Posts Tagged ‘Alecto Energy’

A Little Look at Alecto

We bought a bunch of Alecto Energy back in November 2010, our reasons then were speculative but simple:

“Alecto has been awarded three gold and copper mining and two uranium mining licenses in the Mauritanide mobile belt of Mauritania and there’s the possibility of more good news on the horizon.”

Since we jumped on board, trading in Alecto has been within a range of between three and four-and-a-half pence a share. Volumes are probably slightly down on where they were six months ago but without doing too much homework on the matter, I reckon that’s probably true across the board for AIM shares for the period.

In fact, looking back with a little hindsight at the beginning of 2011 purely from a price perspective, Alecto has fared pretty well, managing to hang on to most of the big gains of October 2010 and being – in my humble opinion – in a good position to add to those gains again later this year.

We’ve had a couple of spikes on good news but profit takers have bailed out quickly and more than once on a good news day, Alecto has closed lower than it started out.

Following on from Alecto’s final results announced in April (which we spoke about at the time), Alecto has kept the information flow to investors coming with two positive exploration updates from Mauritania, an acquisition of 80% of a 191 square kilometre gold exploration licence in the highly prospective Ashanti Gold Belt in Ghana and most recently, the acquisition of 100% of the issued share capital of Nubian Gold Exploration Limited, which holds a 1,953 square kilometre gold exploration licence in the highly prospective Aysid-Metekel region of north western Ethiopia.

And there’s nothing like a name change (Alecto Energy to Alecto Minerals) to thow a little investor attention your way.

Cash in the bank as reported in their 2010 results was a healthy £2.37M – although obviously this will have dwindled since.

And then there’s Alecto’s 9.73% shareholding in AIM listed resource investment company Charles Street Capital plc which should (the company says) “provide Alecto with exposure to a diverse range of potential resource projects” going forward.

So Alecto’s African assets now include highly prospective projects in recognised highly prospective mineral districts in Mauritania, Ghana and now Ethiopia. They’re not shy when it comes to updating investors and lately there’s been more than enough coming from Alecto to make this a handy hold for this small-time investor who’s expecting some nice gains in the coming 12 months.

As always, please do a ton of your own homework and never invest any money you can’t afford to lose. I’m an amateur investor with a penchant for a speculative punt who’s possibly lost more than he’s won over the journey, so please double check anything I say before considering it fact.

Thanks again for dropping by, may your portfolios swim in a sea of upward pointing arrows.

When Times Are Bad – An Apology

I’ve got an apology to make. When times are good – as a blogger – you can’t shut me up. I’m talking big, the million quid looks more than doable and I’m shooting my mouth off to anyone who’s willing to drop by. But when things turn sour for a month or two, well, I dash for the hills. Not a share-related peep out of me for weeks on end. I must come across as the original fair-weather investor.

So apologies, all that stops today. Over the coming weeks I’ll be taking a close look at each of the holdings that constitute our little portfolio, where they’re at and where I think they’re heading. Heck, I may even formulate an exit strategy or two whilst I’m at it (or take a look at some absolute return funds).

First off the rank will be Alecto Energy, though they’ve had a name change earlier this week to Alecto Minerals. See, share-related information. That wasn’t hard at all. And almost cathartic to boot. But more on Alecto tomorrow.

Thanks again for dropping by.

Alecto Energy Gains Following Final Results

Following the announcement of their 2010 results, Alecto Energy added a healthy glow to our portfolio on Tuesday, finishing 24% up on the day.

We bought into Alecto back in November last year at 3.75 pence a share on the back of their three gold and copper mining and two uranium mining licenses in the Mauritanide mobile belt of Mauritania and the possibility of more licences to come. I like a company that has its irons scattered in a few fires.

In yesterday’s results Malcolm James – in his Chairman’s report – had this to say:

This has been an important year for Alecto, during which we have successfully been granted three gold and base metal and two uranium development licences covering circa 3,500 sq km in the highly prospective Mauritanide mobile belt in Mauritania. With a defined work programme currently underway at a number of these licences, a strong cash position to fund our forthcoming activities and an experienced management team in place, we are now centred on building value both on the ground and through the acquisition of complementary resource projects, primarily in Africa.

Mauritania provides the Company with an opportunity for discovery, having already yielded some significant mining projects including Red Back Mining Inc’s Tasiast Gold Mine with a resource of 6.5 Moz (but remains open along strike). Production at the Guelb Moghrein deposit, owned by First Quantum Minerals, has also resumed with both copper and gold being targeted.

Our licences were granted by the Mauritanian Ministry of Industry and Mines in October 2010, following extensive fieldwork and analysis of historic data conducted by our consulting partner, O’Connor International Ltd (‘O’Connor’), together with leading consultants SRK Exploration Services (‘SRK ES’).

