North American Palladium / PDL, PALDF (TSX, OTC)

Tim Murray of metals refiner Johnson Matthey tells Simon Constable the U.S. probably won't see a platinum exchange-traded fund, but demand for catalytic converters will keep consumption of the metal robust.
Mon Nov 19 2007 18:38:30 GMT+0100 -- Simon Constable
Companies: GLD | JMPLF | LNMIY | PAL | SWC

Mark Anthony submits:
Frank McAllister, CEO of Stillwater Mining (SWC), would call palladium a Cinderella Metal. I agree with him not only on the reasons he cited but more importantly because palladium (Pd) really is a very romantic fairy tale metal that breaks several known physics laws, literally. I am not a crackpot theorist trying to overthrow modern science. Let me explain why palladium defied several physics laws.

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TORONTO, ONTARIO, Nov 27, 2007 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) -- North American Palladium Ltd. (CA:PDL: news, chart, profile) (PAL: north amern palladium ltd com) announced today that it has filed a preliminary prospectus supplement with Canadian and US securities regulators relating to a proposed marketed unit offering of US$100 million, each unit to comprise one common share and one-half of a common share purchase warrant of North American Palladium.
The Company plans to use the net proceeds received from the offering to fund the growth and development of its operations and, in particular, to advance its three main projects: the Offset High Grade Zone at the Lac des Iles mine, the Shebandowan West Project, located approximately 100 kilometres from the mine, and the Arctic Platinum Project in Finland.
The Company will be offering the units under an existing shelf prospectus which is filed in Canada and under the multijurisdictional disclosure system in the United States. Merrill Lynch & Co. is acting as lead underwriter and bookrunner for the offering. The underwriting syndicate also includes BMO Capital Markets, HSBC Securities (Canada) Inc. and UBS Securities. The underwriters will have the option to purchase up to an additional 15% of the units issued to cover over-allotments.
A shelf registration statement relating to these securities has been filed with and declared effective by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and the base shelf prospectus and preliminary prospectus supplement relating to these securities have been filed with each of the provincial securities regulatory authorities in Canada.
A copy of the preliminary prospectus supplement and the accompanying base shelf prospectus may be obtained through http://www.sec.gov or http://www.sedar.com. Alternatively, you can request a copy of the preliminary prospectus supplement and the base shelf prospectus by contacting Merrill Lynch & Co. at 4 World Financial Center, 250 Vesey Street, New York, NY 10080 (telephone: 212-449-1000) or 181 Bay Street, Suite 400, Toronto, Ontario M5J 2V8 (telephone: 416-369-7400).
This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or province in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or province.
About North American Palladium
North American Palladium is Canada's foremost primary producer of palladium. The Company's core palladium business at the Lac des Iles mine is strengthened by a significant contribution from nickel, platinum, gold and copper by-product metals.
Please visit http://www.napalladium.com for further information on North American Palladium.

In a previous article I discussed that palladium could be the best commodity investment and I recommend that people buy the stocks of Stillwater Mining Company (SWC) and North American Palladium (PAL) for leveraged long term profit from the coming palladium super bull. These two North American mining companies are the only primary PGM metal producers outside Russia and South Africa. I discussed the major reasons why palladium is super bullish, including the end of the Russian stockpile sale soon; some determined investors have been loading quietly since 2003; auto companies switching to the cheaper palladium for catalysts converters; emerging PGM metal applications including the red hot fuel cell batteries in vehicles, as well as in mobile electronics; and the more exotic prospective that cold fusion could become a commercial reality, bringing the palladium price to unimaginable level if that happens.

As of this writing, the stock price of PAL has been pushed from recent high of $12.65 to a multi-year low of only $3.40, while prices of its metal products are near multi-year highs. I have sufficient reasons to believe this is a deliberate stock price manipulation.

This is an extremely rare opportunity that investors need to seize immediately and load up PAL at this incredibly low entry price, I urge people to rush in to buy. For all those folks who could not bear the pain and sold, now is time to buy back your shares. Don't let some one else steal your shares at this dirt cheap price.

PAL started the drop from $8.05 a share, on November 5th, 2007, when a Q3 loss of 25 cents was reported, far worse than estimates. The plummet worsened when PAL announces a $100M secondary public offer on November 27, 2007, with the offer units and price yet to be determined at the time. PAL reached the low of $4.04 on December 10, and the secondary offer price was fixed at $4 that evening, number of offer unit was fixed at 14M, for a total of $56M.

