Gold from the African Sea

Yet another signal that inflation and gold will go higher is the breakout in the oil price. This is a weekly chart and there was resistance at $55 and $60 per barrel. After going through $55, the price broke easily above $60. A lot of analysts have now been commenting about the inverted head-and-shoulders pattern, with the breakout above this last week. I expect we are now heading to $80 per barrel.

I would normally be suggesting some Canadian oil stocks but Canada has problems. Chiefly the U.S. no longer needs Canadian oil as they produce enough for themselves and refineries are full. Delays continue for all three major proposed oil pipelines from Western Canada: Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain expansion, Enbridge's Line 3 replacement and TransCanada's Keystone XL. As a result Canada has a lot of oil with no place to go. Our light oil is now discounted over $7 per barrel compared to prices shown above.

Higher energy prices will feed into inflation numbers and gold will also go higher because the US dollar will have to go lower. President Trump guarantees it with his "America First" policy, which will force the dollar to weaken.

The administration's "irreconcilable" goals of cutting trade imbalances while funding a large fiscal stimulus program pose the biggest challenge to the international monetary system since the breakdown of the Bretton Woods agreement in the 1970s, George Saravelos, global cohead of FX research at Deutsche Bank, wrote in a note. The only way to resolve these conflicting objectives is via a weaker dollar, he said.

That's because the U.S. will probably struggle to attract sufficient foreign capital to fund its twin deficits, and that lack of appetite will likely translate to more currency weakness, he said.

Gold will break to the upside soon, and a new bull market in the miners will be born. However, the timing will not matter for this gold explorer.

This is one of the most unique—and could be the most profitable—gold stock I have ever found. In gold mining, the waste rock and leach dumps are a cost, and also a hazard that needs to be managed. Could you imagine the benefit if the waste rock could be sold and generate revenues instead of costs?

That is one advantage for Hansa Resources Ltd. (HRL: TSX-V). Another factor is their exploration license area could hold one of the largest gold deposits in the world.

This opportunity has attracted some of the top mining engineers around the world, with Watts, Griffis and McOuat, Canada's longest-running independent geological and mining firm being retained, along with Royal IHC.

Royal IHC is a world leader when it comes to doing any work offshore and near-shore. There are piles of YouTube videos on IHC equipment, but this is a good corporate video showing what they do.

Offshore mining can be very successful. You might have heard of the TV show "Bering Sea Gold;" it dramatizes offshore mining by going into the remote, far North in a more severe climate. The same creators of the "Deadliest Catch" TV show and they only operate very small rigs. They do get gold from the ocean. A more realistic example is Debmarine, which is run by De Beers, the diamond leader. Debmarine accounts for more than half the total diamond production in Namibia, and 90% of the diamond deposits.

The waste rock that Hansa would produce is aggregate (sands/gravel), and offshore operations for this are well known in France, Belgium, Germany and Holland. In fact the UK gets 25% of its national gravel requirements from a fleet of 28 offshore aggregate dredgers.

On March 20, Hansa announced that it had entered into a Mineral Property Option Agreement with Poseidon Offshore Minerals Inc. Poseidon is a private company that Watts, Griffis and McOuat is behind in Toronto, Canada, with operations in Ghana, West Africa. Poseidon has applied for an offshore mineral reconnaissance license to explore for gold, diamonds, heavy minerals and aggregate in an area of 20,000 square kilometers on the continental shelf of Ghana. Poseidon granted to Hansa an exclusive option to acquire 60% of Poseidon’s direct and indirect interest in and to the license, which would represent a 54% interest in the license taking into account the interests of the government of Ghana. To earn the interest, Hansa will be required to fund work programs totaling US$4 million over the 36-month period following the effective date, of which US$100,000 has been paid.

The location of this license is what makes it so special. It is the only location in the world where three gold-bearing river systems enter the ocean in close proximity and on a shallow shelf.As a result, an enormous amount of alluvial gold has been transported into the offshore area. Ghana has been the #2 gold producer in Africa for the past several decades, and in recent years has been in the top 10 world producers. For many centuries, it was known as the “Gold Coast.” Government is mining-friendly and the industry is on the rise with government efforts to improve the business environment.

Ghana also has an acute shortage of aggregates because of Africa's infrastructure boom, and to meet the growing demand for large infrastructure and urban housing programs along the heavily populated coastal areas of the country. This factor must not be overlooked. Sand and gravel from the offshore mining operations could greatly alleviate this shortage. Selling the sand and gravels could offset most or all of Hansa's operational costs.

China is funding at least $18 billion in infrastructure development in exchange for commodity supply.

Under the agreement, funding will be made available through the Chinese Development Bank and will support the building of a 1,400-kilometer railway network to connect Ghana’s Nyinahin and Kyebi bauxite mines to the new aluminum refinery, along with countrywide rail links. Ghana landed new financing from Russia. Last July the Ghana Railway Development Authority signed an MoU with Russian railway company Geoservice to build a 947-kilometer line from Accra to Paga, among other routes, on a build-operate-transfer basis.

This graphic shows the prolific gold mining with the three river systems flowing into the ocean.

