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Would think GBN up today on the news.
It is down about 6%. NEM is up 1%. Gold down about 2%.
I know they use to pass the GBN news release around the office, for comments, before they released it. So maybe those in the know sold on the news. The junior precious metal stocks are down a lot today. The only reason, I can think of that NEM is up, is it is used as a hedge, and so carries a high short interest. I have noticed that it often does not work well as a hedge.
On the Rusaf Gold purchase
GBN has some very good management, so we want to have faith that the management knows what they are doing. James Sinclair's mine is also located in Tanzania. Sinclair has been saying Tanzania is a good location for a gold mine. I currently have about 6% of my portfolio, invested in GBN.
GBN: "Unaffected By Power Interruptions"
DJ: "Great Basin Golds Burnstone Mine Proj Unaffected By Power Interruptions."
Dow Jones Newswires
I just got this message. I do not have a link, as it came from my brokerage firm. That is the total message, except it said more information to follow.
GBN added to naked short list.
I found this alert message from my broker, today. I don't know what it means. Perhaps someone knows, better then I do, what it means. However from what he says below, I think it means that persons have gone short shares of GBN, which were not borrowed from someone. This is against the rules, but as Sinclair has pointed out is being done, and especially in precious metals shares.
The rules, on the exchanges, state that when a person goes short stock, the broker must borrow the stock from its inventory, and then sell it on the open market. When the person covers his short position, the stock must then be re bought, on the open market, and added back into the inventory.
Some brokerages are allowing, in violation of the rules, a person to go short the stock, without there actually being any borrowing of the stock, and selling it. When the person goes short the stock, the stock is simply being sold, without having any shares to actually sell and then re bought. This is considered to have a negative impact on the price of a stock.
The message from my broker is:
"With 180.82 million shares outstanding and 1.36 million shares declared short as of November 2007, there is a failure to deliver in shares of GBN."
Yes I remember those days.
When GBN was on the OTCBB. The problem there was the specialist on that board did not have to sell you shares, even if your limit bid matched an ask price of an order, which came in from outside. For example I could put in a limit order to buy at say 0.55, and then see a trade execute at say 0.50, and I would never get my shares at 0.55. I complained to my broker and he explained that the rules were different on the OTCBB board, then on the NYSE and AMEX. The OTCBB specialist would set the price on GBN, that he would sell or buy GBN at, and that was the price you then had to buy or sell it at. It did not matter what the bid and ask orders for GBN were, coming in from individual investors. The specialist would also set the spread, of the bid and ask, to be quite wide, so he could make a good profit. In fact it was this wide bid and ask spread that you had to buy and sell to, not the bid and ask prices comming in from individual investors.
I use to call GBN Investor relations often, and then write up what I had found out, and posted it on the Bear Forum message board.
I remember the time GBN went below 0.50/share. I called Investor Relations, and they told me there was someone who had about 500,000 shares to sell, and he was using market orders, and this was when GBN was a OTCBB stock. Investor Relations got their information by contacting the broker of the person selling the shares. They refused Investor Relations offer of help in finding a buyer for the block of shares. GBN was driven down to about 0.27. I bought quite a few shares at 0.30.
I have a few other juniors
From Ormetal I have their favorite, for growth, Chesapeake Gold, CHPGF.V and their second favorite for growth Andina Minerals ADMNF.V. They have about 12 favorites now, in their letter. These symbols work for the U.S. and not for Canada, which are different symbols.
Another of their favorites which is a "Near Term Producer", is Minefinders, MFN. I like it because it has both gold and silver.
GBN is the junior I have the most of.
I also like CEF for gold and silver bullion. You want to buy this one when the premium is low, as it is a closed end fund.
South African Stocks Strong, Friday
I went over the South African Stocks I know about, and the ones in the precious metals indexes, and they appeared to be strong on Friday.
I took a look at the large closed end fund, ASA, which is on the NYSE, and which is all South African stocks, and it was up 5.32%, as of Fridays close.
