LIMA, Peru – Silver could be close to blowing its industrial cap. This is how we map the centuries.
Investor Laura Stein covets maps. Ms. Stein has what might snake into a long-lost vein. For a second time in two years.
For those who decline to follow the dots on her maps, this article is about Columbus Silver (TSX: V.CSC, Stock Forum). Its Mogollon silver and gold project -- in the same environs as soaring Santa Fe Gold -- might multiply capital for investors. If that were to occur, the stock gains might repeat what Clifton Star Resources (TSX: V.CFO, Stock Forum) did for those who respected Laura Stein’s Quebec findings in January 2009.
“Please don’t write about me,” she says from New Jersey, where our doyenne de data lives. Where she lives, that is, when Ms. Stein is not rejecting or confirming hypotheses about faulting and legacy drilling that goes back decades, centuries even, in Canada, USA, Mexico … Africa.
Laura Stein is a one-of-a kind Stein. I remember at some investment metals trade show, I was sitting on a panel, wishing I was anywhere but sitting in that dry-air hotel box. Some bobo on the panel – two of ‘em -- were denying that silver ever was, is or shall be a currency. I demurred as I almost gagged on my ice water.
I mentioned Endeavour Silver’s Hugh Clarke, who at that same (Las Vegas? Toronto? Who Cares?) money fest was explaining how the Byzantine Empire, Mexico of the 1600s to 1800s and those 210 B.C. Romans with their denarius silver coin all used silver and gold for spans of time as currencies of the realm. (See denarii in photo.)
Mr. Clarke, as an aside, just the other day in a San Francisco rap for Brad Cooke and Godfrey Walton’s Endeavour Silver (EXK and EDR) reaffirmed the case for $25-ounce silver. The Endeavour Silver executive this month of March is on the road, telling investors how the Guanajuato and Durango silver miner intends to purchase yet another producing silver mine in Mexico … or Peru … Chile … Argentina … or even the USA.
“The mom-pop opportunities down there (in Mexico) are gone … so now we are searching for publicly-held ones,” he told a group of 20 investors, mutual fund and hedge fund managers at the San Francisco lunch. “Our first choice is a producing mine, and we are happy to pull the trigger.” (We here at wealth service Ticker Trax only can cross our fingers and hope Great Panther Silver (TSX: T.GPR, Stock Forum), an active miner and Mexico neighbor of Endeavour Silver, makes the short list.)
Well, our Laura Stein, who nearly always sits in the front row at investment shows, was not at last week’s San Francisco lunch. Had she been, she almost surely would have suggested that Mr. Clarke and Mr. Walton and Mr. Cooke at Endeavour Silver visit the USA state of New Mexico for its cheap silver deposits.
At the show Ms. Stein was attending back then, as I recall, she leapt to her feet and shouted “What are you crazy?” at the two panelists who had stripped silver of its status as a proxy currency. I thought she was going to smack them off the sides of their heads.
Maybe it was that certainty, with her Brooklyn (I think) accent, which threw me off when Laura handed me Clifton Star Resources (TSX: V.CFO, Stock Forum) on a platter 16 months ago. That delivery was at a Canada trade show.
She introduced me to the CEO, Harry Miller. Mr. Miller has seven decades under his belt to six decades for Ms. Stein. I listened politely as we drank coffee in a waterfront hotel lobby. I did nothing with the printed slide show and the case the two were making: that history was on Clifton Star’s side.
Clifton Star, Quebec prospector, proceeded in the next six months to drill into the discerning executive suite of Osisko Mining (TSX: T.OSK, Stock Forum) and its Malartic Gold Project. The rest is multiple-percentage gain history.
Laura nailed Clifton Star as cheapest gold prospector in the Canada stock market by examining history, maps, Canadian folklore and Quebec corporate and mining logs. “What’s not to like?” she says.
Hey Columbus
How could I not listen this time around? Laura Stein got me on the horn with another CEO just the other day. After my Ticker Trax and Stockhouse reporting earlier this month (March 17, 2010), she racked up more historical data points about Columbus Silver (TSX: V.CSCStock Forum) and its Mogollon silver and gold project in New Mexico.
