Teck slide

The plan at Teck slide from this mornings presentation. (Image Teck)

A look at a few of my favourite news releases and some additional comments on each.

Teck Resources (TCK.B:TSX) - Teck shares are off ~6% this morning after releasing Q1 results. Despite weak commodity prices Teck managed to post a profit of $64 million (11 cents per share).

"Our ongoing focus on cost management and operational performance, aided by the strong U.S. dollar, is enabling our diversified business to withstand the generally weak commodity price environment, allowing all of our operations to generate positive operating cash flows after our sustaining capital spending," said Don Lindsay, president and chief executive officer.

All in all it appears to be a decent quarter for Teck as they navigate the current commodity price environment.  As of today Teck has $1.4 billion in cash on the balance sheet and plans on finishing 2015 with roughly ~$1 billion.

Teck did cuts its its dividend by 66% to maintain its balance sheet.

Operational profits struggled due to lower coal and copper prices but were slightly offset by a higher US dollar. At current commodity prices, each one-cent decline in the U.S./Canadian dollar exchange rate has an effect on Teck's annual EBITDA of approximately $52-million, depending on sales volumes.

Teck continues to move forward with the large Fort Hills oil project which will require substantial investment through 2017. Teck's share of Fort Hills cash expenditures in 2015 is estimated at $850-million.

A commodity giant like Teck will be a go to name to watch if base metal and or coal prices start to pick up.

Read: Teck Reports Unaudited First Quarter Results for 2015

Watch (BNN) : Teck slashes dividend by 66%

Goviex Uranium - (GXU:CNSX) - Goviex is out with an NI 43-101 resource estimate on the Marianne and Marilyn projects.  The projects are part of the Madaouela project located in northern Niger.

Total Resources at the project are now 110.76 million pounds (Mlb) U3O8 (Measured+Indicated) and 27.66 Mlb U3O8 (Inferred) at a 0.4 kg/t eU cut-off.

"The expansion of the M&M Mineral Resource continues to highlight the exploration potential of the Madaouela Project. The more metres we've drilled, the more uranium we've found," said Govind Friedland, Goviex's Founder and Executive Chairman.

The market cap of Goviex is only $12.8 million so it is clear that the market is not really paying attention here. A large chunk of the discount could be political risk and the worries of Niger.

The government of Niger holds a 10% interest in all mining projects upon he conversion from exploration to mining license.  The government can than purchase an additional 30% equity interest.

The other major issue is that the project is not worth building at current uranium prices. A 2011 PEA using $65/lb uranium showed an IRR of 22%.

Uranium companies continue to stay fairly quiet in the market place as Japan just last week delayed starting up the first couple plants. No question the long term fundamentals look excellent but the market does not excite me in the short term at all.

Read: GoviEx updates Marianne and Marilyn Uranium Mineral Resource

Related: This massive uranium deposit in Niger is almost shovel ready

Excellon Resources - (EXN:TSX)-  High grade silver producer Excellon Resources is out with production results for the the first quarter. The La Platosa mine in Durango, Mexico is the highest grade silver producer of any public company I know of at 553 grams per tonne.

Production came in at  408,095 AgEq ounces in the quarter a significant decline of 589,881 AgEq ounces in Q1 2014. Excellon is having issues due to excess water and production is currently limited at < 200 tonnes per day.

"Production is steadily getting back on track at Platosa," stated Brendan Cahill, president and chief executive officer. "We have further development work ahead of us to resume production rates of 200 tonnes per day, but our team continues to identify areas where costs can be further reduced or streamlined, which will serve us well going forward. The greatest opportunity at Platosa continues to be the improved water management system we have been developing, which we expect to provide an update on in the near term."

Investors will need to wait until May 14th to determine if EXN was profitable in the quarter. Working Capital at the end of 2014 was $6.2 million.

It is highly unlikely EXN turned a profit as all in costs in 2014 were $21.69 and $19.62 in 2013.

Silver producers continue to struggle at current silver prices. I am wondering when we will see some mines close down?

Read: Excellon Announces First Quarter 2015 Production

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This is not investment advice. All facts are to be checked and verified by reader. As always please do your own due diligence.