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.
Posted by: Bruce A Thompson Date: Wednesday, July 08, 2009 8:24:39 AM
In reply to: Y worry Murray who wrote msg# 24006 Post # of 25665 [Send a link via email]
You have too much stuff running in the background
That happens to the best of us.
Open Task manager and compare each process with this list: http://www.tasklist.org/
Then shut down each one you don't need in either MSCONFIG, if it is a program, or Services.msc if it is a service. Both of those are opened by typing them into the Run box in your start menu.
My personal favorite is Jusched.exe. That is Java Update. Why would you want a program running at all times that checks every 10 seconds or so for a Java update that only comes around once every 6 months or so?
Public Reply | Private Reply | Keep | Last Read Next 10 | Previous | Next
Posted by: JimQuinceH Date: Monday, October 06, 2008 8:48:37 PM
In reply to: James444ct who wrote msg# 45556 Post # of 45580
Yes James, I think we set a TEMPORARY bottom today and the markets will rise for the rest of this week. There is a 63-67 day cycle low due next week (October 13th to the 17th) which will probably be the test of today's low.
I don't see the Bear Market ending until 2010. Probably October 2010.
ply to: RAYANK who wrote msg# 139666 Post # of 139736
IMO message board info has its place in doing DD into a company such as ERHE for sure, Good post, good info , IMO ALL investors in a company such as ERHE, that has beginings and inner workings not so well known should always look to the boards to find more in depth DD, beyond just the message board info etc... The boards always can/will lead you to other DD outside the boards that can be extremely enlightening, I found this report below from a link on a board and found it to be the most complete in depth outline of ERHE energy and its insiders I have found to date.
I suggest all ERHE investors or potential investors read this outline, Extremely Interesting. Lots of pros and cons on ERHC energy but more then that it is a complete outline from the beginning of the major ERHC insiders and main players.
The Sao Tome Deal3:
The real question is how did EHRC get this lucrative contract. Environmental Remediation Holding Corp. has one full-time employee at its headquarters in the U.S. It hasn't reported a penny of revenue for four years and has piled up more than $30 million in losses.
Yet thanks to its sole asset -- a contract that gives it a major stake in a tiny West African nation's oil fields -- the obscure Texas oil company is on the verge of a stunning turnaround. ERHC secured its oil rights from Sao Tome and Principe. The company's oil contract which gives it rights to two offshore fields in Sao Tome's territorial waters and a significant share in deposits in an area jointly controlled by Sao Tome and Nigeria.
About 4 billion barrels of crude are believed to lie beneath those waters. Without a drilling rig to its name, ERHC will reap hundreds of millions of dollars from its holdings. The company was formed and run by a number of minor U.S, players and was able to pay the Sao Tomeans a small sum for the contract. The contract ran into trouble when it was realized that these prospective oil leases would have no value until an international treaty was made between Nigeria and Sao Tome, delineating the territorial boundaries between the two countries. A visit to Sao Tome by the American head of the company proved useless. The U.S. owners were persuaded by Offor that he could arrange that Nigeria set out such a treaty, using his friends Obasanjo and Atiku. The company agreed to sell its shares to Offor, while retaining a number of shares in their own name. They didn’t so much sell the shares as donated them in exchange for Offor agreeing to be liable for the debt. In mid-2001 Offor acquitted a 75% stake in EHRC. A few weeks later the Government of Nigeria and the Government of Sao Tome signed a treaty delineating their borders. Now the oil leases (which promised a 5% of the revenue stream to Chrome) now had a putative value.
This ability to start to sell the oil leases attracted other players. Obasanjo was pushing two companies for the Joint Development Zone (JDZ). These were the Nigerian branch of Norwegian PGS, headed by Otunba Onabanjo (father-in-law of Obasanjo’s second son) and Yinka Folawiyo Petroleum, run by Wahab Folawiyo (close friend of Obasanjo). Atiku was happy with Chrome as it was widely believed that he actually owned the Chrome shares and Offor was his nominee.
This activity irritated Exxon/Mobil who were then also exploring offshore and several Bretton Woods institutions. The new Sao Tomean Government, despite receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars from Offor’s offshore companies, attempted to revaluate the Chrome contact. In response to complaints from Sao Tome officials, Offor renegotiated ERHC's deal in May 2001 with the Trovoada administration.
Under the new agreement, ERHC relinquished certain rights, notably its stake in the state oil company. In return, it was granted, among other benefits, a share of Sao Tome's future oil profits and retained its rights to choice oil fields. Two months later, De Menezes was elected president and, after taking office in September 2001, vowed to revoke the agreement. ERHC threatened legal action but eventually agreed to yet another renegotiation, which began in earnest this year.
By that point, Sao Tome was eager to sign a deal so exploration could commence. They saw Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, Angola and other countries getting rewards from oil, and they were sucking sand. The country's lead negotiator was the minister of natural resources, Rafael Branco, whose two children were among those who had received college scholarships from ERHC, according to Wilson and Callender, the former company officials.
Sao Tome's National Petroleum Commission played an advisory role. One of its members was an ERHC shareholder and former company consultant. Two other commission members had been on ERHC's payroll at the state-run oil company. So had two members of another government board overseeing oil exploration in the Joint Development Zone with Nigeria.
The contract, as renegotiated by the Branco-led team, gave ERHC a 14% stake in nine especially promising fields in the Joint Development Zone. It left intact the company's rights in Sao Tome's wholly owned territorial waters, where ERHC has full ownership of two oil fields and a 30% share in two others.
In most of the fields in which it was awarded rights, ERHC was exempted from paying a "signature bonus" -- a one-time fee that oil companies typically pay governments for exploration rights. In West Africa, such bonuses have ranged from a few million dollars per field up to $300 million, the sum ExxonMobil recently paid for rights in Angola.
The JDZ have licensed nine fields, in which the most lucrative of which EHRC is participating. This is not bad for a zero investment.
http://saharareporters.com/www/interview/detail/?prevpage=40153&startpage=50164&x=6&id=52
COMPLETE REPORT:
http://saharareporters.com/www/interview/detail/?id=52
hy a hydrogen economy doesn't make sense
Lead [-]
avatar
Posts: 7248
(12/12/06 09:38:06)
Board Moderator
* Reply
* Quote
*
More
o My Recent Posts
o Message Me
o Connection
o Blocking
o Invite
o Ignore User's Posts
Tags : None
Why a hydrogen economy doesn't make sense
www.physorg.com/news85074285.html
This chart compares the useful transport energy requirements for a vehicle powered from a hydrogen process (left) vs. electricity (right). Image Credit: Ulf Bossel.
In a recent study, fuel cell expert Ulf Bossel explains that a hydrogen economy is a wasteful economy. The large amount of energy required to isolate hydrogen from natural compounds (water, natural gas, biomass), package the light gas by compression or liquefaction, transfer the energy carrier to the user, plus the energy lost when it is converted to useful electricity with fuel cells, leaves around 25% for practical use an unacceptable value to run an economy in a sustainable future. Only niche applications like submarines and spacecraft might use hydrogen.
More energy is needed to isolate hydrogen from natural compounds than can ever be recovered from its use, Bossel explains to PhysOrg.com. Therefore, making the new chemical energy carrier form natural gas would not make sense, as it would increase the gas consumption and the emission of CO2. Instead, the dwindling fossil fuel reserves must be replaced by energy from renewable sources.
While scientists from around the world have been piecing together the technology, Bossel has taken a broader look at how realistic the use of hydrogen for carrying energy would be. His overall energy analysis of a hydrogen economy demonstrates that high energy losses inevitably resulting from the laws of physics mean that a hydrogen economy will never make sense.
The advantages of hydrogen praised by journalists (non-toxic, burns to water, abundance of hydrogen in the Universe, etc.) are misleading, because the production of hydrogen depends on the availability of energy and water, both of which are increasingly rare and may become political issues, as much as oil and natural gas are today, says Bossel.
There is a lot of money in the field now, he continues. I think that it was a mistake to start with a Presidential Initiative rather with a thorough analysis like this one. Huge sums of money were committed too soon, and now even good scientists prostitute themselves to obtain research money for their students or laboratoriesotherwise, they risk being fired. But the laws of physics are eternal and cannot be changed with additional research, venture capital or majority votes.
Even though many scientists, including Bossel, predict that the technology to establish a hydrogen economy is within reach, its implementation will never make economic sense, Bossel argues.
In the market place, hydrogen would have to compete with its own source of energy, i.e. with ("green") electricity from the grid, he says. For this reason, creating a new energy carrier is a no-win solution. We have to solve an energy problem not an energy carrier problem."
A wasteful process
In his study, Bossel analyzes a variety of methods for synthesizing, storing and delivering hydrogen, since no single method has yet proven superior. To start, hydrogen is not naturally occurring, but must be synthesized.
Ultimately, hydrogen has to be made from renewable electricity by electrolysis of water in the beginning, Bossel explains, and then its energy content is converted back to electricity with fuel cells when its recombined with oxygen to water. Separating hydrogen from water by electrolysis requires massive amounts of electrical energy and substantial amounts of water.
Also, hydrogen is not a source of energy, but only a carrier of energy. As a carrier, it plays a role similar to that of water in a hydraulic heating system or electrons in a copper wire. When delivering hydrogen, whether by truck or pipeline, the energy costs are several times that for established energy carriers like natural gas or gasoline. Even the most efficient fuel cells cannot recover these losses, Bossel found. For comparison, the "wind-to-wheel" efficiency is at least three times greater for electric cars than for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.
Another headache is storage. When storing liquid hydrogen, some gas must be allowed to evaporate for safety reasonsmeaning that after two weeks, a car would lose half of its fuel, even when not being driven. Also, Bossel found that the output-input efficiency cannot be much above 30%, while advanced batteries have a cycle efficiency of above 80%. In every situation, Bossel found, the energy input outweighs the energy delivered by a factor of three to four.
power plants have to be erected to deliver the output of one plant to stationary or mobile consumers via hydrogen and fuel cells, he writes. Three of these plants generate energy to cover the parasitic losses of the hydrogen economy while only one of them is producing useful energy.
This fact, he shows, cannot be changed with improvements in technology. Rather, the one-quarter efficiency is based on necessary processes of a hydrogen economy and the properties of hydrogen itself, e.g. its low density and extremely low boiling point, which increase the energy cost of compression or liquefaction and the investment costs of storage.
The alternative: An electron economy
Economically, the wasteful hydrogen process translates to electricity from hydrogen and fuel cells costing at least four times as much as electricity from the grid. In fact, electricity would be much more efficiently used if it were sent directly to the appliances instead. If the original electricity could be directly supplied by wires, as much as 90% could be used in applications.
The two key issues of a secure and sustainable energy future are harvesting energy from renewable sources and finding the highest energy efficiency from source to service, he says. Among these possibilities, biomethane [which is already being used to fuel cars in some areas] is an important, but only limited part of the energy equation. Electricity from renewable sources will play the dominant role.
To Bossel, this means focusing on the establishment of an efficient electron economy. In an electron economy, most energy would be distributed with highest efficiency by electricity and the shortest route in an existing infrastructure could be taken. The efficiency of an electron economy is not affected by any wasteful conversions from physical to chemical and from chemical to physical energy. In contrast, a hydrogen economy is based on two such conversions (electrolysis and fuel cells or hydrogen engines).
An electron economy can offer the shortest, most efficient and most economical way of transporting the sustainable green energy to the consumer, he says. With the exception of biomass and some solar or geothermal heat, wind, water, solar, geothermal, heat from waste incineration, etc. become available as electricity. Electricity could provide power for cars, comfortable temperature in buildings, heat, light, communication, etc.
In a sustainable energy future, electricity will become the prime energy carrier. We now have to focus our research on electricity storage, electric cars and the modernization of the existing electricity infrastructure.
Citation: Bossel, Ulf. Does a Hydrogen Economy Make Sense? Proceedings of the IEEE. Vol. 94, No. 10, October 2006.
By Lisa Zyga, Copyright 2006 Physorg.com
Our pending energy supply contraction= no economic growth= no debt service= chaos.
status offlineThinker102 Re: Why a hydrogen economy doesn't make sense #1 [-]
avatar
Posts: 508
(12/13/06 03:47:57)
* Reply
* Quote
*
More
o My Recent Posts
o Message Me
o Connection
o Blocking
o Invite
o Ignore User's Posts
Converting to a viable `Hydrogen economy' is not feasible with *present* technology, true.
However, this does not mean that there might not be some efficient way of producing a lot of hydrgen quickly and cheaply. Wild thought - possibly the hydrogen could be produced *biologically*, using some sort of engineered bug? Think there is a (fictional) book out there suggesting such.
I seem to recollect reading a while back that there were a plan once upon a time to plate the washington monument with Alunimum - because that metal was considered rare and difficult to make - until a new process was developed.
status offlinesczech Re: produce methane instead of hydrogen #2 [-]
avatar
Posts: 591
(12/13/06 09:18:19)
* Reply
* Quote
*
More
o My Recent Posts
o Message Me
o Connection
o Blocking
o Invite
o Ignore User's Posts
The main problem with hydrogen is that we do not really know how to store it. BMW showed a new hydrogen car in Germany a few weeks ago. The car comes with the warning that the hydrogen in the tank will evaporate within a few days if the car is not being driven. In other words, leakage losses with hydrogen are intolerable - much worse than with gasoline fumes. We simply did not learn yet to store and transport hydrogen efficiently. Much more research needs to be done before a large scale conversion to the hydrogen economy is feasable.
However, instead of hydrogen, we should seriously contemplate the methane (CH4) economy. We already have a long experience in storing and transporting methane. As long we continue to burn fossil fuels, we need to solve the problem with the excess carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere. One solution is to catch the CO2 and combine it with hydrogen to make methane. It is a variation of the hydrogen economy idea, however, the technology for the methane economy does already exist while the hydrogen technology is presently only a dream. To convert carbon dioxide into methane requires lots of energy - energy which could be obtained from wind and direct solar electricity.
The main problem with any renewable energy production is the problem of energy storage. We still do not know how to store large amounts of electricity in an efficient way. Storing renewable electricity in form of methane could help solving the energy problem as well as the global warming problem.
Right on and just burn the methane in the vehicle directly. Why convert it to straight hydrogen? All this hydrogen hype and it doesnt make much sense.
Our pending energy supply contraction= no economic growth= no debt service= chaos.
ERHE
You keep asking me what I think the price of this stock will be down the road, given many barrels of oil.
I've been shying away from answering you on this board because I know that this post might "disappear" lol. However, my thoughts have been expressed quietly here and more discussed on Ghosts.
But since you are persistent here goes:
Given my tendency to try to balance both negatives and positives, I tend to focus on the negatives, because this board more than compensates for the positives. I do see more risks in this stock than I think people will give credit. I will start with the negatives and end with the positives.
1) While the alphabet soup gang's investigation will soon reach the statute of limitations and be gone, the IRS investigation's statute of limitations is 10 years. That is a new investigation and adds more issues. The good news is that the IRS issue is not a big deal, but nevertheless, as long as this "dark cloud" of investigations is around, the charters and policies of mutual funds and major institutions will prevent purchase of this stock regardless of the oil found, imo. I'm sorry but that is the nature of the big Fidelity funds, etc.
