NEW ORLEANS – Even in this town of French Quarter fusion, the nation of Colombia is in my face.
“I had good timing with Ventana (sold to a private Brazilian group), and I am back in that same area with CB Gold,” Ross Beaty says. He briefed me at The New Orleans Investment Conference. “It’s in the Vetas District.”
Mr. Beaty is a silver, copper and green energy developer, an investor, a motorcycle fiend and a company-builder. His Lumina Capital, a merchant bank of sorts, just took an 8 percent stake (before warrants) in CB Gold Inc. (TSX.:V.CBJ, Stock Forum) for $11 million or so.
Strategic stakes were coming left and right this week, especially in Colombia – which saw at least four of them. In addition to CB Gold, the mining company Iamgold Corp. (TSX: T.IMG, Stock Forum) and (NYSE: IAG, Stock Forum) sunk money via private placements into Tolima Gold, Colombia Crest Gold Corp. (TSX: V.CLB, Stock Forum) and Bellhaven Copper & Gold Inc. (TSX: V.BHV, Stock Forum).
CEO Fabio Capponi’s CB Gold printed assayed core showing 40 meters of 17-gram-per-tonne gold from its project, a clutch of historic mines not far from the hamlet of Vetas in the Santander department. Mr. Beaty said he is confident the drill assays are not a one-off lucky strike in what is thought to be a network of thin mineralized veins.
The strategic-stake theme is one that we will see filter into other countries. Of late, Colombia and Ghana prospectors have benefited from larger companies taking small pieces of exploration projects: gold and copper mostly.
“The Iamgold deal with Bellhaven isn’t the first strategic investment by an intermediate producer in a Colombian gold junior,” says Medellin-based geologist Miller O’Prey, CEO of Solvista Gold Corp. (TSX: V.SVV, Stock Forum). “That honor belongs to Solvista and Kinross Gold Corp.”(TSX: T.K, Stock Forum)
I am heavily invested in Colombia: Bellhaven Copper & Gold for starters, plus Mr. O’Prey’s Solvista, Ian Slater’s Red Eagle Mining and Bob Carrington’s Colombian Mines Corp. (TSX: V.CMJ, Stock Forum), among others. I was in the country in September for perhaps the 13th or 14th time in the past four years and hope to get back to Medellin in late November.
Lumina Capital is also a 9 percent owner of Mr. Slater’s Red Eagle Mining Corp. (TSX: V.RD, Stock Forum), whose shares I own. Mr. Slater tells me the Lumina team spent a week at a site visit before investing.
Red Eagle is looking for its first drill results to be published the week of Nov. 14. The Colombia prospector’s chief project is mesothermal gold deposit Santa Rosa in the department of Antioquia and about an hour’s drive from Medellin, if you beat the city of eternal spring’s traffic, that is. The brand-new company raised $25 million this year at 75 cents and $1.25 a share and has about $13 million of that left.
I like the small share count, about 36 million of ‘em outstanding. Mr. Slater says high-grade veins are currently being mined in the historic district, some 400 years and running now, at 100 grams per tonne. Two rigs on the property have intersected 30-meter shear zones.
If any Colombia company is likely in the next month to show the kinds of insanely high grades that CB Gold has printed, it is probably Red Eagle. The Colombia mining cognoscenti have been on me to buy into this one for a few months now. I own a small amount. We’ll see.
Outside of Colombia, Ross Beaty is pursuing his Alterra PowerCorp. (TSX: T.AXY, Stock Forum) initiatives. He already has $110 million of revenue coming into the former Magma Energy from geothermal, wind and hydro-power. “It’s a boring but counter-cyclical investment,” he says over a glass of sparkling water.
British Columbia, Nevada and Iceland are producing power-for-sale right now for Alterra. Mr. Beaty is looking for steam and other green energy sources in Tuscany, Italy; Peru; and Chile. The shares, like those of nearly all alternative energy companies this year and most of last year, have been halved, and halved again. They’re winded.
Ross Beaty and his team are hopeful the hundreds of millions of dollars going out the door in search of cheap and clean energy will come back in spades later this decade. “Like an annuity,” he says, “boring and safe.”
I own little in the way of energy in my portfolio and am considering buying some of the Canada-traded stock. With 465 million shares out there at 47 cents each, Alterra’s $225 million market worth on $110 million revenue seems almost cheap enough for me.
(Photo above: Entrance to Great Panther Silver’s Guanajuato Mine Complex – Thom Calandra photo)
EUROPE ON LE BUS: Next week, I will be accompanying a group of miners, prospectors, professors and promoters across several European cities. The Zimturoad show on a bus will make its way to the Munich Gold Show and visit Zurich, Geneva, Hamburg and Vienna. If you’d like to know more, get a free lunch, cocktails and an overview of the metals marketplace, please visit: https://roadtrip.zimtu.com/. The sponsor is Zimtu Capital Corp. (TSX: V.ZC, Stock Forum) and seven of its portfolio companies. To register: click here – it is free.
OTES: I am a partner of investor outreach firm Torrey Hills Capital in Del Mar, near San Diego, California. None of the companies in the article above are Torrey Hills clients. Also: I will have more soon from a Guanajuato tour and the outlooks for Great Panther Silver Ltd. (TSX: T.GPR, Stock Forum) and Endeavour Silver Corp. (TSX: T.EDR, Stock Forum) and (NYSE: EXK, Stock Forum). Please see recent coverage.
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. Aside from Central Fund of Canada (CEF), there is little to nothing in my portfolio suitable for risk-averse investors. I am not a financial adviser or planner. In this article, I am a shareholder of Belhaven to the tune of 1.75 million shares, CMJ, SVV and RDE. I also own shares of Great Panther and Endeavour.
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