VANCOUVER -- Ross J. Beaty is full of haggis.
Sheeps guts, in Scottish. The Canadian geologist and lawyer who started Pan American Silver, its shares performing vibrantly this week, is something of a hag-artist.
At age 57, Ross Beaty has probably seen the best and worst mining has to offer: dusty Nevada/rocky Argentina; wealth creation/wealth destruction.
In our interview this week, and in an appearance before a breakfasting group of groggy mineralogists, Mr. Beaty (like many Canadians I know) took pride in being known both as a successful miner and a potent stock promoter.
By early 2008, Beaty had retired as chief executive of Pan American (TSX: T.PAA, Stock Forum), snaked a motorcycle to Munich from Beijing and given more Robbie Burns speeches than maybe even that drunken Scottish lout and poet.
Ross was still at it Sunday evening, when most miners in Vancouver t’were mixing with metals mavens and geo-geeks at sanctified bank dinners. Robbie Burns, Scotland’s Bard, was feted for the 250th time since his birth, and Ross Beaty was on the case.
“Burns comes from a race brutal and barbaric, with no fine buildings (they lived in sod huts), no fine foods (they invented haggis – minced animal guts, fat and oatmeal stuffed into a sheep’s stomach,” Burns told his family and friends in a ritual Burns Night spiel.
Ross, who over the years has educated me about the wonders of silver, zinc, Latin America and quadrupling stocks, was for his clan describing how the Scots invented the mace and the Claymore, a double-headed battle axe used to split open portfolios … er, I mean, skulls.
Burns the poet, as some of us might know, was a drunkard “and a philanderer,” says Beaty, who is busy forming a new resources producer (more on this for Ticker Traxsubscribers Friday).
A rose ain’t a rose ain’t …
My favorite: Burns, as told by Beaty, wrote poetry to more than one hundred women: Mary and Bessie, Chloric and Clarinda, Jean and Jenny, Maria and Peggy; Miss Ferrier and Miss Fontenelle, Miss Burnet and Miss Clow; Mrs. Riddel and Mrs. Oswald? Lady Heron?
This reminds me of the dozens of prospectuses that some stock promoters – not Mr. Beaty mind you – print in serial fashion, slapping different company names on each, reversing into “shells” and flooding the gates with hundreds of millions of shares. Why, after all, take one shot at the public, and at mining finance, when you can take a dozen, or two dozen?
Beaty’s haggis record, er, track record, is mostly confined to concentrated ore and successful transactions – even producing mines that have made their marks on the worldwide production of silver. Yet even his youth was clotted somewhat.
“In 1985 I started my first public company – Equinox Resources Ltd. – and I quickly realized I was cut out to be a stock promoter,” Beaty told the 8 a.m. crowd of klondikers at the Cordilleran Minerals Round-Up in Vancouver this week. “I thought it was a pretty good scam: we dreamed up projects, found other companies to fund them and kept a retained interest. We must have had interests in 30 properties but not a single one of them amounted to anything and it became a huge hassle full of conflicts of interest.”
Two years later, Beaty got down to real biz. Equinox Resources took over Beaty Geological Ltd. “for a pot of stock and my world merged into a single focus: building one public company.” Eventually, Pan American, currently a $1 billion stock, came into being, Beaty at the haggis, er, helm. Pan American owns eight operating mines in Mexico, Peru, Bolivia and Argentina.
The beauty of Beaty
As discussed above, we are reserving the guts of Mr. Beaty’s new (geothermal) venture and his profitable poetic thinking for Ticker Trax subscribers.
We will here, like prolific poet Burns, provide some general Beaty-isms:
- How much money has been poured into exploration over the past six years? “Billions and billions. How many new mines have been discovered? Very very few,” he says.
- Platinum group metals: “Am I correct that there have been no new mine discoveries in the past 10 years? South Africa still produces more than 90% of the world’s platinum and South Africa and Russia more than 90% of the world’s palladium.
- Uranium? “Phenomenal prices recently, hundreds of new exploration companies but how many new discoveries? Very few.”
- Gold? “Can Aurelian’s deposit in Ecuador really be mined? Gold fundamentals are fabulous today.”
- Silver? “A few nice new discoveries, but some real challenges to bringing them to production. One of the biggest is in a region that has banned the use of cyanide, banned open pit mining and imposed punitive silver export taxes.”
- Copper? “Three world class discoveries in 15 years: Oyu Tolgoi in Mongolia – Ivanhoe Mines (TSX: T.IVN,Stock Forum), Pebble and Resolution (Arizona). All underground, all with massive capital costs, all with significant challenges, all will take decades to get going.”
Finally, on the subject of silver, which is Ross Beaty’s bread and haggis: “Silver has been money through all history and culture,” the Scot told me this week in sunny, then wet, then windy Vancouver. “If silver is money then gold is money and money again. Rich people can buy gold and poor people can buy silver. The nice thing is that silver is still thought of as an insurance policy. It s a precious metal and will always be a store of value.”
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Phoenix in February
I will be presenting a 45-minute Ticker Trax™ workshop at the Cambridge House conference coming in Phoenix next month. The show will feature a silver auction. I own little or no silver except the chain ‘round my neck, for now, anyway.
THOM’S STORY:Thom Calandraduring 27 years of road work has helped his audience find value in a quagmire of investment choices. Thom co-founded CBS MarketWatch, MarketWatch.com and FT MarketWatch in Europe. As the voice of Thom Calandra's StockWatch and The Calandra Report, Thom fancied $300-ounce gold before that metal became an investment rage. Thom visited bioscience companies, metals mines and energy companies in a search for reliable sources and fine planetary prospects. (He was imperfect in at least one regard, having settled a U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission complaint in 2004.) Thom's novel PABLO BY NUMBERS was completed in 2008. Thom is continuing his search for the planet’s finest prospects.
HOLDINGS: Thom’s cosmos of holdings is listed for free Stockhouse members on www.Stockhouse.com under the “portfolio setting” for user TCALANDRA. He and his family own recently minted gold coins. They also own shares of a privately held platinum mine in South Africa’s Bushveld Complex. For the free ThomWatch, please click here. For subscription service Ticker Trax, please visit www.TickerTrax.com.
Ticker Trax™ is published by Stockgroup Media Inc. Ticker Trax is an information service for subscribers and neither Stockhouse nor Thom Calandra is a broker or investment advisor. None of the information contained therein constitutes a recommendation by Mr. Calandra or Stockhouse/Stockgroup Media that any particular security, portfolio of securities, transaction, or investment strategy is suitable for any specific person. Ticker Trax does not purport to tell or suggest which investment securities subscribers or readers should buy or sell for themselves. Subscribers and readers of Ticker Trax should always conduct their own research and due diligence and obtain professional advice before making any investment decision. Ticker Trax will not be liable for any loss or damage caused by a reader’s reliance on information obtained in the reports. Subscribers and readers are solely responsible for their own investment decisions. Opinions expressed in Ticker Trax are based on sources believed to be reliable and are written in good faith, but no representation or warranty, expressed or implied, is made as to their accuracy or completeness. All information contained in Ticker Trax should be independently verified with the companies mentioned. The editor and publisher are not responsible for errors or omissions or responsible to keep any information up to date or to correct any past information. Ticker Trax does not receive compensation of any kind from any companies that may be mentioned in Ticker Trax. Any opinions expressed are subject to change without notice. Owners, employees and writers may hold positions in the securities that are discussed in Ticker Trax. PLEASE DO NOT EMAIL THOM SEEKING PERSONALIZED INVESTMENT ADVICE, WHICH HE CANNOT PROVIDE. Copyright 2009 all rights reserved.