Gold In Ghana, Copper In Peru
Forward-looking statements: TLR, XTGR, AGD, ANM
Plus: New Orleans In October
This is where Ticker Trax™ makes its bread for you: forward-looking statements, without yeast. As in, Xtra-Gold Resources (OTO: XTGR, Stock Forum) of Ghana. Subscribers know the prospect. In a week or so the shares look to travel higher.
My vested interest is on my chest: we here at home own 125,000 or so shares at an average of about $1.05 each USA. Xtra-Gold is a preferred client of Stockhouse, distributor of Ticker Trax. I help managing director of Ghana operations and large shareholder James Longshore get his story told – the only fee-based relationship I have with any subject covered at Ticker Trax and at Stockhouse.
Kinross Gold Corp. (TSX: T.K, Stock Forum) and (NYSE: KGC, Stock Forum) and its $7 billion (mostly stock) intention to purchase all of Red Back Mining Inc. (TSX: T.RBI, Stock Forum) of Ghana and Mauritania is in this article: sent to you Tuesday. We reported Kinross’s swift interest in West Africa via Stockhouse and Ticker Trax fresh off our April 2010 trip to Ghana. That was when Kinross paid $600 million for most of Red Back Mining’s springtime equity serving. At the $1.21 stock price of today (Wednesday), Xtra-Gold is still just a $40 million company.
Robert Casaceli, a Nevada-based structural geologist who is allied with Xtra-Gold and is a director, tells me from Canada that Xtra-Gold’s Kibi Gold Belt soon will become “the latest undiscovered thing” for West Africa gold investors. “Keegan [Resources Inc.] (TSX: T.KGN, Stock Forum) and (AMEX: KGN, Stock Forum) was good enough to exploit the Esaase District there (I have seen it) and now Yves Clement and his Xtra-Gold team are doing the same in the Kibi. The alluvial at Apapam (base camp and chief prospect) and thereabouts for Xtra alone is hundreds of thousands of ounces. The granitoids along all of the structure point increasingly to 2 million and possibly far greater amounts.”
I am considering expanding my ownership of Ghana companies to include Keegan Resources. Perhaps Perseus Mining Ltd. (TSX: T.PRU, Stock Forum), whose Kevin Thomson, chief geologist in Ghana, tells it like it is. My desire for more Ghana comes after Kevin Williams at small gold-stock specialist Cormark Securities in Toronto said he sees a higher bid for Red Back from Newmont or Ashanti or someone out there. “We believe there is a high probability of a higher bid for Red Back given the exploration potential of the Tasiast asset, and we also believe Kinross will be hard-pressed to bid much higher than the current offer given the discount at which the company’s shares currently trade,” Mr. Williams says.
COLOMBIA:Medoro Resources Ltd. (TSX: V.MRS, Stock Forum), developer of El Marmato not far from Medellin, bundled its shares three-for-one. The current market worth of the Toronto gold miner is about $300 million Canadian. Medoro has a pact with Gran Colombia Gold that can boost a 5 percent stake in the old and troubled, but potentially lush Frontino Mine in Colombia to 50 percent. But the one-year clock on that will start ticking when new Gran Colombia completes its Frontino purchase – perhaps for as much as $180 million. Medoro, whose shares I have owned in one form or another at a loss to me for more than three years, also has interests in Venezuela and in Africa’s Mali.
MORE COLOMBIA: Bob Casaceli, Xtra-Gold’s consultant geologist,has other interests: royalty maker Franco-Nevada for one. Also an Ontario prospector: Creso Exploration Inc. (TSX: V.CXT, Stock Forum) in Ontario. And in our Colombia space, Antioquia GoldInc. (TSX: V.AGD, Stock Forum), a speculative and thus-far losing choice of this Ticker Trax service. I own the shares. When I spoke with Bon on Tuesday, I told him I was rattled that tiny Antioquia Gold is seeking money for its Cisneros drill program in the Department of Antioquia at this gosh-awful low stock price of 22 cents Canadian. He said, “They get no credit for anything in the ground as of yet. But the eggs are there and now that we have the structural approach down, I think we will see those pods connect quite nicely.” We shall see.