2) You say that the charges will be minor, but when I searched a company that does business and has the three criteria such as being in Nigeria, Oil-related and charged with FCPA charges for a precedent, I found Baker Hughs. Baker Hughs paid a fine of $44 million. This is no small charge.
http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/company/cnn72264.htm
After a fine like this is paid, the company will desperately need to "dilute" shares in order to get cash. Since the cash spent is was used to pay a fine, and it wasn't used for growth/PEG ratio analysis, one wonders how the shareprice will react.
3) Many here don't know about a little known aspect of the FCPA. I tried posting it here. Here I go again.
The FCPA also has an "Alternative Fines Act". This act stipulates that the U.S. government is entitled to "double the benefit" of any bribe. If it turns out that the government can prove that Erhc's rights were garnered as a result of a bribe, then the government can get DOUBLE the value of those rights, i.e. not only take the rights away but also ask for more. With such a huge incentive, will the government back down?
"Under the Alternative Fines Act, the actual fine may be up to twice the benefit that the defendant sought to obtain by making the corrupt payment."
http://www.fcpaenforcement.com/explained/explained.asp
4) Ledbetter has one million options that expire in December. The positive might be that he has a lot of stake in the game and that the company doesn't have to spend its precious cash. But these are not stocks they are options, which means they expire, so it is in his interest to "spin" a lot before December. For a lawyer who is supposed to be unbiased, I find it a little surprising that he would be compensated in options.
5) Then there's the issue of SEO's relative/friend who was a CFO claiming to be a CPA and wasn't, this was 3 years ago and is old news, however remember that the IRS is allowed to investigate 3 years into the past. As someone pointed out here, the IRS will not have much of a case here because there's no income and so how could there be a tax no payment issue? So I honestly don't know what to make of this. Maybe they fudged the interest income on the bank returns on their cash? I just don't know.
6) Then there's the steep Nigerian/Sao Tomean taxes. I tried fiddling around with the formula to determine just how much of Erhc's royalties would be taxed. After much fiddling I'm coming up with 60% or more, which therefore halves any estimate you or the board may come up with based on barrels of oil.
Furthermore, it would appear according to the tax formula that Sinopec or any oil company drilling on Erhc's rights would make money only if they drill less than 20,000 barrels a day, when no tax royalties are paid. That makes sense from a Nigerian/Sao Tome point of view because limiting the drilling preserves the reserves for many more years. But then, I am not an expert, and freely admit it, so I don't if I'm doing the wrong calculations.
7) Burn rate is on the order of $1.2 million per quarter. For such a small company, I think that is pretty heavy. Since there's no income there are only 2 ways to value the company:
a) Pretend the company is an "option" on finding oil. This option increases in value the higher the liklihood.
b) Value the company as a multiple of cash available.
If the company is valued on (b) then we want to keep the burn rate down as much as possible. But all this may be moot anyway see point 2.
8) The whole AIM thing and the potential for an R/S. You know that I've studied R/S since the WG days and what a kiss of death it is to penny stocks. I hope there is no R/S.
9) Of course, there has to be oil in the first place.
So yes, a lot of potential negatives. So why am I investing in this stock?
Well first,
I haven't gone in heavy. I bought 30,000 shares just to keep my interest in the stock. I could obviously buy much much more.
I like a good "penny stock" opportunity, and there aren't many out there that have this much interest, this many smart people, and this much potential. If oil is found, money can solve a lot of problems, I guess. Ever since WG, I've enjoyed the entertainment value of good penny stock message boards, and the entertainment value of seeing my stock really move. So I look at this right now as just an expensive trip to Vegas, lol.
Many of my WG/Starnet friends are in this stock and they tend to pick winners as a group anyway.
I like the good communication between management and shareholders, although I'm not to crazy about Oily's cryptic b.s.
There's excitment in the stock, I can feel it. Just the fact that the stock has tripled over recent weeks says something too.
A lot of my concerns have been vetted out on Ghosts and now I am feeling a little bit better about Erhc's prospects.
I've already made some money on this stock so why not let it ride?
Krombacher
Nordic Oil and Gas Acquires Four Well Bores in Lloydminster; Expects to Have Wells on Production Soon
Thursday March 6, 11:35 am ET
WINNIPEG, March 6 /CNW/ - Donald Benson, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Nordic Oil and Gas Ltd. ("Nordic" or, the "Company"), today announced that the Company has acquired four well bores located on leases on its lands in Lloydminster, Alberta. The well bores were about to be abandoned as the vendor had lost the mineral rights to the properties.
ADVERTISEMENT
The Company plans to install pumps and tanks at each well bore location and will do everything in its power to have these wells on production over the next 30 to 60 days. Of particular note is the fact that the wells were drilled over the past 10 years or so.
"Another operator, who owns land adjoining ours, followed a similar approach to what we are undertaking, and today those lands are producing 80 barrels of oil per day from those well bores," Mr. Benson stated.
Furthermore, the acquisition of these wells bores by Nordic will result in the Company saving in the area of $750,000 to $800,000 - the cost that would be associated with the drilling of four new wells in Lloydminster.
In addition, the Company is also currently in the midst of surveying four other locations in Lloydminster with the intent of commencing drilling as soon as possible. When completed, the Company anticipates that it will then have eight wells on production in Lloydminster.
In other news, Mr. Benson also stated today several photos of the Company's recently acquired compression facility at Joffre, Alberta are being added to the Nordic website - www.nordicoilandgas.com.
About Nordic Oil and Gas Ltd.
Nordic Oil and Gas Ltd. is a junior oil and gas company engaged in the exploration and development of oil, natural gas and Coal Bed Methane in Alberta and Saskatchewan. The Corporation is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange and trades under the symbol NOG.
previous page | print | email
8 Kilos Silver per Tonne at Urique
By Darryl Kelley
Feb, 28th
Yale Resources Ltd (YLL TSX.V) has recently announced the discovery of a new mineralized zone at their Urique Project, a 29,000 hectare property in Sierra Madre gold belt in Mexico.
This most recently identified zone, El Rosario, is located east of the town of Urique and comprises multiple historic mines and prospects that exploited a system of high grade veins. Formal mining of this area ended in the late 1920's and consisted of several hundred metres of underground workings on three levels. These historic workings are all within a zone of strongly silicified andesite host rocks that measures approximately 100 metres wide and over 400 metres long. The zone is open at depth and along strike sampling has yielded significant values of as much as 10.6 g/t gold and 8,290.0 g/t (or 241.5 ounces per ton) silver from 10-40 centimetre wide veins. There were also two veins that returned assays greater than 3,000 g/t silver and a half dozen other veins grading greater than 1,000 g/t silver. And there are more that went unsampled. Of note for the technical types is that these veins consistently have elevated gold grades, which is significant as several mineralizing systems in the district that have similar gold grades at surface have been proven to have better continuity at depth. Sampling within the altered andesite has yielded gold and silver values of as much as 0.2 to 0.3 g/t gold and 5.0 to 41.0 g/t silver suggesting that the El Rosario area has the potential to host a bulk tonnage open pittable resource.
“What we’ve identified there now is a target that’s over 400 m long and 100 m wide. We’re dealing with silicified andesites in which we see discrete veins coming up through it, you’ve got stringers, stockwork, and some of the sampling of the individual veins are yielding up to 8 kilos per tonne of silver. We’re getting some shockingly high values”, said Mr. Foreman, P.Geo., president of Yale Resources.
Numerous plus-one million ounce gold deposits have been discovered in this 300 km long region of southwestern Chihuahua: including Mulatos (Alamos Gold), Dolores (Minefinders), Ocampo (Gammon Lake), as well as the El Sauzal mine (Goldcorp). The Urique Project is located only 10 km from the El Sauzal mine.
The El Sauzal mine entered production in 2004 and was scheduled to produce 170,000 ounces in 2005. As of Dec. 31, 2005, the mine has proven and probable reserves of 15,821,000 tonnes grading 3.29 g/t gold (for a total of 1,673,000 ounces) and measured and indicated resources of 20,529,000 tonnes grading 2.73 g/t gold (for a total of 1,802,000 ounces)
As if having a successful exploration program in a district scale project isn’t enough, Yale is also building an asset at it’s wholly owned La Verde Project in Sonora.
Having just returned from a field trip to the La Verde Grande mine, the crown jewel in Yale’s La Verde project, Mr. Foreman showed us pictures of management team members underground in the old workings. Oxidized copper on the surfaces of the adit imparts a blue-green tinge to the ambient light generated from the flash. The walls are literally covered from top to bottom with copper oxidization.
“They were mining high grade copper from here”, explains Mr. Foreman. “This was being mined in the early 1900’s. They were hand sorting high grade ore that they were chasing. And I’m confident that they only exploited a small portion of the deposit”
Yale recently announced an addition to its La Verde project - the La Cobriza claim. "This ground is a very important addition to the La Verde Project as there are several geological and structural trends that have been identified that cross the La Cobriza property,” said Mr. Foreman. “Yale now has control over all of the significant known mineralization in the vicinity of the La Verde Grande Mine and we will be able to fully take advantage of having unencumbered access to test the multi-million tonne potential of the property."
A sampling program by the Consejo de Recursos Minerales on La Cobriza in 1982 showed that there is skarn mineralization irregularly distributed over a strike length greater than 500 metres. Twenty five widely spaced chip channel samples from the various historic workings throughout this area ranged from 0.28 to 5.45 % copper, 0.15 to 8.60 % zinc, 3.90 to 578.00 g/t silver and 0.1 to 11.1 g/t gold (note: these samples are included for reference only as they are historical in nature due to them being collected before the creation of NI 43-101).
“So we’re advancing well on all fronts,” Mr. Foreman concluded. “We’ll see trenching and sample results from the Carol property, which are visually interesting, I’m told; drilling at Urique; and we’re looking forward to results of sampling at La Cobriza and elsewhere at La Verde. So we have lots of news coming.”
You can learn more about Yale Resources at their web site at http://www.yaleresources.com.
What planet do gold 'experts' live on?
15.01.2008
by Dominic Frisby
Most years, Ross Norman of TheBullionDesk wins - and most years he makes the most bullish forecast. He has again this year. He reckons gold will hit a high of $1,250 an ounce before the year is out, and won’t sink below $840.
MMG>
11D02022 writes: "The Metalline Mining Company (MMG) is tentatively scheduled to start operation in a northern Mexico mine in late 2008, with expectations for large reserves of zinc and smaller reserves of silver. With zinc reserves declining worldwide and demand increasing, it should be well-positioned for growth. MMG will have a smelter on-site and benefit from zinc's by-products: gallium (used in monitor displays) and germanium (used in thin-film solar collection). There is also a rail system in place for shipping out the minerals and an abundance of motivated local laborers who are presently being trained."
KTN.V
By James West
Wednesday, January 2,
2008
In one of the very few bright spots in TSX Venture share
performance, Kootenay Gold (TSX.V:KTN)
shares jumped 52% on December 10th after the company announced
widespread high-grade mineralization from a drill program at their 100%
controlled Promintorio Silver Project in northwestern Mexico.
With intercepts like 18 meters grading 950 grams per tonne
and 151 meters at 162 grams per tonne silver equivalent, all eyes are focused
on the suddenly stellar Kootenay, whose success at Promintorio caps a year in
which the company has seen major progress on a big chunk of its property
portfolio.
But while the rich intercepts are what has driven the stock
to new highs, CEO James McDonald is most interested in what the drill results
are telling him from a large scale geological structure perspective.
"These results indicate that the individual breccias
drilled in the first phase are part of a single, large mineralized system with
distinct characteristics indicative of a porphyry system. Accordingly, drill
data suggests the Promontorio may contain a deposit of larger scale and scope
than previously conceived," he said.
That’s his technical way of saying that limits to both the
depth, length and width of the mineralized system have not yet been reached. It
remains open in all directions.
I asked him if that meant that these breccias referred to in
the press release were sitting on top of a porphyry system.
“The point is not that there is a porphyry underlying the
breccias but that the breccias themselves are part of a porphyry system,” he
replied. “This is evidenced by the potassic (biotite) and phyllic (sericite)
alteration grading from a propylitic (calcite chlorite) alteration.”
Perspective is what its all about at Promintorio. Its
important to bear in mind that the region surrounding Promintorio, while
historically the focus of small scale mining, has suddenly emerged as a
precious metals hotspot in the last five or six years.
Current estimates from projects within a 200 kilometer
radius of Promintorio put over 15 million ounces of gold and more than 480
million ounces of silver in various categories of mineral resources.
Deposits like Minefineders (TSX:MFL) Dolores project, with
over 3 million ounces of gold and 148 million ounces of silver, and Alamos
Gold’s (TSX:AGI) Mulatos deposit, at 3.71 million ounces of gold , are turning
the region into a primary mining district for Mexico.
Other companies contributing to the previously stated
regional resource include Agnico-Eagle’s (TSX:AEM) Pinos Altos, (1.6 million
ounces gold), Gammon Gold’s (TSX.V:GAM) Ocampo project (2.86 million ounces
gold, 133 million ounces silver), Palmarejo Silver and Gold’s (TSX:PJO) million
ounce namesake property, Goldcorp (NYSE:GG), Pan American Silver (TSX:PAA),
Fronterra Copper (TSX:FCC) and Tyler Resources (TSX:TYS).
Another perspective to bear in mind is that this program
tested only a small fraction of the 40,000 hectares that comprise the entire
Promintorio project. The project
recently surveyed by an electromagnetic survey shows a number of areas
with potential in addition to the 500 meter by 2,000 meter mineralized trend of
which only a 175 by 200 meter portion was just drilled.
Nobody I spoke to wanted to be quoted as to what the
potential could be. The company
prefers to let the results do the talking.
So what’s next?
Well, according Kootenay president Ken Berry, “Given the
success of Phase I Drill results we anticipate Phase II to commence early in
the new year. We have also initiated an IP Study to source additional priority
targets over the 500 meter by 2000 meter structure. “
When asked if the company was going to need to raise more
money for Phase 2, Ken Berry responded that the company has “just under $2 million
in the treasury and warrants and options outstanding which would yield an
additional $6.9 million upon exercise.”
Considering the recent strong share price performance, it
would appear likely that a good number of those options and warrants will get
exercised.
“All in all”, Ken continued, “these results confirm the
historic grades. From surface to depth, mineralization is rich and suggest the
Promontorio may contain a deposit of larger scope than previously
conceived. A porphyry system could have
the set up for the possibility of an open pit.”
“This area of Mexico (Sierra Madre Region) had no major
producers six years ago, now there are five major producers each having multi-million
oz reserves (gold equivalent). There’s also another four projects expecting to
go into production in the next 3 or 4 years.”
A key to Kootenay’s success is CEO, James McDonald, a
founder of Alamos (National Gold) which produces 100,000 oz gold per year; and
a the former president of Genco Resources (TSX.V:GGC), which produces 1 million
oz silver per year. Jim remains on the board of Alamos and Genco Resources.
Kootenay Gold has just over 21 million shares issued
and outstanding, and 28.4 million fully diluted. The company maintains an
extremely in-depth web site at http://www.kootenaygold.ca
Astral Mining Expands Limits of Jumping Josephine Discovery with new Assays
By John Hurst
After a summer of quiet trading and a gentle easing of its market capitalization, Astral Mining Corporation (TSX.V: AST) has had a jump-start in both its valuation and volume. The jump, not surprisingly was the result of strong results from Jumping Josephine.
Astral and it’s joint venture partner, Kootenay Gold (TSX.V: KTN), have now completed the Phase II drilling program at the discovery. The drill program consisted of 38 holes totaling 5,100 metres.
