Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
MY FAVORITE GOLD STOCK
SIMUSU
the First Eagle Gold Fund
ticker symbol please?
are u in?
where else are you in commodities?
any integrated iron ore extraction and steel making company worth investing?
tia
How a Gold Fund Has Held Up
Mr. Eveillard Bought Bullion, Stuck to Veteran Miners
DECEMBER 14, 2008, 6:29 P.M. ET
By ALLEN SYKORA
WALL STREET JOURNAL
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122929697856605179.html
The First Eagle Gold Fund has roughly a third of its assets in gold bullion, avoided the base metals before their free fall, and tends to invest in shares of more-established producers rather than junior mining companies, said manager Jean-Marie Eveillard.
This approach enabled it to hold up better than many other gold-oriented funds during a recent downturn in share prices of mining stocks and a general weakness in commodities.
Jean-Marie Eveillard
As of Friday, the Philadelphia Gold Silver Index of mining shares was down around 40% in 2008. As a result, many precious-metals funds were down by around 50% or more.
By contrast, First Eagle Gold was down by about 25%, according to fund researcher Morningstar. Morningstar gives the New York-based fund its top five-star rating among funds specializing in precious metals.
"The fact that we were 30% to 35% in bullion helped, to the extent that bullion until a month ago acted much better than gold-mining stocks," Mr. Eveillard said.
While mining shares went into a free fall, spot gold was down by a more modest 7.4% since the end of 2007.
At the end of November, the First Eagle Gold Fund had assets of $765 million, including all share classes, Mr. Eveillard said. Since its creation in August 1993 through the end of October, the gold fund has provided a compounded annual return of 6.5%, while the Financial Times index for gold mines compounded at minus 1.5%, Mr. Eveillard said.
Mr. Eveillard has been portfolio manager for most of the fund's history, retaking the reins after a two-year retirement in the spring of 2007. The fund was established as insurance against cataclysmic events in the financial system, he said. "Gold is the only asset that is completely outside of the credit system and the only asset that has no liability," Mr. Eveillard said.
Thus, the fund didn't dabble in base metals when they ran up more sharply than gold for much of this decade. "Base metals have nothing to do with gold and nothing to do with the insurance that in my mind gold represents," he said. And base metals have fallen further than gold this year, with copper losing around 51% since the end of 2007.
"We are very reluctant to buy stocks of junior gold-mining companies that sit on a deposit that has not been turned into a mine yet," Mr. Eveillard said. "In the extreme, if a deposit cannot be turned into a mine, then the price of gold could go to $3,000 an ounce [but] the stock would be worth zero."
Meanwhile, Mr. Eveillard said, First Eagle is one of the few gold funds to hold a large percentage in bullion, not relying upon exchange-traded funds. As of this past week, 35% of the fund's holdings were in bullion. "If you look at gold as insurance, then gold bullion is preferable to gold-mining shares," he said, since it avoids the risks facing mining companies themselves.
When looking at mining stocks, First Eagle focuses on assets still underground and the cost of mining them, said Rachel Benepe, the fund's analyst.
Mr. Eveillard and Ms. Benepe said they like Royal Gold Inc., a company that relies upon royalties and thereby avoids mining costs. Stocks of royalty companies tend to be "somewhat expensive," Mr. Eveillard said, "but we're willing to live with that."
The fund holds Randgold Resources Ltd., which has mines in French-speaking central Africa. The company is knowledgeable about the region and its politics, and tends to rely upon organic expansion, or the development of mines, rather than acquisitions, Mr. Eveillard said.
Randgold is good at every stage -- from finding to building to operating mines, Ms. Benepe said. By contrast, she said, many mining companies might have only one strength.
Mr. Eveillard said he is "extremely positive" about the longer-term prospects for gold. "What passes for the monetary system world-wide is fraying at the edges," he said.
President-elect Barack Obama has signaled that his administration will use fiscal policy to stimulate the economy at the same time the Federal Reserve is doing the same with monetary policy. But ultimately, all of these plans are likely to prove to be inflationary, Mr. Eveillard said. And investors often buy gold as a hedge against inflation.
Write to Allen Sykora at allen.sykora@dowjones.com.>
When in doubt….Fundamentals
by Andy Sutton, My2CentsOnline.com |
April 25, 2008
http://www.financialsense.com/fsu/editorials/sutton/2008/0425.html
Gold Playground R.I.P... see ya before Dec 21 2012... ;)
[Suppressed Sound Link]
Soltera Mining Acquires Three More Past-Producing Gold Prospects
By Eric Pratt
Soltera Mining Corp. (OTCBB:SLTA) has been busy acquiring properties during the first quarter of 2008. Unstable markets have been unable to dampen the resolve with which management goes about building shareholder value.
Three weeks ago, Soltera announced it had obtained two new Mexican gold properties through the acquisition of Aztek Mineral, S.A. de CV. One week after that, the vending in of the Eureka Copper-Gold property and joint venture with TNR Gold Corp. (TSX.V:TNR) was announced.
That brings to 4 the number of gold projects under development by Soltera, summarized as follows:
El Torno (Argentina, gold, mining rights 7,863 hectares) is located in the Andean Cordillera near the international border with Bolivia. The property contains a very large gold-bearing quartz vein that extends intermittently for at least 14 km long north-south. The vein is sub-vertical and the gold is concentrated in a 2 meter-thick breccia zone along its western flank.
Historically, El Torno was worked by the Incas and the Spanish over a long period and has more than 1,000 m of underground galleries. There is still a small-scale operation extracting gold from elluvial deposits on the east side of the vein. In 1997, Puma Minerals carried out 2,100 m of drilling on a 1 km length; and in 1999 Penoles Minerals (operators of the world’s richest silver mine and Mexico’s richest and largest gold mines) undertook surface sampling, geological mapping and an IP geophysical survey in the same area. The combined (non NI-43-101 compliant) results of this work showed:
a) El Torno is within a “gold province” that extends several hundred kilometers north-south through Argentina and Bolivia;
b) The strongly mineralized breccia zone on the west side of the vein carries up to 37 gpt gold in the tested area, and has potential for several million ounces along the length of the vein;
c) Samples of stockwork zones some distance from the main vein gave up 23 gpt and in one case 112 gpt gold;
d) There are several IP geophysical anomalies that could indicate mineralization, but have not yet been drilled.
Soltera holds almost all the 14 km length and commenced their exploration in late 2007 with a geochemical stream sediment survey combined with structural mapping designed to target specific parts of the vein and the surrounding area for more detailed investigation.
Soltera will now define drill targets using more detailed geochemical and geophysical surveys. Drilling is scheduled to commence in the second quarter of 2008 and, given success, this will lead immediately to a full feasibility study to commence before year’s end.
Real de Cananea, Mexico
The “Real de Cananea” (Mexico, gold, mining claims 1,030 hectares) is located in Sonora State 26 km from the Cananea copper mine owned by Penoles. It contains a gold-bearing fault zone up to 270 m wide and more than 400m long within Cretaceous volcanic rocks that are intensely altered and carry gold.
There is a small old mine in the center of the property that was probably first worked by the Mayas and certainly by the Spaniards, with several shafts reaching 100 m below surface. The hard wallrock was mined with enormous effort and this, together with the fact that water had to be transported 8 km, indicates the importance of the mineralisation. Gold is widespread on the property, with altered rocks showing up to 65 gpt.
Soltera’s target is a large-scale open-pit and the area is broad enough to accommodate well in excess of 1 million ounces. Geochemical, geological and geophysical surveys will be used to define drill targets and drilling is scheduled for the third quarter of 2008.
Eureka, Argentina
(Argentina, copper-gold, around 10,000 hectares) is located in northern Argentina near the Bolivian border and only 3 km from the El Torno project. The property contains ‘Red Bed’ type strata-bound copper mineralization within sedimentary sandstones, clays and conglomerates. The surface exposures are weathered and contain erratically distributed gold. Alluvial gold has been worked in the area since prior to the time of the Spanish arrival and there is an old mine with over 5 km of underground workings that exploited copper and gold on a small scale until 1987.
The deposit is similar in style to major copper deposits in the Bolivian part of the Tertiary Belt. A geological estimate in the late 1990’s (historic resources estimate which is not NI-43-101 compliant) was 50 to 60 million tons grading 1% copper. Only 70 meters of the 450 m deep formation has been explored to date which leaves extensive upside potential.
TNR Gold Corp. (“TNR”), a Vancouver based mining company listed on the TSX with extensive experience in Argentina, has entered into an option agreement with the option vendor to acquire a 75% interest in the property by spending a total of US$3,000,000 in exploration and option payments before April 20, 2010.
TNR will undertake detailed geological mapping, trenching, geochemical and geophysical surveys, sampling the historic underground workings and drilling. Soltera is not required to incur any expenditure on the project at the present time.
Casita Colorada, the Company’s other project in Mexico, is a large mineralized shear zone worked since the end of the 1800’s for gold. The mineralized zone was at least 400 m long and 150 m wide and there is potential for a substantial gold deposit, but the project is being held in reserve so that the company can concentrate on El Torno and Real de Cananea.
Be sure to keep a close eye on SLTA over the next couple months. Geochemical assay results are due any day now, and there’s plenty of news to be generated by exploration activity on all the properties.
Little Squaw’s Big Gold Potential
By Eric Pratt
Its not often one discovers an OTC-listed mining company that has a board of directors and management team with the caliber and pedigree of Little Squaw Gold Mining Company (OTCBB:LITS).
The president, Richard Walters, besides being a certified professional geologist with the American Institute of Professional Geologists and a Qualified Person as defined in National Instrument 43-101, was also a founder, director, president and chief operating officer of Yamana Resources Inc. the forerunner to Yamana Gold Inc., (TSX:YRI) between December 1994 and March 2000. He also serves as a director and executive vice-president of Marifil Mines Ltd. (TSX.V:MFM).
Rodney Blakestad, the vice-president of exploration, has in his thirty years as a geologist worked with Columbia Metals Corp. (TSX.V:COL), Nevada Star (now Pure Nickel - TSX:NIC), and Robex Resources (now Robex Gold – TSX.V:RBX). He is credited in part with the discovery of the 4 million ounce Fort Knox Gold Mine, now owned by Kinross Gold Corporation (TSX:KGC).
Robert Pate, the company’s vice-president of operations, is also a 30 year veteran of mine operation and mineral exploration having served with Yamana Resources, Freeport Copper (a division of Freeport McMoran – NYSE: FCX) , Coeur d’Alene Mines (NYSE:CDE), and Atlas Precious Metals were he was the chief geologist at the Gold Bar Mine in Nevada. At Freeport, he was a senior supervisor of the huge Grassberg Indonesia copper/ gold mine.
In the board of directors, William Schara is the Chairman, and was the chief financial officer of Minera Andes Inc. (TSX:MAI), a Vancouver-based company bringing a new gold and silver mine into production in Argentina. He is currently the CEO of Nevoro (TSX.NVR), and is also an alumni of Yamana Resources.
The rest of the directors have collectively had stints with Kennecott Corporation (now a division of Rio Tinto PLC – NYSE:RTP), Bond International Gold, Copper Range Corp, Newmont Mining (NYSE:NEM), Revett Minerals (TSX:RVM), and Pegasus Gold Corp (now Apollo Gold – AMEX:AGT). The affiliations with professional associations related to mining are simply too numerous to list here.
So the point is, don’t think of Little Squaw as just another OTC-listed mining deal. This is a powerful, been-there, done-that team of seasoned executives who are unlikely to waste their time on anything less than projects with the strong potential to become mines.
Which brings us to their flagship project, the Chandalar mining district. Bear in mind that the past employment of both management and directors is extremely relevant to this property, in that there is a great deal of history spent on the part of this team in the jurisdiction of Chandalar – Alaska.
This 23 square mile property package has above average potential for underground, open pit, and placer mining operations. Little Squaw owns 100% of the ground, and an independent study by Pacific Rim Geological has drawn comparisons in the geology at Chandalar to, among others, the 38 million ounce Sukhoi-Log mine in Russia, the 7.9 million ounce Natalka mine, also in Russia, the Juneau district in Alaska, which produced over 3 million ounces, Cape Nome, Alaska, which produced over 5 million ounces of placer gold, and Treadwell, Alaska, which produced more than 3 million ounces of gold.
The main hard rock deposits in the Chandalar district are the Mikado Lode, Chandalar-Eneveloe Lode, Summit Lode, and the Little Squaw Lode. Other Lode Gold Prospects in the Chandalar Mining District include the Crystal Vein, Big Squaw Claim, Pioneer Prospect, Drumlummon Prospect, Grubstake Vein, Grubstake East Prospect, Prospector East Prospect, Indicate-Tonapah Lode, Chandalar Vein, Jupiter Vein, Bonanza Vein, Pallasgren Claim, St. Marys Prospect, Star Claim Group, Star No. 3 Claim, Duplex-Triplex Vein, Wildcat Prospect, Jackpot Prospect, Woodchuck Claim, Little Kiska Occurrence, Pedro Prospect, and the Grubstake West Claim Group. Most of these prospects are historic discoveries carrying significant gold values that remain as yet unexplored.
This mineral belt includes such famous deposits as Cominco's Red Dog zinc mine, the largest zinc deposit in the world, and the prolific Ambler volcanogenic massive sulfide (copper & zinc) district, now controlled by Nova Gold. Prospectors discovered the district about 100 years ago, and its recorded production from placer and lode mines is 84,000 ounces. There has been a substantial but unknown amount of unreported and otherwise secret production. Of the recorded production, 76,000 ounces of gold or about 90 percent of the total was recovered from placer deposits.
Trenching last year produced some excellent results including a 20-foot-wide structure that assayed 10.58 grams per tonne. Drilling has intersected good grades and widths such as 6.1 metres grading 4 grams per tonne gold, 9.1 metres grading 4.7 grams per tonne gold, and 29 metres of just under 1 gram per tonne gold, each of these occurring in three different zones.
An underground channel from the 180–metre-long Little Squaw vein assayed an astounding 89 ounces per tonne of gold.
So there’s a lot of potential here, and the company’s exploration program is getting ramped up for a busy summer.
Besides this primary project, Little Squaw also has two other projects in the western hemisphere in prolific gold producing regions that are politically secure. These include the Broken Hills West property, which is 15 miles north of Gabbs in the Walker Lane Trend in Nevada, which has produced over 50 million ounces of gold so far, and the Pedra de Fogo project in Goias State, Brazil in the middle of a prolific gold mining region.
But these will be the subject of future articles, so keep your eyes open for more information on this little known, but outstanding opportunity.
Spot Gold Achieves the $1000.00 Target
By Jon Nadler
Mar 13 2008 1:30PM
www.kitco.com
http://www.kitco.com/ind/Nadler/mar132008B.html
Good Day,
The countdown to $1,000 gold finally ran out at 10:35 am New York time today as spot bullion reached a historic high of $1,000.25 bid amid the conditions that emerged overnight. The final push to the peak came on the heels of a slump in US retail sales and following a lack of reassuring words or offer of aggressive remedies for the credit black hole by the Mr. Paulson this morning. This was an achievement of a lofty objective
Gold prices were primed to finally achieve the $1K mark as early as last night, when background market conditions shifted from bad to worse overnight. Today's spike will likely become known as the "Carlyle/Drake Rally" (or cave-in, depending on your preference). The imminent doom of the Washington-based bond fund and probable demise of the hedge fund sent icy shivers through the financial markets that way overshadowed the (nanosecond-brief) cheer we witnessed following the Fed's term facility plan the other day. Mr. Paulson offered no more than lip service today by concluding his remarks with platitudes such as " We will continue to re-assess conditions, monitor progress, put forward new recommendations and take additional steps as necessary." US President Bush himself managed to say about the current predicament of the greenback only that it was not 'good tidings' (?!)
A quick scan of values recorded midday in New York revealed crude oil prices at $110-$111 per barrel, the dollar basically at parity with the Swiss franc, at 1.557 against the euro, and near 100 yen - all records, or near-records. The breach of the 72 mark on the dollar index also raised the gloom among traders, despite more back-channel chatter about intervention by one (read: Japan) or another central bank. This might also be a day where we see the Dow reversing a good part of the 400+ point rally from two days ago. It has already given up 215 of those points during today's trade. A deeper slump could once again raise the specter of margin-call related sales in other assets. The Nikkei fell by 427 points overnight.
New York spot gold was up $11.60 at last check, showing $994.70 bid per ounce and related metals still surging in concert, with strong gains of their own. Silver was up 44 cents higher at $20.59, platinum was up $37 at 2098 and palladium rose $4 to $506 per ounce. Commodities markets continued in a state of disarray, with huge sums of fund money being thrown at them, while still trying to absorb the pyramid of long positions which has already been piling skyward in previous weeks.
Keep an eye on the Dow and on gold's closing levels. Dollar-denominated commodities have all benefited from the intense fund attention. It has taken an estimated $600 billion credit debacle and six months to lift gold from $730 to $1,000. The same funds will now become increasingly conflicted on whether to push the envelope further based on potential further billions being added to the problem or whether to scale back from the sector as some corners begin to be turned. At such a juncture, we may expect volatility of a much larger order of magnitude in these markets and every single news item to matter much, much more. Keep very alert and take nothing for granted. Even on a day of such celebration. We already know how we got here. The bigger/better question is: "What next?"
Happy Trading,
Jon Nadler
Senior Analyst
Kitco Bullion Dealers Montreal
High Price of Gold Makes Astral Mining a Safer, Stronger Bet
By Doug Hadfield
The first good news of the year for readers at Resourcex Investor was the price of gold. The start of the year heralded all-time high prices for gold easily topping $900 per ounce, driven by the weak US dollar, high oil prices and renewed geopolitical concerns. Just a month later, gold continues to break all time highs, confidently striding toward the long anticipated $1,000 mark.
It seems the world now faces some of the most difficult economic conditions since the dotcom meltdown, a reality echoed by everyone from Alan Greenspan, who believes the likelihood of a US recession is 50/50, and that a global recession is at some point “inevitable.”
In early January, the Financial Times of London surveyed the opinions of 55 top economists from around the globe. "Nearly nine in 10 think public finances are not in good order," the authors stated.
All this may sound like bad news – and to policymakers it may well be – but resource investors know that the effect of this trend on the gold price is only good news.
In fact, the gold price as measured against the world's five most important currencies – including the US and Canadian dollar, the Euro, Yen, and British Pound Sterling – has gained an, had gained a whopping 150% in the past seven years – until the beginning of January – according to gold analyst Adrian Ash, from the Bullion Vault. Since then gold has gained another $100 per ounce, which is both staggering and unprecedented.
Junior Resource companies closely aligned with the price of gold – such as Astral Mining (TSX.V:AST) – are basking in the glow of this new reality: A long-term gold price well above the previous long-term average of about $350 per ounce.
President and CEO of Astral, Manfred Kurschner recently told me, “Although most junior exploration company’s share prices are not reflecting the current buoyant gold price, it is only a matter of time before those companies with potential discoveries will get noticed. We are not yet in the phase of the gold cycle where any company with exploration or gold in their name is going to have it’s share price soar. That I believe is some time away. But if you do your homework there will definitely be money made on the right juniors in the next while. The majors are finally having some recognition and the mid-size companies are starting to move, so usually the juniors are next.”
