SAN FRANCISCO –Metals equities are in demand, and hot money in Dallas, Houston, Denver, Oklahoma City, Reno, Charlotte … and yes, Des Moines, Iowa, is chasing 'em.
These are the cities where commodities are part of dawn, noon and dusk: oil fields, corn fields, quarries, moly mines.
"I think we're seeing cities off the money grid become resource-friendly this year especially, Denver, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Houston, New Orleans," says Andrew C. Hoffman, a colleague of mine and a certified financial analyst and representative of Torrey Hills Capital.
Mr. Hoffman, also a gold writer at babybulls.com and member of GATA.org, says New York and Boston always will rule when it comes to asset-managed money per square city block. "But when you see how much the money managers and brokers and the hedge funds in Texas and Colorado and Arizona really want a piece of the commodities equities pie these days, well, it's good to see," says Mr. Hoffman, who is based in Denver.
Off-the-grid cities are becoming more prominent road-show kill as Canada and European-traded miners and prospectors seek to inform fresh American investors about their companies. Take for example New Orleans.
Aside from its French Quarter and its splendid, some might say raucous, party scene, New Orleans has long been home to gold bugs. In good times and bad.
Newsletter editor Brien Lundin often tells tales about his mentor and late business partner, Jim Blanchard of New Orleans, hiring the biplane that flew his "Legalize Gold" banner over Richard Nixon's 1973 inauguration ceremony in Washington, D.C.
Some 37 years later, the New Orleans Investment Conferenceis drawing record-strong gold and silver audiences. "They don't just come for the trussed pig and stuffed oysters," says Mr. Lundin, a friend and fisherman and gold aficionado who is kind enough each year to have me speak alongside commodities-leaning economists and brokers, among them Marc Faber, Rick Rule, Robert Prechter, Mary Ann and Pamela Aden and Frank Holmes. See schedule and discount admission form.
More than a few of the companies that are presenting at the conference are among my researched companies at Stockhouse, the Canadian publisher of natural resources material (and a sponsor of New Orleans Investment Conference). These include Jonathan Adwe and David Mathewson's Gold Standard Ventures (TSX: V.GV, Stock Forum) and James Longshore's and Yves Clement's Xtra-Gold Resources (OTC:BB: XTGR and TSX: T.XTG, Stock Forum).
If you go through the sponsor list, I think you will find prospectors and miners in the areas of silver, gold and potash who make the grade as committed commodities supporters, in good times and bad. These are companies that in general support the principles of GATA.org, the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee that researches the path of central banks' bullion holdings. (Photo: GATA's Chris Powell and Ed Steer display a gold headline at the London conference – Thom Calandra photo)
Great Panther Silver (AMEX: GPL and TSX: T.GPR, Stock Forum), the brainchild of Vancouver geologist Robert Archer, long has used the conference to reach out to his shareholders. Mr. Archer attended the GATA conference in London and was last seen gently promoting the benefits of carrying a few silver coins in one's pocket for currency emergencies.
A currency emergency is when the entire world, in one fell swoop, realizes most paper is worth only its weight in papyrus: i.e., not enough to buy a stick of gum. Other noteworthy prospectors and miners headed to New Orleans in late October include Timberline Resources (AMEX: TLR and TSX: V.TBR, Stock Forum) and Revolution Resources (TSX: T.RV, Stock Forum). These are all companies whose properties I have vetted on site. The common theme: these companies fully intend to build mines on the properties they are prospecting: profitable silver and gold mines. In Great Panther's case, the mines and profits are in place.
They operate in many places around the world: Nevada, Ghana, Canada, Mexico. I was surprised not to see any Colombia representatives among the presenting companies for New Orleans; just maybe someone down there will hit the bid and take one of the two remaining corporate spots on the New Orleans roster. I know I'll be there with images, themes and pointers on the select handful of hot-money candidates now finding success in Africa, Colombia, Nevada and Mexico.
I will be visiting Colombia at month's end to see several properties: Colombia Crest (TSX: V.CLB, Stock Forum) at Venecia and Fredonia and Sunward Resources (TSX: V.SWD, Stock Forum) at Titiribi. I have seen both in one form or another and am refreshing my synapses. Both properties are in the Cauca River Valley that also is prospect central for Bellhaven Copper & Gold (TSX: V.BHV, Stock Forum), a company whose shares I own. This is my 13th or 14th visit to Colombia. I also will be attending mining trade show La Feria Mina in Medellin.
I intend in September to see Golden Fame's (TSX: V.GFA, Stock Forum) newly-purchased property in beloved Guanajuato, Mexico. Interested writers and hot-money aficionados are welcome. Guanajuato is a colonial hillside town with a subterranean chamber of tunnels for transportation and for mining. Great Panther Silver and Endeavour Silver (TSX: T.EDR, Stock Forum and NYSE: EXK) both mine there.
Finally, I offer this disclosure note, which is a reminder that I have vested interests via ownership of some mining stocks in this report and via my relationship with Torrey Hills Capital in San Diego/Del Mar. First off, I own shares of GPL and EXK. I own shares of BHV. I have researched and visited all of the properties linked to these companies. Also, I am a partner of Torrey Hills Capital in Del Mar, Calif. That investor outreach firm lists as clients Xtra-Gold, Gold Standard Ventures, Great Panther and Revolution Resources. That means, that as these companies succeed in their prospecting and mining operations, I benefit in some of their cases as a shareholder in the open market and as a consultant to Torrey Hills Capital, which receives stock options and fees for representing these companies. Thus, in the case of some of these companies, but not all, I am talking my own book.
If I have left anything out, it is because I am on my way to a friend's house to see if he really is serious about selling his Mexican gold pesos from the 1800s; if he is, I am a buyer.
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