PLA - Platinum Australia

This Company had been very disappointing in terms of disclosure, you hardly get any updates from PLA. I get the idea that they think very little about their shareholders.

In my opinion the reason for the depressed sp is because PLA failed to achieve production target because they hit a big pothole, whatever that means, but PLA thinks they are over that hiccip by now.

They have just connected to the power grid which should reduce costs. Also platinum is having a bit of a run high $1600 which is the highest it has been for a couple of years. One would think that their sp should follow.

i did well with this little share.. from .11 to $3.. no ones complainin here...

i have tried over the past years to pick it again and again,, and the losses have been nasty.. i keep getting it wrong time and again..

heres to two together..

have been thinking about adding to the share again to offset some earlier losses
but i seem to be vexed on this one atm.. if i buy it tanks instantly..

the troubles in the mines are still going on with the labour issues.. but the automotive industry really is improving with really superior catalytic converters and with the new china automotive boom.. the raw material is increasing in price, and as you say,, pla probably needs to advance some what.. buy it just seems to tank time and again..

I'm no TA expert but to my untrained eye PLA appears to have been in a downtrend since February. Moving averages continue to trend lower and relative strength is just awful. So no reason to buy until this reverses IMO.

I had a short, modestly profitable affair with SLV a few months ago but quit them for several reasons - labour and power supply issues in their SA operations; currency issues around SA rand ( their operating currency), USD (selling currency), AUD (reporting currency). Along with fairly average reporting it all got too hard for me. I suspect PLA might have similar issues for an Aust investor.

I'm more optimistic about PLA.
After yesterday's "nothing to say" reply to the ASX query, it didn't drop any further, but held above the long-term support. Double or even Triple Bottom could play out. Therefore, I bought back in yesterday and am happy with that decision - so far at least.
For a start, MACD looks set to break above Signal; if it does, that will be the first confirmation that the bottom is likely to be in.

Is George Sorros still a major shareholder in PLA? I wonder what he sees in PLA? Anyway if he is in then I will hold for a while longer and hope for the best.

vincent191 said:

Is George Sorros still a major shareholder in PLA? I wonder what he sees in PLA? Anyway if he is in then I will hold for a while longer and hope for the best.

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Qantum Partners own about 12% I think.

Had a little bit of trouble with some contractors employees I think which significantly effected latest output numbers.

Around $18m in the kitty spending $5m a quarter, will need to raise significant funds to get their other projects running.

The problem with the sub contractors and the pothole had been fixed. We have to wait until the next update to find out if Smokey Hill had reached forecast production. Don't expect any frequent updates from this mob. JL is an arrogant B. If they need more capital it shouldn't be a problem the institution have been forth coming in the past. However, if the sp remains at current levels any new issues will involve a lot of script and existing shareholders will face unacceptable dilution.

PLA is really down in the dumps at the moment - down 16% today to 53.5c after the announcement of the termination of underground mining contract at smokey hills. PLA hit a low of 36c in the GFC (Oct 2008)- we have hardly gained ground since then - what a dog! What's even more frustrating is that the price of Platinum is flying - up to $1700...

Does anyone know if this is still in the Fat Prophets portfolio?

How are they going to turn this around?

Sack the PLA management team. Only a few short weeks ago they told shareholders that the problem with contractors and the pot hole had been fixed and they should meet production targets.

Just a few days latter the opposite emerges. Is this what PLA management call accountability? They had always been arrogant and treat their shareholders with contempt. There never was any mention of OHS problems causing production stoppages and now we get told. They had known about it all the time.

As long as the current management team stays this Company is going no where. They have no creditbility left in my books.

MACD dropped back below Signal; the double (triple even) bottom didn't keep its promise. PLA is off my watchlist too.

pixel said:

MACD dropped back below Signal; the double (triple even) bottom didn't keep its promise. PLA is off my watchlist too.

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Yesterday's very high volume sell bar is followed by an inside day. I think PLA has found a bottom (short term at least) and likely test the resistance at ~64c in the next week.

A stop at 50c will give a reward/risk of ~2 to 1 so that doesn't quite stack up.

I am just waiting for the right time to get out. I have losted faith in PLA and it's current management. Hopefully if their sp drops further they will be a takeover target. Something has to give sooner or latter, everybody else have more or less recovered some lost ground since the GFC except PLA.

vincent191 said:

I am just waiting for the right time to get out. I have losted faith in PLA and it's current management. Hopefully if their sp drops further they will be a takeover target. Something has to give sooner or latter, everybody else have more or less recovered some lost ground since the GFC except PLA.

