This is on-site in neo-geo.
This is how even the best geologists, rock docs Jeff Brooks in Colombia and independent Brent Cook, for example, and many mineralogists – educate themselves.
They listen. On-site.
Audio streams made even the BMO Capital Markets conference in Florida this week a 30-second turn-on. Many of the geo-wraps are still there. Complete with slide shows (please see slide example below). Each is 30 minutes of geo-fact or geo-fiction, you decide.
I have to thank Sean Boyd, a top executive at Agnico-Eagle (NYSE: AEM, Stock Forum), for coining the term geo-fiction. Mr. Boyd was speaking this week at the BMO show, a Florida gathering of big fund managers, investment bankers and sizeable mining companies, and I think his views on mining and money mostly were spot on. Click here for BMO company and technical presentations.
Sifting fact from fiction requires either a new-fangled processing mill or a trusted guide. (This is where I put in a plug for www.tickertrax.com, our wealth service that is building a potent sub-culture of subscribers who are seeking extreme returns, coupled with extreme but reasoned risks. See www.tickertrax.com for our first three planetary prospects. The price of the service is expected to rise in coming weeks, I am told by distributor Stockhouse.)
One of the most compelling presentations, I am told by those present, came from Robert M. Friedland, chairman of the Ivanhoe Capital cadre of metals and energy companies. And wouldn’t you know it, Mr. Friedland’s is one of the few BMO talks, including a keynote luncheon address in beautiful and balmy Fort Lauderdale, that was not available for real-time streaming or archiving.
Robert Friedland this week told me he preferred to keep the material “confidential.” The Internet, after all, bites once in a while. Several years ago, RMF, as friends and colleagues call him, was “burned in effigy” in the Mongolian capital of Ulan Bator after his comments about Ivanhoe Mines’ (TSX: T.IVN, Stock Forum) Oyu Tolgoi copper and gold project on the steppelands of the Gobi, and other innocent references he was making in an Internet-reachable chat, reached and roiled those living in the yurts, or “gers,” of that emerging gold/copper producing nation.
Go figure. A company spends what is probably $500 million since 2001 on a country within a country, an 80,000-kilometer swath of steppeland that is rich in minerals and close to China, and the natives burn its chairman in effigy. I bet the Mongolian truck drivers, pilots, hotel workers, chefs and monster-machine mechanics were not the ones doing the burning, not the ones getting their Ivanhoe paychecks every week, anyway.
Thankfully for shareholders, Ivanhoe’s efforts to build the largest producing gold and copper mine on the planet are making headway. RMF survived the exercise in effigy and is looking fit and wholesome, as I can personally attest.
I hope to update Ticker Trax paying subscribers on the RMF story this year.
At any rate, back in Florida, South Africa’s Mark Bristow from Rangold Resources and Ferdi Dippenaar from Great Basin Gold (TSX: T.GBG, Stock Forum) and others were outlining their operations, “happily with a rising gold price,” Bristow noted.
Many were candid and excited about the immediate future – and some, including Great Basin Gold – were making headway raising money (approx. $100 million U.S. if successful) via the sale of stock and warrants.
“This is small, simple, shallow,” Ferdi Dippenaar of Great Basin Gold said about the Burnstone gold mine in South Africa. (GBG is one of the three Ticker Trax planetary prospects upon which we are staking our personal capital. See: www.tickertrax.com.) “We don’t plan to build hostels … as typically you would find in South Africa. … The closest town is six kilometers away and we have (our workers) living in town with schools.”
That’s it for now. Later today, I will be attending a silver company’s presentation in San Francisco. Then I make my way to Toronto for the meet-and-greet of the annual PDAC conference for mining developers and prospectors.
I wanted to thank my friend James Marx of Paso Robles, California, for the above photo, which he snapped at the Phoenix Cambridge House conference for individual investors seeking ideas in gold, silver, platinum and other natural resources. (Yep, that is me.)
Ticker Trax™
Ticker Trax By Thom Calandraexplores planet Earth for a handful of stakes and strategies that offer the prospect of excellent, in some cases cosmic, returns. The new service is for those who can cope with stratospheric levels of risk attached to a handful of planetary prospects. (Please see www.tickertrax.com.)
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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.
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 receive no compensation for these reports. They own shares of Great Basin Gold. They have no interest in any publicly traded Ivanhoe company but do own shares of a privately held Ivanhoe company looking for opportunities in South Africa and The Congo (DRC). For the free ThomWatch, please click here. For subscription service Ticker Trax, please visit www.TickerTrax.com. Thank you!
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 an 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 the investment securities subscribers or readers should buy or sell for themselves. Subscribers and readers of Ticker Trax should conduct their own research and due diligence and obtain professional advice before making any investment decisions. 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. The editor and publisher are not responsible for errors or omissions or responsible for keeping information up to date or for correcting any past information. Ticker Traxdoes not receive compensation of any kind from any companies that may be mentioned in the report. 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.