Hiking Ticker Trax Trail

Thom’s year in Mexico, Colombia, Ghana and Guyana

VANCOUVER, B.C. -- This Feliz Navidad array of tickers and images is for our Stockhouse audience and first went to Ticker Trax subscribers Thursday morning.

The images and reporting here are culled from our Ticker Trax™ newsletter coverage in 2009, and created wealth for our subscribers, many of them friends and colleagues.

One day these names from the emerging resource scrum called Colombia could be listed in history books as a generational fountain of copper/gold/silver riches: Yuramalito, Titiribi, Cisneros, Bucaramanga, Guayabales, Marmato, Buritica, Frontino…

Some 40 percent of Colombia has not been geologically mapped, Bob Carrington at Colombian Mines Corp. (TSX: V.CMJ, Stock Forum) told me as we pick-axed one of the camino reales across his Yuramalito property outside the city of Medellin two weeks ago.

Right now junior prospectors, primarily in the Canadian and Australian markets, are thriving. Antioquia Gold (TSX: V.AGD, Stock Forum), a Colombia company, is going bonkers – largely on results from its Cisneros Project near the Antioquia city of Medellin – a project I shall see in less than a week’s time. I like small – always have.

The biggest prospectors in the country, Ashanti Goldfields for one, Ventana (TSX: T.VEN, Stock Forum) for another, are simultaneously thriving and fending off thrusts from property owners and environmentalists. “They pave the way for sure, but they pay the price,” geologist and author Hernan Ortiz Delgado of Medoro Resources (TSX: V.MRS, Stock Forum) tells me at the company’s Marmato project, which is three hours outside Medellin.

As prospecting goes Colombia will make many of us a lot of dough. I will be returning to the country December 27 to see more of what the Carringtons, Gloria and Bob, have in their Colombia portfolio of gold properties. Bob Carrington, in the country since 1993, has marked X’s across at least four of the most promising geologic trends in the country. I have been to Yuramalito, which could become the next Marmato (that is Medoro’s Marmato mountain) in terms of at-surface and at-depth gold.

Also on the list for this next visit: Antioquia Gold’s Cisneros layout, which continues to bolster its case (see latest data via Stockhouse please) for a thickening mesothermal lode deposit of gold some 70 km from the amazing city of Medellin – the next Ulan Bator in the planetary scrum for resource. (Colombian Mines has property plotted at strategic trends and what appear to be anomalies across the country, including near Cisneros.)

We here at Ticker Trax also will view Georges Juilland’s Titiribi project, which is privately held at present and is situated in and around a historic mining town with generations of prospecting and mining.

Mr. Juilland’s project, several hours from Medellin, has the backing of several folks in Europe and Hong Kong – and Vancouver, Canada – folks who often guide me toward the right stuff – as they did years ago at The Calandra Report.

Titiribi on-site operator Phil O’Neill, on his way to a small holiday on the Mayan Riviera, tells me the Sunward group controlling the historic mine and concession has had discussions with the owners of the old Zancudo Mine. Phil says, “It is not currently part of our Titiribi property package; however, at the right price it would make sense to consolidate more of the area. Things in Colombia have gone nuts of late and the issue I believe will be what the right price is.”

On the compelling yet cheap ridge of Colombia: Adrian Hobkirk’s Caerus Resources (TSX: V.CA, Stock Forum), active in Bucaramanga, Colombia. Adrian was telling me over lamb chops in Medellin about the challenges of sweeping squatters off his British Guyana gold project (ticker: GPO). There are no squatter issues currently for Caerus, which is, with the exception perhaps of CMJ, the cheapest public security currently active in Colombia.)

My most pleasant surprise came the other day when Mr. Delgado, right hand geologist to VP of Exploration Vicente Mendoza at Medoro Resources’ Marmato, autographed his “Geologia Minera Del Oro De Veta” examination of trends and veins at Colombia’s historic Frontino Mine at Segovia and other mines in the region.

Mr. Delgado spent part of the 1970s and early 1980s at the productive Frontino, which is now held in trust for pension-seeking miner retirees and probably produces 25,000 ounces of gold a year still.

Many of the book’s diagrams and photos are eye-openers, including one photo of Mr. Delgado and the Frontino geology team with now-renowned geologist and author Richard Sillitoe.

Ticker Trax™ Planetary Prospects: This is a gift for the Stockhouse audience. Those who wish to subscribe might consider the holiday offer now at Stockhouse.

PPs are Ticker Trax investments designed for holding periods of at least one year -- and ideally more. Nearly all of these are well in the money since being researched and named in the past 14 months.

• Central Fund of Canada (TSX: T.CEF.A, Stock Forum) – You get to own silver and gold via a Canadian repository. One day the premium on this open-end fund is going to rise to 30 percent and more from its current 12 percent or so.
• BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: BCRX, Stock Forum) – Read our clips: The second installment of H1N1 could (we hope not) sicken twice as many folks as the ravaging first round did. (See: John Barry’s “The Great Influenza.”) Regardless, the drug discovery company’s compounds for leukemia, gout, psoriasis, influenza (peramivir) and perhaps cardiac arrest are worth every penny of this now-$6 security – down from $13 but up 13 months ago from $1.70 purchase price.
• Endeavour Silver (EXK and EDR) – This one has about tripled since being named a PP of Ticker Trax some 10 months or so ago.
  
