Royce Resources ROY-H.V update

I got an email from a reader today wondering if I had an update Royce Resources. The share price is looking a little soft as of late and Bob had wondered if I had an update from the company. I will share what I have found out just on SEDAR and my response to Bob,

Dave,

I am an investor in Royce Resources and saw your web page and analyses from April: http://vancouverventure.blogspot.com/2011/04/royce-resources-roy-hv-frank-giustra.html

I'm wondering if you have any updates?

Thanks in advance,

Bob

Bob:
Last time I talked to the Company I got the usual "we are looking at different projects of merit but have not found a suitable project to date" story. Generally it means they have had lots of stuff come across their desk but nothing worth while.

The deal is backed by Gordon Keep and has engaged Endeavour Financial (Frank Giustra) with 3 nominee directors on the board. Frank and Gordon used to run Yorkton Securities back in the day.

A little digging on SEDAR uncovered that the new management did a private placement at $0.075/share private placement in February which would have handed the keys to the Company over to Gordon and Frank. The 7.3 million warrants issued with this PP at $0.10 expire on Feb 10, 2012.

The insiders did issue themselves 4.3 million options at $0.21/share so they have incentive to get the stock back to that range in the future.

Another note of interest on SEDAR is ENSO Capital out of New York owns 9.99% of Royce. ENSO Capital CEO Joshua Fink is the son of Larry Fink (Blackrock Capital)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurence_D._Fink

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Giustra

Alright with all the background out of the way as to why I own the stock at $0.28/share, my view is that anything under $0,08/share is the same price as what the insiders paid. Tax loss selling and general market malaise will shake out a few shares down here.

At some point these guys will do something with the company but you have to wait. It seems like there is some serious fire power behind this deal, The market will indicate when something is brewing when all the cheap shares below $0.15/share get cleaned up in a day or two.


Hope that helps

Cheers

Dave

The Men who Crashed the World

As per my usual perusing of other financial blogs in the morning I came across this first part of a documentary on the "Meltdown" in 2008. It is along the same line as the movie "Inside Job" which I recommend watching.

This documentary was produced by Al Jazeera, a news organization that does not white wash the story before it ends up on our shores here in North America.


I found the documentary over on the ZeroHedge site and Tyler Durden summed up the intro best.

When it comes to financial collapse documentaries, the public canon has one well-deserving Oscar Winner, "Inside Job", and one straight to HBO exercise in ass kissing and name dropping which shall remain nameless. Ironically, just like during the Arab Spring, it is that "dubious" Al Jazeera that shows US media how coverage of various matters, either geopolitical or financial, is done.

Herein we present the first episode of Meltdown, in which we hear about four men who brought down the global economy: a billionaire mortgage-seller who fooled millions; a high-rolling banker with a fatal weakness; a ferocious Wall Street predator; and the power behind the throne. Considering we are about to experience the next Great Financial Crash, since nothing has changed at all since 2008, this should serve as a prominent reminder of all that happened, and a flashback to the future, of all that is certain to occur all over again.

Spend the next 45 minutes of your life getting a bit of an education.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/meltdown-part-1-men-who-crashed-world

Cheap stock and doing your due diligence DYODD

Most people always get a hot stock tip from some trusted word of mouth source. Dollar $$ signs quickly appear in their eyes as they think they have the next $0.50 stock that is going to $3. Newsletter touts sell greed as slick promotional campaigns are put together and distributed en masse.

You buy in on the hype and watch the stock go to $0.60/share and wham.....down it goes to $0.30/share or lower on massive volume. What just happened!!! Now you are down and sifting through all the bulletin boards looking for answers.

Welcome to the first step in losing money on the Venture Exchange. We all hear stories of the next gold mine and we want some of that easy money, well the only ones making the easy money are the promoters. Your hard earned money has just been sucked into the market so that the the promoters can continue to live out their lifestyles here in the land of the most expensive real estate in Canada.

The typical Vancouver stock promoter lives in one of 4 areas of Vancouver, the Westside or West Vancouver where the average house is well over $2,500,000. The other areas are the ultra posh condos in Yaletown or Coal Harbour, pretty good living when you are in charge of a $0.30/share company. We won't even talk about how many Porsche's, Aston Martin's and Mercedes roam the streets in this mining town. Promoters in Vancouver have got expensive wives with expensive lives and you are needed to pay for it all.

Most Venture listed companies are shells loaded with cheap shares and warrants with the end game of finding a project and hyping the story until the cheap shares and warrants have been off loaded to the retail public. Most often it is a wash, rinse, wring and repeat cycle to keep living the dream.

So that being said, doing some due diligence can help minimize being laid out in this typical scenario. The biggest favor you can do to your pocket book is visit the SEDAR site and read the notes to the financial statements, especially the section called options and warrants. Option and warrants are the biggest impediment and pitfall for retail shareholder wealth when buying junior stocks.

I am going to profile a few companies where the cheap financing's have come back to haunt the retail investor, starting with Cap-Ex Ventures CEV.V. Cap-Ex was touted as the next DSO iron ore play in Labrador and has followed the typical pattern of issuing cheap share financing to the friends and family of the insiders, getting a stock guy on board, getting another round of financing completed at higher prices and then watch the shareholder value plummet. Honestly in hindsight this is all easy to see.

We will start with the March 4th 2011 6 million share at $0.30/share plus 1.5 million $0.40/share private placement. This placement includes 7.5 million warrants at $0.60/share. Cap-Ex also closed anothe private placement on March 30th to the tune of 9.1 million shares at$1.05 and 2.5 million shares at $1.25. This placement includes 11.5 million warrants at $1.30.

Lawrence Roulston touts the stock in late April pushing Cap-Ex to new highs, after that it is all down hill for the retail investor and all profit for the lucky ones who got the $0.30/share private placement.

