Swapping postions

I swapped out a few positions today by selling the balance of my Exeter Resources XRC.TO for Americas Petrogas BOE.V. I believe Americas Petrogas will have more upside than Exeter Resources as the Exeter game plan seems to be waiting for a white knight. Exeter was trading at a bit of a premium to Americas Petrogas.

I sold out one of my positions on Silvermex Resources SLX.TO today at $0.49/share and will opt to get into a more senior silver producer. Four are on my radar screen including Minco Silver MSV.TO, Great Panther Silver GPR.TO, Fortuna Silver FVI.TO and lastly Silver Crest SVL.V. I will look at Silvermex again when I get a better idea of what happens with the cheap warrants that are coming due. 

Lastly I picked up another 10000 shares of Tolima Gold TOM.V today at $0.44/share. My current position in Tolima is 20,000 shares at a price of $0.42/share.

A comment on Royce Resources ROY-H.V trading today

Royce Resources has seen a spike in trading today with 726,000 shares trading hands today. One interesting note is Canaccord is on the sell side. When there was an early warning report of Frank Giustra' s Radcliffe Foundation buying more stock Canaccord was on the buy side.

This recent buying could be the connected to the 7.5 million $0.10/share warrants that are due to expire in 2 weeks.

European buying of Teslin River Resources TLR.V

Teslin River Resources traded 680,000 shares this morning all by 7 a.m., this is usually indicative of European buying as there is about a 1/2 hour overlap between the close in Europe and the opening of North American markets. We see if there is any follow through tomorrow. I do have half my position in the market at $0.12/share and the other half at $0.15/share.

Larry Berman's Essential Elements of Successful Investing

I am going to attend this seminar on February 23rd. It is free seminar and it is worth learning what Larry Berman has got to teach.

Follow this link if you are interested in attending.

http://www.etfcm.com/event_registration_spring_2012.php

The importance of having the right person in your booth Saint Augustine Gold SAU.TO, Gran Colombia Mining GCM.TO and Latin American Minerals LAT.V

One can not emphasis the importance of having the right spokesperson  in your booth at these trade shows. I would hazard a guess that it cost at least $10-20K to be at one of these shows and putting the wrong people in a booth can be hazardous and money wasted.

This brings me to 3 companies that I visited and walked away either confused, dismayed or dismissed.

Saint Augustine Gold SAU.TO was manned by a gentlemen that seemed to be versed on the technical geology and really had no idea about the stock, trading and financing. When asked about risks involved in the Philippines I got more of an answer from their IR guy a month ago.

http://vancouverventure.blogspot.com/2011/12/corporate-update-from-saint-augustine.html.

Maybe his colleagues skipped of and had a 2 martini lunch. The thing about these shows is you do not know who is going to come by and when.

Gran Colombian Mining GCM.TO, had an attractive Senorita in attendance. I wanted to know more about the recent news from Tolima Gold TOM.V in regards to a joint venture between TOM and GCM. It seems that Tolima Gold has made this announcement but Gran Colombia Gold has not so she could not comment on this joint venture. She was kind enough to take my card and someone would call me back, I am still waiting for that call.

This is the news that Tolima released but Gran Colombia has not:

 Tolima Gold Inc. has commenced operations at the San Pablo gold processing plant located within the historical gold district of Remedios and Segovia, in Antioquia, Department of Colombia. The San Pablo processing plant is part of an industrial complex comprising a gold mine, general infrastructure, laboratories and now a fully refurbished processing plant with an initial capacity of 100 tons per day. Tolima Gold has also announced that it will continue with the upgrading program in order to take the San Pablo plant to a capacity of 300 tons per day without affecting its current plant and mine operation.

Furthermore, the company has entered into a partnership with Gran Colombia Gold Corp. whereby Gran Colombia will provide ore to be processed in the San Pablo plant while the company's mines are brought to commercial production. The partnership has an initial term of six months, and under it, Gran Colombia will deliver ore at its own cost and the company will process the ore at its own cost, with sales proceeds being split 70/30, respectively. This partnership will allow the company to operate the San Pablo plant to capacity from the start, and to generate continuous cash flow to support its capital and exploration investment programs. The company intends to simultaneously increase the processing capacity of the San Pablo plant to 300 tons per day while developing its current San Pablo and La Bartola mines to be able to feed the upgraded processing plant.