So that would appear to rule out any article, on South Africa's government, having a significant effect on the price of GBN
One Month Chart of ASA
http://bigcharts.marketwatch.com/quickchart/quickchart.asp?symb=ASA&sid=0&o_symb=ASA&freq=1&time=4
Adam Hamilton's GBN stop was at 2.26
He recommended GBN, in his December market letter, which subscribers received, over the Internet, on December 1, 2007, which was a Saturday. He shows the price for GBN,in the letter as 2.83, which was Fridays close of November 30, 2007 and recommends a stop 20% down, at 2.26. I don't know if his stop contributed to the end of the day weakness in GBN as GBN closed just below his stop of 2.26 at 2.25. Any subscribers who put in a stop at 2.26, would have gotten stopped out, I would think. I don't know how many subscribers he has, and I don't know how many shares of GBN they hold, but it could have contributed to that 230,000 share block at 4:03 pm, at 2.25, perhaps.
I have never agreed with his use of stops at -20% down on the stocks he recommends. I see he gets stopped out too often. It causes an investor to sell a stock on weakness, when it is oversold. In a long term bull market, which we most probably are in with precious metals, you want to buy stocks when they are oversold and perhaps sell some of your stock when it is overbought.
Adam Hamilton's website is at:
www.ZEALLLC.COM
Also the close on 12/20/07 was not right.
After the market closed yesterday, Thursday 12/20/07, I saw something strange. GBN had closed at 2.72 at 3:59. Then after the close, it jumped up to 2.84. It is this 2.84 value that the down -0.59 shows today, not the 2.72.
I was also watching MFN, Minefinders. It closed at a certain price, then I saw the bid ask spread widen to the ridiculous spread they use to show you that the market was closed. Then a small trade came in that knocked the price down about 1%, and that was shown as the close.
So I was not surprised to see GBN move down today, and MFN move up. Also none of those trades show up on my charts today, probably because they were after the close. They took them off the charts because they were after the close, even though that is from where they get the days change from.
Sinclair has been saying that the market maker, or someone, is posting PM share trades after the close, to show the wrong close, so they can make some money. He has been saying this for about a month now.
GBN closed in Canadian at 2.64 CAD
Using the current rate of 1.0083 that is =
2.64x1.0083 = 2.66 U.S.
Last trade was a Block of 51,700 at 2.64. High was 2.76 and the low was 2.58. With a bid at 2.60 and an ask at 2.64
Canadian symbol for GBN is GBG, and then for the TO exchange that gives for some brokerages GBG.TO
Talked with a trader on this:
He said that GBN is trading at 2.68 after hours.
He said for low priced stocks you should always use a limit order and some poor guy might have gotten that price.
About the GBN close today 12/21/07
I have a chart which shows the minute by minute trades.
For minute 3:59 we have:
2.63 Open
2.71 High
2.61 Low
2.62 Close
Then for the next trade at 4:03 we have:
One trade at 230, 600 shares at, 2.25 down -0.59 or -20.77%
I would think that was a misprint. Especially coming in 3 minutes after the close.
At minute 9:36 it traded 503, 000 shares and we have:
2.71 Open
2.71 High
2.70 Low
2.71 Close
Which says that 230,600 shares should not knock it down that much.
Total volume today was 2.1M shares. So 230K shares should not knock it down that much. Besides what this trading, 3 minutes after the close?
Wonder if this would effect GBN?
GBN is now just over 10% of my portfolio. My average price per share is 0.50, and I bought some at 0.30. I started promoting, calling attention to, GBN many years ago, on Bear Forum, after it had gone down to 0.50, and when very few person were following it. I considered it a great value at that price.
Some people thought I actually worked for the company. I did a Google search on my screen name once, I use at Bear Forum and found a discussion about myself, where the persons were saying they thought I must be an employee of the company. I have never worked for the company or had any affiliation with it.
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From James Sinclair's site; www.jsmineset.com
"Posted On: Monday, November 05, 2007, 2:14:00 PM EST
Proposed US Mining Law Reinforces The USA's Reliance On International Sources For Raw Material
Author: Jim Sinclair
Dear CIGAs,
Although the wording of the bill sounds logical, it refers more to the early days of the robber barons than present day activities of the extractive industry. Yes, some companies have a history of paying $1.25 per acre for mineral properties, but not today.
