-- Posted 3 April, 2004 | | Source: SilverSeek.com
FRIDAY, April 2nd, 2004
This week's report lists 102 silver stocks. There are 32 silver stocks that list reserves, resources (and exploration potential.) which I calculate by using my "ounce in the ground" forumula. There are 46 explorers. There are about 24 additional "silver" stocks with incomplete information. Additions & Changes from last week are in bold.
If this is the first time you have seen this report, please try to read the entire report before sending me an email. This report goes out now to well over8000 investors each week in email.
If you are an Accredited or Sophisticated investor and want information I may find out about private placement opportunities in some of the very best silver stocks in my opinion, (This is not a solicitation for any stock, and I'm not brokering any securities) email me with PP in the subject field: jasonhommel@yahoo.com
To read about my religious bias, see my other website, bibleprophesy.org There are two essays near the top of the page that explain why I believe the entire world will return to using gold and silver as money again before the end times. Hint, see Ezekiel 38. To read more about my religious bias when it comes to investing, see my essay, Biblical Guidelines for Managing your Money
If you want to receive an email notice of when and where this FREE weekly report is published, sign up at GoldIsMoney.com Anyone who signs up will also get a FREE e-book that explains the bullish case for gold and especially silver. If you have studied the silver market at all, then the time has come that you ought to be a teacher, and you ought to explain the silver story to all who will listen. GoldIsMoney.com is designed to help spread the word. I suggest you email the link to your address book.
Kitco reports silver at $8.12 as of Friday, 3:44 PM West Coast US, which was used to calculate the following figures. The CAN $ / US $ conversion factor is .7606. I will use .76 for ease. Silver continues to rise, from Friday to Friday for the past 6 weeks. Report #28: $7.71, #27: $7.53, #26: $7.03, #25: $6.95, #24: $6.70, #23: $6.49
How to read the following table: Stock Symbol that works at Yahoo! Finance (Company name) / Silver oz. "in ground"** for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock. / valuation price change since last week relative to silver price change (and stock dilution, and resource changes, if any) / additional comments (EXPT is "exploration potential")
* CBE.V CBEFF.PK (CABO MINING) --Historic Silver and Cobalt district
SML.V SMLZF.PK (STEALTH MNRLS)
NBG.V NBULF.PK (NEW BULLET GP) 40 - 113 "exploration potential"
SDR.V SDURF.PK (STROUD RSCS)
CHMN.PK (CHESTER MINING)
EPZ.V ESPZF.PK (ESPERANZA SILVR)
GNG.V GGTHF.PK (GOLDEN GOLIATH) --Historic silver district in Mexico
MMG.V MMEEF.PK (MCMILLAN GOLD)
SHSH.PK (SHOSHONE SILVER)
* KRE.V KREKF.PK (KENRICH ESKAY)
EGD.V EGDMF.PK (ENERGOLD MINING)
PCM.V PAOCF.PK (PAC COMOX RES)
LEG.V LEGCF.PK (LATEEGRA RSCS)
BGS.V BLDGF.PK (BALLAD GLD SLVR)
* AUN.V AUNFF.PK (AURCANA CORP)
SRY.V (STINGRAY RSCS)
TUO.V TEUTF.PK (TEUTON RES)
ASLM.PK (AMER SILVER MINI)
BBR.V BBRRF.PK (BRETT RES)
ROK.V ROCAF.PK (ROCA MINES INC)
CBP.V CPBMF.PK (CONS PAC BAY MIN)
* = I own shares ** = "in ground" counts all "silver oz. in the ground" as the same, but they are NOT EQUAL. Some are more certain and others are more speculative. Some are higher grades, some are lower grades. They range from most certain to least certain such as: "proven & probable reserves," "measured, indicated, inferred resources." This single number next to each stock symbol above represents the approximate number of ounces of silver in the ground you are buying title to when you invest the equivalent of one ounce of silver by buying shares in the company at current prices. (It does not include zinc, or copper, or lead, but it does include gold at a 1:10 ratio of gold:silver.) At goldsheetlinks.com, they add 100% of proven & probable reserves, but only 70% of measured & indicated resources, and only 50% of inferred resources. I don't do that. I count them as all the same.
To quickly "tab" down to the company you are interested in, note the symbol. Then hit "control-F" to "FIND" the symbol below. ___________ If I use a word you don't understand and is not listed in the dictionary at www.m-w.com you can look up the meaning at http://investorwords.com/
------------- WEEKLY COMMENTARY (All new in this section):
As measured in silver, my dollars are going up in smoke, and we are experiencing unbelievable hyper-inflation. By the time silver hit $8.20, it will be up 100% from when silver was at $4.10 about a year ago. To me, that means inflation is running at nearly 100%, since the thing I most want to buy, silver, is up that much. Silver is still cheap. It has not kept pace with oil or steel or even eggs, all of which are up over 100%. True, some people look to gold as the best measure of inflation, but I know that silver is better than gold, so I have to look to silver.
Why are gold and silver going up in price? Because over the years, the Fed and the banking system have put Trillions of dollars and bonds into circulation, and there are only millions of dollars of silver available, and people are waking up to the reality of the situation!
Look, I have proof! Yes, besides the fact that there are trillions of dollars and millions left worth of silver, which I post each week, in a table. Here are three key figures:
What I also mean to say is that I have proof that people are waking up to this reality, and acting on it! First, the number of people who have subscribed to this free report is rapidly climbing and is over 8000 now. Second, according to my survey of my readers, most are now looking to buy more silver bullion, in preference to silver stocks, although many plan to buy more silver stocks, too!
Last week, I discussed the importance of portfolio allocation to silver stocks, and I asked a three-part survey question.
1. How much of your overall net worth, your total assets, including home equity, is invested in the overall silver market (silver bullion plus stocks)? 2. Considering your overall silver investments, what percentage is in silver bullion, and what percentage is in silver stocks, and what percentage is in futures contracts? 3. What percentage of your overall portfolio do you plan to allocate to silver and silver stocks?
In addition to the link above which proves there is a rapidly growing, but still tiny, group of people who are telling me they plan to buy more silver, let's review some of the "big picture" reasons why this silver bull market will continue, and why a top is nowhere in sight:
Silver will definitely outperform gold from here, due to many reasons, as follows: 1. The supply/demand deficit, meaning, silver's industrial consumption and total demand exceeds mine supply, and these fundamentals are better for silver than for gold. 2. There is a physical shortage of silver because of decades of industrial consumption. There is less silver available now than gold. 3. The necessity for silver by industry that must have silver, or not produce their products that need it. 4. The historic ratio was 16:1 for silver to gold in terms of price, but it stands now at a very low 50 to 1, for silver to gold. 5. The short position in silver is astronomically large, much larger than for gold, given the available silver and yearly mine supplies, and this has to be paid back, which will drive up the price. 6. The supply of silver is rather inflexible due to most production being a byproduct of other mining. 7. You get "too much" silver for your money today, and is historically undervalued by astronomical factors, such as a day's wage being a silver quarter or silver dollar, historically, when there was plenty more silver than today. 8. Silver is unknown as a good investment to the common man who is still regularly selling inherited silver. 9. No other commodity will also have huge monetary demand, except for gold, except silver is better than gold for the above reasons mentioned, and more, such as, poorer people cannot afford gold, but they can afford silver.
Now, in this weekly report I have been noting for the past 6 months that there are about 52 million oz. of silver in the registered category at the COMEX. This is the silver that is ready for delivery against a futures contract, and is where the shorts need to place their physical silver before fulfilling their obligations. Therefore, I had been falsely assuming that this 52 million oz. of silver is available to purchase at low prices. I was also assuming, perhaps correctly, that the goal of the paper short sellers is to keep prices low. My main assumption was wrong, because I was assuming that all of this silver is up for sale by the short sellers. It may not be. You or I, as longs, can buy a futures contract, stand for delivery, take our wearhouse receipt, and hold the silver in either category, as "registered" or "eligible". That means that I could own some silver, at the COMEX, in the registered category, and not be a seller until well over $100/oz. Therefore, we should not assume that the 52 million oz. in the registered category is even available for sale! The silver in the registered category may, or may not, be owned by the short sellers!
What I am saying is that the world may have already hit the supply/demand crunch right now, and that we may be days away from serious price increases. There are too many stories of delayed delivery, or no silver available for delivery, and there are too many buyers who are desperate to get real silver that very few people, and few dealers, have.
And the big price increases have not yet hit. The reason for this is that the short sellers have not yet covered. They are more heavily short more ounces of silver now than they have ever been. Open interest is now around 120,000 contracts, so that means they owe about 600 million oz. of silver! Usually, when they massivly increase their short positions, they knock down the price, but this is not happening now!
This scares me. We could see silver double in price by next week, and I thought I could anticipate this before it happened, and sell a few more silver stocks to get silver bullion, for my own "optimal" allocation of 20-25% bullion. But I only have 16% in bullion now. Unfortunately, with the price moving this fast, there is no way I want to sell any silver shares for silver. My problem is that I have a three day hold time if I sell some shares, and I have to be "in cash" for three days until the trade clears and I can use any cash to buy bullion. With the price of silver moving like it is, and given my sudden realization that there may not be 52 million oz. of silver for sale at these prices, I'm tempted to move more of my portfolio into bullion, perhaps even up to 30%, but if I do, the silver price may be at $9 to $10 by the time my cash clears! As I said, scary. The other issue is that a default in silver is clearly coming. Would I risk 5-10% of my portfolio to a potential delivery default?
Yet, by Friday, I noted that many of the silver stocks are beginning to outpace silver again, as noted by the "up" notes, verses the "down" notes in the summary table at the top of this list.
Besides, trading too much makes the brokers rich. It's time for me to "be right, and sit tight".
Given all these fundamental issues, I especially do not like chartists and the technical indicators. The chartists, to me, who analyse every little squiggle on the price chart, are looking at the wrong things. The dollar/silver price chart contains absolutely no information about how many extra dollars they have fraudulently and excessively created. Therefore, the price chart contains no information about how high the price will go in terms of dollars. If the price of silver, in terms of dollars, reaches infinity dollars per ounce, the price chart will look like a single backwards capital letter "L". There will be a flat line at the bottom, and a straight vertical line on the far right. We could hit the far right on the chart at any day now, if not already.
Therefore, drawing any kind of sloping line on a chart to determine where the price of gold or silver in terms of dollars will reach at a given time, is madness, and assumes that the dollar is not fraud. That's the false assumption of the chartists! Remember that.
Now, it was a long time ago that I realized this principle, of what would happen if the price of gold or silver would reach infinity dollars per oz., and what that would look like on a chart. Such a price reduces all the analysis of the price movements today to miniscule, and irrelavent, proportions. This is why I'm not a chartist, but rather, a fundamentalist, and why I look at things such as how many dollars they have printed, and why I take the time to educate others about these relatively unknown facts.
There are several implications that follow this realization. First, charting and drawing sloping lines is ridiculous, as I have mentioned. Second, the eventual price movements of gold and silver will take the vast majority of people by complete surprise, because there are too many chartists, and too many people who have been deceived by the fraud of the dollar. Third, you cannot predict when a vertical line will hit when looking at tiny squiggles that may preceed it, because all the tiny movements are reduced to zero in comparison to a vertical line that reaches to infinity.
There is one basic assumption of these chartists that upsets me, and that I set out to deliberately disprove in the marketplace by writing articles on silver companies. Their false assumption is that they can somehow determine where prices will go by looking at the chart! I attempted to disprove this assumption by picking an incredible investment, and then by keeping quiet about it until releasing an article about it to a wide audience. I think I did this with Cabo Mining. My goal was not only to raise the price of Cabo mining in a dramatic way, but to create an illustration of what should happen when large numbers of people become educated about silver bullion!
So then, let me show you a nearly vertical line on a chart. Look at the chart for Cabo Mining. You can look up CBE.V at Yahoo! finance, or view the chart at the company website at http://www.cabo.ca/investors.html
Then, the price moved up over 100% in a week, to about $1.00 to $1.30/share Cdn. Of course, the price did not reach infinity, but I strongly feel that I helped to create a "wall" - type vertical line on a chart. And what caused it? Not a preceeding special formation of wiggles, but rather, it was the article that taught people the fundamentals! More people became educated about the fundamentals of the assets of Cabo Mining, and so, the price changed to reflect that increased awareness among investors.
I believe a similar thing will happen to silver!
What was the key fundamental about Cabo Mining? Cabo Mining controls 60% of the area in Cobalt, Ontario, which is known as the "silver capital of Canada". This area is known for a historical production of about 500 million ounces of silver. Yet the market cap of Cabo Mining was about $7 million dollars! No wonder the share price went vertical, as silver was just becoming a hot investment after being totally neglected! Today, the Market Cap of Cabo is merely about $14 million US (with a share price of $1 Cdn). The fundamentals of Cabo have changed somewhat since my article, as Cabo went on to announce two private placements, one for $5 million at $.75/share Cdn and another for $5-6 million at $.83/share Cdn. Thus, today, I think Cabo is an even better value, since they are now likely well funded, and the silver price is significantly better. Note, the private placements will increase the market cap of Cabo, due to the dilution, and issuance of new shares.
My point is that the price of silver could move like the price of Cabo did. Within a week, the price of silver could double, or nearly triple! It all depends on how many people become educated about the fundamntals of silver, as people were educated about the fundamentals of Cabo!
So, what will happen to the price of Cabo next Monday? Well, since February 10th, I believe my readership has significantly increased, perhaps doubled from under 4000 to over 8000 email addresses. Although I do not know for sure, I believe that the price of Cabo may rise once again, as a new group of investors learns about Cabo.
This raises another point that I would like to discuss. Too many people somehow believe that it is wrong to "tout" an investment. My long time best friend actually asked me whether it was illegal to write about a stock! Nothing could be further from the truth. Fortunately, the government of the USA recognizes the God-given right that people have to tell the truth about things! We call it Freedom of Speech, as further protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution. It is well recognized by the SEC. It is illegal to write fraudulent information. The SEC also has two little rules that they require "registered" investment advistors to follow, and although I'm not registered, and I'm not an advisor, I follow the rules to be safe. These rules are that I disclose whether I own the stock, and whether I have been paid by the company. So, in the case of Cabo, yes, I own shares. And no, Cabo did not pay me to write about the stock. In fact, I will disclose two further items that are not required. First, although I owned shares of Cabo already, I bought more as I participated in the private placement at 75 cents, and I'm also probably going to earn a "finder's fee" as I told a few people about Cabo's private placement. I have not yet been paid, so I cannot say that I have been paid. But I do think I will be earning something. Let me break for a moment, and run one of my "ads".
If you are an Accredited or Sophisticated investor and want information I may find out about private placement opportunities in some of the very best silver stocks in my opinion, (This is not a solicitation for any stock, and I'm not brokering any securities) email me with PP in the subject field: jasonhommel@yahoo.com
I'm not brokering any securities because I'm nobody's hired agent, and I'm not negotiating any of the deals. Now, there are special rules that apply to brokers, or registered investment advisors. Since I'm neither one of those, I'm less regulated, and more free. You see, a broker is hired to represent the investor who hires him. Nobody has hired me. Nobody has paid me to represent their interests. Therefore, brokers or your paid investment advisors need to tell you whether they have an additional form of payment coming to them if you buy investments that they own. Since you do not pay me because I'm not your broker, I do not have this potential conflict of interest. And of course, if I care, at all, about my reputation and the laws of God, I will not give anyone any bad advice that I would not consider following myself.
Now, with regard to silver, nobody who ever writes about silver needs to disclose whether they own silver or not. Rules that apply to companies do not apply to commodities. Silver, since it is not a company, does no reporting, and pays nobody for advertising. It is what it is. Inert. Lifeless. It is impossible to violate any "insider trading" rules for silver.
This is one of the reasons that silver and gold have remained as ignored investments for so long. Gold and silver cannot directly pay anyone to write about them. And they certainly cannot pay Wall Street fat cats who are working for the big brokerage firms who are in league with the Federal Reserve, and may even practice fractional reserve banking with your brokerage accounts!
There is another rather unique aspect of gold and silver that also restricts advertising, and thus prevents the public from becoming properly educated. Bullion dealers generally get the greatest volume and greatest business when they sell bullion at the lowest price, and buy bullion at the highest price. Therefore, a dealer who spends lots of money on advertising is at a competitive disadvantage with another dealer who may not advertise and therefore have lower costs! The problem is that the people who allow themselves to become educated by one dealer will then shop around for the lowest price, and may not buy from the dealer who spent money on advertising!
Gold and silver are nobody's monopoly. They are money, because every bit of gold and silver is similar enough to all the others, to be fungible, or easily exchangable. Gold and silver are not copyrighted, not patented, not trademarked. Oh, of course, people try to put their own marks on gold or silver bars and coins, and try to say which mark is better, whether a "JM" or "Englehard" bar, or whether an American Eagle or Austrian Philharmonic, but that doesn't really work in the marketplace that much. Bullion buyers are not fooled, and will not buy into, nor value more highly, such "idol-making," and will generally buy whichever form of gold or silver is at the lowest price.
