A day's wage used to be a silver dime,
or a silver quarter, or maybe a silver dollar. A silver dime
today costs about 48 cents, at $6.74/oz. for silver. About 900
million oz. of silver are consumed annually, and just under 600 million
ounces mined annually. Oddly, there is is seven times as much
refined gold as silver... Buy real silver, it is scarce, and it
is real wealth. By the time paper money fails mankind once again,
as it always does, any silver dime you can lay your hands on will
probably be worth more than what $100 to $200 will buy you today.
You can buy it now, or work for it later.
This week's report lists the market capitalizations for 85 silver stocks. There are 31 silver stocks that list reserves,
resources (and exploration potential) which I
calculate by using my "ounce in the ground" formula. There are 54
explorers. There are about 30
additional "silver" stocks with incomplete
information. Additions & Changes
from
last week are in bold.
To read about my religious bias, see my other web site, 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. See Ezekiel 38. Also, see my essay: Biblical
Guidelines for Managing your Money
Kitco
reports silver at $6.74/oz. as of Friday, 2:55 PM West Coast US, which
was used to calculate the following
figures. The CAN $ / US $ conversion factor is
.7619. I will use .76 for ease.
How to read the table below:
Stock Symbol that works at Yahoo! Finance (Company name) / The
number that follows the company name, below, represents the company's
resources, divided by the market cap as denominated in silver; thus, it
is the number of silver oz.
"in ground" that you gain title to when you trade away one ounce of
silver to buy 1 oz. of silver's worth of stock. The number is the
expression of leverage that silver stocks can give you, the higher the
number, the better. / Next, I list the valuation price change
since last week (and stock dilution, and resource changes,
if any) as up/down or even. / Finally, there are additional comments (EXPT is "exploration potential")
Company names in bold have summaries below with updated information since last week. Click on the name to see the summary below.
This first list are the companies with information about reserves/resources/exploration
potential. The list is ordered/ranked based on the resource
picture. The most expensive (with the fewest silver resources
given their market cap) are listed first.
ABX
(BARRICK)
1.1 down --producer, hedger (15? mil oz. gold
hedged, 3 yrs production)
UNCN.OB (UNICO INC)
70.6 down
--lease
on largest property, expriesSept 1 2004.
* = I own shares
In the chart above, since last week, 12 stocks were up, 1 was even, and 18 were down.
Next list: Exploration companies or producers with limited information
on resources. This list is in order (roughly) by market cap, the
highest market cap companies are listed first.
This next list has silver exploration companies with market caps under about $30 million (Market cap = total number of shares
fully diluted, times the share price. It's what the company is
"worth" in the market place, given the stock price, and is one of the
important numbers I calculate each week in these lists.)
This next list has silver exploration companies with market caps under about $4 million dollars: (The real "penny stocks" are those with the smallest market caps, not the lowest share price!)
* = I own shares. There are expanded profiles on each company, way below. But
before I get to that, let me discuss my methodology, and the problems
with it.
See the number above, listed after each company in the first
list? That number represents the number of silver ounces in the
ground that you get when you buy an ounce of silver's worth of
stock. The number treats all reported ounces in the ground as
equal, however, they are NOT EQUAL. Some ounces in the ground are
more certain and others are more speculative. Some are higher
grades, some are lower grades. Some have been well drilled,
others have less drill results. They range from most certain to
least certain such as: "proven & probable reserves," and then,
"measured, indicated, or inferred resources." A reserve has
a feasibility study produced for it. A resource, does not.
Here's the math on how I calculate that one number. First, I get
a market cap by multiplying the fully diluted shares (which bullishly
assumes all options and warrants will be exercised and converted into
outstanding shares) by the share price in U.S. dollars. Next, I
divide that by the silver price, so the market cap is denominated in
terms of silver ounces. Then, I divide the ounces in the ground
by the market cap as denominated in silver. This produces the
single number of how many ounces of silver in the ground you are buying
when you give up one ounce of silver in your hand, for shares of stock,
instead. This way, you can not only compare silver stocks to each
other, you can compare them to silver directly. This also helps
people in other nations, using other currencies, to value these
companies.
This valuation 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.
I believe that the two most important
numbers that a silver mining company can report are the resources in
the ground, and the number of their fully diluted shares. Of course,
there is much more to a mining company than that, but without those
numbers, it is extremely difficult to even start an evaluation.
This report highlights those key numbers, where possible. If you
think those numbers are also important, please email the executives of
the mining companies you own, and ask them to make sure their numbers
are clearly published at their websites.
Problems with my methodology: My methodology assumes that the
more ounces in the ground, is, in theory, best, given that I expect
much higher silver prices. However, unless the price of silver
really moves much higher, my methodology may not be the best one.
If silver does really move up very high in value as compared to today,
then I expect my methodology to be one of the best predictors of rising
stock values, because more ounces in the ground mean more leverage to
rising silver prices. However, the companies with greater
leverage to the upside usually also tend to have greater leverage to
the downside, and thus, tend to be more volitile.
Other factors to consider that the single number produced by my
methodology does not: A resource calculation number does not tell
you the entire picture about a company. The resource calculation number is designed as a
starting place for further research. Other very important
considerations are as follows: How much existing mining
infrastructure is in place? The more the better, so think of it
as a "bonus". How much cash does the comapany have on hand, and
what is their burn rate? What is the management's attitude
towards money, silver, hedging, debt, and dilution? This is why I
list "additional comments" in the company profiles, below.