Going forward Cap-Ex has a serious head winds for the any shareholder who purchased the stock above $0.50/share. Cap-Ex has less than DSO hematite grades on the first drill results, broken down relations with the local tribes, a serious overhang of warrants above $0.65/share and 11.5 disgruntled shares waiting at $1.05/share.

For the record I own shares of Cap-Ex at two prices $0.10/share and $1.10/share. Cap-Ex is a prime example of where most retail investors to date come out to be the loser.

Golden Predator GPD.TO is the next example of cheap warrants erasing 6 months of shareholder value. On September 9th. 13.5 million warrants at $0.84/share were exercised and blown into the market. Effectivly losing anyone who bought stock at $1.25/share on September 15th, 32% of their value. Once again with the aid of a news letter writer Lundin who says "hold" on September 2nd who probably knew full well that the warrants were coming due. I guess the word "sell" is not in his dictionary.

When shareholders exercise warrants they "SELL" the shares. Only a fool would exercise and hold the shares. The graph on Golden Predator tells the story.

Another important document to search for on SEDAR  is the Annual Information Circular, which spells out how much the promoters pay themselves to run a $0.05-$.30/share company. You would be aghast to see where shareholder money goes.

I will use Aldershot Resources as an example, while I was a shareholder in 2009 the share price traded between $0.03-$0.06/share yet Jeremy Caddy the President paid himself $120,000/year and Ian Faris VP Exploration demanded $172,354/year in salaries. Pretty good entitlements at the expense of the shareholders if you ask me. No wonder the retail investor never makes any money.
These are examples of why you should do a little digging into the back ground of these high flying junior mining deals. Just like a casino, most of the time the cards are in the favor of the promoters and the typical Vancouver promoter lives a nice lifestyle on the backs of the retail investor.

I hope this helps the next time you hear of the next best stock tip going to the moon.



Remember do a little digging and do your own due diligence DYODD.

Vancouver Venture Blog is one year old

Tomorrow marks the day when this small corner of the internet turns one year old. Amazing enough I have had over 25,000 hit to the site which is pretty small in comparison to the blogs that I read. Some blogs have 10,000 reads per post and other financial blogs must get 10 times my yearly volume in one day.

In reality this blog deals with a small slice of a pretty minor market called the Venture Exchange. Historically most serious money players do not have the time of day for the Venture Exchange and that fact remains today.

Things have really changed since the inception of this blog, QE2 was in full effect creating a great bull run in commodities that trickled down to the junior commodity explorers. Today we are faced with austerity, debt, hard landings, soft landings, fiscal stimulus, white night saviors and black swans.

In September 2010 it was pretty easy to trade the market and make some money, now it is about wealth preservation. We do live in interesting times.

In reality the next year will be brutal on the juniors, the only ones that will get any attention will be the ones with an advanced resource, money in the bank and decent management.

A change in investing strategy has evolved with the evolving financial crisis. It do see an opportunity to buy some better quality stocks at reasonable prices.

Thank you for visiting this blog.

Precious metals got slammed today.

As a follow up to the last post the CME upped the margin requirements on Silver/Gold/Copper at the close today. Obviously there have been some major margin calls in the past few days and to raise funds Gold and Silver took it on the chin.

Follow this link if you want to see the new margin requirements.

Gold margins rose 21% Silver 16% and Copper 18%.

Overall this pullback is bullish for the PM's

Gold/Silver trading between the COMEX and the Pan Asian Metals Exchange

I came across this interesting article on the daily manipulation of the price of Gold and Silver between the LBME Comex and the Pan Asian Metals Exchange. Interesting enough there is a trend everyday when Gold and Silver trade off when the Comex opens and when it closes. Over night when Asian markets open Gold and Silver firms up.

Here is the teaser:

“As soon as China closes trading each day, that is when the selling starts in the paper markets.  These raids on the price are designed to get weaker players flushed out of the futures markets so they (commercials) can cover some of their short positions.

It is worth the read.

Saint Augustine Gold SAU.TO completes the King-King purchase

Saint Augustine Gold cleaned up the balance in their loose ends in the 60% acquisition in the King-king gold project. Now can we finally move on and to a higher stock price!

St. Augustine Gold and Copper Ltd. made, through its wholly owned subsidiary, St. Augustine Mining Limited, the final settlement payment of $10.25-million to Benguet Corporation on Sept. 15, 2011, as discussed in the press release issued on Sept. 2, 2011. All future payments previously agreed to in the heads of terms have been settled with this final payment. Andy Russell, president and chief executive officer of St. Augustine Gold and Copper, states, "This settlement resolves in final any question on title to the King-king project and clears the way to the company's full earn-in and development of the project."
The company and its partner, Nadecor, continue to advance the project. A bankable feasibility study is currently in progress and is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2012. Tom Henderson, St. Augustine's chief operating officer, states: "We are very pleased with the advancement of the feasibility work to date and look forward to finalizing all of the King-king project parameters in the next few weeks. These major decisions, such as the mine plan, mill throughput and tailings facility location, form the foundation for the bankable feasibility study. The combination of previous project data combined with the tremendous effort of this team are moving us toward completion as planned. I am very pleased with the results."
King-king is one of the largest undeveloped copper-gold deposits in the world. As released in the October, 2010, technical report and the updated resource released Aug. 15, 2011, the deposit has a measured resource of 120.3 million tonnes and an indicated mineral resource of 841.9 million tonnes for a total measured and indicated resource of 962.3 million tonnes, at 0.254 per cent total copper, 0.062 per cent soluble copper and 0.334 gram per tonne gold. Inferred mineral resource is an additional 188.8 million tonnes at 0.215 per cent total copper, 0.048 per cent soluble copper and 0.265 g/t gold. The measured and indicated mineral resource consists of 5.4 billion pounds of contained copper and 10.3 million troy ounces of contained gold.
The King-king deposit is a gold-rich, copper-gold porphyry deposit located in the southeast of the Philippine island of Mindanao, located 35 kilometres east of Davao city and 13 km from the coast. The project is listed as one of the top-priority projects by the Philippine Mines and Geosciences Bureau, and the project has a low strip ratio (0.8 to 1 compared with an industry average of 2.5 to 1). The project is in the advanced stage with 89,922 metres of drilling comprising 276 core and reverse circulation holes, and has entered the feasibility stage of development (social, environmental and engineering).