So Tolima acknowledges this joint venture but Gran Colombia has not made an announcement, I am confused.

I have owned Latin American Minerals LAT.V since its IPO and thought it would be good to be face to face with the Company. There was 3 people in the booth to choose from and I thought I would ask Richard Boulay (director) some questions on their Paso Yobai gold project. I tried to get a picture going forward if LAT would be a small producer given that they have installed a pilot plant on their property. My main line of thought was how much gold is in the ground, how much gold production per year is scheduled with the pilot plant and do they see themselves being a bigger producer in the future?

Richard was a little vague on his answers to these questions and once his long time buddy came by the booth I was promptly dismissed as he had to catch up with old times.

Scott Young and Fortunate Sun Mining FSM.V

I had a chance to catch up to Scott Young. Director of Fortunate Sun Mining FSM.V. I have already posted on the lunch bag let down Fortunate Sun has been since their IPO at $0.20/share. Kinross was a partner on their Camacho and Pirelli properties, but abruptly dropped this joint venture.

Kinross has pulled their horns in following their announcement of the increase in Cap-Ex to develop their Tasiast project. The result is either Fortunate Sun seeks out another partner to joint venture with or go it alone. I did comment on the seller who insists on offering stock at $0.15/share, obviously it is someone that they did not manage to escrow their stock.

Management of Fortunate Sun need to decide which path to follow in the coming months, develop these properties alone or find a partner.

Kris Kottmeier and Stoneshield Capital STS.V

I managed to catch up to Kris Kottmeier, President of Stoneshield Capital at an event connected to the Cambridge show. Kris was apologetic to the current value of the share price of  Stoneshield. He was adamant in keeping the shareholder structure of Stoneshield  intact. He indicated that the Panamint property looked promising and would be their major focus. At some point in the near future another raise of capital is required.

That being said Stoneshield released this news today:

Stoneshield Capital Corp. has entered into a definitive option agreement with Bronco Resources Corp. under the same terms and conditions as the letter of intent (LOI) previously announced by the company on Oct. 3, 2011, to acquire the Panamint gold project adjacent to the Briggs gold mine, Inyo county, Calif. The company has since changed the name of Panamint to that of the Goldtooth project.
Goldtooth consists of two main claim blocks totalling 162 lode mining claims and 10 associated placer mining claims which cover a combined 2,003 hectares of land. These claims lie in the same mineral belt as the Briggs gold mine owned and operated by Atna Resources Ltd. Current known gold at Briggs totals about 1.13 million ounces of gold (National Instrumest 43-101 technical report, Briggs project). Prior production at Briggs is 550,000 ounces of gold.
"Stoneshield is pleased with the very reasonable terms of the Goldtooth option agreement and is eager to explore and drill the Goldtooth project. It is the most advanced-stage project the company has yet acquired and lies next to a profitable, operating mine," commented Stoneshield president and chief executive officer Kris Kottmeier. "The company has retained the services of a top new consulting geologist familiar with Briggs-style geology and mineralization to assist with the Goldtooth exploration. Stoneshield's chief geologist has direct experience in this prolific mining region and, along with the company's three geologist board members, agrees the potential for the discovery of significant, new gold deposits at Goldtooth is excellent."
The southern Goldtooth claim block is located approximately 600 metres from the Goldtooth pit, which is the southernmost production pit at Briggs. Drilling across the Goldtooth fault feeder structures adjacent and beneath the Goldtooth pit on the Briggs mine property has intercepted potentially underground minable mineralization such as 87 metres of 12.88 grams per tonne (g/t) gold and 38 metres of 12.75 g/t gold. Canyon Resources was the discoverer of the Briggs deposit and former owner/operator of the Briggs mine.
Similar potential for both open-pit and underground minable gold deposits exists on the Goldtooth property. The Goldtooth fault is believed to run the entire length of the southern Goldtooth claim block along the range front beneath thin alluvial cover. High-grade surface grab rock samples collected by Bronco on the Goldtooth claims near the range front include 18 g/t gold, 30 g/t gold, 37 g/t gold and 61 g/t gold. East-west cross faults control formation of gold deposits at Briggs, are inferred to intersect the Goldtooth fault in numerous locations of the southern Goldtooth claim block and represent attractive, permitted drill targets. Despite excellent surface indications, the southern Goldtooth claim block has never been drill tested.
The northern Goldtooth claim block is located just to the west of the Goldtooth fault and contains several areas of widespread gold mineralization. Surface grab rock samples assay up to 27.0 g/t, 3.3 g/t and 1.7 g/t gold. A total of nine shallow drill holes have been completed during the 1990s by previous companies on the northern Goldtooth claim block. All holes contain gold mineralization, including 20 metres of 2.33 g/t gold, 15 metres of 1.6 g/t gold and 24 metres of 1.16 g/t gold. Stoneshield is evaluating options for a geophysical survey in the area and will begin the process of permitting a drill program for the 2012/2013 field season.
The western slope of the Panamint mountain range is composed of rocks ranging in age from Precambrian to Quaternary. Prior exploration in the area has focused on both Precambrian-age rocks and rocks thought to represent Tertiary-age volcanic units. Both rock types have undergone significant amounts of deformation. Mineralization in both rock types is thought to be epithermal and consists of a simple assemblage of gold, pyrite, iron-rich dolomite and quartz. Although the gold mineralization is a replacement phenomenon, the distribution of mineralization is structurally controlled. The mineralization is controlled by both high- and low-angle faults. The Goldtooth exploration model is based on favourable district-wide geology and gold mineralization already discovered immediately adjacent to the property. Stoneshield believes that the Goldtooth claims have potential for both large, open-pittable, heap-leachable gold deposits as well as for structurally controlled, high-grade gold deposits minable by underground mining methods.
Stoneshield is pleased with the very reasonable terms of the option agreement. Under the terms of the option agreement, Stoneshield will acquire a 100-per-cent interest in Goldtooth by making cash payments totalling $900,000 (U.S.) over the next eight years and incur a minimum of $2.1-million (U.S.) in exploration expenditures over the next five years commencing on the first anniversary of the execution of the option agreement as shown in the associated table.