I don't consider grade to be too important (although I list it when I
can), because I consider the cost to mine to be the more important
consideration. The "cost to mine" is determined in a feasibility
study, which is the last thing produced before trying to raise money
for final construction of a mine. And usually, they cannot even
count silver as a resource unless it is at least somewhat feasable to
mine at today's prices for silver. And this is why I count all
the ounces as the same. If a low grade ore can be mined more
cheaply, and if a higher grade ore costs more to extract, and if it has
to be somewhat economically feasible even at these low silver prices to
be counted, it balances out quite nicely.
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/
Most of those stocks that were up this week in the first chart of 31 stocks had
greater leverage to the silver price, with more ounces in the ground
than the rest. The largest market cap stocks, that are considered the
"bellweather" stocks, were down. I don't think you can use the
performance of the overvalued silver stocks as an indicator of where
investor sentiment lies regarding silver. I think the good performance
this week among the small cap stocks, that are supposedly more risky,
and with greater upside potential, goes to show that the silver bullion
price is likely to continue going up. If we see a really strong move
up in these silver junior stocks, say, to where they are all priced
where you can hardly buy title to more than 20 ounces of silver in the ground with an ounce of silver's worth of stock, then I
think we will see a very strong move up in silver, exceeding $8.40 again.
Then again, silver
might lead the way. I say that's possible for two reasons.
First, people may not believe that silver will head higher until it
breaches $8.40, the recent top. In that case, investors may avoid
the silver stocks for a while. This was the pattern in the gold
stocks in early 2003, where gold led the way, and the stocks held back,
as if investors remained in disbelief of the continuing gold
bull.
But then again, part of what was responsible for the lull in gold
stocks was the strength of the S.A. Rand, and the strength in the
Canadian dollar, and the strength of the Aussie dollar, and the rise in
commodity prices, all of which reduced profits of gold miners overseas,
as the dollar weakened against gold. While such currency issues
may have an affect on overseas silver explorers in Mexico, Peru,
Canada, and Argentina, such currency issues will not be a factor in the
silver market among domestic explorers, such as in Cour d'Alene,
Montanna, or Nevada. It's something to watch out for as the
silver bull market continues, especially if due to the falling dollar.
Also, it might be possible that silver gets all the press, and the
silver stocks remain undiscovered by the masses. I'm trying to
prevent that, by making this silver report freely available.
---------------------
This week, I was interviewed on the
Radio by Victor Adair on "Money Talks" at cknw.com radio, that went out
over Western Canada You can listen to the broadcast at http://www.cknw.com/audiovault/audiovault.cfm Select Aug 2, Monday, 6:00 pm.
When the show pops up, advance forward to the time:16:40. I was
on for about 10 minutes. I went over the basic reasons why silver
will outperform gold: the short supply of above ground refined silver,
the deficit, the lack of current monetary demand, and the return of
monetary demand, the huge size of the bond market that is paying 1%
returns, and the tiny sized of the silver market that has grown over
50% in the last year. I gave a silver price expectation, up to
$13-35 or so in the next two years, to ultimately over $2000/oz if we
return to using silver as money. I briefly mentioned my
methodology in this report, that I buy stocks for the leverage, the
more ounces in the ground more cheaply, the better. I also
mentioned Sterling mining, that acquired the Sunshine mine, a company
story that is briefly mentioned at silverstockreport.com. I goofed,
saying they have "over 130 million" ounces in resources, it's actually
over 180 mil oz. in resources at the Sunshine, and perhaps up to 550
mil oz. all total. Finally, I say I believe that people should
buy silver bullion first for the safety, and stocks next, only if they
have the available time to devote to study silver stocks.
And, I mention that I offer the "look at my portfolio" if people are
interested in stock tips.
So, what was the marketing result of this interview? Two signups
on Monday. Oh boy! Maybe my webmasters won't quit!
But that's better than 0-1 per week as it has been for months now since
the silver price collapsed. But this reduced investor interest
goes to show the price is not likely to collapse downward from here,
because investor interest could hardly be any lower. Just
this week, with the silver price moving up again, investors are just
beginning to look at silver again--as is also evidenced in the good
performance among the silver juniors.
------------- The Anglo Far East Bullion company has offered me a service. They will be hosting a conference call titled, "SILVER'S
EXPLOSIVE FUTURE" with Jason Hommel. (August 27th at 6.00 PMwest coast Pacific time) --available to the first 200 people who register at http://www.anglofareast.com/teleconference.html
The Anglo Far East Bullion company is also working on a web-broadcaster for
the call so that it can be available live
on-lineand are
hoping that this maybe will be available in time for this month's call.
-----------------
About a year and a half ago, in Jan
2003, when I first began writing about the potential of gold to reach
in excess of $30,000/oz., the biggest objections were not that such a
figure would be impossible. Many agreed with me that the gold
price may exceed infinity dollars per ounce as the dollar dies out and
paper money fails completely.
The main objection that I had the most difficulty in answering was
a
series of fears about the government. People were scared of
confiscation. Many people were terrified that if gold rose
"too
much", that a mysterious "they" would simply come and steal it away,
and thus, "there was no point in investing in gold at all". But
they fail to realize the ongoing confiscation of inflation.