Last year, the Northern Miner wrote ran a story outlining the effect that positive assays had on the company’s share price: “Wide, high-grade gold values from a second-phase trenching program on the Jumping Josephine (JJ) project in southeastern B.C.'s Rossland-Republic trend gave Astral Mining (AST-V, ASMGF-O) a boost in the market recently,” the author stated. “Infill trenching on the Main zone returned up to 7 metres of 31.2 grams gold per tonne in trench 2A, including a 1-metre interval of 133.9 grams gold.”
That program was an infill program, conducted at 10-metre intervals, and followed initial trenching completed in 2006 done at 50-metre spacings across the structure. Fifteen trenches completed on the Main zone traced the gold-mineralized quartz stockwork over 270 metres of strike, which remains open to the southwest and northeast.
Now, with a Phase II drill program complete and more assays confirming solid grades, Astral Mining appears to be set for a renewed share price assessment.
“The thing to remember with this high-grade gold discovery is that it is located on the surface, several kilometers away from a paved highway, in a mining district with mills, smelters and power in close proximity, Kurschner said. “That makes a 500,000 to one million-ounce gold discovery much less risky than a 5 million-ounce low-grade discovery high in the Andes or in northern BC, where infrastructure costs can quickly make a project uneconomical even with the current high gold price.”
In 2007, Astral and JV Kootenay Gold (TSX.V: KTN) amassed an impressive database of assays from JJ. In November, the reported assays including 15.18 g/t gold over 4 m (incl. 1 m at 56.4 g/t gold); 7.74 g/t over 5 m (incl. 15.99 g/t over 2 m); 13.83 g/t over 3 m (incl. 35.6 g/t over 1 m); 8.28 g/t over 6 m, and 12.44 g/t gold over 8 m from hole 48 (incl. 26.9 g/t gold over 3 m). Similar or better results were achieved throughout the year.
Gold mineralization at JJ is hosted by structurally controlled quartz stockwork veining at the Main Zone, which has been intersected along 15 section lines over a strike length of 700 metres and to vertical depths of up to 225 metres below surface. The company is presently designing an aggressive exploration program for 2008, including additional drilling, a 3-D IP geophysical survey, and additional trenching and soil grids.
An updated NI 43-101 Resource Estimate is expected after the 2008 Phase 3 drilling results are completed and compiled. This will add value to a share price that is set to push beyond its present price ceiling.
Astral Mining has only 27 million shares(FD) outstanding and controls a 60% interest in the Jumping Josephine project.
This article is intended for information purposes only, and is not a recommendation to buy or sell the equities of any company mentioned herein. It is based on sources believed to be reliable, but no warranty as to accuracy is expressed or implied. The opinions expressed in the article are those of the author except where statements are attributed to individuals other than the author, in which case the opinions are those of the individual to whom they are attributed.
Diversified Journey Resources Seeks Near Term Production
By Doug Hadfield
When the ancient Roman scholar Publilius Syrus said, “No pleasure endures unseasoned by variety,” he could well have been referring to mining companies. One trick ponies, as recent events are sure to prove again, live and die the by price of a single commodity, and as such, are more vulnerable to sudden or unexpected market movements than are polymetallic companies.
Just a year ago, you could have been in copper, precious metals, zinc, uranium or nickel, and you would have represented a safe exploration investment – all were quite bullish and each looked solid for the near future. Now base metals are under pressure with the threat of sluggish US economic growth, the price of uranium has taken a reality check, and gold, well, gold is better than ever.
Journey Resources (TSX.V: JNY) is one of those juniors that has an insurance policy against such unpredictability: The company is diversified in both commodity and locale.
At the top of Journey’s project list is a JV operation with Grenville Gold (TSX.V: GVG) known as the Silveria Mine, a past producer located in Peru.
I spoke with Journey’s President and CEO, Jack Bal, who described the project with superlatives, “Silveria, I believe, is one of the biggest silver deposits in Peru,” he said. “It’s the closest to production. It’s permitted. And we have a stockpile of ore. We’ve also secured a mill, which should be ready by October of 2008.”
To Bal, being near term on all his projects is a priority.
“We have three near term production stories, and we believe that to be successful in this market you have to go into production quickly. If you do too much exploration when the market’s not doing well, you’re going to dilute yourself in the long run.”
The Silveria JV deal stipulates that Journey can earn a 50% interest by spending no less than $6 million before December 1, 2008.
“All the money will go into the ground and take the project within the next 12 to 15 months into production at 500 tonnes per day,” Bal said. “We think it should generate significant cash flow – which we’ll get half of. We also have the opportunity to earn up to 75% by spending another 6 million on the project if Grenville Gold decides not to match funding with us.”
The joint venture indicates that Silveria will enjoy an injection of new cash, an increased pace of exploration, and a hastened move to production. A drill program is slated to begin by mid-February to see what mineralization remains within, around and under the old mine workings at the four existing past producing mines on the 10,000 acre property.
According to reports, past production from just two of the four mines totals some 50 million ounces of silver, plus lead, zinc and copper. There are an additional 2 million tonnes of tailings containing silver, lead, zinc and gold, which the partners are presently assessing for economic viability.
Next on the road to production for Journey is Vianey, a 50% owned, rehabilitated silver-lead-zinc mine located 250 km south of Mexico City in the state of Geurrero. The Vianey property is comprised of two blocks totalling 12,400 acres. Less than 2 kilometres away is the town of Atzcala, with water, telephone and medical facilities. The mine is already tied into the local power grid.
“We’ve spent the last two years rehabilitating the underground workings,” Bal explained. “It’s a relatively small mine and will most likely operate at 300 to 400 tonnes per day, but even with prices the way they are today, that will generate quite a bit of cash flow – for instance the rock at current metal prices is worth in excess of $300 per tonne rock, and at 300 tonnes per day, so if you add that up the numbers look good.”
Journey will begin an underground drilling program at Vianey this spring, with the goal of confirming high grade historical intercepts and expanding recent drilling.
A review of past calculations of potentially mineable tonnages of mineralization, including the most recent exploration activities completed in 1997 provides a total in all categories of 345,020 metric tonnes grading 2.13% lead, 3.66% zinc and 269 grams of silver per tonne.
“This is a high-grade deposit,” Bal said. “Between 8 and 10 ounces per tonne silver and also high in lead and zinc, so the grade is very good for the price of metals today. The previous owners couldn’t manage with prices at 1997 levels, so we picked it up for pennies. But at that time we’re talking about $5 silver and lead and zinc had collapsed – you know 30 to 40 cents per pound. They’re all three or four times that now.”
In terms of importance, Silveria and Vianey are first up to bat for Journey. But the company also has another inferred 313,822 ounces of gold in the ground on its 1,500 acre Musgrove Creek project in the Cobalt Mining District of Idaho. The Musgrove deposit has been intersected over a strike length of 400 metres, a width of 110 metres and to a depth of 150 metres. A 2006 NI 43-101-compliant report stated an Inferred Mineral Resource estimate of 8 million tonnes at 1.22g/t Au (0.036 oz/t) at a gold cut-off of 0.8 g/t.
Journey has re-opened approximately 4,700 feet (1,433 metres) of drill road and will drill nine holes for a total of 7,500 feet (2,286 metres). The drilling will test the main portion of the Ostrander Creek “gold-in-soil” anomaly delineated in 2004.
For this project, the company has also purchased it’s own drill, which effectively frees the company to do as much drilling as it wants for a fraction of the price.
Unlike the other two projects, Musgrove Creek is a bulk-tonnage, open pit candidate. Its grades and stripping ratio are – according to Jack Bal – very similar to the nearby Beartrack Mine, which Meridian Gold operated from 1996 to 2001.
“They reported average costs between $190 and $200 US per ounce of gold. They mined 650,000 ounces of gold. It was the first mine they put into production and it made Meridian Gold the company that it is. We’ve got similiar grades and stripping ratio,” Bal enthused.
Journey Resources offers investors several projects of merit, each with a light at the end of its tunnel. The company is diversified in multiple bullish commodities and its projects are located in countries that are politically stable and favorable to exploration. Also on the upside is an undiluted share structure, with 28,312,187 issued and outstanding and enough warrants to provide further cash without excessive dilution (5 million). In addition, many astute junior resource sector investors look for investments trading on the low side of their 12-month high/low. Journey is presently establishing a price floor of $0.26 per share, with a high/low of $0.45 and $0.22.
This article is intended for information purposes only, and is not a recommendation to buy or sell the equities of any company mentioned herein. It is based on sources believed to be reliable, but no warranty as to accuracy is expressed or implied. The opinions expressed in the article are those of the author except where statements are attributed to individuals other than the author, in which case the opinions are those of the individual to whom they are attributed.
Harvest Gold's Rosebud Revival
By James West
Nevada is the home of the new business model in gold mining: Find a past-producing mine where lots of known ore-grade material was left behind during the deflated gold price era in the later nineties, and put it back into production. It’s a straightforward approach (for mining) that has a well established track record.
Harvest Gold (TSX.V:HVG) is planning just such a revival for the Rosebud Mine.
The Rosebud Mine property includes the Rosebud Mine and 54 claims covering approximately 1,115 acres in Pershing County in northwest Nevada, approximately five miles to the south of the Hycroft mine which produced more than 1,000,000 oz of gold and 2,000,000 oz of silver.
Harvest Gold holds an option to acquire a 100-per-cent interest in the Rosebud project, subject to a 3-per-cent net smelter return royalty, 50 per cent of which can be purchased for $2.25-million
The Rosebud Mine was a joint venture between Newmont Mining (NYSE:NEM) and Hecla Mining (NYSE:HL) that operated between 1997 and 2000. According to Hecla’s annual report,, the Rosebud mine produced 385, 450 oz of gold and 1,253,604 oz of silver between 1997 and 2000. The production was from a proven and probable reserve of 500,441 oz Au and 3,446,912 oz Ag (1996 Hecla annual report – Not N.I. 43-101 compliant).
Harvest’s plan is to focus on 3 areas: (1) Evaluation of historic gold mineralization that
remains on the property; (2) Exploration for near surface, high-grade gold mineralization
similar to that which has been discovered on the property in the past; and (3) Exploration for
large bodies of gold-silver mineralization at depth.
As disclosed in the Hecla Mining Co.'s 1999 annual report, “gold mineralization in the South, North and East zones, as in many other volcanic-hosted gold deposits, is erratically distributed with numerous low-grade drill hole intercepts interspersed with higher-grade drill hole intercepts over an area approximately 1,000 feet east-west by 1,000 feet north-south. Drilling has also intersected further mineralization proximal to the mine."
Hecla Mining's 1996 annual report quotes a Rosebud resource of 1,276,634 tons grading 0.392 ounce gold and 2.70 ounces silver per ton containing 500,441 ounces of gold and 3,446,912 ounces of silver at a cut-off grade of 0.18 ounce (5.2 grams) gold per ton. This pre-mining resource (1996) was not National Instrument 43-101-compliant, but was based on over 260,000 feet of surface and underground drilling in and around the mine area.
Besides the possibility of establishing an open-pit-style resource, the Rosebud gold mine area is considered to have excellent exploration potential for higher-grade gold and silver mineralization in several areas that were not included previously in the historic mine workings or resource calculations. This is supported by available data from historic drill holes in the Dreamland (1.9 metres of 25.4 grams per tonne (g/t) gold) and Northwest corridor (5.1 metres of 13.8 g/t gold and 3.9 metres of 16.2 g/t gold) areas, as well as other locations on the property.
Drilling on the Rosebud is expect to begin during mid to later summer this year on targets identified from soil samples using the “enzyme leach” process, a technique particularly well suited to Harvest because of the vast experience in that field of Harvest Gold (U.S.) President Greg Hill, who also just happens to be the President of the Geological Society of Nevada.
Also assisting in the interpretation of geophysical and geochemical data for drill target identification is Holly McLachlan, who spent two years as a geologist at the Hecla/Newmont Gold
Corp. Rosebud JV while the deposit was being mined. Her exploration and development efforts
there included mapping and managing surface core and RC rigs and an underground development core drilling program in order to delineate potential deposit extensions and new deposits.
The company has cash on hand thanks to the exercise of all of its warrants from a previous financing. Harvest’s press release of December 4, 2007 reported that 6,975,500 warrants had been exercised resulting in total proceeds of $1,395,100. The two year warrants were attached to Harvest Gold’s initial Plan of Arrangement financing, when the Company’s shares began trading in December, 2005. One warrant entitled the owner to purchase one common share of Harvest Gold for $0.20.
Harvest Gold’s business model of securing strong joint venture partners, when appropriate, is well known in Nevada and is renowned for assisting companies in preserving their cash.
Besides the Rosebud project, Harvest is exploring and evaluating each of its other eight properties: the Longstreet Mine Gold Property and the Garcia Flats Property in Nevada and the Assean Lake Gold Property, the Wyatt Claims, the Le Savage North and South Properties, the Con Claim, the Conley Estate Claim, and the Vena Claim, all in Manitoba.
There Is No Credit Crisis, No Recession And That Is Why Gold Is Going To $1500
By: Kenneth Gerbino, Kenneth J. Gerbino & Company
Posted Friday, 18 January 2008
Source: GoldSeek.com
http://news.goldseek.com/KennethGerbino/1200639840.php
Hard To Believe? - Read On Friends
The U.S. Press and just about everyone from Main Street to Wall Street have bought into yet another massive misunderstood concept. Misunderstood concepts are very dangerous to your financial health.
The sub prime mortgage melt down and future ramifications are very real and the major financial institutions associated with all the second and third level repackaging of this toxic paper are in big trouble. But the “crisis” is a hoax. Some big institutions lost a lot of money in their investment portfolios but this is not a credit crises. If you ever got through Von Mises’ great book, The Theory of Money and Credit, this would make sense.
Follow this simple example and you will understand why there is no credit crises and why a recession is probably not going to happen anytime soon and why this is astoundingly bullish for gold and silver.
Tom buys a house. Tom has no job, no credit, no savings and lied on his loan application. He is like a few million other people in the same boat. Some bank or financial institution lent him money. The house cost $300,000 and Tom was lent the entire amount, 100% financing – no down payment. When Tom was lent the $300,000 he gave it to George who was the owner of the house. George now has $300,000 and Tom now owns a house. So far so good.
Tom defaults. His bank cannot collect. His bank is in trouble. His bank has hundreds or thousands of similar loans. The bank has a crisis on its hands. But hold on, George has the $300,000. The $300,000 has not disappeared. George has this money in his bank or he bought a boat and the guy he bought the boat from has the $300,000. The money is still in circulation. It has not gone to money heaven. The banks and the big Wall Street firms actually have a crisis, but it is an investment crisis not a national credit crisis.
RECESSION POSTPONED
The Fed, the Treasury, the European Central Bank and the British National Bank are all pumping in hundreds of billions of new money to bail out the banks not the economy. But the economy will certainly get “stimulated” by all the new money.
Since the $300,000 is still in circulation (and you can multiply this by millions of other home loan examples) and the Central banks are adding even more money and credit to the economy, what is going to be the outcome of all this? It is going to be incredibly inflationary. It is also going to assure that the economy will avoid a recession because there is now so much money sloshing around the system that it will get spent or saved or used by someone else and therefore a recession will be postponed. The way a recession could happen is that if the economy actually has finally petered out and all the mal-investment of the last cycle (real estate being first on the list) is now creating dislocations that cannot be handled. But with all the new money being pumped into the system and with continuing low interest rates this recession has surely been postponed.
The dollar will continue to go down as the Fed has decided to save the banks and flood the country with as much money as is needed to handle their crisis (the banks).
Gold is going up because this “crisis” handling means inflation is going to come back, possibly at the highest levels we have ever seen in modern times.
A SLOW ECONOMY
The home building melt down is very real. Many homes were bought by unqualified borrowers and speculators who are now in trouble. With home building crashing (this is a key sector of the economy) how will this effect the U.S. economy? It, so far, has just slowed the economy down but because there is now so much more money in circulation some other areas of the economy appear to be taking up some of the slack.
My guess is that instead of a 4% growth economy like we had because of the “housing boom”, we may have a 1.5% growth economy. With the dollar so low tourism will increase and foreigners will come in and buy our goods and services. Our real estate prices are not only going down but to someone with Euros our real estate is now at bargain prices. European yacht manufactures cannot now compete with U.S. boat builders and at the recent Fort Lauderdale Yacht Show (the largest in the world) U.S. yachts and boats were bargains if one owned Euros. Boeing Jets are also tempting to European airlines with Euros selling for a 30% discount (in Euros) from just a few years ago.
MONEY AND INVESTMENTS
If there is a credit crisis, why is MZM money supply up almost $1 trillion in the last year? Why are Aaa Corporates only at 5.3%? Why was Industrial Production up 1.5% year over year in December? Employment up 1%. These are not recession or crisis numbers. The Crisis is a smokescreen used to rationalize rescuing an investment management crisis for the banks. The big institutions are being bailed out and the guy in the street is going to pay for it.
In 1987 the U.S. stock market had its worse year since 1929 and 1974. Trillions of dollars of wealth was destroyed in stock and bond values in 1987. But we never had a recession. This was because the losses were investment losses. Money in circulation actually went up. Money, credit, and investments are three related but distinct animals.
In the present environment the banks investment portfolios are losing hundreds of billions and maybe as much as a trillion dollars eventually but the amount of money in circulation is increasing not decreasing. Therefore the so called “economy” will move on and the inflationary impact of all this new money on top of all the old money that has been shoved into the system will make inflation take off.
When Wall Street comes to it’s senses and realizes that the economy is now being flooded with money and none of the old money has disappeared and the Fed is indeed going to keep interest rates as low as possible, the U.S. stock market should not crash. The banking system will not collapse. Unfortunately what will happen is an explosion of inflation and that will be a crisis. Every lower and middle income earner in this country will pay for this bail out because their paychecks will now buy less and less in the future. Their standard of living will decrease. As usual the insidious paper money system will rob the poor and the lower and middle income earners (via inflation) and redistribute that wealth to the rich (the banks and the Wall Street firms that are being bailed out). There is no free lunch. But whenever one shows up, know that someone is paying.
The authorities have no choice but to inflate or have some major institutions go down. Eventually this will be an inflationary disaster. Gold will most likely go to $1500 within a few years. If one takes $850 gold and allows for only a 7% increase a year for 5 years – the price is $1200.
Bottom Line
The stock market already was overvalued and a 10-20% correction is expected. With all the money floating around some sectors will probably do OK. I do not like the stock market but do not feel a crash is coming. That happens when interest rates are high not low and when inflation returns forcing interest rates much higher. At that time the Fed won’t be able to stop it. Then the market will crash.
A recession is most likely postponed because of all the money injected recently. How long is difficult to predict and we will have to see how the economic statistics unfold in the coming months to evaluate.
Gold and silver are obviously the safest and best investments in a world that has the authorities with only one option. Print money. They have to bail out the banks and Wall Street and they have to pay for trillions of promises to their citizens that they cannot keep. This is global not just in the U.S.
