Christmas-Wallpaper-Download.jpg MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEARS I first wish to thank all of you who took time to participate in this year's Annual Meeting of Atacama Resources International Inc.
From all the feedback received to date I feel that I can call it a success.
The Board wanted to reach out and include as many shareholders as possible and therefore decided to hold it via webinar.
Special thanks goes out to the Company's Director of Corporate Communications, Mr. Allan Flasch for his technical abilities making it possible for investors to participate from Nome Alaska to the Florida Keys.
All the Board members made presentations as to Atacama's activities over the past year and commented on the Company's future plans.
$ACRL-CEO RAMBLINGS - FEBRUARY 1, 2019/ Am I a lucky CEO or what? Talk about being in the right place at just the right time.
I recently wrote a CEO Ramblings which mentioned that Canada's first primary cobalt mine should be in production in the early 2020s and that they would be obliged to transport their cobalt concentrate more than 1,000 miles to the nearest refinery for processing.
Imagine the costs.
Atacama's cobalt properties are located just a few kilometers (miles) from the only fully permitted refinery in North America capable of extracting cobalt to produce battery grade material.
I am guessing that the transportation of Atacama's cobalt concentrate would be less that a half hour to get it to the refinery.
It is located five kilometers east of the mining town of Cobalt, Ontario with the refinery and settling ponds sitting on 40 acres and the facility is permitted to expand up to 120 acres as demand requires.
The Company that owns the refinery will use it to process its own cobalt from local mines as well as its mine located in Idaho.
It is also open to the idea of allowing outside companies (here read Atacama) to refine their cobalt as well.
A 2012 report estimated the replacement value of the refinery to be in the US $78 million range.
What I like about it, as CEO of Atacama with cobalt holdings nearby, it that has the potential of reducing our production coasts significantly.
$ACRL/ CEO RAMBLINGS-COMPANY ASSETS-CEO RAMBLINGS - FEBRUARY 4, 2019 https://acrlintl.com/blog/2019/2/4/ceo-ramblings-february-4-2019 https://acrlintl.com/blog/ Glenn Grant February 4, 2019 ============================================================= INVESTOR RESOURCES Welcome to the investor relations section. In this area, you can find links to information about Atacama Resources International, Inc. (ACRL). =============================================================
GOLDMAN SAYS GOLD PRICE WILL HIT 6-YEAR HIGH IN 2019 | HTTP:///WWW.MINING.COM "Central bank buying alone gets it to $1,425" – Goldman Sachs head of commodity research Jeff Currie.
I have been telling you a lot recently about the priority that our Board has given to working on our extensive gold holdings, which are located on a number of major gold faults.
Many of them shared with the various profitable Gold Companies located nearby.
All of us at Atacama are very bullish on the future of gold pricing and gold mining but it is always encouraging to know that many others feel the same way.
Have a look at the article I have attached regarding recent comments from Goldman Sachs indicating just how they are viewing values this year.
The last time gold topped $1,400 an ounce was briefly in early September 2013
Goldman says gold price will hit 6-year high in 2019 Frik Els | 5 days ago |
Goldman Sach’s head of commodities research Jeff Currie does not expect an early recovery in long-cycle investment and therefore prices of industrial metals due to a structural decline in demand from China, but he is very bullish on the gold price.
Speaking on Bloomberg Surveillance, Currie says gold will benefit from strong central bank buying and the wealth effect in India and China due to strengthening local currencies. ============================ FIVE COUNTY CURRENCY WTO BRICK- B-BRAZIL R-RUSSIA I-INDIA C-CHINA K- SOUTH AMERICA ============================
On top of increased physical demand in the two top gold markets, Currie says “recessionary fears are raising physical demand for gold” and central bank buying “alone” will push the price of gold to $1,425 an ounce.
Goldman’s target price for gold is $1,450 an ounce. That represents double digit gains from today’s price of $1,315 an ounce, already a seven-month high.
The last time gold topped $1,400 an ounce was briefly in early September 2013.
Retail and institutional investors are also bullish, with holdings of physically-backed exchange traded funds now the most valuable in seven years.