(This is also why I don't buy or advocate numismatics. It's the principle of the matter, morally, for me. In a world of good and moral people, where sentiment for idols is nearly non-existant, who would even pay even 20% over the bullion price for an old idol made of gold or silver that "looked good"? And I'm certainly not going to start worshipping idols and pay high prices for them just because my neighbors are doing so.)
Therefore, I again want to encourage you to tell your family and friends about gold and silver bullion--the "just weights and measures" that we should be using. Neither gold, nor silver, nor I, can pay you, but your own investments in gold and silver are more likely to go up, and you may save your family and friends from the calamity of the falling dollar. At the very least, your attempts will be a testimony against them, against their idol-worshipping of the mark of the dollar. (I do have an affiliate program, where people can earn commissions from advertising and linking to goldismoney.com, but it is only available to people who have relatively high traffic websites--at least 100 visitors daily.)
Now, although my family has made the correct choices--by buying silver bullion; yesterday, it began to pain my father emotionally about what is coming. I asked him, "You mean you feel sorry for most of our fellow Americans who have let themselves be defrauded by fraudulent dollars, and who will one day all wake up totally broke, instead of being deeply in debt?" And he said, "You certainly know how to put it." I said, "Look on the bright side. You have complained about how you can hardly afford good help to hire people to repair the deck, or cut down or trim back the trees, or fix the porch, because all these guys charge an arm and a leg. You can't both wish that all Americans remain wealthy, but then turn around and complain when these rich people charge you so much for work. If they become impoverished due to the crashing dollar, you will be able to hire them for $10/day like a worker in a South American nation. See, it's one or the other. So, with the crashing dollar, you will make money on both ends, as both your silver becomes more valuable, and as wages drop when the people become impoverished." He smiled, and saw the bright side.
Look, the only way to protect Americans from this coming calamity is to educate your fellow Americans, and to get them to buy silver bullion--the sooner the better!
Not only do I encourage you to tell others about gold and silver, but please tell me about your favorite silver stock, and why. Please put "SS tip", or "silver stock tip" in the subject of the email: Send to: jasonhommel@yahoo.com. I will copy and post all letters on this topic next week, as I did for the survey questions last week. WORD LIMIT: 500 WORDS. If you want to write more, put it on a webpage, and include a link.
-------------------------- Why is silver money, and not copper or oil? Well, if you wanted to buy $100,000 worth of oil, at $36/barrel, that would be 2778 barrels. Where would you put the silo? On your front lawn?
Copper is $1.40/lb. If you invest $100,000 into copper, and take it home with you so that you can protect your wealth, you have to carry 71,429 pounds of copper home. Hmmm... I don't think so.
Silver is $8.15/oz. So, if you invest $100,000 into silver, at the spot price, that's 12,269 ounces, or 767 pounds. At $5700 per $1000 face value bag of silver coin, it's also 17.5 bags, which weigh about 55 pounds each, which is 965 pounds. A single person who is in shape can manage moving 17.5 buckts that weigh 55 pounds, and can store it in a $2000 gun safe, which is rather practical. It's the only thing that's remotely even manageable. And, of course, so is gold. But since silver is so much better than gold, lifting silver is worth the work. True, silver is relatively heavy now, but it will become much lighter by the time it crosses $80/oz. The packed gun safe will be worth about a million dollars.
------------------------ Because I have a market reach, I also receive a lot of tips about silver stocks. And thus, I believe I may have invested in some of the best ones that came my way. If you believe I may have an edge based on my work and position... then the best way for me to share this with you is to is tell you where I put my money. It's not investment advice. I offer a monthly "look at my portfolio". Try it for a month, and see if it works for you. I do not issue recommendations, and I don't list number of shares or the size of my portfolio, but I will show the top investments in my portfolio, by rank, updated monthly.
I just raised prices, once again, to the following: Price: $39.95/monthly, or $49.95 for a single month, or $295.00/year To order: Click here
If you have any questions about billing or order fulfillment, you need to contact my support staff at support@goldismoney.comand not me. I manage a large portfolio, and I don't have time to process billing requests. I don't bill any cards, my support staff handles all of that. The new 800 number for customer service that I thought would be live last monday goes live on the 6th.
Right now, I'm being swamped with requests for stock tips. This "look at my portfolio" is the only fair way I know how to help meet this demand. And the money from the signups goes to help me spread the word about silver and advertise, which helps the entire silver industry and all of our investments. If you believe I'm doing a good thing with my work, please consider this a donation. (But only if you can reasonably afford it.)
------------------------ General Commentary on Silver (slightly modified from last week):
As the New York Times, January 11, 1859, page 2 said--- "It is well known that the most colossal fortunes the world ever saw have been based on silver mines..." --quote found by Charles Savoie ---------------------------- For news on the New Hampshire Sound Money Bill, that proposes to use U.S. Treasury minted Silver Eagles and Gold Eagles as money see: http://www.nh-inews.org/ http://veritasradio.com/
Current status of the NH bill: The bill will live until the November elections. It'll have a different #, but we now have 6 months or so to get EVERYONE we need on board.
Thanks to you for your efforts. Now, the fund raising part begins so we can take it to the other states ! More on that later.
For now - V I C T O R Y is in sight !
----------------------------
BUYING BULLION:
Beware! Don't trade in your dollars (defaulted promises to pay in bullion) for more promises of bullion! What I mean is, we are clearly heading into another situation where delivery default is imminent! Therefore, do not buy a promise, and do not store your bullion with anyone. Go and take delivery in person when you pay. The last thing you want to do is realize the injustice of the fraudulent promise of dollars, and then get stiffed on a failed bullion delivery. Therefore, the safest place to start buying bullion is from your local dealer which you can find in your local phone book. If you buy all they have, then look to another, larger shop that might be a further drive away, and then you might consider one of the nation's largest dealers who are not at the COMEX. And when you take delivery, get a safe! And also a gun! And dogs. And perhaps a security system and alarm. Or more depending on your situation.
WHERE TO BUY BULLION:
The following dealers generally have, or regularly keep, over 100,000 oz. silver bullion in inventory: These are generally not places to call for small retail orders. The dealers in this category may or may not have the best prices, but they do have bullion in large size.
Northwest Territorial Mint --great prices! http://www.nwtmintbullion.com/ 1-800-344-6468 (also sells palladium 1 oz. bars!)
American Coin and Vault 5523 North Wall Street Spokane, WA 99205 (509) 326-7512
California Numismatics (will accept small retail orders) http://www.golddealer.com/ Richard Schwary & Kenny Edwards 1-800-225-7531
Engles Coin Shop Minimum order: 100 oz. gold or 5000. oz. silver. (317) 875 0614 3520 Founders Lane, Indianapolis, IN 46268
Miles Franklin Ltd. http://www.milesfranklin.com St. Louis Park, Minn. Bob Sichel 1-800-814-3224 They believe their exclusive wholesaler is one of the top 5-6 wholesalers in size in N. America.
If there are any silver bullion dealers who have at least $500,000 worth of silver bullion in inventory on hand, please contact me jasonhommel@yahoo.com , and I will give you a FREE AD, like the ones above, in each week's silver stock report.
The following locations may not have bullion in large size, but they have outstanding prices: These guys publish BID/ASK prices:
http://www.ebay.com --I've not yet used it. Not much in size. Mostly small retail orders. Single 100 oz. bars sell several times each day.
http://www.bulliondirect.com/index.jsp --Like e-bay for bullion. I've not yet used it, I especially like bulliondirect, since they publish the bids and asks of various different sellers on a wide variety of bullion products. But there is not much in great size, perhaps only around $100,000 worth. About 5-10 bags of 90% silver coin or up to 100 of the 100 oz. bars.
But remember, the only way to prevent from being defaulted on a delivery default is to bring your cash, in person, to a dealer, and take delivery, in person, the same day.
----------------------------
The easiest way to buy Comex Silver is through a precious metals brokerage firm such as HSBC bank, or http://www.fidelitrade.com/ that charges around 1% commission, plus delivery fees of about 2-3% depending on how far to ship. Or you could open a commodities trading account with any of the major brokerage houses who are most likely the bullion banks, and take delivery of your contract. There are several problems with this method. First, is the most obvious. These are the paper contracts that are controlling and suppressing the price, that I believe must one day default. Second, the bullion banks, since they are the ones who are likely short silver, will try their hardest to talk you out of placing an order, or talk you out of taking delivery. I have actually had several bullion banks turn me down, and not open a commodities trading account for me when they heard I was going to take delivery of several futures contracts! Their hypocritical excuses are amazing! They will say on one hand that their comissions are too low, and thus, it's not worth their time to open the account for you. And then, they will turn around and also say that you don't want to order silver bullion because the commissions will kill you! Unbelievable hypocrites those shorts! They will also try to scare you with "assay fees" that will be assessed if you try to return 1000 oz. bars to the exchange! But they won't tell you what those fees may cost! I've heard the assay fee is FREE if you use Brinks in LA! My 2004-2009 price predictions for gold and silver: 2004: $595/oz. gold, 50:1 ratio = $12/oz. silver 2005: $1011/oz. gold, 30:1 ratio = $34/oz. silver 2006: $1719/oz. gold, 10:1 ratio = $172/oz. silver 2007: $2923/oz. gold, 5:1 ratio = $ 585/oz. silver 2008: $4,969/oz. gold, 1:1 ratio = $4969/oz. silver 2009: $8448/oz. gold, 5:1 ratio = $1698/oz. silver 2010+: infinity dollars/oz. gold, infinity dollars/oz. silver.
I calculate the gold price rise by guessing that by 2009, M3 will have a "gold-value" like it did in 1980, which is to say, M3 was worth 2 Billion oz. of gold or less. It also assumes M3 will about triple in that time. These figures are conservative, because I see no reason that M3 should be valued more than the gold the U.S. actually holds, which is a mere 261 million oz., not billion. Today, the M3 value is $8870 billion / $425/oz. = 19 billion oz. of gold M3 could buy in theory. The silver:gold ratio is also a very, very vague guess, reflective of monetary demand chasing silver, which is more scarce than gold in above ground, refined form. I have no idea when the ratio of 15:1 will be exceeded, I'm just totally guessing. I suppose it could happen this year or next month for all I know. Of course my real price targets are infinity dollars per oz. for both gold and silver when all is said and done, I just don't know how long that will take, nor what year it will be. But my point in producing the price predictions is to show my bullishness for silver and gold.
---------------------------- Let me say how important it is for silver stock investors to own physical silver. There is $422 million dollars worth of silver in the registered category available for delivery at the COMEX (52 mil oz. at $8.12). The 59 silver stocks on my list, for which I have information available to calculate market caps, add up to $7090 million as of Dec. 5th, 2003. If silver stock investors move 5% of their silver stock holding to physical silver in the next few weeks, that would be $350 million dollars worth of physical silver, and thus, the silver price would probably hit $10-20/oz. within a few days. And if silver stock investors try to move 20% into physical silver, the silver demand will end the COMEX manipulation tomorrow. We don't need anyone other than ourselves to make "the big breakout" happen at this point.
---------------------------- I wrote an article predicting that Silver Companies will buy silver, and urging Silver Companies to buy silver with their cash, to use silver as money, and sell silver as needed for expenses. See http://news.goldseek.com/GoldIsMoney/1069879327.php
That article is now having an effect! It is being discussed by several large "cash rich" silver companies, who are seriously considering the idea of holding their cash in the form of silver.
Note, there is virtually no monetary demand. Note, the 2002 mine production (585 mil oz.) is greatly exceeded by industrial, photo, and jewelry demand. (838 mil oz.). Note the chart on page five, "Supply from above-ground stocks".
The difference between mine supply and industrial demand was met by a combination of three factors: 1. Government selling, 2. Private selling, 3. Recycling
U.S. government selling is ending, as their stocks have run out, or will run out. This factor will reverse, because the U.S. government will need silver to continue their coin program, and/or need silver when they wake up and decide they need to replenish their strategic stockpile for domestic security. Silver is a war material. China's selling of silver will also likely turn into buying, as China will need silver for continued industrial development, or when they also lose faith in the U.S. dollar.
Private selling has been rapidly shrinking and is now almost ended, and should turn into buying, and become monetary demand. Monetary demand is everything in the silver supply / demand situation. It's not now. Now, it's nothing. But it will become something incredible, because the dollar is dying.
---------------------------- The following is a "must read": Ted Butler's best ever explanation of how silver is manipulated lower than it should be. http://www.investmentrarities.com/11-04-03.html
Ted correctly points out that a lower price creates excessive demand from consumers. However, Ted Butler does not point out, and neglects to mention, that a perpetually low price also creates lack of demand from investors who are "trend investors".
I think most silver experts over-analyze all the supply and demand factors of the silver market. No factor is more important than monetary demand. The force of photographic demand is like a light breeze compared to the hurricane or tornado of monetary demand. Monetary demand is everything. ----------------------------
Consider the gold market for a moment: Even short selling at the COMEX is nothing compared to monetary demand. The short position most certainly helps to depress the price of gold as the short position is growing larger. However, it adds fuel to the fire if there is short covering, and thus, it can boost the gold price later. But the commercial short position on the COMEX is next to nothing compared to the non-reported "over the counter" trading that is done that does not appear on the COMEX.
(Numbers in metric tonnes, 32,152 oz. per tonne.)
870 tonnes -- the paper position at the COMEX, 280,000 contracts for 100 oz. each. 5,000 tonnes -- the official number admitted that the central banks have sold. 15,000 tonnes -- the number GATA research shows that central banks have sold / or leased. 30,000 tonnes -- the number of official central bank gold, minus either the 5000 or 15,000 tonnes. 145,000 tonnes -- all the gold mined in the history of the world. 2,600 tonnes -- annual mine supply 4,000 tonnes -- annual demand
And all of that is nothing compared to the amount of dollars out there that exist that could buy gold. $20 trillion bonds, $9 trillion M3 = $29 Trillion. A mere 1% is $290 Billion, which, at $500 /oz. is a massive demand of 18,039 tonnes. Do you understand what that means? That means that far, far less than 1% of dollars, in either bonds or M3 can buy gold, because there simply is not that much gold available.
Long before 1% of U.S. paper dollars tries to buy gold, gold will be going up well over $1000/oz., and silver will be headed up over $50/oz.
---------------------------- To scare away investors--that is the entire reason gold and silver are manipulated in the first place. Only the trend investors can be deceived. The problem is that nearly everyone is a trend investor. So few investors understand value. If people knew the facts and used their brains, the available above-ground refined silver would be gone by tomorrow, and the price would be well over $20-50/oz. But don't trust me, follow the urls and check the numbers:
$33,000,000,000,000: World bond market yr end, '01: http://tinyurl.com/vr7u $20,200,000,000,000: U.S. bond market, yr end, '02: http://tinyurl.com/vr7g $11,700,000,000,000: U.S. stock market, yr end, '02: http://tinyurl.com/vr7g $11,038,000,000,000: U.S. annual GDP, 3rd q.'03 est. http://tinyurl.com/vr9y $8,879,000,000,000: M3 (money in the banks) Nov. '03 http://tinyurl.com/vra0 $7,001,312,247,818: US debt, 12-31-'03 http://tinyurl.com/bbp $2,360,000,000,000: U.S. annual budget 2004 $1,860,000,000,000: World gold, 145,000 T @ $400/oz. http://tinyurl.com/vrcc $554,995,097,146: U.S. budget deficit, ending fiscal year, 09/30/'03 http://tinyurl.com/bbp $272,000,000,000: Market Cap of Microsoft (03-2004) http://tinyurl.com/vrcn $180,000,000,000: debt of Ford Motor Co. (03-2004) http://tinyurl.com/vrd1 $104,400,000,000: US gold, 261 mil oz., @ $400/oz. http://tinyurl.com/vsr9 $100,000,000,000: all the world's gold stocks (estimated?) $7,090,000,000: all the world's silver stocks (59 of them on this list, as of Dec. 5th, 2003) (Perhaps $10 billion by April?) $422,000,000: 52 mil oz. of registered COMEX silver @ $8.12 /oz. http://tinyurl.com/vrcw
So, what do all those stastistics mean?
For a while I was using M3 and dividing that by the US gold (261 million ounces), which implies the us dollar is 84 times more valuable than it should be, and that gold should hit $34,000/oz. after the fraud is destroyed. Today, I realize I need to add in the Bond market, because bonds are an asset class designed to siphon away and replace real money, which is to say, gold. This gives a price of about $111,111/oz. for gold. At $ 430/oz, this implies that US bonds and paper currency are 258 times more overvalued than gold.
Gold is overvalued relative to silver, because at current prices, it takes 59 ounces of silver to buy 1 ounce of gold. Historically, this ratio was 15 or 16. Given the silver shortage, this ratio will hit 10:1 or 5:1, or even 1:1. Thus, gold is perhaps 66 times more overvalued than silver.
Silver is overvalued relative to certain select silver stocks, perhaps by a factor of 3 or 10 or 20 to one.