Silver and gold that you own is the only thing you can buy to protect
yourself from government confiscation!
Or, they
feared that if their stocks gained too much, that the mines would be
"nationalized", or their portfolios seized. That's how
demoralized people had become! Today, people are disinterested,
or discouraged, but not nearly so demoralized. Today, many silver
investors are rather spirited--many having recently written to the CFTC
and Eliot Spitzer to demand that they watch or investigate the excessive paper shorting of silver at
the COMEX. Today, the paper shorts are probably more afraid
than bullion investors.
And yet, some people, even today,
continue to think that "the Fed is in control" or that "the silver
price will not move up until the manipulation ends". Or that "they won't let it rise."
But, recently, fears have
diminished. Few write to me about it anymore. I can partly
see why. Gains have been realized across a wide spectrum of
silver stocks, which, as a group, were up 314% in 2003. There
were at least ten gold or silver stocks that went up ten fold in
2003. How can people say that "they will come and take it all
away if we have 100% gains" after there have been many cases where
1000% gains have been safely realized?
But let me rebuke such fears anyway,
as I have finally realized the problem with the confiscation
fears, and the fears of manipulation or government control. Yes, it took me about a year and a half to realize this,
and I realized it this week: Such fears are due to disobedience
to God! God has commanded us to not fear men, it's as simple as
that!
Matthew 10:28 "And fear
not them which kill the body, but are not
able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both
soul and body in hell."
Hebrews 13:6 So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.
Can we really have no fear of men who
can kill the body? The answer is simple: as Christians, we
have the resurrection hope! Jesus died for us,
and was raised to life to immortality, to prove that we, too can live
forever! This should give all Christians boldness to stand for
truth and righteousness, and against all lies and deception, even in
the face of death. If you cannot maintian your faith and
testimony in the face of a death threat, you are not a Christian.
Luke 12:8 Also I say unto you, Whosoever shall confess me before
men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God: Luke 12:9 But he that denieth me before men shall be denied before
the angels of God.
These people who fear government more than God... who would rather keep
their money in paper assets such as bonds paying 1% rather than gold or silver that have moved up over 50%... well,
they are being disobedient to God. We ought to fear God more than
governments. And this means we must obey God first, in all
things. And what sort of things has God said about paper
money? Quite a lot! For God has also said that unjust
weights and measures are an abomination, and he has told us to not be
usurers.
Leviticus 19:35 Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in meteyard, in weight, or in measure.
Proverbs 20:10 Divers weights, and divers measures, both of them are alike abomination to the LORD.
Deuteronomy 25:15 But thou
shalt have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure shalt
thou have: that thy days may be lengthened in the land which the LORD
thy God giveth thee.
Luke 6:35 But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to
them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be
great…
Deuteronomy 23:19 Thou shalt
not lend upon usury to thy brother; usury of money, usury of victuals,
usury of any thing that is lent upon usury:
I find Deut 25:15 particularly
interesting, because it implies long life is a result of using just
weights and measures. Today, we have the failing social security
system, and when it fails, many old people will lose everything, and
have no support system, all because during their entire lives, they
have turned away from using honest weights and measures. What's worse
is that younger people may resent them, because the younger people were
enslaved to support the dishonest system, and the younger people will
also lose out on their benefits that they paid into the system.
Yet it is not too late for the older generation who are still
alive. The old people can repent, and buy gold and silver, and in
doing so, they will prolong their lives, because old people who can no
longer work due to infirmity are faced with two crucial choices on how
to survive. Either live on savings, or charity of others!
Their savings must survive if they are to survive!
Bondholders are thus are guilty on two
counts (as usurers of unjust weights and measures), if not three (if
they fear of government confiscation of gold)!
Those who fear government more than
God are literally worshipping government as God! Think about
that! We should not percieve government (or those who create
paper money) as all-knowing and all-powerful. Only God is
all-knowing and all-powerful. And furthermore, God is in control
of governments on earth, governments are not in control of us! We
only need to obey the government, as long as they are not commanding us
to break the laws of God!
Daniel 4:17 This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the
demand by the word of the holy ones: to the intent that the living may
know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to
whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men.
Acts 4:18 And they called them, and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus.
19 But Peter and John answered and said unto them,
Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than
unto God, judge ye.
20 For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.
21 So when they had further threatened them, they let
them go, finding nothing how they might punish them, because of the
people: for all men glorified God for that which was done.
Now, let me tell you the most clear
proof that those who create paper money are not in control!
(Besides the fact that I mentioned recently about how the gold price
has exploded in price in dollars in 1933 and in 1971-80.)
They
don't own the silver exploration companies! The companies are
mostly owned by the people who run them. In most cases, the
presidents and principles own from 10-50% of the exploration
companies. The rest is often very tightly held stock, owned by
people close to the companies.
The large multinational banks never
invested in the silver stock sector. Yet, the gold market
bottomed out in 1999-2001. Now, it's 2004! The big boys who
are supposedly so much "in control", have not yet arrived at the
party! Three to five years late! If they are so "in
control" that they created the bottom, then why didn't they buy all the
silver and gold exploration stocks in the world at the bottom that they
created? Why did they miss out on the 314% gains in 2003?