Stoneshield Capital STS.V focuses on Colombia gold prospects.

Stoneshield Capital published two news releases in the past week focusing on their El Mercado property in Colombia. It looks like the El Mercado might become Stoneshield's flagship property.

September 13th this news release came out:

Stoneshield Capital Corp. has engaged the services of key personnel for exploration and development work at the company's El Mercado project, Colombia.
Firstly, Stoneshield has retained the services of Blanca Stella Frias who will act as Colombian country manager for Stoneshield. Most recently, Mrs. Frias acted as administration and community relations manager of Ventana Gold Corp. and was a key member of the team that discovered the company's world-class gold deposit in the California-Vetas mining district. Stoneshield's El Mercado property is located in this same district eight kilometres to the north. She has assisted numerous mining and exploration companies such as Gold Reserve in Venezuela and Placer Dome also in Venezuela. Mrs. Frias brings a wealth of knowledge to Stoneshield as well as many important contacts to assist the company in its pursuit of a gold/silver discovery in Colombia.
Stoneshield has also retained the services of Alfredo Bernasconi, PGeo, to oversee and execute first phase exploration at the company's El Mercado property, Colombia. Mr. Bernasconi also worked most recently with Ventana Gold Corp. for about four years, his geological consultancy having commenced May, 2006. He oversaw the exploration and evaluation of the La Bodega gold property, California district, Colombia. Mr. Bernasconi designed and supervised Ventana's diamond drilling program, an approximate amount of 150,000 metres of diamond drilling having been completed under his supervision by the end of April, 2011. He was responsible for the compilation and interpretation of technical data, as well as for constructing the La Bodega mineral resource estimate, the final National Instrument 43-101 resource estimate being about 5.1 million ounces of gold equivalent.
Company president and chief executive officer Kris Kottmeier commented: "With the flurry of activity under way in the California-Vetas mining district, and expertise rare and in high demand, Stoneshield is very fortunate to have Mrs. Frias and Mr. Bernasconi assisting the company. Their expertise in their specific areas will push the El Mercado project forward faster than anticipated. The board is eager to commence exploration as soon as possible in this exciting new gold/silver district of Colombia where over 13 million ounces of gold and over 78 million ounces of silver have been discovered in recent years."

And this one today:

Stoneshield Capital Corp. has commenced first phase exploration at the company's El Mercado gold/silver property, Colombia.
Stoneshield currently has its senior Colombian geologist along with three sampling teams at work, each team consisting of a junior geologist and two assisting local workers. The three teams will be conducting a stream sediment sampling program and will also be collecting various pan concentrates and duplicates from major waterways including the Cachiri River that runs through the property. Extensive field reconnaissance work is planned for geological mapping and to locate areas of interest. Rock outcrops have already been noted and logged in limited number around the property. Rock samples will be collected from those outcrops with significant alteration, veining and silicification.
Adjacent mine properties located immediately to the southeast of El Mercado are host to small adits and mine workings which follow gold/silver-bearing veins. These veins project toward the El Mercado property. One small mine working on El Mercado has been logged in the upper paramo.
The aim of the first phase program is to assess the mineral potential at El Mercado. The exploration team is searching for areas of anomalous gold and silver in order to plan for a second phase of exploration potentially comprising soil sampling, further rock sampling and trenching.
The El Mercado property is located approximately eight kilometres north of the Angosturra and La Bodega gold/silver discoveries in the Santander department of Colombia where over 13 million ounces of gold and 78 million ounces of silver have been discovered in recent years.

CJL Capital awaits their Qualifying Transaction, still.

CJL Capital a Capital Pool Company is still waiting to complete their Qualifying Transaction. The pitfalls of investing in Capital Pooled Companies is the hoops they have to jump through with the regulators to get to the finish line. It would appear to me that the Venture Exchange has an issue with the structure of Alta Resources, the company CJL Capital is trying to take over.

And of course Alta Resources is in Peru and there are lawyers involved across a great distance which does not lend to expediting the process.

Sometimes these CPC's take a year, sometimes they take months. CJL seems to be taking a year.

CJL Capital Inc. has provided a shareholder update on the qualifying transaction continuing process with Alta Resources Inc. announced on Oct. 27, 2010. Alta is a private company working in the field of mineral exploration and has properties located in Peru.
CJL clarifies that the qualifying transaction with Alta has been subject to a due diligence and that a filing statement was filed for approval with the regulatory authorities.
Due diligence and feedback from the regulatory authorities have among others required that Alta makes various changes with respect to its corporate structure involving its Peruvian subsidiary Altiplano Minerales SAC and its Peruvian partner Kori Peru SAC.
The steps to change the corporate structure in Peru have led to delays and are currently continuing with legal advisers in this country. In addition, Alta, through its subsidiary, Altiplano, has also taken the necessary steps to obtain all necessary permits required by the regulatory authorities.
Alta and CJL remain confident that these structural elements in Peru will be resolved very soon and will be in a position to file an amended filing statement with the regulatory authorities.
Completion of the qualifying transaction remains subject to a number of conditions, including, without limitation, the consent of the TSX Venture Exchange and the Autorite des Marches Financiers, the approval of the boards of CJL and Alta, and a private placement conducted by Alta, sufficient to meet the minimum listing requirements of the exchange.
The exchange has not commented on the merits of the proposed qualifying transaction. A more detailed news release will be published later in order to provide additional details on the contemplated qualifying transaction. Therefore, the trading on the common shares of CJL will remain halted until the issuance of a news release announcing the resumption of trading.
Investors are cautioned that, except from the information disclosed in the filing statement prepared by the management for purposes of the qualifying transaction, any information released or received with respect to the qualifying transaction may not be accurate or complete, so investors should not rely on them. Trading in the securities of a capital pool company should be considered highly speculative.