Thus, if you multiply all those numbers, 258 x 59 x 10, You will see that bonds and currency are overvalued relative to select silver stocks by a factor of 152,000 to one. In other words, if silver stocks reach their true value, and paper currency disappears as it always does, then you might expect certain silver stocks to go up in relative value by a factor of 152,000 times more than they are worth today. By that time, you should definitely sell the silver stocks, and buy gold.
Can silver stocks really appreciate so much? Is there historical evidence for such a crazy thing? Yes.
See http://www.sterlingmining.com/old.html Excerpt: "CDE rose from penny stock status (.02 in 1967) to an NYSE-listed, $60 per share stock in 1980. In fact, the average share on the Spokane Stock Exchange rose in value nearly 16000% (yes, sixteen THOUSAND percent), as America could not get enough of silver and silver stocks."
CDE rose by a factor of 3000, or 300,000%, and by 1980, the metals boom was stopped short, and paper money's death was postponed. If paper money dies a death that lasts a generation world-wide, then even greater gains should have been expected.
For this reason, a wise silver stock investor should NEVER sell silver stocks for paper cash. A wise silver stock investor who looks for value would never sell a fairly valued silver stock for an overvalued silver stock that traded for hundreds of thousands of times more value than it should be. Likewise, there is no excuse for a silver stock investor to have any cash or money market or bonds in his portfolio for any reasonable length of time, except for when selling one silver stock to raise the cash for another silver stock, or for when you need to raise the cash to buy silver, or a private placement in another silver stock.
So, if you want some fairly liquid alternatives to cash, in case you don't know what other silver stocks to buy at the time, here they are: 1. Buy silver. You can hold silver in an IRA. 2. Buy CEF. Central Fund of Canada, ticker symbol CEF. It's gold/silver bullion fund. It has 50 oz. of silver for every 1 oz. of gold. The fund is fairly liquid, you can buy it as easily as any other stock, and is a good cash substitute. Unfortunately, given the current ratio, about 60% or more of the value is in gold. 3. Buy a fairly large cap silver stock, with fairly large volume, that is still fairly cheap on the list. SSRI is probably the best candidate.
----------------------------
The sheer stupidity of big money not recognizing the value of the world's remaining silver is utterly shocking to the rational mind. Clearly, bond holders are utterly deceived, and totally unaware of the situation. All my readers should understand and know that bonds were originally invented to suck the capital and money (gold and silver) away from the people. Bonds today are a paper promise to repay paper. What a con game! Are bond holders conservative and safe? No, they are fools! There is nothing safe about holding a paper promise to receive more paper when we have been experiencing hyperinflation for the past two and a half years!
---------------------------- And the fund investors who buy paper silver futures contracts instead of real silver are a very odd bunch of fools, for they should realize that nobody can deliver the 800+ million ounces of silver promised in the paper contracts and options that does not exist. It's like the paper longs are betting on the bank run happening, but they all are making sure they get at the end of the long line. Instead, they could go front and center, where there is an open window available where you can go and get physical silver, and nobody is there. Idiots! If you know a bank run is going to happen, and you are actually willing to bet on it, then go and withdraw your money before it is too late! Don't bet on it happening, which, if it does happen, your contracts will be defaulted on! Amazingly blind idiots. Wake up!
How bullish am I on silver? Here's an interesting way to put it: "59 times infinity" dollars per ounce.
I believe the dollar will eventually be destroyed, likely within my lifetime, hence the "infinity" part. I believe the ratio of silver to gold may be equal during a spike, when the market realizes that above-ground refined silver is more rare than gold. Thus, silver may outperform gold by a factor of 59 times better. Currently, the ratio is 59 ounces of silver can buy one ounce of gold or 59:1.
I may end up selling silver for gold, some at the 10:1 silver to gold ratio, some more at 5:1, and I would sell any silver remaining at a 1:1 ratio, that we may hit during a supply/demand crunch during a paper money collapse.
How we can tell if silver is leading gold, or if gold is leading silver? IE, which is going up more, faster than the other? The way you can tell is by looking at the ratio. If the silver:gold ratio is going up (say, from 60:1 to 80:1), then gold is moving up faster (because it takes 5 more silver oz. to buy an oz. of gold. If the ratio is going down (from 60:1 to 40:1), then silver is moving up faster. So, keep an eye on the ratio.
A good website that hosts posting boards for many of the smaller canadian stocks (that Yahoo! finance does not have boards for) is stockhouse.com Click on "Bullboards". ----------------------------
This is a list of primary silver stocks.
I count a company's ounces of gold as 10 oz of silver. Why? Because I have a very strong positive bias in favor of silver over gold.
Given my bias in favor of much, much higher silver prices, then, to me, the grades of silver are far less important than buying more oz. in the ground. More oz. in the ground at a lower cost is the most important consideration for me.
My method is simple. Cost per ounce in the ground. How much do you get (silver reserve totals), and how much does it cost (market cap)? The cost is the market cap divided by the silver reserve totals. Cheaper is better. Buy low, sell high.
Disclaimers, Warnings, and Advice: I have gathered the information below over the course of several months. I believe it is accurate to the best of my ability. I may have made mistakes. I probably did. I'm human. I have collected the information from public sources such as company web sites and public information found at yahoo.com to get the stock prices. This report in no way guarantees the accuracy of the information below, since the information may change at any time. The number of outstanding shares can change as a company engages in new share issues to raise more capital through private placements, or if outstanding warrants (and options) are exercised and converted into shares, or if shares are bought back. Shares can be consolidated, or split. The number of ounces of silver in the ground can also change, as these are often only estimates. The number can also change up or down, depending on drilling results.
This report is not investment advice. This report contains information that may or may not be up to date, and may be inaccurate. I urge you to contact the company and do your own research to verify the information contained in this report.
This report is not an offer to buy or sell any securities. I am not a broker. Only your broker can buy or sell securities for you.
I urge you to consult with your investment advisor to determine whether these kinds of investments are right for you.
I also caution you to be aware of your investment advisor's advice, they are sometimes paid to push things like mutual funds, bonds and other securities that may not be in your best interest to buy. Some investment houses are short physical metal, and thus, they may attempt to strongly discourage you from buying precious metal or precious metals investments. I believe that the propaganda machine in support of frauds such as bonds and the dollar is so strong, that they may even believe what they say when they give bad advice to avoid the safety and protection of precious metals. It is most likely that they simply do not understand the precious metals market as well as you do.
All total estimates of "ounces in the ground" can vary widely. There are "proven and probable reserves" which are the highest category of certainty which is obtained through many drill holes, and then at the least accurate, there are "inferred resources" which are hardest to estimate. Additionally, every miner always has "more silver properties that need to be explored, which probably contain more silver". For the purposes of this report, I have added all those numbers together. It is believed that all these "ounce in the ground" estimates can be profitably mined at $5-6 per ounce silver, or lower. Thus, I believe that when silver trades for $15/oz. or above, that all of these ounces can be mined at a substantial profit.
I may be wrong. (I probably make mistakes in every article, and there have been updates and corrections made each week, especially as prices change.)
Mining is a risky business. You need to be willing to sustain a total loss of your investment for various unforeseen accidents. Silver stock companies can do stupid things to shareholders such as take on debt, or issue more stock at too low prices which reduces the percentage of the company you may own (dilution). Yet, they need to issue shares to raise capital for drilling, and then an even bigger dilution to build a working mine. They may sell YOUR silver too cheaply, or worse, hedge the price of YOUR silver just as it begins to go up if they lock in a price which then proves to be too low if the dollar is destroyed. Mining is a risky business as estimates of assets in the ground can change. There is political risk and environmental risk. They can't franchise the business, are stuck in one location, are subject to government confiscation, or taxes, or union wage negotiations, and corporate looting.
Do your own research. Be responsible for your own investment decisions. Again, please, before investing in a mining company, call up the company, and speak either with the CEO or the Investor Relations contact person.
So, at the very least, check the company web site, read the annual reports, check my numbers, check my math, and email the company. That's what they are there for, to answer your questions, and to speak about the opportunity of the company. Don't trust everything you read over the internet. I am a biased source. I own silver mining stocks. And I'm not a broker, nor an investment advisor. I'm just a private investor trying to make sense of this crazy world, and sharing my information and thoughts on silver companies.
Surely, there are scammers in the mining industry in the past, and there will be scammers in the future. Remember the fraud of Bre-X. The new 43-101 compliance laws put in place after Bre-X will not prevent a "certified" geologist from lying if he feels lying will create a better payoff. The Bible warns, "trust no man", yet at the same time advises us to "cast our bread upon the waters", and to not issue "false allegations" against others. Physical gold and silver provide the "payment in full" as long as the coins or bars themselves are genuine and not fake.
This report may be copied, and transmitted by other people, and may become outdated by the time it reaches you.
I can't tell you how you should invest your money, of course. The reason is that I don't know how convinced you are of the silver bull market, nor do I know how soon you will be needing the money back, so I don't know how long you can wait to see results, nor do I know how much liquidity you need. Nor do I know the size of the money you have to invest. It is very hard to invest large quantities of money in a small market cap stock.
That being said, my investment strategy seems to be working for me, so far. And so, here is how I have valued the following silver companies to make my own investment decisions.
---------------------------- (Market cap is always converted to US dollars and denominated in US dollars because I divide by ounces of silver, which are also denominated in dollars)
The Market Cap is the usual tool to value a company. It is what the company "costs to buy" if you could buy the entire company, all the shares, at the latest share price. It is calculated by multiplying the share price, by the total number of shares that the company has issued. In reality, you could almost never buy an entire company at the price of the Market Cap, but only a small portion. Usually, even small buying pressure, such as trying to buy 1% of a company, can push up the price of a stock by up to 10-50% higher. In my reports, I list Market Cap in terms of millions of dollars as "$75 mil MC".
To calculate the Market Cap, I try to get and use the number of "fully diluted shares". A company creates shares when they sell them to investors in what are called "private placements", or "initial public offerings" (IPO). A private placement is done usually before there is ever an IPO. These usually consist of shares and warrants, sold for cash that the company will need to grow and expand.
The "outstanding shares" is the number of shares that exist out there if you count them all, and it does not count the warrants, which are like options. The investor can "exercise the warrants" which is a right, but not an obligation, to buy more shares from the company at the set price of the warrant.
If the company does well, and the stock price moves up, all the warrants will be, or should be, exercised and converted into shares, especially if they become "in the money", and the warrants are significantly cheaper than the stock price.
Now, "fully diluted shares" is the total number of shares, plus the warrants, counting warrants as if they were all exercised and became fully trading shares. I think "fully diluted shares" is a better number to use to calculate market cap than by using "outstanding shares" as most do.
Finally, I go beyond valuing a company based on Market Cap alone; instead, I value a company by dividing the Market Cap by the assets of the company, which are usually the silver reserves in the ground. Thus, I can get a sense of what you are getting for what you are paying. And then, I denominate the whole thing in terms of silver, and not dollars, to get a more constant measure.
---------------------------- (These first three companies, BHP, GMBXF.PK, and BVN produce a lot of silver, but are way to expensive to buy for the silver exposure for your portfolio.)
BHP Billiton Ltd (BHP) http://www.bhpbilliton.com/ --'produces 40 mil oz. silver annually from one mine' Additional comments: unfortunately, BHP has a 53 Billion market cap, so we can't buy BHP for the silver exposure. IE, $53 Billion / oh, say, 1000 million?????= $53/oz.
Dear BHP: By all means, keep mining the silver if you want the silver exposure, and want to be in the silver business. But don't sell the silver. Keep it. Let the profits of your entire company accrue as an increasing physical supply of physical silver. In fact, do as Buffett did, and buy more silver if you can. It would be infinitely easier for you to buy silver from yourself than it would be to buy 40 million ounces of silver from the COMEX, which, today, might be impossible.
Grupo Mexico SA de CV (GMBXF.PK) http://www.gmexico.com/indexi.html 651,646,640 shares (2002 annual report) @ $4.00/share $2606 mil MC "Grupo Mexico ranks as the world's third largest copper producer (copper at $1.24), fourth largest producer of silver and fifth largest producer of zinc." They produced 28.2 million oz. of silver, worth $129 million, in 2002. (P. 5, annual report.) Total value of produced metals: $2527 milllion. (but the company lost money in 2002). They mainly produce copper, 900,000 tons worth $1.5 billion in 2002. Thus, silver, at 2002 prices, is only 5% of their production value. Silver is a by-product for them, not a main product. I don't have silver reserve figures, nor do I see any need to find them or add them, since they are not a primary silver producer, and I don't think anybody would be buying them for the "silver exposure". If we assume 280 mil oz. of silver (ten years reserve for production), then we still don't have anything exciting for the silver alone. $2085 mil MC / 280 = $7.45/oz. cost.
Compania de Minas Buenaventura SA (BVN) Minas Buenaventura NYSE:BVN - Peru´s largest publicly traded precious metals company --produces over 10Moz of silver per year --looks way too expensive for the silver alone: 3.6 Billion market cap. -------------- -------------- --------------
HL (HECLA MINING CO) http://hecla-mining.com/ hmc-info@hecla-mining.com (208) 769-4100 115 mil shares @ $8.51/share $978 million Market Cap (MC) near zero debt, cash: $123 mil (Feb., 2004) (est. 2003 production 9 mil oz. silver) (the La Camorra gold mine, 412,000 oz gold.) ... (x 350/5 = 28 mil silver equivalent oz.) San Sebastian silver mine, (proven & probably reserves) 8.7 mil (produced 3 mil) the Greens Creek silver mine (proven & probably reserves) 31 mil (produced 3 mil) Hecla owns just under 30% of it! the Lucky Friday mine (proven & probably reserves) 14 mil. (produced 2 mil) Total silver = 32 million oz. Plus 412,000 oz. gold x 10 = 4.1 mil oz silver equiv. Total silver equiv. reserves = 36 mil oz. (Since my method values silver in the ground as a key asset, I should also value the cash as a "silver asset" which will be "marked to market" if silver goes up, and cash goes down. If HL is smart, they should be able to turn the cash into increased "silver exposure" either through buying silver properties, silver equities, or physical silver.) ($123 million cash / $8.12/oz = 15 mil "silver equiv" oz.) For a while, I was counting cash as bullion. However, since the bullion value of the cash has fallen by half since I started doing that, we can now easily conclude that doing so is like fraud. I can't participate in fraud, so I can no longer count the cash as silver. Cash is trash. Cash value evaporates. Silver value appreciates. The two are not the same. $978 mil MC / 36 mil "oz." = $21.16/oz. You get "approx" .29 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
Additional comments: HL has more oz. than listed in the "proven & probable" category used in this calculation. Vein mining makes reserve calculations difficult, and HL has rarely had more than about a 3-4 year picture of reserves ahead of them in 100 years of production.
I have been counting their papar cash as if it could be silver, but it still does not help boost their valuation much. They are still the most expensive company on the list in terms of cost per oz. of silver in the ground. But if HL bought 18 mil oz. of physical silver, they might end the silver manipulation, and significantly boost their own profitability.
Earth to Hecla: Is silver useful as money, or not? It's a simple question, and your actions speak volumes.
I have thought about moving HL to the "explorer" list, since the have so few reserves and resources. (Just to be fair.)
I believe silver bullion will continue to skyrocket, and I expect silver bullion to continue to outperform HL stock at these prices.
I have never been a big fan of HL. There is a disgruntled HL shareholder who posted the following public announcement to the Yahoo! Finance chat board:
As a HL stockholder, I Demand!! that HL Corporation start saving 25% of any silver they produce, in a stockpile to be sold at later and higher silver prices above $10.00 an ounce, using HL’s horde of $100 million cash to finance their current operations and any silver they put aside.
The reasons for this is twofold:
One, from the posts of Zeke and schloss, the following quotation:
"A stock cannot keep going up when the Fabulous Baker Boys (and Miss Vicki) keep increasing their thievery. In the past two years, Miss Vicky--just as an example-- has taken home 3/4 of a million dollars in stock option profits. This is insanity!"
Two, arguments from both Ted Butler and Jason Hommel regarding the profitable certainty of the later selling of silver at higher prices, and the withholding of immediate silver from the market speeding up the coming shortage driven price rise in silver.
As for any greed on HL Management's part in taking unjustified stock options, as far as I am concerned, if HL management acts this decisively in promoting sharper and higher silver price rises; they can have all the greed and stock options they can carry away.
But, if HL management sits on their sloth and does not start this constructive action, with a public announcement, within the next two months (June 1, 2004), then ....
It will be war to the knife, with the following actions taken on my part:
1) I will vote in every stockholder election to dispose of HL management;
2) I will advise any HL stockholders I am in contact with to do the same;
3) I will repeatedly advise any new or existing members of this HL Board, that HL is one of the worse silver mining stocks that I know of, with the lowest reserves per stock dollar, and give them names of alternatives silver mining stocks to purchase; and
4) I will inform any Institutions I am in contact with, whom are holding large amounts of HL stocks, to vote against HL Corporation management in any future elections.