                               PAYMENT SCHEDULE 
                                                   Advance                     Work
                                                   minimum              commitments
                                                   royalty                 prior to
Date of                                               cash              anniversary
payment                                           payments                     date

Upon signing of option
agreement                                          $15,000                        -
First anniversary                                  $30,000                 $200,000
Second anniversary                                 $40,000                 $300,000
Third anniversary                                  $50,000                 $500,000
Fourth anniversary                                 $75,000                 $500,000
Fifth anniversary                                 $100,000                 $600,000
Sixth anniversary                                 $150,000                       $0
Seventh anniversary                               $200,000                       $0
Eighth anniversary                                $235,000                       $0
10-per-cent earn-in total                         $900,000               $2,100,000

As previously announced, $5,000 (U.S.) was paid to Bronco upon execution of the LOI. Within 10 business days of the execution of the agreement Stoneshield will make a further payment of $15,000 (U.S.) and thereafter agreed to amounts on the anniversary of the execution of the definitive agreement. Bronco shall retain a 2.5-per-cent net smelter returns royalty that can be acquired by Stoneshield for $500,000 (U.S.) cash for each 0.5 per cent.

Next up Silvermex Resources SLX.TO

I had a chance to chat with Duane Nelson, CEO of Silvermex Resources, a couple of issues that I wanted to raise was the 18 million warrants that are due in May this year. These warrants have an exercise price of $0.32/share and are a serious overhang in the market. Duane recognized my concern and feels that they are in good hands and will probably not hit the market (lets be honest here, of course he said this). Management does know who owns these warrants as they have the subscription agreements and know who they have drawn up treasury orders for.

An interesting subject of note during the day was the announcement that Pan American Silver takeover of Minefinders. This led me to my next question as to the possibility of  another cash rich silver mining company eying up Silvermex. Duane was quite candid with me and said the game plan was to groom and structure Silvermex to make it more attractive. I will leave that open to interpretation.

Duane also said a few funds were looking for large blocks of stock so maybe some of the upcoming warrants will be exercised and crossed in the market. Keep an eye out for large block trades as a bullish sign. Like all silver mining companies expect volatile trading patterns that coincide with the spot price of silver with the potential of being taken over.

Post Cambridge Conference review of Exeter resources XRC.TO

This will be the first of my posts on my review of companies that I own and visited at the Cambridge Conference over the past two days. First off I would like to say that this is the biggest Cambridge Conference I have been to and it was well attended.

The share price of Exeter Resources has been absolutely brutal on their shareholders over the last year. Exeter started the year off around $5.60/share and ended the year at $2.50/share, well over a 50% loss.

