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My understanding is we have European approval for the generator only,and not the handpiece/disposable instrument.If we get approval for the handpiece instruments then LTC can be performed on patients in Europe?Anyone know if this is the situation at the moment?
Poor Thais cash in the family jewels
Reuters | Friday, 29 February 2008
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Thailand's sluggish economy and record gold prices have prompted many elderly Thais to cash in family heirlooms as they struggle to make ends meet.
"This is family jewellery," said Thai-Chinese grandmother Pannee Sae Kaow, standing outside a gold shop in Bangkok's Chinatown clutching a tarnished gold necklace given to her years ago by her mother.
"The economy has left me no choice but to sell it," the 78-year-old said forlornly. "Everything is more expensive and it's tougher to live in a time like this. We're not rich people."
Like many of Thailand's 65 million people, Pannee, who makes just 6,000 baht ($NZ247) a month from a small dumpling stall, is not alone in battling soaring inflation stemming from high oil prices and an economy laboring after two years of political strife, including a 2006 coup.
"I have to work so hard to keep paying my bills," said Jureerat Pongkum, who works part time at a Bangkok coffee shop.
"Prices keep going up but the quantity of food or things you get is still the same. Our pay is still the same," the 24-year-old said as she wiped down a counter top.
"This is my first job after college but it's not going to be enough. I'm looking for more part-time work," she said.
"What can you do? You have to eat and live your life."
The new government is talking up the economy, saying major public infrastructure projects in the pipeline will boost growth from a sickly 4.7 per cent in 2007 towards 5.5 per cent.
Consumer confidence has started to tick up after two years of steady decline, but the domestic gold market – one of the more unusual benchmarks of Thailand's economic health – does not suggest a rosy outlook.
DISCOUNT SAVIOUR
Dealers say gold purchases are simply too expensive for most Thais and so dealers are melting down hocked jewellery and selling it abroad for gold value.
The profit they make is from the government-regulated five per cent discount to market prices they are allowed to pay customers selling rings, bracelets and necklaces.
"There aren't many customers at the moment – except for those coming to sell," said 40-year-old gold trader Montree. "Many people can't afford gold so we now ship it to elsewhere in Asia."
International gold prices are hovering at a record high of around $955 due to strong demand from investors seeking a safe haven from a weak US dollar and fears of a looming recession in the United States.
According to Commerce Ministry figures, Thailand exported 76 tonnes of gold in 2007 – an increase of almost 50 per cent from the previous year – suggesting the trend to cash in jewellery has been going on for at least a year or so.
"In just one day last month, we exported up to 500 kgs. How crazy is that?," gold shop owner Jinda said. "Since the gold price rose over $800 an ounce, more people are selling it."
Albert Cheng, head of the World Gold Council's Far East office, said Thailand showed a net investment demand of 18 tonnes of gold in 2007, far below India's and Vietnam's 56 tonnes, but near China's 24 tonnes.
"In this part of the world, people buy gold as an investment and they trade on it," he said. "Particularly in Thailand, people like to pay their money and bring the gold home. When prices go up they sell it and take the money."
"It's normal for Thai people to have gold jewellery, in particular in rural villages. That is how they accumulate wealth. When they need the money they just pawn or sell their jewellery."
"I am not surprised they are selling because nowadays it is a very good price. But everytime we see a dip, people come back."
GOLD LEAF GONE?
The slow economy and sky-high gold are also accelerating a cost-cutting trend at Thailand's Buddhist pagodas and statues, now more likely to glitter with synthetic fiber than gold leaf.
"Gold leaf is my only family business but I can't do it any longer," said Sureeporn Panichrum, a lifelong gold-leaf trader watching her business go to the wall.
"Raw materials are way too high and people just don't bother to use real a gold leaf any more," she said.
Synthetic gold leaf may not shimmer like the real thing, hammered for hours into an incredibly thin film, but at only a third the price, it is a simple decision for even the most devout of Buddhists, she said.
Temples, too, are switching to acrylic paint.
"Everything that used to be gilt is now yellow acrylic paint," said temple craftsman Jullanop Nark-kaew, 54. Paint cost a quarter of the real thing, he added.
"It's sad. There's not much gold leaf left to see in temples these days," he said.
Soaring gold prices also appear to have caused a rash of gold shop heists, with newspapers reporting one hold up a week.
Many shop-owners have taken to putting up iron bars, hiring undercover guards or even keeping a gun under the counter where previously there was only a calculator and a pair of scales.