Where are they? How come they are not in control of the silver
junior exploration companies? The total market cap of the entire
sector is still a mere $8 billion. The Federal Reserve sometimes
adds $50 billion to the economy in a single day. It added $7 billion today. And they don't
own the silver stocks. Imagine that! And think of the
implications! It proves they are not in control.
And if you are a God fearing person, you should not fear
governments. Because God allows governments to be in control so
that they can restrain and punish the wicked. (Romans 13).
And so what if the government "comes for me" because I advocate
bullion, and say that their paper money is evil? I will be ready
to give a testimony to them, and ready to give Godly advice to help out
the economy and the people of the nation.
And now I must apologize. For too long I have avoided
mentioning
scriptural topics so very important to the topic of gold and
silver. Why? Because I feared censorship at financial
websites, link partners, and potential business partners. At one
point, Nasdaq was going to subscribe to my affiliate program, and
advertise silverstockreport.com from their main page, but they declined when
they saw a link to bibleprophesy.org. So, for a while, I figured
that business success would only come if I tried to tone down Bible
references. I also feared that people
would unsubscribe to my report. I'm sorry.
Ninety percent or more of the people of the USA say they do believe in
God. We Christians are in the vast majority, even if we are not
always the most faithful or obedient. For those who are so
offended by any mention of Chrisitianity, that they would unsubscribe,
well, they are idiots, twofold, who are shooting themselves in both feet!
Even an atheist or a Jew should take a keen interest in what the Bible
(and New Testament) says, because he ought to know what that Christian
majority's religion has to say! After all, we are a rather large
market force, and you never know when Christians as a group will start
to grow more faithful to their religion! Well, actually, you can
know when. Christians tend to turn to God when they fall on hard
times, financially. Thus, in a collapse, we will be very
likely to start to buy lots and lots of gold and silver, and start to
remember what the Bible says.
And this silver stock report is the most comprehensive anywhere to be
found.
So they better pay attention!
And given our tradition of "freedom of speech and
religion" in the USA; I have a right to say what I believe is important
in the Bible regarding money, gold and silver.
The Bible says I should not cast my
pearls before swine anyway, so let them unsubscribe. That's my
boldness for the faith! Besides, I'm tired of reading the
negative complaints and comments anyway.
Thank you to my many Christian readers, who have encouraged me to speak and stand more boldly for our faith!
-----------------
Speaking of how they "control" silver
and gold prices... I've often wondered why the billionaires and
multi-millionaires of the world "just don't get it" regarding gold and
silver. Don't they realize the facts of the situation?
Probably not. I believe these people who have mountains of paper
wealth are lied to about the supply of gold and silver. I think
that they are told that the U.S. government has perhaps not 8000
official ounces of gold, but rather, 120,000 ounces of gold or
more. I think this is just a big lie to try and keep these people
holding their paper money.
After all, the gold price did explode
twice in recent history, in 1933, and in 1971-80. And the price
will likely explode again. The bottom line is that paper money,
unbacked by gold, is a lie! That's the lie, and it's an open lie,
yet people refuse to see it.
Here is another reason I think "they" don't have a huge mysterious supply of gold and silver. The Northwest Territorial Mint
has two bullion offices in the Pentagon, in order to sell bullion
products to them. If the Pentagon is a buyer, there is not likely
a huge mysterious mountain of gold that is off the balance
sheets.
If anything, GATA is right, the governments of the world have much less
gold than they officially claim. GATA says that of the 30,000
tonnes of gold in official government vaults, there is likely 16,000
tonnes missing, as they have been leased out. Why would the U.S.
government have to pressure various nations into selling and leasing
their gold hoards, and then reward them after they do so, if we had a
mysterious secret hoard of our own? If the U.S. government has so
much gold that they are afraid to sell it on the open market, which
would destroy the price, then why are they pressuring nations to lease
their gold at 1%??? The lie that they have huge mysterious
supplies makes no sense! Only the continual leasing of gold from
central bank vaults explains how the supply/demand deficit is met each
year in the gold market. All the facts show that there is no
mysteriously large gold hoard.
The rumors of a large gold hoard are the same old banker's trick.
They put a few gold coins on top of a barrel, and lie and say the
entire barrel is full, in order to stave off the bank runs that would
not only ruin them financially, but perhaps lead to their hanging!
So, we ought not to be scared of them. They ought to be scared of
us, and God. After all, God is not on their side. He's on
our side. And if God is with us, who can be against us?
-----------------
Wheaton River is spinning off their
silver properties. IMA Exploration also recently spun off their
silver properties. I think this is a trend that reflects the fact
that investors are tending to pay more for silver stocks than gold
stocks. And why are investors doing this? I believe
investors are paying the high price because they strongly expect the
silver price to rise more than the gold price--as I do, too.
This week, I wrote an essay for
gold-eagle.com after it was brought to my attention by vronsky that the
gold/silver ratio just broke out of a narrow range to a new high (since
the last run up to $8.40). See my article here:
The value investor rightfully
asks himself, "How can silver become less valuable than today's prices,
when it is in short supply above ground in refined form, and when more
silver is consumed each year than mined, and when there is already less
than zero monetary demand due to irrational investor selling?" It
cannot go down! The trend cannot continue. It must reverse course. True
value must assert itself. And when true value is restored, which
is partly determined by the fundamental factor of scarcity, and people
recognizing that scarcity, which is what made gold more valuable than
silver in the first place, then perhaps silver will be more valuable
than gold! Perhaps such conditions will last for an entire generation,
or at least until the above ground supply of refined silver exceeds
that of gold!