BELLHAVEN: Our Planetary Prospect Bellhaven Copper & Gold (TSX: V.BHV, Stock Forum) got some Panama validation from epithermal gold expert Jeffrey Hedenquist. The entire report on Pitaloza and Cerro Viejo prospects is here on Stockhouse. Interim CEO Paul Zweng is knee deep in Panama and Colombia dirt, channel sampling and drilling.
PERU COPPER: Antares Minerals Inc. (TSX: V.ANM, Stock Forum) CEO John Black says Xstrata Copper is now full steam ahead on the vast copper project right next to Antares’ Haquira in Peru. Australia’s Xstrata Copper, part of Switzerland’s Xstrata Plc (OTO: XSRAF, Stock Forum), says it will require about $4 billion for developing its Las Bambas project, which I flew over (with John Black and Antares founder Paul Zweng). “I don’t think we could ask for a better indication that Haquira is located in a favorable jurisdiction for investment in major mining projects,” Mr. Black says. “The development of the adjacent Las Bambas project may offer additional synergies that are yet to be explored. With six rigs turning and initiation of Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) activities, we will see a steady news flow through to the end of the year and beyond. We have a solid cash position with more than $10 million in the bank. One of our most immediate challenges is to make the project as well known to the general investing public as it is to the world of companies interested in acquiring an asset of this quality. We are taking steps to answer this challenge with a near-term goal to see our market capital rise to a level more appropriate for a project of the quality of the Haquira Project. I think you will begin to see some results in from these initiatives in the next few weeks.” I do not own Antares shares but the idea is on my plate after a favorable review of Haquira in March and April of this year.
TIMBERLINE: Timberline Resources Corp. (AMEX: TLR, Stock Forum) and (TSX: V.TBR, Stock Forum) is now active in Nevada and Montana. The Nevada property, South Eureka, is on the Battle Mountain-Eureka gold trend. A diamond drill program just started, CEO Randal Hardy tells me.
The South Eureka property is sediment-hosted gold and is the main exploration asset Timberline acquired in its acquisition of Staccato Gold Resources in June. I have not been there. I have been to the Butte Highlands developing mine in Montana. Randal Hardy and exploration chief Paul Dircksen keep asking me when I am going to write up that May 2010 visit to Butte Highlands. I can say right now that my visit demonstrated the ways in which leading technologies can transform a property into a gold mine, especially if the developer is also a drilling and mine development technology leader. Such is the case with Timberline. I have yet to purchase the shares. I am considering a purchase. Timberline has core-drilling subsidiaries in the USA, mostly Idaho, Montana, Nevada; and in Mexico.
URANIUM: We here at home this week own Forum Uranium Corp. (TSX: V.FDC, Stock Forum), a neighbor to Hathor Exploration Ltd. (TSX: V.HAT, Stock Forum) in Saskatchewan. We now own those two uranium shares. This is from Gene Arensberg, an Atlanta and Texas investor and natural resources writer of The Got Gold Report: “The Forum team is said to be responsible for finding over 300 million pounds of uranium over the years. The team has repeatedly said not to forget the N. Thelon Basin where Forum holds a significant land package and there is the hint of both uranium and rare earths. It surrounds Areva's Kiggavik up there and has had some shows, but no company maker yet. There are three operating U-mills near Forum's Henday just north of Hathor's Roughrider. If there is anything under Mallen Lake, should be easy to get milled.” A chief geologist at Forum discovered the 200 million-pound Key Lake deposit. (Nearby to Roughrider in the Athabasca.) Plus, Forum exploration chief Ken Wheatley discovered eight different u-deposits in the Athabasca for 132 million pounds.
