The Gold Report and Luke Burgess talk about Wealth
The Gold Report and Luke Burgess talk about Weatth and Henk
TGR: As I noted earlier, you don't limit yourself to any one specific commodity—you write about whatever suits your fancy. In Wealth Daily, you wrote about Wealth Minerals Ltd. (TSX.V:WML; OTCQX: WMLLF) being beat up in the market because it was considered a uranium play, even though it has the largest rare earth project in South America. What's going on there?
LB: I really like the story, even though the events surrounding it are unfortunate. After the earthquake and tsunami disaster at Japan's Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant, uranium prices took a dive—and uranium equities got hurt even worse. The market perceives Wealth Minerals as a uranium miner because that's the way the company started. It remained a uranium company for a very long time, but recently acquired the Rodeo de Los Molles REE-uranium deposit, which not many people know about.
When uranium prices fell, the market punished Wealth Minerals, even though the company is not exploring for uranium as much as it is for rare earths. REE stocks have gone higher and higher, yet WML remains in the gutter due to market perception.
TGR: So, as Wealth Minerals begins to rebrand itself as a rare earth play, it could start to see some of the same appreciation a number of the REE equities have experienced over the last two or three years.
LB: That's exactly what it's trying to do right now. The company is about to drill the Rodeo de Los Molles Project in Argentina, if it hasn't started already. The last time I talked with the guys there, they planned 30 holes of 2,000m each. As you said, this will rebrand the company for the better. I believe the retail market will realize that Wealth Minerals is not a uranium play anymore—it's a rare earth play.
TGR: Wealth Minerals is one of the Cardero Group of Companies, based in Vancouver. With the resources at their disposal, it shouldn't take them long to rebrand the company.
LB: No, it won't. CEO and President Henk Van Alphen is a very sharp guy. I like him a lot. In addition, the project already has a historic resource of, I believe, 5 million tons (Mt.) at 2% rare earth oxide (REO). But the historic resource isn't NI 43-101-compliant. Wealth Minerals needs to go in and bring it up to NI 43-101 compliance to find out what it really has.
TGR: Van Alphen is the former president of Pacific Rim Mining Corp. (TSX:PMU; NYSE.A:PMU) and Fresnillo PLC (LSE:FRES)—another guy with a lot of experience.
LB: Yes. Like I said, I want to invest with management that has had past successes. They always have good friends in the market, friends that are willing to give them money for bridge financing.
TGR: What's the next step at Rodeo de Los Molles?
LB: For Wealth Minerals, I think the next step is to find out what resources it has from the drill results. That's going to drive the company's next step. It's a waiting game right now.
https://www.businessinsider.com/luke-burgess-gangbuster-gold-equities-in-the-yukon-2011-6