The next day, on December 11th, PAL saw extremely high volume of trade, more than one million shares were traded in just the first 5 minute. More than 7.89M shares traded that day, and the stock was pushed to the low of $3.40 a share at close. The next day, December 12 saw reduced but still significant trade volume, and the stock price recovered some to close at $3.54.

It looks like a well defined bottom upon the conclusion of secondary offer. Once the offer is closed (today, December 13, 2007), the conventional wisdom is the stock should rally back up.

I believe the PAL's Q3 loss result, as well as the secondary offer announced right after a bad quarterly result, were deliberately planned for the sole purpose of depressing stock price and get the secondary offering priced as low as possible, so as to allow certain big stake holders to increase their stakes at the lowest cost possible, and shake out retail investors. There was also carefully timed and concerted market manipulations going on to mercilessly hammer the stock down during the trading hours for the last few weeks.

Why do I believe that the Q3 result was deliberately depressed? I examined the financial report for the third quarter, and discovered that the sales revenue reported is way much lower than that in first quarter, during which PAL reported a 10 cents per share profit. The Q1 sales revenue was $68.4M, while the Q3 sales revenue was only $36.492M. It was way much less!

Further, the $36.492M sales revenue in Q3 just does not look right, judging from the amount of metals produced and their realize prices. For the calculation I used the metal producton numbers from page 3; Palladium sales price from page 2; byproduct metal prices from page 6, and the sales revenue break down from page 25. I did the calculation, and found that indeed the numbers do not look right:

So we see that the total value of metals produced was $51.33M, but the actual sales revenue was only $36.492M. The shortcoming is as high as $14.84M, more than the reported quarterly loss of $14M. Clearly, the PAL management did not sell all of the metals produced. They held some metals back, and reported reduced sales revenue as well as quarterly loss. The quarterly loss was an intended result!

Once we understand that the quarterly loss was a planned result, it's now easy to understand why the management chose to announce a secondary offering right after a bad quarterly result depressed the stock price, knowing full well that such an announcement of secondary offering could only further depress the share price, and dilute share value.

Because a share price drop must be the intended result! There must be some internal pressure from certain big share holders to produce the quarterly loss they want to see, and then a secondary offer announcement to depress stock price.

Because somebody must want to load cheap shares to increase their stake at as low a cost as possible. That is why! Folks, now you understand why you are forced to sell your shares at dirt cheap price? Somebody wants to grab your cheap shares!

People need to wake up and hurry to buy back the shares they lost! Now is the right time!

Full Disclosure: The author is holding long positions in both PAL and SWC stocks.

TORONTO, ONTARIO, Dec 10, 2007 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) -- North American Palladium Ltd. (CA:PDL) (PAL: PAL) announced today that it has exercised its option to form an operating joint venture with Vale Inco Limited (formerly CVRD Inco Limited) over the Shebandowan Property, located west of Thunder Bay, Ontario and within 100 kilometers of the Company's Lac des Iles mine.
The Company is party to an option and joint venture agreement with Vale Inco entitling it to earn a 50% interest in the former producing Shebandowan mine and the surrounding Haines and Conacher properties, totaling approximately 7,842 hectares. In order to earn a 50% interest in the property, the Company incurred $3 million in exploration expenditures and made cash payments totaling $200,000. Vale Inco retains the remaining 50% interest in the Shebandowan Property.
The Shebandowan Property includes the Shebandowan West Project, a nickel-copper-PGM property that encompasses three shallow mineralized zones known as the West, Road and "D" zones. The Shebandowan West Project's mineralization is believed to represent the western extension of the Shebandowan mine orebody, which was in operation from 1972 to 1998. A mineral resource estimate for the Shebandowan West Project, prepared in compliance with National Instrument 43-101, was released on October 25, 2007.
The Company is considering a mine development scenario for the Shebandowan West Project that would entail excavation of the mineralization from the Shebandowan West Project by means of ramp-accessed underground mining methods at a rate of 500 to 1,000 tonnes per day, crushing the material on site and transporting it by truck to the Lac des Iles property for processing at a refurbished mill. A scoping study and baseline environmental sampling are ongoing. If the results of the scoping study are favorable, the Company intends to commence a feasibility study and bulk sampling during the first half of 2008.
About North American Palladium
North American Palladium is Canada's foremost primary producer of palladium. The Company's core palladium business at the Lac des Iles mine is strengthened by a significant contribution from nickel, platinum, gold and copper by-product metals.
About Vale Inco Limited
Vale Inco Limited is a leading producer of nickel, copper, cobalt and precious metals, based in Toronto, Canada. Vale Inco is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (RIO: companhia vale do rio doce sponsored adr) , one of the world's largest mining companies. Vale Inco has more than 12,000 employees worldwide and had net sales last year of over US$8 billion. Vale Inco is committed to the pursuit of sustainable growth by operating with respect for the natural environment and being an ethically and socially responsible company.
Please visit http://www.napalladium.com for further information on North American Palladium.