"Sometimes it scares me when I'm in the shop alone," said one female store owner who declined to be named.
Are you in the LFG industry?Is there a lot of competition?
CALGARY, Feb. 25 /CNW/ - Connacher Oil and Gas Limited (CLL - TSX) announced today that it has entered into a pooling of 38.5 sections (24,640 acres) of contiguous oil sands rights situated south of Fort McMurray in the Halfway Creek/Hangingstone East area of northeastern Alberta with Alberta Oilsands Inc. ("AOS"). The pooling will result in the joint ownership, evaluation and potential development of any resources which may be identified by the evaluation program. There can be no assurance that developable resources will be identified from evaluation programs.
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The agreement provides for the joint operatorship during the initial two years of the evaluation program, with Connacher the designated operator of any subsequent evaluation program(s) and of any identifiable development program(s) which may occur. The area is amenable to the application of steam assisted gravity drainage technology ("SAGD") should developable prospects be identified.
The first year's seismic and core hole drilling programs are currently underway and are anticipated to progress throughout the remaining winter months in 2008, with preliminary results expected later this year.
In conjunction with the pooling, an equalization payment which recognizes sunk costs and the disproportionate acreage contributions by the two parties will be made by Connacher to AOS.
The pooling provides Connacher with access to a significant increase in Connacher's contiguous gross land base in the region and it is anticipated it will result in economies in the evaluation of the potential of the region. Connacher's experience in accelerated delineation and development at its Great Divide project could be applied at Halfway Creek/Hangingstone East if the joint evaluation program proves successful.
I dont know anything but I wonder if Waste Management was the problem with the landfill gas deal.I wonder if they see CTUM as a competitor rather than a partner.If CTUM goes back to the gas business I hope they can do deals with cities and counties who directly control their rubbish dumps.
Bill Miller.
Investors seem to be obsessed just now over the question of whether we will go
into recession or not, a particularly pointless inquiry. The stocks that
perform poorly entering a recession are already trading at recession levels.
If we go into recession, we will come out of it. In any case, we have had only
two recessions in the past 25 years, and they totaled 17 months. As long-term
investors, we position portfolios for the 95% of the time the economy is
growing, not the unforecastable 5% when it is not
Are you saying you could end up getting 4cents a quarter dividend for a stock you paid 4cents for?
New board members should note that CTUM has protection against a hostile buyout.
Good one .eom
Noble Financial is a privately-held, full-service capital markets firm driven by what is often overlooked by others. A mission intent on uncovering the value embedded in the orphaned, undiscovered or misunderstood company. A focus on converting market inefficiencies into profit opportunities. And an uncompromising conviction for delivering a quality product.
NOBL (noble international investments) look very "institutional" to me.I think CTUM is starting to appear on the institutional radars.
I looked at Noble International Investments website.They are into healthcare/medical technology big time.No mention of CTUM there yet.They wouldnt take a position before they tout it to their clients would they?
Would be great if this activity was the result of Europeans buying because they know deals are about to be announced.
Did you ever hear of a fund manager like this?Sorry,I dont know which fund.
He writes:
The fourth quarter of 2007 continued what has been one of the strangest and most difficult years for me. In August of 2007 several banks indicated there were significant problems with sub-prime mortgages and other risky loans. Very often in years when there are earnings disappointments, companies will announce them in September and October... We prepared for these earnings disappointments and a bear market by going net short in September and October. However, September 2007 was a solid month up ... and October saw the prices finish near their highs. ... December was a tough month. There we managed to lose money on the long and short side. ... One consultant told me in November 2007 that I sounded frustrated the same way I did throughout 2002. He was right: 2007 felt a lot like 2002. ... I would say that volatility in 2007 felt even greater than it did in 2002 and that 2007 was the year of incredible reversals. ...
As I write now, the US stockmarket is in a bear market and the economy likely is heading into a recession. We have been in this situation in the past and we do have a clear game plan for what to do. Our average position is a bit smaller and we adhere to our stopping positions even more tightly. ...What we are attempting to do is a bit like sailing a boat in a hurricane... I am not pleased with the performance in 2007 (i.e. 7%). In the end, our percentage return beat external benchmarks, but came nowhere close to the internal benchmark I set. My contract with you says I am allowed to charge a 1% management fee on assets and a 20% incentive fee on profits, but I cannot in good conscience charge these fees for 2007. For 2007, I have charged a 1/2% management fee and no incentive fee.