The second set of assays, reported on November 29, appeared to improve upon solid results from earlier in November that returned 4 metres averaging 15.18 g/t gold and included 1 m at 56.4 g/t gold. New assays tested to a greater depth than the first results, and included 12.44 g/t gold over 8m, 7.74 g/t over 5m, and 8.28 g/t over 6m.
CEO Manfred Kurschner is effusive about the ongoing success at JJ, noting that the grades exceeded expectations.
“We’ve only drilled perhaps 60 holes of which we have only reported less than 30, so we have another 32 holes to report,” said Kurschner. “This is a brand-new gold discovery, not a re-worked discovery or an old mine or an old deposit that we’ve revisited. In fact, it’s a brand-new, done-the-math achievement. Then through systematic exploration, we’ve moved it from having the discovery, to trenching, to doing the second phase of drilling, in about a year and a half.”
Jumping Josephine is located in the west Kootenay region of southeastern B.C., in a mining district that has had historical production of more than nine million ounces of high-grade gold, yet has remained under-explored since prior to World War II.
Gold showings were initially exposed on the property during road building for logging activity. After further prospecting in 2003, nine gold showings were discovered on the property. Kootenay subsequently assembled a claim position in the area surrounding and including several small past-producers in the Granville Mountain (Bonanza Pass) area.
Now Astral is earning a 60-percent interest in the 11,785-hectare Jumping Josephine project. The property comprises 24 contiguous mineral claims and seven crown-granted mineral claims optioned to Kootenay by Ralph Englund.
Kurschner says Astral has enough cash to get the company through all of the 2008 work programs at Jumping Josephine. He recently raised over $1 million in flow-through dollars to be spent on its British Columbia properties.
With continued good assay results and a strong resource market, Astral could raise enough money through the exercise of warrants and options to minimize dilution and fund several years of exploration.
In the mining exploration business, a key feature of success is telling the story. Kurschner, an entrepreneur who understands the market, has the ability to tell a story, to raise the money and to assemble a team of people who are able to deliver results.
“People need to keep in mind,” he said, “that with these discoveries, to go from the initial event, which in our case was high-grade trenching results that were put out last December, where we trenched seven metres just over an ounce – 31 grams – that’s the initial event that showed potential. Now, to carry it forward is going to take a lot of drill holes.
“What people need to remember is that 60 holes do not make a deposit,” Kurschner advised. “Some of the greatest discoveries in the world have taken hundreds of holes.”
“We now know that there’s going to be size and dimension to JJ – and it is open – it hasn’t been shut off by drill holes that came up dead. So now, we are able to visualize in a three-dimensional view what is going on underground. It is quite an achievement to do this within one year.”
Astral will benefit, too, from the exceptional infrastructure the area offers. The property is bisected by Highway 3, which links Grand Forks, BC, to the west with Castlegar to the east. The eastern edge of the property is adjacent to the intersection of Highways 3 and 3B, which provide access to the historic mining communities of Rossland and Trail, BC, to the southeast.
The infrastructure includes an extensive network of good-quality gravel logging tracks with vehicular access to all claims. Logging remains active in this area.
Astral Mining offers investors the potential upside of a high-grade gold project that has advanced quickly under the direction of an industry veteran. In addition, Director and vice-president of exploration is David Terry, PhD, has extensive experience in international project management and management of exploration programs for both major and junior mining companies. He was formerly a regional geologist with the BC Ministry of Energy and Mines, and has worked for many mining companies.
With Phase II drilling complete and having shown consistent high-grade mineralization, the company is now ready to move on to further advancing its drilling and testing the Jumping Josephine property’s mineralized limits. For a company with only 25 million shares out, fully diluted and trading at approximately $0.60 per share (November 30, 2007), there are few better looking gold exploration deals to jump for than Jumping Josephine.
Kootenay Gold A-Team Confirms Mineralization at Promontorio
By Jon Shanahan, Resourcex Investor
Kootenay Gold’s (TSX.V:KTN) lynchpin philosophy is that great mining companies are built around a core of solid, talented people, a “human infrastructure” with stellar track records in the industry and innovative prospecting approaches. It seems to be working. The company has been vigorously and systematically amassing highly prospective projects on an enviable scale, and is currently awaiting drill results on two properties with good potential for huge deposits – one in northwest Mexico, the other in BC, Canada.
Kootenay’s focus, for now, is the Promontorio Silver Project in the Sierra Madre. . The project is a 37,000 hectare property, situated 75 km northeast of Ciudad Obregon, and is easily accessible by road.
Calculations from a 1973 feasibility report (non 43-101* compliant) describe an ore body estimated at 384,000 tonnes grading 367 g/t Ag, 1.5 g/t Au, 0.12% Cu, 2.80% Pb, and 1.74% Zinc. Chip samples assayed in the summer of this year returned values of 480 g/t silver and 2.51 g/t gold over an estimated true width of 19 meters. As such, the extent and grade of alteration at the surface is suggestive of a substantial underlying deposit.
The results of a Phase I drill program, which tested four different areas of the Promontorio structure, are now being processed with assays pending. Ken Berry, Kootenay’s President told me, “If this drilling that we’re doing right now confirms historic results, we expect to see a tremendous amount of interest. This could be a real company maker.”
Meanwhile, the Kootenay Gold team has a joint venture agreement, whereby Klondike Silver has funded a Generative Exploration Program to secure additional properties for development, primarily in the Sierra Madre of Mexico (see Kootenay April 19, 2007 news release). The parcel of land totals in excess of 500,000 ha and encompasses 30 major targets.
Mining activity in Mexico’s Sierra Madre region is burgeoning. Six years ago, there was no major activity in the area. Today, there are five producing mines in the mineralized belt, with two more coming on stream over the next 18 months. The area has been compared to Nevada in the early 80’s – well known as one of the world’s top gold regions. Mexico is currently ranked second in the world for silver production, and will likely become first again before long, considering the explosion of exploration in the region.
VP of Exploration Dr. Tom Richards heads Kootenay’s team of Mexican, Argentine, and Canadian geologists working in the Sierra Madre. “We’ve got a team of top-quality prospectors,” McDonald says, “but their skills are really brought alive by Tom’s efforts.”
In Canada, the Kennedy family – one of the last families in Canada who all earn an income from prospecting – leads the Kootenay effort to locate new discoveries. “They form the backbone of our B.C. operation,” says McDonald.
Kootenay has seven Canadian properties slated for exploration. The most advanced is the Jumping Josephine Project in the Rossland region of B.C. Kootenay has teamed up with a junior partner, Astral Mining on the 11,800 ha property (see April 12, 2006 news release). By incurring expenditures of $2.1 million and issuing Kootenay 400,000 shares of Astral, Astral has the right to earn a 60% interest in the project.
To date, over 3,000 m has been drilled in the main quartz stock work zone on the property, with a very notable intersection of 7.01 g/t gold over 19 m. Mapping and geochemical data has suggested a strike length of up to 3km. A Phase II drill program, which drilled 50 holes in the main discovery area, is wrapping up now. The first six holes were reported on November 14, including 4 m grading 15.18 g/t Au at the JJ main zone.
“This could develop into another lead project for us,” Berry emphasized.
The Connor Creek project, another big B.C. focus for Kootenay, is an area 16km southeast of Nelson, also highly accessible. Geochemical and geophysical testing in the area revealed a broad area anomalous for gold, copper, lead, zinc, and silver, over a 1.2km by 3.2 km grid.
Kootenay took on another junior partner for its Connor Creek Project, Amador Gold. Amador will earn a 50% interest in the Connor Creek property, provided $1 million in exploration is expended, and 400,000 Amador shares are issued to Kootenay Gold over the next four years.
Ken Berry says, “We’re on the verge of events that could change the whole outlook for the company.”
Joint venture partnerships like those engaged for Jumping Josephine (Astral – “TSX.V: AST”), Connor Creek (Amador – “TSX.V: AGX”), and the Mexican Generative Program (Klondike Silver – “TSX.V: KS”) reflect Kootenay’s overriding strategy.
“The purpose of Kootenay’s exploration strategy is to get exposure to as many mineral systems as possible, while at the same time minimizing company dilution to our shareholders,” said McDonald. Last year, junior partners spent $2.2 million on exploration and development, and in 2008, they are projected to spend as much is $4 million on development of Kootenay projects.
When structuring these joint venture arangements Kootenay generally looks to leverage stock payments and exploration expenditures from its partners. This allows Kootenay to maximize money put into the ground while minimizing risk to its shareholders. At the same time the company benefits from accumulating a portfolio of prospective junior exploration stocks, which, in a bull market, is an appreciating asset.
Overall, Kootenay’s management team has an exemplary record in the industry. James McDonald co-founded Black Bull Resources, National Gold, and White Knight Resources. He was instrumental in bringing mines for Genco and Alamos Gold into production. Ken Berry, Kootenay’s President, has extensive experience as an investment adviser for public companies and has raised in excess of $250 million. Richard Hughes, a director with the company needs little introduction: He was imtimately involved in the discovery of some of Canada’s largest mines, including the Golden Giant/Hemlo mine, the Sleeping Giant Mines and the former Balmoral Mines, which produced an aggregate of 450,000 oz of gold annually. Joseph Church and Robert Gardner, both directors, have illustrious careers behind them as well. The addition of Tom Richards in Mexico, and Raj Khang in the head office (who handles bookkeeping and fundraising) round out the team.
Both MacDonald and Berry agree that the team is central to the success of the company. “We’ve come a long way this year in getting the right people in place in the company,” says McDonald. “Our belief is that it starts with good qualified people. With that you’ll get the good projects - and you’ll make discoveries.”
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.
James McDonald Secures Every Advantage for Kootenay Gold
By Katherine Young
Nov, 6th
In a meritocracy, the pure, rich cream floats to the top. It’s where people are selected competitively according to merit, talent, motivation and effort, based on the idea that positions of responsibility and prestige should be earned. Kootenay Gold and its team are an example of just that.
CEO and Director James McDonald, at 46, is one of the youngest men in a directorial role in Canadian mining and boasts a track record dating back twenty years. He started as a geologist in 1983 at Noranda. Then he went to work at Hemlo where he met Richard Hughes, the mining legend and brains behind the Hemlo discovery, one of the largest gold discoveries in Canadian history. This experience seems to be the impetus behind his formidable motivation. As McDonald put it in a presentation featured on Kootenay’s website, “I really got bitten by the gold bug at [Hemlo].”
In the late 1990s, working closely with Hughes, McDonald and Albert Matter formed National Gold, secured the Mulatos deposit in Mexico, and joint ventured with Alamos Minerals. McDonald merged the two companies to form Alamos Gold, which opened the Mulatos mine that is still in production today, producing over 100,000 ounces of gold annually.
McDonald had other successes at White Knight, and Genco Resources (currently producing 1,000,000 ounces per year of silver) where he served as President until 2006, when he stepped aside (he remains on board) to focus his efforts on building Kootenay Gold.
“Part of the reason for creating Kootenay Gold,” he said, “is an opportunity to put together a team of people that I had worked with mostly on a contract basis. In this industry it’s not really the properties, it’s the people that are valuable. If you put the good teams together, you’ll get the good properties and you’ll make the discoveries. You’ve got to have those people.”
With Hughes as a director on the board, and McDonald at the helm, they began to pull together key players in the industry and an exploration strategy. McDonald says about forming Kootenay Gold, “There’s a prospecting family that I’d worked with in various companies on various jobs. I was always looking for the opportunity to put them together in a company to form the core of a good exploration company.”
McDonald and his team carefully selected the west Kootenay region because they considered it to be highly prospective, but underexplored. The mineralized belt, on the American side of the border, has produced over 6 million ounces of high grade gold, but on the Canadian side was somewhat untouched. McDonald put the Kennedys – a family of highly skilled prospectors – to work in the Kootenays where they have considerable knowledge. Their findings allowed Kootenay to stake 45 mineralized claims in the area, every one of which is a new discovery.
So, while generating discoveries in BC, Kootenay’s strategy has been to joint venture with junior explorers to help fund and conduct exploration on the properties. The joint venture partners absorb some of the risk to Kootenay and pay Kootenay in cash and stock. The stock, in this resource market, becomes an appreciating asset. In other words, it’s a win-win situation for Kootenay.
The best development for Kootenay Gold in the Kootenay area so far has been the Jumping Josephine project, which is a joint venture with Astral Mining Corp. Astral has the right to earn a 60% interest in the property. Recent drilling on Jumping Josephine reported on July 12, 2007, returned 19 m of 7.01 g/t gold, including 5 m at 16.42 g/t gold. In an interview with Stanley Hunt on Smartstox Talk Show, McDonald explained the potential at Jumping Josephine. “It’s a high grade system…They’re on round two of the drilling now. Personally, I think they’re starting to drill off a resource now. This started out as a raw prospect. We’ve got an advanced project down in Mexico, which has been our lead project, but this is catching up.”
Northern Mexico has been Kootenay’s major focus. Using the philosophy that it is critical to select properties well and then commit time, work and money, McDonald and his team saw opportunity in Mexico. Their belief is that northern Mexico has potential similar to Nevada in the 1980s – a period that led to Nevada becoming the third largest gold producer in the world.
McDonald said authoritatively, “Mexico is already the number two silver producer in the world. It’ll retake its number one position probably in another year. It’s going to become a major gold producer and you can also expect to see a lot of base metals, copper, lead, zinc coming out of Mexico as well in new discoveries.”
He points out that in a 250 km stretch, through the area where Kootenay has staked 500,000+ hectares, there have been five new mines opened in the last six years, with another two currently under construction and two more in the feasibility stage. In that time, the area has boasted the discovery of 15 million ounces of gold and 480 million ounces of silver.
In Mexico, once again, Kootenay has found an edge. Several edges actually. Kootenay hired a Brit named Dr. Tony Starling and his company Telluris Consulting Ltd. to conduct satellite imagery and interpretation of the geological structures over a vast area of land. Starling has spent fourteen years in Mexico working with some of the biggest names in mining.
McDonald explains, “He’s developed a process, an analysis that allows him to identify mineral systems from the satellite imagery.” The technology works by measuring the various wavelengths of reflected light to identify mineral systems, McDonald explained. “If you’re doing it without a lot of skill and experience you get a lot of things that are not associated with minerals...You get a lot of red herrings.” Based on results to date, McDonald says, Starling has about a 90% accuracy rate. “And that makes things suddenly very efficient, rather than running around, looking at hundreds of targets, the vast majority of which have nothing to do with mineral systems. We’re now going in here and I would say it’s about a 90% success ratio.”
For Kootenay, the result is that they were able to identify more than 30 mineralized systems over approximately 180,000 square km area, which “allowed us to very quickly tie up a lot of prospective ground in Mexico.”
Leveraging another advantage – a relationship with the skilled and powerful in mining –Kootenay’s exploration efforts were funded by Richard Hughes through Klondike Silver. Klondike earned the right to choose six properties from Kootenay’s claim package. Ken Berry, President of Kootenay Gold, says “Richard Hughes has a tremendous confidence in Jim McDonald’s ability to identify mineral projects as well as grow a company. Because of that confidence level, Richard Hughes has been able to offer Kootenay joint venture support through Klondike Silver and Amador.”
So Kootenay has the people, the connections, the properties, the technology, the land positions, and the financial structure. SmartStox host Stanley Hunt prompted McDonald to point out the advantage Kootenay has in Mexico and McDonald obliged, “We’ve built up a big infrastructure in Mexico. We’ve got a regional office there. We’re way up on the learning curve. We know the ropes down there. For somebody to go in brand new into Mexico, it’s going to take them quite a few months and a lot of dollars to get established like we are. They’ll be there well over a year getting established, just to get going. We are optioning properties there. They can have a property and get going in a month by doing a deal with Kootenay Gold.”
