Crystallex stock still doing ‘the yo yo’

October 22, 2007

Greetings investors!

You’ve gotta love Crystallex International Corp. (KRY.TSX).

The Canadian miner got involved in Venezuela shortly after Robert Friedland began that huge-budget, ill-fated exploration venture in Kilometer 88 in the early 1990s (was it Venezuela Goldfields? Can’t remember now…)

Crystallex then fought a prolonged battle with the former Placer Dome for its current holdings there,  the Las Cristinas project,  in Bolivar State.

During that time I saw the stock price go from pennies to over $11 per share and back again. But I’ve learned one thing through it all: these guys thrive on adversity and controversy. I’ll put my money on them anytime.

The most recent chapter in the stock price occured last winter when Jim Cramer announced a `no confidence` vote in Venezuelan mining projects (or any foreign projects there in fact) due to the nuttiness of Hugo Chavez, the president of the republic. Shares of KRY dropped from $4.50 Cdn to $2.75 in a hearbeat, then rallied back to a 52 week high of almost $6 Cdn per share within four months.

Now the stock price is doing it again, testing its 52 week low on news of a `restatement`of the company`s exploration costs at Las Cristina.

I`m not sure what it would take to kill these guys: Placer Dome, Hugo Chavez, a prolonged bear market for gold, and now GAAT have all failed to put them under.

So with the stock at $2.50 Cdn per share, I`d say buy, and wait for the next round of good news.

That will hopefully come in the form of a reserve calculation at Las Christinas, which would be the final chapter in this long, long story.

I think…

Be careful out there.

The BarkerLetter on October 22nd 2007 in Commodity investing

3 Responses to “Crystallex stock still doing ‘the yo yo’”

  1. jcaldwell responded on 23 Oct 2007 at 8:20 am #

    Only a Canadian with faith in socialist dictators could offer advice to buy in this situation. Are you serious or are you stretching the bounds of credibility? Or are you simply investing your Cuban granny’s nest egg?

  2. The BarkerLetter responded on 23 Oct 2007 at 5:13 pm #

    … ha ha, well go ahead and short them Jack. See what happens …

  3. Zeke Zebra responded on 24 Feb 2008 at 7:00 pm #

    Crystallex has a market capitalization of under 1/2 billion dollars. The gold reserve it is trying to get at, has a value of over $13 billion dollars. a 26 to 1 return on the investment. Its why the company believes in its mission, and the investors will continue to hold the stock in good times and bad. Companys think in terms of decades, Speculators think in terms of milliseconds. With $2 down and $26 up.
    It is suprising that Crystallex has not been bought out by a larger mining company.

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