Shaft Sink Share Discussion Threads

[muckshifter] 30/10/2012 13:18

Exactly, WylieCoyote,
but I have a feeling that this will be down below 10p within the next six months.
Hope not, for the sake of holders.
Regards.

[wylecoyote] 30/10/2012 12:50

Incredible response by the market, I wasn't expecting this...The news isn't that significant. Still I suppose because it is cheap.

[v11slr] 30/10/2012 10:23

30 October 2012





Shaft Sinkers Holdings plc

("Shaft Sinkers"; the "Group" or the "Company")

Operations Resume

Shaft Sinkers Holdings plc (LSE:SHFT), the international shaft sinking and underground construction group, is pleased to announce that all its suspended operations have resumed.

Following the announcement on October 5 2012, which stated that Shaft Sinkers' work at the Moab project had been interrupted pending resolution of the unprotected strike, all shifts have reported for duty and operations are back to normal.

Work at the Lonmin Saffy shaft was suspended on Wednesday 17 October 2012, after some of its workers embarked on an unprotected work stoppage. Following legal action pursued by the Company declaring the strike illegal, workers were given an ultimatum to return to work by no later than Monday 29 October 2012, this deadline has been met and all staff have reported for duty.

Speaking today, Alon Davidov, Chief Executive, said:



"We are encouraged that our employees were able to return to work safely. The safety and security of our employees is of paramount importance and we continue to urge employees to continue using the formal and recognised engagement structures to address any concerns."



Ends

[v11slr] 30/10/2012 10:21

Shaft Sinkers awarded additional £10.35m of work at Impala project
StockMarketWire.com
Shaft Sinkers Holdings the underground construction group, announces the award of additional work on its existing projects at Impala's 16 and 17 Shafts.

At 17 Shaft the Company will carry out additional underground development work to increase the excavation size of the mining levels including additional support and construction requirements, these works combined with additional costs, add £10.35 million to the order book.



Story provided by StockMarketWire.com

[v11slr] 30/10/2012 10:20

There's a problem with news feeds, try MoneyAm.

[hectorp] 30/10/2012 10:18

What new contracts? No RNS.

Workers to be reinstated IF they return to work today.. how many have?

Also there is the problem of the Eurochem money to resolve.

Upside at the moment very limited .

H.

[molatovkid] 30/10/2012 07:30

Good news at last this morning....work resumes and $m's of new contracts

[noirua] 28/10/2012 11:36

BBC News - South Africa strikes: Sacked platinum miners reinstated

[hectorp] 26/10/2012 12:10

It is, a wait and see, certainly.

PS you got your bottom burned at FDI with your slort .

[buywell2] 26/10/2012 08:20

Bad report from Barrick in Africa today

African Barrick Gold 3Q Profit Falls; Sees Fiscal Year Production Below View

Today : Friday 26 October 2012
LONDON--African Barrick Gold PLC (ABG.LN) Friday reported pretax profit of 41.2 million dollars for the third quarter, down from 148.8 million dollars in the same period last year, and said its full year production will be 5-10% below the bottom of its previous range of 675,000 to 725,000 ounces of gold, at a total cash cost of $900-950 per ounce.




SHFT chart shows 10 day ma now about to hit the share price with the 20 day ma following close behind



No dead cat bounce from the current level with the Strikes and legal action overhanging SHFT means TA has now just about normalized



Thus 35p I think will soon become a resistance level





dyor

[buywell2] 25/10/2012 16:11

Rubbish

It's a wait and see at best

Folks are now saying SA will be a basket case by 2020

[noirua] 25/10/2012 11:57

SHFT look a goodish to fair gamble if bought between 30p and 40p. They seem intent on raising their profile and letting legal matters and 'dodgy' South Africa run their course, afterall, nothing can be done on those scores anyway.

[hectorp] 22/10/2012 11:37

I thought they were seeking $1800 a year. $1800 a month is a good wage there.

[buywell2] 22/10/2012 07:24

SHFT mentioned in a few papers over the W/E

On no positive news the share could carry on where it left off I would have thought

Will the miners pick up their tools and go back to work ?

Can't see it till they get a fair wage .... workers have realized that union officials have good wages, drive good cars , own nice houses and speak a lot to management.


''There are some 523,000 mine workers in South Africa today, down from 839,000 in the late 1980s. The Chamber of Mines says that the workers' wage demands are "unaffordable" and that as a result of the strikes they will close down more mines, reported Business Day Live Oct. 16.''















Vol. 76/No. 39 October 29, 2012


South Africa strikes spread,
gold miners reject deal
(front page)


BY SETH GALINSKY
While more than 100,000 striking miners in South Africa continue to press their fight for higher wages, 28,000 truck drivers approved a three-year contract after a two-week strike.

