Kinross Gold’s (TSX: T.K, Stock Forum) and (NYSE: KGC, Stock Forum) $7 billion papered follow-through in West Africa will shine-on two or three gold prospectors and producers lesser known than target Red Back Mining Inc. (TSX: T.RBI, Stock Forum)
For Red Back Chairman Lukas Lundin, the introduction to the space of top-10 gold producers via Kinross is a pay-back. Red Back bought its Tasiast Gold Mine in Mauritania from Lundin Mining Corp. (TSX: T.LUN, Stock Forum) three years ago this month for US$225 million.
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 Gold paid $600 million for most of Red Back Mining’s springtime equity serving.
The Kinross decision to follow through with $7 billion of stock to purchase all of Red Back puts the value of Red Back’s 15 million ounces of estimated gold-in-the-ground in Ghana and Mauritania at roughly $480 an ounce.
On tap for investors: seeking what still is cheap in West Africa’s Ghana, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast and so on. “You have four major gold belts in Ghana and only one of them is still not getting investor credit for the scope and scale of its structural geology,” says Robert Casaceli, a Nevada-based structural geologist with interests in one of those Ghana mineral belts.
In the flow of the Kinross transaction Tuesday, one West Africa stock was moving. “Our share price is up 10 percent (in Australia and Canada) today,” says Perseus Mining (TSX: T.PRU, Stock Forum) exploration chief Kevin Thomson. “Maybe they’ll (Kinross) come after us next.”
Perseus’s Ayanfuri Mine in Ghana is within about one year 15 months of producing 200,000 ounces of gold a year yet the Australia company’s market worth is less than $1 billion. (Please see: Perseus Heights coverage from Ghana.)
On the potent end, among Ghana projects I have seen, Keegan Resources Inc. (TSX: T.KGN, Stock Forum) and (AMEX: KGN, Stock Forum) in the Esaase Gold District deserves respect because of the multi-year efforts of Alaska-trained doctor of geology Dan McCoy. The Keegan market worth is still below $300 million even with its 2.2 million-ounce indicated resource there. (Another Lundin, Brien Lundin of the New Orleans Investment Conference, first set me up with Dr. Dan McCoy a year ago.)
Yet on a pure prospector gambit, only one thing in that part of Africa is cheap as red dirt. Ticker Trax is well linked with Xtra-Gold Resources (OTC:BB: XTGR, Stock Forum) in Ghana’s Kibi Gold Belt. “The Kibi has been ignored because it was covered, unlike the Ashanti and other major gold belts,” says Mr. Casaceli, who examines Xtra-Gold’s Ghana property for structural clues. “That is no longer the case, and we are seeing granitoid and other potential that could run into the millions of ounces.” (Please see Stockhouse chart here comparing Xtra-Gold, Perseus and Keegan shares since May 2010.)
Xtra-Gold’s chief prospect at Apapam in Ghana is scheduled for a fresh drill program this month. Xtra Gold’s market worth is about one-half of 1 percent of $7 billion.
“The Kinross purchase demonstrates the high regard in which the Republic of Ghana is held by international gold producers. It is a West African country (where) they can plan for long-term investment and gold production,” Xtra-Gold President and CEO Paul Zyla tells me today (Tuesday). (Xtra-Gold is one of 12 Ticker Trax Planetary Prospects. We here at home own about 125,000 shares. In addition, Xtra-Gold is a client of Stockhouse, distributor of this report and of Ticker Trax. Stockhouse, and I personally, help spread the word about the Ghana company in exchange for advertising and consulting fees.)
Xtra-Gold’s co-founder, Jim Longshore, and several others at the company or in a circle of family and friends own about one-third of all of Xtra-Gold’s shares. The company’s fresh Canada regulatory filing on its activities at the Kibi Gold Belt would seem to pave the way for a listing at a commodities-friendly stock exchange. (Once again, we here at home have a vested interest in seeing Xtra-Gold’s shares go higher. I have been to the Kibi twice with Mr. Longshore and his chief geologist, Yves Clement.)
Bob Casaceli, the structural geologist and Xtra-Gold consultant, is also working with several other companies, including Creso Exploration Inc. (TSX: V.CXT, Stock Forum) in Ontario and royalty dealer Franco-Nevada Corp. (TSX: T.FNV, Stock Forum).
ON TAP: Properties I have visited or are on tap for possible investor exploration for Ticker Trax include Timberline Resources (TSX: V.TBR, Stock Forum) and (AMEX: TLR, Stock Forum) in Montana. Butte Highlands is the name of the fast-developing mine. In Sweden, Gold-Ore Resources (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. We here at home own several thousand shares at a price that is about 5 cents Canadian higher than the current GOZ stock price. We own no Timberline. (Also: Neither of these two companies pay Stockhouse or Ticker Trax in exchange for coverage, research or preference as a Planetary Prospect or a subject of any article.)
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 the longstanding San Francisco conference in November.
Ticker Trax™ is in place 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.
- We hope you out there in the Stockhouse audience consider joining our expanding service, now in its 20th month. It is at www.tickertrax.com. Needy wanna-be subscribers can petition Stockhouse with a plea and a suggested price for the $399 service at members@stockhouse.com. The service is thriving amid a gloomy summer for natural resources stocks.
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Please see Stockhouse for a selection of our Ticker Trax research and our password-protected library for subscribers. Please see our Ticker Trax password-protected library for coverage of drug discovery and of gold, uranium, copper, silver, moly and platinum.
(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.)
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. Thom Calandra’s on-site tours of properties are paid in part by the hosting companies and in part by Stockhouse and Thom Calandra. 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.
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.
Thom Calandra and Stockhouse produce this and other free reports. Please visit www.Stockhouse.com.
Ticker Trax™ and Thom Calandra’s reports from the field are distributed by Stockhouse Publishing Ltd. Ticker Trax is an information service for subscribers and neither Stockhouse nor Thom Calandra is a broker or an investment adviser. 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 and Stockhouse do not purport to tell or suggest the investment securities that subscribers or readers must buy or sell for themselves. Subscribers and readers of Ticker Trax and Thom Calandra’s freely available Stockhouse articles are asked to conduct their own research and due diligence and obtain professional advice before making any investment decisions. Ticker Trax will not be liable for any losses or other damages caused by a reader’s reliance on information obtained in these 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 representations or warranties, expressed or implied, are made as to the accuracy or completeness of those opinions. All information contained in Ticker Traxshould 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 and Thom Calandra do not receive compensation from any companies that are mentioned in these reports. Companies hosting research tours sometimes pay for travel expenses. 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 and in Stockhouse articles and will disclose when such ownership occurs. PLEASE DO NOT E-MAIL OR CALL THOM CALANDRA SEEKING PERSONALIZED INVESTMENT ADVICE, WHICH HE CANNOT PROVIDE. Copyright 2010 all rights reserved.
