Factoring The Rock: Update 1
(Updates with options grant by Animas Resources, ANI)
11/19/2009 1:22 PM | Thom Calandra
TIBURON, California – One sharp question you can ask mining "experts" is this: Of prospectors and producers you do not own, which are imminent quintuples?
“Talking your own book” is the sin of ownership.
Ownership rhetoric is as useful as this: ?????? when you speak no Mandarin. Letting fund managers and shareholders reveal merits of their investment stories is little better than asking an auto salesperson what she or he thinks about the warranty option.
Here are several mining prospects I do not own and of which I have first-hand knowledge. Each of them is poised to pile on sizeable percentage gains in coming days and weeks. Q-factored -- as in a quintuple percentage gain:
- In the way-cheap category, Houston Lake Mining (TSX: V.HLM, Stock Forum) will almost certainly evolve into a $1 Canadian security in coming months. HLM owns more gold/platinum/lithium moving parts than one of those Lego Starship Enterprises. I learned about the eight components of Houston Lake’s West Cedartree Gold Project, near Kenora Ontario, several weeks ago (at a Chicago suburban metals bash.) Houston Lake’s president, CEO and CFO Grayme Anthony just released assays from its Dogpaw Vein. Problem is, about six or seven dozen tiny prospectors this week have done the same – maybe more. HLM is lost in the wilderness of the metals melt-up – as in UP. Houston Lake’s market cap is pitiful … for now. For Q-factored investors, you have got to cherish that.
- Adrian Hobkirk’s Caerus Resource Corp. (TSX: V.CA, Stock Forum) is operating in beloved Colombia. (CEO Adrian, from Bellevue, Washington, is also active in Guyana, where I just tramped across a non-related ETK/Sandspring Resources gold mine on behalf of Ticker Trax™ and Stockhouse members.) Mr. Hobkirk’s Caerus is targeting land in northeast Colombia around the California-Vetas mining district. Subscribers know I am in touch with several banks, geologists, financiers and land owners regarding land positions in Colombia – where before the drug wars, la violencia and 80-plus years of blood, this nation was Latin America’s top bullion producer. I am in love with all things Colombia: orchids, El Poblado in my former home of Medellin, aguardiente, platanos … and gold. One look at Caerus and its growing land claims and you can see this one is a worthy prospect for Q-factored returns.
- On the same geography, there is an all-binding storm coming in Colombia. When it passes, the 18 or so legitimate land owners/prospectors/producing miners in Antioquia and other enriched states almost surely will become four or five. I praise Ventana Gold (TSX: T.VEN, Stock Forum), with $1.1 billion market worth and climbing, for prospect and assay publishing that meets the highest standards out there in geo-land. I even met (in Ghana of all places) the mineralogist who vetted Ventana’s stone. Another worthy prospect that is so far off screens the Oxford English Dictionary has yet to mint a term for this type of investor ignorance is Colombian Mines Corp. (TSX: V.CMJ, Stock Forum). If you can even buy CMJ in size.
- Just back
from Pediment Gold (TSX: T.PEZ, Stock Forum) in Baja, Mexico. The San Antonio Project there has the elements of a working heap leach mine on a short timeline (two years? fewer?) Geo and VP exploration Mel Herdrick (in photo with squinting geo Mickey Fulp – photo by Thom) is grooming his Pediment Gold team. "It's almost like a switch went off," says Mel, as we take a break from intensive site touring. The late-afternoon pause allows me to jump in the balmy Baja sea for a 50-minute swim as Mel and fellow geologist Mickey Fulp watch, point wildly to the circling tiburones off the coast of La Paz and suck down Dos Equis. The bright-bulb switch are the circling sharks searching for metals producers in Mexico, perhaps the most mining friendly place in North and Central America aside from Quebec, British Columbia, Nevada and Wyoming. "This is 15 years or so I have worked entirely in Mexico," Mr. Herdrick tells me as I emerge from the Baja sea (and trip full face-frontal on a sand dune-ette). "I just cannot imagine a place where it is easier to pull resources from the ground."
- As for Mexico and Q-factored Q-factors: I'll be reporting mas about property rights, water rights, los ejidos and the efforts of Pediment Gold and others, such as John Carlesso's and Grant Hall's tiny Oremex Resources (TSX: V.ORM, Stock Forum) in Durango state, as Canada’s small-fry miners attempt to make peace with the land, l’agua and the people. Other Mexico companies that could be headed for my exploration portfolio: Animas Resources (TSX: V.ANI, Stock Forum) and Paramount Gold (TSX: T.PZG, Stock Forum). There is discussion in several circles that Animas, Paramount and/or Pediment might combine forces. Perhaps. On the secular theme, a Mexico gold and silver land grab already is in full swing – Goldcorp (NYSE: GG, Stock Forum) just snatched up Canplats Resources (TSX: V.CPQ, Stock Forum). Endeavour Silver (TSX: T.EDR, Stock Forum) (a Ticker Trax Planetary Prospect) continues to option silver concessions. Pan American Silver (NASDAQ: PAAS , Stock Forum) recently made a friendly bid for Aquiline Resources (TSX: T.AQI , Stock Forum). And I am all tickered out.
- Update: Animas Resources just issued an options grant to directors and officers of the Mexico prospector. Drill results on what might become a lucrative mining district in northern Mexico are currently in the lab.
For now, nos vemos el viernes, muchachas y muchachos.
TC on TT™
Ticker Trax™ and Thom Calandra this week and next are profiling Mercenary GeologistMickey Fulp (above in photo with Mel Herdrich)across thousands of hectares offound-money interest at Pediment Gold’s San Antonio project in Baja, California. Questions for me or Mickey? Just attach them to the comment area beneath this article.
(Please see:Thom Calandra’s Stockhouse articles. Thom Calandra owns no shares of Mexico’s Pediment Gold. He owns zero shares of Houston Lake Mining. He owns zero shares of Paramount Gold. He owns no shares of Caerus Resource. He owns none of Colombia Mines. Thom Calandra owns no shares of Animas Resources but intends to consider the purchase of some -- in the open market -- the future. Thom does own each of the 11 Planetary Prospects in subscriber-supported Ticker Trax. Thom does not participate in private placements. He receives no compensation of any type from the companies he covers in Ticker Trax and for Stockhouse.)
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