By
Profitimes
:
In this article, I will make a point for calling a North
American Palladium bottom.
North American Palladium (ticker: [[PAL]]) or "NAP," is a
precious metals mining company, operating in Canada. It has been
operating its flagship mine Lac Des Iles ((LDI)) in Ontario, Canada
since 1993. LDI is one of only two primary producers in the world,
as palladium usually comes as a by-product of other metals
(platinum or nickel). NAP also operates the Vezza Gold mine, which
is located in the Abitibi region of Quebec.
NAP is listed on the NYSE with ticker PAL, and on the Toronto Stock
Exchange with ticker PDL.TO.
The company is currently undergoing a major expansion to
increase production and reduce cash costs per ounce. The goal is to
reach annual production of 250.000 ounces of Palladium in Q3 2015
at a cash cost in the low $200s. Palladium is currently trading
around $640, and the outlook remains positive.
Precious Metals (including gold, silver, platinum and palladium)
remain in an uptrend, but the story of palladium in particular is
interesting to me.
Although palladium is a precious metal (just like gold, silver
and platinum), it is also an industrial metal, with plenty of uses
(think of electronics, such as your smartphone, dentist equipment,
jewelry, etc, but the main source of demand comes from the
automotive industry, as palladium is being used in catalytic
converters).
Johnson Matthey recently published a report calling for a huge
deficit of palladium (915,000 ounces) due to lower supplies, higher
gross demand and less recycling: palladium supplies are predicted
to decline to a 9-year low of 6.57 million ounces, because of lower
South-African output due to the strikes, which have hurt
South-African production of platinum and palladium. Another factor
contributing to lower supplies comes from a forecast drop of sales
of Russian state stocks by over 0.5 million ounces compared with
last year, to 250,000 ounces.
Recycling is expected to be constrained by subdued PGM (Platinum
Group Metals) prices.
To read the full report, click
here
.
In a recent
report
, Stillwater Mining (
SWC
) wrote: "
Palladium is facing a substantial supply deficit going forward
that will likely be met by a combination of price-driven demand
destruction and shifting back to platinum or using rhodium.
"
Let's have a look at those Russian stocks of palladium.
Norilsk Nickel, the largest producer of palladium, had to send
all of its metals to Gokhran, the Russian State Depository, from
1935 until 1996. The Gokhran would then sell the metal onto the
market. Norilsk Nickel was only allowed to sell metal directly to
the market from 1996 on. This means that the Gokhran decided how
much palladium would be supplied to the market, and managed to
build a huge inventory of palladium throughout the years. Those
inventories are a state secret, and the amount can be anyone's
guess, as there is no transparency.
This resulted in rumors in 2000 that the Gokhran would be
running out of palladium supplies, causing Ford (
F
) and General Motors (
GM
) to stack up on palladium (at sky-high prices over $1000 per
ounce!). When the rumors appeared to be just that - rumors - prices
of palladium fell dramatically (from $1,100 per ounce in early
2001, to only $150 per ounce in 2003).
In October 2011, an unnamed official in the Ministry of Finance
said that the Gokhran was going to dramatically reduce the amount
of metal it supplied to the market.
From the report above, Johnson Matthey expects it to reduce
supplies by about 0.5 million ounces, down to 250,000 ounces.
If we combine the (potentially) lower Russian sales with the
lower South-African production and steady demand, we have a nice
cocktail for higher palladium prices. Those who would like to have
exposure to the physical metal, can buy NAP.
That's the reason why I am bullish on palladium (and have been
since late 2008-early 2009, when price bottomed around $180 per
ounce). NAP is a growth story, and it is currently going through
some "growing pains."
For this year (2012), NAP has planned a $116 million investment
for the expansion of its LDI mine, of which about $93 million had
been spent by the end of Q3. This expansion will - according to the
company - lead to annual production of 250,000 ounces of palladium,
at a cash cost of $200 per ounce by 2015, compared with
150,000-160,000 ounces at a cash cost of $400+ currently. If it
realizes this expansion within budget and on time, this would
increase its operating margin significantly, even if palladium
prices remain at $640 per ounce.
The company has a quite large
short-interest
(on October 31st, there were 7,424,673 shares short, compared with
an average daily volume of 1,556,402 shares and total shares
outstanding of roughly 175 million). So the hedge funds have been
shorting the stock, and are likely anticipating that NAP needs to
raise capital, in order to pursue its growth strategy.
On September 30, 2012
, the company had cash and cash equivalents of CAD$ 23,462,000
[$23,620,812.73] and receivables worth CAD$ 78,090,000. Part of
those receivables are double smelter payments, estimated at $25
million, which will be converted into cash (October and November).
This is the result of switching smelter agreements from Xstrata to
Vale (
VALE
), which would lead to higher smelter costs, but also earlier
payments for NAP, which is a positive.
On top of that, NAP gets cash flow from its LDI mine, so even
though the expansion plan involves an additional (roughly) $23
million for Q4, the cash balance at the end of the year shouldn't
be very different from the end of Q3.
In addition, NAP had acquired several gold properties throughout
the last couple of years, but because of higher cash costs and
lower grades, the board has decided that they want to go back to a
palladium-focused mining company, so the gold properties are up for
sale right now. Either they get sold, and NAP gets a nice
cash-inflow; OR, they don't get sold. What happens then, remains to
be seen, but NAP then has the choice to explore the properties (and
possibly mine them if that would be economically viable), it could
keep them up for sale, or it could just keep the properties without
doing anything with them (and wait for higher gold prices to
materialize).
Whether they get sold or not (and at what price) remains to be
seen, but in my opinion, NAP should get at least $35-$40 million
for its gold division. That would be a nice cash boost, which could
be set to work for the mine expansion plans in 2013, of which we
will get an update in Q1 2013.
Now let's have a look at some charts:
(click to enlarge)
Chart courtesy stockcharts.com
The first chart shows the share price of PDL.TO (which has a
longer history than PAL) throughout the last 17 years. We can see
that the share price has been very volatile during those 17 years,
ranging from below CAD $1 to as high as CAD $19. Price is now at
the lower end of this range, currently trading at CAD $1.35, close
to major past bottoms.
The second chart shows roughly how many shares of PDL.TO you can
buy with 1 ounce of palladium. Never before has this ratio been
this high, as it is currently at 473.33. Please notice that the
ratio is going parabolic, just like in 1999, right before it came
back down at the speed of light. In my opinion, parabolic moves
always end badly. If history is any guide, I expect PAL/PDL.TO to
start outperforming palladium prices very soon.
The third chart shows the ratio of PDL.TO over the CRB Commodity
index. It tells us that NAP is at its cheapest level in the last 17
years when compared with a basked of commodities.
And last but not least, we can see the ratio of PDL.TO over the
S&P 500 index. A rising ratio means that NAP outperforms the
S&P 500, while a falling ratio means you would have made more
money investing in the S&P 500 than in NAP.
I am not saying that the above charts are rocket science, but
one should get the point: if history is any guide, NAP is
cheap.
The future of the company (and the share price) is in the hands
of management. If it can prove to the market that it can raise
production and reduce cash costs as expected, I think PAL/PDL.TO
will become a very rewarding stock for medium- to long-term
holders.
Disclosure:
I am long [[PAL]]. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my
own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it. I have no
business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in
this article.
See also
Ford Fueled By Strong Sales In China
on seekingalpha.com