It looks to me like silver is beginning to curve upward, not trend
upward on a line. Thus, the silver price may accelerate upwards
rather quickly, perhaps in the general shape of one side of a parabola.
--------------------
Last week, I wrote my second article
that clearly explains why patents, copyrights, and trademarks are
contrary to free market principles that every gold and silver miner
already understands. Why do the gold and silver miners "get
it", and why did I bring up this controversial topic? Because miners cannot copyright or patent the products they
produce! Silver and gold cannot be patented or copyrighted.
Nobody has a monopoly to produce gold or silver, and nobody ever will.
I believe this to be an important issue regarding understanding the
nature of silver, and the nature of the silver mining business--and you
should always understand the product you are investing in! If you
only want to invest in businesses that depend on a patents, copyrights,
or trademarks to survive, then you should sell all your silver and your
silver stocks.
Society does not need patents and copyrights to create an incentive to
produce! The profit potential, which is available in the free
market, gives the incentive to produce. And the free market is
the best way to direct mankind to produce what society needs the
most. The free market is smarter than any central government
planners could ever be. The free market is just, fair, honest,
and rewards those who serve society's needs the most.
Why will silver stock investors be rewarded? Because society needs
silver. The world is consuming close to 900 million ounces of
silver per year, and is producing just under 600 million ounces per
year. This is unsustainable, and we silver investors will be
helping society to meet their needs.
Anyone who wants to further discuss or research the merits and evils of
patent and copyright law is encouraged to visit the following links:
I don't know if the link will remain active, since the time will have
run out by tonight. This particular auction was done in a very
unique way. Normally, if you sell silver on e-bay, there is a
slight risk that you will sell your silver under the spot price for two
reasons. First, your item up for auction may not be seen by
enough people. Second, the silver price may take off, and the bid
price for your item may get left behind. In this ad, the seller
found a way around that problem: The bid for the silver bars was
a "bid on premium"! The ad said:
You are bidding on PREMIUM. If you bid $0.99 then PREMIUM =
$0.99
Winner pays PREMIUM + NEW YORK SPOT PRICE per
OUNCE. ONE LOT -
Example:
Let me be abundantly clear.
Please copy my work and/or essays if you feel it may help you in your
business to sell silver or gold!
You can even round up a collection of my past essays, and give them
away for free, charge less than me, or charge more than me. Go
for it! Just do it! Quote my name or not, quote my website
or not. Go ahead and altar, improve, or change the works as you
see fit.
------------------
I'm very bullish on silver stocks and silver, and I have about 16% of
my portfolio in silver bullion, and the rest in silver stocks.
However, stocks are not for everybody, and I'll tell you why not.
If you don't have the time, or if you don't have enough money, the
stocks are not for you. Stocks are risky, and can go bankrupt, or
lose 75% to 95% of their value. Silver is safe. The less
money you have to invest, the safer you probably need to keep
it. Silver cannot go to zero value, and silver stocks can.
Here is a letter I recently received that is worth sharing:
I am a complete novice when it comes to stocks. However I have been thinking about investing for quite some time; I didn't have the money before. But I am in a position where I can invest $500 (a modest amount, I realize).
I've been listening to a weekly radio
show on investments, and 'silver' is being profiled quite a bit. I went
on the net and read what you wrote on silver. Although it's a bit too
much for me to process, it has inspired me to write to you for advice on where to put this $500.
I realize that investments always
carry and degree of risk, and would certainly not hold you to anything
should it not prove profitable for me.
What say you?
My reply: Very good question.
Given the size of your money, I would avoid the stocks, and put it into silver bullion from a local dealer.
$500 is the absolute minimum to open a brokerage account, and they will
charge you a $30 commission to buy and sell, which is over 10%.
You would do better to get silver itself.
You also do not have the expertise, nor time, to study about stocks,
nor do you have the ability to risk losing 100% of your money.
Stocks are so risky, you should diversify into about ten of them.
If you did that, you'd pay a total of $30 commission each, both in and
out, which would be $600!
Your time would be better spent in trying to make more money, even a
low paying job, such as getting a second job at McDonald's in the
evenings.
After you have about $10,000 in bullion, then consider the stocks.
------------------
My answer may have seemed a bit harsh, but it's the truth. People
want the stocks for the leverage, but if you don't know what you are
doing, it's too risky. What if this person put it into Barrick,
and the stock goes under due to hedging? What if they pick a highly leveraged
explorer who fails to raise the necessary capital and the drilling
strikes out, and the stock loses 80-100%?
Silver alone outperformed many of the silver stocks--probably also on
average, since about January 2004! So who is to say that the
stocks will always outperform? --They may not!
Some silver investors choose to buy CDE or HL, two popular silver
stocks on the NYSE. They reason within themselves that investors
will buy those stocks first, because they are well known. They
forget to look at value. Silver bullion is probably much more
well known, and I think, a better value than CDE or HL!