More post Labour Day news Latin American Minerals LAT.V

First off Latin American Minerals is getting closer to become a small cap gold producer. Realistically it will be the the first quarter of 2012 when we will see some production. In the meantime there will probably be a chance to buy Latin American Minerals in the mid teens through the tax loss selling season.

Latin American Minerals Inc.'s final module of the new gold concentrator plant has been shipped from Canada to Paraguay, and the implementation timetable for pilot plant operation at the Paso Yobai gold project is being finalized. Engineering and site construction are advanced and are ready to accept the plant components upon arrival. Plant operation is expected to start by the end of November.
The Paso Yobai gold project, located in Paraguay, includes the Discovery trend where coarse epithermal gold mineralization occurs within an intrusive dike extending over approximately 4.5 kilometres in length. High-grade mineralization occurs at surface, permitting significant resource development through open-pit assessment work, and continues to greater than 100 metres deep.
Miles Rideout, president and chief executive officer of Latin American Minerals, said: "Our Discovery trend operation will be the first official gold production from modern Paraguay and underscores the immense opportunity we have in this emerging country."
Elaborating on the company's strategy, he adds: "The pilot operation is primarily designed to advance our assessment of the Paso Yobai Discovery trend in an effective and economical manner. Our plan contemplates exposing veins and oreshoots for mapping and sampling to assist with our determination of a resource and head grade. The shallow material we remove for this task will be processed in the plant, demonstrating gold recovery rates for the project. Any net proceeds from the pilot plant will subsidize the company's current $8-million in capital, furthering our ability [to] develop the Discovery trend and five new gold targets in this 100-square-kilometre epithermal system."
The pilot operation has been designed to achieve low-cost operation. The open-pit mine method will employ conventional earth-moving machinery to extract approximately one metre of soil and 15 metres of soft, weathered mineralized rock (saprolite) without resorting to drilling and blasting. The mineralized component of this shallow material can be processed through the pilot plant, in the majority without crushing. The pilot plant will apply scrubbing to remove clay, followed by milling. The mineral then passes through centrifugal concentrators to produce a primary concentrate. The underlying oreshoots will be exposed for mapping and grade analysis, assisting in the determination of a resource for the Discovery trend. This work will also advance the planning and infrastructure development for an eventual full-scale hard-rock operation, should the economics of the project be demonstrated.
Recent site photos, and diagrams and description of the pilot equipment and operation are posted on the company's website.

Need some junior gold ideas? Watch Brent Cook on BNN

Brent Cook did an eight part series on BNN tonight that is worth watching. You can follow the link here
http://watch.bnn.ca/#clip533083


The deals that seemed worthy of a closer look with me was Evolving Gold EVG.TO @ $0.52/share, Golden Predator GPD.TO @ $1.25/share, Wolverine Minerals WLV.V @ $.034/share, Lydian International LYD.TO @ $2.74/share and Almaden Minerals AMM.TO @ 3.05/share.

Cap-Ex CEV.V buy on rumor sell on news

Cap-Ex Ventures shareholders experienced the classic buy on rumor and sell on news scenario today. The share price lifted out of the $0.35/share range on anticipation of news to be released. Today the news hit the wires and the market was looking for more as the stock immediately sold off.

Cap-Ex has been promoted relative to its' peers in the Labrador Trough as the next DSO play.

Although the strike length of the drill hole was impressive I think the market was looking of upward of 50% Hematite versus Magnetite.

Whats the difference?

High-grade hematite is often referred to as “Direct Shipping Ore” or “DSO” because it is mined and processed using a relatively simple crushing and screening process before being exported for use in steel mills. 

Magnetite ore has lower iron content and must be upgraded to make it suitable for steel making.

Here is today's news:

Cap-Ex" or the "Company") is pleased to announce initial drill results from its Block 103 property (the "Property") and the discovery of a new high grade magnetite zone located east of Green Bush Lake. The Block 103 property covers approximately 7,000 hectares located within the Labrador trough, 25 kilometres northwest of the mining town of Schefferville, Quebec.Airborne geophysics completed over Block 103 identified numerous magnetic anomalies suggesting that the property contains high concentrations of magnetite. The Green Bush Zone, an area just east of Green Bush Lake, represents one such area. The zone was tested by 10 drill holes, spaced at 500 metre intervals, over a 3.5 kilometre (km) strike length and a width at least 1 km.
To date, assay results have been received for seven drill holes on Block 103. Four holes tested the Green Bush Zone and three others tested additional targets on the southern end of Block 103. Holes DDH103-2, DDH103-21 and DDH 103-26 located at the southern end of Block 103 returned no significant assays.
Initial results for all drill holes into the Green Bush Zone indicate the zone contains high grade magnetite with grades exceeding those of nearby taconite deposits such as LabMag (average 25.79% DTWR) and KeMag (average 27% DTWR). Hole DDH103-23 intersected 159.9 metres at 31.30% DTWR from 1.52 metres.
Results for the Green Bush Zone are presented in the table below.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hole                          Core   Total                 Concen-   Concen-
Number      From      To  Interval      Fe   Fe3O4  DTWR    trate     trate
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
              (m)     (m)       (m)     (%)           (%)   Fe (%)   SiO2(%)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
DDH103-3    Partial Results                                               
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
DDH103-4    Results pending                                               
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
DDH103-8    Results pending                                               
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
DDH103-23   1.52  161.39     159.9   31.30   30.68 31.17  Pending   Pending
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
            The hole was terminated before reaching the planned depth due  
DDH103-24   to technical difficulties                                      
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
DDH103-25   0.00   87.37     87.37   29.92   27.51 27.95    69.18      3.51
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
            hole terminated in 28.7% Fe                                    
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
DDH103-27   2.13  129.24    127.11  29.616   25.73 26.14   68.075       5.1
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
including   2.13   61.85     59.72  29.581   28.81 29.27   68.075       5.1
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
DDH103-28   Results pending                                                
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
DDH103-34   Results pending                                                
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
DDH103-35   Results pending                                                
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
DDH103-36   Results pending                                                
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

a.  Total Fe, Fe3O4(magnetite) and DTWR (Davies Tube Weight Recovery) were
    calculated as a weighted average.
b.  DTWR tests were run on 10% of the samples. DTWR calculations for the
    remaining samples was based on the ratio of DTWR and Fe3O4 values.
c.  Fe and SiO2 values in concentrate were calculated in 10% of the samples.
d.  Results for Fe and SiO2 in concentrate for DDH103-23 are pending.
e.  True width of the mineralized zones are unknown at this time.