The only one jumping for joy was a hedge fund out of Toronto that had a massive short position in Exeter Resources for all the reasons stated below. I saw the interview on BNN and I was first upset that this fund was shorting the stock as I was long at higher prices. Good on them for recognizing what a good trade this short would be. 

 

Once again the story has not changed at Exeter, yes they have a large resource and yes it will cost $4.8 Billion to develop. Yes that is right $4.8 Billion. Yes they have signed a bunch of Confidentiality Agreements with majors but this time with the Chinese at the table. ( Ah China the great savior, maybe the directors should throw in a few Vancouver properties to sweeten the deal! ) 

Yes there is still a water issue and the nearest source is 100 kilometers away that will have to be piped to the mine site.

Yes the world is waiting to see what Barrick Gold and Kinross Gold are going to do with  Cerro Casale , but with the spat of bad news from Kinross as of late, I would expect Kinross to sell their interest in the Cerro Casale to Barrick.

So where does that leave Exeter today?  Well with $4.8 billion in Cap-Ex needed to develop  the Caspiche deposit, shareholders will be waiting a long time for management to raise the funds and put this property into production. The most likely scenario is a take over of Exeter but with such a large Cap-Ex needed, if I was a  potential suitor I would wait until Exeter is on its' knees and get this deposit on the cheap.

That is my post Cambridge take on Exeter.

Sold CGA Mining today at $2.45/share

My trade in CGA Mining that I did pre year end at $2.30/share only to watch the share price get knock to a low ow of $1.79/share. I opted to take advantage of this mini rally in CGA and sell. I will sit on the side lines to see what trading pattern CGA develops.

Madalena Ventures MVN.V most visited page in the last week

Madalena Ventures MVN.V has seen a spike in traffic on this blog as the price has had a nice run up along with Americas Petrogas BOE.V.

Both Madalena and Aamericas Petrogas have been on a tear lately in anticipation of drilling their respective shale oil / gas plays in the Neuquen Basin.

Madalena chart:

Americas Petrogas chart:

Side by side these two charts almost look identical.

That it for now I need to get down to the Cambridge Conference, BTW I was down there yesterday to hear David Morgan talk on Silver Bullion. I was there late in the day but I heard the attendance in the morning was staggering.

My thoughts on Sandspring Resources SSP.V

One of my followers asked me for my opinion on Sandspring Resources SSP.V. Sandspring is a classic example of a deal going from IPO  > speculators entering  >  positive drilling results  >  PEA/NI43-101 reality  > speculators exiting > tax loss selling > value buying > eventual production / take over.

Let me be clear up front that this post is about the cycle of junior explorers and this scenario can also be applied to other juniors including Exeter Resources XRC.TO. This post is not meant to comment on the merits of the deal or management but the ebb and flow of participants in a stock. As of today Sandspring has found support at $1.20/share over tax loss selling season so the short term support can be found around this price.

So lets breakdown the following chart from the IPO in December 2009. The next leg up to April 2010 is driven mostly by initial speculation. From May 2010 we see the classic sell in May and go away until the next leg up in September 2010. This leg up to the $3.50 mark is driven by positive drill results and speculative frenzy. From the high at $3.50 in December 2010 until March there is a news vacuum as Sandspring awaits their Preliminary Economic Assessment and the NI 43-101. The graph shows a bump to the 52 weak highs on the release of the PEA and NI 43-101. With the release of the PEA and the 43-101 Sandspring has now established what they have in the ground and what it will cost to develop their property into production.

Since the release of the PEA and the NI 43-101 the speculation and the speculators are moving out as Sandspring has now established a resource of 4.3 million ounces of gold and 535 million pounds of copper. Capital Expenditure (Cap-Ex) to develop this resource is approximately $637 million.

Today Sandspring is trading at $1.30/share with $20MM in the bank and a production time line of 2015. The speculative buyer has exited the buy side while the value buyer is waiting for further de-risking of the development of this resource. A Cap-Ex of $637MM is a lot of money to take this deal into production and poses a significant challenge for management.

Short term risks to the down side include 5.4 million $0.50 warrants expire in November 2012 which are in the money. Between now and final production in 2015 there is political risk in regards to Africa    ( I was corrected this deal is in South America which has a much more favorable political climate than Africa) and economic risk in regards to raising the Capital Expenditure.