But let's assume that you need to have a bit of knowledge first, to
begin playing around with stocks. How much time should you spend
on stocks to make it worth your time? Perhaps at least an hour or
two, per company on this list, over a month. That's 200 hours or
so. --Before you make your first investment!
But what is 200 hours in a month? That's 50 hours a
week! You'd have to quit your job to do it right! Can
you afford that? If not, then perhaps stocks are not something
you should pick as an investment vehicle. And what is the expected return from
the silver stocks? At this point, I expect perhaps 100-300% more in a
year or two, over silver itself? So, how much money do you need to
invest to be able to earn more than a minimal $10 per hour? Well,
you'd need to earn at least $2000 from your investing "work" to have it
pay you at least $10/hour.
This list is long and intimidating on purpose. Stay out of the
stocks if you don't know what you are doing. Invest in silver,
instead.
A bullion investor has really just one concern: Buy silver at the
lowest possible price. That's it. It's not rocket science,
it's called shopping around, and it takes some work. One
suggestion is to advertise that you are buying, and to buy from the
public.
This list is a guide, and a time saver. It may help you to cut
down on the time you should really need to do in order to do your due
diligence. But you really should visit the company's websites,
email them, and call them, before you invest.
------------------
On Tuesday, many silver stocks were up HUGE percentages on very little volume. Check out these numbers!
Symbol: date
share price change
volume volume in USD:
FSLVF.PK Aug 3
1.64 0.00 +8.11%
38,000 $62,000
TM.V Aug 3
1.25 +0.14
+12.61% 139,300 $130,000 SVL.V
Aug 3 0.94
+0.18 +23.68%
65,300 $46,000 ABMBF.PK Aug
3 0.145 0.00
+16.00% 150 $21 dollars!
HDA.V Aug 3
0.57 +0.24
+72.73% 113,000 $48,000 CDU.V
Aug 3 2.90
+0.50 +20.83%
119,275 $259,000 AOT.V
Aug 3 0.38
+0.06 +18.75%
95,000 $27,000 ECU.V
Aug 3 0.37
+0.05 +15.62%
513,520 $142,000 CMA.V
Aug 3 0.35
+0.05 +16.67%
10,000 $2,600 CHMN.PK
Aug 3 4.00
+0.75 +23.08%
2,000 $8,000
For Tuesday, Aug. 3rd!
Look at one of them, ABMBF.PK! UP 16% on volume of 150 shares worth twenty one dollars! Amazing!
------------------
Last week, David Morgan released some very important information about
silver to the public in an article that appeared at gold-eagle.com.
There have been a few essays on the www.FreeMarketNews.com
website of which I am a director. Most of these essays were concerned
with China. The very fact that China is hosting the Third Annual China
International Silver Conference in late October this year should give
any thinking person pause for reflection. Go to www.silver-china.cn/en/
Another interesting point is what I learned about
the real Chinese silver views at the Silver and Zinc conference early
this year. It must be pointed out that China is devoting a great deal
of time money and energy to study silver.
The Silver Institute has kept us well
informed about the real Chinese silver story, yet many investors “feel”
China is the exporter of silver at all costs. Readers of the Silver
Investor have a completely different analysis and sorry Internet
readers these people pay us for our research and will do not give it
all away for free. I will give you a hint however, just because a
commodity lands on the dock on a given day, it does NOT mean that the
price on day is the price received.
Moving on to something interesting about China I ran across in my research this past month. An article titled: “The Chinese Silver Standard Economy and The 1929 Great Depression”
This paper was written by Cheng-Chun Lai and
Joshua Jr-Shiang Gau, Mr. Lai from the National Tsing Hau University
and Mr. Gau Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and
Statistics-Taiwan. I will not go into any detail about this report
other in this domain other than to paraphrase the authors, which state
the following.
It is often argued that the silver
standard insulated the Chinese economy for the Great Depression that
prevailed in the gold standard countries during the period 1929-1935.
The general argument that the silver standard was a lifeboat to the
Chinese economy remains defensible.
The Silver Investor has [received] more questions about
how silver does during a depression than probably all other questions
combined. Therefore, we suggest that any serious silver student look up
Blackwell Publishing Asia and read the referenced article.
http://www.blackwellpublishingasia.com/
I want to emphasize to my readers that this information from David
Morgan is extremely important, and very bullish for silver.
I'm a subscriber of David Morgan's newsletter, and I suggest that my
readers who really want to know about silver, should also subscribe at http://www.silver-investor.com
---------------- I'm a raving, unapologetic, confident
silver bull. Very, very bullish. $2000/oz. or more!
"To infinity and beyond!"
Now, some people take this and they
assume and falsely accuse the worst. They say I'm a shrill for
the banks, helping them lure people into buying silver futures
contracts, where people recently got slaughtered in the recent price
drop. That is utterly ridiculous! There are people who are
so afraid, they see ghosts under every rock. So paranoid, that
everyone is out to get them. I've always rebuked participation in
buying paper futures contracts. I've rebuked it morally,
religiously, and practically. I've never bought futures
contracts, and never advocated buying them. And I don't work for
the banks. I work for God, myself, and you. Frankly, the
banks could not afford me, anyway. I make too much from the
capital appreciation of my own portfolio!
Every week I link to Ted Butler's work
denoucing paper futures contracts as a game of manipluation.
Every week, I link to my own article, my prior essay, "The Moral
Failures of the Paper Longs".