TORONTO, ONTARIO, Dec 10, 2007 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) -- North American Palladium Ltd. (CA:PDL) (PAL: north amern palladium ltd com) announced that it has entered into an underwriting agreement today in connection with its previously announced public unit offering in Canada and the United States.
The offering will be made under a prospectus supplement to North American Palladium's shelf prospectus dated November 16, 2007. The underwriters have agreed to purchase 14 million units at a price of US$4.00 per unit (C$4.04 per unit). Each unit consists of one common share and one half of a common share purchase warrant of North American Palladium. Each whole warrant will entitle the holder to purchase one common share at a price of US$5.05 per share at any time on or prior to two years from the date of the closing of this offering, expected to occur on December 13, 2007. The units will mandatorily separate after the closing of this offering into common shares and warrants. The ticker symbols for the warrants are PDL.WT on the TSX and PAL.WS on AMEX.
The offering will generate gross proceeds to North American Palladium of approximately US$56 million before underwriting commissions, expenses and the exercise of the pre-emptive rights and overallotment option, if any, and before exercise of the warrants. As more fully described in the prospectus supplement, Kaiser-Francis Oil Company and IP Synergy Finance Inc. each has a pre-existing right to subscribe at the public offering price for up to 12.5% of the total equity securities being offered by North American Palladium. KFOC and IP Synergy have until 8:45 pm EST on December 11, 2007 to exercise this right.
The lead manager of the underwriting syndicate is Merrill Lynch & Co. The co-managers are BMO Capital Markets, HSBC Securities (Canada) Inc. and UBS Securities Canada Inc. The underwriters have an option to purchase up to 2.1 million additional units to cover over-allotments for a period of 30 days after the date of the final prospectus supplement.
The net proceeds of the offering will be used to fund the growth and development of North American Palladium's operations and, in particular, to advance its three main projects: the Offset High Grade Zone at the Lac des Iles mine, the Shebandowan West Project and the Arctic Platinum Project in Finland. The net proceeds of the offering may also be used for general corporate purposes.
A copy of the final prospectus supplement and the accompanying base shelf prospectus will be available through http://www.sec.gov or http://www.sedar.com. Alternatively, you can request a copy of the final prospectus supplement and the base shelf prospectus by contacting Merrill Lynch & Co. at 4 World Financial Center, 250 Vesey Street, New York, NY 10080 (telephone: 212-449-1000) or 181 Bay Street, Suite 400, Toronto, Ontario M5J 2V8 (telephone: 416-369-7400). Copies of the final prospectus supplement are expected to be available on December 12, 2007.
This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or province in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or province.
About North American Palladium
North American Palladium is Canada's foremost primary producer of palladium. The Company's core palladium business at the Lac des Iles mine is strengthened by a significant contribution from nickel, platinum, gold and copper by-product metals.

