Yahoo Business News is reporting that “South American-focused precious metals firm Hochschild Mining said on Tuesday it planned to float shares on the London Stock Exchange next month.”

Executive Chairman Eduardo Hochschild said : “We have a strong project pipeline and also plan to maximize the potential of our existing operations.”

The company, which produces silver and gold, said in a statement it would seek to raise an unspecified amount of money to finance its Latin American growth strategy.

Yahoo comments : “Hochschild said it planned to increase annual production to approximately 50 million silver equivalent ounces, or 830,000 gold equivalent ounces, from existing operations and development projects by 2011. In 2005, Hochschild produced 10.5 million ounces of silver and 232,000 ounces of gold at a cost of $2.6 per ounce of silver and $170 per ounce of gold.”

This is yet another example of the worldwide trend of listing in London to avoid U.S Sarbanes Oxley regulations and European bureaucracy.

Why wouldn’t the LSE want to stay independent?

Nasdaq is increasing the fees it charges listed companies, sending a frisson of fear through users of the London Stock Exchange.

British companies are now wondering whether Robert Greifeld will use a fee hike to recoup costs if Nasdaq takes over the LSE. Fees at the American exchange rose by 22pc for smaller companies and 27pc for larger ones.

On Nasdaq, annual fees start at £16,000 ($30,000) rising to £51,000 ($96,000). In London, the equivalent range is £3,600 ($6,768) to £35,000 ($66,000).

Anatole Kaletsky of The Times (London) reminds us that “the financial hurricane season” is now upon us : “Nearly all the greatest financial accidents — the Wall Street crashes of 1929 and 1987, Nixon’s closure of the Bretton Woods gold window in 1971, the Asian currency crisis of 1997, the Mexican and Russian defaults, the attack on the French franc in 1993, the sterling devaluations of 1949, 1976 and 1992 — have occurred between late August and October”.

In the UK, the old stockbrokers’ maxim of ceasing to buy between May and the St Ledger (September 9 this year) is usually a stable guide to events (pun intended).

On Wall Street buyers generally hold off until Hallowe’en, on October 31, while selling is automatic for various reasons : “…selling of equities is partly a passive phenomenon, since portfolios have to be liquidated when their owners die or cash retirement cheques or make insurance claims.

“These liquidations happen steadily through the year, regardless of seasons. Buying, on the other hand, requires conscious decisions and investors are less likely to make these when they and their brokers are away on holiday.”

Given that September clears the way for the start of The Great Consolidation Season, in which Nasdaq is able to mount a full-scale bid for the London Stock Exchange, it should be an interesting time.

But do consolidation and hurricanes have much in common? We shall see.