Capricorn Metals chief stood down after aggravated assault charge
West Australian gold miner Capricorn Metals has stood down its chief executive after he was charged with aggravated assault.
Paul Criddle pleaded not guilty in a Fremantle court a week ago, but shareholders were only informed on Tuesday when the company issued a statement to the ASX. Criddle, who joined Capricorn in December, had been 'granted leave pending the resolution of this personal matter', it said.
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Welcome to Ten-Bagger, where Lowell Resources Fund chief investment officer John Forwood gives us his take on a sector of the ASX resources market full of value. This month, John looks at the turnaround in platinum and palladium prices. Running at massive deficits hasn't been enough to keep platinum and palladium prices from scraping along deep into the cost curve over the past two years, a massive reversal of fortune from the early days of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, when concerns about Russia's control of the palladium market sent prices soaring. But a number of analysts and fund managers have kept tabs on the commodities known as platinum group metals – principally platinum, palladium and rhodium – in recent months. With prices well below the cost base of most miners in South Africa – the world's top producer by a wide margin – it's seemed logical that something would have to give. The metals have dual uses. 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"So at some point, unless there's a dramatic shift in the price, those shafts are going to have to close or you're going to see a very big change in price and that's probably more likely because that will address the supply-demand deficit." SPD has had a large impending capital bill weighing on its share price, a potential US$452m in peak funding according to its PFS. But Forwood said it had been working on alternative solutions including funding arrangements and staged development. His other PGM pick is Talon Metals. Listed on the TSX, Talon holds the Tamarack JV in Minnesota with non other than mining giant Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO). The project hosts an indicated resource of 8.6Mt at 1.73% nickel and 0.92% copper and inferred resource of 8.5Mt at 0.83% Ni and 0.55% Cu. Assays from a revisited historic drill hole have lifted the lid on the deposit's growth potential, coming in at 34.9m grading a ludicrous 28.88% NiEq or 57.76% CuEq. That included 8.65g/t palladium, 16.31g/t platinum, 9.18g/t gold and 42.92g/t silver. Bonkers. "You wouldn't believe it, the grades are enormous. That's not just a PGM project, but the PGM grades on their own are more than economic," Forwood said. "When you add the nickel, copper, cobalt, gold, silver to it, it's just a stunning result. "Lowell's been a shareholder in that company for a number of years now. I'm very pleased to see some of these results coming back." Other PGM stocks on the ASX include Future Metals (ASX:FME), the owner of the Panton project in WA, up 90% off a low base, Julimar project owner Chalice Mining (ASX:CHN), which is up around 26% YTD, and Implats' Zimbabwean subsidiary Zimplats Holdings (ASX:ZIM), the sole operating miner on the ASX, up 22% YTD.
