Haquira: Copper project's planet venture
- Antares Minerals May Set Fresh Precedent for Value: ANM
HAQUIRA CAMP, Peru – This is the first of several reports on copper prospects in Peru, Colombia and elsewhere.
In this on-spot issue from Peru, and in future Ticker Trax issues, we will look at the promise – the enormous promise – of Antares Minerals’ Haquira copper project in Peru and what the porphyry’s 13 billion copper-equivalent pounds spell out for this commodity and its place in miners’ transactional scrum for assets.
This is not the full report on John Black and Antares’ (TSX: V.ANM, Stock Forum) Haquira, which almost certainly will join about 20 copper project purchases or partial purchases that have taken place since 2007. But it’s a timely start.
Timely because of a manufacturers’ scrum for the metal, which is rising steadily in price and is seen as the one commodity, after oil, that represents expanding worldwide wealth and productivity.
The list of copper projects grabbed or about to be grabbed by Canadian, Polish, Chinese, Mexican and other copper producers is starting to run deep, Antares CEO John Black says as we are about to survey the company’s vast Haquira ore deposits some 4,200 meters above sea level in what is known as Las Bambas mineral belt (copper, molybdenum, some gold).
Jiangxi Copper Co. this week revealed that even with its status as China's biggest copper producer, it is seeking overseas copper projects.
I must – because of a looming visit later today and tomorrow to a Candente Gold (TSX: T.CDG, Stock Forum) property called Tres Marias in southern Peru – make this report brief. But I will say: Antares, which got its start from an Internet stock shell called Planet Ventures about six years ago, just might demonstrate a fresh and potent price level for copper purchases, one that sits in a four-cent to six-cent in-situ range. The plush premium for Haquira might occur within 12 months’ time, largely because of the size and grades of its Haquira holding and its 10-kilometer distance from the massive Xstrata Ferrobamba copper project (please see photo from air – at start of this report).
Were that to occur, Antares’ market worth would more than triple from its current level. Ferrobamba -- Latitude: 14° 7' 60 S, Longitude: 72° 1' 0 W – has completed 400,000 meters of drilling, most of it 25-meter spacings between scairns. Strange that I would herald Xstrata’s copper intentions in a report on nearby Haquira, but as John Black says, “We are in the same belt. We have the same mineralogy. And we have a lot more drilling ahead of us. Plus, as you can see,” he says from a chopper that has us above Haquira and Ferrobamba, “the infrastructure is all here.”
More on all of this later. Please see photo here of John Black at Haquira, taken this week in our tour of the property. Accompanying me was a co-founder of Antares, fund manager (and Stanford University-trained geologist) Paul Zweng, who took the photo of me amidst a pile of high-grade oxidized copper at the Cristo de los Andes section of Haquira.
Mr. Zweng, Mr. Black and Dave Anderson all share links in their educations (geology – Queen’s College, Ontario; Stanford U. in California) and/or their work experience – largely in Mongolia from 2002 to 2004 or so. In addition, Antares CFO Mark Wayne was a founding shareholder of Mr. Zweng’s Mongolia-centric QGX Ltd. Kevin Heather, on site with us this week, is Antares VP of geology and also studied with Mr. Zweng and Mr. Black at Queen’s College.
Excuse the rush here, as we prepare for a flight to southern Peru. After that, it is off to Colombia, with Bob and Gloria Carrington, to see a copper property and another gold property related to Colombian Mines (TSX: V.CMJ, Stock Forum).
Visits: Just saw Antares Minerals’ (TSX: V.ANM, Stock Forum) Haquira copper prospect in Peru next week. I learned why we almost surely will see a wave of copper transactions in coming months and years. Please see above and coming reports on Haquira and its holdings. Today and tomorrow I will visit a Candente Gold (TSX: T.CDG, Stock Forum) project in southern Peru. Candente Copper (TSX: T.DNT, Stock Forum) is a Planetary Prospect of this service and also has Peru properties, primarily the Cañariaco copper project.
Colombia is next … for a visit to two Colombian Mines (TSX: V.CMJ, Stock Forum) properties and one week of holiday. In late April: off to Jimmy Longshore’s Kibi Gold Belt in Ghana yet again – Xtra-Gold Resources (OTC: XTGR, Stock Forum). We also have queries into Burkina Faso projects, including Riverstone Resources (TSX: V.RVS, Stock Forum).
What looks enticing today:Focus Ventures (TSX: V.FCV, Stock Forum) shares have been hammered this week. I saw the Nueva California gold prospect in autumn 2009 here in Peru and thought its potential as an open-pit gold operation would make Focus a star. Yet Simon Ridgway’s Focus appears to have disappointed investors who reviewed fresh data on 10 holes. I see Focus as an aggressive and speculative purchase right here at 66 cents or so a share Canadian. I do not own it. The stock is down about 28 percent this week. Simon Ridgway, chairman, tells me the front office is “waiting on some important holes.”