TORONTO, ONTARIO, Dec 12, 2007 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) -- North American Palladium Ltd. (CA:PDL) (PAL: north amern palladium ltd com) is pleased to announce that Kaiser-Francis Oil Company has elected to exercise its right to fully subscribe for 25% of the unit offering, resulting in increased gross proceeds of approximately US$75 million from US$56 million.
The offering is being made under a prospectus supplement to North American Palladium's shelf prospectus dated November 16, 2007. After giving effect to the participation of Kaiser-Francis Oil Company, the Company will issue 18,666,667 units at a price of US$4.00 per unit (C$4.04 per unit). Each unit consists of one common share and one half of a common share purchase warrant of North American Palladium. Each whole warrant will entitle the holder to purchase one common share at a price of US$5.05 per share at any time on or prior to two years from the date of the closing of this offering, expected to occur on December 13, 2007. The units will mandatorily separate after the closing of this offering into common shares and warrants. The ticker symbols for the warrants are PDL.WT on the TSX and PAL.WS on AMEX.
As more fully described in the prospectus supplement, Kaiser-Francis Oil Company had a pre-existing right to subscribe at the public offering price for up to 25% of the total units being offered by North American Palladium.
North American Palladium has also granted the underwriters an over-allotment option to purchase an additional 2.1 million units for a period of 30 days after the date of the final prospectus supplement. Assuming the completion of the offering and the full exercise of the over-allotment option, Kaiser-Francis Oil Company will have the right to purchase an additional 700,000 units.
The lead manager of the underwriting syndicate is Merrill Lynch & Co. The co-managers are BMO Capital Markets, HSBC Securities (Canada) Inc. and UBS Securities Canada Inc.
The net proceeds of the offering will be used to fund the growth and development of North American Palladium's operations and, in particular, to advance its three main projects: the Offset High Grade Zone at the Lac des Iles mine, the Shebandowan West Project and the Arctic Platinum Project in Finland. The net proceeds of the offering may also be used for general corporate purposes.
A copy of the final prospectus supplement and the accompanying base shelf prospectus will be available through http://www.sec.gov or http://www.sedar.com. Alternatively, you can request a copy of the final prospectus supplement and the base shelf prospectus by contacting Merrill Lynch & Co. at 4 World Financial Center, 250 Vesey Street, New York, NY 10080 (telephone: 212-449-1000) or 181 Bay Street, Suite 400, Toronto, Ontario M5J 2V8 (telephone: 416-369-7400). Copies of the final prospectus supplement are expected to be available on December 12, 2007.
This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or province in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or province.
About North American Palladium
North American Palladium is Canada's foremost primary producer of palladium. The Company's core palladium business at the Lac des Iles mine is strengthened by a significant contribution from nickel, platinum, gold and copper by-product metals.

TORONTO, ONTARIO, Dec 13, 2007 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) -- North American Palladium Ltd. (CA:PDL) (PAL: north amern palladium ltd com) is pleased to announce that it has closed its public offering of 18,666,667 units at a price of US$4.00 per unit (C$4.04 per unit) for total gross proceeds of approximately US$75 million. Each unit consists of one common share and one half of a common share purchase warrant of North American Palladium. Each whole warrant will entitle the holder to purchase one common share at a price of US$5.05 per share at any time on or prior to December 13, 2009. The proceeds of the offering will be used to fund the growth and development of the Company's operations and, in particular, to advance the Offset High Grade Zone Project, the Shebandowan West Project and the Arctic Platinum Project. The net proceeds of the offering may also be used for general corporate purposes.
The lead manager of the underwriting syndicate was Merrill Lynch & Co. Co-managers were BMO Capital Markets, HSBC Securities (Canada) Inc. and UBS Securities Canada Inc. North American Palladium has granted the underwriters an option to purchase up to 2,100,000 additional units prior to January 11, 2008 to cover over-allotments. In addition, assuming the full exercise of the over-allotment option, Kaiser-Francis Oil Company will have the right to purchase an additional 700,000 units at the public offering price.
A copy of the final prospectus supplement and the accompanying base shelf prospectus is available through http://www.sec.gov or http://www.sedar.com. Alternatively, you can request a copy of the final prospectus supplement and the base shelf prospectus by contacting Merrill Lynch & Co. at 4 World Financial Center, 250 Vesey Street, New York, NY 10080 (telephone: 212-449-1000) or 181 Bay Street, Suite 400, Toronto, Ontario M5J 2V8 (telephone: 416-369-7400).
About North American Palladium
North American Palladium is Canada's foremost primary producer of palladium. The Company's core palladium business at the Lac des Iles mine is strengthened by a significant contribution from nickel, platinum, gold and copper by-product metals.

