TIBURON, California -- You just have to ask yourself, are you feeling torque today?
I could not resist that line.
Swing traders surely are delighted to be ratcheting in and out of some of the metals equities this month of May. On Wednesday, with gold rising smartly after sinking close to last week's low, we have to look at the padre y madre of all swings in recent weeks: NUGT.
The 3X multiplier of metals equities is up 16 percent as I write this. There is a small chance that the Direxion Daily Gold Miners Bull 3x Shares, which I own, might approach a record daily volume. That is approximately 18 million shares changing hands three times since April 15. (NYSE: NUGT)
As Papa would declare after a strong cup of coffee in the morning, or a tall GT in the evening, "That sure doesn't taste like tomato juice." (Thank you for the friendly condolences for Papa Chuck, Charles R. Thurman, father-in-law, former Homestake Mining treasurer and an inspiration to the novel PABLO BY NUMBERS, among other things. He left us this week at age 85. I'll have more Papa anecdotes over time.)
I am not a swing trader, but I must remark that the trading volumes today on many depressed metals stocks are thick as the fleas in the carpet of my upstate New York flat 25 years ago. (GSV chart courtesy Stockhouse.)
Among our TCR select 8, and several other speculative targets, all of which I own, as do many of our TCR family, today's rebound is juicing Gold Standard Ventures (TSX: V.GSV), up 25 percent; Ivanplats (TSX: T.IVP), up 9 percent; Scorpio Gold (TSX: V.SGN), a Torrey Hills Capital client, is up 25 percent.
Of the widely known metals equities, (which I do not own), the leaders today include Kinross Gold and B2Gold. (Editor: Thom's portfolio is at tcalandra via Stockhouse -- please do not use his holdings as anything more than a book mark for his 23-year belief in metals prospectors and producers.)
I wish I could say the same for several other of our central holdings. Some are not even changing hands. Of the ones that are, in addition to GSV, there is brisk trading in Gran Colombia Gold (TSX: T.GCM) today.
Follow-ups:
-- RegardingColombia regulators, and legislators in Bogota heaving every which way on the subjects of mining codes, concession permits and ecological sanctuaries, I give you the comments of independent consultant Gabriel Bayona, who is fast becoming a voice of reason for the gold/copper/coal debates going on there.
Gabriel is the founder of OPHIR Mining, Resources & Investment in the city of Medellin. As a former mining analyst for brokerage Interbolsa, Mr. Bayona has been on the mark in terms of mining M&A and other transactional events in Colombia. He is also a larger-than-life believer in his country's mineral resources.
I asked him today if he read anything in the tea leaves when Brazil's AUX, owner of concessions in and around the Santurban forest and mountain reserve, dropped some of its claims this week.
"Apparently, AUX (rich man Eike Batista) is changing pace just like everyone else. Already laid off half their employees and now are trying to correctly pick which properties to mantain after the update in Santurban," Mr. Bayona says.
Addressing those shifting mining codes we have been reporting for TCR, he believes the Ministry of Mines & Energy will stage an auction of long-dormant concessions by July -- but with all the snafus, delays and technological backfires of the past two years, it won't be pretty.
"As for the ronda, goverment knows it won't work but will do it anyways after May to buy some time before opening doors. Man, this is gonna be a Black Friday event," he says.
Regulators are trying, God knows why I hope, to shift to auctions for mineral concessions from the current first-come first-serve queue that most countries use for metals prospectors.
"It might take a bit longer depending on how fast the Constitutional Court compensates for the change of Code, but in a conservative scenario, the first non-strategic auctions should be tested in July. At least people should be ready," Gabriel says.
As we speak, the Senate in Colombia is debating environmental regulations regarding protected high-altitude Santurban park and the properties that Eco Oro, formerly Greystar, hopes to develop, reports David Seconi of Debtwire in the capital there. His headline: Comisión Quinta de Cámara debate a esta hora sobre Eco Oro (antes Greystar) y el Páramo de Santurbán.
Finally, I have to give Pablo Marcet of Waymar Resources credit for sticking to the business of his internal plans for Waymar Resoures (TSX: V.WYM). You will remember we profiled Waymar's Anza property in Antioquia in December after a visit. Mr. Bayona also was there.
Pablo, an Argentine geologist, today said he "integrated" five exploration licenses, two mining contracts and two mining licenses into a "unified contract." Waymar, along with Colombian Mines (CMJ in Canada) is probably the cheapest worthy owner of properties that one day will become producing copper/gold/zinc in Colombia. I own both.
(I will not at this time dwell on Bellhaven Copper & Gold (TSX: V.BHV), which is drilling a newly acquired area of its La Mina deposit; I own too much of it and mark it as at the extremely psychedelic end of the speculative kaleidoscope. Leave it said that we await eagerly assays for at least two of our TCR researched holdings in Colombia: Atico Mining (ATY) and Solvista Gold (SVV) are members of our TCR select list of 8 holdings, and they both look as if fresh data this week or next could triple their share prices -- if El Roble's VMS and Caramanta's porphyry grades, respectively, excel. Bellhaven, my largest nominal position in terms of number of shares (2.2 million held at a deep loss), is not a research candidate currently for our TCR, but it easily could be at these prices.)
Back to Waymar and Mr. Marcet, who adds this color to today's integration report: "Even considering the extra hours of our legal advisors, the direct costs attached to the effort were not significant. Especially in comparison to the cost, time and risk savings that we will generate from here forward."
Why, Pablo? (No relation toPABLO BY NUMBERS, the novel)
"The integration resolves historic inconsistencies, lowers legal costs, reduces risks of non-compliance and makes it easier to expand the existing environmental mining license to the larger deposit, once we reach a development decision. I would go as far as saying that this is the most ideal land tenure and environmental situation of a project at this stage. We recognize the regulatory difficulties that others are having in Colombia and the challenges that the government is facing but we don't have even a single complaint," Mr. Marcet says.
Pablo picked up the gypsum mine at Anza and its polymetallic potential from Bob Allen and Ari Sussman's Continental Gold (CNL in Canada). If he succeeds, and I think he will, Anza, a bit like CNL's Buritica high-grade gold and silver mine a couple hours away, already will have mine permits in place that allow for both open-pit mining and underground mining. (I think Buritica, by the way, is the property that Mr. Batista wished he had gotten those years ago ... and not Ventana. He also took over Solvista sister company Calvista; that was in October 2012 and was a wise choice.)
Mr. Bayona, the young analyst, has been to all of these projects, in most cases at my side, or me his. I urge anyone who wants to delve deeper into the world of Colombia metals equities, upon which I am staking much of the rest of my life's wealth, to shout, or whisper.
Gabriel is not an insider of any publicly traded company, but he has more valuable information, forecasts and timelines than anyone I know in the country. I hope that he and I will make each other rich in material wealth.
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