VIDEO - Thom Calandra: Favorite Lithium, Graphite and Uranium Stocks

Thom Calandra of the Calandra Report follows a wide variety of commodities, and at the recent New Orleans Investment Conference he took the time to discuss the lithium, graphite and uranium sectors.
Despite the excitement surrounding the lithium sector, Calandra has just one lithium stock in his portfolio: Nemaska Lithium (TSX:NMX). “It’s at an all-time high right now, and it’s a producer,” he said, adding, “Guy Bourassa is doing a great job running that company with a lot of integrity and economically.”
Graphite has received less attention in recent years, but Calandra said that good companies in the space have started to see their share prices move. He mentioned a couple he’s looking at currently, and also touched on the beleaguered uranium market.
“You can buy a deep-value company that has a billion or $2-billion market cap, like Ivanhoe Mines (TSX:IVN), which is $3 billion, but you can also buy some of these orphans that are trading at $100 million or $50 million,” he explained. “CanAlaska Uranium (TSXV:CVV) is a great orphan right now, and there are quite a few orphans out there.”
The video above is part two of our interview with Calandra; click here to watch part one, which covers gold and cryptocurrencies. You can also view the transcript for this interview below.

INN: There’s been a lot of attention for base metals this year and for battery metals. What would you say is your favorite metal, or your favorite group of metals this year?
TC: Well in that area, I only own one lithium company because there’s so many lithium companies … [if you] start a company, it’s going to be a lithium company. Sure, they’ve had a nice shine, [but] the only one I own in that group is Nemaska Lithium in Quebec. It’s at an all-time high right now, and it’s a producer. It has a new plant there in Northern Quebec, and Guy Bourassa is doing a great job running that company with a lot of integrity and economically.
The way I’m playing the rechargeables right now is graphite, and I have one big graphite investment. Graphite is also necessary for cathodes and anodes and … I mean, graphite’s been stuck in neutral forever. Lots of different prices for graphite flakes and quality of graphite. I own yet another Quebec company, [it’s] small and growing, called Nouveau Monde Mining Enterprises (TSXV:NOU). So Nouveau Monde, “new world graphite,” has a project, Matawinie, about two hours north of Montreal. I’ve been there twice, and just in the past two weeks this company and a couple of other good graphite companies — there aren’t that many great graphite companies — I’ve seen their shares moving. So I own Nouveau Monde, and the others, the leaders to watch, are Mason Graphite (TSXV:LLG), which is in Quebec. And I think Northern Graphite (TSXV:NGC) deserves a look too, their project is in Ontario.
INN: As we’re heading into the end of the year, what would be your key piece of advice for investors in 2018?
TC: If you’re a deep-value investor like I am, that’s how I made my name — the Calandra Report and the TCR Network and the work that I did at MarketWatch and MarketWatch.com was all about deep value. You can buy a deep-value company that has a billion or $2-billion market cap, like Ivanhoe Mines, which is $3 billion, but you can also buy some of these orphans that are trading at $100 million or $50 million. I’ve always gone to bat for some of the micro caps. As long as you can withstand being a deep-value investor, not a momentum investor. Remember, momentum is what’s moving the blue chips, the biggest companies in the world, the Fortune 100, the Fortune 1,000 companies — their papers are getting more and more expensive, as measured by every single blue-chip equity index that’s out there.
But if you believe in small, well run, economic, honest, with a great idea and track record, exploration right now is terrific. There are companies that are making some natural resource discoveries that happen to be doing well. Of course, their stocks are still down 25 percent from their highs, or 30 percent. But it’s a good time to be buying Golden Predator (TSXV:GPY) in the Yukon, high-grade gold, Newrange Gold (TSXV:NRG).
And uranium, now there’s something — how do you wrap your head around uranium? I made a lot of money about a year and a half ago with CanAlaska Uranium, and I started buying it again because it’s at an all-time low, [and] we’re talking about a company with only 27 million shares outstanding or something. Peter Dasler and Karl Schimann and their team of geologists have done a good job identifying properties, [and] vending part of them to the Camecos (TSX:CCO,NYSE:CCJ) of the world and diversifying their risk — getting larger uranium companies and in some cases diamond companies, in and around the Athabasca Basin in Canada, to do the exploration. I’m hopeful — of course, the uranium price has just been slammed. It’s just terrible because there’s still a lot of old supply, reconditioned uranium. CanAlaska is a great orphan right now, and there are quite a few orphans out here.
Don’t forget to follow us @INN_Resource for real-time news updates!
Securities Disclosure: I, Charlotte McLeod, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
Editorial Disclosure: The Investing News Network does not guarantee the accuracy or thoroughness of the information reported in the interviews it conducts. The opinions expressed in these interviews do not reflect the opinions of the Investing News Network and do not constitute investment advice. All readers are encouraged to perform their own due diligence.
Golden Predator, Nemaska Lithium and Newrange Gold are clients of the Investing News Network. This article is not paid-for content.