Pesos To Pennies In Colombia | Plus -- Paramount's Sleeper
MEDELLIN, Colombia -- Just my good luck. Colombia's peso is trumping Latin America's currency declines this week against the American dollar.
That is powerful if you are in my shoes. I just landed in the city of Medellin. On the very day of Russia's ruble rout.
Colombia is where I made millions of USD on paper, CUSIP paper that then shriveled entirely in three years of open-pit, alluvial and underground mining.
The cheaper Colombia peso is a theme you will hear lots about. And the cheaper Mexico peso. Brazilian real. Norwegian krone. Canadian dollar. Any oil-lubed economy.
These are the oil producing nations this week whose currencies are crushed. A year ago, they were all riding high: outpaced economic growth, steady inflation, stable currencies.
At tourism level here in the Poster Child Latin American city of Medellin, the ATM in trendy El Poblado neighborhood cashes me out with 2,400 pesos to the dollar, 20 percent more than a day ago.
Cheap pesos? That's cheap and fast pesos. Looking good for now in the ruble rout are growers of coffee, orchids, makers of anything that North Americans want to buy cheaper than they did a week ago.
Medellin, city of 4 million, is the cultural and business originator of this country (don't tell far larger Bogota that).
The boom for ordinary North Americans here in one of the world's most innovative cities will be specialized medical care. It is big biz here in Medellin. The spanking new 'tourism' hospital at suburban Rio Negro, next to the airport, is finally ready to open.
BOTOX for $480 instead of $600? Cosmetic surgery. Hip replacements. Plastic reconstruction. Spectacular meals from 30 area restaurants while recuperating. Oh yum.
Ceramics in EL Carmen, Antioquia, are everywhere
Colombia's cheap peso is a godsend for those tourist hospitals. It is a godsend for ceramics businesses, flower growers, coffee bean growers (to a point, anyway).
It is a diablo-send devilish whirl for a country that imports a heck of a lot of goods from North America.
I am going to keep on this currency move. They rarely get as dramatic as this one was this week. Just pray you are not a Colombian, or a Bolivian, or a Mexican, who sends American dollars north. You are so scr*w*d.
Notes: Paramount Gold & Silver (TSX: PZG, Stock Forum) did its deal -- something around 90 cents a share for the San Miguel Mexico property, if Coeur Mining (NYSE: CDE, Stock Forum) shares hold their value. I believe the spinoff Sleeper Mine and surrounding concession in Nevada are worth $100-odd million against the $145 million transaction value for the Mexico land.
I was there in Nevada, swimming in the Sleeper tailings pond -- to show it was free of toxins, remember that? Some 15 months ago. SeeThom Calandra Video Booth
Saludos to Paramount's Chris Crupi and his team. As with about a dozen or so of these small gold-silver-copper prospectors, we got it, or are getting it, spot-on correct in terms of acquisitions and combinations. We just were a tad early at Paramount, by about a year. See:September 2013
Later this week, a look at a dinnerware ceramics business, Azulina.com (photo here of neighborhood art near factory in the town of El Carmen) in Colombia, and how the cheap peso makes its prospects all of a sudden look a lot better than even a week ago. ... Also coming: Condoto Platinum in Colombia -- what was I thinking, alluvial platinum in guerilla valleys and hillsides?
-- Thom Calandra
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Thom Calandra & TCR are researchers and investors. They are not registered investment advisers, nor do they wish to be. The research and material they offer to subscribers are meant as editorial opinion.