One thing I want to comment on is the present support of certain mutual funds in Sandstorm. Yes it is the Holy Grail to get funds involved in your deal as it is a ringing endorsement of the quality of the project. But it can also be a double edged sword. When mutual funds decide to sell due to any number of reasons including redemption's, change of management, etc etc they sell at any cost and show no mercy to the market.

That being said (all figures are approximate) Sentry Investments owns 6.5M shares, Libra Advisors 6.3M shares, RBC Global Asset Management 5.8M shares, AGF Investments 3M shares Acuity Investment Management 2.8M shares and Sprott Asset Management 1.5M shares are all involved.

Currently Sandspring has support at $1.20/share and short term resistance at $1.50/share and medium term resistance of $1.80/share.

Two scenario's are going to play out for Sandspring, one the management has the ability to take this deal into production or management further develops and de-risk's Sandstorm and some major takes them over. Between now and then Sandstorm will further dilute their shares to get to the finish line.

( I am not long or short Sandstorm and all figures are taken from Sedar and Sandstorms presentation, if any errors are found please email me the corrections.)

Tolima Gold TOM.V contracts Contact Financial Corp.

 Tolima has hired an IR guy to get the story out, I wonder how long it takes him to discover this blog and contact me?

Tolima Gold Inc. has engaged Contact Financial Corp. to provide investor relations services to Tolima for an initial term of three months commencing Jan. 15, 2012, subject to regulatory approval, which the parties may mutually agree to extend on a month-to-month basis thereafter, for a monthly fee of $6,000 plus reasonable out-of-pocket expenses. Tolima has also granted to Contact Financial stock options to purchase 300,000 common shares at an exercise price of 65 cents per share expiring on Jan. 15, 2017. These options will vest quarterly over a 12-month period.
Contact Financial is a Vancouver-based strategic marketing and communications firm with experience in creating exposure for resource exploration and development companies to a variety of audiences. Contact Financial's services will include increasing awareness of Tolima within the financial community. The firm is owned and operated by Kirk Gamley.

Trade reviews for CGA Mining and Silvermex Resources

I hit the nail on the head with a few trades during the tax loss season. the winners were Teslin River Resources at $0.035/share, sold at $0.055/share. GMV Minerals and Saint Augustine Gold.

In retrospect I missed on CGA Mining and Silvermex Resources.

CGA Mining looked to have support at $2.20/share going into December but that broke down with the advent of some fund selling to no end. CGA touched down to $1.78/share which is the new trading range on the down side and the up side looks to be capped at $2.30/share. I have readjusted my sell side order to $2.40/share and will wait on the sidelines to see a new trading pattern on CGA.

Next up is Silvermex where I took a position at $0.47/share only to watch the stock collapse back to the year lows of $0.35/share. Once again it looked like there was a large shareholder taking a tax loss at any given price. It seems going forward that Silvermex needs to establish a new trading pattern and the lows should be in the mid/high $0.30's with short term resistance at $0.50/share. I will look to exit my shares at $0.49/share and be on the sidelines with Silvermex here in the $0.40/share range. There are a stack of warrants that are set to expire in May with an exercise price around $0.32/share, best to keep the powder dry to see how these warrants play out.

Paget Minerals PGS.V to focus on Ball Creek Project

Paget Minerals had a pretty long winded news release today, the news release is to long to re post here. The broad strokes saying that they are going to focus their resources on their Ball Creek Property. They will look to optioning out their other properties and that they hired an investor relations guru!?.

You can read the news release here:

http://www.pagetminerals.com/s/NewsReleases.asp?ReportID=502407&_Type=News-Releases&_Title=Paget-To-Focus-On-Its-Ball-Creek-Project-Golden-Triangle-Iskut-Mineral-Dist...

Now that there is a bit of a story here lets see if they can get the share price higher.

Catalyst Copper CCY.V looks like a good trader at $0.08/share

Catalyst Copper looks like it could be a good trader between $0.08 and $0.12/share. There seems to be some pretty good dips and peaks with liquidity and a story.

It also helps that Frank Giustra's Radcliffe Foundation picked up another 12 million shares in December at $0.07/share. So $0.07/share seems to be the floor for Catalyst and $0.13/share would be the near term resistance.

On Monday I will throw a $0.08/share bid in and see if I can trade this spread.

