Had a chat with the good doc last week regarding recent strength in the selenium and lead prices. He mentioned he'd prefer to see prices come back a bit as the cost of waste batteries move with the lead price eliminating higher margins anyway. Where selenium is concerned, it could lead to clients trying to sell their sludge rather than go down the traditional route where Hydromet charges a fee for treatment, returns the metals to the client and keeps the selenium as part of the fee. I believe the Selenium price cracked $US100kg in May which is a 50% rise from February levels!
Feb 2007 ............ Mar 2007 .......... Apr 2007
50.87 .................... 53.22 ................ 74.56 ....... (US-$/kg, in European warehouse)
As I mentioned in my last post, I'm certainly looking forward to full year results. The battery recycling plant will have it's first full quarter of processing limits which will give us an additional 900 tonnes processed on last quarter. With a bit of luck, processing limits will be increased from the current 12 tonnes PA to 30 tonnes PA ASAP as the plant can handle the extra capacity as it stands. Hopefully the company can keep growing profits beyond these expected short term improvements through expanding both the selenium business along with a second battery recycling plant as has been mentioned by the company. Eventually we'll see a change of attitude towards the company ! :) So long as they keep making money and growing profits, the rest will look after itself! :)
Cheers, xmagx
HMC Price at posting:
0.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Not Held