All this bill will do when and if it is passed by a democratic majority House and Senate is to improve the prospects of non US companies operating outside of North America while depressing companies mining or prospecting on US Federal property for any mineral or resource.
A 4% GORR (Gross Operating Revenue Royalty), when you do the numbers, exceeds a 40% joint venture interest’s income by a wide margin. That is an unconscionable amount to extract from a US company, making the US government a more than 40% risk-free partner, not off the bottom line but rather off the top.
Similar laws have been put forward in the United States many times before and it will face strong opposition in the Senate and a White House veto as well. The enactment of this shortsighted legislation would only serve to increase American dependence on foreign sources of industrial commodities just like the nation has for oil.
The real question comes into play for US mining property holders on US federal lands when this bill is processed under Madam President, rather than Mr. President, in 2008 to a democratic controlled Senate, not a closely balanced Senate between the two parties. This is a question of 2008 - 2009 not 2007. It is never a question for a non US company operating outside of the USA. Be alert two years from today."
Deutsche Securities Initiates Coverage of GBN
With an initial rating of Buy.
I got this information from my brokerage firm today, so I do not have a link.
From the Deutsche Securities website:
http://www.db.com/en/content/company/our_company.htm?ghpnavigation=ENG_Our_Company
"A leader in Germany and Europe, the bank is continuously growing in North America, Asia, and key emerging markets."
"73,114 employees in 75 countries"
Voting on the GBN 06/19/07 proposals
I just read through it, and they are difficult, if not impossible to figure out. That seems true of many other companies,who have sent me voting materials in the past also, however. No wonder that so many shareholders just don't vote.
I don't like the idea of Preferred Shares, they are proposing again. They point out that proposal failed by a small margin last time, so they have it on the ballet again. As I remember many companies eliminated their share class, Preferred Shares, as something from the past. Preferred Shares, usually have special voting rights and other privileges not afforded to Common Shares. I see the Directors will have the authority to determine what the privileges will be on these shares. I currently plan to vote against this proposal.
As for the other proposals, the Shareholders Rights, I may just not vote on that one. Perhaps some of the large companies, who hold a lot of shares of GBN, like some of the precious metals mutual funds, have persons who are knowledgeable on this, and they can do the voting for us.
Not sure about the revised Share Option plan either. They have had years to work this out and this plan has been revised many times. So I am inclined to vote against it.
GBN, as does many other companies, appears to have no desire to explain the proposals, in terms the average shareholder can understand, and that could be the way they want it to be. I am not going to vote yes on anything I can not understand. Fortunately I am set up to vote on the Internet, so I have time to work on this before the meeting on June 19, 2007.
Does anyone have any ideas on these proposals?
BMO Upgrades GBN Buy Rating.
From Market Perform to Outperform. This may be helping the stock price today.
RE: Equity Offering
Looks like the market is viewing the release of this information as positive for GBN. GBN currently up 7.5% to 2.42.
Perhaps they have already committed to selling these shares to buyers. In the past the offerings have gone fast. That would be positive for the shares. Also hopefully the next sale will be a ways off. Perhaps since they will be mining, there may not be another one.
Using the Kitco conversion, today, of 0.8815 C$ to 1$ US, I get:
2.60C = 2.292US; 3.50C = 3.085 US.
Looks like HD is buying the HL share of the Nevada reserves at a bargain price.
RE: Good News
I was hoping that they would be able to use some of the profits from their mining operations, in place of issuing more shares. The good thing is they have not borrowed money from banks. Sinclair says the banks make them take out gold derivatives, to protect the banks, which is very bad for profits, as the gold price rises. If any of you have any information on this general subject, I would be interested in hearing it, as I have only seen it from James Sinclair, at his site at www.jsmineset.com He puts most all gold stocks at high risk of going broke because of this, which I have a hard time believing. However the GBN news today is not hurting their share price. I suppose most all juniors need to issue more shares, as time goes on.
