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Claude continues to show strength and proves that profits and performance is more important than industry malaise.
Claude is one of the only stocks I ever got the exact bottom and top of. I caught very close to Claude's recent bottom again and agree with the previous poster that we are going to $1-2/share. Fingers crossed that I'm going to make 10x my money yet again with this stock.
Here's a fun question for shareholders. How do you pronounce Claude?
I always thought that it was pronounced as "clawed" but now I've heard "Claaawed" "Cloud" and "Clode" and slight derivations. The new CEO says "Clode" I think.
Regardless, it's still an awesome company.
Another strong day for SCY! It has held all of its recent gains and continues to move up nicely.
My LG sense is tingling - fifteen cents is coming this week or shortly thereafter. I'll probably add just a little bit more to round off the horde to nice, big, round number and then let I'll 'er ride.
Cesar Lemas' conclusions:
"PLACER POTENTIAL.
As observed in the erosion of the quartz vein structures that have been subject to since their deposition and the faster and flatter, less competent shear zones possibly contemporaneous to the veins, it is reasonable to believe the shear zones have provided most of the gold in the rather recent alluvial deposits. It is evident that some of the placer gold comes from the quartz veins but apparently larger portions of shear zones to the west have been washed away. As a guide to placer exploration it is important to keep in mind the fact that these shear zones might be the best placer gold producers.
CONCLUSIONS
The ongoing and updated geologic stage has resulted in the discovery of potential mineralized structures besides the exposed quartz vein structures.
Quartz vein structures considered to a 100 meter depth are accumulating approximately 4 million tons. So increased tonnage with depth is a fact.
Exposed mineralized shear zones have a potential tonnage of 400 000 tons.
Potential Concealed mineralized shear zones can be in the order of 1 to 5 million tons.
2060 meters of core drilling are required to achieve a preliminary resource estimate, including assays of approximately 300 samples.
Geologic mapping and traversing is at about 80% of the ranch land area.
Ground EM and radiometrics could be used as a tool to look for concealed structures on the Eastern area of the property under the shallow alluvium.
All data is being filed on a database file on access format, to be used with 3d modeling software."
There is even a rough timeline for some work:
APPROXIMATE TIME-BUDGET REQUIREMENT ESTIMATE FOR 2015
WORK ON MARTHA ELENA-JULIO PROJECT.
MAPPING SAMPLING CONTINUED 60 DAYS
GROUND GEOPHYSICS SURVEY 30 DAYS
ECOLOGICAL REPORTS 60 DAYS
Everyone should read the full report since it isn't very long and is more informative than throwing darts or gibes on a message board.
Thanks for reiterating that story. The Mexus claims obviously contain a large, yet uncertain amount of gold. Signs of it abound across the property. Everyone has to make a personal judgement and calculated bet whether you believe the property is economic or not. I personally would bet 100% yes.
How deep were some of these nuggets? A foot is standard metal detector range and any property that has finds like that is already top tier in my opinion.
Here is some more photographic evidence.
http://s197.photobucket.com/user/tomphillips_2007/media/Mexus%20Caborca/IMG_1166.jpg.html?sort=3&o=11
Most of the economic gold on Earth is microscopic. This is a drill core from Mexus with visible gold: http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5112/14094999147_926e4b5f4c.jpg
Rule of thumb: visible gold = cha-ching, and very economic as long as it isn't 2km deep or under a lake, which does not apply to Mexus.
Mexus Gold US Update on Placer, Blasting Permit, Funding
March 02, 2015
CARSON CITY, Nev., March 2, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mexus Gold US (OTCQB:MXSG) ("Mexus" or the "Company") announced that the placer plant is running with color in the sluice. The company noted that the feeder is not up to task. After timing the feeder it became apparent that a better feeder with a variable frequency drive (VFD) speed control is needed. Mexus has a VFD and feeder rebuilt and ready to ship at its Walnut Grove shop. The new equipment will ship immediately and should be operational by March 10th. Production will continue during this time. The new feeder and VFD will allow the operation to process 600 TPD. CEO Paul Thompson added, "We continue the process to obtain our blasting permit and further our drilling program outline. We are preparing ourselves to begin underground mining as soon as the permit is received. On that front, we expect to have the necessary funding for underground mining and the drilling program by the end of March." The company added a photo of the placer operation which can be found here.
Here's another one that appears to be in the midst of a pump and dump.
https://www.google.com/finance?q=CVE%3ACRU.H&ei=vJHzVLGiGanJiQLG44C4Bw
Cameo Resources CRU
"In Quebec, initial exploration work will consist of geophysical surveying to identify the potential host rocks of the government reported Scandium geochem results. The Company is following up on the positive potential of the uses of scandium in the aluminium alloy and solid fuel cell industries. This potential has been limited by supply concerns and Cameo management has identified possible areas where the rare earth metal could be located.
The new properties in Quebec have government reported values of scandium in excess of 600 ppm which is above currently identified resource grades. This initial geophysics surveying will assist field crews in focusing their geological evaluation once the area is clear of winter."
Read more at http://www.stockhouse.com/news/press-releases/2015/02/19/cameo-commences-exploration-work#UhMYQgPX69R8EsrF.99
2 million dollar market cap, lots of pump, very little substance at this juncture. Yet, it still may be prudent to acquire a basket of scandium juniors (heavily weighted scy) to play the inevitable industry pump when it goes beyond a specific company. Maybe SCY goes to a dollar meanwhile the crappy low market cap no-nothing companies can still go from 5 cents to 50 cents on nothing but hype. I'd sell them into the pump and hold SCY and the better prospects long term.
Good catch! I follow NIO pretty closely and I missed that.
Niobium is a good comparison metal to scandium in many respects in that it alloys with a common material (steel vs aluminum) for benefits like strength increases. Niobium was once a prohibitively expensive pipe dream, and now it is in nearly every car frame, pipeline, spaceship etc.
