Profile: Lukas Lundin
Like I've said many times in the past, I love to follow what the rich and successful are doing.
I figure that if they have gotten to be rich, they will continue to increase their wealth by continuing to do what made them money in the past. Now of course, many people go from rags to riches and back to rags within a lifetime but I would think that more of those individuals stay wealthy.
The next person that I will begin to track is Lukas Lundin. Myself being quite new to him, here is the profile he likes companies he's affiliated with to use:
Born in 1958, Lukas Lundin was raised in Stockholm, Sweden and educated at the Ecole Internationale de Genève in Switzerland. In 1981, Mr. Lundin graduated from the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (engineering).
At age 25, Mr. Lundin headed International Petroleum Corporation's extensive and rapidly growing international operations and was based in the Company's technical office in Dubai, U.A.E. for over 12 years. From 1990 to June 1995, Mr. Lundin was President of International Musto Exploration Limited and was responsible for Musto's acquisition of the Bajo de la Alumbrera deposit. Bajo de la Alumbrera was the subject of a $500 million takeover by Rio Algom and North Limited and is now one of the largest gold/copper producers in the world. Mr. Lundin was also responsible for Argentina Gold and the discovery of the multi-million ounce Veladero gold deposit. Veladero was the subject of a $300 million takeover by Homestake in 1999. In addition, Mr. Lundin was a senior Director of Lundin Oil AB and was instrumental in the $480 million takeover of Lundin Oil by Talisman Energy in 2001. Mr. Lundin is currently a Director of a number of publicly traded resource companies.
A world traveler and motorcycle racing enthusiast, Mr. Lundin has twice completed the grueling 10,000 kilometre Dakar race across the Sahara Desert. He has climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, Mont Blanc and the Matterhorn. In the winter, he can be found helicopter skiing in Whistler and in summer, dirt bike racing with his four boys in Baja California.
Lundin is a risk taker who always likes to think big. Would it be intelligent then to invest in companies he is affiliated with? Well judging by the past, you would have made a killing in many of them.
More on Lundin's philosophy and opinions can be read in the excellent KitcoCasey Interview with him.
Here is an important comment that backs up my and many others opinions that we are in for a huge resource bull market for many years to come:
XL: You seem to be almost a "resource agnostic", in that you are working on oil, gas, uranium, precious metals, base metals – all over the world. Do you have any sectors that are particular favorites?
Lukas: I like uranium a lot. But uranium is always political, so you have to be careful with it. I'm a big bull on oil in general because I think we're at peak oil now. I don't think the world can produce much more oil. I don't know if it's today or in five years, but I'm very bullish on energy in general. And I'm very bullish on base metals. The only thing that could stop this cycle is if the oil price goes too high. As long as the oil price doesn't go crazy on us, I think the metals prices will be high for a long time. There hasn't been any big investment in base metals over the last 20 years. There's not a lot of new production coming out – some mine expansions, but no big mines. Last copper cycle, we had Grasberg and Escondida and some super giants. We don't have any of those right now on the drawing board. Yes, we have Oyu Tolgoi and Tenke Fungurume, but it's about five or six years away before those things are in full production. And zinc has been even worse hit because it was so overproduced during the last 10 years that there's been no investment there. And I think the zinc market has changed a bit because of galvanization. Everything is galvanized now. And that's new in the last five or six years. Over the next two or three years, it looks very good.
Nothing is guaranteed but for the curious, here is a list of all the companies that Lundin has either large stakes in or is part of the management (in no particular order):
Red Back Mining: RBI.TO
133,765 shares
130,000 options
Tenke Mining: TNK.TO
248,650 shares
250,000 options
Tanganyika Oil: TYK.V
238,083 shares
100,000 options
Valkyries Petroleum: VPC.V
88,367 shares
Atacama Minerals: AAM.V
385,400 shares
100,000 options
International Uranium: IUC.TO
121,000 shares
270,000 options
Canadian Gold Hunter: CGH.TO
130,350 shares
60,000 options
Canmex Minerals: CXM.V
113,750 shares
Fortress Minerals: FST.V
375,000 shares
200,000 options
Lundin Mining: LUN.TO
51,831 shares
Newstrike Capital: NES.H.V
2,150,000 shares
Pearl Exploration: PXX.V
12,675,000 shares
THR Gold: TNR.V
143,000 shares
250,000 warrants
I have to be honest and say that all these companies are new to me at the moment. Perhaps I will have time over the coming months and weeks to do more research and offer some opinions on them. But just by knowing that Ludin is part of all of them, they should pass the management test no problem...