Candente Rancheros ... Endeavour Silver -- Bellhaven's New CEO: Ticker Trax Mexico & Colombia

El Oro, Mexico: Candente Rancheros

• Megaw, Freeze To Burst Dos Estrellas Tradition (CDG)
• Plus: Zweng New CEO at Bellhaven (BHV)
• Fresh Numbers At Endeavour Silver, Great Basin Gold

EL ORO, Mexico – Candente Gold’s Peter Megaw earned his doctorate at the University of Arizona decades ago. He still lives in Tucson … just a one-hour drive from Mexico, where he is credited with 100 million ounces of silver discovery.

Candente Gold’s(TSX: T.CDG, Stock Forum) EL Oro project is an easy two-hour drive from another city, Mexico City. The district, some 3,000 meters in altitude on an arid plain dotted with the history of early 1900s mines such as Las Dos Estrellas and its Veta Verde, put out at least eight million ounces of gold equivalent from just two of 50 established veins.

Dr. Megaw is a Candente director whose Mexico pedigree includes Mag Silver (TSX: T.MAG, Stock Forum) and Excellon Resources (TSX: T.EXN, Stock Forum). He and a team of CEO Joanne Freeze and VP of Exploration Mark Pryor, among others, believe the stacked systems at El Oro resemble those at Mexico’s Guanajuato, Fresnillo and Pinos Altos.

Still, to see the gold and silver prospect where Candente just started sinking holes, as I just did, is to ask questions: Why did the Mexicans stop mining this place in the 1930s? What makes Candente think there is fresh ore bodies way below the old workings of artisanal mines here? How will Candente succeed when Teck, Placer Dome and many others elected to drop their efforts in the 1990s and early 2000s?

“Look,” Dr. Megaw tells me in a break from our El Oro tour, “most of the Teck work, for one, barely got into the capping volcanics. There are many reasons, verifiable ones, to believe there are many pieces of the (main) San Rafael vein) with extreme high grade.”

The genesis of Ms. Freeze’s Peru and Mexico-leaning gold and silver company came from her purchase of a portfolio of exploration properties held by Andy Smith’s Canaco Resources (TSX: V.CAN, Stock Forum) and by mother ship Candente Resource Corp., which is now Candente Copper (TSX: DNT, Stock Forum). (Please seeour Stockhouse report.)

Both Candente companies are Planetary Prospects of Ticker Trax, and as such we here at home own the shares. Ms. Freeze’s Candente Gold was the subject of an early April 2010 Ticker Trax report about its Peru concessions. As reported, we here see the Peru prospects – Tres Marias, Freditos and others – as reason enough to make Candente Gold a purchase at its current price of 60 cents a share Canadian.

El Oro in Mexico, however, is Ms. Freeze and team’s immediate mission. The bulk of some $8 million or so of fresh cash from the Candente Gold December 2009 offering will go toward drilling out EL Oro and the surrounding area. (Please see the password-protected Ticker Trax libraryfor that coverage.)

I present here just one quoted line of Dr. Megaw’s approach to what he says will be a shattering of traditional geology-think regarding El Oro and area’s stacked systems of multiple mineralized bands. (That is Dr. Megaw, at left of photo, and Ms. Freeze, center, on site in our tour.)

Says Dr. Megaw, “At El Oro all you see is exploitation of a single stripe of mineralization … just one band. Today we have the ability to see much deeper into what former studies showed. We can see bands moving laterally. We have the ability to gauge textures in quartz, relations between calcite and quartz. We are more likely to avoid dead zones. We have 20, maybe 30 veins that merit further investigation. Teck’s drilling in the mid-90s barely got through the black shale (in the east zone of the property). We used natural source audio-magnetic telurics (NSAMT), which is a fancy way of saying we examine the earth’s magnetic forces and cosmic radiation, currents and that.”

Enough for now – and more on Candente Gold later. The stock at current price holds the possibility of rising four to five times in the coming nine months. Risk? Mexico as a nation shuts down for business … not likely.

• I will be chatting at the Las Vegas Money show on Tuesday May 11 – about natural resources, life sciences and safety in commodities. The 30-minute spiel is at noon.