The Poseidon Technical Team has a lot of experience in Ghana, leading the discovery of the Bogoso gold mine, the Damang gold mine and Tarkwa in Ghana, which are still in production 30 years later. These mines are currently producing about 800,000 ounces per year and are owned by major mining companies. Dr. Bob Griffis is the coauthor of the highly regarded “Goldfields in Ghana,” which in itself has led to numerous discoveries.

Hansa is led by CEO and chairman John Nugent, who practiced corporate and commercial law in Toronto prior to becoming an investment banker with Midland Doherty Ltd. After a period in senior management at Midland, Nugent became president of Gardiner Group Stock Brokers Inc., which was sold to the Toronto Dominion Bank. Nugent was a cofounder and president of Romanex Ltd, a mineral exploration company that acquired and developed properties in South America and Africa, which were sold to Sutton Resources Ltd., which was itself acquired by Barrick. He then became president of International Barytex Resources Ltd., a public mineral exploration company doing business in Canada and Tanzania.

This next graphic relates to the one above but shows the 20,000 square kilometers of licensed area.

Hansa is targeting 100,000 ounces per year of gold production, and ramping up to 500,000 ounces with additional dredges. In addition to gold, other heavy minerals of potential commercial interest include iron oxides (especially magnetite and hematite). In addition, titanium oxides (mainly rutile and ilmenite) are recovered in most heavy mineral sand operations, and can be used, in part, as a source for titanium metal but mainly for the very large titanium oxide pigment industry, which continues to grow at a substantial rate. Industrial diamonds could also be recovered.

As mentioned, aggregates from the dredging operations could also be sold.

However, before mining Hansa will have to conduct exploration programs to prove up resources and concentrations. This will be done much the same way it is done on land. Instead of driving trucks around, making roads and drill pads, Hansa will use a boat and float around doing the same thing. They take samples of sand and gravels from the ocean floor, drill into the bedrock beneath and conduct magnetic surveys. This graphic from their presentation shows how a geophysical survey would be done.

Hansa's first phase exploration round will include the survey above, plus they have budgeted preliminary drill testing at 100 locations for $200,000. You might notice that drilling is quite inexpensive. They have also budgeted $50,000 for 50 dives to examine the seafloor further. They have also budgeted for metallurgical test work. There should be lots of news flow on these exploration results.

Financials:The company's last financials reveal $1.16 million in cash and no long-term debt. Hansa is also completing a private placement of up to 40 million units priced at $0.05 per unit to raise proceeds of up to $2 million. Each unit is composed of one common share and one share purchase warrant. Each warrant is exercisable for an additional common share of Hansa at a price of $0.10 per share for 24 months.

Summary: "No where else on earth" is how Hansa titles its presentation, and that in itself is a great summary. There is no other opportunity like this anywhere else in the world. It is the only place in the world where three major river systems empty into the ocean from gold-bearing structures, and water depths are relatively shallow on the continental shelf.

The license application area is large, with multimillion ounce potential.

The use of water is a very efficient way to recover gold, and is used in many recovery systems around the world onshore. This is because gold is heavy and will not easily wash away.

Hansa anticipates that one dredge could recover 100,000 ounces per year, and they would eventually ramp up to 5 dredges producing 500,000 ounces per year. The next graphic is from the company presentation, listing comparable companies. I checked the junior companies that would be the best to compare to. Sheffield is a mineral sands explorer and has established a resource on two projects. Titanium is working on a process to recover heavy metals from oil sands. Image Resources has proven up heavy metal resources on projects in Australia.

I believe Hansa, with gold resources, would have more value than companies with heavy metal resources. Hansa could have heavy metals resources as well. The average market cap of the three juniors is $90 million, and I believe this is a valid target, which Hansa could reach in 2019. Once exploration begins and assuming it is successful, Hansa could be proving up their first resource numbers within 12 months. This offshore exploration can go much quicker on nice flat-water terrain compared to onshore, with hills, mountains and gorges, etc.

Considering the current financing there will be 97.4M shares out, and fully diluted 147.8M, if warrants and all options exercised. Current financing and exercise of warrants would certainly be enough funding to define measured and indicated resources.

· $90M / 97M shares = $0.93 per share
· $90M / 148M shares = $0.61 per share

I believe these are reasonable targets if exploration proves successful; just how successful will determine where the price lands in this range. Do not rule out much higher valuations if exploration proves up good grades and large resources.

I did not include a chart here because this is a new deal, and there has been very little trading in the stock. Before it was halted, most days it did not trade at all—and if it did, it was maybe 10,000 to 40,000 shares, and the odd day over 60,000. I expect liquidity will pick up around $0.10 per share, so we should be able to establish positions around this price.

Hansa Resources
Recent price $0.06/share
Shares out 57.4M; fully diluted 61.4M
Post-financing shares out 97.4M; fully diluted 147.8M

Ron Struthers founded Struthers' Resource Stock Report 23 years ago. The report covers senior and junior companies with ample trading liquidity. He started his Millennium Index of dividend stocks in 2003 - $1,000 invested then was worth over $4,000 end of 2014 and the index returned 26.8% in 2016. He retired from IBM after 30 years in customer service, systems and business analyst, also developing his own charting software. He has expertise in junior start-ups and was a co-founder of Paramount Gold and Silver.

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