The money supply increases in India, China, Brazil and England are now almost beyond belief averaging 19% a year. These four countries are in the top 12 GDP countries in the world, contribute almost 30% of the world’s goods and services and employ 47% of the world’s work force. The future of gold and silver as an inflation hedge is definitely going global.
The future is like the past only more expensive. For more articles on Gold, the Economy and the Stock Market visit our website: www.kengerbino.com
Ken Gerbino
ValGold Adds Value for Investors in Fish Creek Venture
By Craig Thompson
Graham Davis of the Colorado School of Mines recently noted that Peter Tufano of Harvard University measured the sensitivity of gold company value to changes in gold price and discovered that a 1% change in gold price typically caused a 2% change in mining company value. If this is the case, the last year has certainly created billions in value around the globe as gold jumped 47% from $600 to about $880 in just 12 months. From majors like Barrick Gold (TSX:ABX) to juniors like ValGold Resources (TSX.V:VAL), 2007 was a year of phenomenal growth in the potential for profit in the gold industry.
Yet something else we have been witness to is that the share price of most gold companies, while some growth has occurred, has lagged behind this skyrocketing price of gold and the attendant increase in company valuation. To my mind this has created great openings for potential reward in the junior resource market in the sense that while the reward for discovery will be greater than ever, share prices are at present little changed by this reality. So, many companies are at present undervalued.
ValGold recently released a NI 43-101 report that I think illustrates this point clearly. The company is a real go-getter in the sense of acquiring a project, quickly identifying targets, drilling the hell out of it and then – when the time comes – taking it to the next phase or optioning it and moving to the next thing. All this in search of a “company maker”, as the expression goes.
It’s possible that ValGold may have hooked onto something big this time around, however, not only at its Los Patos concessions in Venezuela and Tower Mountain in Thunder Bay, Ontario, but also at its new Fish Creek property in Guyana, which is the subject of the 43-101 technical report.
In late November, the company announced high-grade assays from the Tower Mountain Gold Property, located in the Matawin Gold Belt, 40 km southwest of Thunder Bay, in Ontario. Intersections of high-grade gold occurred in TM-07-56, where 1.5m graded 58.20 g/Tonne Au (1.697 oz/t gold) and in TM-07-58 where 1.5m averaged 18.70 g/Tonne Au (0.545 oz/t gold).
In Venezuela, a growing pool of data including assay results from a 2007 drill program at the Los Patos occurrence is leading toward a NI 43-101 compliant resource estimate, which is expected within a few months. ValGold’s concessions also contain a number of gold occurrences that are considered highly prospective.
The newly available data from the Fish Creek project in Guyana should add new fuel to the fire.
Historic exploration for alluvial gold and diamonds in central and northern Guyana dates back to about 1887, with alluvial gold workings in the larger area surrounding the Fish Creek project dating from about 1900 onwards.
The only systematic modern exploration at Fish Creek took place between 1994 and 1997 when Golden Star Resources (TSX.V:GXX.H) completed four distinct phases of exploration, including geological mapping, stream sediment sampling, soil sampling, trenching, deep auger sampling, ground magnetometer survey and diamond drilling.
ValGold now owns all of this invaluable data.
What is most interesting about the mineralization uncovered by Golden Star is that it is very widely disseminated throughout all tested areas, both where previous workings were identified and in areas where no historical artisan mining occurred.
For example, drill holes FI-96/9 and FI-96/10 were drilled to test an auger sample that assayed 20.7 g/t Au located over the fault-thrust contact in an area of high geochemical gold response. This was a historic mining site with gold workings and visible gold in tailings and pits. Hole 10 intersected 2 metres of 33.98 g/t Au in altered andesitic rock containing vuggy quartz carbonate veins with up to 10% sulphides.
This was at the high end of the mineralization found on the property, but only in terms of grade. Throughout the property, over an unusually broad area, gold in soils were found to occur in the 50 to 100 ppb (0.05 to 0.1 g/t) Au range and within those areas more concentrated gold values of greater than 100 ppb (0.1 g/t). These appear to exist within a major fault structure over at least six kilometres.
Throughout the Fish Creek property, the independent author of the NI 43-101 report determined that “sporadic and discontinuous gold mineralization is present at relatively shallow levels in metamorphosed volcanics, sediments and intrusive rocks of the central and northern parts of the licence area.”
What he found mysterious, however, was that although these were large swathes of soils with exceptional gold enrichment, including 6 km x 2 km in the south and 3 km x 2 km in the north, none of the drilling carried out by Golden Star offered an explanation – a source – for the mineralization. This tells us two things – that much work remains to be done to determine solid drilling targets, and that there are possibly much greater grades at depth that would explain the very broadly disseminated gold in soils.
At the time of writing, ValGold’s VP of Exploration, Tom Pollock, had begun to assemble an exploration team for the Fish Creek project in Guyana, including a country manager and two field geologist positions. Together the new team will expend as much as $860,000 (as per the NI 43-101 recommendations) in the next 12 to 16 months to complete a review of historical work, follow up trenching and some drilling, with the ultimate goal of finding the deeper source of sub-surface gold mineralization indicated by previous drilling.
This project adds substantially to ongoing work elsewhere, in Venezuela (which, if you haven’t read about and you’re an investor, you should: http://www.resourcexinvestor.com/news.php?id=3175) and Canada. Fish Creek represents further diversification and value for a junior that has inexplicably come down in price since the summer doldrums, in spite of the runaway price of gold.
This article is intended for information purposes only, and is not a recommendation to buy or sell the equities of any company mentioned herein. It is based on sources believed to be reliable, but no warranty as to accuracy is expressed or implied. The opinions expressed in the article are those of the author except where statements are attributed to individuals other than the author, in which case the opinions are those of the individual to whom they are attributed.
Soltera Mining Developing Historic Argentine Goldmine
By James West
Some of the largest gold deposits in the world are currently under development in Argentina, a country whose past political problems have precluded the exploration over the bulk of its vast 2.8 million square kilometers.
Barrick (NYSE:ABX) is developing the $2.4 billion Pascua-Lama project, Pascua-Lama has proven and probable reserves of 17.0 million ounces of gold, and contains 689 million ounces of silver, and 565 million pounds of copper, within the gold reserves. It has an estimated mine life of 23 years. Located on the border of Argentina and Chile, this project will benefit from existing infrastructure, processing, staffing, and community development programs at Barrick’s Veladero mine, within ten kilometers.
Soltera Mining (OTCBB:SLTA, Frankfurt: SN7) is also developing a past producing mine with the potential to prove up a sizable deposit.
The El Torno project is located in the Andean Cordillera in the extreme northwest of Argentina near the international borders with Bolivia and Chile. The property consists of five mining rights covering a total area of 7,800 hectares. Soltera has an agreement with the titleholder that includes payments totaling US$350,000 to June 2010 and an obligation to spend US$1 million on exploration during the first two years of the agreement. Various additional payments can be made to extend the exploration period, and Soltera has an option to acquire additional mineral titles.
Historically, El Torno is a large gold-rich quartz vein up to 14 km long and 14 m wide that was worked by the Incas, Jesuits and Spanish and has more than 1,000 m of underground galleries. The vein extends north-south, is sub-vertical, and is accompanied in places by a stockwork system of small quartz and pyrite veins that can extend up to 300 m from the main vein.
The prospect was investigated by Puma Minerals in 1997 who carried out more than 2,100 m of drilling; then by Peñoles in 1999, who undertook trenching, grab sampling, geological surveying as well as a geophysical IP survey. Soltera believes results from these two former exploration programs justify further exploration of the prospect.
Soltera’s management believes a comprehensive exploration program employing modern technologies should result in the discovery of a substantial gold deposit.
During the last quarter of 2007, geochemical stream sediments were sampled to evaluate the presence of mineralization along and around the whole gold-quartz vein system, as well as in specific areas of the stockwork. Soltera is now awaiting the analytical results of these geochemical assays from a Canadian chemical laboratory, the results of which will be announced in February.
In November, the exploration team commenced structural geological mapping and is currently re-interpreting the geological structures associated with mineralization. Evidence to date suggests that the gold-quartz veining is different from previous interpretations and the mineralization could be more widespread than previously thought.
This activity will be followed in the first quarter of 2008 by trenching and geophysical surveys in order to define precise drilling targets for the second quarter of 2008.
The company currently has approx. US$800,000 in the bank. These funds are sufficient to fund exploration through to May 2008. Soltera has commitments from existing shareholders for additional funding for the Spring Drill Program.
Soltera is headed by Fabio Montanari, who joined the company as CEO in August last year.
Dr. Montanari brings to Soltera a distinguished international mining career spanning over twenty-five years. Included is senior experience spearheading advanced exploration and mining activities for a host of internationally recognized exploration and mining companies in North, Central and West Africa, South America, Europe, Canada and the United States. Dr. Montanari's responsibilities have encompassed various mining engineering, operations, pre-feasibility and general management positions, including business development roles at the corporate management level.
Dr. Montanari currently serves as a Director for RGM of Cagliari Italy, an advisory firm specializing in mining exploration, project assessment, and evaluation, and holds a doctorate degree in economic geology from the University of Ferrara, Italy. Additionally, he is the author of a textbook on economic geology, which has been adopted by several major Italian universities.
Other major mines in Argentina include:
• The Alumbrera Mine in Northwest Argentina, owned jointly by Northern Orion (AMEX:NTO), Xstrata PLC (LSE:XTA), and Goldcorp (NYSE:GG), is one of the world’s largest copper gold mines and also one of the world’s lowest cash cost copper producers, with contained copper reserves of 385,000 tonnes of copper and 1.8 million ounces of gold
• The Agua Rica Mine is also in Northwest Argentina, only 34 km from the Alumbrera mine, has drill defined metal inventory of 21.8 billion pounds of copper, 13.3 million ounces of gold and 1.7 billion pounds of molybdenum. Agua Rica is owned 100% by Northern Orion, who was recently the subject of a successful takeover bid by Yamana Gold (NYSE:YAU), who also swallowed Meridian Gold (NYSE:MDG) in the process.
• Marifil Mines (TSX.V:MFM) has a strong portfolio of 34 advanced and early stage exploration projects covering more than 395,000 hectares of prospective ground throughout Argentina. The key targets include both precious metals and base metal finds
near existing mines, as well as in areas that previously have been unexplored.
• Rio Tinto PLC (NYSE:RTP) operates a large potash operation in Argentina, and is also exploring several large areas for precious metals.
gm, rusia's gold production suppose to grow 5% a year and they say in the next 4 years will total 200tons a year. eom
Golden Reign Focuses on Gold Play in Russia
By Kara Stefan
Currently ranked sixth in the world in gold production, Russia has total known gold resources of approximately 500 million ounces. During the last few years, Russia’s increase in production has been the one of the highest among all of the major gold producers, and yet this growth represents only a small portion of the country’s potential.
Aton Capital, a major Russian asset management company, has pointed out that Russia’s output of gold still lags far behind other major gold producers.
“The country's total estimated gold resources are almost 500-mil oz, while output was only 5.9-mil oz in 2004 [and 5.36 million in 2006 – Editor], implying a resource life of 85 years at the current rate of extraction,” the company stated in a report posted on its website. “With the exception of South Africa, resource lives for major producers (US, Canada and Australia) are 15-20 years. This implies there is considerable potential for raising output in Russia, and indeed this is exactly what we have seen.”
And if Russia’s total resource base is considerable, then as a percentage, Russia’s Far East is the place for junior resource companies to be looking for the yellow metal. The Magadan gold region – which is said to be Russia most important area for gold – hosts nearly 2,000 placer gold deposits, 100 gold ore deposits, and 48 silver ore deposits. At last tally, the region had known reserves of 128,000,000 ounces – more than one fifth of Russia’s total.
Russian mining and exploration have had a long road toward real openness since Glasnost and Perestroika were decreed by the then president of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev. And forefront of juniors making headway in modern day Russia is Golden Reign Resources (TSX.V:GRR).
“We’ve got lots of focus on Russia’s Far East right now,” said Myles. “We’ve taken a lot of effort to lay down roots in the region. I think our most recent sample assays show that we’ve made the right decision in setting up at Dorozhni and Butarni.”
Dorozhni Property
Earlier in the year, Golden Reign completed the first phase of its exploration program at the Dorozhni property, one of two highly-prospective gold properties located in the Magadan Region of Far East Russia. Although historical exploration has focused on high-grade gold bearing quartz veins at or near surface, Golden Reign believes that the property has potential for a low-grade bulk tonnage gold deposit.
Assay results from the initial sampling program originated from two trenches covering an aggregate 1.5 kilometres on the N-NE slope of Dorozhni. Approximately 30 kilograms (over 900 ounces) of gold was historically mined from Vein No. 1, including high-grade pockets grading several kilograms of gold per tonne. Recent assay results from property samples include grades of 1.65 g/t, 2.74 g/t, 4.84 g/t, and 18.69 g/t.
Dipping gently to the northwest, this quartz vein has intense massive sulphide mineralization along the vein selvage containing visible gold. Coarse-grained native gold mineralization is also observed within the vein. Gold grains range in size from 0.5 to 2.0 mm, reportedly reaching a few centimetres in size in some cases.
Additional samples revealed that gold mineralization is not restricted solely to quartz veins but also occurs within the surrounding rock. Others indicated that gold mineralization is likely disseminated through the entire intrusion.
High sulphide mineralization was observed in boulders located in the riverbed of Dorozhni Creek within a stockwork zone roughly 50 metres by 70 metres wide. Golden Reign intends to remove the overburden to allow for proper channel sampling by diamond saw, which should provide a better representation and understanding of this newly discovered zone.
Butarni Property
Golden Reign’s second Russian venture, the Butarni property, covers an area of 9.3 square kilometers and is situated approximately 310 kilometres north of Magadan, the capital city of the province. It is underlain by sediments intruded by a biotite granite stock with dimensions of approximately 3 km x 1.6 km. Golden Reign has established a camp and mobilized exploration equipment in the area. It is trenching 3,500 metres across geochemical and geophysical anomalies in anticipation of 2,500 metres of diamond drilling to test the mineralization at depth.
A technical report on the Butarni Property, filed in August 2007 by qualified person John Kowalchuk, P. Geol., indicated that the discovery of modest to large tonnages of gold mineralized rock could potentially allow for low cost, large-scale, open pit mining of the deposit(s) at Butarni.
“The combination of large tonnages of mineralized rock and the substantial gold grade potential suggests the possibility of a significant discovery of an economic gold deposit,” Kowalchuk reported, recommending that the Butarni property warranted additional evaluation.
Previously, only the northern and western parts of the Butarni region were explored, whereas Golden Reign’s current target is a known gold bearing area in the southwest portion referred to as Zone 1. Golden Reign is currently engaged in detailed mapping and geochemical surveys to test approximately 40% of this area that remains unexplored.
Historical grab and channel sampling of quartz veins within Zone 1 returned values ranging from 1 g/t to 334.4 g/t Au, with an average grade of 21.3 g/t gold from 45 grab samples and 29.6 g/t gold from 22 channel samples. Golden Reign’s recent channel samples yielded grades of 8.63 g/t and 16.11 g/t.
Encouraged by the findings in the Technical Report, Golden Reign excavated an additional 1,000 metres across four trenches, for a total of six trenches approximately 100-150 metres apart. Testing of the newly exposed weathered zone will continue throughout 2008.
Offering low dilution – 25 million shares issued and outstanding and 41 million fully diluted – and a low share price ($0.12 to $0.15 range), Golden Reign has a market cap with plenty of upside potential. The company has taken a slow and steady dive in the markets, first since a tangle with local politics in the region (now resolved) and then due to the market hiccup last August (now resolved). In the meantime, the company has made significant headway in achieving its objectives – “trenching; channel sampling; detailed geological mapping; soil sampling; geophysical surveys; and limited drilling.” With this now complete – the company collected almost 1000 one-metre samples – and with results expected soon, Golden Reign has already begun assessing new targets in mineral-rich Magadan.
Astral Achieves Astronomical Results at Jumping Josephine in Southeastern BC
By Sylvia Young
There’s a popular inspirational quote that goes: “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.” In that case, Astral Mining Corp.’s (TSX.V:AST) management may well have exceeded its target. Both management and investors are likely over the moon given that the company, along with joint venture partner Kootenay Gold (TSX.V:KTN), announced some stellar results from the latest round of drilling at the Jumping Josephine (JJ) Gold Project in southeastern BC. As per the company’s November 29 press release, assay results from 14 diamond drill holes from the Phase II drill program on the JJ Main Gold Zone are in. Best results include 7.74 g/t Au over 5 meters, including 15.99 g/t Au over 2 m; and 12.44 g/t Au over 8 m including 26.9 g/t Au over 3 m. These results are significant in that they further confirm significant gold mineralization within what is known to be a large quartz stockwork system.
The property consists of 24 contiguous claims acquired by Kootenay and seven Crown-granted claims optioned to Kootenay. The 11,785 hectare project hosts the historical Granville Mountain mining camp – a mining district which has produced over 9 million ounces of high-grade Au, as well as several newly-discovered vein hosted, shear-related gold showings.
Infrastructure support is excellent, as the property is located 40 km north of Teck Cominco’s smelter at Trail and 30 km west of Castlegar. The property’s proximity to Rossland and Trail (both historic mining towns) provides easy access to a local skilled labor force. The added bonus of favourable weather conditions and major highway access allows for year-round drilling at JJ.
Previous interest in JJ focused mainly on the formerly producing Granville Mountain camp. Until 1940, gold, silver, copper, lead and zinc were mined from several workings in the area. After World War II, there was little activity in the area, save for limited production from Albion. The area was explored sporadically from the late 1960s until the early 1990s. Kootenay acquired the property in 2003.
Since May 2006, Astral has broadened its exploration scope beyond JJ’s Main zone, and has started evaluating the new gold showings discovered by Kootenay. Prior to drilling, Astral conducted a property-wide airborne geophysical survey, soil sampling over three areas, further property-wide prospecting, as well as further grab sampling and trenching for some 775 m at the JJ Main showing.
The company has just wrapped up Phase II of drilling, having completed 38 drill holes totaling 5,100.84 m. This year’s drill results are currently undergoing detailed interpretation as management lays the groundwork for Phase III of drilling in 2008. Assay results have yet to arrive on the remaining 18 holes.
The company’s 43-101 report was co-written by Dale Brittliffe and Dr. David Terry, Astral’s vice-president of exploration. They describe a geological setting in which “gold mineralization at JJ is predominantly within auriferous quartz veins, shears and stockworks hosted by mid-Jurassic intrusives or older Mount Roberts Formation rocks….quartz veins can have very high gold grades (Kootenay grab sample BZT-09 up to 558g/t Au). Samples from JJ Main return gold values up to 133.91g/t Au and show a general Pb-Ag-Sb-As (lead-silver-antimony-arsenic) association and to a lesser extent Hg-Cd-Cu. (mercury, cadmium, copper)”
The report further recommends JJ as “a high quality gold exploration property with the potential to host an economic gold deposit. Results of first pass work in 2006 were very encouraging, and support the proposed programme for the 2007 season estimated at CAD$780,000. Exploration work outlined below seeks to evaluate more advanced showings such as JJ Main, provide first pass exploration for showings not yet tested such as Borrow Pit, JJ West and Pb-Zn and also includes work to identify further zones of mineralization between known gold occurrences in favourable lithologies.”