- NEW ORLEANS: This autumn I will be making two or three appearances outside of prospect tours. One of them is in New Orleans, where I appear each year at Brien Lundin’s New Orleans Investment Conference. If you’d like to join our Stockhouse and Ticker Trax audience at the late-October show, please register and pay up at this link: REGISTER FOR NEW ORLEANS. You get a discount on the price at that address. And I have something special planned for New Orleans. It’s my favorite investment show – along with San Francisco in November, of course.
STUFF: Our Ticker Trax landing page has more stuff, videos included. Please see: https://stockhouse.com/TickerTrax/Default.aspx.
- In Sweden: producer Gold Ore Resources Ltd. (TSX: T.GOZ, Stock Forum) is of interest. Gold Ore is about to record its one-millionth ounce of gold production. The mine is called Bjorkdal Gold Mine. I now own a small number of shares – bought at 56 cents each Canadian. The company’s latest numbers are out and look promising. Please see Shock Rock article on Stockhouse. I hope to visit the property in early September.
For more on all of the Planetary Prospects, please visit our Ticker Trax Library.Ticker Trax™ is in place – and thriving – because its fiscal loyalty is to subscribers who are looking for radically cheap investments. Our service, started in November 2008, researches a select group of Planetary Prospects™ with legitimate shots at rising 1,000 percent or more in the span of two years, maybe less and maybe more.
Planetary Prospects
There are 12 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. In addition, Xtra-Gold Resources is a preferred client of Stockhouse, distributor and publisher of this Ticker Trax™ report. We here intend to report good and bad on our Planetary Prospects; we are considering eliminating one of the current 12 and replacing it with something more worthy of our research time.
- 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 Inc. (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 – 80,000 and counting. 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. (Please view: Stockhouse exclusive article.)
- Endeavour Silver Corp. (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. Most metrics, including costs, cash flow (a net profit for the three months vs. a year-ago loss), silver and gold output, are improved markedly. 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. 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 (TSX: T.CRU, Stock Forum) and Etruscan Resources Inc. (TSX: T.EET, Stock Forum). Etruscan is said to be flipping out a rare-earth investment in the autumn. EDV shares, even with a three-month steady climb, trade at a discount to the value of securities owned by Endeavour Financial. The company’s book value is about twice the current share price. It intends to purchase all of Etruscan.
- Xtra-Gold Resources (OTO: XTGR, Stock Forum) –This West Africa gold prospector might follow in the footsteps of successful Keegan Resources (TSX: T.KGN, Stock Forum) … and Perseus Mining (TSX: T.PRU, Stock Forum) … and Red Back Mining (TSX: T.RBI, Stock Forum).. Xtra-Gold shares get little attention on the USA over-the-counter bulletin board and deserve a listing on a commodities-comfortable exchange. The 43-101 report is now published. Let’s hope James Longshore and his team, including new geologist-consultant Robert J. Casaceli and new CEO Paul Zyla, keep moving in the right direction. (Pleasesee the Libraryfor coverage stretching back to autumn 2009.)
- Great Basin Gold Ltd. (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 says it has “excellent operational performance at Hollister in Nevada and improved efficiencies at the Esmeralda Mill facility in Nevada.” Ditto for South Africa’s Burnstone Mine. I have been to all of the company’s working properties. GBG is on track to become the next $1 billion market cap gold company. Current cap is almost $600 million. (Please see our password-protected libraryfor coverage.)
- Candente Copper Corp. (TSX: T.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. (Please see libraryfor coverage.)
- Candente Gold Corp. (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’ve examined El Oro, an entire district and artisanal mine workings about 200 kilometers from Mexico City. I have seen it. I see the potential of the epithermal gold-silver vein system with some 50 known veins. (Please see password-protected libraryfor coverage of El Oro in Mexico.)
- Great Panther Silver (TSX: T.GPR, Stock Forum) – Silver in Mexico. Robert Archer is the CEO. The Panther just extended one of its veins, called Recompensa, at the Topia property in Durango, Mexico. The company is on the prowl for assets so that it can notch 20 percent yearly gains in output. GPR’s rising silver grades and low stock valuation compared with other Mexico silver producers make the company’s shares look like a bargain. 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.