TULSA, OKLAHOMA, Dec 21, 2007 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) -- Kaiser-Francis Oil Company ("KFOC") announced that it participated in a public offering (the "Offering") of units (the "Units") of North American Palladium Ltd. ("NAPL") that closed on December 13, 2007 and acquired ownership of 4,666,667 Units at US$4 per Unit (the "Offering Price"). Each Unit consists of one common share (a "Common Share") and one-half of one common share purchase warrant (a "New Warrant") of NAPL. Each New Warrant entitles KFOC to purchase one Common Share at a price of US$5.05 per share at any time on or prior to December 13, 2009. In addition, KFOC has a pre-existing right to purchase (the "Purchase Right") up to 700,000 additional Units (the "Additional Units") at the Offering Price in the event that the underwriters of the Offering fully exercise the underwriters' over-allotment option granted under the Offering (the "Underwriters' Over-allotment Option") to purchase up to 2,100,000 Units prior to January 11, 2008.
As a result of the Offering, KFOC acquired an additional 9.50% of the issued and outstanding Common Shares, calculated on a partially diluted basis assuming the full exercise of the Underwriters' Over-allotment Option and the full exercise of the Purchase Right by KFOC to acquire the Additional Units, and the full conversion by KFOC of the Notes (as described below) and the exercise by KFOC of all of the Warrants (as described below).
Immediately following the Offering, KFOC owned 32,609,657 Common Shares. In addition, KFOC held a series I convertible note, the remaining outstanding principal amount of which is US$7,777,777 (the "Series I Note"), a series II convertible note, the remaining outstanding principal amount of which is US$9,000,000 (the "Series II Note") (the Series I Note and the Series II Note, collectively, the "Notes"), 718,391 series I common share purchase warrants (the "Series I Warrants"), 554,187 series II common share purchase warrants (the "Series II Warrants") and 2,333,333 New Warrants (the Series I Warrants, Series II Warrants and the New Warrants, collectively, the "Warrants") and has the Purchase Right.
As a result of the Offering, the conversion price of each of the Series I Note and Series II Note decreased from US$12.18 to US$9.12 and from US$12.18 to US$6.67, respectively. The remaining outstanding principal amount of the Series I Note is convertible into approximately 852,826 Common Shares based on the new conversion price of US$9.12. The remaining outstanding principal amount of the Series II Note is convertible into approximately 1,349,325 Common Shares based on the new conversion price of US$6.67.
The exercise price of each of the Series I Warrants and Series II Warrants also decreased from US$13.48 to US$10.73 and from US$13.48 to US$7.85, respectively. Each Warrant is exercisable into one Common Share.
Immediately following the Offering, assuming the full exercise of the Underwriters' Overallotment Option and the full exercise of the Purchase Right by KFOC to acquire the Additional Units, and the full conversion by KFOC of the Notes and the exercise by KFOC of all of the Warrants (including the New Warrants in the Additional Units), KFOC's securityholding percentage in respect of Common Shares would be approximately 46.58% of the issued and outstanding Common Shares, calculated on a partially diluted basis, based on the assumptions noted above.
KFOC acquired the Units for investment purposes and it may, depending on market and other conditions, increase its beneficial ownership, control or direction over Common Shares or other securities of NAPL, through market transactions, private agreements, treasury issuances or otherwise.
KFOC is a wholly-owned subsidiary of GBK Corporation, which in turn is controlled by Mr. George B. Kaiser and members of his family. GBK Corporation and Mr. George B. Kaiser may be presumed to be joint actors with KFOC.

Contacts:
Kaiser-Francis Oil Company
Steve Walton
(918) 583-9920

SOURCE: Kaiser-Francis Oil Company

TORONTO, ONTARIO, Jan 04, 2008 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) -- North American Palladium Ltd. (CA:PDL) (CA:PDL.WT) (PAL:
north amern palladium ltd com) (PAL.WS:
north amern palladium ltd *w exp 12/13/200) announced today that the underwriters of its December 2007 public offering of units have exercised in full their over-allotment option and will purchase from the Company an additional 2.1 million units at a price of US$4.00 per unit. The exercise of this over-allotment option is expected to result in gross proceeds to the Company of US$8,400,000. The Company is awaiting notice from Kaiser-Francis Oil Company as to whether it will exercise its over-allotment right to purchase an additional 700,000 units.
Each unit consists of one common share and one half of a common share purchase warrant of North American Palladium. Each whole warrant will entitle the holder to purchase one common share at a price of US$5.05 per share at any time on or prior to December 13, 2009. The proceeds of the offering and the exercise of the over-allotment option will be used to fund the growth and development of the Company's operations and, in particular, to advance the Offset High Grade Zone Project, the Shebandowan West Project and the Arctic Platinum Project. The net proceeds of the offering and the exercise of the over-allotment option may also be used for general corporate purposes.
The lead manager of the underwriting syndicate for the December 2007 public unit offering was Merrill Lynch & Co. Co-managers were BMO Capital Markets, HSBC Securities (Canada) Inc. and UBS Securities Canada Inc.
About North American Palladium
North American Palladium is Canada's largest producer of palladium. The Company's core palladium business at the Lac des Iles mine is strengthened by a significant contribution from platinum, nickel, gold and copper by-product metals.

