I just checked Yahoo again and they have corrected the mistake. Sorry I raised the alarm--I should have known Yahoo was at fault. Up two pennies after all.

It has been a long time since I posted here but I was shocked to see this apparent price drop. What happened? It is on reflected on the Toronto Exchange and I checked the price about fifteen minutes before the NYSE closed and the stock was up two pennies. Unless this is just a horrible mistake, a whole lot of selling when on during the last few minutes. Someone tell me this is a mistake!

I will be voting in favor of the warrants. I know that the Company has screwed over its shareholders through a series of bad financial decisions. That is clear.

I believe that being the case is no reason to be against this proposal. The warrants will generate around $6 million which will be used for further exploration and development. It will also be used to fatten the wallets of some of the executives in the Company. I know that but, get used to it, that happens in almost all publicly traded companies.

I think that the benefits outweigh the downside. On the upside, the Company gets over $6 million dollars. Keep a good thought(sarcasm on)--if the share price stays below $.73 cents Canadian for the next 24 months, the warrants will expire worthless.

My continued belief (thus far wrong) is that the POS will dramatically increase over the years. If that is true, the warrant holders will benefit and we, the shareholders will as well, from the increased production due to the increased ability to explore for new resources.

I think that this could be a good move for the Company. It will provide money for exploration and development and it isn't really dilutive. Each warrant costs $.58 Canadian and gives the holder the right to buy a share of USGIF for $.73 Canadian for up to 24 months. At the end of 24 months, if the share price is not higher than the .73 cents, it expires worthless.

I think that what we have is some rare good news from the Company.


http://finance.yahoo.com/news/u-silver-gold-announces-fourth-230500495.html

I believe that the most recent stock price decline had several causes:

1. The continued decline in the POS. As I have said (and to paraphrase Dickens): $40 silver equals happiness for the stock price and $18 silver equals disaster for the stock price.

2. The recent closure turned out to be a very minor event;

3. This is tax loss selling time. USGIF is apparently one of the few stocks around that you can sell and offset other gains. That, I believe, has been on going.

I still own this stock but have not been following it closely because it is too depressing. Maybe that will change. But the POS just has to go back up before this stock price will do anything positive.

If that is true, he has made dam few appearances here during the past couple of years!!

Seriously, the stat that I watch most closely (even more than the price of silver) is the rate of return on the 10 year and 30 year bonds.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/15839203

I wasn't completely surprised by the decision yesterday by the Fed to continue buying 85 billion a month of our debt. I do not think they had a choice at this point. If the taper went into effect, just who else would step up to buy those bonds at these historically low interest rates.

Our two biggest buyers (outside of the Fed) are Japan and China and now they are actually net sellers.

If the Fed wasn't there to buy those bonds, the interest rates would have to rise to attract buyers. And our economy could collapse if rates on those bonds even went up to historic norms like 5 to 6%. That is because our debt has risen so much that if interest rates were even at normal levels, the amount that would have to go to just pay the interest would stagger our economy.

The question is, in my mind, is the genie already out of the bottle. In other words, is the obvious fact that our dollar is becoming more and more worthless going to force interest rates up (on a slow but gradual course) so that even with the Fed continuing QE, rates will rise?

Agreed.

The first quarter numbers were better than expected and the validity of that statement is demonstrated by the positive market reaction to the news of the Production Report. If the market saw the numbers today as a "disaster", the price of the stock would not have responded in the fashion that it did--even with the price of precious metals going up.

It is both accurate and misleading to say, in a vacuum, that if the price of precious metals stays as it is or goes down, then USGIG will not survive. In fact, if the price of precious metals stays down, better than 90% of miners will not survive.

I have said over and over again that if you do not expect the price of gold to soon surpass $2000 and the price of silver to soon surpass $40, then you should not be in miners--any miners.

I would not trade USGIF for HL (with its Lucky Friday problems) or ABX with its Pascua Lama problems.

The news release said that this quarter is likely to be the smallest in terms of production and the highest in terms of cost of production. Management is acting prudently (finally) in dealing with Drumlummon and concentrating on the Caladay Zone.