Cap-Ex is awaiting assays from other significant Block 103 drill holes from the Green Bush Zone as well as assays from the Northwest Zone and the Southwest Zone. Cap-Ex intends to further delineate and expand the size of this newly discovered Green Bush Zone through ongoing drilling in the area.
Brett Matich comments, "We are very encouraged by these drilling results. They have come from holes drilled earlier in the campaign and confirm the Iron Ore potential for the entire Block 103."
Cap-Ex further reports that discussions with local first nations groups, and in particular the ITUM or Uaashat mak Mani-Utenam (the Innu of Sept-Iles), are continuing. The Company will report its progress if and when an agreement between Cap-Ex and the ITUM is reached.

The samples from drilling were processed and assayed by SGS Canada Lab based in Lakefield, Ontario. The samples were assayed using XRF, Satmagan and Davies Tube techniques.

Alex Walus, P.Geo., a Qualified Person pursuant to National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and approved of the contents of this news release.

Sprott Shifts From Gold Bullion To Gold Stocks, Explains Why

I found this to be a very good article from Eric Sprott to read that was posted on ZeroHedge.com  I could probably cut and paste the article but here is the link to the article instead.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/sprott-shifts-gold-bullion-gold-stocks-explains-why

Trying to stay ahead of the curve

If you are a regular reader of this blog or have stumbled across through a Google search I highly encourage you to stay ahead of the curve by being a regular reader of ZeroHedge.com.

I find that listening to CNBC or BNN that these guys are reporting from behind the curve and tend to be cheerleaders of the market. The only guy on CNBC that seems to have any sense of the present market risks is Rick Santelli.

I find myself gravitating to ZeroHedge.com a few times a day to get the straight goods.

I have even had to educate my broker on this site as he seems to have his head in the sand when it comes to having a good hard look at the markets today.

Silvermex SLX.TO warrants outstanding

I recently posted about Silvermex Resources as one of the small cap producers that is ramping up production. Unfortunately the price of the stock has remained suppressed due to the overhang of warrants outstanding.

As of June 30th 2011 financials the list of warrants are as follows.


18,040,000@$0.32/share
4,400,000@$0.41/share
13,454,000@$0.65/share
1,700,000@$0.71/share
12,000,000@$0.90/share

There is also an over hang of employee stock option as follows:

9,500,000@$0.34/share
3,700,000@$0.74/share

So if you are wondering why the share price of Silvermex Resources has not performed as to it's peers the answer is pretty obvious. For the current shareholders of Silvermex, the market needs to digest the sub $0.41/share warrants. Upside potential will be capped from the $0.70-$1.00/share range when the market will have to digest the $0.65-$0.90 warrants.

Trading of Silvermex shows dips into the low $0.50/share range then pops back into the $0.60/share range. The year low for Silvermex is $0.52/share post combination of businesses, you know the sellers have the power to sell below $0.50/share and still be in the money. There has been decent daily volume so the warrants are slowly getting digested.

I did make my first purchase of Silvermex last month at $0.59/share, according to the downward trend in the share price it looks like I will be able to add more shares closer to the $0.50/share range as the warrants continue to be exercised.

The upside of the warrants coming into the market is the replenishing of the treasury for Silvermex.

Minting Silver Bullion Rounds

Endeavour Silver has put out another great video on the production of silver one ounce coins that are minted by Northwest Territorial Mint. Unfortunately Endeavour does not sell their silver rounds publicly but First Majestic Silver does, you can go to their store here http://www.store.firstmajestic.com/.

Northwest Territorial Mint also mints First Majestic one ounce rounds.

First Majestic Silver FR.TO went on sale today

I picked up some shares of First Majestic Silver today at $20.49/share as the share price got knocked down 12% on two fronts. I missed my chance at $19.75/share and found myself chasing the stock back up, a move that I hate to do.

First knock against the Company was the dropping of First Majestic from the S&P/TSX Small Cap Index. This had a downside effect on the share price as any funds that try to mimic the S&P/TSX Small Cap Index has to realign their portfolio. First Majestic will be dropped on September 16th so the selling has begun today.

The other knock was softness in the precious metal prices today which sucked down all the mining shares on the TSX.

I am trying to shift my portfolio from the junior explorers to junior to mid cap producers. I picked up share of Silvermex SLX.TO last month and First Majestic FR.TO today.

Teslin River Resources TLR.V Picks up where Hawthorne Gold left off

Teslin Resources is giving Eureka Gold's Frasergold project a kick at the can. I was familiar with the Frasergold project when I was a shareholder of Hawthorne Gold. $16 million has been spent to drill over 50,000 metres  on this property and there is a NI 43-101 report indicating the potential of 1.8 million ounces of gold.

Hawthorne Gold blew themselves up by taking over Cusac Gold about 3 years ago and wasted a ton of money and energy on the Table Mountain Mine.
I have not looked over the NI 43-101 to see what the Capex is to develop this project, my assumption is that it must be high or a major would step in.

Maybe this time around Teslin River Resources will have a better go at trying to develop the resource at Frasergold, if not maybe the Company can get a promotional boost so that I can unload my shares. Teslin River will want to run the share price higher to finance their new obligations.