Trub I think there is no minimal cost solution.One hundred yards isnt the problem.The trees are.If they are really big,you are screwed.But basically you need to get your router as high as possible and sending through a window and not a wall.And you need an external antenna,plugs into your puter USB,and get it as high as possible also in a window.
why they hunt for heavy oilsand in ca?
ISRG fourth quarter revenue $190 mil.So they are heading for annual revenue about $800 mil?Is this doable for CTUM?Maddog?Anyone?
Oh man that would be nice to see CTUM in that neighbourhood.As I understand it,ISRG sells robot surgical systems?Just how big can the market be for that sort of thing?They must have a hell of a big profit markup to justify that shareprice.
Free utility condenses Windows Vista from 15GB to 1.4GB. I don't recommend using Vista, but if you must, read this wonderful story from Computerworld.
January 30, 2008 (Computerworld) A Croatian college student has created a utility that installs a seriously stripped-down Windows Vista, saying the heft of Microsoft Corp.'s biggest desktop operating system is just too big to believe.
"Who can justify a 15GB operating system?" asked Dino Nuhagic, a fifth-year student from Split, a Croatian city on the Adriatic. Not Nuhagic, or the uncounted users who have turned to his creation, vLite.
The free program lets users pick and choose which Vista components, hot fixes, drivers and even language packs are installed, then builds a disk image that can be burned to a DVD for unattended installation of the operating system.
"Why did I do it? Well, it's performance and work environment," Nuhagic said when asked why he came up with vLite. "Performance, that's easy to explain. The less things running, the more responsive the OS. But the environment part is where it gets down to personal preference."
Those preferences include options for leaving out virtually every component of Windows Vista, from the minor -- such as the bundled screensavers -- to the major, such as the firewall or Universal Plug and Play.
Some vLite users, in fact, have made it a contest of sorts to come up with the puniest-possible installation package for the operating system. While Microsoft recommends that users set aside 15GB of hard-disk space to install its pride and joy, Nuhagic's fans boast of squeezing it into an image file as small as 515MB that takes up just 1.4GB on the hard drive.
One user reported condensing Windows Vista Home Basic into a 526MB .iso file and installing it in a virtual machine that used just 1.3GB of drive space. "It worked well inside the virtual machine and since I have 1GB of RAM on the host I guess the little Vista would work well," said amocanu.
Nuhagic didn't come right out and say it, but he hinted that he -- like more critical users and pundits -- thought Vista was bloated and could use some reducing. "To be frank, I don't need 90% of Windows. But that 10%, which guarantees that you can run [the] majority of games out there, is what is worth isolating."
Crafting vLite wasn't easy, he said. But the time Nuhagic spent on its predecessor, nLite, which similarly squeezes Windows 2000 and Windows XP, paid off in spades. "Since I had four years of experience with tampering [with] older Windows, it was a lot easier than nLite," Nuhagic said of the development of vLite. "Also, it was easier than in XP because Vista does not have the old-style installation. It doesn't install components one by one, but simply extracts the image. Where XP would fail during install because a certain file was missing, that issue is not present in Vista."
Even though vLite features a simple graphical interface that lets users remove a component with a click, Nuhagic warned that the utility isn't designed for the average user: "Because of certain possible compatibility issues with the programs out there [that] expect full Windows, I'd recommend [it] only to users [that] want exactly that kind of tool. In other words, I would not recommend it to someone who installs their OS once every few years. But if you do it every few months, then it's a must." ...
Microsoft knows of the tools -- Nuhagic said the company has contacted him in the past about possible employment -- but it's done little to quash the condensing. When asked whether it had any thoughts on vLite, a company spokeswoman e-mailed a lukewarm warning.
"Microsoft does not recommend using any tool to strip out applications from Windows Vista prior to installing it on your system, as it may affect your ability to download future Windows Updates and Service Packs, and may cause your system to become unstable," she said.
But vLite's users praised Nuhagic's efforts with blunter language. "Thanks for spending your time making our OS less bloated," said one.
VLite 1.1 can be downloaded from Nuhagic's Web site.