Kootenay’s major project in Mexico right now is its flagship, advanced-stage, 100% owned, Promontorio silver project. Historic data on Promontorio show individual holes with 1 kg of silver over 5 m, 10 m, 15 m and an average silver grade of 367 g/t. Historic reports also cite widths of 20 m on average. McDonald is optimistic about the width, “you’re going to have a low cost if you’re able to find a deposit with that kind of width.” Hughes is similarly positive. In a recent presentation he stated unequivocally, “That Promontorio, by the way, is a potential company builder. And as Chad Buckland, who couldn’t be with us today, said – he’s a broker and a geological engineer – “That’s the kind of property that could really make a company. That gives a company the multi-dollar exposure… And so I think you’ve got a great project.”
Investors seem to agree. Kootenay stock has been climbing steadily over the last month from below a dollar to above the dollar and a quarter mark
KTN.V
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.
Press Release - 28 November 2007
Massive Canadian oilfield could be exploited using new UK system
A new method developed in Britain over the past 17 years for extracting oil is now at the forefront of plans to exploit a massive heavy oilfield in Canada.
Duvernay Petroleum is to use the revolutionary Toe-to-Heel Air Injection (THAI™) system developed at the University of Bath at its site at Peace River in Alberta, Canada.
Unlike conventional light oil, heavy oil is very viscous, like syrup, or even solid in its natural state underground, making it very difficult to extract. But heavy oil reserves that could keep the planet’s oil-dependent economy going for a hundred years lie beneath the surface in many countries, especially in Canada.
Although heavy oil extraction has steadily increased over the last ten years, the processes used are very energy intensive, especially of natural gas and water. But the THAI™ system is more efficient, and this, and the increasing cost of conventional light oil, could lead to the widespread exploitation of heavy oil.
“The world needs to switch to cleaner ways of using energy such as fuel cells,” said Professor Malcolm Greaves, who developed the THAI™ process.
“But we are decades away from creating a full-blown hydrogen economy, and until then we need oil and gas to run our economies.
“Conventional light oil such as that in the North Sea or Saudi Arabia is running out and getting more expensive to extract.
“That’s why the pressure is on to find an efficient way of extracting heavy oil.”
THAI™ uses a system where air is injected into the oil deposit down a vertical well and is ignited. The heat generated in the reservoir reduces the viscosity of the heavy oil, allowing it to drain into a second, horizontal well from where it rises to the surface.
THAI™ is very efficient, recovering about 70 to 80 per cent of the oil, compared to only 10 to 40 per cent using other technologies.
Duvernay Petroleum’s heavy oil field in Peace River contains 100 million barrels and this will be a first test of THAI™ on heavy oil, for which THAI™ was originally developed. Duvernay Petroleum has signed a contract with the Canadian firm Petrobank, which owns THAI™, to use the process.
The THAI™ process was first used by Petrobank at its Christina Lake site in the Athabasca Oil Sands, Canada, in June 2006 in a pilot operation which is currently producing 3,000 barrels of oil a day. This was on deposits of bitumen - similar to the surface coating of roads - rather than heavy oil.
Petrobank is applying for permission to expand this to 10,000 barrels a day though there is a potential for this to rise to 100,000.
The 50,000 acre site owned by Petrobank contains an estimated 2.6 billion barrels of bitumen. The Athabasca Oil Sands region is the single largest petroleum deposit on earth, bigger than that of Saudi Arabia.
Professor Greaves, of the University’s Department of Chemical Engineering, said: “When the Canadian engineers at the Christina Lake site turned on the new system, in three separate sections, it worked amazingly well and oil is being produced at twice the amount that they thought could be extracted.
“It’s been quite a struggle to get the invention from an idea to a prototype and into use, over the last 17 years. For most of the time people weren’t very interested because heavy oil was so much more difficult and expensive to produce than conventional light oil.
“But with light oil now hitting around 100 dollars a barrel, it’s economic to think of using heavy oil, especially since THAI™ can produce oil for less than 10 dollars a barrel.
“We’ve seen this project go from something that many people said would not work into something we can have confidence in, all in the space of the last 18 months.”
Professor Greaves, who was previously Assistant Professor at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada, and who also worked with Shell and ICI in the UK, is looking at making THAI™ even more efficient using a catalyst add-on process called CAPRI™.
This process was also developed by Professor Greaves’ team at Bath and is intended to turn heavy oil into light while still in the reservoir underground. The CAPRI™ research has recently been awarded funding of £800,000 from Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, including £60,000 from Petrobank. The project collaborators are Dr Sean Rigby, from the Department of Chemical Engineering at Bath, and Dr Joe Wood of the University of Birmingham.
MMG
The Perfect Investment for an Uncertain Economy?
November 23, 2007
We've previously written about Metalline Mining's (MMG) world class, low cost zinc project at Sierra Mojada and the fact that the similar Skorpion oxide zinc project was valued at more than Metalline's current market cap when it was bought out by Anglo American upon completion of their feasibility study in 1999. Now, even though the price of zinc has dropped in half over the last year, it's still about triple what it was when GTI (Green Team International) put Skorpion into production, and we believe it is near a bottom and should be strong for years to come: http://greatinvestments.blogspot.com/2007/11/why-zinc-has-underperformed-this-year.html .
When GTI completes the feasibility study for Metalline's zinc project next year, we believe the project should be valued much higher than Metalline's current market cap, even if zinc drops much more from here, as it's one of the few projects that can make significant profits at far lower zinc prices, and it could be the largest one in the world going to production in the next few years. Given GTI's success with the similar Skorpion mine, there's relatively very little execution risk.
Metalline's project has many advantages over the Skorpion project, which was the first of its kind, built in tough conditions with no infrastructure in the remote Namibian desert. By contrast, we've seen first hand the incredible amount of infrastructure already in place at Sierra Mojada, as we reported in our site visit report in May: http://greatinvestments.blogspot.com/2007/05/real-deal.html .
Unfortunately, since our visit, the price of zinc has dropped 44%. Junior zinc miners have been devastated, with many projects now unlikely to make it to production because of their small size and/or high costs. MMG has dropped 23% in that time, which is a significant drop, but much stronger performance than most zinc juniors. Because of their project progress (one of the few sizable zinc projects well into their feasibility study) and likely profitability at much lower zinc prices, MMG has been able to far outperform other zinc juniors as well as zinc itself, and we believe this relative strength bodes well for when zinc rebounds.
While Metalline has been known as a zinc junior, few investors realize that they were a silver junior before the positive Skorpion feasibility study made them shift their attention to their world class oxide zinc deposit. Considering their 45 former producing silver mines never even had a mill to concentrate the ore, and only direct shipped the very high grade silver, we believe Metalline has an enormous amount of silver at Sierra Mojada, probably more than enough to justify the current market cap without consideration of the zinc.
On Wednesday, Metalline announced that they intersected 95 meters of 166 grams/tonne silver in a new zone that hadn't previously been drilled (http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/071121/law018.html?.v=101 ), and await assay results from a number of other drill holes. This silver exploration work is completely separate from the zinc project, and much exploration work was done in the late 1990's. They've built a huge database of silver results from that previous work, and plan to construct a resource model and put together silver block model estimates soon.
The previous drill results included some very impressive intercepts, including one hole which "intersected mineralization with grades averaging 11 kilograms over a thickness of 9 meters" (http://sec.edgar-online.com/2005/06/15/0001031093-05-000002/Section3.asp -- top of page 4). We've never seen any other silver miner hit anywhere near as rich an intercept over that thickness. We believe the database of previous drill results will indicate that Metalline's already found many millions of ounces of silver, and we eagerly await the initial grade and tonnage estimates from their exploration.
Perhaps the most impressive part of Wednesday's news was that Metalline will have their own crews of trained local staff working 2 shifts on 4 drills on their huge historic silver district plus the rest of their enormous, highly prospective property. They also will have their own assay lab to provide quick assays for timely feedback to direct the placement of new holes. With their extremely inexpensive Mexican labor costs compared to other miners who hire expensive contractors in much more expensive labor markets, Metalline will be able to very efficiently accomplish an immense amount of drilling in coming years. This efficient exploration work should enable Metalline to quickly grow into a sizable silver miner.
Being a silver explorer, Metalline provides a hedge for investors in case of extended economic unrest. In addition to being an industrial metal useful for many applications, silver is also a precious metal that is considered money. In fact, in many languages (e.g., most Romance languages, Chinese) the word for money is the same as the word for silver. Like gold, people buy silver to save, particularly in case paper money collapses in value. That gives it extra value in case of global economic disaster. In the recent economic uncertainty, silver has been breaking out to new highs along with gold. Because silver's considered a precious metal, silver miners receive a much higher valuation than base metal miners, even if they are nowhere near production. With their stock undervalued based on their premier zinc project alone, Metalline receives no recognition in the market for their silver as of yet. We believe that will change soon when Metalline constructs their resource model and releases large volumes of results from their aggressive silver exploration program.
With the current turmoil in the stock market amid fears of recession, some people fear a weak U.S. economy will result in a global recession, while others are confident that the global economy will continue to go strong led by developing nations such as China and India along with oil-producing nations. In such an environment, savvy investors look for investments that will do well in either scenario, such as base metal miners that can still make profits at rock bottom metal prices but have enormous volumes of base metals for huge upside leverage in a strong economy, or precious metal miners that will profit if the global economy hits hard times, sending gold and silver higher, or if economic strength continues to send inflation and precious metals higher. In Metalline Mining, investors get the best of both worlds, with one of the world's largest zinc projects, likely to be make it to profitable production at rock bottom zinc prices (as the Skorpion mine did a few years ago), as well as a huge amount of silver that they are aggressively and efficiently proving up.
http://www.greatinvestments.blogspot.com/
we look good...our bullish harami was confirmed yesterday..a nice jump looks to be in order.
i posted this on the AOS board yesterday...i like the way patch stacks up...if anyone has anything else to add..feel free.
Shares (fully diluted, mil) / Market Capitalization (mil)
STP 75.4 / 181
NPE 46.7 / 80
AOS 58 / 68
PTCH 48 / 49
STP has the most land (111000acres) but the drilling has been spotty (16wells) and under canadian standards has 198mmbbls poss&probable resources...best estimate recoverable is 670mmbbls...it has potential but sp still has room to drop before drilling season. They've got 8mil in working capital and a big season of drilling ahead of them.
Npe has 86000net and 9wells...basically virgin...they're making noise about having a small-scale operation (400/day?)in 2009 but peace river isn't really in-situ heartland and now the natives are restless (Cree) with Shell in the area. Npe has 1-1.6 billion discovered resource, but again, this is only a step up from in-place volumes. They really shouldn't be worth much more than the purchase price of their land..roughly 40-60mil i think. I'm not sure of their working capital.
AOS has around 68000net acres, but again, virgin. In place volumes of 1.4-2.5 billion bbls. Looks like they've got an aggressive drilling season this winter and it will be interesting to see what they can come up with. Working capital of 14.5million.
Ptch has 3 potential areas (20000net) situated in the Ells area (north, central, south) plus a possible cold flow in Muskwa. Els north has been the focus of their drilling (15holes), central has 4holes and south is virgin. They've got a pool in the works (i'm assuming SE corner of north) and 2 more promising pools. The land is 50m gross pay with net pay saturation of 65-90%. SAGD application in the works for a 10000/day and management believes a 40000/day could be supported...we'll see....as of now...P10 of 203mmbbls contingent resources with 1.4billion in place volumes (management estimate). Looks like a nice compact site. Patch got the crap kicked out of it from firebag (region which was scrapped due to poor conditions) and consequently a less than expected resource count. Their inablity to complete most things on time doesn't help either...but i like the pools and the surrounding infrastructure so i'm sticking with it.
*** Ag/Au/Cu/Zn/Pb related post (ECU.TO ~ ECUXF) ***
The following ECU related comments were taken from yezzer's 'edition' of GATA Bill Murphy's 'LeMetropole Cafe' market letter.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Murphy comment:
By far my largest gold/silver share position is mega GATA supporter ECU Silver. That, and that so many Café members own it, is the reason for more extensive coverage than is normally given. So the following two coverages are only for those interested…
Hi Bill
ECU came out with another stellar press release yesterday after the close to announce another material discovery. Since July 18th, the company has made 3 new discoveries at the Chicago, Terneras and Roca Negra mines.
What I am most impressed with, is not only with the significant grades and extensions of these new findings, but the fact they are completely new discoveries in addition to the companies "flag ship" mine, the Santa Juana. The reason I point that out is these new vein structures are at such a close proximity to the Santa Juana mine, thus, once the bigger mill is built, feeding the mill will not only be easier but also less expensive in terms of transportation.
By using the vein dimensions and grades given in the press releases for Chicago, Terneras and Roca Negra, I have calculated that the company has just added approximately another 4.26 million tonnes of rich ore (approx 60-65 million ounces of silver equivalent not including the base metals) in total to its inventory.
I have a model that contains about 14 other silver companies that are comparable to ECU to obtain a reasonable sense on how the mkt is valuing the company. Simply stated, given current mkt values, the average price for "in ground silver’ for these 14 companies is about $2.55 USD$/ounce (that price was closer $3.50 a few weeks back before silver was mauled). If one is to apply US$2.55/ounce for valuing in ground silver, ECU over the last 8 weeks has added anywhere between USD$153 million to USD$165 million (60 mill/ounces *$2.55/ounce or 65*2.55/) worth of value to its inventory. That is impressive!!!
But given the brutal carnage we witnessed in August across the markets, the company lost a significant chunk of its mkt cap despite these great results. Thankfully, we have had a nice rally over the last few days. But with the strong belief that Gold and Silver will eventually breakout from their long consolidations, ECU is poised to reap the benefits when this long awaited event finally happens as these discoveries are only the tip of the iceberg in terms of the potential targets ECU has still to explore at depth, such as the skarns and massive sulfides.
Sami
Hello Bill!
It sure is nice to be sending a note to you on a day when ECU is up sharply, since we have not had too many days where our confidence has been rewarded in the market lately. I just wanted to touch base with a few comments regarding the latest NRs from the company. After the close yesterday ECU announced a new discovery zone at the Roca Negra Vein.
Earlier in the week we were told of the discovery of a vein extension of the Teneras Vein. These are significant additions to the mine because all of the mines that ECU has established production at the present time were once in operation by historic producers, yet each of these new zones represent vein systems that are almost untouched from past mining activity. The mineralization has been encountered at the higher elevations with extremely high grade ore reported, and they represent large additions to the mineral inventory at Velardena.
Add in the discovery zone reported earlier in the summer from the Chicago Property, and the San Diego JV Project, and it is clear that ECU is adding silver ounces at an impressive rate.
Keep in mind that all of the discoveries at Velardena have similar traits in that they are narrow vein, high grade deposits near surface, and they all extend with remarkable continuity to depths of more than 600m. So these new veins which have been outlined from surface will amount to the addition of large resources. But what has me even more excited is that we know as exploration has continued to depth, the veins have tended to expand into wider intervals, and have converged into larger zones of mineralization. The mineralized corridor of stockwork ore, and the large intervals of skarn are just two examples of what has been outlined to depth.