Teslin River Resources Corp. and Eureka Resources Inc. have signed a binding letter of intent (LOI) for Teslin to acquire the 1.8-million-ounce Frasergold project, located 100 kilometres east of Williams Lake in the Cariboo area of central British Columbia. The Frasergold project is approximately 50 km east of Teslin's Rand properties where the company has signed an option agreement with Gold Fields Ltd.
The Frasergold project has a prior NI 43-101-compliant resource completed in November, 2009, "Report on the 2007 and 2008 Drill Programs on the Frasergold Project," prepared by K.V. Campbell and G.H. Giroux for Hawthorne Gold Corp., of 614,000 ounces of gold measured and indicated, and 1,225,000 ounces of gold inferred at a cut-off of 0.30 gram per tonne gold. Historical expenditures on the property total $16-million to date. These include 450 drill holes totalling 50,000 metres and a 300-metre-long underground tunnel. The data from these various programs are well documented. Full details of the resource are shown in the attached table.

                                             Grade             Gold content          
Class               Million tonnes         Au (g/t)       Grams Au       Ounces Au
Au cut-off 0.30 g/t
Measured                     11.47           0.595       6,800,000         216,000
Indicated                    22.61           0.540      12,200,000         392,000
M+I                          34.08           0.559      19,100,000         614,000
Inferred                     75.31           0.507      38,100,000       1,225,000
Au cut-off 0.50 g/t                                                         
Measured                      5.60           0.812       4,500,000         145,000
Indicated                     9.57           0.755       7,200,000         231,000
M+I                          15.17           0.776      11,800,000         329,000
Inferred                     27.49           0.718      19,700,000         634,000

Note: The prior resource is a historical estimate, and a qualified person for
      the company has not done sufficient work to classify the historical
      estimate as a current mineral resource. As a result the historical
      estimate is not being treated as a current mineral resource and is not
      to be relied upon.

Mineralization at Frasergold is a stratabound gold deposit in Triassic sedimentary sequence, indicated by geochemistry to be over a strike length of 12 kilometres. Drilling has established the strike length of gold in rock of six kilometres, and the measured/indicated/inferred resource is established over a strike length of three km. The project consists of 23 mining claims, approximately 3,350 hectares, all in good standing through April, 2015.
According to John Kerr, vice-president, exploration, "The amount of work done by prior operators of this deposit provides a valuable data package that will allow Teslin to produce resource validation, engineering studies and subsequently feasibility for advancing the deposit to a minable reserve." Furthermore, according to Mr. Kerr, "Concurrent to developing the known resource, the data indicates the potential to expand the deposit, possibly delineating higher-grade zones of mineralization."
Identified by Eureka in 1979, the Frasergold project has been held by Eureka since that time. Teslin has entered into a binding letter of intent with Eureka to earn a 51-per-cent interest by spending $3.55-million on the property and providing payments to Eureka totalling $200,000 over a three-year period. An additional 24-per-cent interest (totalling 75 per cent) can be earned by completing a feasibility study. The LOI provides for execution of a definitive agreement within 30 days of signing the LOI.
"We are very excited about adding Frasergold to our portfolio of gold and silver projects in North America," stated John Burgess, president and chief executive officer of Teslin. "Frasergold expands our project portfolio to include a development stage-property, thereby decreasing the company's overall risk profile and providing the potential to rapidly increase shareholder value in Teslin."
The company plans to execute a preliminary field program in 2011 to evaluate the potential of extending the resource to the southeast. An audit of the known resource leading to a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) is to be completed during the first quarter of 2012. "Results of the PEA will help to determine the necessary steps for advancing the Frasergold project to full feasibility as soon as possible," says Mr. Kerr.

Americas Petrogas BOE.V continues to grow by the drill bit

Americas Petrogas BOE.V continues to grow by the drill bit with the announcement of a successful exploration oil well drilled on the Company's Rinconada Norte block. Americas Petrogas has a 65% working interest in the three exploration wells of which the first flowed at 1,023 boe, more news will follow as the Company has mobilized the rig to drill two more wells.

Americas Petrogas Inc. and its co-venturer, Gran Tierra Energy Inc., have made a new significant discovery of oil (1,023 barrels of oil equivalent per day) in the first of the three exploration wells on the Rinconada Norte block located in the Neuquen basin of Argentina (Americas Petrogas Argentina SA is operator). The RN x-1004 well flowed a total combined test rate of approximately 944 barrels (150 m3) per day of oil and 13,360 m3 per day of gas (79 barrels of oil equivalent per day) for a total of approximately 1,023 barrels of oil equivalent per day from two intervals tested separately in the Precuyo formation. This well also flowed 43 barrels (5 m3) per day of water or a 4% water cut. From the depths of the zones tested (982-992 meters and 1022-1032 meters) and electric logs information, the Company estimates an oil column thickness of approximately 60 meters or 197 feet. The oil is 29.6 degrees API, sweet light crude similar to crude oil produced from the equivalent formation in Americas Petrogas' Medanito Sur block. This well has been completed and the service rig will now move on to the next two wells, which have already been drilled, logged and production casing has been installed. Americas Petrogas' wholly-owned Argentina subsidiary, Americas Petrogas Argentina S.A., is the operator of the Rinconada Norte block, holding a 65% working interest, while Gran Tierra Energy, through its Argentina subsidiary, holds a 35% working interest.

Commenting on this most recent discovery, Mr. Guimar Vaca Coca, Managing Director of Americas Petrogas Argentina S.A., stated, "We are very excited about this new find on the first well of this three-well exploratory drilling program because of the strong production rates and possibility of significant commercial reserves. We are also optimistic about the prospects for the remaining two wells."

The Rinconada Norte block is currently under an Exploitation concession, which will allow Americas Petrogas and Gran Tierra Energy, with previous approvals from the authorities, to move ahead with development activities in the near term. The Company anticipates building test production facilities in the fourth quarter of 2011. This drilling program on Rinconada Norte represents the initial phase of Americas Petrogas' previously-announced drilling plans for 2011-2012 (see press release of June 3, 2011).

