Old Turkey proverb: If you hunt two rabbits, you will catch none.
DENVER -- More than a few candidates to catch up on at this week's
Denver Gold Forum.
I am not there, preferring to line up several tours for our audience, including, possibly, Paramount Gold's San Miguel project in Mexico in coming days.
Webcasts let us look at all of the sold-out Denver show's
corporate presentations. Executive Director
Timothy Wood at Denver Gold Group says 167 companies are participating this year. Of those, 123 are web-casting.
Alacer Gold Corp (
TSX: T.ASR,
Stock Forum) just sold what its new CEO called "a management distraction." That's why CEO
Rodney Antal is quoting the old Turkish proverb (
above). The Australia properties, Higginsville and South Kalgoorlie , will fetch $40 million Australian. Rodney says he will focus instead on the Çöpler Mine (pronounced Chirpler), a producing property with gold, silver and copper in Turkey.
Still, Alacer shares, worth about $1 billion, were falling 4 percent Monday. I am interested in anything in Turkey. Our Pilot Gold (PLG in Canada), active in Turkey, is a member of the
TCR 8.
I AM KEEPING THE WEBCAST FEED ON. Even with the dog barking and sunshine beckoning outside.
Peter Dougherty of
Argonaut Gold (
TSX: T.AR,
Stock Forum) beckoned. I am interested in Argonaut: 1. Peter and Argonaut has been at this only five years. 2) Argonaut bought Pediment's San Antonio gold project in Baja Sur, Mexico. I went there a few years ago. Argonaut still has a long way to go, including permitting, at San Antonio there. And 3) Peter took time to answer questions, like one about the Mexico president's proposed 7 1/2 percent Mexico tax. "We have to see something in writing," he said. "We're going to see some increase in taxation across the Mexican mining business."
Anyone who leaves time for questions gets points in the
TCR book.
One more from the Denver show, which runs for three days this week.
"We are paying close attention of course to our spend," says Dundee Precious Metals'
Rick Howe.
Dundee Corp. (
TSX: T.DC.A,
Stock Forum) is spending big bucks in Namibia on a smelter and refurbished oxygen plant and acid plant.
Rick says he is looking forward to a free-close cash flow, but not right now. Perhaps years from now -- "the next little while." When Dundee gets there, it will be as much as $395 million, he reckons.
As for slides, thus far,
AuRico Gold Inc.’s (
TSX: T.AUQ,
Stock Forum)
Scott Perry gets
TCR points for distilling what its board and execs feel is one graphic that acts as an objective correlative for the company. It is
attached: ESSENTIALLY, selling assets worth a LOT of money and DEVELOPING ones that look cheap. (Mexico and Ontario, Canada), AuRico is a gold producer with a payout ratio and active share buybacks.
Worth a look this week at the show:
Platinum Group Metals Ltd. (
TSX: T.PTM,
Stock Forum),
Endeavour Silver Corp. (
TSX: T.EDR,
Stock Forum),
Fortuna Silver Mines Inc. (
TSX: T.FVI,
Stock Forum),
Continental Gold Ltd. (
TSX: T.CNL,
Stock Forum),
Paramount Gold and Silver Corp. (
TSX: T.PZG,
Stock Forum), among others. We rarely look at anything larger than $1 billion market worth. (
Of these cited, none are members of the TCR 8. I own shares of Platinum Group Metals -- a lot; Endeavour Silver -- a fair amount; and Fortuna -- a small amount.)
I used to attend Denver years ago, when I was more of a journalist and less of an investor.
Tim Wood -- who helped develop the INDABA Cape Town conference (FEBRUARY) with Sandy Lawrence years ago -- has done a very good job bringing the show, and the
not-for-profit group, up to speed in a competitive space for mining conferences worldwide.
Tim tells me Denver attendance this year will be about 1,200 folks, which will come close to matching a record number in September 2012. "The notable difference this year is the uptick in the
buy-side and decrease in sell-side. We are seeing value investors with little or no metal exposure attracted by absolute and relatively cheap multiples," he says.
Thanks for that, Tim. Good insight. Very, very good webcast quality. It is
running right now.
Notes: Vince Marciano is a writer and analyst. His
Stateside report does formidable work: streamlined, readable and sometimes actionable. He was early on
Ginguro Exploration, which is getting attention at its Pardo reef-like trench samples in Ontario. Here is his
latest report on GEG. I know the site got a herd of brokers and analysts there a week ago.
September in Oktober: Munich -- beer. Great YouTuber from Simon Pierro here --
see it. Funny.
Mason Graphite: Mason, a Quebec project developer, has not had news out since early July. I now own the shares (LLG in Canada). I expect CEO
Benoit Gascon to turn up the heat on his tiny company, which is trading near cash.
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