Resource Candy: Right Up Our Chimney
- Compelling: PEZ, CMJ
- Active: GBG, EXK/EDR
- Peru: Focus on Focus (FCV)
- Plus: Medellin (CMJ, AGD) & S. Africa (WIWTY, GBG)
TIBURON, California -- Some 40 percent of Colombia has not been geologically mapped, Bob Carrington at Colombian Mines (TSX: V.CMJ, Stock Forum) told me as we pick-axed one of the camino reales across his Yuramalito property outside of Medellin two weeks ago.
Junior prospectors in the stock market, primarily Canadian and Australian listings, are thriving.
For example: Antioquia Gold (TSX: V.AGD, Stock Forum) is going bonkers – largely on results from its Cisneros Project near the Antioquia city of Medellin – a project I shall see in a week’s time.
As prospecting goes: Colombia will make many of us a lot of dough. I will be returning to the country December 27 to see more of what the Carringtons, Gloria and Bob, have in their Colombia portfolio of gold properties. Bob Carrington, in the country since 1993, has marked X’s across at least four of the most promising geologic trends in the country. I have been to Yuramalito, which could become the next Marmato (Medoro’s Marmato, MRS) in terms of at-surface and at-depth gold.
Also on the list for this next visit: Antioquia Gold’s Cisneros layout, which continues to bolster its case (see latest data via Stockhouse please) for a thickening mesothermal lode deposit of gold some 70 km from the amazing city of Medellin. (Colombian Mines has property 
plotted nearby.) We here at Ticker Trax also will view Georges Juilland’s Titiribi project, which is privately held at present.
Mr. Juilland’s project, several hours from Medellin, has the backing of several folks in Europe and Hong Kong – and Vancouver, Canada -- who often guide me toward the right stuff. Titiribi on-site operator Phil O’Neill, on his way to a small holiday on the Mayan Riviera, told me the other week that the Sunward group controlling the historic mine and concession has had discussions with the owners of the old Zancudo mine. Phil says, “It is not currently part of our Titiribi property package; however, at the right price it would make sense to consolidate more of the area. Things in Colombia have gone nuts of late and the issue I believe will be what the right price is.”
On the compelling and cheap front: Adrian Hobkirk’s Caerus Resources (TSX: V.CA, Stock Forum), which is active in Bucaramanga, Colombia. Two weeks ago over dinner in Medellin Hobkirk told me about the challenges of sweeping squatters off his British Guyana gold project (GPO). Luckily, there are no squatter issues currently for Caerus, which is – with the exception perhaps of CMJ -- the cheapest public security currently active in Colombia.
More? Mais oui. There is no holiday here at Ticker Trax until we make every one of you money … and more money. Some knowledge too … and a good pizza joint or three – Pizza 1969 in Medellin’s El Poblado neighborhood, for one. (But yes, we here at home celebrate the holiday that marks the birth of Jesus Christ… I was raised Roman Catholic, even was an altar boy at SSJ in NYC borough of Brooklyn, believe it or not. Now I am more into the Clint Eastwood school of medicinal traditional: Make My Day Und I Make Yours.)
Planetary Prospects: So here is the list. I apologize for those of you who have had to rummage through the archives for the 12 of them. But hey, good reading? Maybe.
The PPs are:
- Central Fund of Canada (TSX: CEF.A, Stock Forum) – You get to own silver and gold via a Canadian repository. One day the premium on this open-end fund is going to rise to 30 percent and more from its current 12 percent or so.
- BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: BCRX, Stock Forum) – Read our clips: The second installment of H1N1 might (we hope not) sicken an entire globe. Regardless, the drug discovery company’s compounds for leukemia, gout, psoriasis, influenza (peramivir), and perhaps cardiac arrest are worth every penny of this now-$6 security.
- Endeavour Silver (AMEX: EXK, Stock Forum) and (TSX: T.EDR, Stock Forum) – This one has about tripled since being named a PP of Ticker Trax some 10 months or so ago.I THOUGHT THAT WOULD HAVE TAKEN AT LEAST 12 months. (I have yet to sell any here “at Ticker Trax,” which is synonymous with “here at home.”)