On the financial side, several fundamental strengths highlight Astral’s status as a rising star among juniors. The company’s management has gone to great lengths to minimize risk to shareholders by joining forces with Kootenay. The joint-venture agreement provides an excellent vehicle for maximum returns with minimum financial and political risk. Both companies work only in areas of known mineralization in mining-friendly parts of North America. Astral has assembled a diversified portfolio of properties in BC, Nevada and North and South Carolina. Funding has already been established for Phase III drilling, as the company has recently completed two financings.
One of the best things about this play is its tight share structure– with only 25,134,614 shares fully diluted. More good drill results, coupled with this kind of liquidity, could easily create the kind of momentum needed for brisk price gains.
With gold seemingly establishing a new base at $800 an ounce, many properties in easily accessible parts of southeastern BC are getting a well-deserved second look. With 20 out of 38 drill hole assays already in at JJ, the impetus for further exploration is clear – making it an excellent time for Astral’s investors to hitch their wagons to a star.
This article is intended for information purposes only, and is not a recommendation to buy or sell the equities of any company mentioned herein. It is based on sources believed to be reliable, but no warranty as to accuracy is expressed or implied. The opinions expressed in the article are those of the author except where statements are attributed to individuals other than the author, in which case the opinions are those of the individual to whom they are attributed.
Mining town grapples with latest gold rush
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.asp?message_id=25318698
A TIDAL WAVE!
by Puru Saxena
Editor, Money Matters
November 30, 2007
http://www.financialsense.com/editorials/saxena/2007/1130.html
NioGold Breathes New Life Into Former Mines
By Peter Kent
There’s a saying in the mining business that goes like this: “The best place to find a new mine is next to an old mine.”
It sounds trite, but recent developments around the world have demonstrated the truth behind the saying.
NioGold Mining (TSX.V:NOX) has just finished drilling over 10,000 metres of a planned 40,000 metre drill program on its wholly owned Marban Block property. This initial round of the program is investigating gold mineralization in the area immediately surrounding the past-producing Marban Mine. All of the holes indicated that the geologic features that helped establish the Marban Mine are also present in the ground around the mine.
Certain veined and mineralized sections bear strong similarities to Agnico-Eagle’s (TSX:AEM) Goldex deposit (which contains an estimated 21.4 million tonnes grading 2.39 g/t Au for a total of 1.64 million ounces of gold) located 10 kilometers to the southeast. Follow-up holes are planned.
NioGold first drilled 10,000 metres across 63 holes during its 2006 exploration program.
Jay Taylor, a respected and widely followed investment analyst who has recommended the company to his subscribers, thinks the Malartic Gold Camp is an “outstanding” area to be developing gold resources.
“NioGold, because it’s in a historic gold camp, is surrounded by infrastructure. You have people, roads, power and milling facilities, so conceivably a company like NioGold could prove up a deposit and put it into production in relatively short order,” he says. “I look at it as a less risky exploration play compared to other projects because it’s in such a well developed location.”
The camps presently encompass several active advanced exploration and mine development projects such as Canadian Malartic (Osisko Exploration – TSX.V:OSK), Kiena (Wesdome Gold Mines – TSX:WDO), Midway (Northern Star Mining – TSX.V:NSM), Goldex (Agnico-Eagle) and Lac Herbin (Alexis Minerals). The Marban Block encompasses three former gold producers, namely the Norlartic, Kierens (First Canadian), and Marban mines. These companies collectively produced 592,265 ounces of gold.
The Marban Block project is located in the western portion of the province of Quebec, Canada, midway between the towns of Val-d’Or and Malartic, in the southern portion of what is known in mining terminology as the Abitibi greenstone belt. This area falls within the Malartic Mining “camp”, which has yielded a total estimated 8.9 million ounces of gold – worth US $6.2 billion at today’s prices.
The Marban Block has seen exploration since 1940, and at least 14 different companies have explored and/or mined the property since that time.
The project is the result of NioGold’s consolidation of four contiguous properties in the Malartic mining camp – Norlartic, First Canadian, Marban, and Gold Hawk – and consists of 34 mining claims, three concessions, and one mining lease covering a total of 972.8 hectares.
A report by independent geology consultants Mine Development Associates of Canada has put over 342,000 ounces of gold into a National Instrument 43-101 compliant resource estimate, but the recently announced drill results mean that these numbers are growing.
Besides the Marban Block, NioGold has two other ongoing exploration projects in its property portfolio. Briefly, they include the Camflo West Property, where in 2006, NioGold completed geophysical surveys and drilled 11 widely spaced holes (3,300 metres) testing the sediment / volcanic contact. The drilling uncovered high level intrusives and significant alteration similar to those associated with gold mineralization of the Malartic camp. Values of up to 9.08 g/t Au over 1.2 metres were returned from the drilling.
Located 200 kilometers southeast of the town of Val-d’Or and 50 kilometers north of the Mt-Laurier uranium district, Pump Lake is an early stage project that displays characteristics comparable to the Iron Oxide-Copper-Gold (IOCG) class of mineral deposits. These include the association of iron oxides (magnetite, hematite), copper, gold and uranium and the proximity to intrusive rocks. World-Class examples of IOCG’s are found at Olympic Dam and the Cloncurry district (Australia), Candelaria (Chile), Salobo (Brazil), and the Kiruna district (Sweden).
The company is led by Michael Iverson, who was Chairman, Director and Chief Executive Officer of Fortuna Silver Mines (TSX.V:FVI) from March 1998 to December 2004 and who remains as a board member, and Vice-President Rock Lefrançois, whose 20 years in the field has seen his service as senior geologist for Cambior (recently acquired by IAMGOLD Corp [NYSE:IAG]) and Aur Resources (recently acquired by Teck Cominco [TSX:TCK]). His wide-ranging knowledge of exploration methods applied to various styles of mineral deposits and his ability to develop exploration concepts will be an asset in advancing NioGold’s diversified portfolio of projects.
NioGold currently has 61.1 million shares issued and outstanding, with 78.5 million fully diluted. Visit the company’s web site at http://www.niogold.com.
This article is intended for information purposes only, and is not a recommendation to buy or sell the equities of any company mentioned herein. It is based on sources believed to be reliable, but no warranty as to accuracy is expressed or implied. The opinions expressed in the article are those of the author except where statements are attributed to individuals other than the author, in which case the opinions are those of the individual to whom they are attributed.
Further high grades follow up Yale Resources’ investment dealer tour at La Verde project
By Brian O’Hara, Resourcex Investor
November 15, 2007
Yale Resources (TSX.V: YLL) has received further indication from its past producing La Verde Grade mine that a high-grade, potentially multi-million tonne resource may remain in and around the historic workings on the company’s 100% owned property. Samples taken as vertical chip channel samples at intervals along the walls in the historic workings returned high-grade assays with a weighted average of 2.57 per cent copper (Cu), 86.8 grams per tonne silver (Ag), 0.97 per cent zinc (Zn) and 0.19 g/t gold (Au) over an average vertical height of 1.89 m.
Full Article: http://www.resourcexinvestor.com/news.php?id=3312
VALGOLD NETS A RICH NEW PROSPECT AT FISH CREEK IN THE GUIANA SHIELD
http://www.resourcexinvestor.com/news.php?id=3228
By Christina de Wit
November 12, 2007
The phrase “money talks,” has been around for ages, but the ancients had a more artful way of saying it – aureo hamo piscariis – which translates from the Latin as “To fish with a golden hook.” ValGold Resources’ (TSX.V:VAL) shareholders will probably appreciate the classical interpretation; the company’s latest news suggests that management has hooked a big one with its newest acquisition in Guyana. As per VAL’s November 7th press release, the company has expanded its holdings in the Guiana Shield through an agreement with a private Guyanese company. ValGold stands to earn a 100% interest in the Fish Creek Prospecting Licence, comprising approximately 5,180 hectares (12,800 acres) in Mining District #5 in northwest Guyana. This brings the company’s total holdings in the Guiana shield to 5,484 km2, with 4,592 km2 of ground in Guyana, and 892 km2 in Venezuela’s Bolivar State. This makes the company one of the larger single landholders in the Guiana Shield.
The Guiana Shield is South America’s counterpart to the volcanic-sedimentary Birimian Supergroup in West Africa, which hosts several large gold deposits, the most famous of which is AngloGold Ashanti's Obuasi Mine in Ghana. Obuasi produces approximately 400,000 ounces of gold annually. What is perhaps most striking about the Guiana Shield is that it’s one of the last seriously underexplored major geological systems left in the world.
Major gold deposits within the Guiana Shield include the Rosebel mine in Suriname, the Omai mine in Guyana and the Las Cristinas and Brisas deposits in Venezuela. Before closing in 2005, Omai (owned by Cambior, which was bought out by Iamgold) was the largest open-pit gold mine in South America, and produced more than 3.7 million troy ounces (115,081 kg) of gold during its lifetime.
Besides being known as one of the world’s largest exporters of bauxite, Guyana is also known for its gold, diamond and uranium potential. Free market-oriented political reforms in the 1990s and the current breakout gold market have done much to highlight Guyana’s appeal to mining investors.
Although this acquisition stands on the merits of its exploration potential alone, ValGold’s corporate culture is to seek opportunities to “join with good men”. A key component of this deal is leveraging the expertise of Hilbert N. Shields, ValGold’s Guyana country manager, and past vice-president and general manager of Golden Star Resources. He was responsible for that company’s project generation, acquisition, and exploration to feasibility study for gold and diamonds in Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, Venezuela, Sierra Leone, and the Ivory Coast. He was responsible for a US $100 million budget over 13 years with the company and had a technical staff of 45 geo-scientists and 350 local employees. Mr. Shields supervised the exploration of the Omai gold deposit to completion, which currently produces 300,000 of gold annually.
Perhaps more importantly, Hilbert’s team initiated the original exploration by Golden Star on Fish Creek in the 1990s. Now he is eager to return to the Fish Creek site to follow up on the mineralized anomalies he began to work on prior to the downturn of gold prices.
The Fish Creek licence is at the northeast boundary of and adjacent to the company’s Five Star property. This area has a history of artisanal gold mining and is dotted with workings. It is also thought to be potentially rich in diamonds, uranium and copper-nickel and/or platinum group metals (PGM).
The company’s website describes the Five Star properties as being “highly prospective for gold and, potentially, diamonds, uranium and copper-nickel and/or platinum group metals (PGM). Several gold occurrences have already been discovered on the properties including the Makapa occurrence where rock samples have returned gold values as high as 136.0 g/t. Limited drilling at the same occurrence has intersected up to 18.3 g/t gold over 2.0 meters in silicified volcaniclastic conglomerate. Large areas have also seen no work or have good gold stream silt anomalies that have not been investigated. Alluvial diamonds have been found at a number of locations yet very little exploration has been conducted for this commodity. Radiometric surveys have identified several uranium anomalies and layered, intrusive, mafic to ultramafic rocks could potentially host copper-nickel and/or PGM mineralization.”
Golden Star Resources, who worked on Fish Creek from 1994 to 1997, conducted stream sediment and regional soil geochemical surveys, airborne and ground geophysical surveys, detailed soil, rock and trench sampling, as well as 2,780 m of diamond drilling over 20 holes. This preliminary work allowed Golden Star to delineate several anomalous areas of gold enrichment. These appear to be associated with a major regional east-west fault, whose structure crosses the central part of the licence and extends about 40 km west.
Trench sampling is reported as having returned (historic, non-43-101-compliant) values of up to 3.6 g/t gold over 7m and 9.7 g/t gold over 3m. The best drill intersection was reported as 10.34 g/t over a core interval of 7m.
Despite some impressive results, low metals prices in the 1990s undoubtedly influenced Golden Star’s decision to halt its work program and to allow the licence to lapse. The license was not picked up until April 2007 by the current optionor. Prior to acquiring the licence, ValGold reviewed Golden Star’s collected data and visited the site to collect samples from past and current alluvial and saprolite artisanal workings. Grab and chip samples from rock exposures returned high-grade gold values of up to 34.0 g/t in quartz vein material.
As it prepares for an immediate drill program that will test several of the anomalous targets outlined by Golden Star, ValGold has been infilling the historical soil sampling grids and sampling many of the accessible artisanal mine workings. Preliminary exploration has identified several additional, excellent gold occurrences that merit further trenching and subsequent drill testing. Investors can look forward to the soon-to-be-released NI 43-101-compliant report on Fish Creek.
This newest acquisition enhances a property portfolio that is already well-diversified within the Americas. In addition to its Mochila property in Venezuela, where it is actively drilling, ValGold also has a 100%-interest in two properties in the gold belts of northwestern Ontario.
Several factors suggest that VAL could soon see a significant appreciation in value: it has large holdings in an underexplored region known to contain hugely valuable mineral wealth, it has projects at drilling stage, and its timing is supported by record-high commodities prices. Perhaps most importantly, the company is led by seasoned management with a brilliant track record of exploration and relationship-building in the Americas. Valgold’s president and CEO, Stephen J. Wilkinson, is building on his success with Northern Orion (Argentina). Andrew F.B. Milligan, the company’s chairman, is a former president of Glamis Gold. Tom Pollock, ValGold’s vice-president of exploration, has 25 years’ international exploration and management experience– 20 of it with BHP.
Mr. Wilkinson, in his recent interview for Smartstox Online’s TV Talk Show – click here (http://www.smartstox.com/interview/val/) to watch – discusses the company’s plans for success as it goes ahead with its ambitious drilling programs in the Guiana Shield.
These are certainly exciting times for ValGold, and investors would do well to ensure that this opportunity doesn’t end up being “the one that got away”.
This article is intended for information purposes only, and is not a recommendation to buy or sell the equities of any company mentioned herein. It is based on sources believed to be reliable, but no warranty as to accuracy is expressed or implied. The opinions expressed in the article are those of the author except where statements are attributed to individuals other than the author, in which case the opinions are those of the individual to whom they are attributed.
Here's a post for you!
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.asp?message_id=20994649
Goldcliff Resources (TSX.V:GCN): Exploration on 3 Fronts
By James West
Goldcliff Resources is making solid progress on exploration programs this year, and the company’s recent activity underscores that fact.
Goldcliff is spending $1,550,000 in exploration on several of its 100-per-cent-owned properties in British Columbia, Canada. The exploration is being conducted on Panorama Ridge (gold), Ainsworth (silver and molybdenum) and Big Sheep Creek (uranium). The company has also identified new properties of merit for acquisition.
The exploration at the Panorama Ridge property, located in the historical gold district of Hedley, is advancing ahead of schedule with trenching and drilling in progress. The property was a new discovery by Goldcliff who subsequently have excavated 4,276 metres of trenching in 154 trenches and drilled 77 holes totaling 7,621 metres So far this season, an additional 590 metres of trenching in 20 trenches has been excavated and the channel sampling completed. To date, the drilling program has completed over 30 core holes for a total of over 3,000 metres. Goldcliff's exploration objective for 2007 on the Panorama Ridge gold property is to advance from the gold-discovery-exploration-drill stage to the gold-resource-definition-stage.
Having identified the gold mineralized zones in the previous gold-discovery-exploration-drill stage, the gold-resource definition stage will measure the volume of gold content in these zones. The Company is confident that the gold mineralization encountered at the York-Viking and Nordic gold zones in surface trenching and in drilling represents potentially economic gold grades. The trench samples are in for assay and the core is being cut.
Since 2000, Goldcliff has acquired a total of 4,125 hectares (10,190 acres) at Panorama Ridge. The claims are free and clear of overriding production royalties, Net Profits Interests (NPI) and Net Smelter Returns (NSR). The Panorama Ridge property is 100% owned and operated by Goldcliff Resource Corporation and is located in the historic Hedley Basin.
The Hedley Basin has had a long history of gold production (1904 to 1996) from the Hedley North mining district. During this period, 2,524,313 ounces of gold were produced from auriferous skarn deposits. The Nickel Plate and Hedley-Mascot mines produced more than 97 per cent of the gold from a single gold-skarn deposit (Nickel Plate deposit). Smaller production came from the French, Good Hope and Canty gold skarns. A small amount of gold production came from the Banbury quartz-carbonate veins (Maple Leaf and Pine Knot) located in Hedley Basin South.
The Mascot and Nickel Plate mines eventually fell under the ownership of Mascot Gold Mines Ltd, which traded from a start of $0.45 to a high of $20.63 on Tuesday August 4th, 1987.
In some ways, Goldcliff’s approach to exploration at Panorama Ridge has become increasingly rare: The company started with a property that had seen no exploration work whatsoever. With the price of gold at historical highs, many juniors have fallen back on recycled properties that simply did not have economically viable grades prior to the present bull market. Since no one can say how long a bull will last, such projects have the dubious legacy of being abandoned again once prices return to historical averages. Goldcliff is seeking something akin to the Nickel Plate-Mascot mine, or what they have called a “company maker”.
Director and cofounder Ed Rockel, who was a mine geophysicist at the Nickel Plate-Mascot in the 1980s, explained how his work at Nickel Plate later mirrored results at Panorama Ridge. “The IP survey that I conducted over the old mine workings resulted in the discovery of additional gold mineralization around the old gold workings, that led to the development and production of Mascot’s Nickel Plate open pit mine in 1987. I was responsible for conducting the IP survey over the ground that is now owned by Goldcliff. The IP results are a dead-ringer to Nickel Plate. I think that I know what is going on from the geophysical standpoint on Panorama Ridge based on my experience and interpretation of Goldcliff’s geophysical data.”
On the Ainsworth properties in the Selkirk and Purcell Mountains of the Kootenay Lake region, the airborne geophysical survey program has been completed by Fugro Airborne Surveys Corporation (Toronto, Canada). The survey accumulated 1200 line kilometers of data consisting of magnetic, electromagnetic and radiometric coverage. The preliminary interpretation of the geophysical data has identified several anomalies. A field crew is conducting follow-up prospecting and geochemical sampling.
On the Big Sheep Creek uranium property (a 32,388 hectare claim block underlain by an Eocene Coryell plutonic suite of syenitic to monzonitic intrusive rocks) the airborne geophysical survey program has been delayed and is scheduled for early October. Prospecting and geochemical stream sampling is planned for mid September.
The geochemical stream sampling will be a follow-up to the anomalous uranium values identified by the regional stream sediment sampling program (RGS 1976-1977) carried out by the British Columbia Geological Survey, which returned a number of anomalous uranium values, including two samples exceeding 300 parts per million or 0.03 per cent uranium.
Goldcliff has identified the streams where the RGS uranium anomalies occur. The majority of the anomalous uranium values occur along or near a major north-south geological structure and within a geophysical regional magnetic low. The regional magnetic low is within the intrusive rocks and has been interpreted to be an alteration feature that could be associated with the uranium mineralization.
Goldcliff has interpreted the Big Sheep Creek property as having a geological setting that is similar to the "granitic-intrusive-uranium model". This uranium mineralization model is a well-defined model for uranium deposition, the best known of which is the bulk tonnage Rossing deposit in Namibia, Africa, where uranium ore grades are in the 300 ppm uranium range (0.03 per cent uranium).
