Investors eyeing a rebound among small-cap stocks likely won’t get much help from the major commodities, at least not in the near future, a resource investment conference was told Sunday.
So it may be up to the juniors themselves to kick-start the revival by coming up with the kind of discoveries that draw investors back in the sector in a big way.
That was the view of investment newsletter writers who spoke on the first day of the Cambridge House International, World Resource Investment Conference in Vancouver.
“Investors should work on the assumption that we are not going to see big spikes in any of the commodities,’’ said Eric Coffin, Hard Rock Analyst publisher, who opened the conference by presenting a list of companies that he believes have “discovery potential.”
Companies in that category include Colorado Resources Ltd. (TSX: V.CXO, Stock Forum), a junior which has seen its stock price soar to over $1.70 from under 20 cents last month, on the strength of drilling results from the company’s North Rok copper-gold discovery in northern British Columbia.
Although exploration is still in the very early stages, California-based newsletter writer John Kaiser said he could see the stock trading at between $5 to $10 in the next 12 to 18 months.
The Kaiser Bottom-Fishing Report publisher said investors have been impressed because copper and gold grades the initial hole are much higher than similar porphyry copper/gold discoveries in the region.
Colorado President and CEO Adam Travis is scheduled to give investors an update at the Cambridge conference on Monday, one that is likely to be well attended.
Another junior on Coffin’s list is Mundoro Capital Inc., (TSX: V.MUN, Stock Forum), which is exploring gold-copper targets in Serbia and was trading last week at 33.5 cents, leaving the company with a market cap of $14 million, based on 42 million shares outstanding.
Coffin said he likes the stock because it is trading at below cash value, and also because it has exploration licenses adjacent to Reservoir Minerals Inc. (TSX: V.RMC, Stock Forum) and Freeport McMoran Exploration Corp.’s Timok copper gold project where Freeport has launched a bankable feasibility study.
Highlights from drilling at Timok include 291.3 metres of 7.17% copper equivalent, averaging 5.13% copper and 3.4 grams gold per tonne.
Meanwhile, oil sector analyst Keith Schaefer of the Oil & Gas Investments Bulletin offered up a list of companies that could benefit from the expected build-out in British Columbia of infrastructure designed to ship Canadian liquefied natural gas into Japan and other key Asian markets.
One of them is Macro Enterprises Inc. (TSX: V.MCR, Stock Forum), a pipeline industry service provider, which was trading last week at $3.13, leaving the company with a market cap of $76 million, based on 24.3 million shares outstanding.
Schaefer said he bought the stock at $2.12 after discovering that company has kept an extremely low profile. That was before the stock jumped to around $2.40 after the ruling Liberals were returned to power in the recent B.C. election, a development that is expected to benefit the LNG sector.
The Cambridge House International conference continues today (Monday).