So the ball is in now your court, HL Management. Show us you deserve to participate in the coming bonanza of silver profits by acting decisively, and you can have all the loot you can grasp.
I am waiting for the June 1, 2004 deadline.
With an average volume of 1.9 million shares traded daily, but with 115 million shares outstanding, I suppose HL stock might not be liquid enough for very large investors to quickly sell at curent prices.
ABX (Barrick) http://www.barrick.com/ 535 million shares @ $24.10/share $12,893 million Market Cap 5.5 million oz. / year gold production. --production hedged out for 3 years, or about 18 million oz. (most notorious hedger of the industry, the "leader") --price of hedges locked in near the market lows, perhaps $340/oz. on average, nobody knows for sure, because Barrick will not say --reportedly, Barrick is trying to "unhedge". --reportedly, they plan to deliver 1/3 of production to hedges, which means they will be hedge free in about 10 years. --the size of the hedge, 18 mil oz. gold, at $400/oz., would be valued at $7.2 billion dollars. At $500/oz, it's $9 billion. --but they claim to be "debt free", if you ignore the gold they owe for delivery, at locked in, low prices. (only true if gold is not money) --cash "rich" of about $1 billion dollars. Silver Reserves reported to be 850 million ounces! Gold Reserves reported to be 86 million oz. (x 10 = 860 mil oz. + 850 silver = 1710 mil oz. "silver equiv." $12,893 million Market Cap / 1710 mil oz. = $7.54/oz. silver You get "approx" 1.08 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
Additional comments: Over the years, Barrick has hedged their production, which many claim has helped to depress the price of gold and silver, by artificially adding to supply. (Barrick's promises becoming the extra supply.) The declining price of the precious metals has put other miners out of business, which Barrick has acquired at low prices. If Barrick goes bankrupt due to their hedges, and rising gold and silver prices, then perhaps Barrick's many properties will, once again, be sold at distressed prices.
Barrick boasts a "cash cost" of $189/oz., for gold for 2003, yet their cash has dropped from $2 billion down to $1 billion. It could be due to the hedging, locking in precious metals prices at low prices, and/or hedge covering that explains the monetary loss in the light of their low cash costs.
I believe silver bullion will continue to skyrocket, and I expect silver bullion to continue to outperform ABX stock at these prices. CDE (COEUR D'ALENE) http://www.coeur.com coeurir@coeur.com(208) 769-8155 or (800) 624-2824 213 mil shares (Issued 32 mil new shares late Oct. 2003) @ $7.14/share $1521 mil MC cash $38 mil (I think this is an outdated cash figure) San Bartolome (Bolivia) reserves 146 mil silver Silver Valley Silver reserves 32 mil silver Rochester reserves 43 mil silver Cerro Bayo reserves 3.7 mil silver Total: 224.7 mil silver (to Produce 14.6 mil oz. silver in 2003) $1521 mil MC / 225 mil oz = $6.76/oz. You get "approx" 1.2 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
The first week of January, CDE announced a deal for $160 million in convertable bonds! Beware of debt!
CDE continued to lose money in third quarter 2003, a loss of 10 cents/share, and they realized low prices for silver sales, $4.77. I believe they have hedged their gold production at low prices.
CDE looks like they owe both gold and dollars. A double debt warning for CDE investors!
Again, their listing of ounces is in the "reserves" category (more certain) not the "resources" category, which is less certain. They may have "resources" but like HL and Industrias Penoles, they give no estimates.
I believe silver bullion will continue to skyrocket, and I expect silver bullion to continue to outperform CDE stock at these prices.
IPOAF.PK (INDUSTL PENOLES) http://www.penoles.com.mx 397.5 mil shares outstanding (2002 annual, unchanged since 2001) @ $5.50/share $2186 mil MC 419 proven and probable reserves of silver (from 2002 annual report on website) $2186 mil MC / 419 oz. silver = $5.23/oz. You get "approx" 1.56 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
Additional comments: Industrias Penoles is the world's top producer of refined silver. They actually derrive more revenue from silver than any other source. But they lost money in 2002.
The word late Feb. is that Penoles has hedged several year's worth of silver, that is, they have locked in contracts at set prices. Set when prices were lower. How much lower, and at what price, is anyone's guess. As reported at lemetropolecafe.com, "We know the market is so tight even the world’s largest silver producer, Mexico’s Penolas, wasn’t thrilled about supplying 1 million ounces for a special project with ECU Silver, led by their extremely able CEO Michel Roy."
78.5 million oz. silver refined by the metals division in 2002, and 1 mil oz. gold. They probably refine almost all the silver that comes out of Mexico. They probably produce about 34 mil oz. of silver from their mines annually, and they have expansion plans.
I've heard this stock is tightly held, most is family owned.
Their oz. numbers are "proven & probable reserves", which is much more certain than most of the others which are mostly "inferred and indicated resources." They undoubtedly have "inferred and indicated resources" in addition to the "proven & probable reserves," I just could not find any info on that at the website or in the annual report.
Given the report that Penoles has hedged silver for two years, I believe silver bullion will continue to skyrocket, and I expect silver bullion to continue to outperform IPOAF.PK stock at these prices.
SIL (APEX SILVER) http://www.apexsilver.com/ information@apexsilver.com (303) 839-5060 45,023,760 ordinary shares outstanding. (Jan 30th press release) @ $22.54/share $1014 mil MC cash on hand: $350 million after Jan 30th share offering, and March 16th convertable debenture. San Cristobal (Bolivia) (proven & probably reserves) 454 mil silver (forecast capital costs for construction to total approximately $435 million) (Produced zero silver in 2002) 7.8 billion pounds of zinc, and 2.9 billion pounds of lead $1014 mil MC / 454 mil oz = $2.23/oz. You get "approx" 3.63 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
Additional comments: A reader emailed me saying that Apex has 35 exploration properties. I have not yet confirmed this report.
March 16th, Apex raises $144 million in a convertable debenture deal to help finance the development of San Cristobal. They now have 350/435, or 80.4% of the capital costs needed for construction. Raising the last bit should now be very easy to do. If, while raising money, they held their cash in the form of silver bullion, they would probably not need to raise any more cash at this point, since silver has moved up over 50%.
Apex is now the most cash rich silver stock on the list. About $350 million! Amazing. Their plan, as they have stated all along, is to wait until higher silver and zinc prices to develop their deposit. I wonder if they will be smart, and hold their "cash" in the form of silver bullion while they wait for silver bullion to go up in price? Seems so basic even a child could understand it. One key problem standing in the wayis that there are position limits on paper longs, and thus, APEX could not probably not buy that much silver bullion even if they wanted to. Ironic, isn't it? It is the most natural and sensical thing for Apex to buy silver while they wait for higher silver prices, and doing so would push up the price, but they likely will not act, and almost cannot act due to the problem of scales of size. This, to me, is so bizzare, I cannnot fathom it. I think I understand a lot, but this.... it is simply mind boggling. It's the result of a system so out of balance, it's insane, and the rational mind has no answer for the bizzare things we see today.
Look, COMEX is the last place on earth to buy silver now, in any really big size. Reports are coming in from all over that there is no bullion in significant size for sale available anywhere.
My advice to Apex would be to buy every bit of silver they can get. Even hold out a sign, put up a website, hire people to take the orders, and start buying silver, in all forms, at 10% and even 15% above the spot price. Just make yourself become the "market maker" and start buying silver from all over like a sponge soaking up water. Let the silver find you! In the long run, a 10-15% commission is nothing when the trade is this good. There may be position limits at the COMEX, but it's not illegal to offer to pay what you are willing to pay to the free market. Forget the COMEX, and make your own market!
Apex silver primarily has institutional investors.
Apex has a lot of zinc. That's an added bonus that is not factored in to my method of valuation. Zinc prices have been heading up soon, so that's another bonus. Plenty of zinc is especially good if zinc is moving up in price. Zinc is now up to $.51/lb., from a low of about $.35/lb. For zinc prices, see http://www.metalprices.com
And, they are not mining now, but are waiting for higher silver prices. That's also a plus. The management also seems to understand that silver will move upwards a lot. Another plus. Finally, George Soros, Billionaire, owns a bit of this one, just under 10% I read recently. That's another plus, in general, for the silver market if Billionaires are paying attention to it. There are several other zinc / silver plays on this list that investors might also consider: Canadian Zinc, Expatriate, or Metalline (I own Metalline, but not SIL.)
I do not have an idea on whether or not SIL will out perform silver bullion or not. It's hard to say, because of that huge zinc bonus. I expect most of the other stocks on this list to outperform or significantly outperform silver bullion in the long run from today's prices.
ECU.V ECUXF.PK (ECU SILVER MINI) http://www.ecu.qc.ca/indexen.html ecu@ecu.qc.ca (819) 797-1210 fully diluted shares = 103.3 million (6 January 2003) @ $.59/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.45 $46 mil MC http://www.ecu.qc.ca/reservesen.html See the url above for the numbers from the company's website, which are: Proven & Probable & Possible: 7.6 mil oz silver, 93,000 gold. = 8.5 million "silver equiv" using my method of counting gold as 10:1 "Potential" total: 21.2 mil oz silver, 221,000 oz. gold. According to my valuation method, that's 2.2 mil oz. of "silver equiv" for the gold, plus the 21.2 mil oz. silver, for a total of 23.4 mil oz. Exploration potential: From http://www.ecu.qc.ca/english/pdf/Annual_rep.pdf page 6 (or 8), the company says: "Exploration will mainly be targeted to verify the silver-bearing potential of certain properties, in line with the objective of increasing our reserves from 37 million to 100 million silver-equivalent ounces." (note, the 100 mil oz. "silver equiv" spoken of by the company undoubtedly counts gold as silver at the normal ratio, not my 10:1 ratio. Therefore, my 23.4 mil oz. re-calculation is 63% of their 37 mil oz. number, and so, likewise will I count 63% of their 100 mil oz. target) ECU.V is also exploring other gold properties. $46 mil MC / 23.4 mil oz. silver equiv. = $1.98/oz. $46 mil MC / 63 mil oz. silver equiv. = $.73/oz. You get "approx" 4.10 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock. Exploration potential = 11
Additional comments: (Still not trading) Although ECU stopped trading last week, it's most likely nothing to worry about. Simple reporting requirements or concerns that will probably be resolved soon.
GRS GAM.TO (GAMMON LAKE) http://www.gammonlake.com/ gammonl@sprint.ca (902) 468-0614 Fully Diluted 58.7 mil shares (Nov 30, 2003) +3.33 mil special warrant financing (Feb 27th, 2004) Fully Diluted: 62 mil shares (Feb 27th, 2004) @ $7.22/share $448 mil MC Total Ocampo Inferred: 1,124,000 oz. gold, 50,438,000 oz. silver Silver equiv = 11.24 mil oz. + 50.44 mil oz. = 62 mil oz. Total Ocampo Measured & Indicated 2,207,800 oz. gold, 108,438,000 oz. silver Silver equiv = 22 mil oz. + 108 mil oz. = 130 mil oz. Total Ocampo Measured & Indicated plus Inferred = 182 mil oz. Gammon owns 26.3% of Mexgold, MGR Since Mexgold owns 185 mil oz. of "target exploration potential", 26.3% of that is 48.6 mil oz. 182 + 49 = 231 mil oz. $448 mil MC / 231 mil oz.= $1.94/oz. You get "approx" 4.19 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock. **Note** most of Mexgold's oz. that are added in are an "exploration target" not yet "inferred resources".
Additional comments: Drill results released Jan 7th: http://biz.yahoo.com/cnw/040107/gammon_lk_drill_rslts_1.html At current prices of a 64:1 silver:gold ratio at $425/oz gold and $6.60/oz silver, the resources are worth $1048 million of silver, and $1411 million worth of gold. Cash cost is $85/oz. Life of mine is 7 years.
FSR.TO FSLVF.PK (FIRST SILVER) http://www.firstsilver.com/ info@firstsilver.com (604) 602-9973 or (888) 377-6676 38.6 mil shares fully diluted (Jan 2004) @ $2.71/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $2.06 US $80 mil MC From the Company's main page at their url: "As at December 31, 2001, First Silver's mineable reserves were 12 million ounces of silver and inferred resources totaled 30 million ounces of silver. The mine is developing a 1000 plus meter exploration drift to upgrade currently identified inferred resources to mineable ore reserves and to discover new reserves." 12 + 30 = 42 mil oz. $80 mil MC / 42 mil oz. = $1.89/oz. You get "approx" 4.29 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
Additional comments: This is a high grade, producing miner. The high grades, about 300g/ton, are a plus. They are also actively exploring, another plus.
3rd quarter, 2003, FSR.TO produced 389,154 oz. silver, and 604 oz. gold. and revenue was $2.09 million for the 3rd quarter. They produced at a loss, (a penny per share). They are unhedged, and remain committed to remaining unhedged.
Clifton has a complex JV agreement with Dumont Nickel. In sum, here is what Keith Moeller VP, Clifton Mining Company wrote to me: "If Dumont produces a positive feasibility study on an individual property piece, then they gain a 50% interest in that piece alone, not in the rest of the property. If they spend more than 5 million dollars (US) on any one piece and they produce a positive feasibility study on that piece, then they will gain a 60% interest in that one piece of property, not in the rest. If they stop at any time or fail to produce a positive feasibility, then they will gain no interest in any of our property. Right now we have around 7 different pieces of the property that have "Stand Alone" mine potential. If Dumont stakes or purchases any property within five miles of the joint venture property, then we automatically receive a 50% interest in that property."
My problem is how to quantify that. First, there is the range of potential silver resources. Second, there is the range of potential ownership, which is highly variable, and not subject to the entire property, nor necessarily subject to spending by Dumont, but subject mostly to Dumont doing a positive feasibility study on each of many properties . At the extreme ranges, the values are: 40% to 100% of 105 = 42 - 105 million oz. 40% to 100% of 1000 = 400 - 1000 mil oz. "exploration potential" $77 mil MC / 42 mil oz. = $1.83/oz. $77 mil MC / 1000 mil oz. = $.07/oz. You get "approx" 4.43 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver. Exploration Potential: 105
Additional comments: Note the "exploration potential" is very large.
Clifton has 25% ownership of a biotech firm that makes a colloidal silver. The biotech firm has a patent on a "super" colloidal silver solution made with 10,000 volts that adds oxygen that gives it more powerful antibacterial properties, and is safer since it uses less silver, which would prevent "blue skin" argyria. Normal colloidal silver that you can make at home with 30 volts works to kill bacteria by disrupting the oxygen metabolism of the cell wall, killing bacteria with oxygen. The market for safe antibiotics is in the multi Billions of dollars.
ABL signs a contract with GNC. Clifton's biofirm's colloidal silver product will be on the shelves of this mass market health food and fitness stores, GNC. Congradulations to Clifton!
MFN MFL.TO (MINEFINDERS) http://www.minefinders.com/ Shares Fully Diluted 34.1 mil (Late 2003?) @ $10.55/share $360 mil MC Cash on hand, Fully Diluted: C$34 million "over 3.5 mil ounces of gold resource and 160 mil ounces of silver" --Dec. '03 silver conversion = 3.5 x 10 = 35 mil + 160 mil oz. silver = 195 mil oz. silver At 70:1 ratio, 3.5 x 70 = 245 "silver equiv" of gold, and 160 mil of silver = 405. 245/405 = 61% of the mineral value is in the gold, 39% silver. At 10:1 ratio, 35/195 = 18% of the mineral value is in the gold, 82% silver. "In addition to the resources already drilled, Minefinders controls a strong portfolio of properties in Nevada, Arizona, and Mexico which have the potential to host new multi-million ounce discoveries over the next few years." $360 mil MC / 195 mil oz. = $1.84/oz. You get "approx" 4.40 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver.
Additional Comments: At 70:1 silver to gold ratio, over half of MFN is in gold, so consider this a significant gold bonus. MFN also now lists their resource figures on their website's main page. I'm sure investors appreciate this. I do.
HGM.V HOGOF.PK (HOLMER GOLD) http://www.holmergold.com/ 1-877-859-5200 ask for John Robinson, or George White 48 mil shares fully diluted (March 2004) @ $.38/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $ .29 US 8.9 mil oz. silver resources in cuba, according to final feasibility study. Short mine life. $14 / 8.9 mil oz. = $1.56/oz. You get "approx" 5.21 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
Additional comments: silver in cuba. (final feasibility study completed by Rescan-Hatch) gold in Timmins, Ontario. Most of the value of Holmer is in the gold property in Timmins, not the silver property in Cuba. --final approval by the Cuban Govt. is expected within few weeks. --Capital needed for the silver project, approx. $6 million.
Additional comments: A one property company. The Carmen gold-silver deposit on their Monterde property in the Sierra Madre belt of Chihuahua State, Mexico. Significant exploration potential.
It was reported by a press release that 16%-17% of KBR.V is owned by silver bull Jim Puplava of http://www.financialsense.com, which I think is a rather solid endorsement of the company.
