Platinum Group Metals extended the length of the Waterberg platinum (palladium and gold) deposit it controls in a South Africa joint venture. The drill assays look potent and lead me to believe the company will be attracting much investor interest in coming days. See report.
Platinum Group Metals (TSX:T.PTM, Stock Forum) also says it pierced previously undiscovered minerals about 16 km (10 miles) north of its current resource. Some of that was about 5.05 grams per metric ton of what they call 3-equivalent: platinum, palladium and gold combined.
CEO R. Mike Jones is also the qualified person on Waterberg and the rest. A Japanese trading house looks to take the joint venture stake from Japan's JOGMEC. A black empowerment group also is involved.
PTM executives and professional asset managers have been raising their stakes in Platinum Group Metals these past three months. Mr. Jones, whom I started to track in 2003 or so, tells me the company's holdings in the region, part of the Bushveld Complex, could be a district of platinum by itself, "not just a mine or two." We'll see. I have owned about 50,000 shares of PLG (in USA) for several years. Ivanhoe Mines (TSX:T.IVN, Stock Forum) is also in the region.
Gold Standard Ventures' $11 million equity financing, just consummated, did not include money from stake-holder Agnico-Eagle. Gold Standard Ventures (TSX:V.GSV, Stock Forum) is developing the Railroad Gold Project in eastern Nevada, near Elko.
Purchased: 35,000 shares of Stratex International (OTO:STTX, Stock Forum) at 3.9 pence, including stamp tax; Stratex takes positions in natural resources companies, largely via private placements, and owns shares of Tembo Gold (TSX:V.TEM, Stock Forum), a Tanzania gold exploration company.
Purchased: Added to small holdings of Sysorex Global (OTO:SYRX, Stock Forum), a Pink Sheet issue that is difficult to purchase in size; I know a couple of the principals -- it is a computer systems integrator based in California and in the process of raising money; its quarterly report will be out soon.
Purchased: Added to holdings (approximately 18,000 shares) of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:BCRX, Stock Forum); the drug developer saw its Marburg, Ebola and other filoviruses protective treatment examined in a Nature article this week; those two viruses, among others, have a 90 percent mortality rate and are seen by some as bio-terrorism weapons.
Sold: More Bellhaven Copper & Gold (TSX:V.BHV, Stock Forum) at a steep long-term loss, some going back to 2010; I still own about 1.6 million shares, down from about 2.2 million shares of the Colombia and Panama prospector.
Will be buying: More Platinum Group Metals; more True Gold Mining (Burkina Faso) ... uranium shares continue to gain ... still waiting to see what Barkerville Gold produces from its self-heralded and looming gold "pour," and the continuation of met-screen assays from its British Columbia, Canada, operation, including comparisons to the original 2011 assays.
Your friendly,
Thom Calandra
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