Antimony sector was the standout last week

Antimony sector was the standout last week

The markets continued to improved last week, closing on a high in New York. The gold price hit another new high. The standout performer was Larvotto Resources (LRV), the gold/antimony play at Hillgrove in New England NSW, that we have been mentioning. Its share price went vertical, closing at 40c. Only a couple of weeks ago it was trading below 15c. The enthusiasm spilled over to other antimony hopefuls such as Nagambie (NAG), Siren Gold (SNG) and Southern Cross Gold (SXG) . Nagambie rarely trades more than $10,000 a day, but more than $1m worth traded over the space of last week; plenty of buyers and sellers.

Much of the renewed interest in antimony came from the news last week that China announced that export controls on antimony would take effect on 15 September. It is uncertain what this means exactly. There will be restrictions on exports yes, but we are not sure whether this actually means a complete ban on exports.

The bear market in the junior end started when interest rates were ratcheted up in response to the inflation coming through the economy. For a while we thought that the market would turn around once rates stopped moving higher in a cause and effect analysis. However, that thinking is no longer relevant. All other markets are performing credibly, but not the junior end. Why? There are structural issues at this end of the market that need to be addressed.