Endeavour Silver on Thrusters
- BioCryst Lures Investor … Bellhaven's New CFO
TIBURON, California – First the good news: Endeavour Silver’s (AMEX: EXK, Stock Forum) and (TSX: T.EDR, Stock Forum) shares are indicating an event in coming days or weeks.
The Mexico primary silver miner might be a looming purchase of a publicly traded company. We interviewed Endeavour executives several weeks ago to that effect. Endeavour wants to be producing eight million or more silver equivalent ounces by 2012 and has been searching more than a year for producing mines.
The event also might be an entity coveting Endeavour Silver. The Canada-traded and USA-traded shares are outpacing nearly all silver companies in thick trading since recording a 34 per cent rise in silver output 10 days ago. Based on first-quarter figures, Endeavour Silver is projected to produce a bit more than four million ounces of silver equivalent a year. Its silver to gold ratio is 65-to-1.
The company’s shares have been one of our steadiest gainers among the 13 Planetary Prospects of this service. Brad Cooke, Godfrey Walton and Hugh Clarke tell me the Mexico team is busy exploring several owned properties in Mexico for silver and gold targets. Mining expenses – called cash operating costs -- are dropping in the current quarter as gold output climbs.
The bad news? Well, not bad. Rocky silver prices – down in a day, up two per cent, down 3 per cent the next – make it difficult for another Mexico silver prospect, Great Panther Silver (TSX: T.GPR, Stock Forum), to notch share gains. Great Panther’s silver-equivalent output is running about half that of Endeavour Silver. The takeaway here is that Great Panther, until further notice, appears stuck to the rising or falling silver price. Were silver to approach US$20 an ounce, Great Panther’s stock gains likely will outpace gains made by Great Panther’s stock during the metal’s run-up. No run-up? Endeavour Silver shares will keep rising as investors anticipate further cost cuts and production gains. I am a profitable holder of both until further notice.
Premium Exploration (TSX: V.PEM, Stock Forum): The Idaho and Montana gold prospector made “premature” economic assumptions about its Buffalo Gulch Concession. The British Columbia Securities Commission is scrutinizing any prospector that uses “historic” project numbers without labeling them as such. “The web site had info on Buffalo Gulch that mentioned production and costs and it wasn't clear that those were historic numbers, so BCSC requested that the info is removed from the website and that we issue the news release,” CEO Wilf Struck tells me.
The company, including Chairman Del Steiner, tells me the reworking of Buffalo Gulch on the web site and subsequent press release stem from a clerical error and that the company got “lazy.” This does not please me, however minor the misunderstanding.
I will give Premium the benefit of the doubt because of the size and potential high grades of its Friday Petsite concession in Idaho. Mr. Struck, a geologist, tells me he used to work the Buffalo Gulch property. That was many, many years ago.
“The news release doesn't say much other than there is gold there, a lot of work has been done on it in the past and that we plan on doing more work there to add ounces,” Wilf Struck says. “As we have mentioned in the past, there is a very large geo-chem anomaly and only a small portion of it has been drilled. There are three large IP anomalies that will be drilled and that I believe define gold pyrite mineralization associated with the Orogrande shear zone like we see at Friday-Petsite. Some of it got on the web site without that designation when the site was updated recently.” Disclosure rules in Canada require the use of specific disclosure language when describing historic data.
Bellhaven Copper and Gold Inc. (TSX: V.BHV, Stock Forum):The copper and gold prospector just announced a new chief financial officer. “I’ve known Millie Paredes for years,” interim CEO Paul Zweng tells me this morning from Los Angeles, where he is en route home after surveying properties in Panama and Colombia. “I hired her when I ran the exploration and geology department at Tintaya in Peru.”
Maria Milagros Paredes has worked at Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ, Stock Forum) and Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC, Stock Forum). At HP, she was into budget and planning, something our Bellhaven Copper craves. Ms. Paredes also did geological modeling – yes, she is a geologist – at BHP for Antamina, a large copper-zinc project in Peru. She also was project geologist at Las Bambas in Peru for that gold-silver project. Her master’s in business administration degree comes from Cornell University in New York state. (Purchase just announced:Bellhaven snares La Mina.)
Dr. Paul Zweng is, via a March 2010 private placement, an investor in Bellhaven on behalf of his Honolulu hedge fund. He took over as interim CEO several weeks ago and has spearheaded hiring and property purchases at the tiny, creaky company. Thus far, Dr. Zweng has struck gold (and copper) with several companies, including Antares Minerals Inc. (TSX: V.ANM, Stock Forum), a Peruvian and Argentine copper prospector that he helped start. His hedge fund identifies junior prospectors that might fit one of several site-specific theories about the geology or history of portfolio companies’ projects. As with all Planetary Prospects, we here at home own Bellhaven shares.
- Please see our coverage of the Colombia presidential race. It includes an interview withformer Colombia vice presidential candidate and Bellhaven adviser Maria Isabel Patiño of Bogota: View: article on Stockhouse.
- Please seeour Ticker Traxlibrary for coverage of Bellhaven, Panama and Antares Minerals’ Haquira Copper Project. Also: Colombian Mines and gold, copper and silver prospects in Mexico, Ghana and Nevada.
Planetary Prospects
- There are now 13 of them. Please visit www.tickertrax.com and search our landing page for details on the start of coverage for individual Planetary Prospects and the entry price.
- 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, perhaps 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 tons of ore at an average grade of 1.13 gram per ton) 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 Ltd. (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. One day, when investors decide they absolutely must own gold and silver, Central Fund shares will see their premium over net asset value double … or more.
- BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: BCRX, Stock Forum) –Influenza and leukemia drugs. Gout, too. Biomedical appears to be back in vogue as an investment. We here at home are holding these shares – 72,000 and counting – as “The Return of H1N1” influenza virus plays at hemispheres, nations and regions near all of us. There is no risk of a dilutive financing. There is a risk of Type A H1N1 remaining the dominant seasonal flu virus for several years. The company has a new 5.5 percent investor: Joseph L. Harrosh. (Please view this Stockhouse exclusive article.)
- 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. Probably in Mexico … but Endeavour’s principals tell me they will not rule out other parts of North America. 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 5 million ounces of silver equivalent per year. Mr. Cooke and his team say they are doing exploration drilling at the San Juanico property in Parral, Chihuahua, among other points. Endeavour also is mapping and sampling at its freshly purchased San Sebastian project in Jalisco. 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-traded merchant bank that is making a big bet on West Africa. … in the form of Crew Gold Corp. (TSX: T.CRU, Stock Forum) and a 43 per cent stake and Etruscan Resources (TSX: T.EET, Stock Forum) and a 55 percent stake. The company just logged $213 million of net profit in its most recent quarter. Endeavour Financial does business with natural resources and energy companies. The shares, even with a two-month steady climb, trade at a discount to the value of securities owned by Endeavour Financial. It owns about $500 million of gold investments and other merchant bank investments, giving the company a book value that is about twice the current share price. Almost 90 percent of the bank’s working capital is linked to investments in small to mid-sized gold producers and prospectors. We expect Endeavour Financial or regulatory filings will unveil another out-sized investment in coming weeks. Gold almost surely will be the commodity of choice. West Africa, South Africa, Tanzania and Mauritania are all possibilities.
- Xtra-Gold Resources (OTC:BB: XTGR, Stock Forum) –This West Africa gold prospector might follow in the footsteps of successful Keegan Resources Inc. (TSX: T.KGN, Stock Forum) … and (TSX: T.PRU, Stock Forum) … and Red Back Mining (TSX: T.RBI, Stock Forum). I was at the Kibi in April. I saw granitoid bodies that host what could become one of Africa’s largest new gold deposits at the Apapam concession. Xtra-Gold shares get little attention on the USA over-the-counter bulletin board and deserve a listing on a commodities-comfortable exchange. Let’s hope CEO James Longshore and his team, including new geologist-consultant Robert J. Casaceli, keep moving in the right direction. Fresh drilling will start by June or July. (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 at Cañariaco. The almost 8-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 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. (Please see password-protected libraryfor coverage.)
- 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. Quarterly performance at the Canada company produced a net profit. Great Panther’s silver-equivalent output at Guanajuato and in Mexico’s Durango state is benefiting from improved efficiencies and richer gold harvests. The company’s metals’ production includes byproducts and runs about half that of Guanajuato neighbor Endeavour Silver. As Great Panther mines richer ore in greater quantities, and as the small miner expands its exploration prospects, GPR shares at current silver prices easily will double in the next six months.
- Avanti Mining (TSX: V.AVT, Stock Forum) – Cheap and aspiring molybdenum mine at Kitsault in British Columbia. When Avanti’s Craig J. Nelsen and A J Ali see this through, Kitsault will be producing about 25 million pounds of the stainless-steel additive each year – for 15 years. That is 215 million metric tons of ore grading 0.085 percent of moly. That works for a world where steel-based moly demand is expected to expand 6 percent or so this year and next. Mr. Nelsen and Mr. Ali raised $17 million Canadian for the company. I just saw in the latest proxy that Mr. Nelsen, Avanti CEO living in Colorado, owns 10 million shares of the company. Canada’s Bob Cross of Be2Gold and other miners and prospectors is an Avanti director and owns more than 5 million shares. That makes me feel g-o-o-d. Avanti Mining at a market worth of $30 million 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 for a project whose total cost probably will run more than $640 million. A J Ali, Avanti CFO, is trying to notch one or two off-take agreements for the mine’s easily reached moly. The takers likely will hail from Asia, where steel mills require a steady and reliable supply of moly. I have been to Kitsault. I am a believer. Moly is an additive in all types of stainless steel. (Please see the password-protected libraryfor coverage.)
- 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. The company just optioned its Anori gold and copper prospect to Yamana Gold (NYSE: AUY, Stock Forum) and (TSX: T.YRI, Stock Forum). President Gloria Carrington tells me CMJ will get $50,000 from Yamana right from the get-go. Ms. Carrington and her geologist husband, CMJ’s Robert Carrington, say Yamana also will refund CMJ for taxes paid on the concession licenses. CMJ just optioned off another property and is said to be considering a joint venture or sale for the Venecia holding. (Please see the password-protected libraryfor coverage.)
- Bellhaven Copper & Gold (TSX: V.BHV, Stock Forum) – Our newest member. Panama and Colombia. We here at home now own 1.4 million shares at a price that is higher than its current price of 22 cents. 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 (TSX: V.ANM, Stock Forum) is among the best I have seen in eight years. (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 patient money here at home. With the exception of Central Fund of Canada, which I view as a gold and silver money market for cash purposes, I have not and do not sell in and out of our Planetary Prospects. Ticker Trax and Stockhouse audiences receive plenty of notice time, in some cases weeks, when we here at home decide to purchase or sell any security named in these reports.
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 plan on seeing a Montana gold project run by Timberline Resources (AMEX: TLR, Stock Forum) in two weeks.
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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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