Molybdenum on CNBC Business News

Morning Miners!

It is 5:29 AM, let me pour you a cup and let's watch a video. Kevin Loughrey, President and CEO for Thompson Creek Metals (TC), was on CNBC Business News yesterday with Maria Bartiromo to talk about the prospects for molybdenum mining. You will find the entire five minute interview near the bottom of this blog page. Thompson Creek and Freeport McMoran are two major producers of moly today.

The interview is an excellent overview on the future for molybdenum mining and Thompson Creek Metals. Many of the points made by Louhrey are the same as those made by General Moly in their moly price analysis featured in the Report's article Good Golly Miss Moly last September. The Colonel urges you to watch the interview but if you're a bit rushed here is a brief summary:

1. Moly demand is returning for a recovering steel industry as well as other industrial uses.
2. China is very important to moly demand growth.
3. China became a net importer of molybdenum in 2009.
4. Thompson Creek expects 2-3% demand growth from the rest of the world.
5. Restocking has caused moly prices to decline some but world inventories are moderate. Louhrey expects that 2010 will be a better year than 2009 and 2011 "even better than 2010".
6. Thompson Creek is very optimistic about their future specifically and moly mining in general.

That deserves a Colonel Yee-ha! You can visit the Thompson Creek homepage with this link:

Thompson Creek Metals Company


The Colonel can testify that there was a day when some of the folks at CNBC had difficulty saying M-o-l-y-b-d-e-n-u-m. In April of 2007, I appeared with my sidekick Loquita on the CNBC show "Fasy Money". They had a segment for loyal followers to ask the top notch traders questions about stocks. They sent the Colonel a webcam and my dog and I were soon asking Eric Bolling questions about General Moly (GMO) and the molybdenum market. Although Bolling had recently received the Maybach "Man of the Year" award from Trader Monthly he had a devil of a time pronouncing molybdenum (he's forgiven, most people do). Bolling, however, said very positive things about General Moly - he sure got that part right! Here is a photo of Loquita watching the previously taped show. I'm the feller with hat.



Loquita stole the show and was asked to return for a second taping in May with my lovely wife Mariana. For a brief while, Loquita was the "CNBC Fast Money Mascot".

Enough T.V. talk, let's walk the walk:

4-WD is OFF - the VIX or "fear index" is below 25, smoother road market conditions expected (what's this?)

Yellow light is ON for possible adverse regulation/legislation (mercury emissions)

Otherwise, all lights are green on the Eureka Outlook Dashboard (upper right, what's this?)

Oil is down $0.73 in early trading to $76.83 (January contract, most active); Gold is up $2.9 to $1167.6 (December contract, most active); Silver is down $0.100 to $18.510(December contract); Copper is down $0.0150 to $3.1205(December contract); Molybdenum is steady at $12.00

The DOW is down 70.82 points to 10380.13; the S&P 500 is down 7.05 points to 1099.19. The miners are sleepy:

Barrick (ABX) $43.84 down 0.09%
Newmont (NEM) $53.18 down 0.30%
General Moly (Eureka Moly, LLC) (GMO) $2.40 down 0.41%
Freeport McMoran (FCX) $84.88 down 0.53% (a bellwether mining stock spanning gold, copper & molybdenum)

Steel stocks are mixed, (a "tell" for General Moly):

Nucor (NUE) $41.70 down 0.10% - domestic steel manufacturing
ArcelorMittal (MT) $39.27 up 1.11% - global steel producer
POSCO (PKX) $119.57 down 1.37% - South Korean integrated steel producer

The Eureka Miner's Grubstake Portfolio is is down 0,25% to $1,289,411.31 (what is this?).

Cheers,

Colonel Possum