Holdings in global gold-backed ETFs and similar products rose by 69 tonnes to 2,440 tonnes in 2018, equivalent to $3.4 billion of inflows, according to the World Gold Council.
This is the first time since 2012 that the value of total gold-backed ETF holdings has finished the year above $100, says the industry body.
After careful consideration Atacama’s Board of Directors decided that the company will file financial reports through OTC Markets in the future.
This new procedure will provide the same financial statements to shareholders and other interested parties as previously provided but will save the company the significant expense of annual PCAOB auditing fees.
The Form 15 provides notice to the SEC that the company will no longer file quarterly and annual reports to the SEC through its Edgar process.
(like a gold rush) around our diamond properties .
I have previously mentioned in my Ramblings that macro and micro diamonds have already been recovered right at the surface of Atacama's diamond property, located neat Cobalt, Ontario.
During the 1905 silver rush in the area,
an 800 carat Nippissing Yellow Diamond was picked up on a property very near our claims.
Kimberlite Indicator Mineral grains (KIMs) are spread all throughout the area.
These grains of precious metals are located "down ice' from glaciers scraping over the pipes as they retreated.
A mining exploration company, very near Atacama's properties, has just announced their diamond drilling plans on a number of Kimberlite pipes in an effort to find the "mother lode pipe" that the Nippissing Yellow Diamond came from.
Once this word gets out you can bet that we will witness a rush of prospectors scouring the area in search of diamonds.
I am pleased to inform you that once again we are right in the heart of the action. A good place to begin our own exploration of our already proven diamond properties.
$ACRL/ CEO RAMBLINGS-FEBRUARY 11, 2019/Investors are often contacting me with questions about the different kinds of evidence I mention in my Ramblings about the gold on Atacama's three different gold properties.
One piece of evidence has always intrigued me. While little hard information is available, for obvious reasons (it happened back in 1934), I have always thought that this is the best piece of evidence existing today that suggests that we have very high values of gold in our gold claims.
What is it?
Back in 1934, before geologists and mining engineers, a group of 18 hungry ( remember it was the 30's depression years) men dug what was known as the Cheltonia Mine which today is located on Atacama 1 property.
They used traditional mining tools such as hand steel (a chisel - like steel tool struck violently with a sledgehammer) to break up the rock.
It was exceedingly demanding and hazardous work to say the least.
As a result, most of these types of dangerous mining operations which were hacked through hard rock inevitably followed a vein of very high grade ore
At the Cheltonia Mine,
these tough miners dug for 112 days down through solid rock and hacked out a 60 foot lateral drift at the 100 foot level.
I am convinced that they would not have placed themselves at such a high risk for their lives if they were not motivated to keep on mining a visible and high value gold vein in the rock.
With the Great Depression hitting the area, capital dried up and most small mines closed and never reopened including the Cheltonia Mine.
However, the Mine itself is still there.
In fact I have visited the Mine entrance and it is very accessible.
Come spring we can pump out the water and check out the likely gold veins once again.
Maybe, just maybe, the old Cheltonia Mine may be operating again.
$ACRL/CEO RAMBLINGS-FEBRUARY 13, 2019, From the inquiries I have been receiving there is definitely a growing interest in Atacama's 257 acre cobalt play.
The grab sample values that I have mentioned in earlier Ramblings run in excess of 2%.
In the cobalt mining world a value less than 1% is considered a low grade deposit, 1 -2 % is a medium deposit and anything over 2% is considered to be a high grade deposit.
I am the first to say that we need to do much more work on the site before we can have an accurate assessment of the size and quality of our ground.
But we can draw some inferences based on what our neighbouring cobalt explorations companies are finding.
We are all working in what is known as THE COBALT CAMP, located in northern Ontario and with all the necessary mining infrastructure readily available such as roads, power, personnel, etc.
I want to mention just two cobalt exploration companies working is the same vicinity as our Atacama cobalt properties.
They both have been doing exploration work near our properties.
One has announced cobalt values of 2.22%, 3.9%, 5.7% and 6.6% from their properties.
Another has announced values of 1.9%, 2.8%, 3.15% and 5.2%.
These are high grade valuations but the extent of the resource has yet to be determined and further exploration work is required.