“I really think that Mogollon, to the east of the Queen Fault, holds the downward shifted veins that were mined on the western side of the Queen fault,” Laura told me as I prepared for this week’s copper and gold Peru and Colombia tour. “The 1910 report I found made reports that the Last Chance Vein is truncated by the Queen fault, meaning the Queen fault is younger than the East-West faults and offset the eastern portion of these productive veins deeper. Classic geologic setting for veins offset by faulting.” (Please see mapping.)
Ms. Stein and the Columbus CEO, Robert Giustra, explained to me how in a worst-case scenario, as drill holes 1 through 4 or 5 are pulling core from Mogollon ground, investors almost surely are sizing up the $100 million market-cap Santa Fe Gold (OTC: SFEG, Stock Forum) in the very same patch of New Mexico against $6 million Columbus Silver.
Enough said. I hope to invest in Robert Giustra’s CSC as soon as I come up for Peruvian air this week. Where else can I find a silver star that sells for pennies on the New Mexico dollar?
As for Clifton Star Resources, whose shares timed out last week, I can report this: Mr. Miller, CEO, tells me, “No question. Market wants drill results. In a range where funds will participate.” Oh and the fact that an investor in the eastern USA was selling shares. That seller, says Harry Miller, is now “void.” I think Clifton Star will double, and perhaps double again – on the strength of its joint venture drilling with Osisko. (Please see our coverage in our Ticker Trax archives.)
We now are headed to see Antares Minerals’ (TSX: V.ANM, Stock Forum) Haquira copper project. A sizeable Antares warrant holder just handed over more than $7 million early so that it can own a piece of Haquira in southern Peru.
CEO John Black of Antares tells me today (Tuesday) here in Lima: “The International Finance Corp. is the investment arm of the World Bank and is exercising $2 warrants early.” The IFC is what Mr. Black tells me today is a strategic investor that shows support for the asset (copper) and the country (Peru).
They IFC warrants “were received as part of a financing we did with them last July at $1.20. The IFC received 3.75 million warrants at $2 that are good to July 2014. We have right to call them in if share price is over $2.75 for 30 days beginning next July 2011,” he says. “We met them again at PDAC in Toronto and they like where we are at.”
This early exercise of warrants in exchange for higher-priced warrants ($3) says something about the scope of Haquira’s copper, according to Mr. Black. The IFC also has formally the right to pro-rata its percentage ownership of Antares.
Visits: Antares Minerals’ (ANM) Haquira copper prospect in Peru is today (Tuesday) and Wednesday. That will be followed by a visit to a Candente Copper prospect in southern Peru. Candente Copper (TSX: T.DNT, Stock Forum) is a Planetary Prospect of Ticker Trax. Then, off to Colombia to view yet another two Colombian Mines (TSX: V.CMJ, Stock Forum) properties … and one week of holiday, one hopes.
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 one or two Burkina Faso projects.
Growing: Ticker Trax and Stockhouse are looking for editing and writing talents in Toronto or Vancouver, Canada. It helps to understand natural resources. Like silver, copper, gold, potash, molybdenum. Platinum. Ping me please on the email – thom dot calandra at stockhouse dot com.
InvestFest 2010
InvestFest in Las Vegas – Join Stockhouse for a drink on the house June 4 at InvestFest. The gathering will feature investment masters who are making headway in today's marketplace. I’ll be there. So will Stockhouse’s Marcus New. It’s called InvestFest 2010. Lots of wealth creators. Lots of Ticker Trax folks. A splendid resort.
Please visit: www.stockhouse.com/products/investfest2010.
WHEN: June 3 to June 6.
WHERE: Green Valley Ranch Resort, Las Vegas, Nevada. That’s a five-star place minutes from the Vegas strip.
Special Offer to Ticker Trax subscribers: $197. Please book your resort rate as well by calling 1-866-782-9487. Quote: InvestFest and mention Ticker Trax.
Photos by Thom Calandra
Ticker Trax™
Please see tickertrax.com to learn more about this wealth service.
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: Ivanhoe Nickel & Platinum in Africa and an Internet company called Mobyling. Thom owns each of the 12 Planetary Prospects in Ticker Trax.
THOM CALANDRA of Ticker Trax helps his audience find value in a quagmire of investment choices. Thom started CBS MarketWatch and MarketWatch.com. As the voice of Thom Calandra's StockWatch and The Calandra Report, Thom pegged sub-$300-ounce gold as a long-term hold in year 1999.
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.