As ECU continues to outline entirely new deposit areas at the mine, and definition work will follow that can be used to increase the compliant resources of the project, it is only a matter of time until the market acknowledges the magnitude of the discovery and bids in a higher market value for the company. As a long-suffering ECU shareholder, I can only say that once the stock runs past the $5 mark, it will not be that people will feel like they did not have the chance to load up cheaply during this extended consolidation period. The company has presented notice of one new discovery area after another throughout the last 15 months, and the stock is still cheaper now that it was when there was far less on the table in terms of asset value. The story for the company has never been better, and today we finally got some form of confirmation in a higher share price, but I do think we have a lot more to look forward to in the months ahead.
cheers!
Mexico Mike
The Next Intuitive Surgical?
Visionary Innovations vision lies in finding little known microcap companies that have the ability to change, disrupt and or create multi-billion dollar industries. A few years ago, we discovered a microcap stock with a breakthrough medical instrumentation robotic surgery/device. We felt this company’s technology could revolutionize surgical procedures. At that time Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) www.IntuitiveSurgical.com was a single digit microcap. Visionary Innovations sensed their robotic surgery/device could revolutionize the operating room. It did! Share price grew from $8 to over $200 in 4 years
We think we found the “Next Intuitive Surgical”
Intuitive Surgical’s Robotic surgery has revolutionized the operating room. However bodies still need to be stitched, stapled, and you know, “sealed up”.
Every surgeon would like to close up an incision like a ZipLock bag, without stitches, eventually leaving no scar. Revolutionary technology will soon be available that offers the “stitch-less” seam.
Visionary Innovations discovered revolutionary medical technology that uses radio frequency (RF) bonding human tissue without the glues, sealants, sutures, and staples. This disruptive technology platform will revolutionize surgery because it eliminates the need for sutures, staples, glues and sealants, a $3.5B a year mkt. Over and above the $3.5 billion market for sutures, staples, glues and sealants, the time and cost savings for hospitals, doctors, insurance companies, and patients, will be significantly larger.
It doesn’t get more disruptive than that.
Live Tissue Connect uses patented radio wave technology to bond and reconnect living soft biological tissue. The visible/cosmetic benefits are obvious.
The medical and economic advantages could make Live Tissue Connect the “Holy Grail Of Surgery”.
Radio frequency is mainly used now in surgical procedures as a method of incision and removal of tumors. However, the current RF surgical methods/devices lack the ability to determine tissue/organ specific frequency and the ability to control the temperature. Burning precious tissue is an issue, not with Live Tissue Connect.
LTC’s revolutionary device and patented methodology allows surgeons to use radio frequency as a faster (under one minute), tighter, virtually bloodless, smokeless (sterile OR) wound seal that doesn’t burn or kill tissue, virtually leaving no scar in 60 days.
LTC’s “secret sauce” is worldwide patented technology that has the ability to deliver predetermined energy to a specific body tissue. It does not kill the tissue (necrosis).Their software platform determines and delivers the specific frequency (temperature) required by various tissues/organs. A specific radio frequency energy (via heat), plasmatizing the collagen fibers and untangles them. When the tissue/organ cools, the collagen fibers “reentangle”/tangle/bond, forming a leak-proof bond. .This leaves virtually no scar in 60 days.
The current FDA approved tissue methods use radio frequency to cauterize and coagulate tissue/organs, but they don’t “weld”. Without temperature control, there is necrosis (killing of cells). The LTC method is more sophisticated and specialized. It allows surgeons to “control” the temperature, thus eliminating tissue burn.
U.S. Surgical www.ussurgical.com (a division of Tyco) and Ethicon www.ethicon.com (a division of Johnson&Johnson), the two largest medical device companies in this market, have been trying to do this for years, unsuccessfully.
Live Tissue Connect filed their first U.S. 510k medical device application with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on June 26, 2007. The duct and vessel sealer is expected to be the simplest surgical procedure, and most widely used device. They have identified an additional 13-15 applications for these instruments. Each application has the market opportunity between $100m to $4b.
They expect to file for European CE Mark certification (U.S. FDA equivalent) in the 4th quarter of 2007.
Frank D’Amelio, a medical device industry icon, has successfully launched more than 200 new medical device products, including several “industry first” technologies. He is the sole or co-author of over 40 medical technology patents or patent pending applications worldwide. Frank D’Amelio was brought on board to bring this platform to marketing the U.S. and worldwide. His involvement will likely accelerate the timetable for needed regulatory approvals.
Because a predicate device for duct and vessel sealing of radio frequency is already being used for other surgical procedures, LTC could receive FDA approval by the 4th qtr of 2007.
The company’s Ukraine partner just recently received approval for their surgical device that includes most procedures for Ukraine and Russia, and is already projecting revenues.
They are negotiating with major medical device distributors for multiple licensing opportunities.
Not only is their technology “cutting edge”, but their potentially recurring revenue makes this a highly attractive investment and should attract the interest of major medical device companies.
Each surgery requires instrument replacement.
Bullets:
-over 7000 human surgeries have been performed in the Ukraine.
-In the Ukraine, 86 procedures have been identified for these medical devices
-CSMG Technologies has identified 14 immediate licensing opportunities
-CSMG Technologies has 6 patents issued (U.S. and Int’l) and 34 pending (U.S. and Int’l)
Medical Advantages:
-seal time takes under one minute (in majority of cases)
- shortened operating room time –up to 30%
-Smokeless/odorless- NO airborne diseases in OR
-leakproof—better seal than sutures, staples, glues and sealants
-almost bloodless
-reduced anesthesia/pain medication
-healing time reduced--- a Live Tissue Connect seal is equivalent of 3 days with sutures
-scarless- non burning of soft/live issue
-less transfusions
-fewer complications
-no foreign matter left in body
Economic Advantages:
-shortened OR time
-shorter hospital stays
-reduces medication
-elimination of sutures staples glues sealants
-no need to revisit Dr to remove
On June 21, 2007, the Russian Federal Service of Health Care and Social Development (US FDA equivalent) approved the tissue welding electro surgery generator and eight (8) instruments for commercial use. Live Tissue Connect’s parent company CSMG Technologies believes sales in Russia and Ukraine could reach $7-10m in 2008 and grow at a rate up to 50% per year. Subsequent to this approval, Live Tissue Connect is moving from prototype to production with their manufacturers in the United States. Currently CSMG Technologies has an international website www.csmgtechinternational.com for international activities and in the U.S. www.livetissueconnect.com for U.S. activities
Currently the only way today to own a piece of this revolutionary technology/company, is to own the parent company CSMG Technologies www.ctum.com (CTUM). CSMG Technologies is a technology management company, that acquires, licenses and markets innovative/revolutionary/emerging technologies. With a 510K FDA approval, CSMG Technologies is expected to segregate Live Tissue Connect through an Initial Public Offering IPO.
At Visionary we constantly look for companies with disruptive technology. Our vision sees a risk reward ratio similar to the one we sensed with Intuitive Surgical.
Live Tissue Connect (a wholly owned subsidiary of CSMG Technologies) with their revolutionary medical technology that has the ability to revolutionize the medical industry and represents a “life-changing” opportunity…in many ways.
Medical device makers tend to carry rich valuations based on revenue expectations for many years going forward. We see no other major competitor to Live Tissue Connect. There is an influx of venture capital in medical device companies, and with increased merger activity in this sector, this leads us to believe that Live Tissue Connect (through an investment in CSMG Technologies) offers an extremely attractive investment opportunity for risk-oriented microcap investors.
CSMG Technologies Inc As of 8/1/2007
500 No. Shoreline # 701 no. Shs Out 35m Mkt Cap $24m
Corpus Christi, TX 78471 Float 20m Price .70
(361) 887-7546 Insiders own approx 7-8m shs
OTC BB: CTUM YL .25 YH 1.17
Posted by: cy esp
In reply to: cy esp who wrote msg# 27427
Date:7/25/2007 3:51:15 PM
Post #of 27461
SOIGF - I received a PM asking me to take a look at SOIGH (Strata). They are a heavy oil junior in Canada, more exploratory than BQI. Here are my comments.
Interesting strategy, could be very successful. I would like to see an engineer somewhere in management, they are all geo-scientists and heavy oil is generally an engineering intensive process/project. It seems like a bit of a hole in their project team not to have a senior engineer on board.
Their strategy of acquiring heavy oil leases that could be produced without EOR sounds good, 5-10% recovery initially, at some point in the future, hit the reservoir with heat and get another 40%.
Don't know the reserves per well, so can't estimate capital costs per barrel. Operating costs in the play are low ($5-6/bbl) and credible, unfortunately, so is the oil price. Road tar only gets $20-$35/bbl. If it goes to an upgrader, they get the price improvement, that's why Encana teamed up with Conoco, to capture both profit opportunities.
So Strata has 106k acres, 29 million shares, 4/1000 acre per share. At $0.5/share, you are paying about $500/acre for heavy oil leases. Shell, if I did the math right, paid about $2000/acre for heavy oil leases last year.
I am not sufficiently familiar with the area to comment on the relative quality of the lands to Shell, but it seems to suggest Strata is reasonably priced if not cheap.
I'm not ready to buy in, but I will continue to watch and consider buying.
$10 Million Financing Closed
TORONTO, ONTARIO--(MARKET WIRE)--Jul 24, 2007 -- Canadian Zinc Corporation (Toronto:CZN.TO - News)(OTC BB:CZICF.OB - News) is pleased to report that it has closed the previously announced private placement financing with Sprott Asset Management Inc. for 11,765,000 Units at a price of $0.85 per Unit for total proceeds of $10,000,250. Each Unit consists of one common share and one-half share purchase warrant, each full warrant exercisable at a price of $1.20 per share for two years.
ADVERTISEMENT
As a result of this transaction Sprott Asset Management on behalf of accounts managed by Sprott now owns 11,765,000 shares representing approximately 9.8% of the Canadian Zinc's outstanding shares. Sprott has stated that the securities are being held for investment purposes and depending on market and other conditions, Sprott may from time to time in the future increase or decrease its ownership, control or direction over the shares of Canadian Zinc Corporation, through market transactions, private agreements or otherwise.
At June 30, 2007 Canadian Zinc had approximately $25 million in cash, which following the closing this financing has now been increased to approximately $35 million. The funds will be used for the ongoing surface exploration and underground definition drilling programs on Canadian Zinc's Prairie Creek property.
dutchy1: Know that you are not talking to the lame and the blind. We all have read what David DesLauriers had to say. No one overlooked that piece in the first place. Your constant re-posting does not add anything new.
While I greatly appreciate the many write-ups by David DesLauriers at Resource Investor, it still must be said that he is sitting in a cushy office, looking at his screen and this and that report. I doubt he has an engineering or geologist background.
He is not a guy with extensive, hands on field experience. Contrast that to our president and COO, Michael L. Lee, P.Eng.
Michael is a U. of A. Mechanical Engineering graduate with 25-year career experience in the oil and gas sector, primarily in the exploitation and reservoir engineering disciplines. Michael has worked with some of the industry’s larger companies. His expertise comprises budgeting, execution and management of large capital projects as well as reservoir management. Michael is a founder of the Company and a member of the audit committee.
We also should not expect the underwriting syndicate led by Canaccord Capital Corporation and including Genuity Capital Markets and GMP Securities L.P. to commit in a bought deal to raising C$20 million without satisfaction that AOS has the substance to make this an attractive investment. You can take it for granted that the syndicate has much more in depth knowledge and understanding of the situation than outsiders like us or a David DesLauriers.
The same goes for Ryder Scott Petroleum Consultants when they were called upon to provide an independent third party report on some of AOS’s lands.
Also, the company clearly is not on a promotional binge by management as you might find with some of the less respectable names. No, they are proceeding apace towards a multi year process of resource definition with the attendant asset appreciation.
Lastly, there are other companies using the term oil sands in their name; OSUM Oil Sands and Oilsands Quest come to mind. We have no reason to think that the RI article was meant to single out AOS. All here are aware that time wise AOS is something like 9 – 12 months behind STP. No problem, they will arrive there yet. With the dramatic share price increase of STP, understandably David DesLauriers wanted to toot his own horn and highlight one more of his successful picks. Nothing wrong with that. But that doesn’t make him the ultimate arbiter of AOS’s prospects.
Quoted below from a Resource Investor update report are some further suggested comparisons between AOS and STP that do not receive discussion on this board. When the stock price is rising, starry eyes and rosy projections prevail, but real DD is sidelined.
If any one of these issues are valid, the outlook could change for AOS. I would assume Cannacord would not underwrite this play without doing some research on these issues, but they could be valid concerns. I hope this helps with your DD:
"One note of caution to investors who are going about comparing STP to other oil sands juniors: All sections are not made equal and there are a number of stories branding themselves quite well (oil sands all over their names) and going about being aggressive with their acquisitions as well.
Beware some of these names, scrutinize management, and management’s backers, and where the lands being acquired are located (poor thicknesses, native issues, etc.).
Having scanned the universe of these companies and spoken to many qualified people with specific knowledge of the area and these plays, we don’t see any reason to sell STP to go long a story that appears to be trading at a cheaper valuation presently – there is almost always a reason in every case.
STP has quality management and backers, and only goes for quality sections, not just size for the sake of it. STP will become the play with which the institutions involve themselves."
AOS and STP are both excellent buys,which is why I own them both.
STP is perhaps nearly 9-12 months ahead of AOS in its development program for its oil sand assets.
STP has 80 % of 125 sections or about 64,000 acres net to STP.
AOS has 100 % of 85 sections or about 55,000 acres.
STP has about 10 million more fd shares than AOS.
AOS has existing legacy lite oil production that can be used to pay for G & A operating costs; STP has no conventional production.
AOS has more cash on hand currently.
STP has 2P recoverable oil resources of 312 million barrels in its initial 25 sections that have been quantified todate.Those were valued( discounted 12 % ) at $667 million or about $2.10 per barrel.
AOS has 1.15 billion barrels of bitumen in place on its initial 14,800 acres, which are adjacent to several producing oil sand operations with oil recoveries in the 55-60 % range.......implicit in this statement is the significant probablity that AOS may have in excess of 500 million barrels of recoverable oil in just 1/4 of its oil sand holdings..or at least 350 million barrels at the lower extreme of SAGD recoverable indices.
In gist, there is less risk in STP as they have 17 wells drilled which provides good confidence that their oil sands at Leismer will be substantially producable.
AOS has greater risk , but it has much more leverage than STP, as the potential upside is a 10 bagger from here, should AOS's well core program show that its bitumen meet the production indices of its adjacent neighbours..to say nothing of the potential of its recent OS acquisitions.
Large capital gains always entail taking on the additional risk.
Successful investing requires strong due diligence, so as to reduce to a minimum the downside risks while also selecting so as to maximize upside potential.
In my view, AOS has an outstanding risk/reward profile in the energy sector..
AOS
I had the fortunate opportunity to meet with Sabir and Chad both of AOS at their office in downtown Calgary on Thursday P.M.. I had about a 30 min. meeting and was able to ask a lot of questions. First I am not a paid pumper of this or any stock, I am a retail investor who has a substantial holding in AOS both personally and with an investment club.
First regarding the issue of more land acquisitions. Yes they have acquired more land. They now have 85 total sections of bitumen mineral rights. I was able to see the maps as to where their land holdings are exactly. They have their crown jewel in between 4 working projects already, in the heart of the Athabasca Basin. They have one core hole that has been drilled on this property and that is how Ryder was able to do their estimate assessment. An official news release is forthcoming. Sabir stated that the reason they bought more land was to reduce their risk of not finding an economical project on their land. Risk has been reduced now that they have the rights to 85 sections.