Atacama is located between these two cobalt properties.
Will our exploration valuations be similar? Time will tell. I am Glenn grant, CEO of http://www.acrlintl.com
Gold output for 2019 in the USA and Canada is expected to decrease slightly.
Gold is not a renewable resource.
Each producing gold mine operating today has a specific shelf life.
Every mine will eventually close down once the ore body has been exhausted.
For example, just a couple of gold mines in Canada have opened over the past ten years.
Sugar Zone Gold Mines is one and Amarug Gold Mine will begin production in a few weeks but here is the "kicker".
The ore body is expected to last only for four years and then the mine is slated to close down.
While global demand for gold continues to increase as the world's population increases the supply of new mines opening up is a growing issue.
The world needs more gold mines to open and here is the challenge.
Most of the easy gold has already been discovered and most new gold mines are often remotely located and very expensive to develop.
For example, the average all - in - sustaining cost to develop a gold mine in 2019 in Canada is 877.00/ ounce.
Today's price for gold is $1311.55.
Many potential gold mines have estimated all in costs in the $1,200 -$1,400 range which makes them uneconomical to mine.
They have to be put on hold and wait for a better day.
All of this is why I, as CEO of Atacama Resources International, am optimistic about our gold future.
With all the required mining infrastructure readily available and located close to one of the richest currently producing gold mines in the world I am keen to get our next phase of exploration underway.
You would simply not believe the number of inquiries I receive regarding the gold values obtained from the old diamond drill results done on the Atacama 1 gold property.
Some of the core intersections came in at six (6) ounces per ton and some even as high as eight (8) ounces per ton.
Some question to the validity of these values. Some even go on to say "too good to be true". The Atacama 1 property was assembled by local Kirkland Lake prospector Arnold Allsopp.
Arnold has lived and worked in the area for fifty years and is a well know and respected prospector who hold memberships in the local Northern Prospectors Club as well as the Ontario Prospectors Club.
Arnold is good friends with all of the local prospectors and local claim holders. They respect his judgement and the local geological knowledge he possesses. He has a reputation second to none. One day, while out prospecting in the vicinity of his Atacama 1 property he came across a six inch piece of quartz on an old historic gold mine dump.
He cracked it open with his geologist's hammer and saw visible gold.
He couldn't believe his eyes. He took it to the Swastika Lab to have it assayed and has it on display today with the associated assay certificate and guess what.
The value certified was SIXTEEN OUNCES PER TON. Yes, 16 ounces.
How unusual is this you may ask? Well, the global firm of Mining and Mineral Exploration Services compiles the best drill intersections from around the world and then ranks them based on gold grams per ton.
Canadian gold company Osisko Mining is the winner so far this year with an intersect value of 2223 grams/ton or about 70 ounces/ton.
Canadian gold companies rank eighth in the top ten of the most significant drill intersections found so far this year.
The values from some of the other competing gold companies are approx.
32 oz./ton, 28 oz./ton, and 14 oz./ton.
Hopefully this will place the gold valuations that have been made for Atacama 1 in some perspective.
Our gold valuations are comparable to some of the largest valuations offered by some of the richest and most profitable gold companies in the world. I am Glenn Grant, CEO of
COBALT, [-chart]static1.squarespace.com/static/58b5961486e6c0717e9be46f/t/5c6c3b47a4222f2b9dd296a1/1550596941192/Cobalt.jpeg?format=750w[/chart] ELEMENT GRAPHENE/Graphite [-chart]static1.squarespace.com/static/58b5961486e6c0717e9be46f/t/5c2ed0f68a922d8f0fea9225/1546572851147/graphene-enhanced+rubber.jpg?format=500w[/chart]
[-chart]static1.squarespace.com/static/58b5961486e6c0717e9be46f/t/5c6c3b47a4222f2b9dd296a1/1550596941192/Cobalt.jpeg?format=750w[/chart] ELEMENT GRAPHENE/Graphite [-chart]static1.squarespace.com/static/58b5961486e6c0717e9be46f/t/5c2ed0f68a922d8f0fea9225/1546572851147/graphene-enhanced+rubber.jpg?format=500w[/chart]
The demand for cobalt is escalating around the world which is setting the stage for a massive "cobalt rush" never witnessed before.