• After Vegas, I return to Medellin, Colombia, in the department of Antioquia. I am going to interview a new associate of Bellhaven Copper & Gold (TSX: V.BHV, Stock Forum), the newest Planetary Prospect of our service. My interview, just two weeks before the Colombia presidential election, will be with a former Colombia vice presidential candidate and Bellhaven adviser, Isabel Maria Patiño of Bogota. On Monday, Bellhaven named a new interim CEO, fund manager and doctor of geology Paul Zweng, whom Ticker Trax subscribers know via his involvement in Antares Minerals of Peru. Dr. Zweng tells me today his priorities are: “Attract and hire new management … find or acquire a flagship property; I think one of three properties in Panama could qualify. The belt of high-sulfidation epithermal gold deposit the company controls in the Azuero Peninsula looks very good.” Dr. Zweng is a central reason we here have placed Bellhaven on our Planetary Prospect list. The Stanford University doctorate adds he is hopeful about other Bellhaven prospects in Colombia, including ones in the San Lucas mountain range, which I saw from the air and on the ground. At this point, Dr. Zweng of Honolulu’s Resource Venture Partners says he is an interim CEO. Julio Benedetti, whom 53-year-old Dr. Zweng replaces, will remain as president. (More:See Stockhouse.)



• Briefly:Revett Minerals (TSX: T.RVM, Stock Forum) says the May 6 ruling on its Rock Creek silver and copper project in Montana runs more than 100 pages. CEO John Shanahan tells me, “We prevailed in a number of important areas such as Clean Water and Endangered Species Acts, but the court has asked for more work in certain areas and the net result looks like we will need to update sediment mitigation measures and re-issue a Supplemental EIS. The main body of work that has been done by the Forest Service and Fish & Wildlife has been validated and upheld.” The federal judge’s opinion and ruling are at the RVM Internet site. We here at home own a small number of Revett Minerals shares – about $600 worth. When investors read the entire court judgment they will see that the federal judge is doing all he can to see that Revett’s Rock Creek in gorgeous Montana meets all expectations for community and environmental support. At 38 cents Canadian, Revett shares are safe from a nasty decline in coming months. Plus, the company is making money at Troy Mine. (Please seeour Stockhouse coveragefor more.)



• For the record: I have added 7,500 shares of Antioquia Gold (TSX: V.AGD, Stock Forum) to my purchase of 10,000 shares in late April, as noted in our Ticker Trax reports. At approximately 30 cents Canadian a share, this comes to less than $5,400. We here have no intention of adding Colombia’s Antioquia Gold to our list of 13 Planetary Prospects. Yet I believe the company’s next round of results at Cisneros in the department of Antioquia will shed more light on what looks like a worthy and woefully undervalued prospect. Investors likely are sidestepping Antioquia Gold because it is engaging in a speculative practice of finding a mineable gold resource among thin mesothermal veins. Plus, with very little money in the company treasury, the company has a lot hinged on drill and other results coming out in the next two weeks. If the numbers are less than stellar in terms of gold grades and the extent of a resource, Antioquia Gold will have to raise cash at a depressed stock price. Won’t it? I asked CEO Rick Thibault about that and he replied, “”We have a budget for everything we are currently doing and don’t plan to raise any more money until we can do so at a much higher stock price.” We’ll see. This is speculative. As reported, a structural geologist was at Cisneros last week. Geologist Robert J. Casaceli of Franco-Nevada had a lot to view; Antioquia Gold has about 5,500 hectares of concessions some 70 kilometers’ easy drive from our beloved city of Medellin.

The Planetary Prospects

There are now 13 of them. See fresh numbers below from Premium, Endeavour Silver and Great Basin Gold.

• Premium Exploration (TSX: V.PEM, Stock Forum) – Gold in Idaho and Montana. Extremely high grades. Lots of land – almost 30 kilometers’ worth. It is called California Petsite in central Idaho. The Australian fund that bought the bulk of its most recent equity offering still owns it all. Chairman Del Steiner and CEO Wilf Struck started a fresh drill program they hope will dismiss doubts about the Idaho prospects. But they need more cash raised at a pitiful stock price of 28 cents or so Canadian. The fresh program is the third round of drilling and is shooting for 33 holes over some 10,000 meters. Mr. Steiner tells me he wants to convince day traders and other short-term investors that an existing 549,000-ounce inferred gold resource (15 million metric tonnes of ore at an average grade of 1.13 gram per tonne) soon could grow in size and see its resource “category” improved, making the company more attractive to project lenders and to those pesky short-term investors. (Please see the password-protected libraryfor coverage.)