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i have been buying in the last days..

i am not convinced it will tank much further

would love to see those $1 targets get reached

Interesting contrarian trade Agentm - buy when others are fearful!

Well we seem to have had a minor (dead cat?) bounce today. Hopefully these clowns know that they are doing:



14 October 2010
APPOINTMENT OF UNDERGROUND MINING CONTRACTOR AT SMOKEY HILLS MINE
Platinum Australia Limited (ASXLA) is pleased to advise that it has signed a contract with JIC Mining Services (“JIC”) for the provision of Underground Mining Services at the Smokey Hills Mine. The contract is subject to the previous mining contractor, Redpath Mining (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd (“Redpath”) vacating site.
JIC currently has underground mining contracts with Impala Platinum, Eastern Platinum (Crocodile River), Mototolo (Xstrata/Anglo Platinum Joint Venture), BRPM (Royal Bafokeng Platinum Holdings), Hernic Ferrochrome, International Ferro Metals and Shiva Uranium. The company employs over 7,500 people in these various operations and has a management team selected and ready to move onto site at Smokey Hills.

my view is simple

the sacking of the redpath team was necessary. the new team is arranged, there is no gain for redpath to interfere in the transition, and the decision would not be reversed.

there will be an announcement imho of a successful turnover of crews.. once thats in place the sp will recover further

mean time the speculation money is arriving

I am not at all happy with the current PLA management, clearly there had been some degree of share price manupilation. What is ASIC going to do about it? Nothing, is my guess. Complete lack of creditibility on PLA's management. Great for those brave enough to speculate the last few days but for the mum & dad investors it is bad news when you have a management team you cannot trust!!!

vincent

pla is subject to shorting and all sorts of market forces,, if the price of platinum is going down then you would expect shorting to happen, if bad news happens, shorting will happen.. and if a large sum of capital is coming into a share, then all sorts of manipulations can be used to make a good entry..

shares can be over sold, and shares trend up and down all the time..

despite the long fall of the pla share, you could easily have traded in an of out of the ups and downs and made significant gains.. if you understood and timed it right..

i have tried a few times and managed to botch most of them lol!! and i may even botch this one..

investing is about risk and risk assessment. there is no way you can blame management for a particular situation.. and you should be careful to present evidence of what you accusing another of or it may look like just sour grapes..

my view on share trading is to always assess how far you are prepared to take a loss and a gain before exiting.. i have ridden a $1 share to .06 and made a fortune from it.. and i know others whom have also..

if you looking at a daily fall of a sp and blaming everyone but yourself for the situation then so be it, but imho, you could try looking at the short side of things also and see that folk out there are trading differently and making gains on all sorts of positions..

trading is a perception of how people see wealth in something.. if a company is paying brokers to give very high valuations, then you have to assess if the upside is something that may be manageable.. maybe it wont..

imho the near term upside of $1 is still feasible in todays circumstances.. so lets see if the story of pla will achieve some significant gain..

i have been following cdu since the start.. and currently i am trading in cdu.. you can get some amazing rallies there.. its imho a touch low in terms of fair value,, will i be right on it?? who knows.. but i have followed it long enough to understand the valuations currently can improve significantly more..

i think pla has abilities to bounce.. in either direction..

its a share you can see some amazing volumes go through, so its one share i dont mind trading in..

lets see if the coming weeks or so brings some positive news of a change in crews and i think some solid support may follow..

there is a bounce in the metal price.. so who knows hey!!




best of luck

agentM, whilst I don't disagree with you with most of what you said, my beef with PLA management is that THEY KNEW of the problems the sub-contractor BUT they did not pass the message on to the general investing public. In fact they assured us in their annual report just a few short weeks ago that it is being sorted out and we can look forward to higher production in the December quarter.

BUT somebody knew and this is backed up by a speeding ticket enquiry by ASX, PLA's answer was a short and sweet -NO, they knew nothing!!!! Well, if the impending sacking of the mining contractor and disruption to production is not a vital factor, what is?

Then they announced the sacking causing the sp to tumble and within 24 hours announce that a new contractor had been appointed. Wouldn't you think they would have announced both events at once and avoid the big swing in the sp? Maybe they should have requested a trading halt because the two events do have a significant impact on the sp.

There are people like me who are not short term traders and buy and put our shares in the bottom drawer and look at a longer term investment horizon. It is not a case of sour grapes because I don't trade short term. It is more about lack of timely and accurate information but again PLA had never been forthcoming in the past with disclosures to it's shareholders.

Those of you watching PLA... anyone worry that they may run out of cash soonish?

They are on my captial raising watchlist. Based on their cash flow statement I seem to remeber around 6-9 months of cash remember but I could be completely wrong.