This is clearly predicted in the global consulting firm McKinney's 2019 Global Energy Perspective Report which foresees a two-thirds drop in the cost of electric vehicle battery packs by 2030.
The tipping point at which EVs will be cheaper to own than internal combustion engine powered vehicles is forecast to be reached within five years.
This is predicted to occur in China and Europe even faster.
Some of the Report's views pertaining to the electrification of the total transport sector makes for some dramatic reading. For example:
EV sales will hit a 100 million units by 2035
Battery powered cars sales will grow by a factor of 60 through 2050
By 2035 there will be at least 400 million EVs on the road in China and other developed countries
2.4 million charging stations will be deployed every year
All this at the same time that militaries around the world are all switching off depending on their respective electrical grids and becoming self reliant and using renewable energy sources and electrical storage batteries.
Then think of the global switch to solar, wind, tidal energy, geothermal, etc. energy sources all requiring electrical storage batteries.
I could go on and on but you see why a "cobalt rush" is well underway.
All these electric storage batteries of the future need cobalt as well as graphite.
Am I excited about future work on Atacama's cobalt and graphite properties? You bet I am. I am Glenn grant, CEO of http://www.acrlintl.com
Atacama's research team provided me with a copy of "Ontario's Geological Survey - Mineral Deposits Circular 18" titled "Gold Deposits of Ontario".
It was researched and authored by geologists R.F Davie, J.D. Grijs, H.L.Lovell and J.R. Gordon and published by the Ontario's Ministry of Mines and Northern Development in 1979.
The very detailed Report substantiates and verifies what Atacama has been saying about it's Atacama 1 Gold Project for some time.
High gold values are definitely there.
From the drilling program carried out, gold values of 2.5% ounces per ton are presented along with 2.5% copper(which also is very high value), 32 ounces of silver per ton, 3% nickel and 3.5% VANADIUM over 25 feet from diamond drill hole #1. As well, the report points out that surface grab samples revealed exceptionally high values of copper varying between 5.32% to as high as 13.30 %.
These are extremely high valuations.
The Report then goes on to mention that a total seven diamond drilled holes were carried out. A mine shaft and drift tunnels were completed. Surface geology work was done.
Macassa Mines carried out four more diamond drill holes and excessive trenching was also completed.
What I found equally fascinating in the Report were the reports the authors present on a number of mines around the Atacama gold properties that had produced gold over the years and just what gold values they averaged.
Lucky Cross Mine and the Swastika Mine, just to the east of Atacama together milled 103,684 tons of ore with AVERAGE grades values of 0.31 oz./ton and 0.21 oz./ton respectively. Lake Shore Mines averaged a gold value of 0.51 oz./ton. The Tegren Mine averaged 0.78 oz. /ton. The Beaver Consolidated Mine averaged 0.37 oz./ton and the Kirkland Lake Rand Mines found values in the 0.22 oz./ton range.
What all this means is that all of these old historic mines located all around our Atacama gold properties mined and milled gold ore with values that all would justify an operating gold mine, especially with the high price of gold today .
I have not even mentioned the fact that with copper, silver, nickel and vanadium also found in Atacama's ground that if the ground is mined that all these other minerals may possibly pay for the cost of the mining and the gold extracted could be mined COST FREE.
However, let me be clear. What is still needed is further work including significant diamond drilling to prove out the quality and size or our gold deposits.
You can see how reading this Report made for exciting weekend reading.
$ACRL-CEO RAMBLINGS - FEBRUARY 25, 2019/ First I wish to make one point as clearly as I can.
While there are some very encouraging signs that gold exists on Atacama's gold properties I have always maintained that considerably more exploration work is absolutely necessary to determine if quality/quantity gold exists that would warrant mining and milling the gold in the ground.
More exploration is key. But, there are encouraging signs.
For example, you know that there have been producing gold mines operating all around Atacama's gold properties in years past.
Accurate results are available from all of these mines including the average gold values found at each mine site.