This $35 million acquisition is a great deal for PAAS, and a minor help for PAAS shareholders. According to the press release above, the silver mine produced 3.5 million ounces of silver a year, at a cash cost of $3/oz., which is great! At $6.50/oz, that's $3.5 x 3.5 mil oz. = $12.25 million per year profit after cash costs! That gives the acquisition a P/E ratio for the mine's acquisiton cost of under 3! What a deal!
Unfortunately, PAAS shareholders are paying way above that when they buy the stock today. After this acquisition, PAAS should have a "2004 silver production forecast to 13 million ounces from 10.1 million ounces and will reduce forecast cash costs to below $ 3.50/oz, bringing anticipated total costs to less than $4/oz for the year." Now, at $6.50/oz, that's $2.5 x 13 mil oz. = $32.5 million per year profit, after cash costs. That gives a P/E ratio for PAAS of about $1000 / $32 = 31. Therefore, considering the two P/E ratios, 31 compared to under 3, PAAS stock is over ten times overvalued compared to other silver mining opportunities that exist in the market, such as the property they just purchased.
I believe PAAS is one of two silver companies on the list today that is significantly in debt (the other is now CDE).
What if your silver company decides to lock in silver prices at $8, and hedge years of production to "protect the shareholders and provide exposure to the high $8/oz. price," only to watch silver prices head past $25 and past $50/oz? Your stock could get wiped out in bankruptcy, and your investment could go to zero value! This is the danger of stocks! Your investment is subject to the whims of management!
WARNING: PAAS says at their website that they will hedge silver, in order to finance mine construction. http://panamericansilver.com/s/CorporateProfile.asp "Pan American is loath to give away the upside on any of its silver production, especially at current low metal prices, and will do so only to the minimum extent required as a condition of prudent mine financing."
My opinion is that it is NEVER prudent to go into debt, or lock in silver prices to finance a mine. If PAAS cannot raise capital on the markets by issuing shares, then they should not be financing new mine construction. If the market will not support new mine construction, then the market does not need more silver. PAAS and CDE should learn to trust the free market process, and avoid debt. WTZ WTC.TO (WESTERN SILVER) http://www.westernsilvercorp.com (formerly western copper) --And copper prices are headed up, too, (copper at $1.30) now. info@westernsilvercorp.com Jay Oness Toll Free: 1-888-456-1112 40.1 mil fully diluted (After Dec. 16th 2003 financing) @ $8.84/share $354 mil MC (not actively mining) $14 million Cdn in cash in the till (2 mil + 12 mil financing) no debt From the "SNC Lavalin Resource Calculation" March, 2003. Indicated 158.8 mil oz. silver Inferred 54.6 mil oz. silver Total 213.4 oz. silver. Total 1.94 oz. gold x 10 (at 10:1) = 19.4 silver equiv. The capital cost to get the mine going is estimated to be US $148 million Penasquito silver/gold. 213 mil oz silver. just over 2 mil oz. gold. from Chile/Colrado zone. Brechia zone will double the numbers, and infilling inferred to indicated: probably in Jan will have 500 mil oz. silver, 5 mil oz gold. Exploration potential: 500 mil oz. silver, 5 mil oz. gold, from http://www.mips1.net/mgn03.nsf/UNID/SBAY-5SUBN6 Two other zones that could each duplicate the success of each of the other two. So up to a Billion... oz. of silver as "exploration potential"! Feasibility: 2006-7 production timeline. $354 mil MC / 233 oz. = $1.52/oz. $354 mil MC / 1000 oz. = $.35/oz. --exploration potential You get "approx" 5.34 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock. Exploration Potential = 23
Additional comments: Western Silver was formerly Western Copper... Copper now at $1.35/lb!
Note the capital cost to get the mining started: $148 million dollars. WTZ also has the following other metal resources: 3.73 billion pounds of zinc x .50/lb = $1865 million 673 million pounds of copper x $1.30/lb = $874 million 1.3 billion pounds of lead x .40/lb = $520 million
* TM.V TUMIF.OB (TUMI RSCS) (TUY Frankfurt Exchange) (I own shares) http://www.tumiresources.com nicolaas@attglobal.net Nick Nicolaas IR (604) 657 4058 23.7 fully diluted shares (Dec. 2003) @ $1.99/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $1.51 US $36 mil MC 20 mil oz resource up to 50 million oz. silver potential but needs to be explored and drilled. 500,000 gold resource x 10 = 5 mil oz. silver equiv. Debt free, 2 projects in Mexico. Raised $2.7 million Nov. 14, 2003 $36 mil MC / 25 mil oz. = $1.43/oz. ***I'm using this number*** $36 mil MC / 50 mil oz. = $.72/oz. (exploration potential) You get "approx" 5.66 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock. Exploration Potential: 11 (likely plus more after bonanza silver discovery late November, 2003.)
Additional comments: Tumi soared in late November, after the company announced a bonanza grade silver discovery after drilling. This should significantly increase the numbers for their "exploration potential", but no word yet on the increase. It takes time for the geologists to estimate all of that, but investors went crazy over it immediately.
Tumi is focused on becoming a "premiere junior silver explorer." It's good to see the focus is in the right metal. Doing active drilling to prove up their projects and increase "resources". Nick Nicolaas really understands the silver story, beliving silver has much greater appreciation potential than gold.
Look at: Tinka TK.V (tumi's sister company) A pretty big gold/copper property in Peru (Tumi owns 30% of it)... That could mean significantly increased assets for Tumi.
I own shares of TM.V.
CZN.TO CZICF.PK (CDN ZINC) http://www.canadianzinc.com/ czn@canadianzinc.com 1-866-688-2001 67.3 mil shares fully diluted as of Dec., 2003 (as stated in the proxy, p.8) 80.2 fully diluted shares as of Feb 2, 2003 @ $1.21/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.92 US $74 mil MC $13.5 million cash, Cdn, no debt. not mining ($20 mil needed to finish & start the mine) ($100 mil worth of mining infrastructure in place!) ~70 mil oz. (IN ZONE 3 only!! of 12 zones! This company seems to be greatly under-reporting their silver reserves. Their 18 year mine plan consists of zone 3 only, but there are 12 mineralized zones on the property.) Really, perhaps well over 100 mil oz. silver. $74 mil MC / 70 mil oz. = $1.05/oz. You get "approx" 7.71 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
Additional comments: The additional cash from the recent private placements means that CZN will now be able to drill and explore more of their property. CZN likely has much more silver in the ground, and has good profit potential.
I would like the company to provide an estimate of the silver on the rest of their properties, but their mine plan consisted only of zone 3 at the moment. The rest must remain "exploration potential" for now.
To get the mine up and running, they might be able to pay back such debt within 2 years, but I would hope they would avoid debt, and raise the capital in additional financings.
I note several very, very positive things about this company.
1. This was the mining operation set up by the Hunt brothers, the major silver investors in the silver spike to $50/oz. in 1980 who were bankrupted by their own debts and margin calls as a result of the COMEX rule changes and silver short sale manipulation. The Hunts spent $50 million building infrastructure to build the mine. They were 90% complete when bankruptcy hit. The value of those buildings is now $100 million, and the mine only needs about $20 million (CAN) ($15 mil US) to get the mine up and running. That's much cheaper than other cost estimates of other operations. 2. The 70 million oz. of silver estimate is for zone 3 only. But there are 12 zones on the property. The zone 3 estimate is for a 10 year mine plan that involves mining zone 3 at current metals prices. 3. High Grade ores: 12% zinc/ton; = 240 lbs. zinc/ton x 50 cents/lb. = $120/ton for the zinc. 10.1% lead/ton = 202 lbs. lead/ton x 40 cents/lb. = $80/ton for the lead. 6 oz. silver/ton x $6.95/oz. = $42/ton for the silver. 0.4% copper/ton = 8 lbs. copper/ton x 1.30 cents/lb. = $10/ton for the copper. Total: $249/ton! (Prices have been moving up!) Prices accurate as of Mid Feb., 2004 4. My method of valuation: I'm really counting only the silver, not the base metals in my "oz in the ground" valuation. So consider a significant "zinc bonus", and "lead bonus". 5. Zinc and base metals prices are moving up strong. 50 cents/lb. for zinc! Check http://www.metalprices.com/ for updates. MGR.V MGRSF.PK (MEXGOLD RSCS) http://www.mexgold.com/ 18.7 mil shares outstanding + 22.5 mil unit financing (x 1.5) (1 unit = 1 share and 1/2 warrant at $2.50 Cdn) 52.5 mil fully diluted @ $4.90/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $3.72 US $196 mil MC inferred resource: 45 mil oz. silver + 1 mil oz gold. 1 mil oz. gold = + 10 mil oz. silver equiv "The estimate does not address significant additional mineralized structures known to be present on the property, or the potential for large strike extensions of known high-grade zones." February Financing was for the El Cubo Gold-Silver Mine is located in the Guanajuato gold-silver district in the Republic of Mexico. Historical reports cite district production at 1.2 billion ounces of silver and over 4 million ounces of gold. With capital spending and upgrades, and expect to produce up to 100,000 oz. gold equiv/year at $190/oz. At $400/oz, that may mean $210/oz. net profit, or $21 million positive cash flow/year, and yet, the purchase price was $21.5 million. Seems like they bought a mine, at a price, with a profit potential, of a P/E ratio of 1. Target to expand the El Cubo project resource to over 2 million ounces of gold equivalent. Given that historic production was 300 oz. of silver for each 1 oz. of gold, I think it's odd that they speak in terms of "gold equivalent". Why not emphasize the silver??? Converting their target of gold back to silver, at their ratio of 65:1, gives 130 mil oz. "silver equivalent". 55 + 130 = 185 "exploration potential" $196 mil MC / 185 mil oz. = $1.06/oz. You have an "exploration potential target" of 7.68 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
Additional comments: In spite of the recent very large financing, which nearly trippled the market cap of the company with a very large acquisition, the stock price barly moved.
Gammon Lake is a large shareholder, 26.3%.
Mexgold announced bonanza grade discovery on Jan 13th, 11 kilos per ton silver, over 2 meters. Part of a section of "25.5-metres grading 1.16 grams per tonne gold and 961 grams per tonne silver." The stock moved up strongly mid week, most likely in response to the news.
SSRI SSO.V (SILVER STD RSC) http://www.silver-standard.com/ paull@silverstandard.com (604) 689-3856 or (888) 338-0046 45.4 mil shares (or more), Jan 19th, 2004 (after recent PP) @ $16.83/share $764 mil MC debt free, cash: $Cdn 60 mil not mining or producing 15 silver properties measured and indicated resources totaling 300.4 million ounces of silver plus inferred resources totaling 366 million ounces of silver = 666 mil oz. Silver Standard Options In-Ground Silver Resources in Peru -- March 31, options 56.3 million oz. silver. 2.2 mil oz. gold. Silver equiv = 22 mil oz. silver. (22 + 666 + 56 = 744 mil oz.) $764 mil MC / 744 mil oz. = $1.03/oz. You get "approx" 7.91 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
SSRI really is the "silver standard". SSRI has the largest market cap this far down the list, which makes it a more attractive target for people with larger amounts of money to invest.
SSRI continues to add to reserves, either through exploring, or through acquisitions. This company seems to really understand the silver story, and helped to educate me as an investor.
I attended a two hour SSRI presentation after the Gold show in SF in late November. For the most part, their properties are very well drilled, and they have a fairly solid idea on how much silver oz. in the ground they have. They started their plan to acquire silver properties and become a "silver company" in about 1993, which explains why they have such a large market cap, and so many good properties with so many ounces of silver.
Some investors like SSRI because of the diversification --SSRI owns many silver properties. I say you can get a similar kind of diversification by owning stock in many silver companies. ORM.V OREXF.PK (OREMEX RES) http://www.oremex.com/s/Home.asp info@oremex.com Fully Diluted: 24,012,928 @ $1.25/share x .76 US/Cdn = $.95 US $23 mil MC Have $5 million cash in the bank as of Dec. 2003. holds the right to acquire a 100% interest in six mineral properties in Mexico. Oremex will focus on the exploration and development of the Tejamen Silver Property and the San Lucas Silver Property. They are hoping to explore for up to 100 mil oz. silver by drilling over the next year. --Experienced team of geologists and managment that have put other properties into production: Anthony R. Harvey, Chariman, has put 14 properties into production in his 40 year career. http://www.oremex.com/s/TejamenSilver.asp?ReportID=68653 for an inferred resource of 8.4 million metric tons at a grade of 89 g/t Silver (2.86 opt) and 0.2g/t Gold (0.006 opt). 2.86 x 8.4 = 24 mil oz. silver at Tejamen (one of six properties) $23 mil MC / 24 mil oz. = $.95/oz. $23 mil MC / 100 mil oz. = $.23/oz. --exploration potential You get "approx" 8.55 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock. Exploration Potential: 35
SRLM.PK ( STERLING MINING) http://www.sterlingmining.com/ RDemotte@aol.com Ray DeMotte 208/676-0599 just under 10 mil shares fully diluted (early Jan. 2004) @ $10.35/share $104 mil MC ~185 mil oz. reserves + resource, Sunshine alone Quote from: http://www.sterlingmining.com/jun112003.html "The prior operator last estimated the mine reserves at 26.75 million ounces of silver, 10.36 million pounds of copper and 7.05 million pounds of lead (or approximately 28.85 million ounces of silver-equivalent), as well as an additional resource of 159.66 million ounces of silver. " ~100 mil oz. other properties: the 10 sq. miles around the 1/2 sq mile of the Sunshine (rough guess--needs to be explored) even though--these extra 100 mil oz. are in the "explorer" category. They need to be drilled and found, although I've heard of estimates as high as 400 mil oz. total for SRLM.PK $104 mil MC / 185 mil oz. = $.56/oz. $104 mil MC / 500 mil oz. = $.21/oz. (exploration potential) You get "approx" 14.51 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock. (Exploration potential is 39. )
Additional comments: I wrote an article on SRLM in late Dec. See: Sterling Mining
Ray DeMotte really, really understands the silver story, and has been aggressively acquiring silver properties. Sterling continues to consolidate its land position around the Sunshine mine.
Sterling Mining acquired the Sunshine mine. Sunshine was one of the big three: Hecla, Couer, & Sunshine. Sunshine went bankrupt. Sterling got the property a few months ago cheap, because they were quick & willing to pay cash. Other buyers wanted to do a full study before making an offer. This company's share price went ballistic as a result. But the company is still way undervalued. Just do the math, people. I own a substantial share of SRLM.PK There were a few great articles written lately for SRLM. See the company web site, above. The best factors, I feel, are as follows: 1. The Sunshine mine is an existing mine that was mining at a profit. The company went bankrupt, not the mine. So there will be no great capital costs for start up, only minimal costs. 2. The Sunshine sits on 1/2 sq. mile, and was never fully explored. Sterling Mining owns 10 square miles of property surrounding the Sunshine, right in the heart of silver country, the location of CDE and HL, the other two big companies at the top of this list. 3. The management of Sunshine understands the silver story. They are on a mission to acquire distressed silver properties at today's cheap prices. See also: December 14, 2003: "In light of the continued low silver price, Sterling has this year begun holding back into inventory a portion of this year's silver coins minted." RDV.TO RDFVF.PK (REDCORP VENTURE) http://www.redcorp-ventures.com/ http://www.redfern.bc.ca/index.html 42.7 mil shares fully diluted (Sept 2003) + 10 mil shares March PP (March 2004) 52.7 mil shares fully diluted @ $.43/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.33 $17 mil MC http://www.redfern.bc.ca/projects/tulsequah/exploration_resources.html#results 9 mil tonnes indicated and inferred at 107.5 g/t x .03215 = 31 mil ounces silver (3.4 oz/ton low grade silver, with other minerals) (also have significant gold ($30/ton at $400/oz.) and zinc $60/ton at $.46/lb.) 728,000 oz of Gold x 10 = 7.3 mil "silver equiv" = 38.3 mil oz. silver equiv. $17 mil MC / 38.3 mil oz = .45/oz. You get "approx" 18 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
Additional comments: RDV has a "gold bonus". At $409/ gold, and $6.50/oz. silver, it's about $300 million worth of gold, and $200 million worth of silver, or about 60% of the value is in the gold. Since my method really undercounts the gold, this means there is a significant "gold bonus" here. Redcorp Ventures Ltd.: Brokered Private Placement Financing Closed ($3 million)
HDA.V (HUSIF pink sheets symbol?) (HULDRA SILVER) no website Phone: Magnus 1 (604) 261-6040 6.924 million shares out (fully diluted) (Nov or Dec '03?) @ $.67/share x .76 US/Cdn = US $.51 $3.5 mil MC no debt HDA's proven and probable reserves stand at 161,000 tons of ore grading an average 25.6 ounces per ton silver, and 10 percent combined lead/zinc -- 4.12 mil oz silver, not including the zinc & lead. According to Magnus, the indicated and inferred reserves total about 180,000 tons at about the same grading -- in other words, a further 4 million ounces of silver. ~8 mil oz. silver $3.5 mil MC / 8 mil oz. silver = $.44/oz. You get "approx" 18.4 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
Additional comments: There is a significant lead/zinc bonus. "The property could be put into production at a capital cost of Cdn $3.5 million -- with payback of capital (when equity financed) within two years."