AOS has Greg Hu working with them on the Geological side. He has personally been involved with most of the working projects in the vicinity of AOS’s crown jewel with other companies in the past. He has an unbelievable amount of knowledge regarding this Athabasca formation. An official release regarding Greg in also in the works.
As far as further developments, seismic is set to occur very shortly to determine core hole drilling program set for winter of 2007/2008. Some core holes may be drilled before Christmas.
Sabir stated to me that 10 years ago approx. 40% of oil sands land leases were bought by companies/individuals. Now after the last land auction there is now 4% left. 96% of all available land bitumen mineral rights have been bought up. They are done buying land. The only way they could increase their land holdings is through company mergers.
Private PLACEMENT will probably not happen until Feb.2008. It will obviously be at a higher value than the last offering.
There will be upcoming announcements regarding land now that the buying is completed. Sabir strongly feels that they have at least one major project on their land and possibly 2-3 in total. They are looking and are optimistic about there being a project on their 40 section parcel of at least 30,000 barrels per day over a 30 year period.
The 20 million they have in the bank will be used to fund seismic and core hole drilling and analysis on their 40 section parcel in Q1, Q2 of 2008. If they do an additional PP in Feb/08 they would hope to raise 30 million and that would be used to seismic and core hole drill their remaining 45 sections. Sabir stated that a lot can happen between now and Spring 2008 and their plans could drastically change. Mergers with other small Oilsands players was mentioned. Positive results from their first 40 sections could also change future plans.
I have a prospectus from the company that is up-to-date to the end of June and does not include the recent 20 million PP OR the recent land acquisition. It does include maps of their holdings and other valuable information. If you would like one I have about 30 of them, just email me your postal address and I will mail you one.
They assured me that there is still a lot in the works and that the next 3 months are going to be very interesting. Sabir is very upbeat and positive about what is happening with his company. Overall after seeing exactly where their first 40 sections lie it is in a very promising area. I cannot stress enough how good their 40 sections looks. It is just a matter of getting the core drilling completed. The stock price, once full disclosure to the public occurs regarding their land, will see strong upward movement. I have tried to list all the areas we discussed, but there was a lot discussed in a short time, so I may have missed something. If you have any further questions, please email me and I will try to answer your question or I will try to find out for you.
Regards,
Toonboy
NPE was recommended by an influential investor some months back along with another oil sands issue - STP. The two situations share similarity. Although STP is more advanced in identifying resources, the potential is quite smaller. NPE is perhaps 2 to 3 times larger than STP. Whether or not NPE & STP develop or sell the proven deposits, the share structure should be similar.
There were two analysis of STP from DeLaurentis which I carried further on the STP board under the post heading 'STP AN ASTONISHING VALUE'. This is not to promote the shares of STP which I still own, but rather to draw attention to the potential share value of NPE which has probably greater value. NPE is another chance to own an emerging Oil Sands situation that should ultimately equal or exceed STP's price performance.
NPE is very early stage with potential to identify 2-3 Billion B/O/E. Cashed up with 'Bought Deal Financing', activity should start shortly, but perhaps the 'Big Picture' is especially interesting:
+++ Over 400 Uranium exploration issues have flooded the resource market searching worldwide for Uranium. That cannot happen with Oil Sands. There is a limited area for development and relatively few participants.
+++ Uranium and other metals require intense drilling. Bitumen bearing areas are fairly well identified and the drilling task is less intensive to identify the depth and width of deposits. Oil Sands exploration may have less risk than traditional Oil / Gas drilling as well as Uranium exploration.
+++ Peak oil is coming up quickly or has already arrived and the focus will be upon development of Oil Sands resources. The current resale price for proven resources will rise dramatically as oil prices increase in the years ahead. Oil Sands are highly leveraged to the price of oil and thus holds enormous price appreciation potential.
You have to ask yourself.... Should I participate in this sector? How much should I own within my portfolio? The land mass is limited and 'Peak Oil' is coming up fast. The eyes of the World are focused on perhaps the last long lived oil resource awaiting exploitation. Oil Sands projects will be especially long lived.
This may be one of the last great opportunities to own a major Oil Sands situation at an entry price level before development. Think about it,
"30 solid reasons to consider BQI as a long-term BUY IMO:
- Norwest estimates will be higher then Mgt.'s estimates
- There is alot more oil under other townships = most under the 3 Alberta ones
- Seismic testing is directing mgt. exactly the areas to drill
- Big players have already inquired about BQI activities
- Knowledgeable Mgt. team following a step by step process to uncover more and more oil
- As peak oil hits, BQI is only major player in the entire province of Sask
- Excellent quality stuff - bitumen is of higher saturation than Alberta
- Top oilman in Hopkins - top mergers and acquistions specialist in T. Murray (helped by his consultants)
- Good relationship with locals as well as Sak Gov't (ie: try to employ locals and buy supplies from province)
- Permit lands are absolutely HUGE (acreage-wise) vs. major projects just across the border
- water not an issue near Axe Lake Discovery site (many lakes)
- Anything over $33 per barrel (break-even number) is pure profit for oilsands co's ...right now the per barrel price is some $40 over the breakeven point.
- Sask Gov't terms are going to be slightly more favorable than Alberta's
- Foreign companies are eyeing the oilpatch and making moves to book future barrels and acquire those companies that have found oil. USA must get movin
- Great news on the greenhouse gas emissions front for startups (3 year deal etc.)
- Ext Axe Lake area (mgt's assessment (2.5 bil+)
- 3 contiguous Alberta townships (4.5 bil+)
- Areas outside of Axe Lake (3.0 bil+)
- consistent, coarse-grained sands (no thief zones)
- Base camp(s) in place...airstrip coming
- no shale intervals found / good porosity in Axe Lake Discovery
- thick continuous oilsands (30 - 45 meters thick)
- Average depth makes in situ a viable option (185-200M)
- numerous deep channels THICKENING to the west
- Excellent trading volume - getting noticed by many institutions and mutual funds
- By 2015 Canada will be the 5th largest oil producer in the world...and BQI has the most permit land acreage of any oilsands company in existance.
- BQI went to high schools to present job options/opportunities around what they will likely need over the next 8-12 years. (presentation is on website)
- Consistent in making sure they are in attendence at major oil conferences to rub elbows and get the word out
- Members of the mgt. team willing to chat/answer questions with the average shareholder (ie: JW4 chat's with Hopkins) He did leave his personal office number on one of the docs on their website
- Involved and very considerate of the Clearwater River Dene and the surrounding land (even passed out scholarships to locals)"
Patch International (PTCH)
In Vancouver I talked about 3 junior oil sands companies that I've mentioned in previous editions of the Big Picture Speculator, Southern Pacific Petroleum (STP.V), North Peace Energy (NPE.V) and Patch International (PTCH OTCBB). I also drew attention to Platform Resources Inc. (PFM.V) which will soon be known as Alberta OIl Sands Inc. I am revisiting this group because I see a nice relatively low risk opportunity in them at the moment.
One "big picture" comparison can be made with Oilsands Quest Inc. (BQI - AMEX) which currently sports a market cap of ~US$500 million. They have a management estimated resource of 1.25-1.5+ billion barrels (bbls) of oil in the ground. This works out to US$0.30/bbl. The going rate for oil sands reserves is closer to $1.00/bbl of recoverable oil (reserves carry a higher degree of certainty than resource estimates hence they sell for a higher price). If Oilsands Quest can convince an evaluation firm that they really have a billion and a half barrels of oil in the ground (through drilling and seismic work) for a cost of less than a billion dollars there will be some money made. I think there is even more upside in the following companies:
Southern Pacific Resources (STP.V, STPJF)
Closing Price $3.70
O/S Shares 43,595,096
Market Cap $161,301,855
We like this company very much because it has increased nicely from when we first mentioned it at the low low price of $1.47. More importantly we like the company even more based on recent announcements. This is a junior resource stock that you can take home to mom!
The big news coming from Southern Pacific Resources is the recent acquisition of an 80% interest in 76 sections of oil sands land for $16 million. The proposed $20 million financing to complete the transaction rapidly morphed into a 32 million financing. Southern Pacific was being valued at $130 million with their original 25 section oil sands landholdings. The market is valuing them close to their 156 million bbls of probable and possible reserves based on an August 31, 2006 reserve report. A new reserve report that will incorporate winter drilling is expected soon. Management was expecting the report in June and Stampede Week is looming. I rarely pound the table on stocks (my desktop is made of frosted glass) but this stock is still undervalued after doubling. Although many people suggest selling half of a stock that doubles and enjoying a free ride on the rest, in this case the "free" could cost you a considerable sum.
North Peace Energy (NPE.V, NPCEF)
Closing Price $2.13
O/S Shares 26,156,400
Market Cap $55,713,132
North Peace announced the acquisition of the remaining 30% ownership of its landholdings in the Red Earth area of Alberta. They are paying $20 million for a 30% interest in 2-3.1 billion barrels of discovered resource or under $0.02/bbl!. A bought-deal equity financing of $20 million is scheduled to close on or about June 28, 2007.
Patch International (PTCH)
Closing Price US$1.99
O/S Shares 33,400,000 (FD)
Market Cap US$66,466,000
Patch International has a DeGolyer and MacNaughton resource appraisal of 1.5 billion bbls in place based on data from 3 core holes and having 25% of their land explored. This winter they drilled 22 wells and acquired 60 miles of seismic data. This information will be incorporated into a new resource estimate. Their reserve estimates should increase significantly when this new data is incorporated into the estimate.
While we don't normally touch OTCBB stocks, I think this one will eventually move up the food chain and list on a more respectable exchange.
Posted by: Rawnoc
In reply to: None
Date:7/8/2007 2:05:52 PM
Post #of 27113
ZYNX -- been reporting exploding sales and net income. I think this stock has 5-10 bags written all over it. It's biggest risk is finding a good entry as it's already up over 100% recently, but I think any level under $2 will prove to be an absolute steal. This is a medical device rental company (as such, reported an astonishing 97% in gross profit margins last quarter). ZYNX has a tiny float, small OS, tiny market cap, tiny debt levels, while fast growing sales and profits (with forecasts based on large increases in announced orders for more accelerated growth) with costs staying relatively flat. Due to the great success of their business model, they've recently juiced up the number of their sales staff, and I expected a further leap in sales & profits at a level that is a massive discount in relation to its currently tiny market cap. One thing that probably helps ZYNX a lot is that Medicare helps pay for a some of their customers.
http://www.investorshub.com/boards/board.asp?board_id=2696
TIC.V
Niche Oil Sands Player Positioned for Massive Upside
By David J. DesLauriers
30 Nov 2006 at 10:42 PM GMT-05:00
TORONTO (ResourceInvestor.com) -- Titanium Corporation [TSXv:TIC] which closed today at C$2.61 is a very special story. It is not the simplest situation to follow, so your correspondent will endeavour to give as many details as necessary in order to encourage a proper understanding of the situation, while at the same time sticking to the bottom line – where we believe the share price is heading.
The Business and the Benefits
Titanium Corp. has developed patented processes to produce zircon and titanium from oil sands tailings.
The company already has a contract with Syncrude and has, through its rigorous and time-consuming pilot testing (which is now behind us), patented processes, and superior technical team, put itself into a position to eventually sign on with every other oil sands producer.
So why do oil sands producers want their tailings re-processed to extract these minerals, and how do they benefit?
First, it is estimated that about 5% of potential bitumen production is left behind, and goes into tailings. The TIC process recovers this bitumen, and in this specific case Syncrude should be able to add 5 million + barrels to its annual production figure. Bitumen in this form reportedly fetches about $35 per barrel.
Second, the brigade of greens, tree huggers and environmentalists of all stripes, along with the left-wing media are always looking for reasons to criticize major oil producers. This process really cleans everything up very nicely reducing toxicity levels substantially, while making money for private business. God bless win-win capitalism!
That is the essence of the business – the production of zircon and titanium along with the return of bitumen to the producers. But what about zircon and titanium, and what about the economics?
Titanium and Zircon
Both of these minerals have a wide variety of uses. The story with metals and minerals that RI readers are no doubt familiar with applies here as well - China has a huge demand for both titanium and zircon, and prices have been driving higher.
In point of fact however, the supply/demand picture for these two minerals looks as good as or better than that of many of the more widely followed metals and minerals tracked daily by interested sectoral onlookers. The suggestion is that there is much more room to run, but our analysis will be based around current or discounted prices.
A brief description of the supply/demand fundamentals of titanium and zircon, and the markets for each, can be found in Titanium Corp’s corporate presentation.
Upcoming Catalysts and Timeline
RI projects that Titanium Corp. will begin to cash flow in 2009, and at that time will trade at a multiple of its current price. Despite that, some readers may be wondering why they should start buying now when cash flow is two years away?
The reason is that in Q1 there are a number of news flow catalysts that we believe could double TIC’s share price.
1.
We expect TIC to finalize a feasibility study in Q1 which will take all of its testing into account, and serve as an update to its pre-feasibility study.
2.
With this in hand, TIC should sign a definitive agreement with Syncrude in Q1.
3.
In the first quarter, Titanium Corp. will likely sign an off-take agreement with a major buyer of zircon/titanium which could include a non-dilutive finance package.
4.
Other oil sands producers with whom Titanium Corp. is in discussions could come aboard in Q1.
The preceding four catalysts will likely give the institutions what they need to start taking positions in the company. That will drive the share price much higher.
The Economics and Long-Life Cash Flow
Resource Investor readers are familiar with their correspondent’s penchant for near-term production cash flow situations, but what really makes those great are short paybacks and the possibility of high multiples. TIC has both – in spades.
Baseline Scenario
For about $80 million TIC can build a zircon plant under its agreement with Syncrude which will produce about $40 million per year in cash flow.
With this type of plant the company could also stockpile titanium concentrate which we estimate would add another $10 million to the cash flow number, if sold.
Therefore, based on the timeline that we see therefore, TIC should be cash flowing $50 million in 2009.
Titanium Corp. currently has 55 million shares outstanding and C$22 million in cash. Exercise of warrants would bring in another C$30 million plus. Despite this, and the possibility of project finance by a major mineral buyer, we assume another equity financing to fund a portion of CAPEX, and use 75 million shares outstanding for 2009 calculations.
On that basis we arrive at 66 cents per share of cash flow in 2009 and believe that further agreements with other oil sands producers will see the building of a second plant for 2010, and a third for 2011. Thus, we see cash flow doubling in 2010 and up 50% from the 2010 level in 2011.
Given that growth, the long-life reserves that the company is working with, and comparables, we believe that a cash flow multiple of 15 times is quite reasonable, yielding a C$10 per share price target for TIC in 2009.
But that is the base case.
Upside Scenario
The upside comes from four things. First, the quality of both the zircon and titanium can be upgraded yielding much higher realized prices per ton. Second, our base case assumes that the titanium is not brought on at full-tilt. In reality, for another $40 million TIC could upgrade its zircon plant allowing it to produce titanium, delivering a 1-year payback.
Third, the spectre of shared profits on the bitumen has been raised. Fourth, TIC could easily bring on zircon plants more quickly than the one in 2009, one in 2010, one in 2011 model that we used above.
The upside scenario could see TIC with cash flows of two or three times the amount forecast in our base case. Of course, in that scenario, more dilution would probably be required, but cash flow per share would certainly be at least 50% greater.
In this case, the target would increase to anywhere from C$15 per share in 2009 to C$30 per share in 2011, all without the speculative risk that readers usually bear in the mining sector.