I currently have about a 7.5% position in GBN, with an average cost of about 0.50/share. I have been actively promoting this stock on the Internet chat board, Bear Forum, ever since it hit 0.50/share, years ago. I even have my sister in this stock, with an average cost of about 0.50/share. When I did a Google search on my screen name, Bill G., I noticed that some persons were saying I must be an employee of Hunter Dickinson. However I have no ties with HD or any other mining company. I am a retired electrical engineer.
GBN Annual Report is available.
Link:
http://www.greatbasingold.com/gbg/Financials.asp
GBN Recent Performance
My guess as to the recent sell off in the shares, and todays much improved performance, is it may have to do with their recent announcement of a large public offering. This offering was not expected to close until mid-April, however in the past they have been able to get commitments for all of the shares early.
Such a large offering puts pressure on the price of the stock until they have commitments for the shares. As I write this GBN is currently up about 8%, with the HUI only up about 0.3%.
HD says it is a good deal
I haven't done the detailed math, but I guess you take the $60M and divided it by the ounces they have gained. Actually probably $30M really, as with all the work already done, the cost of mining the ounces goes down and so you subtract the $30M work Hecla has done to date. Even dividing 1M oz. into $30M gives you $30 per ounce. I am using 2M known reserves here, with HD gaining 1M on the deal. Then you have the cost to mine the oz, taken from the profit gained.
Or you could take $60M, and use the 1M oz. gained form Hecla and get $60/oz.
Even taking $60M, and using 0.5M oz. gained gives you $120 per oz. Even if the cost of removing the gold is $200, if gold is at $600, it seems like a good deal. I may be missing something here tonight.
I don't feel like calculating this out tonight, but perhaps someone would be willing to do that for us.
Here is the link to the HD news release on this tonight, in case you have not seen it.
http://www.greatbasingold.com/gbg/NewsReleases.asp?ReportID=171999
Here is a paragraph from the news release:
"President and CEO Ferdi Dippenaar said: "We are pleased to have regained 100% of the Hollister Property. These must be some of the cheapest near-production ounces that Great Basin Gold could have acquired. The Company has made good progress toward the completion of the feasibility study for the HDB project. With all the established surface facilities and underground development in place, we are well positioned to advance rapidly toward the optimal development of the mine. Using the information gained from the drilling program, a decision on the rate of production and capital expenditure required to develop the mine, can be made."
Why HD went with Hecla
I remember talking to Hunter Dickinson about that, back then. They said they needed someone to finance the project and someone who had experience doing the mining. HD was not a company that did their own mining.
I think it has worked out well in the end. The delays were not even all that bad. That is because we are in a long term PM bull market, and delays in mining just means higher prices when they go to sell the PM. Think of a mine as PM stored in a safe deposit box somewhere. The longer you wait, in a long term bull market, to sell it the better.
Any way I like the deal, and am happy GBN now owns the project completely. I never liked sharing 50/50 with Hecla, and Hecla was a difficult company to work with.
Bought GBN, I am looking for an adviser on this stock.
When I saw the BI Research sell on GBN last week, I sold a small amount of my GBN at about 1.79, and today bought that same amount back, at about 1.63.
I have been a subscriber to his letter for over 15 years. I had noticed that when he issued a sell, in the past, that usually moved the stock down to its maximum on Monday. Subscribers would read his letter over the weekend, think about it, and then sell on Monday.
I am encouraged by the fact that at its maximum low today GBN was at 1.60, unchanged, and this was on a day, so far anyway this morning, when the average gold stock is down about 1%. That shows that there is some good support for this stock. GBN opened this morning unchanged at 1.60.
Now that BI Research has issued a sell, that means he will no longer be following the stock. Does anyone know of a good precious metals,(PM), and the PM stocks, adviser that follows GBN, and hopefully has it as a Buy? If so I think I would like to subscribe to his letter. I have been looking for a good PM advisory letter anyway, and would appreciate any thoughts you may have on this.