PLE.V (PLEXMAR RES INC) 36 mil shares fully diluted (Nov. 2003) + 24 mil shares and warrants with Feb 2004 PP 60 mil fully diluted (March 2004) + 1.75 mil options for directors (March 30th) 62 mil fully diluted http://www.paradox-pr.ca/image/plexmarnov2003.pdf @ $.345/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.26 US $16 mil MC --just acquired 2 silver mines in Peru Total: 1.09 mil gold oz., 28.4 mil oz. silver Total silver equiv: 38.4 mil oz. $16 mil MC / 38.4 mil oz. = .42/oz. You get "approx" 19 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
EXR.V EXPTF.PK ( EXPATRIATE RECS) http://www.expatriateresources.com/ info@expatriateresources.com 1-877-682-5474 Dr. Harlan D. Meade, President and CEO 85 mil shares fully dulted. (Feb, 2004) (+ 1.95 mil units (1.5 shares/unit) on March, 2004) 88 mil shares fully dulted March, 2004 @ $.425/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.32 $28 mil MC $1.2 mil CAN capital in the til no debt. Mostly a base metals company: Zinc. Also has some silver & gold. Total metal content of the six projects with resources... "Using current metal prices, the gross metal value of Expatriate's interest in the base metals in the properties is approximately US$1.56 billion as compared to US$540 million for its share of the silver and gold." Metal: Expatriate share of the project: Zinc 2.67 billion lbs. Copper 385 million lbs. Lead 202 million lbs. Silver 63.1 million oz. Gold 426,700 million oz. Gold x 10 = 4.3 mil "silver equiv". $28 mil MC / 67.4 oz. silver = $.42 You get "approx" 19.3 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
Additional comments: Significant zinc bonus, about 3 times the silver value. Smelter credits are estimated at about 60% zinc, 25% silver, 10% gold and copper, and the rest, other minerals. My method of valuation puts a value on the silver only, not the rest, so this is a significantly better value than my number shows.
Call Dr. Harlan D. Meade, President and CEO 1-877-682-5474, and ask him to send you an information packet on EXR.V. It contains a good report on why he is bullish on zinc.
* SVL.V STVZF.PK (SILVRCRST MINES) (I own shares) http://www.silvercrestmines.com/ info@silvercrestmines.com (604) 691-1730 25.1 million fully diluted Dec 31, 2003 + 750k options for directors (March 24th) 25.9 million fully diluted March, 2004 @ $1.54/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $1.17 US $30 mil MC $3 mil cash in the til. Indicated resources of silver 30 mil oz. Projects in Honduras. Also, now in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Mexico. Silver totals are projected to be: 75 - 135 mil oz. (not 43-101 compliant) $30 mil MC / 75 = $.40/oz. $30 mil MC / 135 = $.22/oz. You get "approx" 20 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock. (Exploration potential = 36++ oz.)
The project in El Salvador is only 20 km from the property in Honduras, and the property in Guatemala is 15km away, so only one mill will be needed for the three when a production decision is made.
They have been and will be acquiring more silver properties with the money raised in the late November 2003 private placement, which I think is an outstanding way to spend the money.
I own shaers of SVL.V
ADB.V ADBRF.PK (ADMIRAL BAY RSCS) http://www.admiralbay.com/ info@admiralbay.com 604 628 5642 -- Curt Huber-- Business Development 33.3 mil shares fully dilluted. (March, 2004) @ $1.43/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $1.09 US $36 mil MC They have $6 million cash. --owns an option to earn 70% interest in "Miera San Jorge's Monte del Favor property in Mexico" "An historical resource estimate based on underground sampling at Monte Del Favor is reported at 17 million tonnes grading 0.85 g/t gold and 224 g/t silver for a contained 123 million ounces of silver and 460,000 ounces of gold." "While this resource estimate is not fully 43-101 compliant, the Company considers that it provides a conceptual indication of the potential of the property." 460,000 x 10 = 4.6 mil "silver equiv". 127.6 mil oz. x 70% interest = 89.3 mil oz. $36 mil MC / 89.3 mil oz. = $.41/oz. You get "approx" 20 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
Additional comments: Prior grades hit 2-5 kilos silver/ ton. (2000-5000g/ton. 70-176 oz. ton) Very high grades. The project was never properly drilled with modern methods.
Admiral Bay acquired this option to own a 70% interest in this silver property in June, 2003, and the acquisition did not impact their stock price at that time at all. Previously, they were a gas company, and they still have this other gas project, which may be more than half the intrinsic value of the company according to Curt Huber, who understands the silver story as expressed by Ted Butler and David Morgan.
My valuation method, obviously, does not give any value for their gas projects, which therefore needs to be factored in as a significant "bonus". Company goals for gas production are 2.5 million cubic feet/day by mid 2004, which at $5 would be $12,500/day gross, and target is 7.5 million cubic feet/day by the end of the year, again, at $5 would be $35,000/day gross, or $12.8 mil/year gross.
They are actively digging, drilling, and releasing results in press releases.
FAN.TO FRLLF.PK ( FARALLON RSCS) http://www.farallonresources.com/fan/Home.asp (604) 684-6365 Erick Bertsch 73.8 mil shares fully diluted as of Oct 31, 2003 @ $.78/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.59 US $44 mil MC Exploration and development in Mexico. Run by hdgold.com (Hunter-Dickinson) On 4 sulphide deposits out of 16, 29 mil ton grading 89 grams silver/t and 1.57 g gold/t. Conversion: 89 grams x .0353 oz/gram = 3.14 oz. RE: those 29 mil tons, they "anticipate increasing resources to 50 mil tonne range..." 3.14 oz. x 29 mil tons = 91 mil oz. silver 1.6 mil oz. gold x 10 = 16 mil oz "silver equiv". Total: 107 mil oz. silver equiv. (Exploration potential = x 1.7 = 181) $44 mil MC / 107 mil oz. silver equiv. = $.41/oz. $44 mil MC / 181 mil oz. silver equiv. = $.24/oz. --exploration potential You get "approx" 20 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock. Exploration potential = 33
Additional comments: Nothing done or drilled on the property since 1999. Why not? Because of low zinc prices: 46% of the price of the metals was in the zinc before prices crashed... The largest componant today is gold, which was surprising to Eric, the IR guy I spoke with. About 1/3 is in silver now.
At today's low metals prices: 2% x 2000 lb = 40 lbs zinc x $.42/lb = $16.8 for the zinc (.37 to .50 lb zinc.) 3.14 oz. x $5.15 = $16 for the silver. .055421 oz. x $385/oz. = $21 for the gold (Assuming 100% metals recovery--which is not likely to be the case. It may range from 60% to a higher percentage, depending on extraction methods used and the particular mineral targeted, which constantly change with technology advancements, and price changes in the metals. By the time a mine like this gets running, perhaps in 5 years or so, things may change to allow even greater metal recovery.)
Speaking with FAN.TO guys, they think reserves of ore could be 50 mil tonnes OR MORE, but that they really don't know, and want to issue conservative estimates.
* MGN (MINES MGMT) (I own shares) http://www.minesmanagement.com/ info@minesmanagement.com (509) 838 6050 Doug Dobbs 11.7 mil shares fully diluted as of the March 4th 1.4 mil financing. @ $8.25/share $97 mil MC 261 mil oz. silver resources. Previous drilling spent over $100 million drilling the property. $97 mil MC / 261 mil = $.37/oz. You get "approx" 22 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
Additional comments: As copper moves up 5 cents/lb., it adds $100 million to the value of the deposit. As silver moves up $.50/oz., it adds $130 million to the value of the deposit.
Mines Management owned 10% of the rights to their property in Montana. The other 90% owner, Noranda, simply gave up on the property and walked away from their mining claim due to "perpetually" low silver prices and political concerns. That explains the rocketing share price. So, the MNMM group got 90% of the rest of the property FOR FREE!--the value of which, and the nature of this transaction has just barely begun to be understood by the market, given the low relative price.
Their property also has about 60% of the value (at current prices) in copper (copper at $1.40/lb.), 2 Billion pounds of copper, and 261 mil oz. of silver. Doing the math: 261 mil oz. silver x $8.12/oz. = $2.1 Billion. 2 Billion lbs copper x $1.40/lb.. = $2.8 Billion. Total value of mineralization before costs to extract: $4.9 Billion. This number increased by $200 million since last week! And it increased from around $3 Billion just a few months ago!
Copper continues to move up. It's (copper at $1.40/lb.). MGN is both copper and silver! (Also, consider Western Silver formerly Western Copper) Someday soon, investors are going to rush into copper opportunities, if they are not already. Mines Management will benefit from this. Doug Casey wrote a bullish article on copper, "The Coming Copper Crunch" for the dailyreckoning.com last week.
They do not have an active working mine--which is a minus. They will need to raise capital to get a mine going. Noranda had several estimates for the cost to build a mine and mill, around $250 million. But it could be less depending on how economic they decide to do things. They are working on a feasibility study, and avoiding excessive dilution, which is a plus.
Regarding environmental concerns: Noranda had a fully approved Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) that led to successful project permitting, so environmental concerns were not a factor in Noranda's departure of the project in 2002.
CHD.V CHDSF.PK (CHARIOT RSCS) http://www.chariotresources.com/ 45 mil shares fully diluted October 2003 @ $.34/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.26 US $12 mil MC Cello Ccasa (1 project of 4) Resource Estimate - August 2002 31.4 mil oz. silver, 134,000 oz. gold. (x 10 = 1.3) 32.7 mil oz. (Still much exploration work to do.) $12 mil MC / 32.7 mil oz. = $.36/oz. You get "approx" 22.8 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
GGC.V GGCRF.PK (GENCO RESOURCES) http://www.gencoresources.com/ IR: Rob Blankstein: 604-682-2205, or info@gencoresources.com 11.9 mil shares (Dec. 2003) @ $1.46/share x .76 US/Cdn = $1.11 $13 mil MC http://www.gencoresources.com/reserves.html 484 x .03215 = (15.5 oz) x 2.3 mil t = 35.8 mil oz. silver 2.00 x .03215 = 148,000 oz. gold x 10 = 1.5 mil oz. silver 385 x .03215 = ... x 95k = 1.2 mil oz silver 40+ mil oz. silver equiv. resources 2002 production, 500,000 oz. silver, 9000 oz. gold $13 mil MC / 40 mil oz. silver = $.33/oz. You get "approx" 24.6 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
ASM.V ASGMF.PK (AVINO SILV GOLD) http://www.avino.com/ shares@avino.com 604 682-3701 -- David Wolfin 10.9 mil shares fully diluted, Nov. 2003 (with the 4 mil new shares from PP) (proposed PP in late Oct 2 mil units at $1.27 (unit = 1 share + 1 warrant at 1.58) @ $1.99/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $1.51 US $16 mil MC from: http://www.avino.com/other/goldstock100197.html --in 1997 "How Much Silver Does Avino Have?" "Operations at Avino's silver mine in Mexico are both open-pit and underground. I examined the reserves and interpolated the tonnage into silver ounces as follows: 28-million ounces proven; 50-million ounces probable and 27 million ounces possible." (Not all are 43101 compliant reserves & resources.--that is an old, third party report.) --focus is on being silver company. A plus. They actually have over five silver properties/projects. I'm only have numbers to count for one, the "Avino mine". = 28 + 50 + 27 = 105 Avino owns 49% of that, or 51.5 mil oz. -"not considered reserves under the new Canadian National Policy 43-101" $16 mil MC / 51.5 mil oz. = $.32/oz. You get "approx" 25.4 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
Additional notes: There are 4 additional silver properties that I don't have numbers for. Consider this a "silver bonus"!!!
Mexican mining law once stated that a controlling interest had to be owned by Mexicans, which explains why they only have a 49% interest. That they don't have a controlling interest is a minus. This law has changed. The mine was operational until the mine went into temporary closure in November 2001. So there is in place an existing mine, with working infrastructure, which is a bonus. There is a need for drilling in order to test the potential that was stated in the feasibility study.
UNCN.OB ( UNICO INC) http://www.uncn.net/ Ray Brown, 530-873-4394 70 mil shares @ $.09/share $6.3 mil MC Three main properties: Bromide-- 372,000 ounces of gold? Silver Bell--15 mil oz silver? Deer Trail --287,000 ounces of gold and 27 million ounces of silver... but the lease on the Deer Trail will expire June 1 2004, so they need to raise significant money in about 3 months. 49 mil oz. total. $6.3 mil MC / 49 mil oz. = $.13/oz. You have an expiring lease on "approx" 63 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
Additional comments: They need $4 million to exercise their option to buy the "Deer Trail" property. They are considering various options on how to do that. Ray Brown has been in this business a long time, and is excited that he's got a bunch of younger guys working on the property now, and he's encouraged by the upward direction of the price of precious metals.
Explorers deserve their own category, since they cannot be valued by my method of looking at reserves and resources of ounces of silver in the ground. We do not know how many oz. they might have. They are exploring for that.
This list, although at the bottom, in no way indicates that these companies are more highly valued than companies listed above. It is also difficult to categorize a company as an explorer, since all silver companies always hold more silver properties that need to be explored.
(The order is by largest market cap first, not by "comparative value".)
I removed Imperial Metals because I could NOT see that they were a significant silver miner with significant silver resources.
*IMR.V IMXPF.OB (IMA EXPL) (I own shares) http://www.imaexploration.com 43.4 mil Fully Diluted shares (May 1, 2003) @ $3.50/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $2.66 U.S $115 mil MC Exploring in Argentina. $4.5 million cash
Additional comments: Positive drilling results are coming in.
CDU.V CUEAF.PK (CARDERO RSCS) http://www.cardero.com/ Henk Van Alphen -- President (604) 408-7488 32 million shares fully diluted Dec. 11th , 2003 @ $3.79/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $2.88 US $92 mil MC ($10 million Cdn cash in the till after $5.9 mil private placement closed on Dec. 11th) Speculated resources, or "exploration potential": Providencia -- high grades, could have 100-250 mil oz. Chingolo -- Will finish drilling by secnod week in November -- Henk says, "may have 400-600 mil oz. "exploration potential" in 200-300 mil tons of rock." They got 30-40 grams (1.23 oz.) on the first drill hole, but hope to find 2-3 ounces silver/ton. Please note, "exploration potential" is a non quantifiable, non-regulated, unauthorized type of estimate. It is not 43-101 compliant. Trading decisions should probably not be made on these kinds of shaky estimates, which may be only hype and hope. An investor who wants to be protected by US regulations should wait for geologists to pour over the drill results and produce numbers that comply with 43-101 regulations, that may one day appear in a company press release. (Also, the first time Cardero issued drilling results earlier this year, the stock price was cut almost in half due to lower than expected results. The stock price has since recovered.) Nevertheless, here's how those "exploration potential" numbers work out if you do the math: $92 mil MC / 500 mil oz exploration potential = $.18/oz. $92 mil MC / 850 mil oz exploration potential = $.10/oz. Exploration potential: you might get about 44 - 75 oz. silver for one oz. silver worth of stock.
Cardero has three properties in Argentina; actively working on two: Chingolo and Providencia. Chingolo was just measured as twice as large as previously thought. They are trying to prove up these properties.
Providencia also has potentially high grades in several very large conglomerate deposits that can be mined at a profit today. Their property at Providencia was an active mine, but only a few tons/day. But they hope to make a large open pit project out of the main deposit, processing perhaps a few thousand tons/day.
High grades are very important in today's environment, especially if you can buy them cheaply.
They are also acquiring more silver properties, which is another bonus. This is an aggressive silver company. More properties help to alleviate the risk of an explorer.
AOT.V ASOLF.PK (ASCOT RSCS) http://www.bmts.bc.ca/aot/ 1 604 684 8950 39.7 fully diluted. (Nov 2003) @ $.44/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = .33 $13 mil MC (US) ---- Additional comments: They own 5.82 million shares and 388,000 warrants of Cardero at $.35, which usually a greater asset value than their market cap. Ascot's share price is typically around 80% of the value of their Cardero Stock.)
(I'm listing this one out of order, not by market cap, and next to Cardero, because of their position in Cardero.)
MCAJF.PK (MACMIN LTD) http://www.macmin.com.au/ 450 mil shares and options (Feb., 04) @ $.19/share $86 mil MC "Total Inferred Resource is 34.5 million ozs silver but the district is unexplored for epithermal silver and exploration to date suggests a district potential of 50 to 100m ozs Ag or perhaps much more." --"Macmin is a silver focussed company" The Texas Silver Project has in-ground resources of 44.5Moz of silver equivalent. (They own some Malichite, MAR.AX) Also, significant gold projects, perhaps several multi-million oz. potential projects.