Cleaning up the Teslin River Resource TLR.V market

It looks like management of Teslin is getting ready to start the promotion machine. I was contacted earlier this week by Freeform Communications in regards to Teslin but my history and knowledge of this deal runs longer than Freeform's.

Regardless, the offers have been taken out and the bids are building. I have decided to up my offer from $0.12/share to $0.15/share for half my position.

The recent activity and price surge indicates that Teslin will be looking to tap the market for a financing. The recent quarterly filings on SEDAR shows that the Company only had $238,000 at the end of September.
 
I would expect an announcement in the coming weeks of either a $0.10/share to $0.15/share offering, hence the mopping up of shares below $0.15.

Paget Mineral's PGS.V Ball Creek Property initial results

Paget Minerals released their initial drill results from their Ball Creek Property that is located near the Red Chris (Imperial Metals), Galore Creek(Nova Gold/Teck) and Shaft Creek (Copper Fox) properties in the Iskut region of BC.

Paget Minerals seems to be in the right neighborhood and the initial drill results from a very limited drill program look promising. I would assume that the company will expand their drill targets this summer. Meanwhile this is a slow to develop story that will fly under the radar of most investors.

Paget Minerals Corp. (TSX-V: PGS), ("Paget" or the "Company") today announced significant drill results from the Rainbow Gold Porphyry Target within the Ball Creek Project located in the Golden Triangle - Iskut Mineral District, northwest BC (click here for maps).

Two drill holes (totaling 325.1m), the first holes ever drilled at Rainbow, collared on the same drill pad intersected:

• RN-11-01 (-55 degrees): 91m @ 0.76g/t Au, 2.0g/t Ag, 0.05% Cu, including:
  • 22m @ 1.13g/t Au, 3.0g/t Ag, 0.07% Cu
  • the entire hole is mineralized from surface to total depth and bottoms in 0.48g/t Au
• RN-11-02 (vertical): 10m @ 0.39g/t Au, 1.54g/t Ag, 0.03% Cu and 8m @ 0.27g/t Au

David Volkert, President and CEO, stated, "The Rainbow Porphyry discovery adds significant dimension to the considerable, overall potential of Paget's priority Ball Creek Project. Follow-up drilling at Rainbow will be initiated in Summer 2012. A comprehensive overview of all the targets within and exploration plans for the Ball Creek Project will be reported within the next week".

Steeply-dipping, sheeted and banded quartz veinlets and magnetite veinlets closely resembling the banded veins that occur at the top of gold porphyries in Maricunga, Chile, host the mineralization. The high Au:Cu ratio, anomalous Ag, Zn halo (average 473ppm in Rainbow) and lack of alteration selvages at Rainbow are also indicative of Maricunga-style mineralization. The banded veining, hosted in andesite volcanics and volcanic breccias, is found on surface over only a very small area in a large moraine-filled depression and the drill intercept in RN-11-01 is much wider than outcropping mineralization. The intercepts above represent the first holes ever drilled at Rainbow and more drilling is required and planned.

More news from Tolima Gold TOM.V

Pidder padder lets get at er! Tolima Gold seems to have their 2012 programs lined up and they are wasting no time trying to add value for their shareholders.

Within the past 2 weeks Tolima has completed the following:

Tolima Gold Inc. has closed the purchase of all of the issued and outstanding share capital of Sun Lakes Advisors SA, a Panamanian company which owns all of the issued and outstanding share capital of Papayo Gold SAS, a Colombian company holding the following assets: (i) a gold-mining concession; (ii) an application for a conversion into concession of a de facto mining operation (collectively, the mineral properties); (iii) land property rights where certain mining works are located within the mineral properties; as well as (iv) certain mining equipment and mining works on the mineral properties. The mineral properties cover approximately 2,000 hectares and are almost completely surrounded by several of Tolima's current Nortol properties.