BI has a sell on GBN:
That is BI Research at www.biresearch.com
He says no particular reason, except its price action. It has not been going anywhere. Here are his main comments:
"As I look around I find I have been least excited about Great Basin partly because the years when a company has finished exploration and is preparing to finance (means more dilution) and build production and then get the kinks out is not generally a very exciting time for the stock. Also frankly. and not that this is the main reason, but I have held this one longer than I care to admit, given it's not up several thousand or even hundred percent in that time."
"Note there is no eminent danger here. 110 rush to exit. It's just time to move on to new opportunities- Sell."
Did Not Understand Some Parts Of Article
"Dippenaar stresses that, during construction, risk or equity funding will be GBG’s preferred financing route, as debt financing would inevitably result in hedging commitments. “Shareholders have not had the full value of their investment, and to hedge away the future upside is probably not the way to go,” says Dippenaar, who was part of the rabidly antihedging core while at Harmony. “We are on the realising-value curve as we begin developing the mine, so we do not want to dilute shareholders, especially since we don’t need the funding.”
I understand the undesirability of borrowing money from the banks, to fund projects. James Sinclair has explained how the banks, in order to guarantee repayment, require the companies to hedged/go short gold future contracts, for the amount of the loan. Then because of newer accounting rules, as gold move up, this shows up on the companies books as a loss. Sinclair has pointed out how this is a bad idea.
Dippenaar says at the bottom of the top paragraph that they "don't need the funding". So I don't understand why he then says they will use risk or equity funding. I am not sure what risk or equity funding is, unless it is to issue more shares. I don't understand what risk funding is, unless that is another word for issuing more shares. I think that is what he is actually saying.
By the phrase, "they don't need the funding", I guess he means they don't need to borrow from the banks, but will need to issue new shares of some type, like Preferred shares. So perhaps I have figured it out, after all.
To amarksp: I see you think that Preferred shares is a good idea. I know in the past you have not been in favor of increasing the number of shares. Perhaps though you are saying that since Preferred shares are different then the Common shares, they do not dilute, or the advantages overcome the disadvantages. It does look like however, if they want to issue Preferred shares, they will have to have another proxy meeting to vote on them.
Interesting GBN Meeting On Wednesday:
I just talked with HD Investor Relations. They said there were not enough proxies submitted to hold the meeting, so the meeting was not held. I have never seen that happen with a GBN meeting before. Normally, before the meeting, they contact the large holders of the shares, and explain to them why they want the proposals voted on, and they then have more then enough votes to hold the meeting.
HD Investor Relations said that, because they could not hold the meeting, the proposals to increase the shares was probable considered defeated.
Comments On Posts #425 & #426
Post #425:
Thank you OG for your insights on the proposals to be voted on at todays GBN meeting. I will say that HD has managed the addition of shares fairly well. For example they sold the last batch at about US$2 and with no warrants attached.
Post #426:
The problem I have with those news releases, of drilling results, from mining companies, is I can not get a good feel for what they mean as to a rough estimates, as to added reserves. Perhaps there are persons who know how to determine this, or perhaps there is just not enough information available for even a rough estimate. I don't think that mining companies are allowed to give a rough estimate.
I noticed unusually trading in the GBN shares, just prior to the release of the information. It was up, as I remember about 20%, on Friday then down about 20% on Monday, and currently it is underperformed a bit, the price of HUI. My guess that was persons trading on inside information, and not doing too well by it.
On The GBN Vote On 6/21/06
I see we have through 6/20/06,11:59 ET, to vote, over the Internet.
I have to wonder about the proposals 3 and 4 to vote on. Proposal three allows a special class of shares to be issued, and in any amount of shares they want to issue. Proposal 4 allows the articles of the company to be changed so that the special class of shares can be issued.
I don't see any reason we need a special class of shares or to be issued in unlimited amounts. It seems to me that GBN has been doing quite well with the class of shares it currently has. I also see no reason to change the articles to allow the special class of shares to be issued. I think American companies have been moving away from issuing a special class of shares.
GBN Completes Financing
On Monday they competed the sale of 11,200,000 shares which included an over-allotment of 4,500,000 shares at Cdn $2.25 per share, to raise $25.2 million.