NIO, as an example, never appeared to care about scandium until recently and it is a good fit. if it is already present in their deposit? Go for it.
This is really good news. I've watched SCY go from being the only one in the sector to what now seems like dozens of competitors, with a few big names.
http://www.stockhouse.com/news/press-releases/2015/02/25/niocorp-updates-elk-creek-niobium-mineral-resource-to-include-titanium-and
"Sc ha[s] been added to the Mineral Resource Statement. Both of these metals can be recovered with simple additions to the existing process flowsheet, and would provide additional revenue streams that would compliment the planned production of ferroniobium."
I am not sure it is that simple and easy as they make it sound. It has taken SCY's experts a long time to crack the optimal metallurgy and some of these processes will soon be patent protected. I'd say at this point NIO is more sizzle than substance in the scandium space. SCY is the clear winner but there will be many on their heels as they try and reap the cream pricing for scandium. The first significant production, first to market, will sell for a huge amount, way more than whatever long term average is eventually established. The world needs lots of scandium and will need massive supply from many mines to reduce its cost and achieve some of its commercial potential.
I can see the big scandium pump of 2016-2017 shaping up nicely. Where once there was one company there will soon be hundreds.
Thanks for the reply, Jovko. it makes me feel like slightly less of a crazy person.
I think this was mentioned before but Robert Friedland is in the scandium game. Clean Teq (CLQ) can now be added to SCY's competitor list, although they are way behind SCY in my estimation. Friedland is a big name and is representative of the increasing interest scandium is receiving. But we are already so far ahead of everyone else that we will win this game. We will the be the world's first primary scandium mine!
http://ceo.ca/category/people/robert-friedland/
Interesting article
http://www.miningfeeds.com/2014/12/10/friedland-follows-kaiser-into-scandium-with-clean-teq-holdings-clqasx/
and showing some of their recent hits:
http://www.abnnewswire.net/press/en/78918/Clean_TeQ_Holdings_Limited_%28ASX:CLQ%29_Confirms_High_Scandium_Grades_at_Syerston.html
The grades are good but SCY has them firmly beat in length( by a factor of more than ten in many cases), therefore overall tonnage, metallurgy etc.
The more interest and competitors the better. I say bring it on and break the obscurity! It is inevitable that one day scandium will be ubiquitous if we can make it affordable by creating supply. SCY has a decent chance of changing the world and making handsome profits in the process. What isn`t to like?
Also SCY finishes Feb up strongly at 12 cents up nearly 50% for the month. 15 cents is coming either shortly or eventually but it is coming since SCY is worth around 50 cents per share at the moment. One day SCY will fly and truly taste the SkY. (All IMO)
Rich, no problem. But bear in mind at best I am an amateur geologist... That said, I think there are signs of value that are so obvious you don't need a geology degree to see or understand.
Here's what I gleaned from the report and from a comparison between the last release and the newest release.
It is about double the size of the last one, repeats a bunch of information with some new tidbits and much better pictures (we even upgraded to colour!).
It basically it reiterates a lot of stuff we already know. Their understanding of the property, aka Mexus' "IP" is steadily increasing. It is an awesome property with historical multiple kilogram gold outcroppings!. For my American friends I will put that in perspective. That's 32.15 troy oz/ kilo so we're talking about stuff in the neighbourhood of 100 oz/mt that you stub your toe on at the surface. If that isn't a great sign of the land's potential then I don't know what is. That even beats some of the legendary bonanzas of old.
To start with it looks like we have enough ore for 3-5 years easy at 6ktpd without any additional drilling or looking outside a small box.
The Julio vein is 800 meters long and has over time, and because of the way the gold quartz was deposited in spurts means it has created a shear zone that has broken apart and mixed up some of the vein material over time. There is probably super high and low grade pockets in an ore field of medium to high grade ore in the area surrounding the veins (the shear zone).
If you have no idea what I am talking about watch these delicious videos to get a visual aid.
Updated geological report
http://www.mexusgoldus.com/files/doc_downloads/caborca_mine/MARTHA_ELENA-JULIO_REPORT_2015_2%5B1%5D.pdf
There even appears to my Canadian eyes to be a toonie (peso) sized nugget in one of the photos, looks to be about 2-3 oz. I really hope I can find one of those some day.
More Kaiser; SCY makes his top 10 list.
http://resourceinvestingnews.com/81682-john-kaiser-amarc-tsodilo-inzinc-ivn-peregrine-diamonds-scandium-midas-gold-temex.html
Kaiser sees scandium as a “big story” with enormous potential. “This obscure metal is going to go ballistic in the next few years because of a game-changing development in Australia,” he said.
Scandium International Mining (TSX:SCY) (formerly EMC Metals) — ” [is]… the most advanced [in the scandium space]. They’re working on a feasibility study now.”
I have also noticed that the number of search results for scandium and the number of videos and general interest appears to be growing exponentially from basically zero to the point now where almost every day now a new scandium video is uploaded to youtube and there is more activity across the web (although the google trends are spotty). Slow and steady, a few more years, and I think there will be more than just JK and TM that care about blue SCY dreams.
Take care.
I am just going to keep talking to myself. SCY closes at .11 up 16% on 883,431.00 shares well above its average of 138,102 with an intraday high of .115. The chart appears to have broken out and I am looking for 15 cents in the short term.
The trading action is heating up and is supported by today's fresh PR. SCY should have a full news pipeline for the year so I think SCY should continue to be a fun stock to own in 2015 although I do think that marketing SCY's unique story will have more of an effect on pps than the news of gradually developing into a mine. It is still quite perplexing to me how little interest there is given how amazing and potentially profitable the scandium story is. I've looked at this company hard and have yet to find a major flaw yet alone a fatal one. Almost all juniors seem to have warts but SCY is gorgeous, she's like a shunned supermodel kept in a dark room.
