There's more than profits and losses to the stock market
David Baines, Vancouver Sun
Published: Saturday, February 16, 2008
He claimed Silverado could produce coal water for the equivalent of $7 US per barrel of oil, which would position the company "as a world leader in the commercial development of such fossil fuels, not only in Alaska, but in other areas of the world." (If you're going to be a world leader, it may as well be the whole world.)
In any event, here we are: eight years later, and Silverado not only doesn't have a commercial plant, it doesn't even have a demonstration plant.
During the nine months ending August 2007, the company didn't generate a single cent of revenue, but there are no signs of austerity at Silverado's spacious, glass-sculpted offices on the 18th floor of the Terasen Gas building at 1111 West Georgia.
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Font:****During the same period, it racked up $5.6 million in expenses, including $967,609 in management services, $891,982 in consulting fees, $722,009 in advertising and promotion, $668,367 in office expenses and $191,584 on reporting and investor relations.
As I mentioned, there are two ways to boost a stock. The first is to do something productive, which Silverado has not. The second way is to give the impression that you are doing something productive. In this regard, Anselmo has been an expert.
In 1980, when the company was trading on the old Vancouver Stock Exchange, the stock peaked at $10.50, but soon fizzled out. In 1993, when it moved to the Nasdaq, it enjoyed a revival of sorts, trading as high as $3.50.
Not content to leave the stock's fate to mother nature, Anselmo has used many different tout services to boost the share price. Among them has been Robert Chapman, a U.S. newsletter writer who has been the subject of cease-and-desist orders in nine different states and was handed a 10-year stock market ban in B.C. in 1989.
Despite his best efforts, Silverado was not able to maintain Nasdaq's minimum stock price and was relegated to the dreadful OTC Bulletin Board in the United States, where it is now trading at six cents.
If we are to believe Anselmo, the flagging stock price is not the company's fault. It is the fault of that ubiquitous stock market bogey-man, the naked short seller (people who sell the stock short without first borrowing the shares, or making an "affirmative determination" that the shares can be borrowed).
This is an illegal practice, one that is difficult to prove but often cited by promoters who need to find somebody or something else to blame for their companies' flaccid performance.
Despite these predators, Anselmo is convinced he will prevail. "We're on the path to becoming successful," he insists. "We're very close. It's been a lifelong battle, but we will not quit."
Such gallant words. Winston Churchill in a Corvette.
dbaines@png.canwest.com
SILVERADO'S 10 (MORE) LOST YEARS
Silverado Gold Mines Ltd. has lost more than $85 million US since its inception in 1963.
LOSSES
1997 / $4,414,772
1998 / $16,938,903
1999 / $1,449,391
2000 / $1,872,116
2001 / $1,677,974
2002 / $3,755,401
2003 / $8,519,169
2004 / $4,304,232
2005 / $3,394,107
2006 / $7,683,002
9 months to August/07 $5,330,229
Losses since inception $85,633,725
Figures in U.S. dollars
AI
