Xtra-Gold Prints 15 New Ones
- Planetary Prospect: Xtra (XTGR) making Ghana grades
- Seeking Prospects in West Africa
- Great Basin, Endeavour Financial, more
KIBI GOLD TREND –As reported, Xtra-Gold Resources (OTO: XTGR) in Ghana has an even-beacon shot at becoming Africa’s next owner of a three million-ounce (or more) resource.
The USA-listed gold prospector's Zone II results -- the first 15 holes, at any rate --- from a concession on the Kibi Gold Trend in that west Africa nation are out today (Tuesday). The grades are good to very good (six grams gold per metric tonne over 23 meters, for example). The next round of results from what I believe are 50 or so RC drill 
holes is on the way.
Let me say that I walked, trekked and hiked almost every one of the reverse-circulation holes in the new drilling program that took place this summer on the property. I also examined every trench, looked at most of the RC assay samples and even revisited the original soil samples at camp. (That is one of my drill hole photos here.)
James Longshore's Xtra-Gold is, as he pointed out to me on the tour, a "gong show" that might or might not live up to its goal of a five million-ounce or more resource on one of its several concessions across many kilometers of the Kibi Gold Trend. And it has its polite skeptics (see below). Still, based on much geological data, first-hand dusty and grimy examination, historical research aided by the Ghana Minerals Commission and at least 10 interviews I conducted with the region's prospectors, gold executives, competing companies and long-standing, trusted Africa confidants whom I have relied upon for eight or more years, I am hopeful that Xtra-Gold soon will have a proven resource of at least three million ounces on this part of its multi-concession holdings.
Ticker Trax™
Thom Calandra produces Ticker Trax, a newsletter for investors.
Thom is a writer/reporter who helps investors negotiate a quagmire of choices in the areas of mining, natural resources and life sciences. He co-founded and was the editorial spirit of CBS MarketWatch.
Thom’s 9 Ticker TraxPlanetary Prospects are for an audience comfortable with extreme risk-reward dynamics … and special situations.
Thom has just returned from tours of properties in Nevada, British Columbia, Mexico, Ghana and California. He is looking at potential prospects in French Guyana, Burkina Faso and Ghana. He is not a geologist.
Ticker Trax™ is published and distributed by Stockhouse of Canada. |
Dr. Paul Zweng, whose doctorate expertise in geology I use to fill in my own knowledge gaps, wants to see more from Xtra-Gold. He tells me today from Hawaii, where he manages money: "Is the company planning on putting out a map showing the new holes relative to the old holes? What would also be nice are some cross sections for Trenches 4 and 5 showing the new and old holes. In that way we can see how things tie together." Dr. Zweng (brief bio below) adds that he would enjoy perusing a table with the coordinates for these first 15 holes. "Reader can’t plot the holes without this info," he says.
Finally, from Stanford University-trained Dr. Zweng: "When do we learn about the rest of the 50 holes? Now that 50 holes have been drilled, do we drill more or can we start on a resource estimate? The reader is left hanging on a lot of issues."
In the meantime, I am searching for other small prospects, including alluvial miners, in Ghana, which is the second largest gold producer on the continent -- South Africa being first. These prospects might or might not include several companies I discovered on our trip and at the Toronto Resources Conference this past weekend, hosted by Cambridge House. Feel free to ping me on ideas ... or please, call me at home ... and risk getting some attitude from the kids. I know you all can take it.
In addition, allow me to repeat that now that I have published Planetary Prospect material on Xtra-Gold at least three times during a two-week span, I am purchasing shares for us here at home, as I do with all Planetary Prospects. Ticker Trax™ subscribers received the heads-up on Xtra-Gold at approximately 75 cents a share U.S. I am paying more for our shares, about 98 cents currently.
Here are some highlights on the Xtra front:
-- The results arrive in the wake of diamond drill results from 2008. All of the new reverse-circulation results show a widespread granitoid–hosted gold mineralization along the Kibi Gold Trend.