Another private placement of $10 million, at the same price, is expected to be completed next week.
Looks Like GBN No Longer In GDM
It use to be. I see the latest list on the AMEX does not include it. GDM does have TGB in it. Perhaps is has to do with market cap, and that caused GBN to fall out.
Index Components as of: 05/05/06
Company Name Symbol % Weighting
Newmont Mining NEM 12.94%
Barrick Gold ABX 9.44%
Anglogold Ashanti Ltd Ads AU 7.48%
Goldcorp Inc GG 7.03%
Glamis Gold Ltd GLG 6.45%
Freep't Mcmoran Copper&gold'b' FCX 6.28%
Gold Fields Ltd Adr GFI 6.13%
Harmony Gold Mining Adr HMY 4.18%
Kinross Gold KGC 4.04%
Agnico Eagle Mines AEM 3.55%
Comp de Minas Buenaventura Ads BVN 3.51%
Meridian Gold MDG 3.34%
Bema Gold BGO 2.20%
Yamana Gold AUY 1.73%
Randgold Resources Ads GOLD 1.67%
Eldorado Gold Corp EGO 1.53%
Coeur d'alene Mines CDE 1.48%
Pan Amer Silver PAAS 1.43%
Iamgoldcorp IAG 1.38%
Gammon Lake Resources GRS 1.12%
Novagold Resources NG 1.07%
SILVER STANDARD RESOURCES SSRI 1.07%
Cambior Inc CBJ 0.97%
Crystallex Intl KRY 0.93%
Northgate Minerals NXG 0.92%
Northern Orion Resources NTO 0.84%
Apex Silver Mines Ord SIL 0.80%
Hecla Mining HL 0.74%
Royal Gold Inc RGLD 0.71%
TAN RANGE EXPLORATION CORP TRE 0.68%
Golden Star Resources GSS 0.68%
Miramar Mining MNG 0.61%
Taseko Mines TGB 0.38%
Seabridge Gold Inc. SA 0.33%
Rio Narcea Gold Mines Ltd. RNO 0.33%
Minefinders Corp. Ltd. MFN 0.31%
NEVSUN RESOURCES LTD NSU 0.31%
Aurizon Mines Ltd. AZK 0.30%
Metallica Resources MRB 0.26%
Gold Reserve'a' GRZ 0.26%
Orezone Resources OZN 0.22%
Cumberland Resources Ltd. CLG 0.22%
Entree Gold Inc. EGI 0.15%
http://www.amex.com/
New ETF To Include GBN:
As the article points out this Exchange Traded Fund will help the price of the smaller PM stocks like GBN. The ETF will be the GBM index. Often the ETF will come out with options also.
Here is the information on the GDM index and what it contains
http://news.goldseek.com/GoldSeek/1097209403.php
Here is the information on the GDM ETF
http://www.billcara.com/archives/2006/03/gdm_as_an_etf_t.html
2.25 To Current Price & Warrants
I just called Hunter Dickinson. They have verified with me that there are no warrants, to be issued, with that offering.
Canadian symbol is GBG.TO and I see it is currently at 2.30. That is only 2.2% higher then 2.25.
Then you take into account that the shares will not go on sale till May, and it looks like the current share price has pretty well discounted the new share offer.
Selling More Shares Comments
GBN prices its shares in Canadian dollars. I see on Kitco that 1US = .8738 Canadian Dollar.
I was going to check the price of GBN on the Canadian exchange but apparently I have the wrong symbol for it.
I see that CEF, a closed end company I own, that has only gold and silver bullion, at 50 ounces silver to 1 ounce gold, is also issuing more shares, they announced today.
Interestingly, even though that is actual physical, they are selling the shares at a substantial discount, and also the shares are currently selling at a 10% premium.
GBN Update
I talked with Hunter Dickinson yesterday. They said the increase in the stock price, over the last few days, was because of their announcement of the new GBN president. They are awaiting the assay results from the recent drilling done in Nevada.
