TORONTO – This is what sparked our charts this week. Prepare to make as much money next week as Stockhouse viewers plowed this same time last week:
- I interviewed new CEO David M. Beatty, the financier who put together a Brazilian gold prospector that started trading Monday: Rio Novo Gold (TSX: T.RN, Stock Forum). Mr. Beatty, a co-founder of Yamana in 1994, said the company found the idea of the ticker RN, for registered nurse, appealing. “Every year I like to find something that can go to a Texas unit,” he tells me at the company office he shares on University Avenue with Osisko Mining (TSX: T.OSK, Stock Forum) – the Malarctic Gold Project developer about whose value proposition, along with that of Harry Miller’s nearby Clifton Star Resources (TSX: V.CFO, Stock Forum), we will have much more to reveal next week. Back to Rio Novo: gold in Brazil at Almas and Guaranta. Part of the offering Monday that raised as much as $43 million Canadian included five-year warrants. That’s right, five –year warrants at a strike price of $2.25. Mr. Beatty, who is off to Brazil as we write this, tells me he was buying the IPO’s free-trading warrants at approximately 50 cents Canadian each. The warrants Friday sell for 45 cents each. All I can say for those who like warrants and rights issues is … “five years.”
- Best line – to me personally – from PDAC: Ari Sussman, CEO of Colossus Minerals (TSX: T.CSI, Stock Forum), developer of Brazil’s Serra Pelada gold-platinum-palladium deposit. “Used to be, you have a deposit, you dress up the company and wait for a bid,” Mr. Sussman told me, as we discussed Serra Pelada, plus his new Continental Gold in
Colombia, plus one other (energy-related theme). “Now, you have to build it out and show it, and while there may be bids out there for your company, the bidders (major gold-metals producers) mostly would rather your raise your money from the markets and spend most of it proving out your resource.” Mr. Sussman, in his mid-30s, has a track record of financings that go back 10 years. Ari put together energy technology developer Titanium Corp. (TSX: V.TIC, Stock Forum), whose shares I, thankfully, own.
- On the moly front, I had breakfast with AJ Ali, CFO of Avanti Mining (TSX: V.AVT, Stock Forum), one of our 12 Ticker Trax™Planetary Prospects. Mr. Ali over breakfast was telling me the story of how he owns most if not all of his Avanti shares from open-market purchases. His stake in the small company is 10 million shares. Mr. Ali says we can expect to see brokerage coverage of the developing Kitsault Molybdenum Mine of Avanti Mining from banks that include Macquarie, GMP and Haywood in the coming months. As with all Ticker Trax Planetary Prospects, we here at home own shares of Avanti. Mr. Ali, known for creative coal financing and looking at age 67 how I had hoped to look at age 47, says the new cobalt and moly futures trading in London – he was there a few weeks ago for the debut – already are being used as benchmarks for pricing in those two metals markets.
- James Moore, football-player-sized CEO of Dachang Gold Project developer Inter-Citic Minerals (TSX: T.ICI, Stock Forum) in way-eastern China, says he has been outside of China and Hong Kong all but three weeks of the past four months. Mr. Moore and his team are getting little marketplace respect for the gold prospector and potential heap-leach mine builder. Too many Inter-Citic inter-critics outside of China, it seems. Yet Big Jim Moore and No. 2 ICI man Lou Pasubio point out that China, like India seeking to boost gold reserves, easily could exhaust all internal gold resources, reserves and actual production were it to attempt to double those reserves. China’s gold reserves as a percentage of foreign-exchange reserves are about 2% right now. “Analysts outside China, say in New York or Toronto, see the China gold story a lot differently than the analysts inside China, or in Hong Kong, Mr. Moore says. Two Asia families own about 30% of Inter-Citic. (ICI shares are a Planetary Prospect.)
Shares of Candente Copper (TSX: T.DNT, Stock Forum), Joanne Freeze’s Peruvian prospector, are rising sharply. As stated earlier this week (and for more than a year now in Ticker Trax), Candente shares are probably the cheapest thing on the planet if you believe copper will become a valid money proxy. (We here at home intend to start storing grade-A copper cathode sheets in our garage.) Raymond James just boosted its price target to $1.50 for Candente shares. The company just raised $6.2 million, and I ran into Joanne Freeze this week in Toronto. She was swapping financing stories at the Haywood lakeside dinner with another copper chopper and geologist from Canada’s Serengeti Resources (TSX: V.SIR, Stock Forum), David W. Moore. In the Raymond James update just issued today, analyst Tom Meyer says part of his Candente reasoning has to do with a Hong Kong firm’s bid for copper project developer Chariot Resources (TSX: T.CHD, Stock Forum) – a subject we here at Ticker Trax addressed more than a week ago. Mr. Meyer notes Candente Copper’s depressed stock price “is not sustainable.” (Literally, I prefer to put it differently, as in, “Candente’s stock price can sustain a market value of three times what it is now.”) Tom Meyer goes on to write that Chariot received an above-average bid price from a small Hong Kong investment fund that, were its metrics applied to a slightly earlier stage Candente Copper project, comes in at a value range of “between $2.90 to $3.17 per DNT share.” Candente’s Cañariaco Norte project in Peru has as much as 7.7 billion pounds of copper. Candente Copper is a Ticker Trax Planetary Prospect. Mr. Meyer is one of the braver analysts in copper land, and for that we say bravo.
- Ultimate Groete: Adrian Hobkirk’s Gold Port Resources (TSX: V.GPO, Stock Forum) in British Guyana sells for a nano-fraction of Pat Sheridan’s Guyana Goldfields (TSX: T.GUY, Stock Forum). Mr. Hobkirk tells me today his Groete Creek Project, which I have seen from the air whilst reviewing Sandspring Resources’ (TSX: V.SSP, Stock Forum) Toroparu copper gold prospect a British Guyana monster-rock toss away, covers 1,500 hectares. GPO also holds an option on Georgetown West; some 800 hectares of property there. “Groete Creek was drilled by Coeur d’Alene in the 90’s and it came up with a non-43-101 compliant estimate,” Mr. Hobkirk tells me from Washington state, where he lives. “At that time, it owned only 70 % and gold was very low priced.” Both projects, Adrian says, cover the eastern portion of the region “and would contain granites and volcanics.” GPO (the shares trade for 10 cents Canadian and we here at home own a miniscule amount) has an area of mining activity – see the photo here -- covering approximately six kilometers. “We have just completed a detailed project reconnaissance and have 105 samples in for testing.” Ticker Trax subscribers know we have been keeping our 4G (fourth generation speed network of investors) updated on Adrian’s comings and goings regarding Gold Port and another gold prospector in South America for at least four months now. Ticker Trax was first to report, months ago, the company’s successful efforts to remove – with no bloodshed I am told today – about 200 illegal miners at the project. Gold Port, by the way, owns its own drill rig. I like the photo.
- At least two well connected financiers this past week at the annual Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada gathering told me they expect a large combination of silver assets, companies or both somewhere in South America somewhere. No other details available. But yes, I think so, too.
Ticker Trax™
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 and get working research on several Colombia gold and copper prospectors. 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: Ivanhoe Nickel & Platinum in Africa and an Internet company called Mobyling. He is participating in a placement of equity in Sunward (SWD), the Georges Juilland gold and copper prospector in Colombia that went public this week.
THOM CALANDRA of Ticker Traxhelps his audience find value in a quagmire of investment choices. Thom is the bozo who 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.)
For Ticker Trax, please see Stockhouse Password-Secure Archives.
Ticker Trax™ is published by Stockhouse Publishing Ltd. 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 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 2010 all rights reserved.