Metals and Mining

From ancient times to modern civilizations, metals have always been tightly linked to progress and growth, but also to human culture and beliefs. We not only use metals to build a city, or manufacture electronics and car engines, but we use them to build precious items; items that are valuable to us simply because of the metals they are made of. The role of metals in today’s world is as important as ever, and the need for metals for all these different reasons, we believe, is only set to rise.

The growth of emerging world economies, primarily China and India, will not only lead to increased demand for copper, iron ore and other industrial and rare metals, but it will also bring about a rapidly expanding middle class, eager to invest their wealth in products, such as gold jewelry, that are culturally significant and representative of their social status. More importantly, this growing middle class will seek to protect and increase its wealth, and precious metals will be a natural investment vehicle. In addition, a global economy coming out of a strong recession, being fueled by governments via monetary easing that should ultimately lead to currency devaluation and inflation, is very supportive of investment in precious metals, both by individuals and central banks.

Thus, we believe, the supply of these metals is of great interest. Our metals and mining research is focused on the evaluation of companies exploring, developing and exploiting metal deposits around the world. We analyze the assets, and the operating and management teams to assess their quality. We then determine if that quality, combined with the company’s strategic plans and our commodity price expectations, translates into future value creation for shareholders. Our proven approach consists of frequent site visits utilizing practical engineering expertise to evaluate operations, teams, techniques and progress rather than relying exclusively on company reports and management disclosures. We merge this technical assessment with our knowledge of global sociopolitical environments and detailed financial modeling to yield comprehensive stock valuations and to uncover the best opportunities.