BI Research, at www.biresearch.com said in his latest stock market letter, about GBN:
"Hecla's tunneling efforts have at last reached and cut through the Gwenivere vein. We are awaiting assay results, but the vein is visible and appears to be fatter than drill holes from surface generally indicated. The tunnel has progressed on towards the Clementine vein system and has now turned to run parallel in between the two so it can tunnel off the main tunnel left and right and sample and drill along both. Underground drilling starts in January."
New President Positive For GBN
http://www.greatbasingold.com/gbg/NewsReleases.asp?ReportID=124045
The statement on a new president of his stature in the industry, appears to have been positive for the stock today.
News on GBN or Lack Of
BI came out with its every 6 weeks letter, on Monday, and had no new news to report on GBN, so I did not post it any where. It had the shortest bit on GBN I believe I have seen to date. It continues to rate it a hold, pending new developments. This lack of news from BI may have contributed to the weakness in GBN.
However there really is no new news. HL is continuing to drill to the main veins. They currently expect to reach these veins by the end of this year. They also current expect to put out some kind of report on what they are finding, by year end. I don't know if they will be looking for new resources at that point however.
Hopefully they will find significant new resources. However we may have to wait till 2006 for that. I think they will, as the previous resources were found at a shallow depth, and the resources had a higher content of gold and silver as they went deeper. HD did not have the money to dig the deep holes. That is to be done by HL.
We have waited for years already, but it looks like 2006 is going to be the year we find out what additional resources there are in Nevada. In the meantime with 10M oz of gold and with a low cost to mine, it does not look like there is much downside to GBN here.
What BI says today on GBN schedule
Hecla should be alongside the targeted Gwenivere and Clementine veins systems in Q4 2005, and start drilling into the vein system to prove up the grade and mine some of it to offset expenses. So he is saying they will be alongside the veins in Q4.
From his market letter today
www.biresearch.com
Further Clarification:
The reason I erased the first post is I wanted to get things right. I wanted to hear what BI had to say.
I just called HD investors relations again, to clarify, after the amarksp post. I had also talked with them before about what decline everyone was talking about.
HD confirmed that HL expects to get to the first vein during the third quarter of this year. As I discussed in a previous post, this does not get them to the completion of the decline, as the decline has further to go. HD also hopes to have some results during the forth quarter of this year, according to what I was told today. Perhaps HL has a different story or they want to be more conservative. However that does not say just how much results they will have in the forth quarter of this year.
That is what I got from HD Investor relations anyway. I will see what BI has to say.
GBN Status & Short Message
Remember the children’s story about the Emperors new clothes. Only those who are worthy can see the clothes or the message. :)
I tried to cancel it as I think BI comes out this week. Apparently I don't know how to cancel it, and just erased the message.
I got an update from a person at HD Investor Relations just now. However I wanted to see what HD said first to see if there was any conflict.
However I will post what I got from HD Investor Relations below and if there is any conflict I will try and get it resolved. BI talks to different people then I do. Also this person has been at the Las Vegas gold show last week, so they may not know the latest.
Any way here is the message I erased, if you are curious, and we will see what BI says.
GBN Current Status:
HD just got back from the Las Vegas gold show. They talked to a lot of people, and that does tend to drum up support for their gold shares. My guess as to the little bounce in GBN, off the lows.
HD told me today that HL currently expects to get to the main veins, in Nevada, by the end of the third quarter of this year. Expect to have some results on what they find during the forth quarter.
Additonal Comments on Hecla Schedule.
I see that Hecla does quote 2200 feet, in their press release. When I talked with the company they told me 1400 feet of the 1800 feet had been completed. However, as I remember now, the 1800 feet actually just gets them to the veins so they can start exploration of them. That does not complete the decline.
The 2006 dates, in which Hecla is quoting the completion of the decline, does not stop them from exploration of the veins before that time. Also note that they are bringing in additional underground drilling equipment in October, so their underground drilling and exploration will continue for some time.
So in summary, I think that BI is correct in his information. What is important is that they currently plan to begin exploration of the veins in the early fall. Hecla has a lot more work to do to expand the decline, and to do additional drilling, to come up with an accurate and final estimation of total resources, prior to production. This will all take some time and take us well into 2006.