Striking gold miners rejected a deal Oct. 10, negotiated by officials of the National Union of Mineworkers and three gold mining companies that fell short of workers' demands for a substantial wage hike.

The proposal included moving up the lowest paid miners to the next highest pay grade and giving an additional allowance to rock drillers.

The African National Congress-led government, mining companies and NUM officials have been trying to end the strikes that since August have swept platinum, gold, chrome and coal mines across the country. They say the strikes are illegal because union contracts covering the mines have not expired.

More than 40 percent of the country's gold production has been shut down by some 50,000 gold miners, including the entire South African operation of London-based AngloGold Ashanti, the world's third-largest gold producer.

"We keep on trying to persuade the workers to accept the current offer," Kenneth Buda, National Union of Mineworkers coordinator at Gold Fields, told the Militant in a phone interview Oct. 15. "Whether or not management can offer the 16,000 rand a month [$1,800] the workers want, there will be repercussions.

"This is an illegal strike," Buda said. "We tell the workers it will be a different story altogether next year when the two-year contract expires and we will try by all means to meet their expectations."

Miners have disregarded the officials' pleas and promises. On Oct. 15, 8,500 workers at Gold Fields' KC East mine joined the strike.

Some 21,000 miners at Anglo American Platinum (Amplats), on strike since Sept. 12, are demanding that the company negotiate with delegates selected by the strikers, not with officials of the NUM or other mine unions. The company sent text messages firing 12,000 strikers Oct. 5.

Most of the workers live in informal settlements without electricity, running water or toilets.

The Amplats strike, while centered on wage demands, is also fueled by anger over the company's treatment of workers who are injured on the job. "Safety rules are used not to ensure safety, but as an excuse to fire workers," Gaddafi Mdoda, an underground miner widely quoted in the South African press as a spokesperson for the strike, told the Militant by phone Oct. 15. "Some who are injured never get a single payment from the company."

Mdoda said that the police and company security have attacked the strikers, noting that miner Mtshunquleni Qakama was killed last week when cops fired rubber bullets to break up a strike gathering. "They are making it hard to meet with the workers," he said.

Cops dispersed an Oct. 10 demonstration by hundreds of Amplats workers at the NUM regional office who said they wanted to cancel their membership in the union.

The Johannesburg Star reports that Amplats had been sending text messages to some workers, encouraging them to secretly report to work. Two workers who attempted to go to work were killed Oct. 11, allegedly by strike supporters.

Amplats has met with officials from the NUM and other unions in the mine to discuss the strike, but has rebuffed requests to meet with the committee selected by the striking miners.

"We are calling on the managers to engage us, to put something on the table," Mdoda said. "We would discuss it and see what will happen next."

Neither Amplats nor Gold Fields has responded to requests for comment.

Mine bosses, with the backing of the government, are also taking a hard line at other mines. Police and company security guards raided the Kumba Iron Ore mine in the Northern Cape Oct. 16 and arrested 40 strikers, who had ignored a court order instructing them to leave the mine premises. Some 300 workers had gone on strike there Oct. 3.

Chinese-owned Gold One fired more than 1,400 strikers at its Ezulwini uranium mine Oct. 9.

There are some 523,000 mine workers in South Africa today, down from 839,000 in the late 1980s. The Chamber of Mines says that the workers' wage demands are "unaffordable" and that as a result of the strikes they will close down more mines, reported Business Day Live Oct. 16.

A two-week strike by 28,000 truck drivers ended Oct. 12. The drivers, who demanded a 12 percent yearly increase, agreed to a three-year deal with a 10 percent wage increase the first year, 8 percent the second and 9 percent the third.

"The members are not fully happy," Vincent Masoga, a spokesperson for the drivers' South African Transport and Allied Workers' Union, told the Militant. "But they were willing to compromise."

[buywell2] 20/10/2012 17:14

PIM

Don't see you posting much on SBS these days , can I suggest you check out CRX if you have not done so , and in particular the last 3 announcements

Re SHFT

TA various indicators look now set to retest previous lows which would most likely tie in chartwise with my 25p call



You have to look at the BIG picture with Mining Sector Stocks .... it ain't pretty

