HOUSTON – Please call this a slide show.
Slide & tell.
Heading to Colombia's Feria Minera in Medellin, I take a moment right now to export a couple of my top prospector snapshots. With deep commentary.
The slides come from resource company power-points I collect and keep in a desktop file for light viewing betwixt flights.
My criteria for top slides: For producers and looming producers I require flow-charts that illustrate run-of-mine (or other) logistics, mill efficiencies, elemental analysis of projected ore, road/rail routes ... and the name of the chef running the kitchen.
For seasoned prospectors with compliant resource estimates or with at least 50 drill holes in the bag - meaningful cross sections, mapping that shows future targets … and some idea of how targets are modeled and when drill bits will descend into those targets.
For early-stage prospectors - a country or regional layout of relevant mineral belts and trends, meaningful site geology that I can understand … and any bar chart of graphic that sketches out relative value against a possible peer group in the stock market.
Mind you, these are one-off slides contained within series of slides in a presentation. I also have a laundry list of queries, requirements, black-box projections and direct (but politely presented) exclamations when I am on site or in front of the principals.
The first slide is from Hans Rasmussen's Colombia Crest (TSX: V.CLB, Stock Forum). Colombia Crest is early-stage, poking around in that nation's Middle Cauca Belt along with about a dozen other companies. I don't own Colombia Crest but I have been to its Venecia property in Antioquia when it was controlled by another company.
Venecia is a porphyry deposit of gold and copper just a stone's throw from a company I have researched more heavily than any other these past three years (but for one, in Ghana). Paul Zweng and Julio Benedetti's Bellhaven Copper & Gold (TSX: V.BHV, Stock Forum) is, like Colombia Crest, smack into the rich Middle Cauca (River) Belt of Colombia. I own approximately 1.7 million shares of BHV.
As fortune would have it, I am scheduled to see Colombia Crest's properties next week, just before Medellin's Feria Minera, or mining trade show. I also will be seeing Sunward Resources' (TSX: V.SWD, Stock Forum) Titiribi property for a third time. That is also in the same neighbourhood as Colombia Crest and Bellhaven.
I like this Colombia Crest slide because it shows what might happen to the stock price when the drills start biting into the rich-red earth of our beloved Antioquia. The red bar is before drilling, the blue is after drilling (in stock price measured by in-ground-gold) and the gold bar is the high share price achieved after drilling according to the same metric. (See slide above.)
Interesting that 1. Colombia Crest via its recent transactions is the newbie in the ‘hood; 2. Sunward of these examples has held onto most of its share value during a challenging five months for metals equities; and 3. the colors represent the colors of the flag of Colombia, South America's longest standing democracy and my No. 1 candidate for a second home. (See flag above.)
I chatted with Phil O'Neill, the first CEO of Sunward Resources. (The new CEO is Colin Andrews, whom I will see next week on site at Sunward's Cerro Vetas, just south of the town of Titiribi.)
"I think people are starting to see that Titiribi is a gold district with many potential targets capable of hosting gold ounces. And we have a new resource estimate coming out soon," he said. One securities analyst, Graeme Jennings of Toronto's Cormark, told his audience in a note this week that seven rigs are biting into the earth of Cerro Vetas and Chisperos targets at the Sunward property.
You will remember I was kicking rocks down there when Georges Juilland, European founder, property owner and engineer, was putting his prospects together … before Sunward went public in Canada. Mr. Jennings, the analyst, figures next month's compliant resource statement could show as many as seven million gold-equivalent ounces at the two main prospects.
Something I did not know and learned from Mr. O'Neill, a Vancouver financier, is that Sunward has yet to let any company executive (Yamana, Barrick and so on) view the property on a so-called CA basis. As Mr. Jennings says in his note, "the company wants to know what it has first."
I think this bodes well for other companies in the area, including Colombia Crest and perhaps Gran Colombia Gold (TSX: T.GCM, Stock Forum) with properties at gold-rich but problematic El Marmato and another property at Titiribi.
The second slide comes from Ghana. I recently bought shares of PMI Gold (TSX: V.PMV, Stock Forum) after seeing Endeavour Mining (TSX: T.EDV, Stock Forum) purchase a potential gold producer in Cote d'Ivoire in West Africa. I figured, after having seen PMI's Nkran property in Ghana, which PMI can accelerate development of this once vast-pit prospect in the wink of an African eye … which translates into 2013. (My estimate.) Obotan in Ghana hold about 1.2 million ounces of gold in a Canada-compliant National Instrument 43-101 resource estimate.
What I like about this slide (above) is the detail of the cross sections at Nkran, not far from Keegan Resources (TSX: T.KGN, Stock Forum and AMEX: KGN) Esaase project and close by African Gold Group's Asankrangwa property. Once again, having been to PMI's Obotan, even with part of its property crammed with illegal alluvial pit miners, I can see how this once-producing pit one day might become a money machine at low cap-expenditure.
Our Stockhouse audience can visit the websites of these companies to view their entire slide show presentations.
NOTES: I will be visiting Colombia starting this weekend to see several properties: Colombia Crest (CLB) at Venecia and Fredonia and Sunward Resources (SWD) 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 (BHV), a company whose shares I own. This is my 13th or 14th or possibly my 15th visit to Colombia. I also will be attending mining trade show Feria Minera in Medellin.
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, California. First off, I own shares of GPL and EXK and AGG and BHV and PMV. I have researched and visited all of the properties linked to these companies. I am a partner of Torrey Hills Capital, which is in Del Mar, near San Diego. That investor outreach firm lists as a client Great Panther Silver and African Gold Group (TSX: V.AGG, Stock Forum), among others. I therefore might benefit as a shareholder in the open market and as a consultant to Torrey Hills, which receives stock options and fees for representing companies on USA road shows to select cities.
Stockhouse members - the service is free - can see my entire portfolio online. It is under the portfolio function and my user name, which is TCALANDRA. There is nothing in my portfolio suitable for risk-averse investors. I am not a financial adviser. Owning any of these securities could result in your participation in the crying game. Please see my comments in this and other articles about the benefits of holding securities and physical metals for long spans of time.
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