Goldcliff’s management team is comprised of senior and successful geoscientists. Messrs Saleken, Rockel, and Saxton were all senior members of the technical team that developed the Mascot Gold open pit at Hedley. The Company has had a busy summer and fall field season and anticipates results from the work on three projects to be received over the next couple of months.
This article is intended for information purposes only, and is not a recommendation to buy or sell the equities of any company mentioned herein. It is based on sources believed to be reliable, but no warranty as to accuracy is expressed or implied. The opinions expressed in the article are those of the author except where statements are attributed to individuals other than the author, in which case the opinions are those of the individual to whom they are attributed.
Grenville Gold Corp. Works all Angles at Silveria
By Katherine Young
October 23, 2007
Focused primarily on its Silveria Project located 80km west-northwest of Lima, Peru, the Grenville Gold team [TSXV: GVG] is multi-tasking. On the one hand, the company is shopping for a milling partner to process mineralized rock and ultimately create cash flow, and on the other it’s resolving a recent conflict with High Ridge Resources, a company with neighboring concessions in Peru. High Ridge has recently taken Grenville to task about a road that provides access to High Ridge’s property. According to recent press releases, High Ridge maintains that the road is a public one and that Grenville is preventing High Ridge access to High Ridge’s properties. In an interview with Resourcex, Grenville President Paul Gill emphasized that he feels it is important to resolve the conflict with High Ridge, saying, “[the dispute] can’t be ignored.”
Demonstrating a pragmatic optimism, Gill talks about win-win scenarios, “We need to resolve these issues and be realistic about the fact that it is an issue. We are not ignoring it. We’re going to address it and we think both parties would benefit from a resolution.”
While Gill and his team determinedly wade through the necessary formalities to settle the issues with High Ridge, Grenville is progressing toward its eventual goal of production on Silveria. A partner providing a mill will be an important next step to secure cash flow from the project, however, even more important for the Grenville team at this point is to determine the value of the mineralized rock they send through the mill. “Right now the most important part is getting the information back on how valuable that mineralized rock is. Once you’re milling and getting bulk samples back you can tell from twenty tonnes of material – that’s a lot of material to process – let’s see how much precious and base metals we can get out of it,” Gill explained.
Without 43-101 compliant estimates in place yet, Grenville has been gleaning information from historical data, which, though promising, are not deemed to be reliable for resource calculations.
The Silveria concessions cover an area that is home to four past producing mines, the Silveria, Millotingo, Germania and Pacococha mines. Historical records for Germania and Silveria do not exist, however records for Millotingo and Pacococha mines show that the mines began producing in the 1962 and 1964 respectively and both mines closed in 1992. Like many mines around the world at the time, low metal prices contributed to the closings, however in this case, terrorist activities by Shining Path guerrillas created pressure that led to the closure of the mines.
Gill reads the premature closures as good news for Grenville in today’s mining-friendly Peru because the mines still had a significant amount of life left when they were closed. “Those mines shut down in the process of production. They closed because of terrorism issues and safety issues in the area.” For Grenville that means one thing—unexploited potential.
Grenville Gold’s August 2007 43-101 report on the Silveria Project gives us an idea of that potential. About the Millotingo mine it says, “A total of 2.6 million tonnes of mill feed is reported to have been produced…at an average grade of 16 troy ounces per tonne of silver with gold as a by-product…from which a total of 95,000 tonnes of silver concentrates is reported to have been produced, which contained about 39 million ounces of silver and 90,000 ounces of gold…” The same report noted that historical information from Millotingo gave evidence of a remaining 661,000 tonnes grading 12.8 troy ounces of silver per tonne, at the time the mine closed, and cautioned that an unknown amount of that resource has since been depleted through artisan mining.
Historical figures for the Pacococha Mine, which are not 43-101 compliant, report that between 1964 and 1991 8.4 million oz of silver was recovered from 2.7 million tonnes of mill feed. The reserve estimate from historical resources at Pacococha in 1991 was 449,019 diluted tonnes at an average grade of 4.49 oz/tonne of silver. Historical reports for the Pacococha mine also reported copper, lead and zinc reserves.
However, there is another way of looking at the remaining potential on the Silveria Project. Gill expands on potential silver reserves at the Silveria Project, “there are a total of 44 veins on the property. When Millotingo, Pacococha, Silveria and Germania mines were in production, they only extracted mineralized rock from 14 of the 44 veins.” Gill also points out that there are still tailings on the property, “and they have considerable amounts of silver still in them. They would be a very good target to test to see if they could be reprocessed and further stuff could be extracted from them.”
In addition, previous production at the mines returned high grades, however, Gill stresses that future production could return even higher grades. “The further you go down the system, the better chance you have of finding mantos, finding porphyry or finding further types of disseminated deposits that will have high-grade ore, high-grade mineralization, and high amounts of tonnage.” With these possibilities in mind, it’ll be rewarding to watch as the story unfolds, and we find out what’s really in the ground at Silveria.
This article is intended for information purposes only, and is not a recommendation to buy or sell the equities of any company mentioned herein. It is based on sources believed to be reliable, but no warranty as to accuracy is expressed or implied. The opinions expressed in the article are those of the author except where statements are attributed to individuals other than the author, in which case the opinions are those of the individual to whom they are attributed.
Kootenay Gold Awaits Results on a New Treasure of the Sierra Madre at Promontorio, Sonora
By Christina de Wit
October 15, 2007
There are three things the Sonoran Desert demands from those who seek to make their living from it: resilience, resourcefulness, and a long time horizon. These qualities are embodied by one of the Sonora’s most famous denizens– the agave, or century plant. After years of marshalling its energy reserves in its sharp leaves, the agave drives up a long spike and flowers spectacularly.
It’s an apt scenario for Kootenay Gold’s (TSX.V:KTN) management and shareholders, as they await Phase I drilling results on the company’s Promontorio Silver Project in Sonora State, Mexico. The company has focused the bulk of its resources toward work on its claims in the Sierra Madre Occidental volcanic province – a system considered highly prospective for gold, silver, and copper deposits. Promontorio is 75 km northeast of Ciudad Obregón, the second largest city in Sonora State, and about 500 km south of Tucson, AZ. The area is easily accessible, with an international airport at Obregón and dry-season road access to the property.
The project consists of four contiguous claims totalling nearly 37,000 hectares. The company has staked an additional 400,000 hectares in the area – making Kootenay one of the largest landholders in the Sierra Madre Gold and Silver Belt. The claims are 100%-owned by Kootenay (save for a small NSR to the original landowners).
The rapid development of the Sierra Madre Occidental Belt can be compared to that of Nevada’s Carlin Trend – the Western Hemisphere’s richest gold area. Six years ago, there were no producers in the Sierra Madre Belt. Today, there are five profitable mines producing 1,000,000+ oz Au in the area, with two more mines coming on stream over the next 18 months.
Operators include Pan American, GoldCorp, Agnico-Eagle, Piedras Verdes and Alamos. Jim McDonald, Kootenay’s CEO, was one of the founders of National Gold, which subsequently merged with Alamos. In the early 1980s, the Carlin Trend experienced a similar major takeoff with the upsurge in the price of gold.
Promontorio has seen sporadic production over the past 100 years, with limited open-pit production during the 1960s and 1980s. Artisanal mining and previous small-scale production are usually precursors for big deposits. Old workings on the property include three shafts (the deepest one reaches an inclined depth of 158.5 meters), as well as an open cut 85 meters long ranging from 7 to 25 meters wide and 20 meters deep. Historic (non-43-101) calculations from a 1973 feasibility report outline an ore reserve estimated at 384,000 metric tons grading 0.12% Cu, 2.80% Pb, 1.74% Zn, 367 g/t Ag and 1.5 g/t Au, to a depth of 100 m. As reported in the company’s July 17th press release, recent chip sampling from Promontorio in the Pit Breccia has returned 480 grams per tonne silver, 2.51 grams per tonne gold, 11,199 ppm lead and 17,284 ppm zinc over an estimated true width of 19 meters. The 1990s saw the closure of the mine as a consequence of high interest rates and low metal prices. Kootenay acquired the ground at the early stages of the current bull market – making it the first company to apply the latest modern exploration methods to the property.
According to the company’s website, Promontorio “is highly prospective for large shallow level, intermediate-sulphidation epithermal system that may have developed close to a shallow level porphyry system and concentrated at the intersection of the regional WNW to NW fault zones.” The property’s Main Zone has a documented silver dominant polymetallic (Zn/Pb/Cu/Ag/Au) deposit, which has been the focus of the past 11 months’ work. The broad extent of alteration and mineralization found at surface is strongly suggestive of an underlying deposit. Only drilling will confirm this model, which with successful results could prove be the next discovery in the Sonoran Desert.
So far, the company has been diligent in doing its homework. Detailed mapping, geochemical sampling, and geophysical surveys have been completed along with Phase I of the drill program to confirm historic mineralization.Assay results are anticipated over the next 3 to 6 weeks.
Kootenay’s management is confident that its focused, methodical approach to fieldwork, financing, and risk management will pay off for the company’s investors. “Promontorio’s one that could be a real company maker,” said Ken Berry, Kootenay’s president. Management has laid a solid foundation for making a new discovery through years of dedicated effort. By building close relationships with key officials early on, the company was able to amass a comprehensive land package around Promontorio. Expert technical direction and careful financial management has enabled the project to advance to Phase II of the drilling stage, in which new prospects associated with the known mineralization will be delineated.
Given this stage of the market, it is rare to find a junior that has managed to stay in the game for six years, while maintaining a relatively tight share structure (23.7 million, fully diluted). This is due in part to the company’s having been privately financed for four years by Mr. McDonald.
Kootenay is also engaged in an ongoing, advanced drilling program with joint-venture partners at its Jumping Josephine Project near Castlegar, British Columbia.
“We’re making sure we’ve got lots of opportunities for success and at the same time, we want to spend our money in the ground, while minimizing dilution to the shareholders.” said Mr. Berry.
There’s a Mexican folk saying, ‘Acocote nuevo, tlachiquero viejo.’ that describes the process of extracting agua miel, (honey water) from the agave to make pulque, Mexico’s national drink. It translates roughly as “A difficult task must be done by someone who has the skills or experience to do it.” The market perception is that management is certainly up to the task at Promontorio – as per its Oct. 5th press release, the company raised $1.5 million in a non flow-through, non-brokered (and oversubscribed) private placement of 1.7million units @ $0.90/unit.
This article is intended for information purposes only, and is not a recommendation to buy or sell the equities of any company mentioned herein. It is based on sources believed to be reliable, but no warranty as to accuracy is expressed or implied. The opinions expressed in the article are those of the author except where statements are attributed to individuals other than the author, in which case the opinions are those of the individual to whom they are attributed.
ValGold’s Targets of Convenience Pay Off, Drilling Ongoing at Mochila
By Doug Hadfield
October 15, 2007
When ValGold’s team of more than thirty exploration experts first hit the field in northern Venezuela a year ago, the company planned to prove up a reasonable sized resource just north of Crystallex’s Tomi Mine. Assay results from 2007, coupled with historical drill results from previous property owners, now suggest that ValGold has completed the first big step in achieving that goal.
The geology of this area is an ideal host for large gold deposits, as was evidenced by the property’s two former operators, including Gold Fields, who were the first to use systemic drilling at ValGold’s Increible 3 concession. This summer, ValGold repeated the former owners’ success, with drill results reported from the company’s “targets of convenience” just last week.
In a conversation with VP of Exploration Tom Pollock and Investor Relations Officer Jeff Stuart, the two explained the significance of expanding the known limits of Los Patos. They showed me several maps detailing the geological and geochemical aspects of what they suspect may be an initial resource in the order of 200,000 ounces of gold.
“Notice that Los Patos is on the Los Chivos shear zone in Increible 3,” Stuart pointed out that these formations are just north of Crystallex’s Tomi Mine, which ships its ore to its nearby 1,350 tonne per day mill, too. The drill holes completed by ValGold this summer are in an orderly, grid-like pattern. Distributed in a heavy line across one map, red patches indicate anomalous areas of soil geochemistry high in gold content (between 400 and 800 ppb).
“Next, look along the shear zone to the west. You’ll notice that Gold Fields only poked a few holes here and there, very short holes too, right in the center of the strongest surface geochem, no matter what the underlying geology suggested. They were just drilling a hole or two and hoping to get lucky.”
The failure of Gold Fields to find a viable resource at Los Patos is a classic gold exploration tale of late 1990’s: The price of gold plunged and the value of foresight – the project had some excellent grades – was not enough to forestall termination. It was too pricey a venture to continue. However, Gold Fields did establish much in the way of useful geological footprint of the area.
The Los Patos gold occurrence was ValGold’s first target this summer. When measured against the potential of the company’s other targets in Venezuela and Guyana, the Los Patos gold occurrence was considered an appealing target, but also one of convenience. The company chose Los Patos to start its South American drill programs because of excellent mineral potential, but also open terrain, easy access, and close proximity to a number of operating mines and mills. With drills, personnel, and infrastructure in place, Los Patos was an ideal warm-up for ValGold’s aggressive exploration program in the Guyana Shield.
The results didn’t really show a lot we didn’t already know,” Stuart said. “They did give [the stock] some volume, and the knowledge that we have a deposit that hasn’t reached its limit.”
Stuart says that most of the check assays are pending on ValGold’s Los Patos drill program, and that the company is so far pleased with the results. “A lot of people never find an economic deposit. Since it’s our first drill program here we’re really happy. The next step will be to announce an indicated resource. In the meantime, we’ve just begun drilling on one of many occurrences at the Mochilla Lineament, which is our primary target in Venezuela. Our business plan is on track and we have many loyal investors who love our story, so things are looking great.”
“Let me put it this way,” Stuart said. “We had two brokers with many years of mining investment experience in our offices this morning wanting to finance us. They looked deep into our data set and stopped us halfway through our pitch to say they wanted the next financing in its entirety. So, yes, we’re really happy.”
Los Patos is located within the Lo Increible 3 concession approximately 20 km northeast of the town of El Callao and 4.5 km northeast of Crystallex's Tomi gold mine, which in 2006 produced 41,638 ounces at a cost of $175 per ounce. It is one of several gold occurrences found along the east-west striking, 6.8 km long, Los Chivos Shear Zone, all of which is 100% owned by ValGold.
Previous drilling by Gold Fields at Los Patos penetrated a 160 metre-long mineralized zone which varies from 8m to 27m in width and which has a weighted average grade of 1.03 g/T Au.. The 19 trenches excavated in this area, each 40 metres apart, returned grades of 52 metres at 1.81 g/t Au and 32 metres at 1.16 g/t Au, for example. From 1994 to 1999, 151 diamond drills holes totaling 15,431 metres were used to test and further define targets.
The new round of diamond drill holes completed last July consisted of 35 holes for a total accumulated length of core of 9,318 meters. Twenty-eight of the boreholes targeted the main Los Patos gold zones; the remaining seven tested three satellite zones within the concession. These holes outlined up to five parallel zones of mineralization which when averaged with the intervening lower grade material gave zones up to 58.0 metres wide assaying 1.27 g/t gold, almost 100% true width. Assays included 4.75 g/t gold over 17.0 metres and 3.98 g/t gold over 36.0 metres in holes LI307-07 and LI307-11. The gold zone here remains open in all directions.
To the south of the La Increible concessions is the Mochila Layered Complex, which has the potential to host a much larger ore body. These properties are in an isolated tropical jungle area about 30 km west of the major Grand Sabana Highway that connects the towns around southeast Venezuela with Brazil. Access is best served by using either helicopter or river boats.
Tom Pollock, who is ValGold’s VP of Exploration, told me that the Mochila exploration program is going to be much more exciting than the potential economic resource the company is hoping to define at Los Patos.
“This is a big structure, with many gold occurrences that we know of – they’re almost everywhere,” he said. “Nearby is Las Cristinas, with proven and probable reserves of 17 million ounces of gold, measured and indicated of 21 million ounces of gold… it’s huge. The geology is right here.”
Pollock and Stuart agreed that little exploration work has been done in the area, which explains the dearth of existing data for Mochila. “The Chicanán concessions cover some 750 square kilometers, with gold occurrences discovered on each concession. There hasn’t been a large one found yet because it hasn’t seen the exploration – all the indicators are there, it just needs the work.”
Stuart added, “The reason no gold has been found is simple: Only 200 m have been drilled so far.”
ValGold’s drill program on Mochila started in mid-September. The company plans an initial minimum 5,000-metre drill program consisting of approximately 15 to 20 holes. Drilling will focus along the upper contact of the middle gabbro unit and along the Mochila Lineament particularly where there are gold soil anomalies and/or artisinal workings. The total length of these two linear features is in excess of 7,000 metres. The company expects the first phase of drilling to take approximately two months to complete with assays in hand by the end of the year.
“It’s a very large area with many number of strong gold soil anomalies that have never seen drilling,” Stuart noted.
Strong targets and an excellent exploration team may mean early success, but ValGold’s Mochilla program is about depth: It is best for investors to look at the Mochilla Lineament as having multiple strong targets that may take a few years to explore, drill, and define.
This article is intended for information purposes only, and is not a recommendation to buy or sell the equities of any company mentioned herein. It is based on sources believed to be reliable, but no warranty as to accuracy is expressed or implied. The opinions expressed in the article are those of the author except where statements are attributed to individuals other than the author, in which case the opinions are those of the individual to whom they are attributed.
Tribune Uranium Seeking Value in Spin Offs, New Properties
By Anne Fletcher
October 15, 2007
As signs of a split corporate personality start to appear, Tribune Uranium Corp. (TSX.V: TCB) is looking to cure the condition by spinning off its non-core assets, including giving shareholders an unanticipated dividend.
The Vancouver-based exploration company announced October 9 it has two letters of intent (LOI) in hand for gold and copper-zinc properties in Manitoba’s Reed Lake mining district, near the recent VMS Ventures Inc. (TSX.V: VMS) copper discovery.
But Tribune was set up as a uranium company and plans to stay that way, says chief executive Graham Harris.
“We just happened to have a couple of opportunities,” Harris said in an interview. “They came at a good price and they are drill-ready.”
So the Manitoba properties will join Tribune’s Potonico gold property in El Salvador - brought on board initially because vice-president, exploration, Marco Montecinos, knows the region - in a new stand-alone company.
The legal work to create that company may take up to six months, Harris said, and, by that time, as Tribune continues its active search for drill ready properties, he expects to have another non-uranium acquisition to bolster value.
Tribune will have no stake in the new corporation, which will have completely separate management, Harris said. Tribune shareholders can expect shares in the new company in some ratio to their current holdings, for example 1:5, he said.
With plans for a first-quarter 2008 drill program in place once the 90-day period for due diligence is up, work on the newly-acquired Manitoba properties may be well underway before shareholders get a look at that company.