As stated earlier (I used ounces per ton measurements) in Ramblings they were Old Swastika Mine- 5.96 grams per ton, Lucky Cross Mine- 9.20 grams /ton, Tech-Hughes mine- 10.79 grams/ton, Maccasa Mine-12.49 grams/ton, Lake Shore Mine- 14.48 grams/ton and Tegran Mine-22.15 grams/ton and I could go on and on. Now, what do these average gold value numbers,
taken from old producing mines surrounding today's Atacama properties, mean? How good are these numbers?
Let’s compare them to today’s highest grade operating gold mines in the world.
These are the richest in the world and there are hundreds of gold mines operating at much lower gold values.
I get this information from Mining Intelligence referring to values from 2017. First, figures from the best underground gold mines.
Fosterville Mine(Australia) 21.50 grams/ton. This is the most valuable in the world and owned by Kirkland Lake.
Highest global grades from open pit gold mines are represented by Way Lingo Mine(Indonesia) 7.60 grams/ton, Mt. Carlton Mine(Australia) 5.86 grams/ton, Albazinc Mine(Russia) 5.10 grams/to, Pueblo Viejom Mine(Dom. Rep) 4.52 grams/ton and Counkoto Mine(Mali) 4.50 grams/ton.
While I am the first to say that way more exploration is required on Atacama's gold properties you can see from the above information why I am so excited.
For the past few weeks I have been inundated with requests for information from existing and potential investors about progress being made by Atacama on the exploration and development of it's gold, cobalt, graphite and other projects.
I have always operated on the principle that in business one must be open, transparent and honest , including the world of mining and especially mining exploration.
However, this does pose some challenges and allow me to explain.
I am the CEO of a public company and any substantive announcement which could have some significance impact on the Company's stock value must FIRST be filed publicly so everyone is made aware of the announcement at the same time.
This is necessary to avoid "insider knowledge" which by definition could benefit someone who has obtained it.
Mining exploration firms are especially aware of this as investors seek leverage or seek some advantage..
When you are in the field doing geo-physical work, diamond drilling, trenching, seismic work or even grab sampling the information one receives must be held extremely "close to the chest" until the time is right to release the information and then it must be properly filed to avoid any "insider" claims.
If word somehow leaks out (remember the term loose lips sinks ships from the last war) about some "hot" mineral find, inevitably many prospectors and miners will rush in to claim any surrounding land for themselves.
This is exactly what happened around our gold and cobalt claims but having anticipated this we claimed much more land than we will ever require to eventually set up a mining production facility.
To be more specific, our geology team has uncovered information from a host of sources,
including Ontario Government sources that indicate that more that thirty one diamond drill holes were conducted on our gold properties over the past years plus other work .. Unlike today, the information from this drilling/coring was rarely filed with government mining offices for the reasons stated above. But, the information exists in various archives, museum files, core storage sheds, garages, homes etc.
We are currently assembling this data to assist Atacama with its future exploration programs. Eventually I will release this information but I will do so in the accepted and required fashion so as not to advantage any existing or potential investor.
I will have much more to say along these lines in future Ramblings.
Smart Investors for those who are inclined to be able to do so. If arranged, a $1 a share for me is good enough for a .000's investment, call me greedy.
The investment required to fully confirm the Atacama 1, 2 and 3 proven reserves has been fully budgeted on a project management basis and equals $5 million dollars.
Required costs are substantiated for audit and review.
Our investment initiative must focus on a $5 million capital raise over the next year with a first tranche of at least $1 million dollars immediately.
The upside for the confirmation of gold ‘proven reserves’ for the Atacama 1, 2 and 3 holdings is almost too large to be believable.
An analysis of the ACRL position, similar to the KLG analysis for its new shaft, would yield a proven reserve in the $5 billion dollar range.
With a proven reserve pegged at a more realistic $1 billion dollars, the contribution to the market value of the company would be approximately $1 dollar per share.
Starting with an assumption that the ACRL common shares could end up valued up to $1.00 per share because of the proven reserve confirmation, the investor upside is as follows.
The investment offered with this capital raise is to sell the B shares at the equivalent of one cent per common share with a six-month hold. The investor, under even a worst-case scenario, should see a significant return in his ACRL investment