How big traders manipulate the market: Remember Ben Stein's assertion about big traders? See yesterday's column. Reader Jimmy Wilkes emails me early this morning:
Any doubt you might have had about the market being manipulated should have been answered yesterday. After sitting for most of the day, the Dow took off like a rocket after the Fed announced a .50 drop in the Fed discount rate and ran up for about 200 points. About 50 minutes after the Fed announcement a rumor hit the market that "Expectations of more downgrades of bond insurers like Ambac and MBIA is likely" and the Dow dropped like a rock for about 300 points. 100 big Dow contracts short @ 3:07 PM would have netted you a cool $750,000 by market close. The big boys know how to print money.
How the stockmarket works.
Once upon a time in a village, a man appeared and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10 each.
The villagers seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest, and started catching them.
The man bought thousands at $10 and as supply started to diminish, the villagers stopped their effort. He further announced that he would now buy at $20. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again.
Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms. The offer increased to $25 each and the supply of monkeys became so little that it was an effort to even see a monkey, let alone catch it!
The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $50 ! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would
now buy on behalf of him.
In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers. "Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected. I will sell them to you at $35 and when the man returns from the city, you can sell them to him for $50 each."
The villagers rounded up with all their savings and bought all the monkeys. Then they never saw the man nor his assistant, only monkeys everywhere!
Now you have a better understanding of how the stock market works.
And then there is this
Back in his mid-1980s heyday, Peter Lynch used to hate Mondays. Monday, you see, was the day the stock market was most likely to go down; according to research Lynch had compiled, between 1955 and 1985, it dropped by a cumulative 1,500 points just on that one day.
Lynch, who for 12 years ran the Magellan Fund at Fidelity Investments with spectacular results, had a simple theory as to why this was the case: negative thinking.
"On the weekend," he once told me, "everyone becomes an amateur economist." Investors, he believed, would read the weekend newspapers, filled with their articles of doom and gloom, and become filled with doom and gloom themselves. Naturally, after stewing over the weekend, their first instinct when the market finally opened Monday was to sell.
Sigh. This is a weekend newspaper, and I'm about to write a pretty gloomy column. Sorry.
On the other hand, I don't see how you can avoid a certain amount of gloom given the week we've just had - and its implications for the future. Yes, things calmed down Thursday and Friday, but the early part of the week was just awful. On Monday, U.S. markets were closed for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, but all over the world, stock markets were in free fall. On Tuesday, the Dow Jones industrial average dropped 464 points at the opening and closed with a loss of 128 points. On Wednesday we had the so-called whipsaw rally - from a 300-point morning deficit, the market swung to a nearly 300-point gain. Even with the gain, a 600-point swing does not exactly inspire confidence. It inspires fear.
Today in Business with Reuters
Undoing rogue trader's deals may have rattled German markets
Wealth inspires doubt
An era of illusions
Click here to find out more!
Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve announced an emergency rate cut of three-quarters of a point, a move that smelled an awful lot like panic. Economists were debating whether the U.S. economy was nearing a recession or already in one. Société Générale revealed that a rogue trader had cost it €4.9 billion, or $7 billion. The New York State Insurance superintendent sought a bailout plan for the major bond insurers, fearing disaster if they failed. Housing prices continued to drop. All the things that the bears have been predicting were suddenly coming to pass.
"This is nothing like I've ever seen," said Peter Bernstein, author of several best-selling books on business and financial markets - and a man who has pretty much seen it all. Normally, he said, bear markets are triggered when stock values get out of hand, as was the case when the technology-stock bubble burst in 2000. But not this time. The market is in trouble because the larger economy is in trouble. "The collapse of credit is what is driving this recession," he said.
Daniel Alpert, the managing director of Westwood Capital, wrote: "In past debt debacles, and other market crises, the affected assets have been things like commercial real estate, farmland, tech stocks and bank shares. This time around, along with the stock market, it is people's homes, the repricing of which literally hits us where we live."
Stephen Roach, Morgan Stanley's former chief economist - he is now in charge of Asia for the firm - told me that private consumption in recent years amounted to 72 percent of gross domestic product, far higher than the 66 percent it had been just a few years before.
David Rosenberg, the North American economist for Merrill Lynch, and the author of a devastating report on the state of the economy, said that "when you look at private sector debt that was over and above what can be explained by GDP, you are talking about $6.5 trillion beyond the economy's capacity to handle that debt." That debt will have to be either written off or paid back. People will have to stop spending, he said; they'll have no other choice. Since their homes are decreasing in value, they can no longer borrow against them. And as they spend less, corporate earnings will fall, and that will inevitably cause the stock market to continue falling. "The problems are deep, widespread and intense," he said. He said he didn't expect a rebound anytime soon.