Under the LOIs with W.S. Ferreira Ltd., Tribune can earn a 100% interest in the Quartz Claims, northeast of Snow Lake, Man. and the Green Claims, south of Snow Lake, for $170,000 cash and an aggregate of 500,000 common shares over five years, for each property. The company will also pay a finder’s fee of $50,000 for each property to an arm’s length party, for a total of $100,000, subject to final TSX approval.
Assay results released by VMS Ventures of North Vancouver on Oct. 4 include 10.5 metres of 11.19% copper and 2.50 metres of 15.30% copper from drill hole RD 07-02 on its new Reed Lake project, near Snow Lake.
That project, as well as Tribune’s new properties, lie within the Flin Flon-Snow Lake Volcanogenic Massive Sulphide (VMS) belt that to date has yielded more than 20 VMS deposits of copper-zinc along with gold and silver, producing ore worth more than $29 million.
The belt’s average 5 million tonne VMS deposit has a gross metal value of more than $1.5 billion.
The Quartz Claims was last drilled in the 1980s by Hudbay Minerals Inc., but Harris said those old results look more interesting today as discoveries over the ensuing years have helped in understanding the geology of the area.
The Quartz Claims cover a 4,800-foot-long electromagnetic conductor, interpreted as lying in a fold axis. The old drill results turned up significant gold mineralization, along with the alternation mineralization commonly associated with VMS. Results from the eastern end include 0.64 oz/t (18.14 g/t) Au over 4.2 feet and 0.43 oz/t (12.19 g/t) Au over 4.5 feet.
The untouched western end of the conductor, with two EM conductor bodies, will be the site of the 2008 drill program.
Old drill results from the Green Claims to the south, straddling the east shoreline of Blue Lake, turned up copper and zinc, including 0.75% Cu over 46.9 feet and sulphide exhalite grading 3.12% Cu and 2.25% Zn over 1.3 feet.
For both properties, “we’ve got some pretty good drill targets based on past exploration,” Harris said.
Work on the 149.5-square-kilometre Potonico property in El Salvador rests in limbo right now as local opposition to mining makes even the first step tricky. “We’re negotiating with the local bishop to gain access to the property,” Harris said. “I think we can come to an agreement with him.”
But drilling programs are underway on Tribune’s joint venture properties in northern Saskatchewan’s uranium-rich Athabasca region, currently home to the world’s largest uranium mine, owned by Cameco Corporation (NYSE:CCJ, TSX:CCO) and minority partner Areva Resources Canada Inc. That mine is producing 18.7 million tonnes per year of 20.5% uranium, the highest grade in the world.
Tribune is currently working on its 60%-owned, 100,000-hectare North Shore Property, just north of Lake Athabasca and 10 km west of Cameco’s Maurice Bay uranium deposit, discovered in 1977 and containing an estimated 1.3 million pounds of uranium.
The company also recently announced winter drilling programs for its joint venture properties of Dufferin Lake-East, on the southern edge of the Athabasca Basin and adjacent to Cameco’s Virgin River uranium project with its recent Centennial zone discovery, and for its near-by Botham Lake property.
As well, the shopping spree continues, with Tribune close to making a “significant” uranium acquisition, Harris said.
But a $3.4 million private placement in May, 2007 is enough to keep Tribune going. “We’re fully funded right now,” he said. “I don’t anticipate raising any capital.”
This article is intended for information purposes only, and is not a recommendation to buy or sell the equities of any company mentioned herein. It is based on sources believed to be reliable, but no warranty as to accuracy is expressed or implied. The opinions expressed in the article are those of the author except where statements are attributed to individuals other than the author, in which case the opinions are those of the individual to whom they are attributed.
Teryl Resources Creates a Buzz Near Bisbee’s Copper Queen
By Christina de Wit
October 12, 2007
Teryl Resources (TSX.V:TRC) is set to take flight as it moves into the next stage of an ambitious drilling program on its Gold Hill property near Bisbee, Arizona. The company has just signed a drilling contract for the project, with work to commence as soon as a drill becomes available. The program will target several copper showings on the property. The Gold Hill Mine property comprises 14 patented mining claims that include the Old Gold Hill, Superior, and Baston mines. Old shallow placer diggings are found throughout the property as well as small shafts, pits and cuts. Gold Hill is located less than four miles west of Phelps Dodge’s (since bought out by Freeport McMoRan for $26 billion) Copper Queen/Lavender Pit, which was one of the world’s biggest and richest mines during its heyday from 1954-1970. This open-pit operation yielded 75 million tons of gold, silver and copper ore for Phelps Dodge. The company has expanded its holdings in the area by staking another dozen patented claims near Copper Queen. Teryl has a chance to earn a 100% interest in the property, with a small royalty payable to the original owners.
Teryl’s other major project consists of four strategically-located claim blocks (the Gil Project, the Fish Creek claims, the Stepovich claims, and the West Ridge property) in the Fairbanks Mining District of Alaska– where it is one of the main landowners- with holdings contiguous to Kinross’ (TSX: K; NYSE: KGC) Fort Knox Project. Fort Knox is the largest producing gold mine in Alaska, with a 4,000,000 oz. Au ore deposit.
Other properties in the company’s portfolio include a joint venture silver prospect located in northern British Columbia, as well as revenue-producing oil and gas projects in Texas and Kentucky.
Production in the Bisbee Mining District dates back to 1880 with the discovery of the copper carbonate deposit at the Copper Queen. New reserves are still being found, and as of 2006, there were 11 producing copper mines in Arizona. According to a monograph by Spencer Titley and Lukas Zurcher of the University of Arizona, the geology of the area is recognized as “Nevadan-aged plate convergence [which] was attended by formation of rhyolite calderas in a WNW-trending belt that overlaps the international border and, of which, Bisbee, Arizona (ca. 200Ma) may be a product. Extension of the Chihuahua terrane into southern Arizona reveals a distinctive crustal block characterized by Laramide igneous activity and Cu-related intrusion centered ore systems in a metal province than transgresses the border.” Results on the property so far support such a hypothesis– with 3% Cu in surface sampling, with gold values as well. Recent very deep penetrating geophysics in Arizona has revealed new deep-seated copper resources previously unknown by past operators. The company’s analysis of its geophysical info has defined 3-4 highly anomalous drill targets.
Teryl’s strategy is simple in that it looks for deposits near major existing or former producers. This approach allows the company to maximize reward potential while mitigating risk for investors. The company is also applying this philosophy to its program in Alaska. Teryl has entered into a joint venture agreement with Kinross, with 80% Kinross/20% Teryl, on the Gil Project. The main Gil Zone consists of a 3000 ft. strike length. According to Teryl’s website, the company has spent $1.6 million on exploration that has defined a resource of 400,000 ounces of gold (10 million tons grading 0.04 ounces per ton gold).
The company’s management isn’t afraid to think big. “All we need to do is find another Fort Knox,” says John Robertson, Teryl’s president. The company also has a 50-50 joint venture agreement with Linux Gold (of which Mr. Robertson is also president), on the Fish Creek claims. The company has recently completed a $400,000 private placement– with $150,000 earmarked for drilling targeted zones on the Fish Creek property that were identified as geophysical anomalies.
Alaska is usually regarded as an expensive place to work; however, Teryl is particularly well situated to run a low-cost operation. The property is only 22 miles north of Fairbanks– hence workers can stay in town- thus eliminating the need for company-constructed housing. The area’s infrastructure is excellent, given the property’s close proximity to the Fort Knox mill and to a major highway.
Several key factors allow the company to offer its investors an attractive risk-reward ratio: the ability to defray its overhead costs; two work programs entering the drilling stage; properties in the backyards of major producers in historically rich (and politically stable) areas, and high metals prices.
Any exploration success at Bisbee will undoubtedly garner interest from the majors like Rio Tinto (owners of Bear Creek), Freeport McMoRan, and Newmont. Mr. Robertson is optimistic regarding the company’s direction, as “the price of gold is moving to new highs, and Teryl is very well-positioned”.
Teryl offers unparalleled value at its current price range- with the downside risk being minimal– while the ongoing program at Gold Hill shows very high upside potential. Few companies at this price range have this much potential. This could well be a play that floats like a butterfly– and stings like a bee.
This article is intended for information purposes only, and is not a recommendation to buy or sell the equities of any company mentioned herein. It is based on sources believed to be reliable, but no warranty as to accuracy is expressed or implied. The opinions expressed in the article are those of the author except where statements are attributed to individuals other than the author, in which case the opinions are those of the individual to whom they are attributed.
Grenville Gold Digs into its Geological Cake at Silveria
By Christina de Wit
October 11, 2007
It looks as if Grenville Gold (TSX.V:GVG) has all the ingredients needed for success at its Silveria project in Peru. The company recently released a 43-101 report on Silveria which outlines its exploration and development plan for a potential silver-zinc-lead-copper resource. In addition to its three Peruvian properties, the company has a property in Ecuador which has a history of artisanal gold mining.
Silveria is located in Huarochiri Province, 80 km WNW of Lima. The property consists of 2,797.16 hectares in 224 concessions that cover four historical mining areas (Germania, Millotingo, Pacococha and Silveria). The area is well-serviced and there are several mills in the area, including an operable, 350 tonnes per day mill with related buildings at Millotingo. The Pacococha Mine (which eventually absorbed the Germania and Silveria operations), saw 30 years of production from high-grade mineralization. The Millotingo and Pacococha mines closed in 1992, due to weak metal prices and political turmoil.
The project is in the early phase of development, and Grenville has so far focused on consolidating the available database of historical Pacococha mine records, plans and sections into digital, 3-D format. This information will be superimposed on topographic maps to create a 3-D model that will provide a solid blueprint for underground channel sampling programs, drilling programs and a scoping study.
According to the company’s NI 43-101 report, the structural picture at Silveria suggests that the general area was subjected to severe tectonic compression that produced strong fracture patterns, on a regional scale, that in part allowed for the intrusion of polymetallic mineralization within quartz sulfide veins that filled open fractures. There are approximately 33 mineralized veins in the Pacococha mining area– seven mineralized veins at Germania-Silveria and two mineralized veins at Millotingo. It is suggested that this mineralogical environment is analogous to the one found at the neighboring Coricancha mine– recently reopened by Gold Hawk Resources, which will soon reach 600 tpd production.
The property is dotted with adits left by past producers. 86,000 tonnes of mineralized rock have been identified as being accessible in the short-term. Grenville’s long-term objective is to identify potential resources in the existing underground workings and then explore below this level for disseminated deposits
Of particular interest are the tailings dams adjacent to the Millotingo mill. The company plans to sample these tailings to assess the viability of heap leaching to recover the contained silver and gold. Other potential mineral resources that have been identified are numerous small- to medium-sized mineralized surface rock dumps (not including dumps left by artisan miners for collection and sale); unmined veins in the underground mine workings, on existing production levels, and in newly developed areas both beyond and beneath the developed limits of the existing production levels; and various surface exploration targets.
34 grab samples from the rock dumps returned assay results showing anomalous to low-grade gold values in all the Pacococha and Germania mine samples, but ore-grade gold values from Millotingo mine. Silver grades are consistently high in all the dump samples, with assays ranging from 3.50 g/t to 2,220 g/t Ag. Base metal values vary between 0.007% and 3.90% Cu, 0.01% and 7.15% Pb and 0.07% to 19.70% Zn, thus pointing to a high-grade polymetallic nature of the veins from all the districts.
The company has a particularly innovative strategy to leverage its short-term costs and generate significant cash flow. In order to safely explore the old workings, workers clean out the loose, high-grade rock that was stockpiled in the stopes by previous operators. That ore is then marketed to nearby mills that are working below capacity. It costs between $17-$18/t to get the rock to the mill, where it sells for between $100-120/t. According to the company’s president, A. Paul Gill, “[the process is] producing 500-600 tons a week”. The 43-101’s provisional and preliminary long-term scenario estimate of an average on-site operating cost is US$45 per tonne milled.
The old chestnut that states that “the best place to find a new mine is near an old one”, certainly applies in this situation. Soaring copper prices make formerly producing mines (especially in Peru) worth reexamining. Management has capitalized on market interest by recently launching a far-reaching market awareness campaign, with conference appearances in Calgary, Frankfurt, Munich, Zurich, Geneva, and London.
Grenville is led by individuals with many years of successful exploration experience in key development roles on major projects. The company’s chairman, Mr. Len de Melt, is a graduate of the renowned Haileybury School of Mines and was instrumental in starting and building six mines, including Gulf Oil's Rabbit Lake mine (uranium), Syncrude mine (oilsands), Denison Mines' Quintette (coal), Homestake's Golden Bear mine (gold), BHP's Ekati mine (diamonds) and Goldust's Croiner mine (gold). Mr. A. Paul Gill, the company’s president, held senior positions with Norsemont Mining Inc. and is a Director of Lomiko Resources.
Grenville provides investors the opportunity to have their cake and eat it too: with properties that have a proven history and merit further exploration, a pragmatic, structured approach that lends itself to both short and long-term valuation possibilities, a current revenue stream, a comparatively tight share structure given today’s market (32,694,200 fully diluted), an international promotional effort in full swing, a mining-friendly climate in Peru, and record metals prices.
If the proof is in the eating, the market is showing a healthy appetite– GVG closed at $0.55, up $0.05 on Wednesday.
This article is intended for information purposes only, and is not a recommendation to buy or sell the equities of any company mentioned herein. It is based on sources believed to be reliable, but no warranty as to accuracy is expressed or implied. The opinions expressed in the article are those of the author except where statements are attributed to individuals other than the author, in which case the opinions are those of the individual to whom they are attributed.
Golden Reign: Two New Properties in Premier Russian Gold Region Make Golden Reign a Great Deal
Doug Hadfield
To look at Golden Reign’s (TSXV: GRR) stock chart, the company looks like either a bargain or a wash out: It was trading at $0.40 at the end of 2006. Since that time, shares in GRR have taken a hammering down to $0.15 per share. To me, this usually indicates a company mismanaged, but occasionally it indicates something much juicier – an overlooked, value-priced junior. After some thorough due diligence, including speaking to the company officers and reading two NI43-101 reports on the company’s two 50% JV deals, I bought in on a respectable position.
Why? It’s a bit of a no brainer, to me. The company is trading at $0.15 with two properties, both of which have proven widely disseminated gold mineralization in an area with resources of over 120 million ounces gold, nearby infrastructure, with excellent roads and transportation and the protection of an operator on the project that is a prominent Russian bank – Status LLC. What else do you want from a value-priced junior? It’s going no place but up.
Let’s go over the details. First, why has the company been sinking on the TSX Venture? Simply put, they were shafted by local politics. After pouring $300,000 into exploration last year, the government sniffed gold on the property and handed it to a local company in the next land auction.
The temporal aspect of the land auction process in Russia ensures mineral properties are actually explored, which is a good thing. There are two types of permit available at auction: A 5-year exploration license and a comprehensive 20-year mining license. Golden Reign had the former, which left it vulnerable because, when it came time to auction off the 20-year mining permit for the property, Golden Reign’s application to take part was rejected.
This time around, they have a solid high-level partner and a 20-year mining permit already in place.
I spoke with both CFO Kim Evans and Larry Myles, who runs the corporate communications department for Golden Reign. They were exuberant that the company’s slide down the TSX charts now poses a value opportunity for investors – I obviously agree.
“It’s entirely different this time,” Myles told me. “When we started in Russia, we were going from the ground up. In Russia, if you’re working with a bank or a governmental agency, you’re working from the roof down. You’re protected.”
Golden Reign’s partner, Status LLC, is the mining division of CentroCredit Joint Stock Commercial Bank, which is headquartered in Moscow, with another branch office in London. CentroCredit is a member of the Association of Russian Banks, the Moscow Banking Union and National Stock Association participating in the Russian Trading System (RTS), the Moscow Stock Exchange (MSE) and the Saint-Petersburg Stock Exchange. As of January, 2006, it was ranked the 38th largest in equity capital amongst the top Russian banks. In other words, it is the real deal.
To earn its 50% of the new company, simply called Gold Mining Company LLC (GMC), Golden Reign must pay $6 million in expenditures over the next three years – the company raised $4 million last year in its IPO, so another small private placement (PP) or debt financing is in the offing.
Both of the two properties Gold Mining Company has in its portfolio have favourable NI43-101 reports; and both are posted on Golden Reign’s website: Goldenreignresources.com.
The Dorozhni property covers 8.8 square kilometers in the centre of Magadan Province. The property lies along an all-weather road approximately 17 kilometres west of the community of Susuman – the nearest service centre.
According to the 43-101 technical report, previous exploration work and mining of the Dorozhni gold deposit was focused on shallow dipping sub parallel gold-bearing quartz veins. The veins have been traced for lengths of 450 metres along strike and 380 metres down dip with veins ranging from 0.4 metres to 2.4 metres in width, occasionally expanding up to 17 metres (such as the Burovoya vein).
To date, gold mineralization has been reported in five separate quartz veins. Historical reports state that placer mines from Dorozhni Creek produced approximately 95,000 oz of gold.
In spite of the placer mining and high-grade vein hunting in the area, the qualified person and author of the technical report believes that the Dorozhni property contains features suggesting the potential for large tonnage gold deposit. “The high gold numbers in the quartz veins suggests that average grade for this mineralization could be much higher than the norm for other large tonnage, low-grade deposits, developed in remote northern regions, such as Alaska,” he wrote.
“The deposit type envisioned for this project is intrusive hosted gold mineralization similar to many intrusive hosted deposits located in North America, particularly the Fort Knox deposit in Alaska. A series of sub parallel veins and veinlets carry high grade gold mineralization.”
Since much of the gold found at Dorozhni is alluvial in nature, grains are often easily found on the property’s streams and riverbeds. “Grains range in size from 0.5-3 mm although, along vein selvages, gold grains occasionally grow up to few centimeters in size. One such grain weighed 800 grams,” the report states. “The distribution of gold mineralization is extremely irregular, with a highest reported grade of 6,322.2 g/t gold.”
The situation is similar at the Butarni Licence, which covers 9.3 square kilometres, approximately 310 kilometres north of Magadan (the capital). While major veins are between 0.1 and 1.5 metres in width, the author of the Butarni technical report believes that “the broad extent of the mineralized zones and the proximity to surface provides the opportunity for the development of a large tonnage, open pittable deposit. This style of mineralization, consisting of sheeted quartz veins and veinlets, and minor wall rock alteration in a granite host rock, is similar to known intrusive hosted gold mineralization in North America, particularly the Fort Knox gold deposit in Alaska.”
Historical grab and channel sampling returned values from 1 g/t to 334.4 g/t, with an average grade of 21.3 g/t gold from 45 samples and 29.6 g/t gold from 22 channel samples. As well, there are number of placer gold operations within 20 kilometres of Butarni, including placer tailings within four kilometres of the project site.
Magadan Region is known as Russia's most important gold mining territory. The region boasts some of the largest gold and silver reserves in Russia. Also, there are nearly 2000 placer gold deposits, 100 gold ore deposits, and 48 silver ore deposits in the territory. Total probable gold reserves in Magadan Region are estimated at 128 million ounces.
So, in Golden Reign, we’ve got a rosy picture for a junior trading at $0.15 with only 26 million shares on the market:
• two properties with extensive trenching and drilling carried out
• located in Russia’s most prolific gold mining region
• the potential for large tonnage, open pit gold mines
• a well-funded, respected JV partner
• a 20-year mining license
And did I mention she was trading at $0.15?
