As with many mining and metals conferences, Frank Hoffmann and Jan Kneist's
Munich Gold Show this year is a shrinking act. It has about
40 exhibitors from the prospecting arena, and a few more from precious metals, materials and financial sectors.
The
Munich show is in its ninth year. During the good years, prospectors and miners, largely Canadian, numbered three times as many.
If there is a Munich theme this year, it looks like
silver. Germans love silver and believe it to be the poor man's gold in times of inflation, fiscal stress and who knows, USA-cell-phone spying?
David Morgan, silver expert, is speaking at the show, which is featuring booths from First Majestic Silver,
Impact Silver (
TSX:V.IPT,
Stock Forum), Mag Silver (
TSX:T.MAG,
Stock Forum) and Dolly Varden Silver (
TSX:V.DV,
Stock Forum).
Among companies and people
TCR follows, exhibitors this year include Nikolas Perrault's
Colt Resources (
TSX:V.GTP,
Stock Forum), which is one of our
TCR 8 and just appointed a Middle East political advisor,
Nader Uskowi.
Mr. Uskowi is a senior policy adviser on Middle Eastern affairs for
United States Central Command in the region, which includes Iran and Afghanistan. Colt Resources, according to a new study by
Arthur Lipper's
portfoliocomparator.com, has outpaced share gains of each of a group of 25 peer stocks for the past five days and the past 26 weeks.
Of interest,
Tasman Metals (
TSX:V.TSM,
Stock Forum) comes closest to Colt's outsized recent gains. Tasman, like Colt, owns tungsten assets -- Tasman is in Sweden and Colt is in Portugal.
Arthur Lipper is an 81-year-old investment banker and mutual fund analyst who lives with his family in Del Mar, California. Mr. Lipper's accomplishments include earning a Purple Heart as a U.S. Marine in the Korean War, playing tennis regularly and growing up in the Bronx, N.Y. Among other things, that is. See:
bio.
He is a self-described mensch who can keep up with the quickest of us on mining tours, and has plenty to say about everything. I like him.
I just saw, regarding Colt, that its new executive chairman,
Richard Quesnel of Quebec took eight of the 10 senior finance units Colt used to raise $2.5m. This is called putting your money where the notes are. Colt, it turns out, is one of my four largest resource positions -- thanks in part to the steady share gains of late.
Back in Munich,
Red Eagle Mining (
TSX:V.RD,
Stock Forum) will be there. Red Eagle got a zero-reaction from investors last week for its latest compliant report on what it might take to turn Santa Rosa in Colombia into a mine.
On this side of our world,
New Orleans, which I am attending (and making two appearances), follows Munich.
Munich runs Nov. 8 and 9. New Orleans runs Nov. 10-13. Use
this link, and you get a
decent discount to the admission price for the four-day NEW ORLEANS INVESTMENT CONFERENCE.
Fresh Assays:
Gold Standard Ventures (
TSX:V.GSV,
Stock Forum), one of our
TCR 8, has two more core assays from Railroad in Nevada:
See:
www.stockhouse.com/news/press-releases/2013/11/05/gold-standard-ventures-expands-north-bullion-zone-s-lower-breccia-deposit-to-
The takeaway is straightforward: the two fresh assays in Nevada have patterns in the lower breccia zone that are found throughout the deposit. Chief geologist
David Mathewson says the potential gold and silver deposit runs about 70 meters east-west and about 70 meters north-south.
A hole in progress looks like it could bring a bumper crop of high-grade mineral to the Railroad project, near Nevada's Carlin Trend and the Rain District.
As part of the so-called North Bullion central zone, the hole in progress is an offset to one that intersected 98.1 meters of 3.26 grams gold per metric ton. GSV shares in Canada and USA are behaving well. We could see some powerful data in the next two weeks.
CMJ + IFC = Colonoscopy:
The only thing missing from our review of
Colombian Mines' green money investment from a World Bank Unit was some outside perspective.
IFC (International Finance Corp.) stakes are few and far between and are spread among miners, energy drillers, prospectors, highway builders and other resource-oriented developments in second-world and third-world nations.