Is that gloom and doom enough for you? More to the point, are you - are all of us - ready to face a world in which your two biggest assets, your savings and your home, don't automatically go up?
I don't think any of us are really ready for that. Just as individuals during the housing bubble assumed their homes could only go up - and they could therefore borrow against them with impunity - so has the larger society assumed that rising asset values would take care of everything. What the events of this week suggest is that maybe they won't.
Goldman Sachs announces that they have discovered two rogue traders who have by passed their risk management systems and have a secret trading gain of around $18.6 billion. Both of the 26 year old janitors have been given honorary Princeton PhDs in mathematics and have been moved from the furnace room in the basement to corner offices on the trading floor. When interviewed, Jean Paul Arristide, the only janitor identified so far, admitted that his cousin who worked for Societe Generale in Paris, had emailed him from a trading station and as a joke showed him how to enter orders. Mr. Arristide began playing on a trading computer on the graveyard shift during his breaks, taking the opposite positions to his cousin. Mr. Arristide thought he was just playing around and did not realize that the trades were actually being executed. "I was just trying to annoy my cousin by doing the exact opposite...as a kind of funny joke!" "Then I would email him that he was, how do you say... une tete de pee-pee stupide.. a stupid dick head!" "Je m'appologise..c'est dommage."
A spokesman for Goldman explained that they have yet to identify the second roque trader who is thought to be hiding in the duct work of the HVAC systems in their New York head office.
In a separate news release Goldman indicated that the profits from the unauthorised trading would be added to the bonus pool for 2008. "It is a good start to the year, and we would like to thank Mr. Arristede for his fine janitorial work."
Insurance companies reimburse hospitals based on the type of treatment provided, not the length of your stay. As a result, “Many hospitals pay their physicians bonuses based on how quickly they move patients out the door,
Is this true?
Will LTC help doctors move the customers?
If you are holding CGHI maybe you should change your handle to downandpuking.
I agree many here over expect the results from FDA approval.I disagree the company "under-delivers".My understanding is that they are beginning to manufacture and they are talking business with interested parties and that contracts and revenues will follow in due course,in Europe.
Why has there got to be a problem?What is so hard to understand about the FDA not performing and not delivering?And you yourself posted a link to FDA "corruption."
If LTC is successful in Europe we wont need the FDA.They will have to give their approval simply so they dont look like incompetents.
Can Mr Drips deliver solid returns and not just a drop in the bucket?
Nope.Nobody knows why PTCH is getting killed worse than its peers.Be carefull.There may be cockroaches.
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."
Ha ha.THMG up 33% on turnover of 180 shares?Lol.
Hyperdynamics' CEO Reports Valuable Progress and Superb Positioning for 2008
Tuesday January 15, 7:00 am ET
First 3-D Seismic In History Specified for Offshore Guinea
HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Hyperdynamics (AMEX:HDY - News) today announced that its board of directors has set its annual shareholder meeting, regarding its fiscal year end June 30, 2007, for Wednesday, February 20, 2008 at 10:00 AM CST. The meeting will be for shareholders of record as of January 2, 2008, and will be held at Sugar Creek Country Club in Sugar Land, Texas. Details have been filed with the SEC on Schedule 14A.
ADVERTISEMENT
The following is this year’s shareholder letter written by the Company’s Chairman and Chief Executive, Kent Watts.
“January 14, 2008
To our Shareholders:
We greatly appreciate your support over this past year. I believe that our market and you, our shareholders, will soon clearly understand that we have made valuable progress in the past year and that we are positioned to have a fantastic 2008.
This past year has challenged us in many ways. We are exploring for world-class oil and gas reserves in a 31,000 square mile offshore concession that is in the hottest exploration region in the world. Hereunder I will explain our company’s major progress. However, to first set the stage, I believe that you should be aware that in the past year we have encountered intense petro-politics. The world’s energy shortage is growing more acute every day and at the same time our asset becomes more valuable. We have successfully dealt with political attacks all year and this is why a strong presence in Guinea has been our number one priority and has produced our number one achievement.
In 2008 we are focused more deeply than ever on our exploration work, while our business and political status in Guinea continues to grow. I have five categories to report about that reflect our progress in 2007. They are:
1) Guinea political and business status,
2) Joint venture partner status,
3) 2007 exploration program accomplishments,
4) Status of building our internal exploration team, and
5) Our superb positioning for success in 2008.