The immediate cost reductions are prudent and will be healthy for the Company. Drilling results for the CZ are much better than could be expected and give promise for the future.

Again--if you don't think precious metals will rebound from these levels--run to sell this stock. But if you believe in the future of precious metals, there is no miner better able to take advantage of price increases than USGIF..

Upon further reflection, I do blame management for the awful venture into Drumlummon. Something fishy (at best )about that. I believe.

Here is my reaction, after some thought, to what happened today. No doubt it was devastating. I happened to be watching on Level 2 when it happened and almost all of the loss took place over a space of five minutes or less. It seemed like a cascade event.

It is interesting to note that I can find only two miners that were actually up today--GG and GLP were up just a bit. The other miners that I follow were all down.

Why would that happen on a day when the price of precious metals was actually up a bit?

Some thoughts--today one of our bigger precious metals "experts", Andy Hoffman, predicted that at these prices many miners will soon be out of business. Did that have an effect? Perhaps, but more importantly, the paper price of precious metals is approaching the amount of money that it takes to pull it out of the ground.

At $23 an ounce, USGIF and many other miners might as well leave it in the ground or else mine it and refuse to sell it on this terrible market. Mining but not selling might be a wise decision but for the short term it would be awful for the quarterly reports.

When you combine all of the costs of mining, very few producers can make money at the current price points of gold and silver--at least the current "paper" price. Under those conditions, can USGIF survive? I think it can.

Look at Hecla and its Lucky Friday mine. It is hardly producing and may not for some time. Look at the disaster at Rio Tinto.

So, am I worried? You bet. Am I concerned? Yes sir. Am I blaming management? Not yet. They and their much talked about options have nothing to do with the price of silver. We would be very happy campers if the POS was $40.

And forget dividends. With the current price of silver and gold, our little Company may have to cut back and certainly dividends are out of the question.

No one but a fool can be happy with the recently released year end report. It was a stinker and supplies further evidence (if any was needed), that the Drumlummon purchase was ill-advised at best. At least those undeserved options may well expire worthless.
Small solace to us shareholders however.

It is important to note that this was listed as a "non-cash" expense. Much if not all of it was a write down due to our crack management team discovering that Drumlummon wasn't worth what they paid for it.



What of a positve nature can be gleened from the latest report.

1. I believe that yearly total revenue was never higher;
2. Proven and probablereserves were more than replaced;
3. The Company actually made a profit on its mining. Without Dumlummon, Great Panther recently lost money on its mining operations!
4. Drilling continues on the Caladay and LZ areas with extraordinary results thus far.
5. We are promised a 10-15% increase in the number of ounces mined during 2013 as compared to 2012.

It is important to note that while USGIG has seen a huge decline in its share price--so has been the experience of most other miners. There are plenty of stinkers in the mining area--USGIF has been one of them.

We should soon see the Production Report for the First quarter as well as the Financial Report. That will tell us if USGIG is on the road (finally) to delivering some news that could drive share price. As I have said before, give us $40 silver and #2000 gold and we will see a drastic turnaround in share price. Give us stagnant prices of precious metals or (horrors) a continued downward trend, and so will our share price.

Not anything good. I attempted to make my opinion of those options clear in my last posting.

But the granting of stock options are a fact of life, even if the recipients have done nothing to deserve them.

I don't like it. If you don't like it enough, stay out of the stock market and buy physical.

It would seem that I am out of step with the rest of the Board on the subject of stock options. Let me be clear--I do not like them--our management is already being paid enough for their services(?)--they do not need more compensation.

On the other hand--what is happening with USGIf happens with almost all publicly traded companies. Stock options are a fact of like--nothing is going on here that isn;t going on with almost all (or all) other miners. You might say that they are not deserved and I would say that I agree with you. But you would be hard pressed to find a company that does not grant its management a whole raft of options. AURff just did it and most, if not all miners, do it.

I will probably listen to the CC. I have tried for the last three times to get on but they do not seem to place a high priority on calls from "individual investors".

I will be interested in their financial results as well as plans for the rest of 2013 and beyond, especially for the LZ and Coeur.