- X-tra Gold (OTO: XTGR, Stock Forum) - Canada listing might be in works for Ghana company. I love West Africa, and will be returning to the continent in late January to see Great Basin Gold (TSX: GBG, Stock Forum)’s Burnstone Mine in South Africa. I also will see Wits Gold (OTO: WIWTY, Stock Forum) and its DeBron property, among others. I will be available for meetings in Cape Town January 30 to February 2. (Oh yes, and if “District Nine” is not named as one of the 10 Best Picture nominees by the Academy (Hollywood Oscars), I think we all should send the committees at that institution a load of prawns.)
- Endeavour Financial (TSX: T.EDV, Stock Forum) – Gordon Keep and Neil Woodyer’s Vancouver merchant bank owns stakes in some of the most promising natural resource companies on the planet. EDV also is the bank that more or less propelled Pacific Rubiales (PRE), the Colombian energy company, into the Milky Way of stardom market capitalizations this past 18 months. (For Endeavour and other Vancouver and Colombia and London financiers, among them Frank Giustra and Serafino Iacono, Colombia’s Medoro Resources (TSX: V.MRS, Stock Forum) is almost surely next in the gold stardom queue.)
- Great Basin Gold (TSX: T.GBG, Stock Forum): This is Ferdi Dippenaar’sSouth Africa and Nevada company. The security is active as all get-go in November and December. I have known big-man Ferdi since 2001 or so. The GBG shares, one of two PP laggards this year, are starting to reach 65 percent of peer-value based on net asset value for expected gold output in the year 2010 (400,000 ounces?) I will see Burnstone in late January, as mentioned above.
- Candente Resource (TSX: T.DNT, Stock Forum) – Never more, quoth the maven. Never more will Joanne Freeze’s Candente have to live with no “s” at the end of “Resource” in its name. Candente has more or less cleared the $10 million mark on its raise fmpany. I love West Africa, and will be returning to the continent in late January to see Great Basin Gold (TSX: GBG, Stock Forum)’s Burnstone Mine in South Africa. I also will see Wits Gold (OTO: WIWTY, Stock Forum) and its DeBron property, among others. I will be available for meetings in Cape Town January 30 to February 2. (Oh yes, and if “District Nine” is not named as one of the 10 Best Picture nominees by the Academy (Hollywood Oscars), I think we all should send the committees at that institution a load of prawns.)
- Endeavour Financial (TSX: T.EDV, Stock Forum) – Gordon Keep and Neil Woodyer’s Vancouver merchant bank owns stakes in some of the most promising natural resource companies on the planet. EDV also is the bank that more or less propelled Pacific Rubiales (PRE), the Colombian energy company, into the Milky Way of stardom market capitalizations this past 18 months. (For Endeavour and other Vancouver and Colombia and London financiers, among them Frank Giustra and Serafino Iacono, Colombia’s Medoro Resources (TSX: V.MRS, Stock Forum) is almost surely next in the gold stardom queue.)
- Great Basin Gold (TSX: T.GBG, Stock Forum): This is Ferdi Dippenaar’sSouth Africa and Nevada company. The security is active as all get-go in November and December. I have known big-man Ferdi since 2001 or so. The GBG shares, one of two PP laggards this year, are starting to reach 65 percent of peer-value based on net asset value for expected gold output in the year 2010 (400,000 ounces?) I will see Burnstone in late January, as mentioned above.
- Candente Resource (TSX: T.DNT, Stock Forum) – Never more, quoth the maven. Never more will Joanne Freeze’s Candente have to live with no “s” at the end of “Resource” in its name. Candente has more or less cleared the $10 million mark on its raise for Candente Gold – the Mexico and Peruvian gold spinoff. Frank Holmes of U.S. Global in San Antonio, Texas, took the lead on this one after naming a directorial condition of his own. El Oro in Mexico holds the promise of a generation or two of Mexico miners seeking their gold desserts. The new company’s El Oro prospect has the backing of a skeptical independent geologist. Finally, I met – two weeks ago, to be exact – with one of the top Peru-based Candente geologists … and yes, I am certain copper mining is still a worthy pursuit.