The only problem is that they still require capital to build their mine. Yet as they develop and hopefully increase market place awareness this stock is going to go to 50 cents to a buck and from that point raising 50-80 M on good terms should be a cake walk given their executives and the profitability of their project.
Placer is now operational.
CARSON CITY, Nev., Feb. 17, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mexus Gold US (OTCQB:MXSG) ("Mexus" or the "Company") announced today that the placer plant at the Julio Mine is now fully operational. The company will use the first few days to ensure that the wash plant and associated parts are optimized for maximum recovery. As stated in previous press releases, the company expects to recover 5 to 6 ounces of gold per day costing approximately $950. CEO Paul Thompson added, "We are very excited to announce the startup of the placer operation. Our Mine Superintendent, Diego Guillermo Baltazar Garcia, and his crew worked tirelessly over the last few weeks to bring this operation online. We are now focused on obtaining the blasting permit so we can begin the underground operation."
Mexus also announced that it continues the steps necessary to acquire the blasting permit for its underground operation. Vice President Julio Baltazar has made numerous trips to Hermosillo and Mexico City to complete the necessary paperwork and provide information as requested. It is unknown when the permit will be issued but the company is doing everything in its power to expedite the process. In addition, the company continues to interview underground miners. Having a qualified underground mining crew ready will allow production to commence as soon as all the blasting permit requirements have been met.
- See more at: http://globenewswire.com/news-release/2015/02/17/706872/10120476/en/Mexus-Gold-US-Placer-Operation-Update.html#sthash.utgLKmHO.dpuf
Just a drop in the bucket but it's a start and a heck of a lot better than a goose-egg (golden eggs excluded).
SCY applies for patents to protect their scandium recovery process.
Reno, Nevada (FSCwire) - Scandium International Mining Corp. (the “Company” or “Scandium International” or “SCY”) (TSX: SCY) announces today that it has completed the filing of five patent applications with the US Patent Office that correspond to novel flowsheet designs for the recovery of scandium from laterite resource material. All five of these patents are directly applicable to our Nyngan Scandium Project in NSW, Australia, although one of the five patents pertains to downstream product design.
The five patent applications are titled as follows;
Systems and methodologies for recovering scandium values from mixed ion solutions,
Systems and methodologies for direct acid leaching of scandium bearing laterite ores,
Solvent extraction of scandium from leach solutions,
Systems and processes for recovering scandium values from laterite ores, and
Scandium-containing master alloys and method for making the same,
PATENT APPLICATION HIGHLIGHTS:
These patent applications cover novel, unique flowsheet designs, applicable to scandium extraction, from scandiferous laterite resources,
The patented designs are largely supported by test work done with Nyngan project resource material and known design parameters,
The patents cover HPAL system material flows, solvent extraction systems (SX), ion exchange systems (IX), atmospheric tank and heap leaching systems and techniques, and processes for directly making select master alloys containing scandium,
The designs will be part of a definitive feasibility study, scheduled for 2015, and
The master alloy patent application uniquely integrates planned flowsheet design and downstream product development, either by SCY or with future customers.
George Putnam, CEO of Scandium International Mining Corp. commented:
“These patent applications represent an important step in securing ownership and rights to the technical understanding of scandium recovery that we have invested in for several years. The filings will also allow us to work openly with an independent engineering firm to develop the best feasibility study product, and to configure the most efficient process flowsheet for our Nyngan Project, while maintaining control over our unique process designs.”
Read more at http://www.stockhouse.com/news/press-releases/2015/02/17/novel-flowsheet-design-patents-filed-for-scandium-recovery#PCVp5hEOmqt3CEP3.99
Good to see they are protecting the time and money they have invested. Being the first to crack the chemistry is critical.
Also if you google "scandium price" it lists scandium for $122,000 per pound ($270 g/mt) or 270x the price I am using in my calculations. I think that price is ludicrous but I am not going to complain about the high price of a unique commodity SCY essentially controls.
Mineralprices.com has it at a more realistic but still eye popping $18000/kg for the metal and $7200/kg for the scandium oxide we can produce for around $600.
And the upward movement in the stock continues. I am hoping for an 11 cent close that kick starts SCY's 2015 run. SCY is going to at least a quarter this year (IMO).
The trading was pretty strange today. Someone or a computer algo appears to have bought 2000 shares every 2 minutes all day, followed with a large burst of volume and price increase at the end of the day. The trading has been really thin lately and today's action is about 4x the average. If you look at a month chart of the stock the action stands out as quite odd and I don't recall seeing anything similar with this stock in the past and I have watched it for quite a while.
I think the stock is definitely worth more than a thin dime and we'll just have to wait and see what happens. Today's action probably means nothing but at least serves as an example of how little money and buying pressure is necessary to rocket the stock up double digit percentages.
Anyway back to patient hibernation until the dimes turn into quarters.
Take care.
Novo Announces First Results from Oxide Resource Drilling Program and Discusses Mining Concept for Beatons Creek
Intercepts include 1 m @ 9.09 gpt Au in hole BCRC14-080, 1 m @ 11.32 gpt Au in hole BCRC14-117, 3 m @ 2.79 gpt Au in hole BCRC14-125, 4 m @ 2.27 gpt Au in hole BCRC14-126, 2 m @ 8.12 gpt Au in hole BCRC-145 and 3 m @ 2.59 gpt Au in hole BCRC14-14
"We are extremely pleased with these drill results," commented Dr. Quinton Hennigh, President and CEO of Novo Resources Corp. "Not only are we seeing promising grades, but we can now also see good continuity of shallow, oxidized gold-bearing conglomerates over broad areas. Recent work has also demonstrated the potential for simple, low-cost mining techniques. Couple this with what we now know about the potential to treat this mineralized material utilizing inexpensive gravity recovery, we think we can develop a very cost effective mining operation at Beatons Creek."