The Rinconada Norte block (approximately 96 sq. km or 37 sections) is located immediately south of and adjoins Americas Petrogas' Medanito Sur block in La Pampa Province in the eastern region of the Neuquen Basin of Argentina.

Mr. Barclay Hambrook, President CEO of Americas Petrogas, stated, "We are very pleased with this discovery and Americas Petrogas is well-funded to accelerate and expand its planned capex program in order to increase production and reserves."

The experience of Americas Petrogas management is showing through by drilling the low risk shallow oil prospects themselves and farming out the more technical, deep shale oil prospects to the likes of ExxonMoblil and Apache to hedge their risks. Smart management indeed.

Exited Canada Rare Earths CJC.V

I have opted to sell the balance of my Canada Rare Earth CJC.V today, I believe next week will be very volatile as the market is indicating that Greece will default taking along Spain, Portugal and a few other countries with them.

At this point I want cash in my account and any stock that has a small profit or that is trading at my entry point is being sold.

Since Hudson Resources which has just released results their Sarfartoq property failed to rally the market for it's stock does not bode well for Canada Rare Earth share price gaining very much ground in the near future.

Hudson Resources HUD.V Releases Rare Earth Results

Hudson Resources was the first of my expectations to release news post Labour Day, today they released results from the Sarfartoq property in Greenland.

I had stepped in at the $0.76/share and watch Hudson trade back into the low $0.60/share much to my chagrin. I left an open order in at $0.85/share and today Hudson traded as high as $0.83/share. I have opted to sell out flat on Hudson at $0.76/share as the news did give Hudson strength to sustain a share price over $0.80/share.

Today's news release is too long to post on this blog so I just posted the highlights. The full release can be found here. http://www.hudsonresources.ca/files/NR2011-12.pdf

HUDSON RESOURCES INC. is pleased to announce the 2011 Phase One drill results for the Sarfartoq rare earth element project in Greenland. Phase One drilling of the 2011 program included 4,891m of infill and step out drilling at the ST1 Zone where the Company has outlined a 43-101 compliant inferred resource of 14.1Mt of 1.5% TREO. An additional 3,328m of exploratory drilling was also completed regionally to the north-east of ST1. Complete drill results are presented in Table 3 below. An ST1 drill location map and two cross-sections are presented in Charts 1, 2 and 3.Phase Two drilling of an additional 8,338m is now complete with results pending. In total 16,557m over 71 holes were drilled this year. All 2011 Phase Two holes have been split and bagged for shipment to ALS Chemex in Vancouver for assaying. The Company has also extracted a four tonne metallurgical bulk sample from the surface of the ST1 Zone for use in additional metallurgical test work over the winter.
2011 Highlights:

--  Drilling continues to confirm high grade zones at the ST1 body including
    10 intercepts of 10 meters or more grading from 2.5% to 4.3% TREO
    (averaging 3.3% TREO over 13m) 
--  2011 Phase One assays have extended the ST1 body by at least 200m to the
    North East 
--  Wide zones of mineralization include 128m of 1.7% and 142m of 1.4% TREO 
--  Drilling at ST40 continues to intersect a very high ratio of neodymium
    oxide to TREO at 46% 
--  Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) on track for completion in 4-6
    weeks 
--  Metallurgical test programs ongoing at two facilities

I will revisit a position on Hudson Resources later in the year as I expect that once this news is digested market selling could push the share price of Hudson Resources lower.

Legend Oil and Gas LOGL most viewed post on my blog

A trip through the stats on the back end of my blog indicates the post on Legend Oil and Gas that I did back in June has the most traffic. The original posting can be found here.http://vancouverventure.blogspot.com/2011/06/why-i-stay-clear-of-us-bulletin-board.html

I assume the volume of traffic must be due to the promotional campaign that Legend is conducting and people are trying to find more information on Legend Oil and Gas.

It seems amazing to me that Legend Oil and Gas can maintain a $155,000,000 market cap to date. The Company has 62,360,000 shares outstanding trading at a lofty price of $2.49./share.

I looked up the last Quarterly results on Edgar and it showed 6 months revenue of $95,611, cash on hand of $153,755 and assets of $953,471. Pretty amazing that the market could value this Company at $155 million.

According to the latest 10-Q Legend is producing 5 barrels a day as of June 30 2011, with a total production for 6 months of 1,045 barrels. That is not very much.

Beware the Company did sign a letter of intent to buy a pool of 1MM barrels of oil producing 300 barrels a day. This transaction is for $17,000,000 and would pay back in 5.7 years with the reported $3,000,000/year in revenue. This transaction is non arms length as the President of Legend Oil and Gas is also a director of International Sovereign Energy, the vendor. At the time of writing this the transaction is yet to close.

So whats driving Legend? Maybe it is the promotion of the billions of barrels of oil in what is called the Bakken play in North Dakota. Legend Oil is boasting 3,840 gross acres in North Dakota, funny thing is Legend's net interest is a mere 396 acres.

I am not a shareholder of Legend Oil and Gas and never will be. I have a hard time swallowing the $155,000,000 market cap on this deal that as of June 30, 2011 reported assets of $953,471.

Funny thing I found was this further pump of Legend Oil and Gas propaganda here and here claiming this stock could be taken over for $50/share. Amazing thing is after my first posting of Legend oil and Gas I was taken off the promoters email blast. Go figure.

This Company has sent off serious red flags so if you are a regular reader of this blog or came across me on a Google search please educate yourself and do your own due diligence before making an investment in this Company. I would not touch it.

Got an extra hour? This Peter Schiff Video worth watching

I found this video link over at the TF Metals Report a great site for the short term trading and long term views of Gold and Silver. I tend to read Turd Ferguson's musings everyday. Anyway Peter Schiff called US housing bubble and subsequent recession back in 2006 and was belittled by main stream analysts and media.