This takes up space and make the report longer. But it is that
important--totally vital to the entire issue and understanding of
silver.
Silver and gold do not expire! Paper does! Silver and gold
are not promises to pay, they are payment in full. Silver and
gold cannot default and go to zero, all paper always has.
----------------
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 unique position... then the best way for me to share this with you
is to is tell you more precisely where I put my money. It's not investment
advice. I offer a monthly "look at my portfolio". 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. It includes which stocks are 9% and more of my portfolio, those between 9% and 6%, under 6%, under 3%, and under 1%.
If you have any questions about
billing or order fulfillment, you need to contact my support staff at support@silverstockreport.com
and
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 toll free telephone
customer support line is: 800-370-4154.
-------------------
When
I attended the Vancouver gold
show, mid June, I was interviewed on the radio by the Korelin Economics Report.
See http://www.kereport.com/recent.htm
I will be speaking in Toronto at the Cambridge Gold Show on October 3-4. http://www.goldshow.ca/
------------------- General Commentary on Silver
(slightly modified from last week):
Now, I think it's time that the silver
community started a letter writing campaign to the editors of
newspapers around the world, to tell them about silver.
Here is a sample letter:
May 21, 2004
Dear Editor,
I'm a silver investor. I believe
paper money is fraudulent. There is over 30 trillion dollars,
U.S., worth of bonds in the world, but less than 2 trillion dollars
worth of gold, according to gold.org.
As of April, 2004, the size of M3, the
money in U.S. banks, has reached 9.1 trillion dollars, yet due to
fractional reserve banking, the total of U.S. currency and coin in
circulation is only 724 billion dollars as reported by treas.gov.
At silverinstitute.org and
cpmgroup.com, they each report that silver has been in a deficit for
about 15 years, where world mine supply has been about 500 million
ounces, scrap supply about 200 million ounces, and industrial and
jewelry demand about 800 million ounces. The difference, about
100 million ounces, has come from investor and government selling,
drawing down reserves of silver. Known supplies of refined silver
are down to about 250 to 600 million ounces. At the COMEX,
they are down to 48 million ounces of silver left that is registered
for delivery, which you can see at nymex.com.
The governments of the world are
printing up too much paper money, and the world is running out of real
money, silver. I believe this will lead to the price of silver
rising dramatically in value, around the world.
I urge your readers to verify the statistics I have provided, and to
make their own decisions.
Sincerely,
Jason Hommel
------------------
I wrote an article: Miners to Use Silver as Cash
- 27 November 2003
Apparantly, I was about 6 months too early in my predictions, but
that's ok, I'm a very long term thinker and investor. I did not
miss the mark by too much time, and if you think in terms of decades, I
was right on the mark.
There are several
companies
that are increasingly deciding to hold their cash in the form of silver
bullion. These companies are:
SSRI SSO.V (SILVER STANDARD RSC)
SRLM.PK (STERLING MINING)
NPG.V NVPGF.PK (NEVADA PACIFIC GOLD)
EDR.V EDRGF.PK (ENDEAVOUR GOLD)
------------------
The Silver Valley in Idaho is bringing back the
use of silver as money. A silver one-ounce coin, a "Sterling" to
be used as a $10 piece. http://shoshonenewspress.com/index.asp?Sec=News&str=2869
------------------
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.goldmoneybill.org/
Send any donations you can, to:
[These are not political campaign donations.]
SOUND MONEY FOR AMERICA,
c/o Henry W. McElroy,
15 Iroquois Rd, Nashua, NH 03063
ANY AMOUNT, ANY LEGAL TENDER CURRENCY - U.S. OR FOREIGN !
For more info, contact
Rep. Henry W. McElroy, NH State Representative
Sponsor of the bill
603-233-5892
Harvey Wharfield
978-635-9586
We also need assistance with the following.
1. Please contact your local
representative to your state government. Find out whether they
might support a similar "sound money bill" in your own state.
To contact your state rep to the federal goverment, see http://www.house.gov/writerep/
To contact your state rep to your local state government, you will have
to find that on your own. Try searching for "contact state
representative california" and replace the name of your state in the
search.
2. If you know of any local
representaives to your state government, who may be GOOD, LIKE
MINDED REPRESENTATIVES, SENATORS, and GOVERNORS, who may like to
support, or sponsor, a sound money bill in your state, please tell them
about the NH initative. Copy the above, and send it along to
them. And call Henry W. McElroy or Harvey Wharfield, and let them
know of the other reps who may assist the cause.
3. If you have an email list to people who may be interested in
gold and silver as money, or who may be good conservatives, please send
out this notice to the list, so the project can move forward!
--------------------------
There are two excellent annual silver surveys that are sponsored by
industry.
The two reports present
the case that about 500 million oz. of silver are mined each year,
about 200 million oz. of silver comes from scrap, and about 100 million
oz. of silver comes from investor dis-hoarding, either by individuals
or
government sources, in order to meet the annual demand of about 800
million oz. of silver by industry & jewelry. This is wildly
bullish, because investors are net selling more than buying, and I
think the potential of investor demand is huge, and can be measured by
seeing how much paper money there is in the world. --------------------------
In sum, we are running out of silver. The U.S. government had
over 3 billion ounces of silver in 1940, and today, has very little
left, or none.