TORONTO, ONTARIO, Jan 04, 2008 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) -- North American Palladium Ltd. (CA:PDL) (CA:PDL.WT) (PAL:
north amern palladium ltd com) (PAL.WS:
north amern palladium ltd *w exp 12/13/200) announced today that Kaiser-Francis Oil Company has exercised its over-allotment right in relation to the Company's December 2007 public offering of units and will purchase from the Company an additional 700,000 units at a price of US$4.00 per unit. This is in addition to the previously announced exercise by the underwriters of the unit offering of their over-allotment option for 2.1 million units. After taking both over-allotment exercises into account, the total gross proceeds to the Company from the unit offering will be approximately US$86 million.
Each unit consists of one common share and one half of a common share purchase warrant of North American Palladium. Each whole warrant will entitle the holder to purchase one common share at a price of US$5.05 per share at any time on or prior to December 13, 2009. The proceeds of the offering and the exercise of the over-allotment option will be used to fund the growth and development of the Company's operations and, in particular, to advance the Offset High Grade Zone Project, the Shebandowan West Project and the Arctic Platinum Project. The net proceeds of the offering and the exercise of the over-allotment option may also be used for general corporate purposes.
The lead manager of the underwriting syndicate for the December 2007 public unit offering was Merrill Lynch & Co. Co-managers were BMO Capital Markets, HSBC Securities (Canada) Inc. and UBS Securities Canada Inc.
About North American Palladium
North American Palladium is Canada's largest producer of palladium. The Company's core palladium business at the Lac des Iles mine is strengthened by a significant contribution from platinum, nickel, gold and copper by-product metals.

We are living in a resource constrained world, due to rapid depletion of many of the none-renewable natural resources, like oil, coal, and metal mineral resources. As the main stream media wake up to the Peak Oil reality, I believe it is important to keep the reality of a resource constrained world in our mind, when making investment decisions. In this article I want to talk about precious metals, including gold, silver, platinum and palladium, the rare metal tellurium and selenium, coal mines, agriculture, sugar, and fertilizers. Relate to these resources I will talk about the following stocks: PAAS, CDE, SLW, PAL, SWC, OMG, FSLR, JRCC, IPSU, POT, SEED, TNH, COIN, not necessarily in that order. This is the first part in a series. I will take about them in more detail in the future.

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But there is an ongoing catastrophe in my favorite long stock PAL right now. The catastrophy is not with the company's business, but rather, with the company's stock price! I predicted a palladium super bull cycle and recommended buying PAL and SWC. The palladium price rallied to multi-year high recently, but the PAL stock price reached multi-year low. That rather defies the logic! In a previous article I analyzed why PAL stock was punished, and called a bottom on Dec. 13. Looking back, the bottom price of $3.40 a share was called correctly. But PAL has yet to rally above $4 credible.
I encourage people to buy PAL below or near $4 a share. The reasons are not just the strong rally in precious metals recently, but more importantly, PAL's Q4 earnings will be released at the end of January or beginning of February. Since a considerable portion of the mine produced metal was not sold in Q3, but will be added to Q4 sales, it can be expected that the Q4 earnings result will be fantastic, boosting stock price.
More importantly, I sense that an explosive palladium rally is imminent now we have entered 2008. Traditionally, each year the Russians sell about 2 million ounces of extra palladium, from the government stockpile, flooding the global market and capping the metal price. They always shipped the government stockpile sale of palladium in one batch to Switzerland in the month of December. So far, year 2007 has ended, and there was no indication they shipped any palladium stockpile.
Palladium rallied in previous years despite of Russian stockpile sale. Now, when the fact that the Russians have finally depleted the stockpile becomes public knowledge, and people know that there is an industrial shortage without the Russian extra supply, you can expect the palladium price will explode.
SWC is also a good buy here, but relatively, PAL has better value at this price. You get more palladium production per dollar of stocks. Read my detailed comparison between the two.