-- As geologist and Xtra-Gold VP Yves Clement shouted into my ears numerous times during the RC-drilling earlier this month, the entire Zone II and perhaps Zone III of this wholly-owned concession show potential for easy pickings, otherwise known as "shallow oxide mineralization amenable to bulk mining and heap leaching." That's the chalky looking stuff up top, enmeshed in that classic Ghana red clay dirt. Plus, anywhere from 50 meters down and deeper, Mr. Clement is starting to see "large primary gold systems at depth."
-- The 50 current holes, now complete, range from 40 meters to 150 meters in length and total 4,715 linear meters. The first 15 holes printed today from results tested at a certified lab in the capital of Accra targeted trench gold zones located at the southeast end of Zone 2 of the Kibi Gold Trend. Eleven of the 15 holes yielded "significant" gold intercepts, with all mineralized intercepts consisting of granitoid–hosted gold mineralization spanning from one meter to 78 meters in core length.
Mineralized material consists of altered quartz diorite and tonalite exhibiting quartz-iron carbonate veining and disseminated sulphides. (I am not a geologist.) Highlights from current drilling include intercepts of 6.29 grams per metric tonne over 23 meters. For much more data, please see the press release. I am told the data will be prepared for a filing that complies with Canada's 43-101 standards. (Xtra-Gold one day hopes to see its shares listed in Canada.) Press release here.
Special for subscribers: Stanford U. geo-doctorate and trusted source Paul Zweng is a Honolulu-based fund manager (small potatoes right now but big and tested ideas). I have known him at least since Mongolia days six or so years ago.
Dr. Zee points out that with Brazil’s currency up 29 percent vs. America’s dollar thus far this year … (oh yeah, that’s second to the South African rand – the carry trade I guess.), there are actionable possibilities in that Portuguese paradise. Dr. Zweng, former CEO of Mongolia’s QGX Ltd. , tells the tale of one INV, a lonely junior gold and copper miner in Brazil. “The company is International Nickel Ventures (TSX: T.INV). Its Itapora project, the one in that recent press release, is not of interest to me,” Dr. Z tells me. “INV did a deal which leaves it with only 20% or 30% of the project. But what is exciting to me is the JV deal with Teck for the Rio Novo project in the Carajás of Brazil (that’s an IOCG system with copper and gold) … and the copper-silver deposit in Namibia.The district is the size of the Zambian Copper Belt. Teck was crazy to JV these projects—these are monster projects. I believe Teck is entering into JVs and divesting assets because of its weak balance sheet (high debt). INV has a strong balance sheet relative to most Canadian juniors, maybe $16 million Canadian cash as of 30 June ‘09 filing. What is also attractive about Rio Novo (Brazil) and Kaoko (Namibia) is that both are sound, workable mining jurisdictions. Low political risk.” There you go. I do not own the shares here at home and we here at Ticker Trax are just starting to look at INV.
Planetary Prospects
Nearly all of our (now 9) Planetary Prospects are in green. I own them all. I expect to own them all until I see fundamental events that disprove my on-the-scene reporting -- and this includes BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: BCRX), Great Panther Resources (TSX: T.GPR), moly wonder Avanti Mining (TSX: V.AVT), Great Basin Gold (TSX: T.GBG), whose Nevada tour I recently completed, Endeavour Silver (TSX: T.EDR), Burkina Faso-leaning Endeavour Financial (TSX: T.EDV) and the rest.
Xtra Gold Resources Corp. (OTO: XTGR) is Planetary Prospect No. 9 for subscribers. The tiny company, traded for now only in the USA, today (Tuesday) published assay results from the Kibi Gold Trend. The concessions in Ghana consumed a recent week or eight days of my life. (Please see above.) Please examine this and future reports and consider shares of the XTGR ticker over-the-counter junior immediately at any price beneath US$1. (Don’t say I did not tell you.) Once again, I shall be purchasing XTGR shares this week at a higher price than those who elected in a week-ago Tuesday and Wednesday at 75 cents U.S. (Please read the full and photo-ready report on Xtra Gold, and our tour references as well to diligent, technically brilliant but perhaps temporarily stressedKeegan Resources (AMEX: KGN) of Ghana's disputed Esaase District, in the password-secure archives ofTicker Trax™. All photos by Thom Calandra.) Also please see:Free Ghana Exclusive on Stockhouse.)
