September 1, 2010 -- This is the day kids go back to school around where we live. Our daughter says, “I like the day before the first day of school ‘coz I know I’ll see my friends.”
My acquaintances mostly are on site right now here and there: Colombia in the case of geologist Robert Carrington of Colombian Mines (TSX: V.CMJ), Ghana in the case of Xtra-Gold Resources (OTC:BB: XTGR) and operator James Longshore.
Or my friends and colleagues and investments are whipping up support for their gold or copper or silver shares in bank conference rooms or at Canadian lunches. Ari Sussman, Toronto financier, just completed a $50 million “bought deal” for his Continental Gold (TSX: T.CNL) in Colombia.
Or the resources crowd is holding AGMs (annual meetings) 
and board gatherings. Or all of the above.
When it is a professor of geology, the back-to-school thing makes sense. These notes are from a doctor of geology who runs one of my favorite companies. Bellhaven Copper & Gold (TSX: V.BHV) will post drill results from its La Mina gold and copper porphyry in Colombia by mid-September.
The fresh data could validate the red-rich channel samples and property layout I already have seen there. I think the shares will be extremely actionable in coming days. But then, I own 1.4 million shares and the company is a Ticker Trax™Planetary Prospect. Paul Zweng, interim CEO and Stanford University doctorate in geology, is in Canada this week telling the BHV story and meeting shareholders and board members.
I put this little construct to Dr. Zweng the other day: If you were an outsider, what three questions would you be asking?
Three questions to BHV, one of our 12 Planetary Prospects and a well performing stock – all wrapped in one:
- Paul’s all-in-three question: How are you doing with respect to the goals the company stated in its March 26th press release? Reply: “This is really the three questions in one. As you recall, Bellhaven announced it would work towards (1) delivering an attractive flagship exploration project, (2) attracting first-rate and highly-motivated people into both the exploration and senior management ranks, and (3) disseminating company information and updates in a persistent manner to the investment community. We have made considerable progress in all three areas.” (Photo: Paul Zweng in Panama with a fellow geologist.)
- He continues, “Work is advancing well at La Mina porphyry Au-(Cu) project in Colombia. We began our drilling program just two months after signing an option to acquire 100% of the project. Our first hole was DDH-07 and we are currently drilling DDH-10. We hope to announce the first of the drilling results in mid Sept, although if the assay laboratory can produce the results sooner, we may be able to announce the results before then. In addition, we have been successful in demonstrating that "ore-type" grades of 0.7 g/t Au occur over the top of the second prospect at La Mina called the Middle Zone. This prospect is located about half a kilometer from the main prospect, La Cantera (where we started the drilling program).”
- “In Panama, we have made significant progress at our 100%-owned Pitaloza high-sulfidation epithermal gold prospect. We have announced receiving strong assays from the trenching program (including values as high as 4.4 g/t Au over 18 m), good results from the induced polarization (IP) re-interpretation suggesting continuity of the mineralized zones along strike and at depth and favorable comments from one of the industry's premier epithermal gold consultants after his field visit. Recently we received the necessarily permits to drill at Pitaloza from government authorities.”
- “We have made a number of advances with respect to forming a new management team. I assumed the CEO role in early May. We hired Millie Paredes as the CFO later that month. Her geologic/exploration background has been a boon to us in the CFO role as the project managers can work with her because she can speak their language (and I am not referring to Spanish, which of course she can speak because she was born in Lima, Peru, but the language of exploration). Recently we hired Tom Drown as our Panama exploration manager. Tom has already organized the exploration programs and set up our new field office located a relatively short distance from our projects. Julio Benedetti (former CEO) is doing a terrific job in his new role as president, where he has been spearheading the sale of the shares of Minera Cerro Quema, divesting the Gomez Plata mine in Colombia and obtaining the government permits and other rights related to Pitaloza.”
- “Finally, Bellhaven has been transformed regarding investor relations. Although much work remains to be done, the website is slowly being updated. To date the presentationfound on the home page is being revised each month (and may form the single best source of current information on Bellhaven). The frequency of issued press releases has risen dramatically. The relatively high number of press releases is a direct result of the many exploration programs that are now active. Finally, a concerted effort has been made to meet with analysts and fund managers to broaden the company's reach inside the investment community. I want to make a special mention of the support we have received from Ticker Trax and the columns by Thom Calandra appearing on Stockhouse. These have helped tremendously in reaching investors with an interest in the natural resources sector.”
As stated often, we here at home own 1.4 million shares of Bellhaven. It is a Planetary Prospect of this service.
THE NOVEL: It’s here, complete and for your reading pleasure: PABLO BY NUMBERS by Thom Calandra. It’s about the world of natural resources … and pain … and joy. Funny, too.
TOURS: I am scheduled to be in Colombia in two weeks looking at a new property in Antioquia, El Pino Gold Project, tentatively to be acquired by Adrian Hobkirk’s Caerus Resource (TSX: V.CA). I intend to see the Sweden gold mine operated by Gold-Ore Resources (TSX: T.GOZ) Sept. 7 to 9. Patrick Abraham of Panama, a director of Bellhaven, will accompany me. I own 12,000 shares of GOZ. I intend to see a Nevada gold and silver project this week. The ticker is LODE for Comstock Lode (OTC:BB: LODE). Corrado DeGasperis is CEO.
NOTES: Companies I own shares of that have news today (Wednesday) include Hathor Exploration (TSX: V.HAT) in the uranium fields way up north in Canada.
NEW ORLEANS & SF: This autumn I will be making two or three appearances outside of prospect tours. One of them is in New Orleans, where I appear each year at Brien Lundin’s New Orleans Investment Conference. On the conference scene, there are only two this autumn where I am scheduled to present workshops: San Francisco and New Orleans. A third possible is the Oct. 6-8Medellin Metals Trade Fair in Colombia.
If you’d like to join our Stockhouse and Ticker Trax audience at the late-October New Orleans show, please register and pay up at this link: REGISTER FOR NEW ORLEANS. You get a discount on the price at that address. It’s my favorite investment show – along with the longstanding San Francisco Hard Assets conference in November, when I will be presenting a workshop on structural geology – as a reporter, not a geologist.
Ticker Trax™ started in November 2008. The service researches a select group of Planetary Prospects™ with legitimate shots at rising significantly in the span of two years, maybe less and maybe more. It is at www.tickertrax.com.
STUFF: Our Ticker Trax landing page has more stuff, videos included. Please see: www.stockhouse.com/TickerTrax/Default.aspx.