• 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 – metal that actually might be delivered to investors if ever they want to cash in their paper stakes.



• BioCryst Pharmaceuticals(NASDAQ: BCRX, Stock Forum)–Influenza and leukemia drugs. Gout, too. Biomedical appears to be back in vogue as an investment. I am holding these shares – 72,000 and counting – as The Return of the H1N1 influenza virus plays at hemispheres, nations and regions near all of us.



• Endeavour Silver(AMEX: EXK, Stock Forum) and (TSX: T.EDR, Stock Forum)– Silver (and gold) in Mexico. I expect Endeavour Silver to purchase a publicly-traded silver (or silver-gold open-pit) company this year. The company’s quarter is just in. All of the metrics, including costs, cash flow (a net profit for the three months vs. a year-ago loss), silver and gold output and on and on, are improved markedly. What is more, Brad Cooke and his team realize they have to show their audience its exploration activities are vibrant enough to hurtle the small Guanajuato and Durango company above five million ounces of silver equivalent per year. The recent quarter just unveiled produced 1.011 million silver-equivalent ounces at a 65-to-1 silver-to-gold ratio. Mr. Cooke and his team say they are doing exploration drilling at the San Juanico property in Parral, Chihuahua, among other points. What is more, Endeavour is mapping and sampling at its freshly purchased San Sebastian project in Jalisco. Can’t keep all the projects straight? Endeavour Silver’s project outline on its Internet site is among the best in the business: Please see the list.



• Endeavour Financial(TSX: T.EDV, Stock Forum) – No relation to Endeavour Silver. This is Neil Woodyer’s profitable Canada merchant bank that is making a big bet on West Africa. … in the form of Crew Gold (TSX: T.CRU, Stock Forum) and Etruscan Resources (TSX: T.EET, Stock Forum). There is good to very good upside at merchant banks that specialize in natural resources. In addition, Endeavour Financial does business with energy companies – an area of natural resources for which we here at Ticker Trax currently are lacking.



• Xtra-Gold Resources(OTO: XTGR, Stock Forum) –This West Africa gold prospector might follow in the footsteps of successful Keegan Resources (TSX: T.PRU, Stock Forum) … and Perseus Mining (TSX: T.PRU, Stock Forum) … and Red Back Mining (TSX: T.RBI, Stock Forum). I am just returned from the Kibi. (Pleasesee the Libraryfor coverage stretching back to autumn 2009. Also: Please visitStockhousefor a perspective on the Kinross Gold investment in West Africa’s Red Back Mining.)



• Great Basin Gold (TSX: T.GBG, Stock Forum)– This is Ferdi Dippenaar’s South Africa and Nevada miner. Real gold at Burnstone and Hollister mines … and prospecting at Esmeralda in Nevada. Great Basin just reported its latest quarter. The company says it had “excellent operational performance at Hollister and improved efficiencies at the Esmeralda Mill facility.” Ditto for South Africa’s Burnstone Mine. I have been to all of the company’s working properties. (Please see the password-protected libraryfor coverage.)



• Candente Copper(TSX: DNT, Stock Forum)– Joanne Freeze’s Candente has copper in Peru -- Cañariaco. The almost eight-billion-pound copper project is starting to get the attention of manufacturers and bankers. Yet Candente Copper’s shares sell for a value of only a penny a pound for its in-situ copper. Candente Copper, formerly Candente Resource, is among the cheapest propositions (based on ore in the ground) in this list, along with Avanti Mining. The Candente companies’ properties in Peru also include poly-metallic prospects that might some day package into a third separately traded company. (Please see the Libraryfor coverage.)



• Candente Gold (TSX: T.CDG, Stock Forum)– This separate company’s shares were distributed to predecessor Candente Resource’s shareholders in January 2010. We issued a full report on Candente Gold’s Peru prospects in April. Now, we’re examining El Oro, an entire district and artisanal mine workings in Mexico.