Says
Patrick Reid, who heads corporate development at
Pilot Gold (
TSX:T.PLG,
Stock Forum), one of our TCR 8, "IFC is a huge validation for any project. They run an incredibly intense due diligence program."
Most of our
TCR audience is familiar with
Colombian Mines Corporation (
TSX:V.CMJ,
Stock Forum) -- mostly because of the coverage I gave the company in 2008 through the present -- in
TCR, at Stockhouse and in (now Danny Deadlock's) Ticker Trax.
Mr. Carrington and his Medellin-born wife, Gloria, are well known in Antioquia and other parts of the country. Bob, who hails from Nevada and is a plain-talking geologist with a gol-dang twang, has been working Colombia properties since 1992.
How plain speaking? Well, when we discussed the $1.5 million
International Finance Corp. stake earlier in the week, he said, "The run of the mill due diligence with a Haywood or a Canaccord compared with the IFC due diligence is pretty much equivalent to the comparison of saying, 'Ahhh,' and a full-blown colonoscopy.”
Mr. Carrington, like your TCR editor and researcher, is of the age of colonoscopies -- about 56 or 57.
For more, see:
www.colombianmines.com/Videos.asp.
I own CMJ shares and owe part of my Colombia on-site metals education to Bob and Gloria Carrington. CMJ is now raising an additional $1 million via a similar equity placement as the IFC one.
In the recent video, Bob mentions that we might see another joint venture or two from CMJ's various Colombia concessions. Its properties make the company the one publicly traded junior Canada prospector with the largest property portfolio.
TechBright Spot:
For those who missed the recent video conference with
Natcore Technology's
Chuck Provini and David Levy, the discussion of the company's photovoltaic solar cell products in development is on line.
Natcore (
TSX:V.NXT,
Stock Forum) is enjoying a technology wind at its back. I own the shares.
To view the video, go to:
https://www.screencast.com/t/Ahnda9TL
CEO, Mr. Provini, is a Vietnam War veteran.
Rules & regulations:
If you want to know what one of the long-time gold mining bankers and promoters are thinking, see Tommy's Humphrey's update with Sprott's
Rick Rule --
https://ceo.ca/sprotts-rule-and-the-bear/.
Mr. Rule, whose given first name is Arthur, says the best prospectors and miners' shares already have recovered from their troughs.
Finally, yes I know, at least one of our TCR 8 continues to get hammered.
Gran Colombia Gold (
TSX:T.GCM,
Stock Forum) is trying the patience of our TCR audience. Its shares are near an all-time low. Bad on me for ever getting involved?
I concur, I guess.
But I hold the shares and purchased more in October. If you believe in the actual production of gold and silver in Colombia -- at Segovia and El Marmato -- as I do, you have to own GCM (ticker in Canada). Having seen operations there several times, I would be a donkey's uncle if I did not own the stock. The third-quarter update is at the close of next week. I expect continued improvement of all-in cash costs for the production of gold and silver at Segovia.
GCM is not going out of business. You heard it here.
Details:
Live Event link:
https://www.media-server.com/m/p/revo8jd5
Toronto & International:
1 (866)-215-5508
North America Toll Free:
1 (888) 771-4371
Colombia Toll Free: 01
800 9 156 924
Conference ID: 35977472
BARKERVILLE GOLD MINES (
TSX:V.BGM,
Stock Forum): Nothing to report. I would like to see what is going on at the
Cariboo Trend in central British Columbia. All eyes will be on BGM's next gold pour, expected in November or early December. Like I said, I think CEO and Barkerville founder
J.Frank Callaghan is immensely entertaining. Now he needs to show current and prospective partners and shareholders that he can produce ounces of gold for far less than $1,300 an ounce, regularly. I do not own the shares.
Purchases: I bought more Paramount Gold (
TSX:T.PZG,
Stock Forum) at $1.18 a share this week. I am staying updated on Paramount, which is active in Nevada and Mexico, from founder and CEO
Chris Crupi of Ottawa.