This article is intended for information purposes only, and is not a recommendation to buy or sell the equities of any company mentioned herein. It is based on sources believed to be reliable, but no warranty as to accuracy is expressed or implied. The opinions expressed in the article are those of the author except where statements are attributed to individuals other than the author, in which case the opinions are those of the individual to whom they are attributed.
The author and ResourcexInvestor.com are not shareholders in the companies herein mentioned, and the author, as an employee of Resourcex Publishing Corp is expressly prohibited for owning any securities about which they may write for a period of 30 days prior to and 30 days after initial publication of the article in which the securities of any company are mentioned.
Kootenay Gold Employs Sound Strategy to Maximize Mineral, Minimize Dirt
By Katherine Young
My thirteen year-old daughter is studying mining in her grade eight social studies class. She tells me that when asked for the first three things they thought of about mining, the students in her class named: dirt, explosives and gold. My daughter then informed me that following their logic, a good mining company basically has less dirt and more gold. There was something elegant and simple to her conclusion, I thought. All these exploration companies with different strategies, different exploration and management styles, all essentially attempting to maximize gold, or silver as the case may be, and minimize dirt.
Kootenay Gold (TSX.V:KTN) is a company with a sound strategy for dirt, explosives and gold. Notice how the company describes its approach: To create generative exploration discoveries, establish junior venture partnerships and acquire advanced stage projects.
Clearly, Kootenay is strategic in its effort to find minerals and see projects grow and flourish. Kootenay’s teams are actively exploring in BC and Mexico to find resources that could become a real resource and mine. Their strategy of creating joint venture agreements with other companies allows them to increase their chances of finding something by casting their net wide, while simultaneously decreasing risk.
In the company’s Management Discussion and Analysis dated June 30, 2007, Kootenay listed six separate generative exploration projects in Mexico and British Columbia. Relying on joint venture agreements with companies like Klondike Silver and Astral Mining reduces risk to Kootenay because it minimizes dilution to Kootenay stock. Instead of having to raise funds on the stock market, Kootenay creates revenue by, in effect, selling a percentage of the spoils of exploration. At the same time, Kootenay is able to leverage the success of the exploration they jointly undertake by holding stock in the partner company.
Also, by associating their projects with companies like Klondike Silver and Amador Gold Corp., both of which are led by the highly respected and massively successful Richard Hughes, Kootenay is running with the best in the business.
And all the while Kootenay can focus its efforts on its 100% owned property of promise. The company’s flagship, advanced-stage Promontorio Silver Project located in Northwestern Mexico is home to a past-producing mine and open pit. It covers approximately 37,000 hectares and four adjacent claims.
A previous feasibility study from 1973, which is not NI 43-101 compliant, estimated an ore reserve of 384,000 metric tons with grades of 0.12% copper, 2.8% lead, 1.74% zinc, 1.5 g/t gold and 367 g/t silver. The recommendation following the feasibility study was to move toward production as well as further exploration on the property to increase the resource.
However, exploitation of the estimated reserve has been limited. During the early 1960s and late 1980s a Mexican-built mine and small open pit produced 48,000 tonnes of oxide and sulphide ore. Along with so many other mines, operations at Promontorio halted on the heels of the gold bear market in the 1990s.
War Eagle Mining undertook further exploration on the property in the late 1990s, including mapping, line cutting, geophysical surveys and drilling. However, under the full weight of the bear market, the exploration junior abandoned the project. Enter bull market and Kootenay Gold, which plans to capitalize on both the resource opportunity and the timing.
Kootenay is currently conducting a 3,000-metre drill program on the Promontorio Property; results are expected in the next 30 to 60 days. Highlights from chip samples in the spring included 480 g/t silver over an estimated true width of 19m as well as 2.51 g/t gold, 11,199 ppm lead and 17,284 ppm zinc. Plans are to continue drilling on three other identified mineralized zones, which together comprise a small 200m x 400m area of a total mineralized trend along a strike of 2000m with a width of 500m. With completion of the Phase I drill program, which aims to confirm historic data, the company plans a Phase II program to test additional targets on the trend. Consistent with Kootenay’s strategy to focus on advanced stage projects, Kootenay has secured the right to 100% registered and beneficial interest in the project.
During the last year Kootenay has pursued an aggressive growth strategy. With Phase I exploration at the Promontorio progressing well, Kootenay will continue, along with JV partners of choice, to develop their many generative exploration projects across Mexico and BC. Certainly, some will thrive and others will not. Kootenay will dedicate an incredible amount of expertise, time, thought and financial resources to developing exploration opportunities and watching them grow.
This article is intended for information purposes only, and is not a recommendation to buy or sell the equities of any company mentioned herein. It is based on sources believed to be reliable, but no warranty as to accuracy is expressed or implied. The opinions expressed in the article are those of the author except where statements are attributed to individuals other than the author, in which case the opinions are those of the individual to whom they are attributed.
The author and ResourcexInvestor.com are not shareholders in the companies herein mentioned, and the author, as an employee of Resourcex Publishing Corp is expressly prohibited for owning any securities about which they may write for a period of 30 days prior to and 30 days after initial publication of the article in which the securities of any company are mentioned.
Junior taking on JV with Kinross Gold
Quoted from Article:
"Teryl Resources acquired the Gil claims in 1989, and in 1991 entered into a joint venture with Fairbanks Gold Mining Incorporated (FGMI) and Melba Creek Mining Company
Inc. (MCMI). Fairbanks Gold Corporation was subsequently acquired by Amax Gold, Cyprus Amax, and finally Kinross Gold. FGMI and MCMI are both wholly owned subsidiaries of Kinross Gold. As such, one wonders about the fate of Teryl Resources with a partner such as Kinross so close and so hungry for talent and resources. By way of comparison, consider that Kinross’ nearby True North gold deposit (located two miles north of Teryl’s West Ridge property) was purchased by Kinross in 1999 for $94 million in cash and stock."
Full Article: http://www.resourcexinvestor.com/news.php?id=2296
A Company worth looking into: ValGold
ValGold’s Mochila Mojo
By Christina de Wit
There’s an old Venezuelan proverb that says “Join with good men and you will be one of them.” ValGold Resources’ (TSX.V:VAL) management team appears to have taken this piece of wisdom to heart as the company embarks on an ambitious drill program at the Chicanan West Complex located approximately 50km northwest of the Kilometre 88 gold camp in Bolivar State, Venezuela.
This latest phase of development represents an expansion of the company’s presence in Venezuela. ValGold has completed the first stage of drilling of its program at the Los Patos gold occurrence within the Lo Increible 3 Concession, also located in Bolivar State, Venezuela. Lo Increible 3 is 20km northeast of the town of El Callao and 4.5km northeast of Crystallex’s La Tomi gold mine. ValGold’s other projects include properties in Guyana and northwestern Ontario.
The Chicanan West Complex consists of 11 mining concessions comprising a sizeable land holding of 522 km2. This area is located within the Guiana Shield, which hosts a greenstone belt that is known to be highly prospective for gold. The Complex is characterized by an island-arc sequence with intermittent periods of volcanism and sedimentation with ancillary quartz-porphyry dikes – an environment considered by many geoscientists to be favorable for mineral discoveries.
The program’s primary target is the Mochila (Spanish for ‘knapsack’) gold occurrence, represented by Proterozoic-age mafic to intermediate intrusive to metavolcanic rocks in an area covering about 10km2. Gold occurs as enrichments along the contacts of specific layers or units with the Mochila Layered Complex and along a north-trending lineament. Proterozoic-age rocks are the major source of mineralization in the world. Well-known examples of major, defined deposits with very similar geology in the area include Crystallex’s Las Cristinas and Gold Reserve’s Brisas discoveries.
Several gold occurrences (as well as base and precious metal occurrences), have been identified on the property, with two types of gold mineralization. The first, hosted by the Mochila Layered Complex, is found along a regional fault. This is an example of axial plane foliation, in which hot waters carrying metal ions are forced into cracks created by folding and faulting. The second type of gold mineralization is found within the sericitized Chicanan Shear Zone.
The major area of interest is the upper contact of the middle gabbro unit of the layered complex. According to the company’s 43-101 report (p.60), the “Mochila Lineament contains numerous artisanal workings covering a surface area of more than 14km by 3km. Within this area, several world-class deposits could be developed. Three target areas have been identified in a selected area of the lineament and are ready for drill testing.” A minimum of 5000m of coring in 15-20 holes is planned at this stage.
Venezuela has had a long history of successful gold exploration. Presently, several companies have operating mines in the Venezuela’s Guiana shield: Crystallex, Hecla, Gold Fields (JSE:GFI), Gold Reserve (GRZ), and Rusoro (RML). Chicanan West is located in the same belt as two major deposits: Las Cristinas (Crystallex), and the Brisas (Gold Reserve), which reportedly host a combined estimated gold resource of 31 million ounces. These success stories plus the current run on gold underscore the potential for well-placed junior explorers to achieve a comparable level of growth.
There are several advantages to investing in Venezuela. It should be emphasized that there has never been an expropriation in the country’s history. Labour costs are low, and diesel is only 15¢ a litre. The government also does not demand a royalty on production, instead preferring a streamlined corporate taxation structure.
Despite negative American press coverage of Hugo Chavez’s governance, explorers and operators in Venezuela have largely enjoyed a progressive work environment. The Chavez administration has not deterred serious investors and players from working and profiting in Venezuela. According to Jeff Stuart, ValGold’s head of Investor Relations, the current government has made considerable efforts to create a hospitable mining investment climate. “The government [has] actually been really, really good to us,” he said. Bureaucratic red tape is not an issue, as “we got permits in six days”. They have provided the company with government assistance and who have facilitated its work program, and have helped ValGold to avoid conflicts with artisanal Brazilian miners working in the area.
The company’s management has a lifetime history of dealing with properties of merit. Its chairman, Andrew Milligan, is a former president of Glamis Gold Ltd., Tom Pollock, the company’s vice president of exploration, was the China Country Manager for BHP during his 20-year career with them, and ValGold’s president, Stephen Wilkinson, is past president of Northern Orion (currently trading around $6.50 per share). Pedro “Peter” Tinoco, one of the company’s directors, was the president of the Venezuelan Chamber of Mines for two consecutive terms, as well as the president of the Latin American Mining Organization from 1996-2006. Since 1989, he has been the vice president of the mining division of the Venezuela-based Cisneros Group of Companies, one of the largest privately held media, entertainment, telecommunications and consumer products conglomerates in the world. Through Mr. Tinoco, ValGold has strong ties to some of the most influential people in South American mining – a few good men and women indeed.
ValGold is uniquely well-placed for success in Venezuela, as several key factors make it a wise buy-and-hold investment in this rising gold market: Seasoned management with a stellar Latin American track record, projects at drilling stage, large holdings close to major producers in a still-underexplored region, a solid relationship with a mining-friendly government, and a roaring gold market. This is particularly auspicious timing for investors, as drill results from La Mochila are expected to roll in over the next 8 to 10 weeks.
This article is intended for information purposes only, and is not a recommendation to buy or sell the equities of any company mentioned herein. It is based on sources believed to be reliable, but no warranty as to accuracy is expressed or implied. The opinions expressed in the article are those of the author except where statements are attributed to individuals other than the author, in which case the opinions are those of the individual to whom they are attributed.
Gold is down today, but has looked strong all month. The one play I'm excited about is AUY. They just INCREASED their reserves with the price of gold going sky high.
http://www.profitquotes.com/commodities-quotes.mpl?c=GC&s=7Z
While other competitors are depleting reserves, Yamana has found itself in a great position going forward. I'll take the price pull back for future gains.
truth,
Last week I bought 5,000 warrants of PIK.V, Peak Gold.
Never bought any warrants before and wanted to give it a try.
I like MNG, AUY, GSS, FGOVF
Very long term and cheap price, EMR.V. Buy at 12 cents or less.
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/board.asp?board_id=5395
sumisu
Add SLGLF to the list too
A few of my favorite Gold/Silver Juniors and Micro's
CAU
MYNG
SMXMF
GPXM
LNXGF
CGCO
CUSIF
Drilling Results Increase Klondex's Gold Resource By Extending Main and Far North Gold Zones at Fire Creek
Friday September 14, 8:23 am ET
Klondex Updates Progress on Permitting for Underground Development
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/070914/20070914005108.html?.v=1
VANCOUVER, British Columbia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Klondex Mines Ltd. (TSX: KDX - News) reviewed progress from the Phase 6 drilling program at its 100%-owned Fire Creek property in the Battle Mountain-Eureka Trend in Northern Nevada. The goal of the drilling program is to add to the existing mineral resource base and find new zones of significant gold mineralization at the Fire Creek property. These goals are being accomplished utilizing:
1. "Extension" drilling in the boiling zone of the Main and Far North resource area, and
2. "Exploration" drilling of potential mineralization targets identified by an induced polarization (IP) survey conducted last year.
All thirteen Phase 6 "extension" holes have contributed valuable information regarding the structural control and continuity of the Main Zone and Far North Zone veining and are expected to increase both the tonnage and grade from the previously announced NI 43-101 compliant indicated resource at Fire Creek of 1,054,738 ounces of gold in 1,636,555 tonnes (19.88 grams per ton "gpt"). The Company has also completed eleven "exploration" holes to test IP anomalies. While these holes have not encountered new economic intercepts, several have reported anomalous gold values and a few are considered highly encouraging.
Commenting on the Company's progress, Robert Sibthorpe, Technical Director, commented, "Our Phase 6 drilling program progresses well and ahead of schedule, with results that will certainly enable Klondex to expand its indicated mineral resource in our next formal resource update. We believe our investment in exploration this year, estimated at approximately $3.3 million CDN, is delivering a very attractive return on investment to our shareholders in terms of driving an increase in our gold and silver resource and the inherent value of our company.
"On the permitting front, we are making good progress with several agencies, however some unavoidable regulatory delays have required that we extend our timelines for approvals and the commencement of underground development by a few months. In the interim, we continue to develop our underground plans, and our dialogue and negotiations with several potential mining contractors continue, as do our conversations with potential milling partners. While regulatory delay is unfortunate but not unusual during this very active period in the industry, we are making good use of the extra time to advance our planning."
As previously announced, Fire Creek's current Plan of Operations is being amended to include up to 3,000 meters of underground workings to permit access to the Main Zone on two levels. The permitting and contractor selection processes associated with the Main Zone underground program are progressing, though behind the company's original schedule. Final permits are now anticipated by year-end 2007 or early 2008 with development work commencing immediately thereafter. The underground workings will facilitate in-fill drilling to further improve knowledge regarding grade and vein continuity.
Klondex has made application for designation as a "Small Scale Facility" as defined by Nevada Regulation NAC 445A.377, allowing for the extraction and processing in the Main Zone of a series of bulk samples of not more than 33,180 metric tonnes of ore per year and no more than 109,090 metric tonnes in total. Based on the Company's NI 43-101 compliant resource estimate, the weighted average grade of the target areas for the bulk sample is 67 grams of gold per tonne.
Based on preliminary estimates developed in-house for permitting, underground access, exploration, drilling, mining and other costs, Klondex believes it could generate a substantial operating profit during a three-to-four year underground development/bulk sampling program, assuming no unforeseen circumstances.
PHASE 6 DRILLING RESULTS TO DATE
A plan map setting out hole locations is available on the Company's website at http://www.klondexmines.com/s/News.asp
Fire Creek Resource Zone
The gold mineralization in the Main Area is in a swarm of epithermal low-sulfidation quartz-carbonate veins striking NNW within a corridor about 300 meters wide and about 1 kilometer in length. There are at least 12 veins carrying significant gold values in the Main and Far North Zones. The individual veins are usually 100-400 meters in length. Important gold values are generally restricted in a vertical sense to a "boiling zone" between 1750 to 1500 meters above sea level. Thirteen new holes have been drilled during Phase 6 to test the large gaps between or beyond drill intercepts used in the calculation of the September 2006 resource estimate in an effort to increase the overall indicated mineral resource while staying within its given restrictions.
From north to south, these holes produced the following results:
SECTION 800N: Hole FC0727 tested the 100 meter gap between FC0525 (13.2gpt/9.8m) and FC0612 (34.1/3.2 m) and reported intervals of 7.8 gpt over 6.1 meters and 29.5 gpt over 1.52 meters in the Far North Zone.
SECTION 400N: Hole FC 0709 tested the high grade Vein Set 7 through 4 at the bottom of the "boiling zone." As it approached Vein 7 from the west, a low grade interval (1.3 gpt over 13 meters) was reported followed by 1.5 meters of 42.5 gpt and at the projection of Vein 4 a 0.3 meter sample assayed 98.5 gpt. These veins are linked to the strong gold values on Section 350N.
SECTION 250N: Hole 0706 reported no significant values on the down dip extension of Vein 3 on this section.
SECTION 200N: Hole FC0705 tested the 120 meter gap between intercepts on Vein 3 in holes FC0408 (14.2 gpt/2.1m) and FC0416 (5.6gpt/3.66m). It returned a broad zone of 1.7 gpt over 13.7 meters, indicating that the vein may have entered a porous host rock. Higher up the hole, between projections of Vein 5 and 6, an interval of 13.0 gpt over 3.05 meters was recorded.
SECTION 150N: Hole FC0704 (previously reported) had an intercept of 11.1 gpt over 5 meters. Hole FC0710 was collared on top of the Main Zone to test IP anomaly "0" to the west and thus did not impact the main Zone resource. It produced sub-ore intercepts, possibly representing the new vein at IP anomaly "0".
SECTION 100N: Hole FC0703 targeted the down dip extensions of the high-grade intercept in FC0621 on Vein 3. FC0703 returned an intercept of 10.5 gpt gold and 160 gpt silver over 2.1m, 50 meters deeper. Hole FC0711 (previously reported) was drilled westward, directed at IP anomaly "0" outside of the Main Zone. As it passed through the siliceous cap rock over the Main Zone it intersected 11.3 gpt over 3.05 meters in the RC portion of the hole about 50 meters below surface. FC0711 also returned an intercept of 6 gpt over 3 meters which could represent the IP "0" anomaly, a new vein some 100 meters west of the current Main Zone boundary.
[CONTINUED IN FOLLOWING LINK]
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/070914/20070914005108.html?.v=1
Freegold Completes Commissioning of Golden Summit Processing Plant
Thursday September 13, 8:24 am ET
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/070913/to307.html?.v=22
TSX: ITF, OTC BB: FGOVF, Frankfurt: FR4
VANCOUVER, Sept. 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - Freegold Ventures Limited (the "Company"), is pleased to announce that it has completed the commissioning of its 1,200 ton per day plant at the Golden Summit project outside Fairbanks, Alaska, and that the first of the stockpiled material is currently being processed through this gravity-based circuit. During this plant commissioning phase, the Company has continued to collect new bulk-sample material and has drilled an additional 147 shallow exploratory holes at various locations throughout the 5,000 feet of known strike length of gold mineralization in the Cleary Hill area.