• 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’s shares look like a bargain.



• Avanti Mining (TSX: V.AVT, Stock Forum) – Cheap and aspiring molybdenum mine at Kitsault in British Columbia. Avanti’s Craig J. Nelsen and A J Ali recently raised $17 million Canadian for the company. It is the cheapest proposition on this list. Few in the world of specialty metals will give this company respect until Avanti shows it can line up more financing and notch one or two off-take agreements for the mine’s easily reached moly. Moly is an important additive in all types of stainless steel.



• Colombian Mines Corp.(TSX: V.CMJ, Stock Forum) – CMJ has one of the thickest property books in Colombia for such a tiny company: some 300,000 hectares. Bob and Gloria Carrington and Nate Tewalt’s company just reported drill results from its Yarumalito project in Colombia. Good results for the gold and copper prospect … but not great. We might see a joint venture announced in coming weeks for one or more of the company’s approximately 20 properties/concessions in Colombia.



• Bellhaven Copper & Gold(TSX: V.BHV, Stock Forum) – Our newest member. Panama and Colombia. Stay tuned. We here at home now own 1.4 million shares at a price that is higher than its current price. I will be interviewing Bellhaven adviser (and former Colombia vice presidential candidate) Isabel Maria Patiño this week in Medellin. Our rationale: BHV is the cheapest thing in Colombia that I know of in the world of copper and gold. Honolulu fund manager and doctor of geology Paul Zweng is a large investor and just-named interim CEO. Dr. Zweng’s success rate with epithermal gold deposits and with copper prospects such as Peru’s Antares Minerals (ANM) is among the best I have seen in eight years. Bellhaven CEO Julio Benedetti, now president and director,is a stalwart miner who gets a lot of government and other high-level face time in his country of Panama. (Please see the Libraryfor coverage.)

We here at Ticker Trax cannot and will not address queries about any company or prospect/theme that is written as part of Ticker Trax or our Stockhouse reports but is not a Planetary Prospect. We stand firmly behind our Planetary Prospects and back them with our own money here at home. As for reporting on other companies, ideas are there for all to view and consider. Please do not expect that Ticker Trax will support these subjects with research, on-site visits and so on. Feel free to contact these companies, be they Nevada prospectors, Canada miners or Peru, Colombia and South Africa companies.

For an entire explanation of our strategies, research methods and disclosure procedures regarding all aspects of Ticker Trax and our Stockhouse reports, please visit our readily available Stockhouse articles – especially this one: Core Box Revealed. Companies whose site tours I attend for research purposes pay part or all of my airfare and hotel. Stockhouse and I also pay when necessary. I am not here … or there … to party.

Ticker Trax

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(All photos by Thom Calandra. Thom and his family own shares of each of the 13 Planetary Prospects. Thom’s personal holdings are available for all to see on Stockhouse, the Canada publishing company. Subscribers are informed well in advance of any shift in research regarding Planetary Prospects and any purchase or sales decisions. Subscribers always come first.)

Ticker Trax™Please see tickertrax.com to learn more about this wealth service and its Planetary Prospects. For an index of free Thom Calandra articles, please click here. For an entire explanation of our strategies, research methods and disclosure procedures regarding all aspects of Ticker Trax and our Stockhouse reports, please visit our readily available Stockhouse articles. Please see this one in particular: Core Box Revealed. For the password-protected Ticker Traxlibrary, please see: www.tickertrax.com/Login.aspx.

HOLDINGS: Thom’s holdings are listed for 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 about 30 public and two private companies. As with each of the Planetary Prospects, Thom Calandra owns Colombian Mines, Xtra-Gold Resources, Great Basin Gold, Endeavour Silver, BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Bellhaven Copper & Gold and each of the other Planetary Prospects researched in this and other reports.

THOM CALANDRA of Ticker Trax helps his audience find value in a quagmire of investment choices. Thom co-founded CBS MarketWatch and MarketWatch.com. As the voice of Thom Calandra's StockWatch and The Calandra Report, Thom pegged $300-ounce gold as a long-term hold in 1999 and in 2000. He has been covering life-sciences and natural resources since 1988.

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