• X-tra Gold Resources (OTO: XTGR, Stock Forum) – A Canada listing might be in works for this Ghana company working the Kibi Gold Trend. (Photo of soil samples above.) Jimmy Longshore’s X-tra is on track for one of the most promising Ghana gold trends in recent years. Say three million ounces or more if it all turns out well. I love West Africa and will be returning to the continent in late January to see Great Basin Gold’s (TSX: T.GBG, Stock Forum) Burnstone Mine in South Africa. I also will see Adam Fleming’s Wits Gold (OTO: WIWTY, Stock Forum) and its DeBron property, among others. I will be available for meetings in Cape Town January 30 to February 2.(Oh yes, and if “District Nine” is not named as one of the 10 Best Picture nominees by the Academy/Hollywood Oscars, I think we all should send the committee at that institution a load of spoiled prawns.)
• Endeavour Financial (TSX: T.EDV, Stock Forum) – Gordon Keep and Neil Woodyer’s Vancouver merchant bank owns stakes in some of the most promising natural resource companies on the planet. EDV also is the bank that more or less propelled Pacific Rubiales (TSX: T.PRE, Stock Forum), the Colombian energy company, into the Milky Way of stardom market capitalizations this past 18 months. (For Endeavour’s bankers and for other Vancouver and Colombia and London financiers, among them Frank Giustra and Serafino Iacono, Colombia’s Medoro Resources (TSX: V.MRS, Stock Forum) is likely next in the gold stardom queue.)
• Great Basin Gold (TSX: T.GBG, Stock Forum): This is Ferdi Dippenaar’sSouth Africa and Nevada company. The security is active as all get-go in November and December. I have known big-man Ferdi since 2001 or so. He has paid his dues and burned one or two bridges in his time. GBG shares, one of two PP laggards this year for Ticker Trax, are starting to reach 65 percent of peer-value based on net asset value for expected gold output in the year 2010 (400,000 ounces?) I will see Burnstone in late January, as mentioned above.
• Candente Resource (TSX: T.DNT, Stock Forum) – Never more, quoth the maven. Never more will Joanne Freeze’s Candente have to live with no “s” at the end of “Resource” in its name. Candente has more or less cleared the $10 million mark on its raise for Candente Gold – the Mexico and Peruvian gold spinoff. Frank Holmes of U.S. Global in San Antonio, Texas, took the lead on this one after naming a “directorial” condition of his own that resulted in a small shuffle. El Oro in Mexico holds the promise of a generation or two of Mexico miners seeking their gold desserts. The new company’s El Oro prospect has the backing of a skeptical independent geologist whom I admire. Finally, I met – two weeks ago, to be exact – with one of the top Peru-based Candente geologists … and yes, I am certain copper mining is still a worthy pursuit.
• Inter-Citic Minerals (TSX: T.ICI, Stock Forum) – I will see ICI’s Dachang Gold Project in China by April 2010. As he promised, CEO James Moore got the stock up to $1 from 75 cents. Not enough for me. Still concerns about bio-leaching, one geologist tells me.
• Great Panther Silver (TSX: T.GPR, Stock Forum) – A name change but no real change. Bob Archer’s small Mexico mining company has light years to go before it gets to even 65 percent of the price appreciation that Brad Cooke’s Endeavour Silver has enjoyed of late. Both companies operate silver mines in Guanajuato, the second best and most beautiful city of this past 10 or 11 months for me.
• Premium Exploration (TSX: V.PEM, Stock Forum) – Del Steiner and geologist/CEO Wolf Struck do not say much. Perche? Because just seeing the Idaho sprawl the two have assembled after many years of trying is enough to catch your breath. I caught mine. Now the stock had better move, man, and move.
• Avanti Mining (TSX: V.AVT, Stock Forum) – Cheap molybdenum mine at Kitsault in Canada. Compelling to the maximum. I have seen the B.C. property. CEO Craig Nelsen and CFO AJ Ali have my allegiance on this one, complicated as the share “structure’’ is. This thing will be producing moly of good to excellent grades within 18 months. Plus, moly futures start trading in London in February.
• Colombian Mines Corp. (TSX: V.CMJ, Stock Forum) – We say it all above. More on this one coming until the shares reach fair value of $45 million or so market capitalization – which is a tad more than double their current worth. Nate Teal and the Carringtons have their heads together on assembling a tiny metals juggernaut (oxy to the moron?) across a gnarly and gorgeous landscape of Colombia gold/copper/coal prospects.

Compelling: Pediment Gold (TSX: T.PEZ, Stock Forum). Speculation is swirling around this small company, whose Baja California project, San Antonio, I have seen. The concessions there could become a district in terms of gold, and no other company is within 100 kilometers. Pediment is not a Planetary Prospect but is under review.