The three gold and base metal licences are located at Chegar (756 sq km), Wad Armour (613 sq km) and Zreibya (459 sq km) and SRK ES has commenced work on our defined exploration programme to identify key areas of interest for further development and drilling. This is primarily taking place at Wad Amour and Zreibya which are both considered highly prospective and have good accessibility. The first phase of the work programme includes detailed soil sampling and regional reconnaissance work, which commenced in February 2011, and reinterpretation and analysis of historic data is being carried out in tandem with this. Once the results from these studies are received, additional soil sampling and geophysical surveys will be undertaken and this is expected to commence by the end of April 2011. Exploration at these licences is still at an early stage but to date, progress has been encouraging and we are optimistic about the Company’s ability to advance these projects to the next stages of development.

Having previously seen geochemical sampling results in May 2010 which demonstrated the existence of uranium values at the sites, SRK ES is also carrying out initial exploratory and data analysis at our Mreiti (888 sq km) and Wad Mourkba (704 sq km) uranium licences to support our existing knowledge of the licences. The licences span an internal WSW-ESE contact within the Achaean shield and close to its edge with the younger rocks of the Taoudenu Sedimentary Basin. We look forward to results from these studies and will update shareholders accordingly.

You can read the full release over at Interactive Investor.

Cash in the bank is healthy (£2.37M) following on from two placings in 2010 and there’s the added exposure to additional resource projects through investments in Bulgarian Mining Corporation Ltd (20% holding) and AIM listed Charles Street Capital plc (9.73% holding).

There’s a name change in the offing to Alecto Minerals which can only lead to more press and with results from sampling surveys due in the coming months hopefully it’s onwards and upwards for Alecto.

As always, don’t take my word for it before parting with your hard-earned, always do tons of homework and gather information from a number of sources. The Alecto Energy web site is a good place to start.

Thanks again for dropping by.

13 UK Shares on AIM

You’ll have to excuse this post, it’s a little self indulgent and – as Lucy from Entertainment One has kindly pointed out – incorrectly titled, since Entertainment One moved to the main board in July 2010.

I wanted to throw the recent (three months in this case) charts of all our holdings together in the one place so I can get a bit of a feel of what’s looking good (and what’s looking not so good) technically speaking as we punch on in to 2011.

Usually I’d do this sort of thing without posting it but what the heck. So with a million thank-yous to our friends at SharePrice.co.uk (free real time prices and charts – you better believe it) here are the three month charts of the 13 equities we currently hold.

Alecto Energy

Asian Citrus

Atlantic Coal

Berkeley Mineral Resources

Cosalt

Dominion Petroleum

Edenville Energy

Entertainment One

Herencia Resources

Hutchison China Meditech

MeDaVinci

Pan Pacific Aggregates

Stellar Diamonds

So that’s the lot of them. Love your thoughts in the comments below. Thanks again for dropping by.

Purchase – Alecto Energy

The fundamental change in our portfolio mix continues.

With the recent sale of all our Renesola, Clipper Windpower and OPG Power Ventures holdings and what for us is a fairly heavy (in terms of portfolio percentage) investment in Berkeley Mineral Resources, we’ve taken a leap into more speculative mineral waters. Ouch! Sorry, do pardon the pun.

Well, that’s a subjective call I guess. What’s speculative to some is rock solid to others. Many would argue that the labels: solar (Renesola), wind-power (Clipper) and India (OPG) in terms of investment have speculation written all over them. My personal investment philosophy though sees no great risk involved long term in alternative energy. And India’s power needs are only going in one direction as we move forward.

But, I digress. Our latest purchase is a ton of Alecto Energy, well 44,272 shares to be exact, that we picked up for 3.75 pence a share last Thursday for a total outlay before costs of £1,660.20.

It may be just me but when I take up penny shares in lots of tens of thousands, the potential to double, triple or even quadruple my initial investment in a timely manner seems all the more realistic.

To back up this theory, check out the one month charts for Herencia (1.28 to 2.72 pence), Red Rock Resources (6.18 to 12.38 pence) and Victoria Oil and Gas (3.11 to 6.70 pence). Ahhh foresight, what a wonderful gift. Unfortunately it’s one I don’t possess. Our portfolio contains none of these.

Now I know a million and one investors would argue that, that is utter nonsense and a ten quid share has the same likelihood – ceterus parabus – of doubling as a ten pence share. And they’re probably right. But to my warped way of thinking, I see more chance of my 3 pence shares trading at a quid than I do of any 10 quid shares trading at £330.

Damned digression, now, where was I? That’s right, Alecto Energy. Our reasons? Basically, in the last month Alecto has been awarded three gold and copper mining and two uranium mining licenses in the Mauritanide mobile belt of Mauritania and there’s the possibility of more good news on the horizon.

As always do a ton of your own homework and take none of the above as investment advice. It isn’t. It is simply the warped ramblings of an amateur investor.

Thanks again for stopping by. If you’re after a sure thing, head on over to Kiva and help a third world entrepreneur help themselves.


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