Conclusion
With a market capitalization of just C$140 million, Titanium Corp. is a very cheap piece of paper. At a minimum, a C$10 per share target price for 2009 seems easily justifiable in the base case. The reality is, though, with the machine that has been created here, this story could be as much as C$30 in the 2009-2011 period.
But, whether cash flow per share is 66 cents or C$1.50 in 2009 is not the point - at worst TIC is a quadruple multi-bagger, and at best more than a ten bagger from current levels. Even better, the risk to reward ratio is extremely favourable – and perhaps best of all, if TIC is not swallowed by a larger company, it will become a generational play, still delivering dividends to the grandchildren of those reading this article today.
Titanium Corp. is one to buy now before the catalysts of Q1 take it higher, and just tuck away. Next time you look, you will have not only a multi-bagger, but a share in a generational company that will be producing dividends for the next 50 years!
Largo has 43-101 compliant inferred resources for (ownership%)
508 Million Pounds of Tungsten. (100%) Norther Dancer
151 Million Pounds of Moly. (100%) Northern Dancer
452 Million Pounds of Vanadium (90%) Maracas
360,000 ounces of Gold (25%) Macuchi
Plus Largo continues to hold a 100-per-cent interest in the 60,000-plus-hectare Cotopaxi property (Ecuador), which covers a 60-kilometre strike length that may host the northern extension of the mineralized Macuchi belt. (Thats 15,000 acres).
Moly @ $30+/lb Vanadium @ $20/lb Tungsten @ $11/lb Gold @ $650/oz...... add it up.... Thats a lot of $$$$$ of course recovery rates concentrates vs ferroalloys etcc.... yada yada. Bottom line, this company has some MASSIVE deposits worth tons of dough and its trading at a pittance of where it should be IMO....
Still lots of data to come out on the Maracas drilling that could significantly expand the Vanadium tonnage of that already huge deposit plus incorporate the PGM (Platiunm Group Metals) Keep in mind that the 15MM tonne Vanadium resource was laid out before this latest drilling that is getting the long (72M) 2%+ drill holes. This is a very important statement out of the latest news release......
"The deposit as outlined from historic drilling on which the inferred resource is based, extends 325 metres in length to a vertical depth of 150 metres with true widths ranging from 11 to 100 metres with an average width of 25 metres. The current program has already extended the mineralized zone for a strike length of 400 metres to a vertical depth of 300 metres. Recent drilling results indicate that both the thickness and grade of the zone are increasing with depth."
What do we think that is going to do to the resource size????
Also Aur Resources is currently drilling on the Macuchi gold property and it "is open along strike, as well as at depth, and can be significantly increased by further drilling."
Keep watching, IMO there is some huge news coming down the pipe on the size of the Vanadium resource in terms of tonnage and grade.
As of May 24th, 2007.....
Outstanding Shares: 90,540,547
Options: 6,025,000
Warrants: 27,962,296
Fully Diluted Share Count: 124,527,843
Market Cap @ current $0.69 price....
Current Market Capitilization: $62,472,977
Fully Diluted Market Capitilization: $85,924,212
lurk
508 Million LBS TUNGSTEN 151 Million LBS MOLY
....508,000,000 x $11 per pound = $5.6 Billion worth of Tungsten...
....151,000,000 x $30 per pound = $4.5 Billion worth of Molybdenum...
Option to earn 100% of the $10.1 Billion in the ground resource.
And then the Maracas project in Brazil....
"a current resource of 11.8 million tonnes of open pit material at a diluted mineral resource grade of 1.44 per cent V2O5"
.......11,800,000 tonnes x 1.44% = 169,920 tonnes x 1000 = 169,920,000 kgs of Vanadium....
169,920,000 kgs x $43/kg $7.3 Billion worth of Vanadium.....
Option to earn 90% of the $7.3 Billion resource = 7.3*.9 = $6.6Billion....
Total of $16.7 Billion in the ground metal between the two properties.....
LGO
Reasons:
- Largo has of the highest grade world class deposit of Vanadium & PGM play in the world. Resources is N43-101 compliant at currently stands at 15 million tonnes grading 1.37% Vanadium. Resource is open for expansion.
-Largo has 242 million tonnes of Tungsten-Molybednum located in Yukon, Canada. Almost 1 billion lbs of Moly.
- Solid Management with track record of creating shareholder value!
Currently trading below 0.75 cents. Institutions and management owns 65% of the company.
High upside and great buy for the long-term investors. Outstanding shares is 89.2 millions basic and 139 million fully diluted.
PTCH LGO
maris, the PE and EPS are totally irrelevant at this point and shouldn't even be looked at until they are in production and generating cashflow from operations, something that won't be happening until 2010. Right now just concentrate on the classification of their reserves (resource) and number of bbls....
They sold off their marginal production and are now 100% exploration at this point. I'm not worried at all about the share price right now. The sell in May crowd has put a damper on things but I think when this reserve report comes out and we get a better exchange listing PTCH will be at much higher levels....
off topic.... Jay Taylor doesn't hold a candle to my current pick, LGO.V Check out my last few posts on that thread. Its my largest holding now, with PTCH number two. I figure having a big position in the oil sands, and also one in strategic metals is the place to be. LGO is Moly, Tungsten and Vanadium.... and I'm talking huge deposit. 508 million pounds tungsten, 151 million pounds moly, 400 million pounds vanadium with the potential IMO to double that deposit.... all for an $86 million market cap. Its in the same boat as PTCH. Trading at a ridiculously cheap price compared to its resource base and its peers......
Cheers,
lurk
Source Petroleum Inc.
(OTCBB: SOPO) http://www.standoutstocks.com Source Petroleum Inc. announced recently that production tie in for its gas discovery at Woking, Alberta has been completed and is currently producing gas in excess of 1.7 mmcf/day. Expected production from this well was estimated at an initial rate of 500-1000 mcf/day with NGLs of approximately 20 bbl/mmcf. Source Petroleum is very pleased to announce that production from the first Woking well has exceeded company expectations by well over 700 mcf/day. Source Petroleum's Woking property is a high impact gas play approximately 17 miles east of the Saddle Hills discovery, which has produced over 41 bcf (billion cubic feet) of gas from 4 wells since 2002. The property is anticipated to potentially contain up to 40 - 50 bcf of potential gas reserves from multi zones and in close proximity to existing infrastructure. It is expected that this production will ensure steady long term cash flow for the Company moving forward with tremendous drilling and production upside as well. Source Petroleum holds a 37.5% interest in the Woking discovery.
From McDep.com: "...meanwhile, Norweigan company Statoil (STO)'s purchase announced April 27 of non-producing oil-sand leases appears to value recoverable resources in the ground for a dollar a barrel".
STP: ~$171(US) mil mkt cap, 156 recoverable mmbbls yields a
current valuation of $1.10/recoverable bbl. Assuming the winter drilling program expands this to 500 mmbbls, this would yield a valuation of $.34/bbl.
PTCH: ~$103(US) mil mkt cap, 360 recoverable mmbbls (Dover only) yields a CURRENT valuation of $.29/bbl. A VERY conservative increase to 500 mmbbls, would value PTCH at ~$.21/bbl. Again, this excludes Firebag.
It would appear that PTCH has some catching up to do...
Following a $20 million financing, Patch International, Inc. (OTCBB: PTCH) began beefing its management with the appointment of a new CFO and COO. Now, investors are waiting on the results of drilling reports on two vast fields the company acquired late last year to assess reserves. Patch had indicated earlier that it intends on building a 25,000 barrel per day SAGD plant, which utilizes steam assisted gravity drainage to separate the oil from the sands. SAGD, while a new technology, is one of the proven methods being utilized in the Alberta oil sands.
Patch's SAGD plant is scheduled to go online in 2010, according to information on the Company's website. That coincides with the Enbridge/ExxonMobil pipeline being completed
Reposted from Resource Investor. Interesting comment on PTCH
Posted by A. Geologist on 06 May 2007 @ 03:33 PM
Hi Michael, I am a Geologist working on oil sands projects for the worlds second largest oil company. This company is very bullish on oil sands potential and has recently made some high profile oil sands aquisitions. Just about every day I sit through `oil sands` technical reviews and discussions. Without fail the topic of conversation always swings to present / future technologies that have potential to drive down costs of these projects. Without fail, two company names keep emerging as maybe having the `golden bullet`. One is Petrobank (PBG.TO) and their `ARID` wellbore technology, the other is Lexington Energy Services (LXES.OB) and their new oil sands coring rigs. When a company worth several hundered billion $`s, starts talking about a company with a market cap of only $19mln as potentially having `game changer` technology, you just know that share price fireworks are a real possibility. So even though, I strongly believe that STP`s costs are very likely to be in the $400-500mln range, there is scope to significantly drive these costs down. As a side note - I have screened most of the oil sands juniors. To me the one that realy stands out is Patch International (PTCH.OB). See what you think. Keep up the flow of interesting articles
STP shares fully diluted 54MM
Share price $3.39
Market cap $182MM ($170MM USD)
Resource: 156MMbbls recoverable oil resource (probable and possible)
Trading multiple per bbl oil : US$1.09/bbl (market cap / bbls oil)
PTCH shares fully diluted 48MM
Share price $2.03
Market cap $97MM USD
Resource: 534MMbbls recoverable oil resource (probable and possible)
Trading multiple per bbl oil : US$0.18/bbl (market cap / bbls oil)
So where is the value at?? PTCH at 18 cents per bbl resource or STP at $1.09 per bbl resource. If PTCH was sporting the same multiple as STP we would be trading at over $12 right now. See where this will be once they get on a better exchange.
PRO.V.But I like these excerpts from the RI article:
"Silver Standard’s [TSX:SSO] market capitalization is equivalent to roughly $2/oz of silver in the ground. Right now PRO with only 31 million shares outstanding is trading at less than 50 cents per ounce in the ground.
As that reality begins to find its way onto radar screens, and drills begin to turn resulting in newsflow from 50,000 metres of drilling on other highly prospective projects in 2007, we expect that Pershimco shares could move sharply higher.
Based on the current situation we see fair value somewhere around C$2.50 to C$3, but if all Las Minitas ounces are converted to 43-101 and drill programs at the other properties meet with success, conservative comparables dictate that we could quite literally be looking at C$5, C$6, or C$7 per share in the next 12 months."
PFM
It is now clear in retrospect that PFM already had the conversion to an oil sand producer in mind before mid-2006. It had developed a portion of its conventional oil and gas holdings to the point that they could be very profitably sold ( approx 1/2 were sold for $8 million in early 2007 ) .It had also hired a top-notch engineering firm to identify, from geological mapping and offsetting well logs, the choicest oil sands, and using this information , it made its bids which turned out to be very successful.
That same engineering also provided a commissioned report in which estimates of the oil in place was provided, along with a test well design to add the necessary statistical confidence to the estimates and to bring them to 51-101 compliancy.
By August 2006, PFM had began the process of changing its BOD.... a clear signal that many of us failed to read.
At the same Land Sale, STP also acquired some choice oil sand leases, which subsequent test wells have shown to be quite thick.
It is noteworthy how fast such oil sands can be converted to 2P oil resources. STP began its test well drilling in mid-Dec/06 and just 6 weeks later, it provided updated resource levels for its initial 7000 acres.
The updated estimates varied little from the earlier estimates, a fact that has already been reported on this BB ( primary data sources , aided by seismics , provide sufficient stratigraphic profiles of oil sands ,such that test well drilling can be conducted with great certainty as to the results ).
And so, in 2007, we are seeing a few more juniors converting to oil sands.
There still arnt many to choose from, which is why the better ones ( BCF, STP and PFM ) have been making smart strides of late.
PFM still has the greatest leverage of any, and with an asset development play, that should be a critical variable in your investment decision.
Why is PFM so well leveraged ?
....PFM has existing oil and gas production sufficient to pay its annual G & A expenses for years to come
....., it has considerably lessened the need to dilute its equity by selling some of its conventional production,
.... its oil sands are located near existing infrastructure amongst existing oil sand development projects located in the Athabaska oil sands, which are the thickest in North America ( followed by Cold Lake and Peace River )
...it has accumulated a significant oil sand land base ( 100 % of 26,000 acres versus 80 % of 16,000 acres for STP ) and will add to that land base in the very near future
....first estimates of its oil in place of 1.15 billion barrels, for just the first 14,800 acres , places it amongst near the top re bitumen density
....its oil sands are contiguous, which makes their takeover/development more attractive
...its oil sands are adjacent to those in which very high oil recoveries of bitumen in place ( 50-60 % ) have been achieved
.....it can sell its remaining conventional oil and gas assets, thereby further reducing the need for equity dilution
....it has not yet been pro-active in providing the stock with promotional/investor exposure activites. Those should further boost its share price, with consequent reduced need for equity dilution.
....it has bid on several attractive oil concessions in East Africa and if successful, PFM could develop an international asset profile that will heighten its attractiveness amongst investors
PFM is still below the radar of most investors. Its oil sand asset base is already very substantial at 1.15 billion barrels, and that estimate is likley to double or more, when its full oil sand holdings ( existing and soon to be added ) are fully mensurated.
PBG just paid $1.45 per recoverable barrel in the ground for the remaining 16 % of whitesands that it did not already own.
As we have already seen, PFM's bitumen is much thicker than that of PBG and might therefore be assigned an even higher price for its oil in the ground.
With up to 600 million barrels of recoverable oil in just a portion of its existing oil sand leases, a look-ahead to 2008 suggests that PFM is a superb asset development play that offers multiples of upside from current levels.
ncerning your follow-up, you inadvertently left off THE one aspect about PRO that stands out above all the other juniors in the same statistical categories, upcoming revenue. This is so unique I can't overemphasize the advantage this gives PRO. There are many "juniors" out there with a billion dollar cap that will not see revenue of ANY kind for at least 3-4 years and, yet, here we have 35 mill cap PRO with the Cusi deal with Dia Bras that will, without a doubt, be delivering checks to the PRO coffers in less than a year, to be conservative. 3-5 million per year goes a LONG way to keeping dilution down in the critical years of share price and cap appreciation.
And let's not forget many knowledgeable experts in the field of metals see silver with potential massive upside. Based on the 15/1 gold/silver ratio set back in the day, silver today would be looking like $51.00. Of course you can't apply this anymore, but, the point is revenue from Cusi will only increase as silver looks assured in a secular uptrend
My one little addition would be PRO's share ownership going from 0 institutional support less than a year ago to over 60% now and climbing (from reliable source).
Factors for considering PRO:
1) CEO buying at open market recently
2) Production at Cusi receiving revenue, and Cusi production will increase to 500 tpd, and then to 1000 tpd in 2008
3) Excellent potential at Courville with potentail to become a superpit with multiple millions oz of gold (low cost, large tonnage, long life)and with recent drilling results are good
4) Possibly JV with a major on Courville later this year or next year with engineers from majors on site;
5) Excellent potential at Camila/Melina area with multiple metals and super high values.
6) New acquisition near Camila/Milina with great potential
7) New Frankfurt listing to attract European investors
8) Recommended by Jordan Fund and RI, both with high target prices for PRO
9) Recent financing with high warrant price to indicate confidence of the management
10) Exciting new drilling results from Cusi -- discoverying a large silver system
11) JV with DIB on Cusi with DIB paying the bill
12) Excellent management
PRO has four important groups project
Courville Project
the original flagship project. But its importance is decreasing. Not because it is not a good project, or whatever. It is so only because PRO keeps on getting very exciting projects, some of these projects may have more potential than Courville.