Read more at http://www.stockhouse.com/news/press-releases/2015/02/09/novo-announces-first-results-from-oxide-resource-drilling-program-and-discusses#fp7xooVWRpWSmeQL.99
Looking good and having a stock go up on positive news is nice for a change.
SCY hits even more high grade scandium, reports drills holes.
http://www.stockhouse.com/news/press-releases/2015/01/29/final-assay-results-of-resource-in-fill-drilling-at-nyngan-scandium-project
"Average scandium grade of 357ppm over 214 meters (200ppm cut-off),
Average scandium grade of 444ppm over 120 meters (300ppm cut-off),
Best results: 4 meters @ 795ppm, 5 meters @ 755ppm and 7 meters @ 721ppm,
Best individual 1 meter assay was 879ppm,
Lithium borate fusion (fusion) assay preparation demonstrated superior result to the traditional four acid method, as used on the resource estimate in 2010, and
These new assay results strongly support the average grade and location selected and included in the recently released PEA on the Nyngan project."
As I have pointed out before 1 ppm = approximately $1 scandium oxide so we are talking about ore worth $350-$900 per metric tonne which I imagine would cost them around $30-$50 per mt to process (just a guess, it depends a lot on how much the acid reagents cost). This appears to be one of the best pre-production mines of any type in the world.
SCY is years ahead of their rivals in using metallurgy to unlock the minerals in the ore.
"The Company notes that fusion digestion results generally deliver higher scandium assays than the four acid digestion method, traditionally used in nickel and cobalt assay work. The Company believes the fusion technique generates a truer assay result, because acid digestion of scandium within limonite hosted mineralization can be incomplete, particularly at higher grades, and flux digestion by high temperature fusion produces a more homogeneous sample for analysis. SCY intends to rely on and utilize fusion digestion techniques going forward to support our mine planning and advanced economic and development studies."
The fusion method seems to improve yields around 30-40% which is very impressive.
George Putnam, CEO of Scandium International Mining Corp. commented:
“With this full program drill result in hand, we have detailed and current assay data to design our starter pit as part of a final feasibility study, to be completed in 2015. These latest assay results continue to confirm the head grade assumptions integral to the recently released PEA on the Nyngan project. Drill hole material from the program has also allowed us to conduct flow sheet test work with fresh resource taken from the planned pit area. A finalized flow sheet based on optimized parameters is planned for the end of Q2 2015.
These recent in-fill drill results also demonstrate clearly that the Nyngan resource is very comparable to other scandium resources in the NSW lateritic belt regarding scandium grade.”
In 08 gold hit 1000 twice in the first half of the year and then during the crisis it fell to about 700 and then rallied into the end of the year with one of its weakest years finishing in the low 800s. A 4.2% gain is not "skyrocketing"! It only rebounded in the years afterward when it was clear they were going to start bailing banks out left and right and printing money, doing QE, and keeping rates at zero forever.
You only raised one valid lode specific point. Yes, there is lots more to find on their land, but they need to be able to profitably extract what they find.
And yes I will feel a lot better about the company and the small number of shares I have left if they turn a profit. But that is only a start; they don't just need profits but substantial profits because it makes no sense that lode spent 100-150 million and fifteen years of development all for the privilege of losing millions of dollars per year.
Lode should be profitable now so that when gold prices do rise, perhaps at some much later date, the company can then prosper and take advantage of them. Gold price will probably go up but they should not hemorrhage money in the mean time.
92 tons of gold that at their current rate will take 95 tons to mine, meaning lode's gold has a negative value, Australia's does not. CMI has yet to mine a single profitable ounce therefore their 92 tons is worth next to nothing. Refined gold bullion in a vault above ground is very different from a "vault" below ground in a deposit that might not be economic at current prices.
If the next major crash is anything like the last one gold will go down with everything. Afterwards is a different story but if lode's gold is worth almost zero now according to our market cap and it goes down to say $1000/oz that would drop its value from next to zero to about zero.
There are some good arguments for investing in lode but I don't think you have touched on any yet. CMI has yet to prove itself despite ample opportunity.
I feel our negotiating position should get stronger as we get closer to the end of March and its payment. The most recent PR discussed negotiations for "a joint venture resulting in a $5 million dollar drilling program. The company believes this drill program will result in a 1 million oz gold equivalent reserve property. This information will allow the parties to make a decision as to the actual size and type of operation to pursue and the funding needed to obtain the maximum return possible."
Which implies production might be quite a ways out, after a long drilling program, evaluation stage, rounds of financing, and then construction followed by heap production in q3,q4 2015 or maybe even q1 2016. I was under the impression they were going the GORO route and putting known high grade zones into production without turning the deposit into Swiss cheese first. It looks like we are going more of the traditional route based on the wording of the last PR.
If a deal was signed tomorrow how do you think the next six months will play out?
My understanding is that mucho drilling would commence, the placer will run either way and the Julio II underground will be placed into production following Atzek's payment, using either our own blast permit or one from a partner. Presumably if a deal is signed quickly it would also start the underground work a couple months earlier than otherwise. The 4 million might even allow them to use Comstock's MC and start a small scale operation heap too, but at this stage it seems they would only pursue this if there was no JV.
Mexus also recently declared its goal is to achieve a 25,000 tpd heap leach operation complimented with a 300tpd underground mine.
Do you think this is unrealistic or is it just meeting the ground's potential?
That's over 7.5 million tons at 1g is roughly 250,000 oz a year with 90,000 tons at 1oz is 90k oz. 340-350k oz per year. 50% share 175k (over 175 million in revenue)in a perfect world at full rates for 300 days per year. This is a huge operation.