Bellhaven Copper & Gold (TSX: V.BHV, Stock Forum): This is now officially the cheapest gold prospector in Colombia. That is, the cheapest in my world. I own a token amount of shares. Mr. Zweng, noted above, is a large investor and is helping to guide the Panama and Colombia prospector toward new ventures in Colombia.
The Planetary Prospects
- Premium Exploration (TSX: V.PEM, Stock Forum) – Gold in Idaho and Montana. Extremely high grades. Wilf Struck is the geologist and CEO.
- Inter-Citic Minerals (TSX: T.ICI, Stock Forum) –Gold prospector and mine developer in eastern China. China gold companies and banks seek to boost their gold output from within their own country. Principals are at a Hong Kong materials show this week, I believe.
- Central Fund of Canada (AMEX: CEF, Stock Forum) and (TSX: T.CEF.A, Stock Forum) – Gold and silver repository. Its premiums, being a closed end fund, are rising. Own this one as a money market proxy for real gold and silver.
- BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: BCRX, Stock Forum) –Influenza and leukemia drugs. Gout, too. Biomedical appears to be back in vogue this month as an investment. The shares are performing poorly this month of March and we here at home now fully own 70,000 of them – as in shares.
- Endeavour Silver (AMEX: EXK, Stock Forum) and (TSX: T.EDR, Stock Forum) Silver in Mexico. On a property purchase tear. Brad Cooke is the CEO and is clever and trustworthy. I’ll get an update from Brad in San Francisco this coming Friday.
- Endeavour Financial (TSX: T.EDV, Stock Forum) –No relation to Endeavour Silver. This is the Canada merchant bank that is making a big bet on West Africa. The firm just increased its stake in Burkina Faso prospector and producer Crew Gold (TSX: T.CRU, Stock Forum) to 43 percent. Endeavour appears prepared to battle for control or ownership of Crew amid a Russia steelmaker’s accelerated bids for a greater stake and a new board.
- Xtra-Gold Resources (OTO: XTGR, Stock Forum) – This is the West Africa gold prospector that might follow in the footsteps of successful Keegan Resources (TSX: T.KGN, Stock Forum). But first, it needs to show us a lot more in the way of drilling results from the Kibi Gold Belt in Ghana.
- Great Basin Gold (TSX: T.GBG, Stock Forum): This is Ferdi Dippenaar’sSouth Africa and Nevada company. Please see archives for coverage of Burnstone and Hollister mines.
- Candente Copper (TSX: DNT, Stock Forum) – Joanne Freeze’s Candente has copper in Peru. A second unit is now a separate company, Candente Gold (TSX: T.CDG, Stock Forum) in Mexico and Peru. We list it because we need copper in our portfolio. Probably the cheapest thing on this list, along with Avanti Mining. Joey tells me, “The institutions are starting to get it.” Please see our Stockhouse article for what that means. I will hook up with Ms. Freeze during my Peru visit.
- Great Panther Silver (TSX: T.GPR, Stock Forum) –Silver in Mexico. Robert Archer is the CEO. The Panther is on the prowl for assets. GPR’s rising silver grades and low stock valuation compared with other Mexico silver producers make the company a value here.
- Avanti Mining (TSX: V.AVT, Stock Forum) - Cheap and aspiring molybdenum mine at Kitsault in British Columbia. Avanti’s Craig Nelsen and AJ Ali raised $17 million Canadian for the company. It is the cheapest proposition on this list.
- Colombian Mines Corp. (TSX: V.CMJ, Stock Forum) – CMJ has one of the widest property companies in Colombia for such a tiny company – some 300,000 hectares. Bob Carrington and Nate Tewalt’s company is on fire right now in terms of stock price performance. I will be seeing the company’s Cerro de Cobre copper project next week.
- Ticker Trax and Stockhouse are looking for editing and writing talents who can base themselves in Toronto or Vancouver. Must be a university graduate with writing and editing savvy. It also helps to understand natural resources.
InvestFest 2010
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(Photos by Thom Calandra. Thom owns shares of each of the 12 Planetary Prospects. Thom’s personal holdings are available for all to see on Stockhouse, the Canada publishing company. He has no intention of selling any of the 12 Planetary Prospects at present … and if he were to, subscribers would be informed well in advance of any shift in research regarding those Planetary Prospects.)
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Please see tickertrax.com to learn more about this wealth service and its 12 Planetary Prospects. For an index of free Thom Calandra, please click here.
HOLDINGS: Thom’s holdings are listed for all Stockhouse members at www.Stockhouse.com under the “portfolio setting” for user TCALANDRA. It is public and free to view. He and his family own recently minted gold and silver coins and shares of a number of public and two private companies. As with each of the 12 Planetary Prospects, Thom Calandra owns Colombia Mines and the other P.P.s indicated in this report.
THOM CALANDRA of Ticker Traxhelps his audience find value in a quagmire of investment choices. Thom co-founded CBS MarketWatch andMarketWatch.com. As the voice of Thom Calandra's StockWatch and The Calandra Report, Thom pegged $300-ounce gold as a long-term hold.
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