Market psychology tends to herd with the masses and anyone with a contrarian  view tends to be dismissed and ridiculed. Peter Schiff of Euro Pacific Capital spells out the situation in pretty simple terms. Although this video was done in 2009, two years later he has nailed it on the head.

To bad people like Ron Paul and Peter Schiff are not taken more seriously, maybe they sound to alarmist for an investing public that likes the status quo?

The part I like the best is Peter's take on the housing market at the 10 minute mark and the 40 minute mark that starts off with Berni Madoff and ends on the U.S. not paying back the Chinese the trillions in debt.

Enjoy the video!

Post Labor Day Weekend news release flurry

Expect a flurry of news releases in the coming weeks from most companies as we past the Labor Day weekend and September signals the start of when people are back at work and looking at their monitors.

Generally there is little point in releasing news of results in August as most investors are on holidays and any news release will not get the audience attention that they are trying to reach.

I am expecting news from Cap-Ex Ventures CEV.V on their Block 103 results. Hudson Resources HUD.V should have at least half of their results back from the lab and ready to publish.

I will be a seller of most juniors with properties in northern climates as they will shut down for the winter drilling season. Once news is out there will be news drought until the spring drilling season. I would also expect some tax loss selling to take place this December. The markets did not experience very much tax loss selling last December as QE2 gave the commodities market a good bull run. But this year I predict a return to a December sell off for the penny stocks.

Saint Augustine Gold SAU.TO Completes Milestone

Good news today from Saint Augustine Gold SAU.TO that the Company completed  its' financial obligation to retain clear title on the King-King property from Benguet Corporation. Benguet was the original partner in the King-King Property that ran into financial trouble a few years back. CGA Mining recognized the opportunity and managed to snag this once in a life time property and roll it into Ratel Gold.

Ratel Gold then split into two companies Ratel Group and Saint Augustine Gold. Saint Augustine Gold got the King-King Property and Ratel Group got all the old Ratel Gold's African assets.

Judging by the graph on Saint Augustine Gold, post spin off, the speculators exited the stock from $1.74/share all the way down to the $0.54/share range. The share price formed a base in the $0.60/share range and now that Saint Augustine's obligations are being met the share price has been on an uptrend with increasing volume.

 

Here is the news release from Saint Augustine Gold

St. Augustine Gold and Copper Ltd. has reached full and final settlement with Benguet Corp. on Aug. 30, 2011, for the King-king MPSA (mineral production sharing agreement). This settlement amends the previous heads of terms agreement signed in July, 2010. All future payments previously agreed to in the heads of terms are settled with a single, final payment of $10.25-million due on or before Sept. 15, 2011.
This settlement provides St. Augustine and its partner, Nadecor, with clear title to the King-king project as Benguet has relinquished all rights to the MPSA and operating agreement under the heads of terms agreement. Clear title will facilitate Nadecor's ability to assign the King-king project MPSA to the joint venture mining company, Kingking Gold and Copper Mines Inc., a Philippine corporation. Assignment of the MPSA enables St. Augustine to accept equity in the mining company as the joint venture partner upon completion of the assignment, expected to complete the fourth quarter of 2011.
Under the original heads of terms agreement signed in July, 2010, between Benguet and St. Augustine, through its subsidiary, St. Augustine Mining Ltd. (SAML), Benguet agreed to the following:

• Assignment and transfer of its interest in the Sagittarius Alpha Realty Corp. (SARC) claims surrounding the King-king project to SAML;
• Assignment and transfer of its interest in the Pantukan Mineral Corp. (PMC) shares and operating rights in the PMC claims surrounding the King-king project to SAML;
• Terminate and complete the release of all of its right, title, interest and claims in the operating agreement with Nadecor;
• The assignment or transfer of all of its right, title, interest and claims in the King-king MPSA to SAML;
• All of Benguet's affiliates shall release, assign or transfer of any other rights, title, interest or claims they have in respect of the King-king project;
• All books, records, project information and project samples.

An initial $8-million payment to Benguet was settled through the issuance of a $2-million credit note and a cash payment of $6-million in October, 2010. The second credit note of $1.95-million would have been applied to the next scheduled payment of $5-million due in October, 2012, and was instead applied as part of the final settlement. As part of the second amendment to the memorandum of understanding (MOU), SAML financed Nadecor's 50-per-cent portion of the $6-million cash payment. As part of the fourth amendment to the MOU, signed in July, 2011, SAML will finance Nadecor's 50-per-cent portion of the $10.25-million cash payment. All payments made by SAML, including those made on behalf of Nadecor, are applied to the company's earn-in to the joint venture.
About the King-king project
The King-king deposit is a gold-rich, copper-gold porphyry deposit located in the southeast of the Philippine island of Mindanao, located 35 kilometres east of Davao City and 13 km from the coast. The project is listed as one of the top-priority projects by the Philippine Mines and Geosciences Bureau and the project has a low strip ratio (0.8:1, compared with an industry average of 2.5:1). The project is advanced stage with 93,869 metres of drilling composed of 289 core and reverse circulation holes and has entered the feasibility stage of development (social, environmental and engineering).
King-king is one of the largest undeveloped copper-gold deposits in the world. In comparing the mineral resource reports from October, 2010, technical report to the updated resource released Aug. 15, 2011, measured and indicated mineral resource increased from 791.5 million tonnes to 962.3 million tonnes at 0.533 per cent copper-equivalent, 0.254 per cent total copper, 0.062 per cent soluble copper and 0.334 gram per tonne gold. Inferred mineral resource is an additional 188.8 million tonnes at 0.439 per cent copper-equivalent, 0.215 per cent total copper, 0.048 per cent soluble copper and 0.265 g/t gold. The measured and indicated mineral resource consists of 5.4 billion pounds of contained copper and 10.3 million troy ounces of contained gold. The equivalent gold grade of the measured and indicated mineral resource is 0.660 g/t gold-equivalent.