LOS ANGELES -- Heading to
LD Micro gathering.
Each year at this time, hotels in and around Bel Air, Brentwood and Santa Monica fill with CEOs, CFOs and investors -- three-quarters of 'em running or chasing technology-related
small enterprises.
This year, LD Micro,
a research firm and newsletter publisher, enrolled 230 or so companies and more than 1,000 registered attendees. A sprinkling -- Broadwind Energy, for example, and Paramount Gold (
TSX:T.PZG,
Stock Forum), and our own
Gold Standard Ventures (
TSX:V.GSV,
Stock Forum), one of the
TCR 8 -- are in natural resources or resources technology.
A lot more have the word Therapeutics in their name, or Medical, or Bio. Even Chocolate. I'll be hunting, and dropping in on DNA vaccine developer
Inovio Pharmaceuticals (
NYSE:INO,
Stock Forum),
Coastal Contacts (
TSX:T.COA,
Stock Forum), OncoSec Medical (
OBB:ONCS,
Stock Forum)-- among others.
Punit Dhillon's
OncoSec is Inovio's San Diego sister company for delivering vaccine therapies. As with Inovio, OncoSec shares are ablaze.
If natural resource equities were as
Genghis Khan as biomedical is right now, every one of our TCR members, without exception, would be
bang a gong.
At any rate, congratulations to
Chris and
Eric Lahiji and their California
LD Micro team for assembling what looks like another classy show in our southland. Here is the company-track list
: souped-up alphabet soup.
What's working: TODAY (December 2, 2013) -- Thus far,
Atico Mining (
TSX:V.ATY,
Stock Forum), one of our TCR 8, continues higher after firming up its 90 percent ownership of
El Roble gold and copper mine in Colombia.
Also: Yukon's
Prophecy Platinum (
OTCQX:PNIKF,
Stock Forum), which we discussed with CEO Greg Johnson the other day. The shares are active.
I spoke with a few miners this morning.
Carlisle Goldfields (
TSX:T.CGJ,
Stock Forum) has what looks to me a sturdy econ-report (PEA) for its Manitoba gold holdings. The Lynn Lake gold camp can keep its capital costs to $275 million, the report states. I attached a map of the deposits, which hang well together. Ramshackle towns with 75 percent and worse jobless rates surround Carlisle's approximately 5 million ounces of in-ground Manitoba gold (with silver).
More to come on CGJ, which I believe is
1. a near-term takeover candidate; and
2. much preferred to highly speculative British Columbia operations sopped with lending macaroni that is linked to pie-in-the-sky gold production.
Finally, I spoke with
Jose Oro in Connecticut. The former Gran Colombia Gold executive is involved in a big way with a Nova Scotia mine near Dufferin -- fishing villages within casting distance of Kit Harbour -- that looks to start producing gold
dore by March:
AppalachesResources (
TSX:V.APP,
Stock Forum). More to come on APP, which just received its industrial approval permit in that part of the jobs-hungry world. Mr. Oro, whom I met several years ago in Medellin and Segovia, received several thousands of applications for 90 Nova Scotia positions.
NOTES: I own shares of Bruce Reid's Carlisle Gold. I own shares of Prophecy Platinum. I own shares of each of our
TCR 8, although there is one I wish I did not, and if you read our reports last week you know I cannot tolerate or support
GCM's severe dilution plans for raising capital via equity. ... By the way, I still own 15,000 shares of
BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (
NASDAQ:BCRX,
Stock Forum), which is experiencing share jolts. The company at an NYC conference this week might unveil where it stands, or sits, with the USA's Food & Drug regulators regarding its influenza treatment,
peramivir.
Thom Calandra @thomcalandra