Endeavour Financial's fresh position in the equity and at the table of Etruscan Resources (TSX: T.EET) in French-speaking Burkina Faso, just above the nation of Ghana, is noteworthy. The Etruscan transaction puts Frank Giustra and Neil Woodyer's Endeavour on the road, they tell me, to a new one million-ounce gold producer. The fact that they are targeting distressed gold producers in West Africa and other under-explored and under-securitized regions is a plus.
I borrow these bullet points culled from last week's Endeavour Financial power point and conference call:
1. Gold Strategy has not changed.
2. Cash flow-generating (fees) merchant banking model is active.
3. When the Etruscan transaction closes, the EDV portfolio will be approx. 60% gold.
4. Best valuation gap in public markets for gold companies is between junior producers and intermediate producers.
5. Endeavour is looking for junior gold producers with financial challenges that their finance professionals can solve: EET, BAJ, PSE and NSU are recent examples of the good work done. (Nevsun (TSX: T.NSU) in Eritrea, by the way, has one of my favorite founder/CEOs, John Clarke, at the helm.)
6. Endeavour was one of the voices behind a 2008 combining of Metallica Resources, Peak Gold and New Gold. At the time, they were cheaper than the oxidized dirt in their poorest trenches. The bank Canaccord now notes New Gold trading at 1.78 times net asset value, which is among the higher ratings in its peer field.
7. Endeavour hopes to create a one million ounce gold producer.
8. Vancouver merchant banker Frank Giustra's nomination to Etruscan's board probably means two things: His French will improve markedly, merci bien. And the bankers that have dished a ton of dirt onto Etruscan now will answer the company's phone calls.
Candente Resources (TSX: T.DNT) is undergoing what looks like a transaction in Mexico. I expect a major alteration in the company’s Mexico gold and silver venture. I might be wrong on that matter. I am as well a believer in the longstanding Peruvian copper discovery operation the company has built in the past decade. CEO Joanne Freeze told me negotiations in Mexico are continuing but declined to be more specific about El Oro or other developments. “This has been really hard on all of us here,” she told me. “Cross your fingers for us.”
Great Basin Gold’s tour of the Hollister and Esmeralda properties two weeks ago is still in my notebook. Oh yes, aside from tours and conferences, I still have the laundry to do. (And I am told that I need to revise my audience presentations: too much touchy-feely and not enough actionable! So there is work to do. My apologies to those in Toronto who did not profit from the discussion and slide show at the Cambridge House show.)
Great Basin (TSX: T.GBG) is trading at an approximate 40 percent discount to its mid-sized looming gold producing peers … only because it has one foot at a second mine in South Africa and is tangled up with that darn carry-trade rand currency. CEO Ferdi Dippenaar will be at the New Orleans show in October. I like Ferdi and GBG's gong show, to borrow a phrase from the Xtra-Gold playbook.
The New Orleans Investment Conference: Not to attend is unthinkable – if you can spare the time and the fees. Click on here for a discount: The New Orleans Investment Conference. I’ll be presenting a no-holds barred Q&A workshop, participating in a panel with Rick Rule and others and discussing “Our Own District 9: Mexico, Ghana, Silver & Moly” at this year’s gathering. Brien Lundin of The Gold Newsletter produces the conference, whichruns Oct. 8-11. This year will bring an excellent crop of counter-clockwise and contrary thinkers in the areas of mining, emerging markets, commodities and life sciences, including Great Panther’s (GPR) Robert Archer, Avalon Rare Metals’ Don Bubar and others. Mr. Lundin has just added political maverick Ron Paul. If you are interested in a discounted rate, please visit this link for registration.
That is all for now.
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