- Avanti Mining Inc. (TSX: V.AVT, Stock Forum) – Cheap and aspiring molybdenum mine at Kitsault in British Columbia. Avanti just hired Bob Jacko of Thompson Creek Metals to manage project development at the mine. 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, the Avanti CEO living in Colorado, owns more than 12 million shares of the company. Avanti Mining at a market worth of less than $60 million is the cheapest proposition on this list. Avanti must show it can line up plenty of cash or lending pacts for a project whose total cost probably will run more than $640 million. I have been to Kitsault. Moly is an additive in all types of stainless steel. Avanti Mining is gaining in share value, at long last, as executives purchase shares. Please see Thom Calandra article on Stockhouse.
- 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. Yet one of the thinnest news flows. Bob and Gloria Carrington and Nate Tewalt’s company has reported drill results from its Yarumalito project in Colombia. The numbers were mediocre. CMJ’s Robert Carrington sayshe and CEO Nate Tewalt of Washington state are considering a joint venture or sale for its Venecia holding in Antioquia. (Please see the password-protected libraryfor coverage.)
- Bellhaven Copper & Gold (TSX: V.BHV, Stock Forum) – Panama and Colombia. We here at home now own 1.4 million shares. Dr. Paul Zweng’s success rate with epithermal gold deposits and with copper prospects such as Peru’s Antares Minerals is among the best I have seen in eight years. Dr. Zweng is interim CEO of Bellhaven. Bellhaven owns Las Minas concession in Antioquia, Colombia. (Please see the Libraryfor coverage.) He just appointed a new VP of Exploration for Panama, Tom Drown. Dr. Zweng worked with Mr. Drown in Mongolia.
In Colombia, our speculative target is Antioquia Gold (TSX: V.AGD, Stock Forum). We here at home own it. We also own (and have researched and visited since 2008) Medoro Resources (TSX: V.MRS, Stock Forum) of Colombia.
We here at Ticker Trax™stand firmly behind our Planetary Prospects and back them with our own patient money here at home.
As for reporting on other companies, ideas are there for all to view and consider. Please do not expect Ticker Trax™ to 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 … and so on.
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.
Ticker Trax™
Please visit Stockhouse for a selection of our Ticker Trax research and our password-secure Library for subscribers.
(All photos by Thom Calandra. Thom and his family own shares of each of the 12 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 Trax library, 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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Ticker Trax™ is published by Stockhouse Publishing Ltd. Ticker Trax is an information service for subscribers and neither Stockhouse nor Thom Calandra is a broker or an investment advisor. None of the information contained therein constitutes a recommendation by Mr. Calandra or Stockhouse that any particular security, portfolio of securities, transaction, or investment strategy is suitable for any specific person. Ticker Trax does not purport to tell or suggest the investment securities subscribers or readers should buy or sell for themselves. Subscribers and readers of Ticker Trax should conduct their own research and due diligence and obtain professional advice before making any investment decisions. Ticker Trax will not be liable for any loss or damage caused by a reader’s reliance on information obtained in the reports. Subscribers and readers are solely responsible for their own investment decisions. Opinions expressed in Ticker Trax are based on sources believed to be reliable and are written in good faith, but no representation or warranty, expressed or implied, is made as to their accuracy or completeness. All information contained in Ticker Trax should be independently verified. The editor and publisher are not responsible for errors or omissions or responsible for keeping information up to date or for correcting any past information. Ticker Trax does not receive compensation of any kind from any companies that may be mentioned in the report. Any opinions expressed are subject to change without notice. Owners, employees and writers may hold positions in the securities that are discussed in Ticker Trax. PLEASE DO NOT EMAIL THOM SEEKING PERSONALIZED INVESTMENT ADVICE, WHICH HE CANNOT PROVIDE. Copyright 2010 all rights reserved.