I am expecting a general market pullback coming soon

The Pharma Biotech Sector being regarded as a safe haven could benefit

[petersinthemarket] 20/10/2012 15:35

Brucie5- Nice to hear from you again - I regret that the plain honest answer to your question is that I made a terrible mistake on this one and once feeling locked-in, so to speak, was not prepared to give in. Stupid! I should know better than to disagree with Mr Market when my whole working strategy relies largely on ignoring everything to do with a company except its share price trend.
In my (rather poor) defence, I felt that shft was a good company with exceptional prospects. Not being a miner itself, but working for any miner who would employ it, gave it the opportunity to pick and choose projects and I thought other better news would soon rebalance the market view.
Also, I believed that any spin-off damage being inflicted by issues propelling mine worker strikes would in due course be settled, but I do confess to a shudder of fear when the recent court action raised its head.
All in all I am now committed to having some capital remaining grimly locked in to shft and hoping that the management can sort it all out to our satisfaction. Surely, their own personal future depends on doing so.
Expensive though it is, and whilst it offers little consolation at the moment, I am convinced that we learn much more from our mistakes than our successes.
O/t - tks for reminder about ESSR. I am not yet invested there but it is near the top of my watchlist.
o/t - My most successful at present is CEY - worth a look if you are not already in.
o/t - much more risky, but interesting, is SBS.
rgds, PIM

[brucie5] 20/10/2012 13:38

Peter,
Out of respect and curiosity for your views and strategy, may i ask why you held on here when the chart was telling you to sell?



My experience, including many bitter lessons learned suggest to me that one ignores a chart at your peril, unless you're a Paulypilot, and really understand the underlying fundamentals, and why the market has got it wrong.

I say this, not to rub salt in a wound, but because we have a lot of ideas in common. My disaster last year was with CAD, where i did exactly the same thing. Lesson not so much learned, as relearned. One aspect of your approach, I've noticed, is not to sell up, in order to invest in new ideas.. Might SHFT not have been a case in point here? The first cut can be the kindest, etc.

ESSR looking promising btw. Are you in this?

[buywell2] 20/10/2012 08:21

Rubbish

This is what the latest RNS says

''Should the broader on-going industrial action in South Africa's mining industry continue, this may adversely affect the margin earned on the Company's South African operations''


It is another PROFIT WARNING , the 1st being



Since the above IC SELL REC , the legal issue has shown up , plus the SA strike situation worsening

Experienced investors know that these tend to come in 3's along with other excuses and waffle along the lines of ......

[noirua] 19/10/2012 22:38

I hope the directors of Shaft Sinkers are as tough and on their mettle as the directors of Pathfinders. I think they have one step to go yet but great resolve to now.

SHFT stock is all on a future court case and resolving strikes in South Africa. I doubt the strikes will matter that much in the longterm but uncertainty over court outcomes does.

[buywell2] 19/10/2012 14:44

Perhaps when the next profit warning comes could be the time eh ?

or maybe the one after that ?


What about when the chart shows a bottom shape and the share goes back up ..... that would be my suggestion

Till then I think ramping SHFT shares is strictly ' out of order '

[hectorp] 19/10/2012 13:15

ukinvestor220, that struck me when reading today's news.
However it is probable that Directors already hold shares from earlier times buought more expensively.
We are in a tough spot and no mistake as 2013 income looks that it will be weaker.
Of course there is always the possibility of new contracts elsewhere.
Remember the company is running on about 10 leads , it has achieved 2 contracts, so there could be more top come.
End of strikes or new contracts, could see 100% upside quite rapidly.
But I cannot advise buying today either.
H.

[buywell2] 19/10/2012 12:57

The RNS today is nothing more than a thinly veiled profit warning

These tend themselves to come in 3's

I expect another RNS within the next 6 weeks that put some numbers down

[ukinvestor220] 19/10/2012 12:00

have you not considered mngmnt are happy to see price down with negative rns so they can fill their own boots at some point

[petersinthemarket] 19/10/2012 11:48

Although appearing to be a generally competent company handling a very risky business, each time its management has to announce some new information it seems to me that they just make things worse. I suppose I should praise them for actually being open about everything, but I have seen nothing to usefully support the share price for some time now. Assuming the company has enough capital to support it then the only things management have to worry about are the ground conditions and the workers working conditions, and they seem to have made a hash of both of those. I have a large (for me) stake in shft and for most of this year I have been trying to decide whether to add, hold or ditch. So far, I have tried both of the former but in a company with so much potential I could not bring myself to believe that I needed to ditch. Especially as, for about 6 mths, it had looked as if we might at last have drawn some sort of baseline around 60 (although even that left me underwater). Then yet another announcement blew that one up too. Each time I think it cannot get any worse, it actually does. Even now I keep wondering whether to accept the heavy loss (which gets heavier week by week) or whether to stick it out on the basis that the managers will be trying extremely hard to sort this out. After all, it is not in their interests, any more than ours, to let the company fold under the strain. On balance, I guess I feel that there is more point in holding than quitting, now that so much share price damage has already occurred. And on a positive note, despite the enormous risk, anyone buying now, if we eventually see a flow of good news, could really make a lot of money. So, final words; FFS management, give us all something to cheer about!