Best info-bit from the Talking Heads Web Table that just concluded Tuesday: China's holiday closes out today and the country is open for business Wednesday. National Day, which honors the Communist Party, runs October 1 to October 7. As one of the Sprott folks indicated, perhaps fresh China buying will lift battered metals equities now that the holiday has concluded. No mention on the call that the full moon, at least in our neck of the northern hemisphere woods, is October 8: Wednesday.
We include the National Day image for Closet Communists* in our audience, and the link for Sprott's webcast (below). I had higher hopes for the one-hour conference with the gold market's (and platinum, and uranium and silver, etc) best known Canada and California asset managers . Its organizers said this drew 6,000 participants -- although this number probably referred to registrants -- and 700 submitted questions. In the plus column: great slides, and Eric Sprott, whom I saw a week or saw ago in Toronto, sounds as committed as ever to the metals equities. Whether that plus column becomes an antiquated Pompeii column permanently buried by the dust left from molten bullion, one knows not.
[Actually, I know: Even in Italy and Greece, restoration of pulverized architecture continues, endlessly, throughout the ages. And thus it shall be with the restoration of resources equities and their corresponding commodities. The full moon shall bear witness to this on Wednesday.]
In (my) minus column: a little too much airtime in this roundtable discussion went to Sprott Asset prod ucts -- largely metals trusts and one gold-mining equity blend -- and the chit-chat came at the expense of Sprott competitors, including Central Fund of Canada (TSX: CEF.A, Stock Forum) , whose shares I own as an easy way to purchase gold and silver immediately , knowing the bullion really is in those Ottawa, Canada, vaults. CEF, as we have discussed since 1999 or so, is a repository but behaves like a closed-end fund -- with a physical discount to its holdings at present.
My only addition to that is that one day, as we saw when we publicized the fund at our CBS MarketWatch in the early 2000s, CEF and CEF.A will travel swiftly into premium territory, much as a college kid waiting in line at Disneyland, willing to top up his or her admission ticket for an extra 10 percent or 20 percent and jump to the front of the line.
But yes, I give a few grade points to these industry professionals, who have for the most part stuck with their resources through what Mr. Sprott and others in this Webcast acknowledged is the poopiest and longest decline they ever have witnessed. I have it on good faith that none of these asset managers were in Pompeii during the dust storm or the subsequent movie 20 centuries later.
Besides, I see these guys once in a while on the circuit. Their session is a public service, and it is free. I gather the Sprott discussion will be available for later listening. Click here to listen.
Why are a select handful of prospectors among the metals equities faring well enough to continue their operations?
Some Dora-explorers are holding steady or making incremental gains, you say? Against all possible odds? In a setting of such deeply drawn losses, that all metals equities indexes touched or surpassed historic lows today | Tuesday? Including our (my) personally designed Ruffled Resources basket of 18 equities, which I own at Motif Investing? Yes, the one that is DOWN 18 percent since first I crafted it?
These incrementals include Calibre Mining (TSX: V.CXB, Stock Forum), Angkor Gold (TSX: V.ANK, Stock Forum), Abitibi Royalties (TSX: V.RZZ, Stock Forum), Namibia Rare Earth Resources (TSX: NRE, Stock Forum) … and thanks to a splendid Colorado pulpit, dividend-payer Mandalay Resources (TSX:MND, Stock Forum) -- in our TCR microclimate. Also NuLegacy Gold (TSX: V.NUG, Stock Forum), for which our TCR subscribers will want to keep an eye on the private components of our thomcalandra.comTCR Tradeables service.
Really, across this planet, we all can count the winners, and the hanging-in-theres, on two hands. The Hang-On-Sloopy Award thus far this autumn among our TCR 6 is shared: NuLegacy Gold (NUG in Canada and NULGF in USA) and Angkor Gold (ANK in Canada). NuLegacy in coming days will have mineral assays from reverse-circulation and core holes for its Nevada targets.
Also: Angkor Gold has filled its February 2 , 2014, trek roster, so it is across the kingdom we go, and I will be there, as is my custom.
BIOCRYST PHARMA
What I owe our TCR audience: 1. a thank you to fresh subscribers from Panama, from Republic of South Africa, and from Coney Island, New York; 2. a reminder to purchase BCRX shares soonest in the interest of portfolio insurance -- BioCryst Pharma (NASDAQ: BCRX, Stock Forum) is a multi drug developer whose shares today and Monday lost a little ground after news spread of a competing treatment for Ebola, the virus. Reminder, again, BioCryst's -ir drug, as in peramivir (because it ends in ir), already is a proven intravenous treatment for severe influenza. I see BCRX winning the equity stakes competition when it comes to: Ebola, Marburg's virus, influenza, angio-edema, possibly leukemia via forodesine , possibly hepatitis C and possibly gout. That is, among other auto-immune and various diseases. I have owned BCRX for about 8 years. Before this northern hemisphere influenza season concludes, and with Ebola as a continuing red flag (or red herring, we shall see which), BCRX shares will surpass $20 USD. Even then, with the Research Triangle (Carolinas) company misfiring occasionally because of executive hubris and grandiose pharma-pomp spending of its CEO, Jon Stonehouse, BioCryst, thanks to small and efficient medical, research and laboratory teams, will lead its competitors in the search for enzyme inhibitors that treat or prevent disease.
BioCryst will become a holding whose hallmark will be North American (and Japan, Korea, select others willing to stockpile ticking-bomb viral treatments) national security, and whose by-products in the area of blood diseases, one hopes, will find their way past clinical trials and onto pharma shelves.
Finally: thoughts to come on uranium, on Namibia and on [subscribers only] . We also are expecting market-moving news from Colt Resources in coming days, and we pray to Pompeii that this fresh development wipes the slate clean and puts the Portugal tungsten and gold project(s) developer on the path to production and, unless it can prove the prophyry and other benefits imminently, AWAY from Pakistan and the Middle East. As with all of the shares indicated in this report, I own them all, and some of them, such as NuLegacy Gold and Colt (GTP), I own a lot (of).
* Closet Communist: Anyone who shares clothes from their closest closet. Cross-dressing entirely discouraged, except when endorsed by our silk, nylon and cotton sponsors.
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