TROY, Montana -- Investors are “pricing up” copper. Thus, I am touring here in Montana, looking at silver and copper … rather than touring in a warm place -- say Colombia gold and copper prospects, or Ghana’s and Mali’s rich ore deposits.
On copper, one transaction linked to China is making the Cu rounds. Chariot Resources (TSX: T.CHD, Stock Forum) just snagged a 67-cent per share bid from China’s Sci-Tech Holdings, a small entity that is listed in Hong Kong. Chariot’s stakeholders include the Lundin group of Canada.
This makes Chariot, which owns the majority of the Mina Justa deposit in Peru, worth about $250 million USA ballpark. As fund manager and oft-Ticker Trax contributor and doctor of geology Paul Zweng tells me today (Tuesday), the China investment fund’s offer represents a decently valued 4 ½ cents per pound of copper for Chariot’s 70 percent stake in the mine.
For our Stockhouse audience, this is not about riding chariots. That news is done. This is about locating companies that might be a year to two years in the offing on their copper mines. Or properties that are producing copper, and other metals, including silver and other by-products – yet are still a year or two from increasing their grades, or sorting lawsuits, or improving their recoverable hauls with better equipment, and so on.
Mr. Zweng, based in Honolulu and a successful hedge fund manager of natural resources, is also a director and one of the founders of Antares Minerals (TSX: V.ANM, Stock Forum), a John Black-run company active in Peru. I hope to see Antares’ far-flung Haquira project later in March. Even Mr. Zweng has yet to see it.
Antares, after updating the size of its resource and the copper grades at the prospect, is getting a bit of attention this week. The bank Thomas Weisel just mentioned Antares as an attractive and cheap option on copper. (For an index of free Thom Calandra, please click here.)
Says Mr. Zweng, “If ANM were purchased at the same 4.5c per lb Cu price as was Chariot (the bid for Chariot, that is), then think how much money that would represent. That is 11.7B lbs Cu multiplied by $0.045 per lb Cu, which equals $526.5 million USA.”
He adds for effect, “ That’s a big number.” Mr. Zweng, whose approximately $2 million hedge fund rose almost 200 percent in 2009 before fees, owns shares of Antares. The Stanford University doctorate in geology schooled himself in copper in Peru years ago.
There are even cheaper copper stakes (and poly-metallic mines and prospects) out there.
In Troy here, I am looking at Revett Minerals’ producing silver-copper mine and its related prospect. Robert Archer of Great Panther Silver first put me on the road to Montana and Revett (TSX: T.RVM, Stock Forum). That was 9 months ago, and I bought perhaps $400 worth of stock in Revett.
Now that copper is being seen as a currency proxy, I figure it is time to look at the rock in Northwestern Montana. Mr. Archer and others who are intrigued by John Shanahan’s Revett say the company’s Montana mining and exploration activities are one year to 18 months from reaching full stride.
Bob Archer’s Great Panther Silver (TSX: T.GPR, Stock Forum), which is up sharply Tuesday (some 5 percent or more), along with other small and mid-sized silver and copper companies, is what we call a Planetary Prospect of Ticker Trax, one of 12 for the subscriber service. We here at home own all 12 of those Prospects.
Antares Minerals is NOT a Planetary Prospect, and I own none of those shares. I would like to see with my own eyes what the fuss is about Haquira in Peru. Mr. Black, age 49, tells me no writer or analyst has seen the property on site in terms of analysts and writers. “It’s a darn fine project,” he says on his way to next week’s PDAC gathering of geos and developers in Toronto.
I acknowledge here that among brokerage analysts, George Topping at Thom Weisel’s shop is one of the few who is ahead of the copper curve. Mr. Topping of the Toronto office reckons Antares is valued at a little less than a penny per pound of copper in the ground. John Black tells me today this includes by-products moly, gold and silver.
The other tiny copper companies that might be worth a look? I just got back from viewing Bellhaven Copper & Gold’s (TSX: V.BHV, Stock Forum) Panama prospect. CEO and well known Panama engineer and minerals economist Julio Benedetti has been sticking with Pitaloza for years now. We’ll see. I liked the trenches I saw at Pitaloza. I am just as interested in what Bellhaven has going the San Lucas part of Colombia’s roughrider Bolivar Department. (Please see photo above of Thom Calandra at a Bellhaven property in Colombia.)
We here at home own no shares of Bellhaven, a sub-$15 million company.
On the cheap moly front, Avanti Mining (TSX: V.AVT, Stock Forum), yet another Ticker Trax Planetary Prospect, is developing the past producing Kitsault Molybdenum Mine in British Columbia. Craig J. Nelsen and AJ Ali, who run Avanti from Denver, tell me the mine is one of the top five molybdenum development assets worldwide.
I have been there. I love moly, and we here at home own more than one million shares of this company’s 17-cent Canadian stock. “We have no copper by-product but there is a potential for +1 million opa silver,” Mr. Nelsen, whom I have known for eight or so years, tells me today in a note. “We are working on the flotation circuit for that right now.”
Finally, down Colombia way, we have a number of Ticker Trax research reports on copper prospects in the hopper. They are all extremely high risk options, concessions, letter of intent or 100 percent-owned properties. Best known in this space is Colombian Mines’ (TSX: V.CMJ, Stock Forum) El Dovio prospect. President Bob Carrington recently showed me rock sampling from this copper prospect. Colombian Mines this week is discussing partnership or other possibilities with Colombia businessman and mine-builder Serafino Iacono, a former director of Pacific Rubiales.
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Please see tickertrax.comto learn more about this wealth service and its 12 Planetary Prospects. Also, see its breakout feature examination of a Ghana prospector headed toward a golden harvest. And working research on several Colombia and copper and one Panama copper company. Subscribers, please click here for password-secure Ticker Trax.
HOLDINGS: Thom’s holdings are listed for all Stockhouse members at www.Stockhouse.com under the “portfolio setting” for user TCALANDRA. It is public and free to view. He and his family own recently minted gold and silver coins and shares of a number of public and two private companies. As with each of the 12 Planetary Prospects, Thom Calandra owns Colombia Mines and ther other P.P.s indicated in this free article.
THOM CALANDRA of Ticker Traxhelps his audience find value in a quagmire of investment choices. Thom co-founded 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.
(All photos by Thom Calandra. Thom owns shares of each of the 12 Planetary Prospects in subscriber service Ticker Trax. Thom’s personal holdings are available for all to see on Stockhouse, the Canada publishing company.)
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