* FCO.TO FCACF.PK (FORMATION CAPTL) (I own shares) http://www.formcap.com/frhome.htm inform@formcap.com 604-682-6229 165 mil fully diluted, March 2004 @ $.59/share x .76 US/Cdn = $.45 $74 mil MC (Recently completed $10 million financing) Very large cobolt property: 1-3 million tons of 0.60% cobalt equivalent Cobalt prices are racing ahead, up to $25- $33/lb. see http://www.wmc-cobalt.com/prices.asp 2000 lbs/ton x 0.6% = 12 lbs/ton x $29.50 /lb. = $354/ton (rich ore) Cobolt is $29.50/lb. recently, up from $9/lb. Formation Capital owns the Sunshine Silver Refinery (near Sterling Mining), worth $50 million. Break even cost $5-6/lb cobolt. The Idaho Cobalt Project is projected to produce 1,500 tonnes of cobalt per annum. = 3,000,000 lbs. production x about $ 20/lb profit? = about $60 mil profit/year??? FCO.TO also owns a few minor silver projects. The cobolt project needs more drilling, and with recent financing, things look bright. Formation capital will be re-starting the Sunshine Silver Refinery--expected in early June.
I own shares of FCO.TO
TVI.TO TVIPF.PK (TVI PACIFIC) http://www.tvipacific.com Dianne (IR) Phone: (403) 265-4356 = 344 mil fully diluted Oct. 7th, 2003 @ $.25/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.19 US $65 mil MC "The company has a policy of not hedging or entering into forward sales contracts." Cash flow positive. !!! --> + 2.5 % royalty on "Rapu Rapu" that should be worth about $1 million per year starting within 9-12 months. (a cash source for an explorer is a big plus) 14 projects in the Philippines. Producing a dore bar of 96% silver and 4% gold from Canatuan project with the following: Total silver = 7.1 mil oz silver Total gold = 182,000 oz. gold x 10 (@10:1) = 1.8 mil oz silver equiv. Total silver equiv (Canatuan) = 8.9 mil oz. + they own a drilling company with 20 rigs. + they have a "foot in the door" in China. + many other promising exploration properties in the Asian Pacific.
Additional comments: This company exploded in price from 16 cents to 23.5 cents when they announced that they would be mining in China: "TVI Pacific Inc. Receives Landmark Approval for Wholly Foreign-Owned Enterprise (WFOE) Status From Chinese Government". see http://tinyurl.com/vwbw
They are primarily a silver explorer. The bonus is they are a producer, and are cash flow positive, which are both extremely rare for an explorer. In fact, the other producers mostly all lose money!
* FR.V FMJRF.PK (FIRST MAJESTIC) (I own shares) http://www.firstmajestic.com/s/Home.asp info@firstmajestic.com 15.8 mil shares fully diluted (Jan 30th, 2004) (+ 8 mil unit PP on March 15th) + 12 mil fully diluted shares 27.8 mil shares fully diluted March, 2004 from http://www.firstmajestic.com/s/ShareStructure.asp?ReportID=67945&_Title=Share-Structure @ $2.29/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $1.74 $48 mil MC from http://www.jaba.com/2003/info/niko_2003_1.html http://www.stockjunction.com/modules/emails/featuredprofiles/FR/majestic_sj.html Up to 80% ownership of the Niko project which is similar to the Naica Mine: The Naica Mine: 4.3%Zn, 5.5%Pb, 6ozAg, 0.01ozAu, 0.34%Cu (5 million tonnes reserves_ = 6 x 5 = 30 mil oz. silver x .8 = 24 mil oz. The Niko project does not have reserves, it is similar to the Nacia, which has reserves. from http://biz.yahoo.com/cnw/040113/first_majestic_mexico_1.html Also, First Majestic acquired the La Parrilla Silver Mine in Mexico, a former producing silver mine that closed in 1999 due to low silver prices. They expect to re-open in 4 months, producing 175,000 tonnes a year at 300g/t silver, which means 1.8 mil oz. of silver produced per year. The cost to mine is estimated at $25-30/tonne, and recovery is 85-90%. Cash costs are expected to be $3/oz. So, if silver holds at $6.95, then $4/oz. is profit, x 1.8 mil oz silver/year = $7.2 million dollars/year after cash costs! Do they understand the silver market? I think so! They linked an excerpt from my free e-book from goldismoney.com " 8 Reasons why silver is a better investment than gold! " see url here: http://tinyurl.com/xyyb $48 mil MC
Additional comments: The other benefit of FR.V is that the company is keen on acquiring new properties. This is where the best money is made for a company in today's bull market in silver, in my opinion. From the home page of the website:
"First Majestic recently announced the acquisition of Le Parrilla Silver Mine, Mexico, which is anticipated to be the first of several acquisitions over the coming months."
I own shares of FR.V
* NPG.V NVPGF.PK (NEVADA PAC GOLD) (I own shares) http://www.nevadapacificgold.com/ dhottman@nevadapacificgold.com (604) 646-0188 David Hottman = 43 mil shares fully diluted (Nov 26th, 2003 including recent PP) @ $1.41/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $1.07 US $46 mil MC (up to $10 million cash in the til from recent PP) Amador Canyon Silver Project: 50-250 mil tonnes silver grades average 4 oz. sil/ ton in the deposit = 200 to 1000 mil oz. silver????? --very speculative at this point. Drilling needs to be done. $46 mil MC / 200 mil oz. = $.23/oz. $46 mil MC / 1000 mil oz. = $.046/oz. The inverse: you "might" get 35 - 176 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver.
Additional comments April 2: Nevada Pacific Gold to Initiate 25,000 Feet of Drilling on Keystone, Amador Canyon and Limousine Butte The 200 to 1000 mil oz. of silver exploration potential estimate for the Amador Canyon project is based on the size of the area, which may provide between 50 and 250 million tonnes of ore, times a low grade of 4-6 ounce per ton. 50 mil tonnes x 4 oz/tonne = 200 mil oz., the low end of the target range. 250 million tonnes x 4 oz/tonne = 1000 mil oz., the high end of the range. That target range is the expectation that the geologists are hoping the drilling will prove up. It will likely take several rounds of drilling and analysis of drill results to get a proper resource calculation, and plenty of time.
NPG.V has 10 gold projects, and one silver-but it may be big. The Chariman, David Hottman, says that 90% of the value of the company is in gold, NOT silver, and yet, I'm buying this company for the silver project of Amador Canyon only, and as if the gold componant was worth nothing. (The gold projects are a free bonus, in my book, and help to alleviate the risk of this explorer.)
Explorer in Nevada. They do not really know how much silver they might they have in the Amador Canyon project. They just did a $2.5 million private placement, and another $10 million private placement in late November. On the website, for David Hottman's bio, it says he was a founding member of Eldorado gold. "During his tenure, Eldorado's market capitalization grew from Cdn $7 million in 1992 to a peak of Cdn $781 million in 1996." Please note, exploration is risky, and costly.
Now that they are well-capitalized with over $10 million dollars, this company will likely do very well as they drill and prove up the deposits across all their properties.
I own shares of NPG.V
SPM.V SMNPF.PK (SCORPION MINING) http://www.scorpiomining.com 7.4 mil shares issued + 7.5 mil units (x 1.5) 18.7 mil shares fully diluted? March 2004 @ $3.22/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $2.45 US $46 mil MC
MAG.V MSLRF.PK (MAG SILVER) http://www.magsilver.com 28 mil fully diluted shares (Nov. 19, 2003) @ $2.10/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = US $1.60 $45 mil MC
--"MAG Silver Corporation enters the silver market as a powerful force. MAG combines a seasoned management team with two drill-ready geological extensions of high-grade world class producing districts. MAG controls 100% of the Juanicipio property adjacent to the Fresnillo District in central Mexico, currently producing over 12% of the world's silver from high grade underground vein structures."
The geologist, Peter K.M Megaw, is also working with EXN.V, another high grade silver project. Peter's philosophy was that it makes sense to go after very high grade silver projects that will be profitable regardless of the silver price.
IAU.V ITDXF.PK (INTREPID MINRLS) http://www.intrepidminerals.com/ scoates@intrepidminerals.com Stephen Coates, Investor Relations (416) 368-4525 40.3 mil outstanding shares 50.6 mil fully diluted w/ Dec. 9 financing (good as of March 4,2004) @ $1.10/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = .84 US $42 mil MC $3.2 million cash from Dec. 9 financing. Company's exposure is about half to gold, half to silver in several projects. Joint Venture with BHP Billiton focused on "Cannington" style silver deposits using proprietary BHP Billiton data. (all figures are "exploration potential") El Salvador - 38.5 mil oz. Argentina - 6 mil oz. Total: 44 mil oz. silver Total gold: ~690k oz. x 10 (10:1 ratio) = ~ 6.9 mil oz. "silver equiv" Total: 53 mil oz. "silver equiv". (exploration potential or indicated or inferred, not reserves) $42 mil MC / 53 mil oz. = $.80/oz. Hopefully, you get 10.17 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver.
The stock price exploded, nearly doubling, in response to the news of the above drilling results.
Since this company is about half gold and half silver, the 10:1 ratio really cuts down the "silver equiv" numbers, so keep in mind the "gold bonus" factor here. But it's like that with a lot of the companies on this list, so keep that in mind, and do your own math if you want to use the 70:1 ratio.
Additional Comments: Zinc & Silver in Mexico: Sierra Mojada. Sierra Mojada is a Silver District! Silver: Historic production was 10 mil tons of high grade ore... historic silver production went right "direct shiped" to the smelter, non-milled. It contained 500-1000 grams silver/ton, or 17.65 to 35 oz. ton. This means 170-353 million ounces of historic "high grading," non-milled, production. (Who knows how much silver is left?) That's the question with an explorer.
Zinc: Very high grades: 11.8% zinc. Potentially the lowest production cost in the entire zinc industry due to new "oxide deposit" chemical extraction process as revolutionary as "heap leaching". Exploring for up to 4 Billion pounds zinc.
Project ownership: MMGG terminated the buy-in agreement with Penoles, who went into default, so MMGG now owns 100% of the project! See http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/031203/35526_1.html
I believe this is very good for MMGG, since the Penoles agreement made it more difficult to quantify the value the company. Now, it is easier to value the company, and the existing shareholders will own more of the project and profits. It is important to note thatMMGG took the initiative to terminate the agreement. Penoles did not issue a statement indicating any intent to walk away. Penoles' delay or indecision caused them to lose the rights to their buy-in option agreement. Just like if you have an "in the money" option, it's a mistake to let it expire.
(Merlin of MMGG.OB, and Harlan of EXR.V (friends, actually) both have reports that will educate you on the bullish story for Zinc.)
I own shares of MMGG.OB
* OTMN.PK (O.T. MINING) (I own shares) http://www.otmining.com/ --The website has been updated. info@otmining.com Jim Hess Tel: 514-935-2445 8 mil fully diluted. (+ shares from the recent PP which are not yet added to the 8 mil) @ $4.80/share $38.4 mil MC Montana Historic silver production for the Butte district, from 1880 to 2000 was 714,643,005 oz. silver. They think their deposit may be bigger than "the richest hill on earth", which is located near their property, in the Butte district. The exploration potential for this company is astounding, if they are right.
CAUCF.PK (CALEDON RES) http://www.caledonresources.com/ Shares Outstanding - 180,721,142 @ .185 at Yahoo! (Mining in China) It trades on the London Stock Exchange, under the symbol, CDN $33 mil MC
MMM.TO MMAXF.PK (MINCO MINING) http://www.mincomining.com/ investor-info@mincomining.ca 1-888-288-8288 23 mil Fully Diluted @ $1.84/share x .76 US/Cdn = $1.40 $32 mil MC Located in China 2 gold projects and 1 silver (42% owned). Explorer $32 mil MC
MAI.V MNEAF.OB (MINERA ANDES) http://minandes.com/ ircanada@minandes.com (604) 689-7017 73 mil fully diluted as of Nov. 2003 @ share $.56/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.43 US $31 mil MC To raise $6.6 mil in recent financing. owns 49% of the resource: "55 mil silver equiv. oz. resource" back in 2001. AT 60:1 silver:gold when gold was about $300/oz., about half/half silver and gold. Estimated: 27.5 mil oz silver Estimated: 27.5 mil oz. "silver equiv" of gold. / 6 = 4.58 mil oz. silver equiv at 10:1 ratio. Total: 27.5 + 4.6 = 32 mil oz. silver equiv. (x .49 (they own 49%) = 15 mil oz.) They will be exploring for more: (The resources may be only 10% of the property.) 2.2 km stretch, open another 2.7, plus 3 other vein systems. significant high grade silver exploration potential. 7000 meters of diamond drilling. Plus a copper project, billion ton ore deposit. $31 mil MC
Additional comments: About half is gold value, half is silver value at 60:1. Minera Andes has several significant bonuses that my method is not valuing properly. First, I undercount the gold, of course, so consider there is a "gold bonus" at current gold prices. Second, they will be doing significant exploration work to increase their resources, and they have recently raised the money to be able to pay for that exploration work. Third, they have a copper project, and copper prices are rising. I moved MAI.V to the explorers list to be more fair to their valutation.
* EDR.V EDRGF.PK (ENDEAVOUR GOLD) (I own shares) http://www.edrgold.com/ Hugh Clarke, Investor Relations 1-877-685-9775 14.8 million Fully Diluted Jan 21, 2004 @ $1.95/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $1.48 $22 mil MC http://www.edrgold.com/s/SantaCruzMine.asp --currently producing 600,000 oz. silver/yr. --expect to increase production to 4,000,000 oz. silver/yr
DNI.V DMNKF.PK (DUMONT NICKEL) http://www.dumontnickel.com info@dumontnickel.com (416) 595-1195 56.4 mil shares outstanding @ $.42/share x .76 US/Cdn = $.32 $18 mil MC Dumont still needs to raise and pay several million to clifton for 50%-60% of each property, and there are many properties. (See Clifton for more specifics on the JV agreement.)
Additional comments: Clifton's JV partner, doing active drilling work right now. And recent property acquisitions. I moved Dumont to the explorer category, because I really don't have any idea what percent of Clifton's property they may acquire, which depends on Dumont completing a feasibility study on each property.
There seems to be significant disagreement between Clifton's shareholders and Dumont's shareholders on which company has the better value. On the one hand, Dumont is the aggressive partner, since they are the one doing the acquiring. On the other hand, Clifton is the holder of most of the properties, and Dumont has to pay several million to acquire each of the many properties. This is a very complex deal.
I do not like JV agreements due to the complexity of trying to determine ownership which is contingent upon many unknown factors that might change in the future. One man recently offered me an interesting suggestion. He simply said, "Why not buy both?".
EXN.V EXLLF.PK (EXCELLON RSCS) http://www.excellonresources.com 87 mil shares fully diluted (Jan 9, 2004 press release) (Previously, I had listed a number of 114 mil shares, which was, apparantly incorrect. I don't know how the mistake was made, or what my source was for the 114 mil shares.) @ $.275/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.21 US $18 mil MC From http://www.smartstox.com/reports/excellon.html indicated = 63,400 t x 2738 g/t x .03215oz./g = 5.6 mil oz. silver inferred = 2100 t x 1,433 g/t x .03215oz./g = .1 mil oz. silver "gross in-situ value of mineralization is $31.4 million." EXN to own 51% of the project. Apex is the joint partner. 51% x 6.2 mil oz. = 3.16 mil oz. (Company expects 114 mil shares fully diluted after takover of Destorbelle, needed to bring project ownership up to 51%) $18 mil MC
Additional comments: "Excellon ...is exploring and developing".... "a Bonanza grade Silver deposit in Mexico." The geologist, Peter K.M Megaw, is also working with MAG.V. From J. Taylor's write up on 2002: "After subtracting capital cost of US $1.8 million, custom milling charges and operating costs, management believes this underground development mine can, over the next two years, generate US $15.8 million or nearly $8 million for EXN's 51% share." That was when silver prices were under $5/oz.! The company plans to use these proceeds to further drill and explore the property. They believe the property may contain significantly more silver, as if what's known is only the "tail of the tiger"; furthermore, they believe they can fund exploration by mining the high-grade silver deposit that has been partly drilled.
BCM.V BCEKF.PK (BEAR CRK MINING) http://www.bearcreekmining.com/s/Home.asp 39.2 million shares fully diluted @ $.60/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.46 US $18 mil MC --About 6 properties in Peru (I wonder if Peru presents a significant political risk, given what happened to MAN.TO, or whether that was an isolated case in Peru? I don't know either way.)
NJMC.OB (NEW JERSEY MIN) http://www.newjerseymining.com/ Fred or Grant Brackebusch minesystems@usamedia.tv 21.3 fully diluted Feb. '04 + 1,727,500 units x 1.5 shares/unit 23.9 fully diluted Apr, '04 @ $.755/share US $18 mil MC New Jersey Mining Company (NJMC) is engaged in exploring for and developing gold, silver and base metal ore reserves in the Coeur d'Alene Mining District of northern Idaho also known as the Silver Valley - one of the world's richest silver districts.