Yesterday's news:

Tolima Gold Inc. has commenced operations at the San Pablo gold processing plant located within the historical gold district of Remedios and Segovia, in Antioquia, Department of Colombia. The San Pablo processing plant is part of an industrial complex comprising a gold mine, general infrastructure, laboratories and now a fully refurbished processing plant with an initial capacity of 100 tons per day. Tolima Gold has also announced that it will continue with the upgrading program in order to take the San Pablo plant to a capacity of 300 tons per day without affecting its current plant and mine operation.
Furthermore, the company has entered into a partnership with Gran Colombia Gold Corp. whereby Gran Colombia will provide ore to be processed in the San Pablo plant while the company's mines are brought to commercial production. The partnership has an initial term of six months, and under it, Gran Colombia will deliver ore at its own cost and the company will process the ore at its own cost, with sales proceeds being split 70/30, respectively. This partnership will allow the company to operate the San Pablo plant to capacity from the start, and to generate continuous cash flow to support its capital and exploration investment programs. The company intends to simultaneously increase the processing capacity of the San Pablo plant to 300 tons per day while developing its current San Pablo and La Bartola mines to be able to feed the upgraded processing plant.

 And today's news:

Tolima Gold Inc.(the "Company" or "Tolima") is pleased to announce the awarding of a US$ 1.2M and 6,000 meters drilling contract to Serviminas S.A.S, in order to carry out the first diamond drilling campaign in the exploration program for the "San Pablo", "La Bartola" and "La Gabriela" areas of its Remedios project, located in the Remedios mining district of the Department of Antioquia, Colombia. Drilling operations will start in the fourth week of January and are expected to go on for approximately 6 months with the completion of 30 drill holes in an area of 411.2 hectares and with proposed locations as shown in the map linked below:

http://oi43.tinypic.com/2qx1a3a.jpg

Given that the area of Remedios of 12,399.33 hectares is located within a favorable geological environment for vein type deposits, the objective of the preliminary exploration program is 6,000 meters of diamond drilling in the areas of San Pablo, La Bartola and La Gabriela for a total of 30 drill holes to ensure continuity in the depth of the quartz veins with significant amounts of precious metals that are known in the area, and also to be able to locate new veins, and to increase gold resources of the mineralization presented in Remedios. 

Out of GMV Minerals at $0.135/share

The balance of my GMV Minerals was sold today at $0.135/share. GMV was a tax loss trade where I bought the stock at $0.11/share and made $0.025/share on 20,000 shares.

Some would say why bother trading for such a small amount? I am sure GMV will probably move back into the low $0.20's and I probably will not get a chance to buy it back at $0.11/share. GMV was a trade, I made some money and I have moved along. Sure it is probably going higher but I want my money in more advanced deals. Hence I have rolled my cash into Tolima Mining TOM.V.

5,000,000 share cross on Tolima Gold TOM.V today

I had a bid in on Tolima Gold at $0.405/share, GMP Securities pushed through a 5 million share cross at $0.40/share which filled my order. 5 Million share cross can be viewed two ways, a motivated seller and the management group wanted to take the position off the shareholder in one swoop or the positioning of a significant shareholder into the deal.

I like big crosses in the market.

Tolima gold TOM.V goes into production with Gran Colombia Gold GCM.TO

Tolima Gold TOM.V announced an interesting joint venture with Gran Colombia Gold GCM.TO. In a nut shell Tolima Gold's processing plant will process Gran Colombia Mines gold ore. The deal will split the sales 70/30 GCM-TOM. This is a good deal for both companies and creates cash flow for Tolima.

Tolima Gold Inc. has commenced operations at the San Pablo gold processing plant located within the historical gold district of Remedios and Segovia, in Antioquia, Department of Colombia. The San Pablo processing plant is part of an industrial complex comprising a gold mine, general infrastructure, laboratories and now a fully refurbished processing plant with an initial capacity of 100 tons per day. Tolima Gold has also announced that it will continue with the upgrading program in order to take the San Pablo plant to a capacity of 300 tons per day without affecting its current plant and mine operation.
Furthermore, the company has entered into a partnership with Gran Colombia Gold Corp. whereby Gran Colombia will provide ore to be processed in the San Pablo plant while the company's mines are brought to commercial production. The partnership has an initial term of six months, and under it, Gran Colombia will deliver ore at its own cost and the company will process the ore at its own cost, with sales proceeds being split 70/30, respectively. This partnership will allow the company to operate the San Pablo plant to capacity from the start, and to generate continuous cash flow to support its capital and exploration investment programs. The company intends to simultaneously increase the processing capacity of the San Pablo plant to 300 tons per day while developing its current San Pablo and La Bartola mines to be able to feed the upgraded processing plant.
The San Pablo and La Bartola mines are two well-known underground mines with their main shafts distant 400 metres from each other. The San Pablo mine is in the development stage with new galleries being added to access the mineralized structures, which will include a new shaft and four additional levels. La Bartola mine has been abandoned for some time, and the company intends to sample and rehabilitate the mine, as well as initiate development of a tunnel between the San Pablo and Bartola veins. All these developments will add up to more than three kilometres of new tunnels in 2012.
In addition, the company will continue exploring its seven properties in the Remedios project in order to find further mine prospects within this strategic location.
About the processing plant
The San Pablo processing plant was acquired with the Remedios properties in the last half of 2011. All of the stages of the plant were modified to improve its efficiency. The plant is practically new. It had been run intermittently and required improvement in some areas in order to reach design capacity. Since its acquisition, crushing and milling stages were improved. The rock size entering the crushing stage was left at 10 inches, and the out coming size was reduced to a maximum of five inches. This change in size improves the milling stage drastically. The primary and secondary mills were relocated, improving the overall flow of the material along the plant. New and more modern equipment was added to the flotation process adding efficiency to this crucial step. The capacity of this stage was doubled with the addition of two new floating cells. The cyanide process had a complete maintenance completed. Furthermore, a new set of filters were added to the Merryl Crow. The foundry was also modernized by adding a new, more efficient furnace. With these improvements, the plant will run at design capacity and will be ready for an increase in capacity.