Do not expect them to suddenly cancel the options--won't happen.

Don't forget about the year end results to be released around 3/27.

Agreed--on paper our little Company is far and away more deserving of a higher share price than is Paramount. Paramount has over twice as many outstanding shares and is losing money.

They are, of course, an exploration Company and not a production Company. I may have missed it in looking at its Company website but they are not actually producing any gold/silver.

But it is probable that their management is taking advantage of its shareholders just as much as ours do of us. Things tend to go that way.

What they do produce is PRESS RELEASES!~! It looks like every time anything happens with that Company, they issue a glowing press release.

Thanks for the peek at another Company.

Thank you as well for your responses DeeDog.

I was aware, of course, of the purported relationship between "666" and the "evil entity". I just wanted the person who was making those connections to come out and try to justify it. I do believe that the "evil entity" has more pressing worries than keeping down the price of precious metals!

There just is not a shortage of silver--at least not yet. And, to my surprise, the USD is holding up just fine in value--at least as compared to the rest of the paper money in the world.

How long can that last? As long as the rest of the paper money in the world is worth even less than our own.

Go USGIF!!

Thank you, bar10tender steve for posting that interesting article. I have read it carefully and appreciated the opportunity.

Over the years I have seen similiar articles detailing the future and present uses of silver. It would seem that I do buy that concept since I am a "stacker" and I do own a silver miner (drat!)

But, on the other hand, having seen that type of article before and seeing the rather dismal history of silver during the last couple of years, I do, in weaker moments, question my long held opinions.

The market price is telling me that there just isn't any silver shortage. And since I reject the concept that has been articulated for over thirty years (and with no proof or whistleblower) being provided that there is a long standing and meaningful history of "manipulation" in the silver market, that leads me to believe that, as of now, there is no silver shortage.

I also reject the concept that there is a "evil entity" wearing the number 666 on his chest fighting to keep down the price of silver.

So, thanks again for the article. Once again, I do believe that there is nothing wrong with USGIF that even $2000 gold and $50 silver wouldn't cure.

We continually get postings from NYBob about "666" and "gulag" What does that have to do with USGIG? Maybe he could explain the significance of "666"?

Oh--and go USGIF!!!!!!!

Here is an article of interest

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-06/u-s-silver-gold-sees-private-equity-interest-in-funding-deals.html?cmpid=yhoo

I believe that USGIF is a fine Company with a fine future and the stock price will bottom out here.

And, by the way, one of MANY examples of messages that do not meet the before set out criteria is message 16064.

Thanks for the news--it was totally expected--kick the can down the road for another three months and then probably do the same again. And, I believe that the posting is definitely not off topic.

I believe that the increasing and never ceasing Government spendimg is what will drive the price of precious metals upward.

And while continued government spending and government taxation is bad for our Country and, certainly bad for us--it is good for shareholders in well run miners and stackers of physical.

And great post silvergoldenapple!

Yes, silvergoldenapple, I am gratified by both the actual resumption of the Reports and the information contained therein.

The issuance of those reports was stopped because Management, in essence, believed they could not get them right--so decided to not do them at all!

I am glad that we have a Management who, at least, believes they can issue a reliable report!

I am pleased with the report including the new findings and the promise of increased production. Now, of course, the POS has to cooperate.

Two stats that I follow closely are the interest rates for both the 10 year and 30 year U.S. Treasuries.

Just a month ago, the 10 year yield was 1.70% and the yield for the 30 year bond was 2.80%.

Now the yield for the 10 year is just over 2% and the yield for the 30 year is just over 3.2%

Why is this important? Whatever success the Fed has had in coping with our continued borrowing as a nation has been low interest rates. If the Fed begins to lose control of those rates, then our interest expense will rise and, at our debt levels, could rapidly spin out of control. All of which will devslue our fiat currency.

Good for gold and silver

In its simplicity, you ask an interesting question.

Of course, there DOES exist hope that this stock will hit $7. (Why $7 by the way?)

But you also ask is there any other "promising" stock out there?

I am going to confine my hopefully short answer to only precious metals stocks here. I don't know a lot about other industries.