Guinea political and business status
Our organization in Guinea, led by our Vice President of Guinea Affairs, Mr. Famourou Kourouma, has a strong organizational foothold inside Guinea and our in-country team is formidable at protecting our interests.
A presidential delegation, led by Secretary General of the President of the Republic, Mr. Sam Mamady Soumah, visited us in Sugar Land, Texas in September 2007. After the Secretary General’s report to the Chief of State, President Lansana Conté, the President invited me to visit Guinea and to report on our investment and exploration plans. As a result of our work in Guinea, the President’s office deals directly with us regarding the 2006 Production Sharing Contract and we have been told to expect more positive changes in their government that will help us streamline and accelerate our work in the near future. On December 5, 2007, a presidential decree clarified substantial far reaching powers of the Secretary General to administer the government. On December 10, 2007, former Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Mr. Herman (Hank) Cohen, traveled with us to Guinea. Our group met with the President, the Secretary General, and the President of the National Assembly, Mr. Aboubacar Somparé. In these meetings, we were consistently assured that positive changes were in process. Hank, Famourou, and I also met with US Ambassador to Guinea, Phillip Carter III. It’s important for you to know that we continue to have the U.S. government’s support and the Guinea government is aware of such support. In August 2007, Ambassador Carter replaced former Ambassador Jackson McDonald as US Ambassador to Guinea. Over the last few years we have worked extensively with Ambassador McDonald who was extremely supportive and consistently gave us valuable political guidance. Since then, we are continuing with Ambassador Carter regarding all our work in Guinea. This last year we also began working with our local Congress members. We engaged the lobbyist firm Patton Boggs this year to protect our interests in Washington D.C.
As part of our corporate responsibility goals, Hyperdynamics supported efforts by American Friends of Guinea that helped to save lives of many children during a very serious cholera outbreak. Our combined public relations strategies and humanitarian efforts in Guinea have raised our business profile in Guinea as a responsible corporate citizen.
Joint venture partner status
Early in 2007 we solicited potential joint venture partners to join our exploration efforts offshore Guinea. During the year we signed approximately 20 companies to confidentiality agreements and held meetings to evaluate their level of interest. In the process, by the middle of the year, we determined that, while we remain open to negotiating joint venture arrangements, we could achieve much greater shareholder value by first advancing our exploration efforts to the point of having a portfolio of drillable prospects. Most of the potential partners expressed interest in our project and have asked for updates on our progress. We attend monthly meetings as a member of the West African scout group whose participating oil companies invest in exploration and production projects offshore West Africa. This provides us a forum to present regular updates to many of the companies that may have an interest in partnering with us in the future. We believe our efforts this year have provided a foundation to build on. We continue to talk with potential partners on an ongoing basis and expect the interest in our project to grow substantially in 2008.
2007 exploration program accomplishments
Our exploration work this year has resulted in major progress. In August we ramped up our 2007 exploration program towards developing our hydrocarbon plays in our concession. From our information base developed from previous exploration programs since 2002, we designed and implemented our going forward exploration program. To date, our studies comprise the largest knowledge base in existence concerning the Guinean offshore region and the 2007 program continues to build on this critical information base. We acquired additional 2-D seismic from a third party together with gravity and magnetics data and began to reinterpret as many as 25 leads from our seismic database. The reinterpretation of our satellite oil seeps study reported the existence of light crude oil seeps in our concession. Our historical exploration efforts have identified plays such as the Guinea Bissau salt province, Lower Cretaceous/Upper Cretaceous slope-fan deposits, Paleozoic tilted fault blocks, Mesozoic syn-rift half grabens, Tertiary deltas and turbidites along with Tertiary channel sands. Our exploration work since August 2007 has verified that we have the Transform Margin fairway in our concession. This is part of the same play that has produced at least 39 discoveries offshore West Africa collectively containing a world-class level of oil reserves. Based on our critical work in 2007 we can prioritize our activities and we are currently scrutinizing the Transform Margin play. Our 2007 program was a major success that is leading us in the right direction for a future world-class discovery of our own.