- Inter-Citic Minerals (TSX: T.ICI, Stock Forum) – I will see ICI’s Dachang Gold Project in China by April 2010. As he promised, CEO James Moore got the stock up to $1 from 75 cents. Not enough for me. There are still concerns about bio-leaching, one geologist tells me.
- Great Panther Silver (TSX: T.GPR, Stock Forum) – A name change but no real change. Bob Archer’s small Mexico mining company has light years to go before it gets to even 65 percent of the price appreciation that Brad Cooke’s Endeavour Silver has enjoyed of late. Both companies operate silver mines in Guanajuato, the second-best and most beautiful city of this past 10 or 11 months for me.
- Premium Exploration (TSX: V.PEM, Stock Forum) – Del Steiner and geologist/CEO Wolf Struck do not say much. Perches? Because just seeing the Idaho sprawl that the two have assembled after many years of trying is enough to catch your breath. I caught mine. Now the stock had better move, man, and move.
- Avanti Mining (TSX: V.AVT, Stock Forum) – Cheap molybdenum mine at Kit Sault. Compelling to the max. I believe I own more than a million shares now (about a buck-three-eighty at the current price of 20 cents Canadian). I have seen the B.C. property. CEO Craig Nelsen and CFO AJ Ali have my allegiance on this one, complicated as the “share structure’’ is. This thing will be producing moly of good to excellent grades within 18 months. Plus, moly futures start trading in London in February.
- Colombian Mines Corp. (TSX: V.CMJ, Stock Forum) – Says it all above. More on this one coming until the shares reach fair value of $45 million or so market capitalization, or a bit more than double their current. Nate Teal and the Carringtons have their heads together on assembling a tiny juggernaut (oxy to the moron?) across a gnarly and gorgeous landscape of Colombia gold/copper/coal prospects.
Compelling: Pediment Gold (TSX: T.PEZ, Stock Forum). Speculation is swirling around this small company, whose Baja California project, San Antonio, I have seen. The concessions there could become a district in terms of gold, and no other company is within 100 kilometers.
Compelling: Medoro Resources (TSX: V.MRS, Stock Forum), owner and developer of Marmato in Colombia – the king-gong show of gold messes when it comes to politics, wildcat mills and miners, Persian Blue streaks of cyanide … and the best-trained team of Colombia, Venezuela and Panamanian geologists I have seen to date. Plus, Medoro has the connections in government, thanks in large part to the success of Pacific Rubiales’ (TSX: T.PRE, Stock Forum)’ oil discoveries in the nation of 44 million … und years of gentle and sometimes NOT-so-gentle negotiating and footwork by Serafino Iacono in Bogota, Frank Giustra in Vancouver … and others– among them, NYU-trained Venezuelan ex-pat Vicente Mendoza, Medoro’s VP of Exploration. When new CEO John Hick and Senor Mendoza take their Marmato upper and lower efforts to Wall Street and your street – and possibly purchase the Fronitno Mine at Segovia -- the value of this already expensive company will at least double.
Enough? Before all of this is over, we will have prospered. Finally, my apologies for jumping the gun on Animas Resources (TSX: V.ANI, Stock Forum) in November. Its Mexico drill holes were not up to snuff. But at least four more holes are on the way. I am still hoping to own Animas and see a large Mexico combination at some point involving this company and several other Mexico gold prospectors. The shares have been crushed. I have yet to see the property, but hope to do so soon.
Questions about our 12 Planetary Prospects? Feel free to call or slog me: thomdot calandra at stockhouse dot com. I have great interest right now in exploring Ghana, Mexico, Peru, and Colombia. I am home from Peru and Colombia this week after having toured Focus Ventures’(TSX: T.FCV, Stock Forum) Nueva California (see Peru photo above) and Fortuna Silver’s (TSX: V.FVI, Stock Forum) Caylloma Project at 5,500 meters.
Focus stands a shot at a vast discovery at its Nueva California Project. I was there with Louis James of Casey Research … and I want to thank Louis for guiding me through some of the principles of not caving i