TORONTO, ONTARIO, Jan 09, 2008 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) -- North American Palladium Ltd. (CA:PDL) (CA:PDL.WT) (PAL:
north amern palladium ltd com) (PAL.WS:
north amern palladium ltd *w exp 12/13/200) announced today that it has closed its over-allotment offering of units to the underwriters of its December 2007 public offering of units and to Kaiser-Francis Oil Company. A total of 2.8 million units were issued under the over-allotment exercise at a price of US$4.00 per unit, for total gross proceeds of US$11.2 million. After taking the over-allotment exercise into account, the total gross proceeds to the Company from the unit offering are approximately US$86 million.
The proceeds of the offering and the exercise of the over-allotment option will be used to fund the growth and development of the Company's operations and, in particular, to advance the Offset High Grade Zone Project, the Shebandowan West Project and the Arctic Platinum Project. The net proceeds of the offering and the exercise of the over-allotment option may also be used for general corporate purposes.
The lead manager of the underwriting syndicate for the December 2007 public unit offering was Merrill Lynch & Co. Co-managers were BMO Capital Markets, HSBC Securities (Canada) Inc. and UBS Securities Canada Inc.
About North American Palladium
North American Palladium is Canada's largest producer of palladium. The Company's core palladium business at the Lac des Iles mine is strengthened by a significant contribution from platinum, nickel, gold and copper by-product metals.

TORONTO, ONTARIO, Jan 17, 2008 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) -- North American Palladium Ltd. (CA:PDL) (CA:PDL.WT) (PAL: PAL) today announced production results for the year ended December 31, 2007.
Highlights for the quarter and year ended December 31, 2007
-Total palladium production for the year ended December 31, 2007 was 286,334 ounces representing an increase of 21% compared to the prior year.
-Palladium head grade for the year ended December 31, 2007 increased 10% to 2.39 g/t versus the prior year's head grade of 2.18 g/t.
-Palladium spot price of US $364 per ounce as at December 31st, 2007 increased 6% compared to US $344 per ounce as at September 30th, 2007.
Results of Operations
For the year ended December 31, 2007, the Company's Lac des Iles operation achieved a 9.5% increase in mill throughput, consistent quarterly production levels and improved recoveries. Palladium production for the year 2007 increased 20.6% to 286,334 ounces from 237,338 ounces in 2006 at an average head grade for the year of 2.39 g/t palladium compared with 2.18 g/t palladium in 2006. In the fourth quarter of 2007, the mine produced 71,595 ounces of palladium down 2.2% from the fourth quarter 2006 production of 73,242 ounces.
The underground mine continues to deliver strong results, achieving consistency in grade and throughput. During the quarter the underground averaged 2,198 tonnes of ore per day at a palladium head grade of 5.98 g/t. As a result, the average blended palladium mill feed grade improved to 2.58 g/t in the fourth quarter, compared to 2.52 g/t palladium in the fourth quarter of last year.
Mill availability improved to 91.1% this year versus 86.5% in 2006 due to improvements in maintenance scheduling and preventative maintenance measures implemented consistently by mine personnel. Mill availability in the fourth quarter of 2007 at 86.9% was lower than the same quarter last year due to planned mill shutdowns.
A total of 1,165,769 tonnes of ore were processed during the fourth quarter for an average of 12,671 tonnes per day at a palladium recovery rate of 75.2%, compared to 1,179,644 tonnes or 12,822 tonnes per day at a recovery of 76.9% in the same period last year.

TEL AVIV (MarketWatch) -- North American Palladium Ltd., (PAL:
PAL) (CA:PDL: CA:PDL) Toronto, said that through an underwriting agreement, it will sell 14 million units at US$4, about C$4.04, each. Each unit consists of one common share and half a warrant. Each whole warrant entitles the holder to buy one common share of North American Palladium at US$5.05 for two years after the offering closes, which PAL expects on Dec. 13. The company said Kaiser-Francis Oil Co. of Tulsa, Okla., and IP Synergy Finance Inc. each has the right to buy as much as 12.5% of the offering. Merrill Lynch led the underwriting syndicate. End of Story