The best description of the Courville project is from the Resource Investor article.
“At the company’s Courville project in Quebec, a development program including a first phase of 5,000 meters of drilling, a 43-101, bulk-sampling and additional drilling will look to expand the present known anomaly stretching 1 km long, 200 m deep, and 200 m wide. It is believed that mineralization averaging 1-1.5 g/t potentially exists along 3-4 kms. If this is confirmed, drilling to test mineralization at depth will be the next step.
At a specific gravity of 2.7 and based on a 30% recoverability factor typical in the Abitibi area, 1 million to 1.5 million ounces of gold are suggested in the present area of mineralization alone.
We think that if drilling confirms what the company’s geological team believe, (and several technical staff on loan to the company from Agnico-Eagle [TSX:AEM] (who is sniffing around) rumblings of comparisons to an Osisko [TSXv:OSK] type super-pit could start to echo in the junior market.”
The only problem is that the recovery rate, according to various sources including last year’s sampling project. The recovery rate should be over 90%. In other words, Courville should have much more gold than reported in the Resource Investor report!
While Resource Investor is ultra conservative on the recovery rate, they are optimistic on the target area as the numbers reported have not been proven yet. It seems that the target area is an educated guess, while not proven, should prove to be reasonably close to reality. PRO will need about least 18 months to prove whether these numbers.
However, so far so good, and even the management seems to agree with assessment as hinted in their recent new release.
If the numbers of Resource Investor is true, Courville should host minimal of 3 M oz of gold to 9 M oz of gold, open pit, low cost, and long life. This is commonly referred to as “superpit”. And a superpit has significant value. Due to its low cost of production, large tonnage, and long life nature, each oz of gold in ground should be valued at least $100 per oz.
This year’s drilling should easily prove Courville have 1 to 3 M oz of gold, and that will translated into $100 M to $300 M US market cap for PRO. As PRO has only about 35 m shares outstanding, this should translate into $3 to $8 per share.
It is likely that PRO will JV with a major, and thus the gold value will be diluted. But at the same time, PRO will not need much money to develop if JV.
Those who doubt the value of Courville, should read the news release at
http://www.stockhouse.ca/news/news.asp?newsid=5039350&tick=PRO
The following paragraph from the news release shows that the management is confident that Osiko’s type project can be found at Courville, and OSK has a market cap of $600+ M
“Assay results to date continue to confirm the geological model outlined in December 2006 - that extensive lower grade gold corridors contain higher grade but narrower gold zones (refer to news press release dated January 18, 2007). Utilising this type of geological model it is not essential to find higher grade narrow gold veins, particularly if the mineralization is near surface. It is more important to deliver constant grades over substantial thicknesses for potential open pit-type mineral resource scenarios. This is consistent with other active gold projects in the Abitibi Greenstone belt. As an example Osisko's (TSX VENTURE: OSK) Canadian Malartic project that grades between 1.14 and 1.20 g/t gold over hundreds of meters.”
If Courville has the same value as OSK, PRO should be around $15 to $20 if it can keep the current share structure. It is an excellent wait for 2007-2008 drilling project to be completed. Even if PRO dilute 15 M shares to 50 M shares, PRO should be $12 for Courville alone if it has the same market cap as OSK.
Cusi project
This is a JV with DIIB with PRO having 30% of value eventually. Recently, a large silver system has been identified with excellent drilling results. The 5/2/2007 news release brought a lot of attention on the Cusi project:
http://www.stockhouse.ca/news/news.asp?newsid=5486228&tick=PRO
The following paragraph shows how exciting the Cusi project is, and significant implication of the Cusi project to PRO:
Mr. Jean Lafleur, Director and Technical Advisor, states "(...) Having now observed the mineralized system underground at San Miguel and La Bamba, there is a clear indication of a significant silver system that could contain a large tonnage potential using combined narrow higher grade veins and wider lower grade haloes. Dia Bras and Pershimco are actively moving forward with the exploration program at La Bamba and San Miguel with over 10,000 m of drilling planned to delineate higher quality mineral resources in 2007, to a depth of nearly 500 m below the topographic surface".
One highlight of drilling results is
"3,780 g/t silver intersected in surface drilling at La Bamba Pit".
That is fantastic result! Near surface, exceptionally high grade, suitable for open pit.
Las Minitas Project
Currently, Las Minitas has about 1.5 M oz of gold equivalent with 43-101 immediately. As Las Minitas has 100+ m oz of silver, or about 2 M oz of Au in equivalent. PRO owns 75%, and it means, PRO now owns 1.5 M oz of gold.
Las Minitas has the potential for hosting 11 M oz of gold in equivalent in historical resource. That will add another significant resources and potential to PRO. This is like another Courville, except now we have 1.5 M oz of Au in 43-101.
If we just assign $20 for each oz of Au to 43-101 1.5 M oz of gold, this will add $30M value to PRO, or about $.88 to the stock price (currently at $.86). And that is low. So, we should expect PRO trading at $1.80 very soon. However, the potential for Las Minitas is so grear that, this deal should add $3 on top of the existing PRO share price soon.
This is a very big, and growing target – and the higher-grade portions are easily targeted for bulk-sampling to pay for development.
From Raven Gold website at
http://www.ravengold.com/projects/lsmintas.php
"Historical information regarding Las Minitas indicates three mineralized zones of interest that contain a total potential of 22 million tons of ore grading 20 oz/t silver and 0.08 oz/t gold. Metallurgical testing indicates that recoveries of 90% for both silver and gold may be achievable by cyanidation alone."
22M tons x 20 oz/ton silver = 440 M oz of silver = 8.8 M oz of Au equivalent potential, and out of 8.8 M, 2 M oz of Au proven already.
Also, note that 20 oz per ton, each ton is about US $280, that is high grade.
Raven lost the project due to its inactivity, and now PRO takes over the Las Minitas project. Furthermore, PRO not only takes over the original Las Minitas project, it also takes over the surrounding area, a very large area, too. Thus, the potential for the new enlarged Las Minitas is even better.
Las Minitas project should add $2 to $3 value to PRO immediately. PRO will pay $10M dollars over the next few years (including payment to TRGD and drilling), and 750K shares to TRGD as payment. The total payment is 10 M + PRO shares. As PRO is expected to grow significantly, TRGD get the best deal from PRO shares. (If PRO is $10 next year, TRGD gain $7.5M. With the kind of growth PRO is receiving, there is a good possibility PRO will be $5 to $10 next year)
Camila/Melina and 7 other Concessions
Not many people follow Camila and Melina, but they actually are significant projects with lots of potential. In fact, they might have more value than some other PRO projects in the future as observed by geologists (note that this is comparing with Courville and Cusi, two very outstanding projects). In other words, these projects have exceptional value, just few people know much about them. As they have not been developed, no data can be reported to support the speculation.
Recently, PRO has also acquired several news projects near Camila and Melina, see the new release on 3/28/2007.
http://www.stockhouse.ca/news/news.asp?newsid=5017869&tick=PRO
For example, the Vicky concession:
- Vicky Concession - historic sampling in the shaft outlined 1% to 7% Copper; whereas 50 to 100 tonne bulk samples gave up to 19.6 g/t Gold, 424 g/t Silver, 26% Copper and 1.2% Zinc;
These results are simply fantastic! 26% copper is about 572 lb of copper per ton, and that is more than US $1,000 per ton for copper alone (assume only $2 per lb).
Other important factors:
A) PRO has a extremely aggressive drilling program for 2007. Probably the most aggressive drilling program among juniors. The PRO people are competent, and they are able to maintain those drilling program even though other juniors having great difficulties in finding drilling teams for their projects.
B) PRO knows how to operate in Mexico, and few companies can do so. Recently Raven gave up Las Minitas as a result, and PRO was able to pick up this wonderful property.
In summary, PRO should go to $2 to $3 very soon due to the above excellent news concerning excellent properties, aggressive drilling programs, excellent drilling results from Cusi and Courville, and immediate revenue from Cusi. So, PRO should be 2-3 bagger very soon.
The long term target (3 to 4 years?) is $30 or more, or about 30 bagger from the current price.
Risks:
There are always risks with mining companies. Some include
1) metal price;
2) Too many excellent properties. Other companies suffer from lack of good properties, but PRO may have too many good properties that they may not be able to develop these at the same time. (Thus, it is possible that PRO will JV with a major on Courville and focus on Las Minitas and Camila/Melina instead, but this is completely wild guess at this time).
3) Dilution. As PRO acquire new properties, they will need money, thus dilutation is coming. But the current share structure is so tight, even it dilute to 50 M, the share structure is still excellent and tight
stp is considered the standard by which pfm is compared.
think about this.
stp has 80 % of 150 million barrels on its 16,000 acres for just 2.5 million barrels per share.
pfm has 100 % of 625 million barrels on its 14,500 acres for over 15 million barrels per share.
pfm has 100 % of over 25,000 acres surrounded by 3 major oil sand projects and will add another 10,000 to 15,000 acres next week.
they have not identified their land position because it is so valuable.
no insiders have been selling.
pfm have acquired their land by quiet research, selecting only the best high density land available over the past year.
everything will be disclosed by the agm on tuesday may 28.
that means next week will see more big news developments that will push the oil assets to over 3 billion barrels
SUBJECT: A 10 + Bagger with Strong Certainty Posted By: TheRock17
Post Time: 5/17/2007 18:14
« Previous Message Next Message »
It is evident from many of the posts on this board, that most posters dont have much of a clue as to what their investment here means in terms of future value. And so, tommorow or next week they will sell out, not even realizing that this asset play has yet to make its bigger move.
Credit Suisse has provided estimates of EV ( EV= Market cap + Debt ) for oil sand stocks over the past 2-3 years ( along with an excellent summary of oil sands themselves ), and these can be viewed here......
http://www.altanet.or.jp/CreditSuisse.pdf
As can be seen from this table on p12, the valuations of oil sand stocks has been increasing recently, and values in excess of $2 per boe for oil in the ground have been recorded up to 2006.
This week, PBG ( $25.50 /85 million shares ) paid $120 million to acquire the remaining 6000 acres ( 16 % ) of its undeveloped Whitesands bitumen that it did not already own.
That amounted to $26,000 per acre.
Whitesands has 39,500 acres and is being tested from the McMurray Formation by SAGD, much the same as PFM.
Note, from the PBG website, that the updated resources for Whitesands is 2.6 billion barrels of bitumen in place.
That computes to about 65 million barrels of bitumen per 1000 acres.
Today, for its initial 14,700 acres of oil sands ( my guess is very close to PBG's ) PFM has 1.15 billion barrels of bitumen.
That computes to 80 million barrels of bitumen per 1000 acres.....significantly higher than that of PBG.
PBG just paid $26,000 per acre for that bitumen.
PFM has 25,800 acres of higher density bitumen which, even at $26,000 per acre, amounts to an asset value of $675 million.
That asset will be fully delineated within a year and it will cost only $10-$15 million to do so.
3 years later when it will be producimg, it will be worth $250,000 per acre..or well over $5 billion.
Even better, PFM is closing in on more oil sands land very close to its current premium land. That acquisition should put PFM on equal footing with PBG in terms of acreage and likley more in recoverable oil, putting it in the same league as UTS.
As we all should know, conventional oil and gas production is on a decadal and permanent decline in N America, including Canada. Its costing more and more to replace such conventional supplies, which is why so many junior oils are facing a bleak future, as finding costs per boe are rapidly increasing, with consequent negations on their debt to equity ratios.
The only source of abundant new supplies is the oil sands, and , as conventional production continues to decline, the oil sands will continue to increase in value...ie the 3-fold increase over the last 3 years is a real trend and not an anomaly.
This is why getting in on the ground floor of an emergent oil sands play makes good investment sense.
PFM is rapidly developing into a premium asset enhancement play that is bound to attract cash rich suitors over the next 1-2 years.
When it does, we will be getting at least $1 per recoverable barrel and perhaps double that.
Thats the first 10 bagger .
Who knows, perhaps PFM already has its sugar daddy already lined up...
EXEL.CNQ
EXEL on the cnq has double the oil in place than STP..just a heads up see their news release
Excelsior Energy Ltd (C-EXEL) - News Release
Excelsior receives Hangingstone bitumen estimate
2007-03-27 06:23 MT - News Release
Shares issued 27,556,028
EXEL Close 2007-03-26 C$ 0.44
Mr. David Winter reports
EXCELSIOR RELEASES DEGOLYER AND MACNAUGHTON'S PRELIMINARY BITUMEN IN PLACE ESTIMATE FOR THE HANGINGSTONE HEAVY OIL PROJECT IN THE ATHABASCA OILS SANDS AREA
Excelsior Energy Ltd. has received from DeGolyer and MacNaughton an audit of geological mapping and a preliminary determination of bitumen in place on Excelsior's Hangingstone property, near Fort McMurray, Alta.
For the report, DeGolyer audited the geological mapping of the property, which covers 39 sections (24,960 acres), and determined the net sand thickness with bitumen saturation greater than 70 per cent and average porosity greater than 30 per cent. DeGolyer estimated that 1.61 billion barrels of bitumen in place may be contained in gross oil sands thicker than 30 metres. Furthermore, DeGolyer estimated that 2.49 billion barrels of bitumen in place may be contained in gross oil sands greater than 15 metres. Upon earning, Excelsior's 52.5-per-cent working interest share of estimated bitumen in place will be 849 million barrels and 1.3 billion barrels bitumen in place, respectively.
The bitumen in place is contained in four mapped pods, which will be the focus of the 24-well evaluation program to delineate a core area for an SAGD pilot project. A 137-kilometre seismic acquisition program is under way on the Hangingstone property.
We seek Safe Harbor.
PRO.V
With this news, PRO now have
1) About 1.5 M oz of gold equivalent with 43-101 immediately. As Las Minitas has 100+ m oz of silver, or about 2 M oz of Au in equivalent. PRO owns 75%, and it means, PRO now owns 1.5 M oz of gold.
2) Las Minitas has the potential for hosting 11 M oz of gold in equivalent in historical resource. That will add another significant resources and potential to PRO. This is like another Courville, except now we have 1.5 M oz of Au in 43-101.
3) If we just assign $20 for each oz of Au to 43-101 1.5 M oz of gold, this will add $30M value to PRO, or about $.88 to the stock price (currently at $.86). And that is low. So, we should expect PRO trading at $1.80 very soon. However, the potential for Las Minitas is so grear that, this deal should add $3 on top of the existing PRO share price soon.
4) PRO now has 5 company maker projects -- Courville, Camila, Melina, Las Minitas, and Cusi, each has the potential to become multi-million oz of Au in equivalent. Furthermore, Cusi is production now with several projects that will be in producton soon, and looks like Courville will be JV with majors as they are on site for sometime.
With low floats, so many excellent projects, and with 43-101 1.5 M oz gold in equivalent, I am looking for even bigger return in 4 to 5 years, probably in $30 to $40 range, a 30 bagger.
I guess PRO will make announcement soon to explain the good deal of Las Minitas tod
that is wrong.
PFM has no debt, as the $3-$4 million extant at Q1 was paid off as part of the $13 million, raised by the sale of some of its assets for $8 million, and the recent $5 million equity raise.
We are now debt free, with a strong residual cash position, and with remaining existing production of about 170 boe/day and an attractive Bakken oil asset in Manitoba.
Volume | |
Day Range: | |
Bid Price | |
Ask Price | |
Last Trade Time: |