Thanks for joining us 8 and Mick. Let's keep it classy and the discussion productive and civil.
Cheers.
Those are not, for the most part, insider buys.
As far as I know Corrado has never purchased a share of lode, except perhaps a small token amount many years back. Your own link actually shows that he has been selling and not purchasing like you imply. He received 1,650,000 shares for free (achieving his BS goals of producing zero shareholder value) and then he a immediately sold a huge chunk for $1.65 per share in July. Not a good sign. I actually bailed along with Corrado and I am sure glad I did! If lode shareholders would have followed him they would have more capital to invest in better companies or to re-buy lode if they desired instead of holding for yet another haircut.
The non open market acquisitions are paper shuffling and Winfield's free shares from dividend payments and other option agreements and this is an obvious negative for the company, not a positive. If he would have bought in the open market and not structured his company where he gets free shares this would be a very different story.
Winfield did buy some shares but since he received the vast majority for free and purchased many for well under market value it is hard to make a case from this that management is acquiring shares with their own money and that they believe in their company long term.
I would argue that $0.88 is not a steal when management gets shares for $0 and have to create zero value in order to get their free shares. Corrado obviously thought $1.65 was a good place to sell and he was right.
NOVO RECEIVES POSITIVE METALLURGICAL TESTS, FIRST SURFACE SAMPLE RESULTS,COMPLETES DEEP DRILL HOLE AT BEATONS CREEK
http://novoresources.com/pdf/news/2014-12-10.pdf
Not bad for an area many once dismissed as having no gold.
Early high grade assays arrive, hits over 800 PPM.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/early-assay-results-of-resource-in-fill-drilling-at-nyngan-scandium-project---387ppm-2014-12-18
For rough reference 1g (1 ppm) of scandium is worth a dollar. So 800 ppm is $800 ore, near surface, that could be mined for somewhere between $20-30/t I would guess, making it one of the highest margin deposits in the world. The deposit is basically the equivalent of a 15-20 million ounce gold deposit at about .25 to .75 (~.5) oz of gold per ton.
And people still don't care. But they will. One day.
(All IMO)
First Q and A round posted.
Q) Originally the split with the placer operations between Mexus and the family owners was 50/50 I believe. With the expanded placer operations what is the split and expected production and yield for Mexus? Tyler M.
A) Mexus retains 75% and the ranch owner gets 25% NSR (net smelter return) for the placer operation. The expectation is to produce 5 to 6 ounces a day at a cost of approximately $950 a day. We need $50,000 to prepare and complete the necessary items to begin production. Ranch owner retains 1.5% NSR on heap leach and underground operations. The placer operation will give Mexus a steady income stream. Mexus' number one goal is to drill out a gold reserve that will support a 25,000 ton a day heap leaching operation along with a 300 ton a day underground hard rock operation.
Q) Cesar Lemas' reports discuss about a land claim package at Rancho of about 1350 hectares that he did random evaluations on. I have heard others talk about 8000 acres at the Rancho. Can we clarification on what the claim size is and how much had mineable metal on it. Rex J.
A) Our Julio/Santa Elena property is approximately 3500 hectares or 8000 acres (11.5 square miles) and requires thousand of feet of drilling to ascertain the full amount of gold in reserve. There are numerous quartz veins running throughout the property. We have gold on the surface ranging from 0 to 6 ounces of gold per ton.
New Pictures, Video, QA info, and update.
Video of the placer operation. Looks like it will be running end of the month or early January.
Low of .61 or 0.003 split adjusted for the old timers. Lode has proven their assets are dubious at these prices. There is no real ceiling or fundamental bottom for these kind of stocks. If lode liquidated right now they would be worth almost nothing, since the project is proven to be valueless at these prices and they don't really have anything of value to sell. Either they turn a profit eventually (with or without rising metals prices) and prove some kind of value for the project or they keep wasting money and the company will continue to erode.
I think we are in danger of delisting and the more time spent down at these levels the worse off the company will be because of the additional dilution.
I am glad I only have a token/joke amount of the stock left. Seeing the writing on the wall at least saved me some losses here - too bad it took me so long to wise up.
At these prices Lode may be a decent trade, from .6 to 1.2 or something like that but I don't have the confidence to commit to that given my opinion that the company could just as easily hit 30 cents before it hits a buck+ since there is no real fundamental value to base anything on. I have noticed over the years that most longs have been cannibalized but many traders have made profits on lode. If you are completely confident gold and silver will rise then this might be an attractive bet/trade. Lode has better risk/reward going from .50-$5 achieving less than half of its all time high for 1000% than it did at $2-$5 for for potential gains of maybe 150% and lots of risk.
I agree with the rationale but I am skeptical of that scenario given the small total dollar amounts trading. They are increasing though as the share-price rises. If we close strongly and maintain it we are looking good for some momentum leading up to some kind of release. We'll have to see if substantial volume continues to build to support the long term gains we are all here for. Junior miners are very volatile and Mexus is no exception. There could be 2 million shares traded today and 20 thousand tomorrow. We also still have a long way to go for many to get into the green, but if they averaged down it probably isn't far and might only take one good trading day to get back into the money.
Hoping for a big close - it is gradually inching up.
Edit: That was an understatement, the subsequent trade took it up another 20%.
Already nearing 1.3 million traded, mostly buys. I added a few today too. Still early in both the day and the week. I am not a chartist but MXSG is breaking out of its holding pattern so some traders might be hopping in if the trading action continues to be interesting. The story is good so maybe they will stay.
Any comments on gold's movement today? I thought for sure we would see a big down day Friday to help crush the Swiss vote, followed by a defeat of the initiative, then a strong down on Sunday followed by a bloodbath for gold and miners this week. Yet gold is up $50 today, reversing the decline. Silver was at $14.75 and is now almost $17 in the same time frame. The trading seems somewhat nonsensical. Common sense would dictate Friday should have been an up day as people speculated that the initiative might pass and affect short term supplies. But given the smear campaign and legitimate conspiracy that exists to suppress gold prices, the likelihood of a big down move on the last trading day before the vote was statistically very high. Yet after the initiatives defeat gold goes straight down and yet now goes straight up?