Freegold's self-contained and fully mobile plant is designed to generate gold recoveries in excess of 70% from the processing of bulk sample material without the use of chemicals. The plant consists of a mobile crushing plant, and a three-stage gravity circuit using variable sized Knelson concentrators that will produce a directly saleable gold concentrate. The plant's modular nature permits easy modification of both the flow sheet and plant configuration in order to meet the changing ore characteristics at Golden Summit or other properties where the plant may be installed. The Company has also established a portable metallurgical lab on site. This lab will allow the operators to monitor production feed-grades and recoveries using a laboratory-scale Knelson concentrator that allows for the rapid detection and quantification of visible gold in a sample.
The initial feed that is being used to optimize the plant in advance of the bulk sample processing consists of approximately 3,000 tons of mineralized dump material collected from the old Cleary Hill and Penrose mine portals. While the grade of this mine dump material is not known, work by Freegold this summer confirmed the presence of visible gold in dump material from a variety of sample locations. Historical, non 43-101 compliant, sampling suggests that the grade of the dump material ranges between 0.15 and 0.25 oz/ton (5.1 to 8.6 g/tonne). In the event that the grade of the processed material proves economic, Freegold will process the remaining 35,000 tons of dump material.
After the completion of the plant optimization, the plant will begin processing the 10,000 ton bulk sample collected last fall. This material has been segregated into eight stockpiles based on location and ore type, and will be processed in separate batches. In order to determine gold grades and recovery, each stockpile will initially be weighed and sampled at the feed end, with additional samples taken from the tailings stream and gold concentrate. Once the original bulk samples have been processed, the plant will then process the next 8,000 tons from mineralized material recently excavated and stockpiled from the Beistline shaft and eastern Cleary Hill mine areas. A minimum of 25,000 tons of material is expected to be sampled and fed through the plant over the next two months before processing is suspended for the winter season.
The combination of RAB drilling and new bulk sampling continues to establish the continuity of the high grade structures on the eastern end of the Cleary Hill mine area. As was reported on July 31, 2007, a new swarm of parallel veins and shear zones hosting high-grade surface gold mineralization was uncovered in the Beistline shaft area. A total of 4 parallel east-west structures were identified over the 175 foot width of hanging wall that had been uncovered at that time. Ongoing bulk sampling has now traced the first two of these structures over a length of 800 feet to the area of Fence 2 drilling. Lab analyses on recently excavated bulk sample material continues to show visible gold hosted in rocks within the main structures as well as in the 75-foot wide bleed zone between the parallel B and B1 structures, where 3-foot long vertical channel samples last fall returned grades as high as 18 oz/ton (617 g/tonne) and 1.9 oz/ton (65 g/tonne).
Bulk sampling along the north-south oriented drill Fence 1, a further 700 feet west of Fence 2, has again encountered the strike extension of the B and B1 structures. Additional mineralized structures were also encountered in the hanging wall of the B1. One of these structures contains a mottled gray quartz vein containing visible gold. This vein appears to be similar in appearance to, and occurs on the strike projection of the Wackwitz vein from its last known exposure 250 feet further west. These additional veins run parallel to the main Beistline structure, dip 50 to 65 degrees to the south, and are often linked by north-dipping mineralized structures containing bleed-type gold mineralization.
In addition to the bulk sampling, Freegold continued with its RAB drill program throughout the summer. Given the success that this shallow, close-spaced drilling had in identifying and correlating mineralized structures and shear zones in the Cleary Hill area over the past nine months, the Company elected to expand the size of the program from its initial 25,000 feet of drilling. An additional 147 holes (11,212 feet) were drilled since the holes reported on July 31, 2007 were completed, bringing the total number of holes to 674 (40,093 feet). These latest holes have been grouped into 12 fences, two of which were located in the Cleary Hill area, and 10 of which were in the Tolovana area on the western end of the 5,000 foot long zone. Results from these new holes will be reported shortly. The RAB drilling has been suspended for the time being to allow the remaining assays to be received and to allow time for further analysis of the data. Additional drilling to further extend the strike length of these vein swarms beyond the current known eastern (Beistline) and western (Tolovana) limits may be undertaken this winter. In addition, the Company is currently planning its next phase of exploration, which will include the systematic drilling of deeper holes for resource generation purposes.
Freegold Office Relocation
Freegold also wishes to announce that it has moved its head office. The Company is now located at 1750 - 700 West Georgia Street, P.O. Box 10056, Vancouver, BC, V7Y 1B6. The new telephone number is (604) 662-7307 and the new fax number is (604) 662-3791. All e-mail contacts remain the same.
The Qualified Person for this release is Michael P. Gross, M.S., P. Geo., VP Exploration, Freegold Ventures Limited.
About Freegold Ventures Limited
Freegold Ventures Limited is a North American exploration and development company with a new management team experienced in mine development and production that is actively exploring advanced-stage gold projects in Idaho and Alaska. Freegold holds a 100% lease interest in the Almaden gold project in Idaho. This large tonnage epithermal gold deposit was the subject of a feasibility study in 1997 calling for the development of a 95,000 oz/year open pit, heap leach mine. Freegold is currently finalizing a 41,000-foot drilling program aimed at further expanding the size of the resource prior to undertaking new economic evaluations in 2007. Drilling at depth and to the north and south of the known mineralization is continuing to identify new extensions to the deposit. In addition to the activities being undertaken at Golden Summit, the Company has also commenced exploration on its Vinasale and Rob properties in Alaska, and is currently awaiting final assays from an 18-hole drill program at Rob.
On behalf of the Board of Directors
"Steve Manz"
Steve Manz
President and C.E.O.
The TSX has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this news
release. CUSIP: 45953B107
DISCLAIMER
This news release contains certain "Forward-Looking Statements" within the meaning of Section 21E of the United States Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein are forward-looking statements that involve various risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's expectations are disclosed in the Company's documents filed from time to time with the Toronto Stock Exchange, British Columbia Securities Commission and the United States Securities & Exchange Commission.
CONTACT: Kristina Walcott, VP Corporate Development, (604) 662-7307, jkw@freegoldventures.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source: Freegold Ventures Limited
LNXGF continues it's rise!
CAU - breaking out today!
Sumisu, you are all setup now. Have fun.
truth,
Agree with the move in the up wave, but I thought it would be near the end of the summer. Look what I know though. The XAU went up today, when I thought it would go down.
Yes, I hope that this board becomes more active in the future.
sumisu
It's time to bring this board back to life. Looks like Gold and Silver are getting ready for their 3rd of 3 in an elliot up wave. Just an opinion of course!
Lateegra Updates 100% Owned El Condor
Thursday December 14, 3:05 am ET
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(MARKET WIRE)--Dec 14, 2006 -- Lateegra Gold Corp. (the "Company") (TSX VENTURE:LRG.V - News)(FWB: LTG) wishes to announce the following update:
Ecuador - El Condor Project: The Company has completed a surface geochemical survey over the entire El Condor property collecting over 1000 samples which are currently at ALS Chemex Labs undergoing Mobile Metal Ion (MMI) testing, an exacting multi-element suite of tests required to be evaluated in batches to eliminate background contamination within the laboratory. While the Company anticipates receiving results shortly, the entire suite of results will need to be analyzed in order to define trenching/drilling targets. MMI proved to be a valuable target identification method utilized initially at Aurelian's nearby Fruta del Norte discovery and is felt to be necessary at Lateegra's "El Condor" property due to a lack of readily exposed rock outcropping. While the results are pending, it should be noted that visible gold has been hand panned high up in the streams draining the property (pictures available on the website) indicating the nearby presence of auriferous rock units.
Management is sufficiently encouraged with the early results that it has hired a logistics specialist with extensive in-country experience to assist Luc Pigeon P.Geo and Jeffrey Reeder P.Geo to design, expedite and execute a surface trenching program scheduled for January 2007, aided with results from the MMI geochemical sampling program. The company has also secured the surface rights to over 70% of the project guaranteeing unimpeded access to aid project advancement.
The Company also wishes to forward the following comments on recent news of local opposition in the region of the Mirador development, from the Vice President of Ecuador's mining chamber CME, Cesar Espinosa, who has publicly stated that the communities in the mine's zone of influence are not the ones instigating the protests: "Those communities are pro-mining and I would calculate that 90% of the population is in favor of mining."
The El Condor project is located within 3 Km's from Aurelian Resources' recent world class discovery at the Fruta Del Norte, (FDN), and immediately adjacent to and south of Aurelian's "El Tigre" drill target which Aurelian has announced (news release 06-12-05) should be drilled in the first quarter of the New Year.
The technical information in this news release has been reviewed by, Jeffrey Reeder P.Geo. a Qualified Person as defined in national policy 43-101.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
LATEEGRA GOLD CORP.
Michael Townsend, President
This news release contains certain "Forward-Looking Statements" within the meaning of Section 21E of the United States Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein are forward-looking statements that involve various risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's expectations are disclosed in the Company's documents filed from time to time with the British Columbia Securities Commission and the United States Securities & Exchange Commission.
The TSX Venture Exchange has not yet reviewed and does not take responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of the content of this news release.
Contact:
Contacts:
Lateegra Gold Corp.
Michael Townsend
President
(604) 669-9330 or Toll Free: 1-866-669-9377
(604) 669-9335 (FAX)
Email: info@lateegra.com
Website: http://www.lateegra.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source: Lateegra Gold Corp.
Got Gold Report - Gold and Silver ETFs in Hot Demand
By Gene Arensberg
02 Dec 2006 at 03:54 PM EST
http://www.resourceinvestor.com/pebble.asp?relid=26755
Jon Nadler Gets In-Depth on Gold
By Karl Heilman
27 Nov 2006 at 06:12 PM EST
St. LOUIS (ResourceInvestor.com) – As gold traded up to a 10 week high on Nymex today, Jon Nadler, of Kitco spoke in depth with Resource Investor regarding gold’s direction, a weak dollar, China and much, much more.
RESOURCE INVESTOR: Gold hit a high of $641 today, while the dollar hit a 20 month low against the euro, any thoughts on were this is heading?
JON NADLER: Indeed, the overall trend appears to remain in favor of further dollar erosion and gains in gold prices. Of course, none of this will take place in an uninterrupted fashion (straight up/down on the charts) but the trend has been in place for quite some time and does not seem to have acquired fresh fundamentals that would change our mind as to its overall nature. Deficits and imbalances persist, they do not appear to have immediate solutions, and thus when one couples them with the gold market’s own positive fundamentals (tenuous production numbers, decent demand from key jewelry and investment sectors) – the outlook remains optimistic – if a bit cautious, still.
RESOURCE INVESTOR: Gold has been staying quite steady above $600 – will it stay steady, flop, or spike?
JON NADLER: The inside channel is now $600 to $630 with scaled up targets at 642 (achieved today) then $680 (which if achieved could take us back to as high as $730 to repeat May’s highs) Under $600 we have $580 and $540 and finally the old $480 ( a 50% retracement of the overall $250-$730 move of five years). We feel the trend is now moving to the steady/higher range after the iffy situation we experienced in August/September.
RESOURCE INVESTOR: Bernanke is set to speak on the U.S. economic outlook tomorrow; do you have any inkling on what may be said?
JON NADLER: Probably more of the same jawboning, in terms of “our resolve to fight inflation, keep economic growth in ‘drive’ and no real need to raise rate unless necessary.” The more relevant Bernanke quote should be the one he and Paulson may or may not make while in China on their “strategy visit” Look for market fireworks in connection with that, more than in the short-term.
RESOURCE INVESTOR: Where do you see gold by the end of the year when taking the dollar’s weakness into account? Any projections on where it will be in mid 2007?
JON NADLER: Our year-end target is still moderate, with an average $630 price as the 2006 target (though it still implies we could get to $690 next month) and $665 as the average for 2007. Then, a scale-back of averages from a projected $725 to $700 for 2008, and from $767 to $751 for 2009. But for 2010, we (as Credit Suisse) keep the forecast at $800 average.
RESOURCE INVESTOR: China has been hinting at diversifying the country’s $1 trillion in foreign exchange reserves by increasing their gold reserves which now only stand at 600 tonnes. Any thoughts on what this will mean for the gold market should China decide to seek an increase in gold reserves?
JON NADLER: Actually, Chinese officials have been actively talking down the idea of buying gold to add to reserves. For one thing, the simple act of buying a sufficient supply of gold for such a strategy could drive up the price substantially, so that is a potential negative for the central bank. Even the gold tonnage could be secured without disrupting the gold price, the Chinese would place themselves into a situation that is largely the same as that which they are in now, in with regard to their U.S. Dollar reserves. They would become unable to sell any significant amounts of their pile of gold without setting off a major plunge in gold prices, thus turning the whole exercise of adding gold to reserves into a potentially disastrous venture.
What if, (just for instance) by the time the Chinese had finished accumulating another 2 or 3 thousand tonnes of gold, the bull market for the gold might just be over? In reality, the Chinese central bank, which has to plan for the really long term, would be really be ill advised to shift its reserves out of dollars and into gold in any significant way. We spoke to a couple of central bankers face to face at the beginning of this month and (unless they were playing Chinese poker) they asserted to us that they were not contemplating adding a large sum of gold to reserves, and that if they were going to add any at all, they would do so in a manner not readily noticeable in the marketplace.
There is still good news for gold investors in all of this, as any diversification by them into other currencies, (the euro for instance), would further undermine the value of the dollar and that, more than anything else, would have positive implications for the gold price. Also, if the Chinese central bank just stays put and remains at the currently low allocation level for gold, it is pretty clear that such a strategy would still imply having to buy more gold over the next three to five years, as everyone expects that despite their imminent diversification moves their U.S. dollar reserves are still bound to increase one way or another. Thus, here is a case where the status quo is still good news. But we are not... banking on gold’s salvation to be coming from illusory purchases by Asian central banks (just as we were not too concerned with the weak Western banks letting go of gold over the past years).
RESOURCE INVESTOR: How do you see silver’s performance over the next couple of months? Thoughts on platinum or other precious metals?
JON NADLER: Less thoughts here, as we mainly follow gold. We feel that gold’s monetary attributes will (or already have in some degree) return to the forefront. When gold de-couples from industrial metals (silver, copper, platinum, etc.) then the other metals may be more susceptible to a slow down in the U.S. or global economy than would gold. We remain of the opinion that a China slow-down and/or a fund bailout from hot base metals markets may indeed impact silver (and gold a bit as well) more than would be warranted under normal circumstances. But, let’s face it, the rallies in those metals were mainly fund-driven and there was nothing ‘normal’ about a price spike taking place at the same exact time as inventories of most of these metals were also surging….
RESOURCE INVESTOR: What is the best method in which someone can invest in gold? Mining stocks? ETFs? Bullion?
JON NADLER: We remain convinced that fully-owned and fully-paid physical bullion in the guise of custodial accounts remains the most cost-effective, long-term safe in terms of storage, and most liquid means of direct ownership. Thus, we continue to recommend only products that give value for money, safety, and utmost liquidity to our clients. Namely, Kitco Pool Accounts, Perth Mints Certificates, and GoldMoney Goldgrams.
Minted Coins are bars are fine if one expects to need to barter in the streets (we do not) or travel cross-borders with their wealth upon them. Numismatic coins make zero sense as they have inherent high premiums and low liquidity (and are actually not confiscation-proof, even though we do not expect any confiscatory moves to take place in the future). Mining shares may be fine for those who understand currency, management, and stock market risk – but at the end of the day, they really are a promise of performance by a team of corporate players. Gold itself is never a promise, nor can anyone default upon it.
ETFs may be a good vehicle for funds and pension schemes but make less sense for individuals who do not wish to have their gold balances melt away on a continuing basis (due to management fees) or who do not wish to be lumped with equities in terms of market trading. At the end of the day, even an ETF is a promise – one made by a Trustee. Not so, gold.
http://www.resourceinvestor.com/pebble.asp?relid=26563
DKGR Notes From Clayton. 11/09/2006
I just wanted to catch up with readers and let you know that we did a thorough once over of the Jackpot Placer project and things are looking good. The Bureau of Land Management has the permit applications in hand and the turn around time should be quick, 2-3 weeks, which isn’t bad by government standards. Failing that, our landowner, Dan Patch, and ostensible partner has a great relationship with the people over at the BLM, so the permits should cut through the red tape a bit quicker than the average 2-3 weeks.
Know what the best part is? Interestingly, the law requires “maintenance” during the App process. This doesn’t mean that we need to do a lube, oil and filter on all the heavy equipment we have out there, it means that we have to commence preliminary operations. What it boils down to… work has commenced at the site and that work is required for the permit process so there are no regulatory issues.
The guys down at the site doing the heavy lifting have already amassed quite a bit of gold-bearing material in anticipation of the permits allowing processing. Known as Paydirt, the work of both the landowner and project manager Norm Pearson has yielded 3000 cubic yards and counting of the gold bearing earth. Using a special process developed by Pearson, a processing plant is being set up to handle 100 cubic yards of Jackpot paydirt an hour.
I look forward to the processing that will commence in less than a month and as an investor so should you. Is Christmas coming early this year? I think so.
Novak Capital.
http://www.novakcapital.com/ccorner.htm
Followers
|
8
|
Posters
|
|
Posts (Today)
|
0
|
Posts (Total)
|
176
|
Created
|
05/28/04
|
Type
|
Free
|
Moderators |
The goal of this board is to provide a place for serious Gold and Silver traders to discuss, analyze, brag about and bemoan their favorite commodities stocks.
Come one come all to the board which is dicussing the area which looks like the next major bull market of the 2000's!
Press or news releases for companies of all sizes, e.g., exploration, junior mining and large producers, are welcomed.
Articles pertaining to recent developments and trends that affect the price of gold and silver are included. For example, the dollar and other currencies reflect the value of gold. The Petrodollar is another gold measurement.
Silver and platinum are also precious metals that run in stride with gold and should or will be presented on this board.
Below are relevant links and related charts.
LINKS:
A Beginner's Guide To Investing In Gold
http://www.moneyweek.com/file/23315/a-beginners-guide-to-investing-in-gold.html
THE GOLDEN KEY
http://www.investorshub.com/boards/read_msg.asp?message_id=19976151
Bill Cara On Gold
http://www.billcara.com/gold/
GoldSeek.com
http://www.goldseek.com/
SilverSeek.com
http://www.silverseek.com/
Junior Mining Companies: Other People's Money
http://biz.yahoo.com/seekingalpha/070220/27435_id.html?.v=1
Financial Sense Online resource Page: Precious Metals
http://www.financialsense.com/metals/main.htm
Financial Sense Big Picture Archive
http://www.financialsense.com/fsn/2007.html
Financial Sense Newshour Roundtable Archive
http://www.financialsense.com/Experts/roundtable/archive.html
Gold Statistics and Information
http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/gold/
Invest.com - Gold Section
http://www.investcom.com/moneyshow/gold.htm
Invest.com - Silver Section
http://www.investcom.com/moneyshow/silver.htm
The MMI Theory - What is MMI Geochemistry
http://www.mmigeochem.com/theory.htm
GOLD CHARTS
SILVER CHARTS
Volume | |
Day Range: | |
Bid Price | |
Ask Price | |
Last Trade Time: |