CMA.V CRMXF.OB (Cream Minerals Ltd) http://www.creamminerals.com/cream/main.htm 30.5 mil shares Fully Diluted (January 31, 2004) + 2.4 mil units (1.5 per unit)(As of Feb PP) = 34.1 mil shares fully diluted (March, 2004) @ $.64/share x .76 Cdn/US = .49 $17 mil MC "The Kaslo Silver Property encompasses the Keen Creek Silver Belt and is comprised of nine former high grade silver mines"...
* KG.V KDKGF.PK (KLONDIKE GOLD) (I own shares) http://www.klondikegoldcorp.com/ 70 mil fully diluted (Nov. 2003) @ $.31/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.24 US 5 year high .30 $16 mil MC
This company has many silver and gold properties. Some of the people are also involved with GNG.V, Golden Goliath.
Klondike has one silver property that could be producing within weeks.
(I own shares of KG.V)
* CBE.V CBEFF.PK (CABO MINING)(I own shares) http://www.cabo.ca/ jav@cabo.ca (604) 681-8899 John Versfelt, President Fully diluted subtotal, including shares needed to acquire two drilling companies, which is contingent upon a financing.
= 18,880,436 as of February 9th, 2004 (Post-Consolidated) (Plus a proposed $5 million financing to acquire the two drilling companies.)
@ $1.05/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = .80 $15 mil MC Cabo Mining issued a 4 page press release on Jan. 5 detailing their contracts to acquire two drilling companies.
In the article, I highlight what I feel is Cabo's most imporant asset: control of 60% of the mining camp of Cobalt, Ontario. The "silver capital of Canada" produced historically, over 500 million ounces of silver.
Although I'm generally wary about excessive dilution, this second PP is well-needed. The first $5 million PP was primarily for the drilling companies, and the second will allow the company to explore the Cobalt properties better.
Cabo has exposure to silver, cobolt, nickel, gold, diamonds, and drilling companies.
Regarding the contracts to acquire two drilling companies in Canada: With all the money raised lately by so many companies to do exploration work now that precious metals prices have increased, I think drilling companies will be very busy making money. This will give the company positive cash flow after they raise the money to acquire the drilling companies.
Cabo had a significant discovery, as indicated in a press release on Feb 4. Some of their grab samples have very high percentages of Cobalt and Nickel. One vein grab sample was almost 30% nickel, (2 over 20%), which is at $7/pound. Three samples were over 3% Cobalt, which is at $30/pound.
To learn more about the mining camp town of Cobalt, there is a fascinating article detailing the history of the silver camp at http://www.cobalt.ca/cobalt/history.htm
I own shares of CBE.V
SML.V SMLZF.PK (STEALTH MNRLS) http://www.stealthminerals.com Email-Bill@McWilliam.com 604-306-0391 Bill McWilliam, Chief Executive Officer 48 mil shares (August 31- 02) @ $.42/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.32 $15 mil MC
NBG.V NBULF.PK (NEW BULLET GP) http://www.newbulletgroup.com/index.htm 50 mil shares fully diluted (including 15 mil new PP) http://www.newbulletgroup.com/financial.htm @ $.40/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.30 US $15 mil MC NBG.V has a gold deposit in Brazil that's bigger than the silver project in Mexico. http://www.newbulletgroup.com/mexico.htm " If the deposit extends to considerable depth, as do many of the silver deposits in the region, it is reasonable to assume a deposit of 300 million ounces of silver." Stroud Resources, JV partner, lists the deposit at 150-300 million oz. http://www.newbulletgroup.com/April1820022.pdf NBG.V partners with SDR.V NBG.V to get a 50-70% interest. 50% x 150 mil oz.= 75 mil oz., 70% x 300 mil oz. = 210 mil oz. $15 mil MC / 75 mil oz. = .20 oz. $15 mil MC / 210 mil oz. = .07 oz. Exploration potential = 40 - 113 oz. per oz. worth of shares.
SDR.V SDURF.PK (STROUD RSCS) (There is no PK symbol as yet) http://www.stroudresourcesltd.com/projects-santo.html gcoburn@stroudresourcesltd.com Mr. George E. Coburn, President Tel: 416-362-4126 Fully Diluted 69,745,562 11.8 mil units x 1.5/unit in March 29th financing + 17.7 mil fully diluted shares 87.4 mil fully diluted shares (April, 2004) @ $.21/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = .16 $14 mil MC JV partner with NBG.V on Santo Domingo Silver Project in Mexico. 150 to 300 mil oz. exploration potential of the deposit. ownership is between 30-50%, so... 30% of 150 mil oz.= 45 mil oz., and 50% of 300 mil oz. = 150 mil oz. $14 mil MC / 45 mil oz. = $14 mil MC /150 mil oz. =
CHMN.PK (CHESTER MINING) http://www.chestermining.com/ Bill Hoyt, 785-383-9246 " 2.3 million shares outstanding, positive working capital and no debt " @ $5.50/share US $13 mil MC http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/031121/215141_1.html Historic estimate: "defined Conjecture mineral reserves of 706,000 tons grading 11.8 ounces per ton (oz/t) silver" -- the Conjecture Mine, with a lease-option agreement signed with Shoshone Silver Mining Company = 8.3 million ounces of silver (leased out) Since Chester will be receiving royalties, it makes it harder for me to value this company. $13 mil MC
EPZ.V ESPZF.PK (ESPERANZA SILVR) http://www.esperanzasilver.com/s/Home.asp 20 million shares fully diluted @ $.86/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = US $.65 $13 mil MC "Esperanza Silver Corporation is solely dedicated to the identification, acquisition and exploration of new silver projects." Looking for high grades.
GNG.V GGTHF.PK (GOLDEN GOLIATH) http://www.goldengoliath.com/ 604-682-2950 32.4 mil shares fully diluted @ $.37/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.28 $9 mil market cap
Additional comments: Silver Explorer in Mexico in the the Sierra Madre mountains: Uruachic. Doing active drilling on their silver property, Las Bolas, "in a month" (as of Oct. 7th). They hope to take a collection of old silver mines and make them open pittable. They have some very high grades from chip samples from the tunnels, ranging from 100g to 500g all the way up to around and over 1000g/ton of silver.
MMG.V MMEEF.PK (MCMILLAN GOLD) http://www.macmillangold.com/ 25.6 mil shares outstanding (3q 2003 report June, 2003) @ $.48/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.36 $9 mil MC
SHSH.PK (SHOSHONE SILVER) http://www.shoshone-mining.com Bill Hoyt, 785-383-9246 12 mil shares @ $.73 US $9 mil MC In Cour d'Alene, near CDE, HL, & SRLM.PK
* KRE.V KREKF.PK (KENRICH ESKAY) (I own shares) http://www.kenrich-eskay.com/ Toll-free 1-888-805-3940 16 mil shares outstanding. Use "fully diluted" to be safe. @ $.70/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = .53 $8.5 mil MC Adjacent to Barrick's silver property, Eskay Creek, which is "the fifth largest silver producer in the world". 70% of The Property was once almost bought by Homestake (which was acquired by Barrick) for $35 million in 1996, and Homestake was going to fund all exploration and development. The buy out ended when metals prices collapsed, and Bre-X hit, and when the majors cut back on exploration budgets to stay alive. This may well mean that the property the company owns is worth well over 100/70 x $35 mil, which is $50 million, plus development costs, back when silver was well under $7/oz.
I'm not exactly sure about the market cap at the moment, not quite sure how many fully diluted shares. So don't bid the price up too much without calling the company, and doing your own calculations of what you think this company might be worth.
I own shares of KRE.V
EGD.V EGDMF.PK (ENERGOLD MINING) http://www.energold.com/s/Default.asp Fred Davidson President (604) 681-9501 info@energold.com 16.8 million Fully Diluted (June 30, 2002) @ $.61/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.46 $8 mil MC
PCM.V PAOCF.PK (PAC COMOX RES) http://www.pacificcomox.com/ 66 mil fully diluted Jan, 2004 (From Dec 11, 2003 press release and 2002 report) @ $.13/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = .10 $7 mil MC
LEG.V LEGCF.PK (LATEEGRA RSCS) http://www.lateegra.com Michael Townsend, President Toll Free: 1-866-669-9377 Richard one of the IR guys. 38.7 fully diluted? (Jan 7, 2004) @ $.22/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.17 US $6 mil MC see also Teuton Resources Corp (TUO.V)
Additional Comments: --Bonanza grades. Newmont called them, noticed the property. Flew out a guy. El Tigre in Mexico: gold/silver bonanza style mineralization. Top grades: 62g/T gold 15,500g/T silver historic production, from trenching and surface sampling in late 90's. Cash on hand: $500,000 CAN
BGS.V BLDGF.PK (BALLAD GLD SLVR) http://www.balladnet.com 16.3 mil shares outstanding (fully diluted?) @ $.45/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.34 US $6 mil MC Bonanza grade "grab samples" in southern Argentina near IMA
* AUN.V AUNFF.PK (Aurcana Corp) (I own shares) http://www.aurcana.com/ CEO Ken Booth 604-331-9333 kbooth@aurcana.com 45 million shares (fully diluted) (March 2004) @ $.17/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.13 US $6 mil MC Drilling to commence on high-grade, gold-silver targets. (in Mexico)
TUO.V TEUTF.PK (TEUTON RES) http://www.teuton.com/ Dino Cremonese, P.Eng. President (604) 682-3680 20.6 mil fully diluted (July 28,2003) @ $.29/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.22 $5 mil MC "Management of Teuton and Lateegra are highly encouraged by the prospective results from the Del Norte exploration to date located in the Eskay Creek region"
ASLM.PK (AMER SILVER MINI) 2.75 million shares issued @ $1.75/share $5 mil MC Claim between CDE and the old Sunshine mine. JV with CDE subsidiary until 2017. ASLM to receive 20% net royalty, & if silver prices reach $16.50 an ounce or above, the profit sharing goes to 40%. Coeur d' Alene, Idaho
BBR.V BBRRF.PK (BRETT RES) http://www.bmts.bc.ca/bbr/ 17.2 fully diluted @ $.32/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.24 $4 mil MC Silver projects: Yukon --grab sample of 611 g/t Ag Argentina --samples from 31 to 5640 g/t Ag
ROK.V ROCAF.PK (ROCA MINES INC) http://www.rocamines.com 14.3 mil fully diluted (July 15, 2003) @ $.24/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = .18 $2.6 mil MC
CBP.V CPBMF.PK (CONS PAC BAY MIN) http://www.pacific-bay.com/ Guilford Brett, IR (604) 682-2421 9.2 mil shares outstanding @ $.14/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = .11 $1 mil MC
--CBP.V is the smallest market cap silver stock that I know of. It is truly a "penny stock".
----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Final Category: Silver stocks FOR YOU and I TO RESEARCH further:
I strongly recommend you try to "get ahead of me," and research these stocks to see if I left out any great values. I probably did. I simply did not have time, or could not yet find information (without using the telephone) on all the two key figures needed to get the "price per oz." in the ground. You need: 1. The number of shares fully diluted x share price to get the market cap. Then, 2., you need an estimate of the oz. in the ground. Usually, I've been finding the oz. in the ground resource estimates right off the company webpages, and I get the number of shares by looking for it burried in the financial statements like the quarterlies or annual reports, which are also usually right on the company webpages. Have fun researching for silver companies, and let me know if you find any good ones, and I'll add them to this list. * TBLC.PK (TIMBERLINE RES) (I own shares) * PDO.V (PORTAL DE ORO RS) (I own shares) QTA.V QURAF.PK (QUATERRA RES) http://www.quaterraresources.com/ Jay Oness Toll Free: 1-888-456-1112 # shares uncertain. three main properties in North America @ $.???/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.53 US QTA.V is a Sister Company to Western Silver, WTZ above.
PXI.V, PNXPF.PK Planet Exploration Inc. http://www.planetexploration.info/mexico.asp Planet holds an option to acquire a 100% interest in the high-grade 7,005-hectare Copalquin gold/silver property located in Durango, Mexico. "Resource estimates on the property have not been calculated since the discovery of the high-grade vertical fault zone, its existence may significantly alter Kennecott's and Fransisco Gold's original target potential of one million ounces of gold and 50 million ounces of silver based on their interpretation of a low-grade horizontal quartz breccia formation."
ATN.TO/ATNAF.PK (Atna Resources Ltd.) 37.1 mil shares fully diluted ??? http://www.atna.com/s/Home.asp The company holds a diverse portfolio of gold, silver, zinc and copper properties in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Chile. From http://www.capitalstool.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=4996 37 M shares (fully diluted) (Wolverine) 40% of 2300 Mg Ag = 30 Moz Ag + (Marg) 67% of 340 Mg Ag = 7,5 Moz Ag + (Wolf) 67% of 340 Mg Ag = 7,5 Moz Ag + (Nevada explorations) 40% of ? + (Ecstall) 140 Mg Ag = 4,7 Moz Ag The Wolverine Project is a joint venture between Atna (40%) and Expatriate Resources Ltd. (60%). Legend Mining LEG.AX LGDMF.PK http://www.legmin.com.au/ specialising in exploration and production of silver. Silver at the Munni Munni Joint Venture in the West Pilbara region of Western Australia Email to me said: "Legend Mining just bought a 70,000 ounces per year gold mine in Western Australia."
Mascot Silver Lead Mines MSLM.PK http://www.mascotsilver.com/ Coeur d' Alene, Idaho "Though we have reserves and could conceivably mine them, it frankly makes no sense to do so at current prices. ... The end of the silver bear will bring a number of the now-dormant small companies back to life..."
Silver Buckle Mines Inc (SBUM.PK) Coeur d' Alene, Idaho
Merger Mines Corp (MERG.PK) Coeur d' Alene, Idaho
Silver Bowl http://www.silver-bowl.com/ Coeur d' Alene, Idaho --working to get a new stock transfer company http://www.oxusgold.co.uk/ 216,559,942 Fully Diluted shares oxus will spin off: Khandiza is a high-grade zinc, silver, copper and lead deposit located in the Sariasia region of southeast Uzbekistan. Silver Mountain Lead Mines Inc (SMLM.PK)
Silver Verde May Mining Co (SIVE.PK)
Metropolitain Mines Ltd (MEMLA.PK)
Silver Surprize Inc (SLSR.PK)
Standard Silver Corp (SDSI.PK)
Horn Silver Mines Co (HRNS.PK) (801)-281-5656
Andean American Mining Corp AAG.V ANMCF.PK http://www.andeanamerican.com/ --concentrates solely in Peru Peru currently stands as the largest gold producer and second largest copper producer in Latin America as well as the second largest silver producer in the world.
Articles like this one, that present opportunities like these, can tend to move the markets in these stocks. So, be careful when buying. If you place any market orders at the open for any of these small stocks, you might end up buying at prices that are significantly higher than you intended. Limit orders might be better, but then, you run the risk of your order not being filled if the stock price exceeds your limit. And bid / ask spreads such as 15% on small cap silver stocks are not unusual. Markets can especially be moved given the wide readership on the internet. I've seen markets moved even by small private newsletters such as lemetropolecafe.com and silver-investor.com (I subscribe to both). Some of these stocks can move up 15%, 30%, 50% or even over 100% in a single day. Thus, valuations can change very, very quickly. So, be careful, and re-check the numbers if the prices move up. Do your own math.
Also note, the majority of these companies have an emphasis on silver. Most silver is produced as a by product of other mining, like lead or zinc or copper mining. Those companies that primarily produce other minerals are not featured in this report. This also helps to explain and prove, that silver is undervalued. If silver miners cannot mine silver profitably, and this report shows that to be true, then something is wrong with the silver price. It must go higher.
This report, and my method of valuing silver companies, depends on a much higher price for silver than exists today to be most accurate and most successful. If silver prices go up significantly, my picks will do well. If silver prices remain flat, then many of my picks should not do well.
Several people have told me that they don't get information this good even when they sign up for annual newsletter subscriptions from others that cost from $100 - $300.
The beauty of the internet is that it is helping knowledge to increase, and it is a form of communication that those who commit crimes of monetary fraud upon us cannot control. Please make the most of it, and please forward this on to others.
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Final Disclaimer: I have not received any compensation from any public silver stock company for writing up my weekly report on "Silver Stocks--Comparative Valuations". I own shares of the following 18 silver stocks: CMA.V, PLE.V, TBLC.PK, PDO.V, AUN.V, EDR.V, IMR.V, KG.V, MGN, CBE.V, NPG.V, SVL.V, MMGG.OB, TM.V, OTMN.PK, FCO.TO, KRE.V, FR.V. These are required disclaimers by the SEC: whether I've been paid, and what I own. I believe the SEC intended this to be a cautionary note that I own these shares, not as a recommendation or endorsement. I reserve the right to buy or sell any stock at any time. I believe the SEC does not requrie a disclosure regarding finder's fees. Nevertheless, I have begun to receive "finder's fees" from a few companies.
-- Posted 3 April, 2004 | |
Last Three Articles by Jason Hommel, Gold Is Money
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