And the answer is--I do not know of any that are MORE promising than USGIF. There may well be many that are EQUALLY promising however.

The whole future of precious metals stocks lies primarily but not exclusively with the future price of precious metals. If gold and silver decline in value, ALL precious metals stocks will decline. If the price of precious metals skyrockets, then MOST precious metals stocks will also skyrocket.

In addition to rising precious metals prices, the individual Company must also be managed well to properly benefit from those rising prices.

All of us old timers on this board are well aware of what we regard as mistakes made by this Company.

We have been promised a "record" 4th quarter. We will see--probably in late February for those results. Most recently, stock options were issued. Entirely undeserved but that is not uncommon among publicly traded Companys.

Nobody here seems to care but I am aware that we are missing both a Production Estimate for 2013 and a Production Report for the yet to be released 4th quarter.

On the other hand, when you compare the results for this Company vs. many other producers, we win hands down. Our stock price is really understated. (I wish that I could sometimes own a Company whose stock price was overstated!!)

Since I believe that the price of precious metals will rise (I know that I disagree with some here as to just WHY they will rise but the important thing is that we agree that they will rise sometime and, I think, sometime soon.), I continue to hold this stock.

We were promised a Production Estimate to be issued in December of 2012 which would detail how much gold, silver, etc. was expected to be mined in 2013. That promise was not kept.

We were promised a Production Report to be issued in January of 2013 which would detail the amount of minerals mined durng the fourth quarter. Will THAT promise be kept?

I am of course very pleased about the recent action of our share price.

However.....

At the last CC, we were promised that in December of 2012, the practice of publishing a Production Estimate for the coming year would be re-introduced. That didn't happen.

We were also promised that in January we would also receive a Production Report which would set forth the number of ounces and pounds mined during the preceeding quarter.

Will that happen?

1. The moon landings took place on a Hollywood set;
2. George Bush personally blew up the World Trade Center;
3. Jet contrails are a Government plot to harm the public;
4. The Government was behind the killings at Newtown;
5. There is no gold at Fort Knox

I know that paranoia can run deep on a precious metals website, but all of the above have the same validity.

You pose an interesting question. I am only going to provide an estimated answer.

We have had a 1 for 5 reverse split. After that, we had a 2 for three reductiion in our shares for the purchase of Drumlummon.

Taking your .87 cent figure and using a very rough multiplier of 7, we then come to the figure of $6.09 per share.

Would we get there again if silver hits $40? Yes, unless the Company does something to muck it up which is also very possible!!

Here I am replying to my own post but I did have one more thought. I have said it before but it bears repeating.

There is nothing wrong with this Company that $2000 gold and $40 silver will not cure. On the other hand, if you do not believe that those price points will not be met soon, then you should not be in this stock at all.

We seem to disagree about the reasons for the eventual increase in the price of precious metals. But we agree that they will soon be much higher than now. And that is why I am staying with this Company.

Good idea. USGIF has been such a disappointment in so many ways that we have resorted to feeding off ourselves--we should re-direct our anger to the Company.

And I am not angry just because the share price has been so weak. Many other precious metals producers have been weak.

It is just so insulting to shareholders that we have been mislead and indeed lied to so many times over the past couple of years. There are so many examples that I am not going to try to list them all. We are all too well acquainted with them.

Most recently, it was the completely undeserved stock options. We were promised a Production Estimate for 2013 to be issued in December. Didn't happen. Will it happen in January? We will see.

We had, in effect, two reverse splits and the shareprice continues to go down. We were promised an AMEX listing and the Company failed to do the proper paper work before our share price went below $2.

We WERE going to get production out of the new mine. Now that has been delayed in favor of exploration in the LZ. Maybe so, but will THAT goal now be changed?

Over the past couple of years, I did quite well in HL and GPL. I rolled most of those profits over into this Company years ago. I had 400,000 shares before the two reverse splits--now I have a lot less. And a huge paper loss.

Again, I am not bitching and moaning because of the decline in the share price (well maybe some) but rather I am because of the insulting treatment given by the Company to its shareholders.

