Frik Els , Editor

Frik has 20 years’ experience as a business journalist across a range of industries including automotive, technology and entertainment markets. Frik has an entry in Global Mining Observer’s Who’s Who of Mining 2018, and contributions to publications and conferences including Business Insider, Investing.com, Mines & Money London and New York, Vancouver Resources Investment, Progressive Mine Forum in Toronto and Canadian Mining Symposium in London, UK. He’s been interviewed on CBC Radio and Korea State TV and quoted in the Financial Post.

Posts by Frik Els:

Saccharum Energy buying Argentina potash exploration assets

Alberta's Saccharum Energy Corp, an investment company focused on the resource sector announced on Tuesday that it has entered into an earn-in agreement with Marifil Mines Ltd to acquire up to a 70% interest in certain of Marifil's Argentinean potash properties. Trading in Saccharum's shares has been suspended on the TSX Venture exchange pending approval of this transaction. The capital pool company is up more than six-fold since listing at the beginning of last year.
Frik Els | June 28, 2011 | 8:41 pm

World number two potash producer says prices may reach $600/tonne by end of year

Reuters quotes the chief executive of Russian potash producer Uralkali telling an investment conference in Moscow on Tuesday that spot potash prices could reach $600 per tonne by the end of the year. Uralkali also said it was considering entering into a transaction with Belaruskali, contradicting a Belarus deputy prime minister who earlier said the $20bn state-owned company was not for sale. A Belaruskali-Uralkali merger would create a group with annual production of 21m tonnes, dwarfing current number one Canada’s Potash Corp.
Frik Els | June 28, 2011 | 7:24 pm

GeoMega says drill results confirm Montviel as world class neodymium resource

Montreal-based GeoMega announced the results from its Phase I diamond drilling program conducted on the Montviel property in Abitibi, Québec and said these latest results confirm that it is one of the world's most significantknown deposits of neodymium that can be developed quickly given the excellent local infrastructure such as road access, nearby hydroelectric services and rail.
Frik Els | June 28, 2011 | 5:47 pm
China factory data roils copper stocks – Freeport down 9%

Chinese miners plunge as reverse-listing contagion spreads

Iron, zinc and coal miner China Natural Resources shed 20% of its value on the Nasdaq stock exchange in morning trade on Monday in the absence of any fresh news about its operations while China Shen Zou Mining lost over 8%, the worst performers in the sector. Investors are continuing to worry about the soundness of Chinese companies that came to the US market through so-called reverse listings with the value of the 98 companies declining sharply in recent weeks as creative accounting and other irregularities are uncovered at firms engaging in operations as diverse as software and timber.
Frik Els | June 27, 2011 | 4:30 pm

Investors don’t like Golden Minerals, ECU Silver merger

A merger between Quebec-based ECU Silver Mining and Golden Minerals of Chicago announced on Friday had investors scrambling for the exits on Monday with the two companies at one point trading down 3.9% and 7% respectively on a generally bad day for silver stocks. The combined company worth over $600m with extensive assets in South America will keep its headquarters in Golden, Colorado and the Golden Minerals name and will be headed by Golden CEO, Jeffrey Clevenger.
Frik Els | June 27, 2011 | 4:28 pm

Oil sands stocks hit hard by reserves move

Canada’s most valuable oil companies Suncor and Canadian Natural Resource – together worth over $100bn – were trading down over 3% on Thursday before recovering some ground following news that 2m barrels of oil per day - equal to Canada's total daily exports to the US – will be released onto the market over the next month. The International Energy Agency said 28 of its members, with the US providing about half of the total, would tap their strategic oil reserves in an effort to make up for lost output as Libya's civil war drags on.
Frik Els | June 23, 2011 | 8:00 pm
Gold coins falling stack

South Africa gold miners hammered as costs spiral

By early afternoon on Thursday 7.5% or over $400m had been wiped off the value of Harmony Gold Mining stock in New York, the worst performer in an index of 50 of the largest gold and silver counters. Other South African gold miners were also punished with both Anglogold Ashanti and Gold Fields down over 5%. Some South African produces are struggling with cash outlays of $1,200/ounce – almost double the global average – thanks to a strong currency, wage disputes, power supply problems and geological issues. As the gold price eases as much as 180,000 oz of quarterly production are being put at risk.
Frik Els | June 23, 2011 | 6:59 pm

Oil sands M&A expected to heat up

Canadian Business reports merger and acquisition activity is expected to increase in Canada's oilpatch this year, as energy executives take a brighter view of their sector's prospects, according to a study released Wednesday. But the positive outlook is dampened somewhat by cost escalation for labour and equipment, the Ernst & Young report said. In 2010 Canadian energy M&A activity was dominated by oil sands. While the $4.65bn Sinopec-Syncrude deal was the largest the total the number of oil sands transactions tripled.
Frik Els | June 22, 2011 | 9:20 pm
The return of the great gold hedge

Burned by sub-prime, banks turn to resource sector for profits

Data out this week show the likes of Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan raking in record revenues of almost $1bn/month in commodity and other trading revenue. A recent study of mining mergers and acquisitions shows the proportion of financial firms – as opposed to other miners – taking over resource companies had increased fourfold. And perhaps the most significant indication that US banking practices honed in the property markets have arrived in minerals is news that star metals traders now command pay as high as $3 million/year.
Frik Els | June 22, 2011 | 6:38 pm
Top Chinese gold miner sets aside $1bn for African buys

Zambia scoffs at Zimbabwe and South Africa mine nationalization schemes

On Tuesday Zambia's Finance Minister mocked Zimbabwe and South Africa for planning to forcibly raise government stakes in foreign mines, saying "the Zambian miner in 1970s was a happier miner than a miner during the period of state ownership of the mines.” Under Zimbabwe's on-again off-again indigenization policy mining companies were granted until the beginning of June to submit proposals about transferring majority ownership to locals while there are growing calls within the ruling party in South Africa to move ahead with nationalization as called for in the country's Freedom Charter.
Frik Els | June 21, 2011 | 9:46 pm
Featured Post

GRAPH: Mining vs AI vs Deepseek

Cheap and cheerful Chinese AI does little to unskew relative valuation of one chipmaker against the entire mining industry.
Frik Els | January 28, 2025 | 6:10 pm