Cramer's 'Mad Money' Recap: The Dough in Clay

Click here for an archive of Cramer's "Mad Money" recaps.

---

You may have already made some real money in gold and diamonds, Jim Cramer told "Mad Money" viewers Tuesday, but now it's time to make money in mud.

By mud, Cramer is referring to bentonite, and he said that Amcol International(ACO Quote) has the hammerlock on this absorbant clay formed from volcanic ash.

Bentonite is essential to oil-drilling for two reasons, he said, adding that oil-drilling is in bull mode. This is one of the relatively unexploited ways to make money off of the oil-drilling boom, now that everyone knows which oil service stocks and drillers to buy.

First of all, when companies drill for oil the drill bit is cutting up pieces of earth, he said. If the bore is filled with a substance like bentonite, the loose pieces will float to the top and can be discarded.

Second, he said that drilling for oil is a delicate process. Companies must drill through the water table to get to the oil formation below, and they must keep the water from messing up the well. In order to do this, drillers use bentonite to maintain the right level of pressure in the well bore.

Bentonite isn't just used in oil-well drilling he said, noting that it's also used in waste-water filtration. But the bulk of this company's business comes from the oil patch, and Cramer said that Amcol just had a remarkably great quarter.

Franco Infrastructure

What company will benefit most from the Bush-Cheney team? Cramer said that, ironically, it's a French company that will reap the rewards now that our politicians have upset nations around the world.

He said he would go to France and buy Alstom, which trades in Paris under the ticker symbol ALO, because he believes it's one of the best infrastructure plays in the world.

The global boom in infrastructure is mostly comprised of power plants and transmission lines, he said, things that the world is spending hundreds of millions of dollars a year to build.

And Alstom should make money on this trend, he said, because it makes turbines, control systems and boilers.

He said that the company is also the world leader in environmental controls, which are mostly needed for coal plants. This is big business, he said, now that coal is bigger than it was in the 1990s.

Of the money spent worldwide on power plant infrastructure, he said that 35% to 40% of that spending goes to building coal plants.

So why do we want a French company? It pays not to be American in this space, he said. Countries, like Russia, that have a beef with the U.S. will turn to French, rather than U.S., infrastructure companies.