I had not noticed that so thank you. I will make use of it. Oh--and go USGIF!

So--the insults to me are acceptable but when I complain about a lack of moderation on this Board, it gets wiped.

I have given several times a well-reasoned response to the accusation of huge amounts of manipulation in the precious metals markets and, instead of getting intelligent responses, I get insults. As I said, I can take it but I expected better on what is supposed to be a "moderated" Board.

Oh--GO USGIF!!

Thanks for your response. I just do not equate "naked shorts" with manipulation. As I said, there are naked shorts in each and every market. It is only in the precious metals market where the cries of "evil manipulation" are raised.

And I think that hue and cry goes out from people who make a living predicting the rise in values of precious metals. They are all around. And they are scammers. When their predictions do not come to pass, they raise the cry of "manipulation" and thus attempt to evade their responsibility for misleading the people who paid for their services.

Another point--I would not be in the precious metals market to begin with (both as a "stacker" as well as a holder of precious metals stocks if I felt the market was so manipulated. Why be in a market where such forces can control your financial destiny?

The idea of manipulation of precious metals prices has been around since, I suppose, precious metals gurus started making wrong predictions on the upward price of precious metals and just HAD to find something else to blame for those wrong predictions.

Simply no proof for the kind of silver/gold manipulations that have been alleged.

Again, the most recent case against JPM for manipulating the precious metals market was dismissed for lack of evidence.

I fail to understand why presenting the idea of no organized price manipulation in the precious metals markets continually inspires such anger as you exhibit.

Oh, and when you call somebody a name, it helps to spell it correctly--the word is spelled " naivete"

I think that this is an opportunity to deliver myself once again of my rant against the theory of rampant manipulation in the price of precious metals.

Simply stated, there is a longstanding theory that rampant naked shorting of the precious metals market is responsible for the failure of the price of precious metals to skyrocket.

I reject that theory.

That idea has been floating around since the late 1970's when some thought that the Nynex (the parent of the current Comex) was responsible for keeping down the price of precious metals. So we are to believe that this rampant manipulation has been going on for forty years and has yet to be exposed? Notice that in the last couple of days, the lawsuit against JPM for manipulation of the silver market was dismissed for lack of evidence.

Notice that not one shred of evidence has been produced except for the bleatings of silver gurus who, when forced to explain why silver and gold have not rised to the levels they had predicted--all they can say is MANIPULATION and thereby excuse their continued and pitiful mistakes.

Is there naked shorting of the precious metals market? Of course--just as in all of the other commodity markets. Don't you think that if indeed all that was holding back the price of precious metals, investors like Sprott and others would "expose" the shorts by huge amounts of buying and force them to cover their shorts?

The reason precious metals will rise in value is the continued devlauation of paper money. The most recent action of our Government--raise taxes while not lowering spending- will cause precious metals to rise. And that is why I am in this market.

Rant over for now.

Of course, there is absolutely no reason to grant those options.

Probably, though, it makes no difference because they will expire worthless. (sarcasm on)

Hope you are right. By the way, did you run afoul of the "wash sale" IRS rule?

Yes, thank you for posting it. I was especially interested in the mention of Richmont Mines. I was very wise in when I both bought and sold Richmont, as well as Great Panther. Unfortunately, I put all my winnings into what is now known as USGIF and we know how that is going now.

I could not find any mention of USGIF until the very bottom where there is an advertisement. Was that Company mentioned else where and, if so, on what page.

Interesting set of articles and thanks again for posting.

SOUTHPEN--We all waste time and it is your time and you can waste it as you will--but I see no point in responding to someone who obviously has an ax to grind with this Company and has posted multiple times rehashing the same material.

I wonder at the motive of someone who obviously can form educated and well formulated paragraphs but yet finds it necessary to post many long messages trashing the Company.

At times, he has virtually taken over the Board in an odd fashion responding to his own postings.

We even have several posters who "drop in", trash the Company and say they will not respond--one of them even did and he got called out about it.

I am not happy with the Company nor with the progress of the stock. But I see nothing that $40 silver and $2000 gold will not cure.