News

January 07, 2009

Chromex Keeps Its Head Above Water With New Plans For The Stellite Chromite Mine

By Alastair Ford

What’s it like in the chrome business at the moment? Anyone who’s followed the ups and downs of International Ferro Metals (IFM) over the last couple of years will by now have some idea that all is not currently rosy. John Meyer of broker Fairfax chose IFM as his stock pick of the year for 2009 at our Minesite Christmas forum this year, but then again anyone who’s followed either IFM or John’s own recommendations will know that he was a buyer all the way up to IFM’s all-time high of just over 160p, and that he was a buyer all the way down again. The shares are currently bumping along at around 18.5p, which, to be fair to John is one or two percentage points above where he recommended them. So he’s not off to a bad start this year, at least, though like the rest of the world, he’s starting off from a very low base.

London hasn’t got many other chrome companies to set IFM against as a comparison. Even Chromex, a dedicated chromite miner, doesn’t really compare, because unlike IFM, which runs all the way up the value chain to the tune of owning and operating its own furnaces, Chromex is sticking fairly close to the bottom end of the value chain by simply mining, and then conducting some basic beneficiation on the resultant ore. But what’s noteworthy at the moment is that while IFM hit the headlines because...