It is even stranger than that though... IMO both a yes and a no vote are bullish for gold. A yes would have meant a years worth of gold supply is sucked up a single small country in around 5 years while a no vote is an affirmation of Keynesian economics and the CB's "right" to print currency in unlimited amounts to defend their peg against the Euro. Those 23% that voted yes, and others, will take as a cue to keep stacking because the long term narrative for investing in gold is reaffirmed.
Some JV news would be ideal on a strong up week for gold and I would expect some kind of official update soon. We'll just have to wait and see.
EMC Announces Name Change To Scandium International Mining Corp.
Reno, NV / ACCESSWIRE / November 24, 2014 / EMC Metals Corp. (the "Company" or "EMC") (TSX: EMC) is pleased to announce that it has changed its corporate name to Scandium International Mining Corp. The Company will begin trading under its new TSX ticker symbol, "SCY", on Friday November 28th, and the Company's website address will change to www.ScandiumMining.com.
Our new name better reflects the Company's commitment to developing scandium projects globally, and our current focus on the 100% owned Nyngan Scandium Project in NSW, Australia.
George Putnam, CEO of Scandium International Mining Corp., commented:
"The Board believes that our new name more accurately represents the company's tight strategic focus on our scandium assets, and signals our transition away from a broader specialty metals developer concept. This name change now sharply defines us as a pure scandium play, focused on the development of the Nyngan Scandium Project, intended to be the world’s first primary scandium mine. The recently published Nyngan PEA reinforces this strategy by putting forward a project plan that is sized to enable an independent development by the Company. With a planned capital investment of less than US$80 million generating annual scandia production of approximately 36 tonnes, we have outlined an initial production platform that shows excellent potential profitability, is a right-sized development for our Company, and yet is capable of being a significant price and volume leader in the under-serviced global market for scandium."
I don't know if Rubicon is the best but it is definitely a superior play because the F-2 zone is one of the best gold deposits in the world and the mine will soon be in production. Just like neighouring Red Lake and Campbell mines it is likely to produce well above its 43-101 grade since the grade estimation in this type of deposit tends to be substantially underestimated. They will make lots of money at current prices, good money if they drop, and absurd amounts of cash if gold goes up. Rubicon got into trouble years back with their resource reporting but I lean towards the initial estimates being correct. IMO they have around 20 million ounces of something that will average around 20-25 g/t.
Rubicon's development and start up mine is also very similar to how Goldcorp developed from a 50 million dollar company into one of the largest gold companies in the world, expanding from a single high grade mine. Rubicon controls roughly half of the district with GG the other half, like a ying and yang with very similar geology. On Rubicon's land they have 20 other hotspots that look similar to F2. If even one of them is remotely similar to what they have already discovered Rubicon might have 50 million ounces of ultra high grade gold. For a junior trading for about half cash value it is just another feather in the cap. Rubicon has some of the highest exploration potential in the business.
GG failed to get Malarctic but they will likely get their mitts on f2 eventually (IMO). I think after it is de-risked and profitable some billions will exchange hands and we might end up with some cash, GG shares, and a spin-out company with Rubicon's land. I'd prefer if Rubicon remained independent and then developed satellite mines in Red Lake but I don't think that GG as an entity will let Rubicon become too large or allow it to be bought out by another since Rubicon is the most synergistic potential acquisition in the world for them. But they, like all patient major miners, are content to wait.
I've never lost buying Ruby under a buck and I think in one year regardless of where gold trades Rubicon will be priced higher.
Scandium White Paper - A well written outline of the scandium investment thesis.
http://www.emcmetals.com/i/pdf/Scandium-White-PaperEMC-Website-June-2014-.pdf
It is very well presented and included a few things that were new to me:
use in ceramics
The addition of about 20% scandium carbide to titanium carbide
results in a doubling of the hardness of the mixed Ti -
Sc carbide, to about 50 GPa, second only to diamonds in hardness.
use in electronics
Scandium is used in the preparation of the laser material Gd3Sc2Ga3O12, gadolinium scandium allium garnet(GSGG).
This garnet when doped with both Cr and Nd ions is said to be 3
1/2 times as efficient as the widely used Nd doped yttrium aluminum garnet laser. Ferrites and garnets containing scandium are used primarily in switches in computers. These magnetically
controlled switches work by undulating light passing through the garnet and microwave equipment.
I'll also have to look into both yttrium and also this Ashurst company mentioned in the paper. They seem to have failed to supply the scandium market. They also had external problems and lacked the markets that now exist today.
Maybe they sell lacrosse sticks?
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ashurst-signs-license-agreement-with-stx-and-receives-order-for-scandium-lacrosse-sticks-75377732.html
Recently this research from Mr. Kaiser was opened to the public from behind his pay wall. It very detailed and thorough and is a must read if you are interested in this developing scandium story.
An excerpt relevant to EMC is below but I recommend reading the entire thing to appreciate the full story.
