Almaden Minerals Ltd (AMM)

[Ed Monton]

From Mineweb:

http://www.mips1.net/MGGold.nsf/UNID/TWOD-5JJ469


Best of the Vancouver juniors

By: Tim Wood


Almaden Minerals [AMM]

We will be covering Almaden in more depth within a week’s time, but it’s worth a foretaste. It’s not often that family run exploration outfits can entice serious partners, but Almaden has done so repeatedly with the likes of BHP Billiton [BHP], Noranda [NOR] and Sumitomo. Management is a class act with a track record of four discoveries that became mines and it sinks its own money into fund raisings.

For it’s size, Almaden covers a lot of ground and has plenty of hot pokers in the fire covering gold, diamonds and base metals exploration and even a producing gold mine. Almaden’s habit of optioning its properties in exchange for cash and shares means it has an appreciable portfolio under girding its valuation.

Its activity in Mexico is pioneering, having purposely strayed from the better known areas to prospect in areas that were mined before the 1910 revolution that put all investment to flight for much of the rest of the century. Alamden’s results have been promising enough to entice BHP Billiton to participate in further investigating a copper-gold porphyry deposit. Also notable is the Yago project, optioned to Ascot Resources, which has shown bonanza grade gold veins under some old workings. Overall, six joint ventures are operating in Mexico.

Almaden is also a 40% owner of the Mackay Lake diamond project, immediately south of the Diavik mine, which boasts a huge indicator trend. Having isolated a likely area for kimberlites, further drilling is required to pinpoint the likely source of the indicator minerals.

Although the 100% owned Siwash gold mine is only mined on a rudimentary scale at the moment, recent exploration has uncovered a new vein that has turned up grades of 3 ounces per ton and has 2 kilometres of unexplored strike length. That promise encouraged Almaden to buy a second-hand mill for an astonishingly good price and it is being shipped to Siwash for future use. The mine is fully permitted though it requires local permitting for the mill. New engineering studies are being commissioned to prove up the project.