Kinross Gold drops Fortunate Sun JV properties

Kinross Gold has opted to drop the Fortunate Sun joint venture properties.This JV was pretty much the reason why I opted to buy the Fortunate Sun IPO. I was on the bid of Fortunate Sun today at $0.145/share and at this point I will sit back and see where this deal trades. Needless to say I am disappointed with this news.

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - Jan. 9, 2012) - Fortunate Sun Mining Company Ltd. (TSX VENTURE:FSM) (the "Company") is pleased to announce that the Camacho and Pirelli projects 100% owned by the Company have been returned to Fortunate Sun by Kinross Gold's Mexican Subsidiary, KG Exploracion Mexico S.A de C.V. (KG) effective today, as Kinross has elected to terminate the options.
Conditions of the two option agreements previously entered into (as disclosed in the Company's prospectus dated October 18, 2011) provided that KG spend US$2.5 million on both projects over a 5 year period, beginning April 26, 2010. To date, Kinross has cumulatively spent in excess of US$2 million on the projects, which has produced significant technical data and information for the Company. This work included several thousand meters of both diamond and reverse circulation drilling programs.
This information is in the process of being organized and will be forwarded to the Company sometime over the next several weeks.
Though Kinross has chosen not to proceed with the projects at this time, the information generated by this extensive amount of work will go a long way into investigating the future potential of the projects, either on an in-house basis, or with other interested parties.
The company is also pleased to announce that final permitting is taking place at its Golconda Gold project located in the State of Sonora Mexico, which is currently under agreement with Minera Coplau S.A de C.V. of Hermosillo Mexico. Approximately 2000 meters of diamond drilling is projected to commence sometime in early Q1 2012.
Fortunate Sun Mining Company Ltd. is a junior mining exploration company with early stage precious metals exploration projects in Mexico and British Columbia. Fortunate Sun's principal property is the Golconda property consisting of two mineral concessions (6,410 hectares) located in the State of Sonora, Mexico.

Sold half of my GMV Minerals today at $0.135/share

I managed to sell half of my GMV Minerals today at $0.135/share. GMV is a small year end tax loss trade that I picked up at $0.11/share. Sure GMV could go higher but I want to stay liquid and there is always a chance it can trade back to $0.11/share for a reload.

A small update on Fortunate Sun Mining FSM.V is there is a seed stock shareholder with some stock to sell at the $0.15 range. The promoters want to see the price higher in the spring.

I signed up for the Cambridge House Investment Conference on January 22-23, 2012. I will scour the floor for some new ideas. I had a glance at the attendee list and it seems that most deals I am long will be there.

Purchased more Fortunate Sun Mining FSM.V today

I bought some Fortunate Sun Mining today at $0.15/share and offered it back up at $0.20/share. Fortunate Sun is a new issue at $0.20/share and there seems to be someone that wants to sell some seed stock. The seller seems content at selling at $0.15/share and I am sure it is egg on the face of the promoters to have a new issue trade below the IPO straight out of the gate.

When the seller exhaust their stock at $0.15/share I would assume Fortunate Sun will go higher, in the meantime I will see if I can trade it for a nickel.