"Bloom Energy appears to have become quite relaxed about its near term scandium oxide needs after stringing along potential primary scandium suppliers such as EMC Metals Corp and Metallica Minerals Inc with negotiations and, in the case of Metallica, a weak offtake agreement that denied the junior a realistic chance of providing Bloom with a sustainable, long term solution to the scandium oxide needs that accompany the success of its business plan. But anybody who understands the limited scalability of by-product supply streams, which apparently excludes quite a few people who think financial support of potential primary scandium suppliers should be avoided because there is an "abundant" supply of scandium oxide in the wings just waiting for a buyer to materialize, will understand that Bloom Energy remains exposed to the failure of its business plan thanks to its reliance on by-product scandium oxide supply, or, in the Chinese case, waste stream by-product recovery. Australian deposits like Platina's Owendale and EMC's Nyngan, however, represent a potential long term scalable primary supply that could easily take care of Bloom's future best case scenario needs at a stable price. Even better, these two deposits could feed a substantially larger future demand from the aluminum alloy industry, whose materialization would eliminate the vulnerability to geopolitically or extortion driven supply disruption Bloom Energy currently faces as the world's overwhelmingly largest consumer of scandium oxide. Bloom Energy's backers would sleep much better if the scandium oxide it needs were sourced directly from Australia, a nation that adheres to western principles of free markets and the rule of law.
So the obvious question is why Bloom Energy does not deal directly with Platina or EMC rather than, I suspect, work through its current scandium oxide supplier HNOSC and possibly also Honfine? In the case of EMC where a public company now has secure title to the Nyngan deposit on which substantial metallurgical work has already been done, sufficient to support an ownership vesting feasibility study, and which is now in the hands of competent ex-BHP operators who will deliver a PEA by the end of 2014 and a full-blown feasibility study by the end of 2015, the wise thing for Bloom Energy is to stand back and wait for EMC to deliver the goods. There is no reason for Bloom Energy to pursue an offtake agreement because Bloom has had sufficient dealings with EMC's George Putnam to realize it is not going to secure an agreement that is harmful to the interests of EMC's shareholders. The recent appointment to EMC's board of James Rothwell, who headed BHP's diamond division and earlier worked with Putnam to develop BHP's manganese market, further solidifies the EMC team. EMC also benefits from the involvement of another ex-BHP luminary, Willem Duyvestyn, a process engineer who is also the largest shareholder in EMC. Furthermore, EMC has also attracted as a potential 20% Nyngan backer (assuming EMC raises another $1.2 million) a party which will have the option to become a major shareholder a year from now, and which has the capacity to facilitate EMC's evolution into the world's dominant scandium oxide supplier. EMC is Bloom's ace in the hole, and the less it interacts with EMC, the better its chances that EMC will solve all of its future supply problems.
Relying on only one potential future supplier for a critical input, however, is not a sound business strategy, so it makes sense for Bloom Energy to nudge its Chinese suppliers to pursue a relationship with Platina, owner of Owendale. It makes no sense for Bloom to approach Platina directly, because Platina is an exploration junior whose management team lacks the technical skills to develop an optimal scandium recovery flowsheet, let alone build and operate a scandium mine. Bloom also lacks these skills, and, as tends to be the case with manufacturers of advanced products, has no interest in getting involved with the nitty gritty of mine development and operation. Platina has done a good job delineating the Owendale scandium resource, which is what exploration companies are good at, but it has not yet accomplished anything with regard to the metallurgy of Owendale. In fact, Platina only embarked on metallurgical studies in 2014 by collecting a bulk sample, and, judging from its disclosures, has limited its activity to exploring gravity, magnetic and flotation separation methods, none of which addresses the liberation of scandium from the goethite lattice in the laterite ore within which the scandium is embedded. At best these stages will reduce the volume of ore by 60%-70% with some loss of scandium bearing material. The difficult part on which Metallica and EMC have invested considerable time, effort and expense for their respective Lucknow and Nyngan deposits is the cracking of the scandium bearing minerals to allow the precipitation of a scandium oxide powder with a purity of 95%-97% Sc2O3. The cracking inevitably involves a combination of pressure, temperature and acid that must be fine tuned for the particular mineralogy of the ore. The greatest portion of the scandium mining cost resides in this "cracking" stage which also requires sophisticated process engineering. This is the task Platina cannot accomplish with its own resources, which is why it has turned to Honfine and HNOSC which possess the technical skills and resources to develop a full-fledged flow-sheet for Owendale. "
http://www.kaiserresearch.com/s/Excerpt.asp?ReportID=675349
Impressive! 7m a quarter annualized is 28m which implies a value of about 280m market cap based on a 10 p/e purely on income alone, which is about 7x higher than current share prices. You have to be able to make money in the good times and the bad and Claude's new management is proving it can be done even if it does involve high grading their deposits. Hopefully they can drop the AIS numbers a bit and be ready to expand and profit when metals prices recover.
And on a less impressive note:
"Claude Resources Inc. ordered to pay $172,000 for spill of diesel fuel
LA RONGE, SK, Oct. 31, 2014 /CNW/ - Claude Resources Inc. recently pleaded guilty to one charge under the federal Fisheries Act and one charge under Saskatchewan's Environmental Management and Protection Act in provincial court in La Ronge. The company was ordered to pay a total penalty of $172,000.
The charges stem from an investigation into a spill of approximately 24,000 litres of diesel fuel from a storage tank at the Seabee Mine in January 2013. The Gold Mine is owned by Claude Resources Inc. and is located approximately 125 kilometres northeast of the town of La Ronge.
The Saskatchewan Ministry of Environment and Environment Canada conducted a joint investigation into the cause of the spill. Enforcement officials discovered that the diesel fuel storage tank was located on the north shore of Laonil Lake, 35 metres from the shoreline. Investigators determined that the tank had not been serviced by a certified installer and that a connection point failure resulted in the release of the diesel fuel.
