COLOMBIA – It’s a porphyry scrum,one that is paying off for Colombia gold and copper prospectors in the nation’s Middle Cauca Belt.
At the top of the porphyry pile: Bellhaven Copper & Gold (TSX: V.BHV, Stock Forum), followed by a fresh zone just reported at Batero Gold’s Quinchia near gold-dusted El Marmato. Nearly every project developer in Colombia is stuffing the pipe with drilling or channel sample/rock chip results.
First off, Paul Zweng’s Bellhaven Copper & Gold just revealed assays that fortify prospects for its La Mina gold-copper porphyry in Colombia. Headline number: 87 meters @ 1.59 grams gold equivalent per metric ton (with copper in the mix). Please see specifics for yourself. That is some serious igneous rock.
Takeaway: Dr. Zweng as interim CEO has sufficient ammunition to justify his company’s $6 million purchase of La Mina in gold-dusted Antioquia earlier this year. Dr. Zweng, a Stanford University-trained geologist, now is spreading the word to eager asset managers looking for a Colombia winner – even as he awaits fresh drill data from the property.
La Mina’s Cantera section, which I have seen and reported for Ticker Traxsubscribers, now gets an extending of the prospect’s hot zone to a depth of 270 meters below surface. Three holes, each 150 meters apart, demonstrate Bellhaven’s purchased property is at least equal to and might be far superior to other porphyry prospects in Colombia’s Middle Cauca Belt, less than 100 kilometers from the city of Medellin. Please see:Ticker Trax May 17.
Big picture: I have seen nearly all of the projects in and around Antioquia, Colombia. These include El Marmato of Medoro Resources (TSX: V.MRS, Stock Forum). Of the porphyry gold-copper projects, I have been to Belhaven’s La Mina, to Sunward’s (SWD) Titiribi and to Colombian Mines’ Yarumalito (CMJ). The Middle Cauca Belt in Colombia also features B2Gold’s Quebradona, among several other porphyry deposits. It is also home to Batero Gold’s (TSX: V.BAT, Stock Forum) Quinchia and to Seafield’s (TSX: V.SFF, Stock Forum) Quinchia-area project. Gran Colombia Gold (TSX: V.GCM, Stock Forum)’s Zancudo next to Titiribi is also porphyry.
At the far southern end of the Mid-Cauca Belt is AngloGold's (NYSE: AU, Stock Forum) La Colosa, yet another porphyry.
As with all of Dr. Zweng’s work, data from La Mina comes with richly detailed cross-sections and bountiful intercepts. (Please see Stockhouse and Bellhaven’s graphics.) Unlike, say, Medoro Resources (TSX: V.MRS, Stock Forum), which just revealed robust drill data from El Marmato in Colombia, Bellhaven capped its gold grades at five grams per tonne and copper at two percent.
“This is classic Paul (Zweng),” longtime Bellhaven shareholder and Panama broker Patrick Abraham tells me. “He is executing just as he said he would. He’s tenacious, like the Desert Fox, a geologist’s version of Rommel. He defines clearly the limits and never crosses the line.” Mr. Abraham is traveling with me this week in Sweden on our tour of Gold-Ore’s (TSX: T.GOZ, Stock Forum) Bjorkdal Mine. (Bold GOZ stock prediction further down.)
La Mina, based on these figures, clearly could become one of the best gold-copper porphyries in the Mid Cauca belt of Colombia. I say that with pride, owning 1.4 million shares of Bellhaven. The company now belongs in the justifiably cheap spectrum for asset managers looking for genuine value in a region where prospector shares such as Continental Gold (TSX: T.CNL, Stock Forum) have risen dramatically this past spring and summer.
Stockhouse audience: Others aside from our featured Bellhaven that remain below $25 million and are worthy based on our on-site inspection of properties: Colombian Mines (TSX: V.CMJ, Stock Forum) and Antioquia Gold (TSX: V.AGD, Stock Forum). In the Department Of Cheap But $50 million To $60 Million Market Cap: Gran Colombia Gold (TSX: V.GCM, Stock Forum). (We here at home own shares of CMJ, BHV and AGD. A small amount of MRS as well.)
Bellhaven is set to benefit not just from La Mina and its ongoing drill program but from Pitaloza in Panama as well. That high-sulfidation epithermal deposit, of which I have seen parcels in person, will undergo drilling before late October. Still, it is Colombia’s La Mina right now that puts Belhaven one step closer to a $1 Canadian stock.
Gold-Ore Flash: “Stock Likely Set To Rise Sharply In Next 5 Days.” This is my notice to Ticker Trax subscribers earlier this week for Gold-Ore (GOZ), of whose shares I now own 20,000. The stock likely will break through 60 cents and head toward the $1 level quickly. Please see our on-spot coverage of GOZ and the Bjorkdal Mine from this week. The company is now in London meeting potential investors. I think someone might come along and take the producing gold miner right out from beneath its Swedish birch trees.
TOURS: I am scheduled to be in Colombia a week looking at a property in Antioquia.
New Orleans in October & San Francisco Hard Assets in November: 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. Another is San Francisco in November. If you’d like to join our Stockhouse and Ticker Trax audience at the late-October 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.
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HOLDINGS: Thom’s holdings are listed for 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 about 30 public and two private companies.
THOM CALANDRA of Ticker Trax helps his audience find value in a quagmire of investment choices. Thom co-founded CBS MarketWatch and MarketWatch.com. As the voice of Thom Calandra's StockWatch and The Calandra Report, Thom pegged $300-ounce gold as a long-term hold in 1999 and in 2000. He has been covering life-sciences and natural resources since 1988.
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