Compelling: Medoro Resources (TSX: V.MRS, Stock Forum), owner and developer of Marmato in Colombia – the king-gong show of gold messes when it comes to politics, wildcat mills and miners, Persian Blue streaks of cyanide … and the best-trained team of Colombia, Venezuela and Panamanian geologists I have seen to date. (I own the shares and have for 18 months; see disclosures below.)

Medoro has the connections in government, thanks in large part to the success of Pacific Rubiales’ (TSX: T.PRE, Stock Forum) oil discoveries in the nation of 40 million … und years of gentle and sometimes NOT-so-gentle negotiating and footwork by Serafino Iacono in Bogota, Frank Giustra in Vancouver … and others– among them, NYU-trained Venezuelan ex-pat Vicente Mendoza, Medoro’s VP of Exploration. When new CEO John Hick and Senor Mendoza take their Marmato upper and lower efforts to Wall Street and your street – and possibly purchase the Fronitno Mine at Segovia -- the value of this already expensive company will at least double.

Ticker Trax 2009 Awards

-- Best broker for the wee folks: David Kearnes at Canaccord in Vancouver.
-- Best shareholder gain on the part of a silver team: Brad Cooke and Barry Devlin’s Endeavour Silver.

-- Best grassroots country for gold, copper and coal: Colombia.

-- Best use of a cash pool corporation for launching what might become the next Kilometer 88 – in British Guyana: Sandspring Resources (SSP).Good for you, John Adams and family. I have seen Toroparu. It is real and rich and producing as we speak. See: Guyana’s Gonzo Gold Tract. (Photo of John Adams above.)

-- Best of friends: Paul Zweng (below), Frank Holmes at U.S. Global, Joanne Freeze at Candente, Jimmy Longshore at X-tra Gold … Bob and Gloria Carrington … Michael Curlook at Great Basin Gold … Carlos Baca at Fortuna Silver … many more.

-- Best geologist running a hdge fund: Paul Zweng in Honolulu. His small fund is up about 140 percent this year, thanks to stakes in Indonesia and Botswana, among other places. See:Zweng’s Zen.

Ahead of us
I am home in California from Peru and Colombia after having toured Focus Ventures’ Nueva California (TSX:V.FCV, Stock Forum) and Fortuna Silver’s (TSX: V.FVI, Stock Forum) Caylloma Project at 5,500 meters.
Focus stands a shot at a vast discovery at its Nueva California Project. We toured with Louis James of Casey Research … whom I wish to thank for guiding me through some of the principles of not caving in. For example: when underground, keep head low. When above ground, hold head high.

Next week I leave on behalf of Ticker Trax subscribers for yet another tour of Colombia, largely Antioquia Gold, Nate Tewalt and the Carringtons’ Colombian Mines and Georges Juilland’s Titiribi project not far from the city of Medellin.

Feliz Navidad.


Coming in January 2010

Vancouver Resource Investment Conference, Jan. 17-18. I’ll be up there with two Ticker Trax workshops and plenty of material from Colombia, Ghana, Peru and Mexico. Companies wishing to participate in a Friday evening dinner before the conference’s official start, an annual affair I help arrange with our friends from Gold Antitrust Action Committee and extra-special guests, please ping me or send a note to GATA.Org’s Chris Powell at www.GATA.org. The conference itself is free for those who register at www.cambridgehouse.com.

Ticker Trax™
Please see tickertrax.comto learn more about this wealth service and its 12 Planetary Prospects. Also, please see its breakout feature examinations of one Ghana gold prospector, one Guyana gold prospector and gold producer and one looming molybdenum mine in British Columbia. Subscribers, please click here for password-secure Ticker Trax.

• For an index of free Thom, please click here.
• For subscription service Ticker Trax™, please visit: www.tickertrax.com.
  

HOLDINGS:Thom’s stock holdings are listed for all Stockhouse members on www.Stockhouse.com under the “portfolio setting” for user TCALANDRA. It is public and free to view. He also owns recently minted gold and silver coins and shares of two private companies, one of them a nickel and platinum prospector in South Africa & DRC (Congo). Thom does not do private placements or accept payment in return for coverage. Thom participates in select company-sponsored and company-paid tours of mining sites after examining the properties off-site for many months and in some cases, years. Focus and Fortuna were sponsored tours. I do not own the shares of these two Peruvian companies but will continue to report on developments there.


(All photos by Thom Calandra. Thom owns shares of 11 of the 12 Planetary Prospects in Ticker Trax and will be purchasing No. 12, CMJ, soon. He does not own Pediment Gold nor does he have an interest in Caerus Resources. He does own Medoro Resources and has for at least 18 months via a stake in now merged Colombia Gold Fields. Thom does not own Focus, Fortuna or Antioquia Gold.)
For Ticker Trax, please see Stockhouse Password-Secure Archives.

THOM CALANDRA of Ticker Traxhelps his audience find value in a quagmire of investment choices. Thom co-founded and was executive VP of news for CBS MarketWatch andMarketWatch.com. As the voice of Thom Calandra's StockWatch and The Calandra Report, Thom pegged $300-ounce gold as a long-term hold and dyed his hair blonde multiple times as gold surpassed $400, $500 and $600.

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 Trax does 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.