Enforcement Officials concluded that, given the circumstances in this case, the release was preventable and Claude Resources Inc. was subsequently charged. "
http://www.newswire.ca/en/story/1437561/claude-resources-inc-ordered-to-pay-172-000-for-spill-of-diesel-fuel
CARSON CITY, Nev., Nov. 4, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mexus Gold US (OTCQB:MXSG) ("Mexus" or the "Company ") announced that the mining company doing their four week due diligence at the Julio/Santa Elena property is hard at work and close to completion. Julio Baltazar, Mexus Vice- President, has been on site and assisting the interested party as needed. President Paul Thompson added "Although the mining company's preliminary findings look favorable, their intentions won't be known until the due diligence is complete and the results are in. I'm excited about this opportunity but Mexus has to keep all of its options open and thus we continue to have discussions with other interested parties."
http://globenewswire.com/news-release/2014/11/04/679602/10106165/en/Mexus-Gold-US-Julio-Santa-Elena-Update.html
You can go back and read some of the posts from earlier in the year and find some discussion on FP, Atzek, and some of its members. It was definitely one of my first questions how a 500k-1M market cap company pays us over $4 M in cash. Such a thing is not usually realistic and is a red flag at first glance.
Personally I believe it is much more likely we will be paid rather than not for the following reasons: They have had a year to restart/develop the SF mine and either raise money or produce efficiently without theft for a couple months. Doing either would allow them to borrow money, earn some, or raise equity to pay us. Atzek is connected to the Sonoran University and the geologic community of Mexico, which I believe connects them to a pool of potentially billions of dollars, or at least millions of dollars for good, proven projects. Atzek and FPV are definitely linked and share board members IIRC and have Sonoran U alumni. I did some research on this earlier in the year and felt confident that they could raise money as long as their operations weren't stalled all year. They have the connections and I think they have the goods.
The value of the Trinidad/ SF mine is hard to put an exact figure on but even with the decline in gold prices, its plant, land, and equipment are likely worth more than the $4M. I look at the Trinidad/SF and I see a project that if they had another 15-20 million they would probably be able to make six figure gold production yearly for decades, which equates to about a billion dollars of market cap in good times. Sergio Trelles and the other management members know what they have, it doesn't take much imagination to see. Just hard work and money required to make it so. The grades are so high compared to its neighbours it, like Mexus, makes an attractive proposition for investors.
There was also a recent comment by PT in a ghost PR about how he was pleased with First Pursuit's progress at the other mine. I checked all of the recent PRs and I couldn't find the source even though I am positive it exists and was written in a short comment in the last paragraph of one of the recent releases. The ghost PRs really annoy me and I shouldn't have to ask the company to put each release on their website so we can read the damn things.
Perhaps ideally we are get a JV going in short order and we are not paid for the SF and re-assume 50% ownership. The Trinidad could easily be an excellent compliment to our other operations, if they were done right.
Admittedly the story is kind of confusing. This is because of the company changing its plans numerous times in response to negotiations and what they believed to be the most prudent course at a given time. IMO this is both a good and a bad thing. Rigid projects that never change or adapt tend to fail but on the other side publicly changing your plans and never seeming to complete them is not a good thing and undermines shareholder confidence in management. The PRs they issue do not even make it to the Mexus website or mailing list, so their visibility, even to current shareholders, is low. And then even if they did reach us, most people will either not read them anyway or not fully comprehend the information contained therein, even though they are often short and are written in plain English. The blame is split between the company and the investors. If you missed even one of these ghost PRs or follow some of the message boards closely chances are pretty good that you will not know what is going on. When everything is clear and obvious Mexus will be priced to match.
When investing in these types of companies you must read the filings and keep up to date but I would guess that far less than 5% of junior speculators actually do this.
This is my best understanding of some of the recent PRs and communications from the company:
Is the placer being moved, prepared, or in operation? No.
August 25th: "The company also announced that the placer move has been suspended while partnership negotiations are ongoing. Mr. Thompson noted, “We are speaking to numerous potential partners and it is best that we see wait to see how this plays out before restarting the placer operation. We will evaluate the economics of the placer when an agreement with another firm is reached.”
Do we have a blasting permit?(which we need)? No.
Sept 30th: "The company hopes to submit for this permit in the next week."
How long is the process? I don't know, but I mentioned some info in a previous post that makes it appear as a 2-6 month permit. If we have a partner with a permit we do not need one ourselves, which appears to be the hope of management. Forming a JV would make this need redundant.
Did they submit the paperwork for it? I don't know.
Are we currently drilling? Yes, I believe so. It was set to restart on the 20th, and we have sent at least 800 feet of core for assay.
Sept 30th: "Mexus’ diamond drilling project, which was scheduled to start on September 15,, 2014 is now scheduled to start October 20, 2014. The contracted driller, Matt Westervelt, had medical issues which caused this delay. Mexus has already drilled four diamond NH drill holes to 200 feet. On September 25th, the first 108 feet were delivered to a Reno, NV assay company. The results of this assay will be released when received. These first four holes were drilled in a shear zone identified by our geologist, Cesar Lemas."
What are the mystery people/ potential partners doing at our property? They are testing the property for obviously economic gold. If they brought a metal detector they will probably kick some over.
Oct 17th: President Paul Thompson added, "Recently, Julio Baltazar (VP), Guillermo Baltazar (Mine Superintendent) and I have presented our information and knowledge of the project to a group of geologists representing a major mining company. We have agreed to resume our discussions in four weeks during which they will complete their internal surveying, mapping and sampling of the property. We have a high degree of confidence that this group of very professional miners will conclude that the valuation and future potential of the project does indeed exist and provide them with a basis to continue our discussions. I'm encouraged that the company is investing such a significant effort through the sheer size and manpower to conduct their due diligence in a relatively short time period."
Negotiations are set to resume in a month. There is a good chance we complete a deal before the end of the year. If our partners wait any longer we will use our $4 M note and do it ourselves.
Why are we here?
July 23rd: “We believe that our property has a 1 million ounce gold potential. Given that, we are being very careful when considering our options. I appreciate the continued support of our shareholder base and ask for patience during this time. I’m optimistic that we will work something out. We have the property, there is gold, and we have our permits which makes us an attractive partner. That being said, I won’t give away the property.” -Paul Thompson