(a good "tell" for General Moly):

Nucor (NUE) $43.49 up 1.66% - domestic steel manufacturing
ArcelorMittal (MT) $28.54 up 5.47% - global steel producer
POSCO (PKX) $86.41 up 3.20%- South Korean integrated steel producer

Cheers,

Colonel Possum