Building our internal exploration team
We have taken major steps and embraced our original strategy to build a formidable exploration team. This last year we made the decision to bring our core exploration team in-house and to add extensive oil and gas exploration and production experience to our board of directors and corporate management team. This decision was critical for positioning us to accelerate our timelines for exploration, to retain more value, and to maximize returns for our shareholders. We hired Mr. James R. Spear as our Vice President of Exploration and Chief Geophysicist. His past experience includes working successfully in 42 major hydrocarbon basins around the world. His enthusiasm and depth of experience is the cornerstone of our efforts to build our exploration team. Jim is leading the process of assembling our in-house team and we expect to make additional announcements as we bring on new talent. In December, Mr. Charles H. Andrews joined Hyperdynamics’ Board of Directors as a next step to add exploration experience at the top. Currently we continue to evaluate potential board members and to recruit additional geoscientists and geo-technical personnel. We are dedicated to building our board and exploration team and we will be steadily assessing appropriate additions as we move forward in 2008. As part of an extensive forward 2008 exploration program, our exploration team has configured multiple grids over several prospects for Guinea’s first 3-D seismic data acquisition in history. Our future announcements will provide updates about the 2008 program.
Our superb positioning for success in 2008
It is my sincere hope that you are assured that we are doing the right things to provide greatly enhanced shareholder value in the future. We have a steadily growing relationship with Guinea and have built a strong foundation for extended discussions and negotiations with many potential joint venture partners. Additionally, based on the positive results of our 2007 forward exploration program, we have advanced and refocused our exploration efforts to hydrocarbon plays that have world-class levels of proven results in West Africa. Finally, we have made major progress in establishing a highly experienced and successful exploration ability in-house, giving management technical control of our exploration process. We are now prepared to move forward with 3-D/2-D seismic data acquisition programs that should increase our chances for drillable prospects and ultimately a discovery.
We are superbly positioned for realizing the value of our oil and gas concession offshore Guinea. I would ask you, our shareholders, to recognize the progress we have made and to understand the extensive work ahead for us. We most certainly appreciate each of you and I am asking for your continued support towards the goal of making a world-class discovery. Thank you for your investment and keep watching for our update
I dont want CTUM to be another Rambus.They might be succeeding now but they spent years,and millions,in court.
In fact,the Rambus lawsuits are continuing.
So is CTUM cleared to proceed in Europe?Surely the FDA doesnt hold sway there?What does CTUM need to go ahead with sales in Europe?
Anyone know?My first laptop was a Dell with W98.My second laptop was a Dell with XP.When my first laptop began giving trouble I decided it might be good to dump W98.I loaded XP into my first laptop using the disc from my second laptop.I didnt have to enter any serial numbers or answer any questions and it was still working more than 30 days later.So I am wondering ,did it work because both laptops were Dell?Would it work in,say,a new Compaq laptop?
Insider trading?What is it going to take to make you suspect the insiders are stripping the company before fleeing?
Wait untill the asians get these patents.Then it wont be duped,it will be COPIED!
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The price of gold has hit an all-time high reaching $US880 ($NZ1,130) per ounce on Tuesday night and it climbed another $US10 yesterday afternoon to $US890.
New Zealand Mint bullion dealer Mike O'Kane said yesterday that gold was typically seen as a safe haven investment in times of recession and financial volatility.
A broader range of Kiwi investors were now investing in gold whereas historically it had usually been immigrants and overseas clients.
Gold in New Zealand had not been a big investment since the 1980s but overseas it had consistently been a popular one.
"What we are seeing this last year is a lot broader range of people," O'Kane said.
Gold trades at New Zealand Mint had jumped 300 per cent since 2006. It was probably the biggest trader in the country, he said.
The global gold price has risen 26 per cent in the past 12 months due primarily to uncertainty in world markets.
Investors usually bought gold coins. The beauty of them was that they were easily sold again in many places.
"We have a lot more people, especially with the price jumping, selling back to us."
A gold coin was one troy ounce, 31.1g, which yesterday cost $NZ1250.
"We're living in turbulent times and that's when people migrate to gold which is seen as a safe haven investment.
"People are turning to gold as the US economy weakens, oil prices continue to rise and global political tensions increase," O'Kane said.
"Add to that the huge demand for gold in China and India and you can understand why the price is sky high."
Demand in China was increasing up to 30 per cent a year and in the Middle East about 10 per cent a year.
"Most commentators say they cannot see any drop in the price while the global situation remains tense and the US dollar so low," O'Kane said.
It had been more than 28 years since the gold price was anywhere near yesterday's levels when it reached $US850 in 1980.
However, adjusted for inflation the 1980 price was the equivalent of more than $US1600 today, O'Kane said.
I emailed PTCH and asked them if they were going to be double listed(here and there).They ignored me.Thats when I should have baled out.My failure to act has cost me.