--------------------------
Silver consumption, per
capita, in the U.S. is the same today, in 2004, as it was in 1945.
And what is the per capita consumption of silver in the U.S.
today? 5500 tonnes x 32152 = 177 million ounces of silver used
per 285 million people. 177 / 285 = .62 oz. silver consumed per
year, per person, in the U.S., whether in 1945, or in 2004. Each
person in the U.S. today, on average, uses 6 tenths of an ounce of
silver.
-------------------------- See my article: Biblical
Guidelines for Managing your Money
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 ----------------------------
Silver Is Wealth ----------------------------
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.
Note, there is virtually no
monetary nor investment 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. Very 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, check the numbers and follow the links:
"The money chart"
1,000,000,000,000: 1 Trillion dollars
1,000,000,000: 1 Billion dollars
1,000,000: 1 Million dollars
$45,153,000,000,000: U.S. Household wealth,
as of first quarter, 2004. (Includes Real Estate, and investments)
$33,000,000,000,000:
World bond market, yr end, '01: http://tinyurl.com/vr7u
$26,400,000,000,000: World stock market,
June 2002: http://www.nyse.com/press/1044027443845.html
$20,200,000,000,000: U.S. bond market, yr end, '02: http://tinyurl.com/vr7g
$11,447,800,000,000: U.S. GDP, 2004 q1 http://www.bea.doc.gov/bea/dn/home/gdp.htm
$11,300,000,000,000: NYSE U.S. stock market, April, '04 (363 bill/s x
$31.14/s ave.) http://nyse.com (See:
Market info: quick facts)
$9,101,000,000,000: M3 (money in U.S. banks) April, '04 http://tinyurl.com/vra0
$7,183,392,668,476: US debt, 5-18-04 http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/opd/opdpenny.htm
$2,360,000,000,000: U.S. annual budget 2005 http://tinyurl.com/3xbd2 $1,860,000,000,000: World "official" gold mined in all of
history, 145,000 T @ $400/oz.
http://tinyurl.com/vrcc $300,000,000,000:
Estimated silver mined in all of history: 30-40 million oz? @
$10/oz.
$724,174,342,365: Total U.S. paper currency
& coin in circulation, Dec. 31, '03 http://www.fms.treas.gov/bulletin/index.html
$700,000,000,000: U.S. annual budget deficit
(current).
$272,000,000,000: Market Cap of Microsoft (03-2004)
http://tinyurl.com/vrcn
$222,000,000,000: M3 increase (money in U.S.
banks) from Jan 2004 to April 2004 (in three months).
$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/equities (estimated?)
$75,000,000,000: Money flowed into
Equity funds in the first quarter, 2004
$8,226,000,000: all the world's
"primary" silver stocks (80 of them on this list, as of June 25, 2004)
$6,710,000,000: 671 mil oz. of "identifiable" silver bullion left in
the
entire world, according to GFMS @ $10/oz. $526,000,000: 52.6 mil oz. of "registered"
COMEX silver bullion @ $10/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 68
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 68 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 68 x
10, You will see that bonds and currency are overvalued relative
to select silver stocks by a factor of 139,000 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 139,000 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 55% or more of the value is in gold.
3. Buy a fairly large cap silver stock, with fairly large volume,
that is stilll 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 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: "68 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 68 times
better. Currently, the ratio is 68
ounces
of silver can buy one ounce of gold or 68:1.
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.
----------------------------
For a list of bullion dealers:
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 have made mistakes in the data from time to time. 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.
Contact the company. 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.
Beware of scammers. 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 started an initial valuation process of the following silver
companies
to guide 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).
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 four companies, BHP, GMBXF.PK, KGHMand BVN produce a lot of
silver, but look to be way too 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 57 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.
KGHM Polska Miedz http://www.kghm.pl/en/index.php
--KGHM is the world`s sixth-largest coppper producer and second or third
in silver.
1163 tonnes of silver produced in 2001.
1163 x 32152oz.tonne = 37.4 million ounces of silver produced in 2001
--Copper/Silver mine in Poland.
--Market capitalisation is about $$1.52 billion.
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 stilll don't have anything exciting for the silver alone. $2085 mil MC / 280 =
$7.45/oz. cost.
Compania de Minas Buenaventura SA
(BVN) http://www.buenaventura.com/
NYSE:BVN
- Peru´s largest publicly traded pprecious metals company
--produces over 10 mil oz of
silver per year
--looks way too expensive for the silver alone: 2.7 Billion market cap. -------------- -------------- --------------
ABX (Barrick) http://www.barrick.com/
535 million shares outstanding(1 Q
2004)
@ $18.86/share
$10,090 million Market Cap
5.5 million oz. / year gold production.
--production hedged out for 3 years, or about 15 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, 1 Q, 2004: 14.7
mil oz. gold, at $400/oz., would be valued at $5.9 billion dollars.
--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: $850 million
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."
$10,090 million Market Cap / 1710 mil oz. = $5.90/oz. silver
You may get "approx" 1.14 ounces in the ground for 1 oz.
silver's worth of stock, if
the silver isn't hedged.
Additional comments: Barrick earns $26 million in first
quarter. x4 = $104 million, which gives a P/E ratio of 103.
Ouch, that's high. The hedge book loss was $10 million.
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.
About a year ago, perhaps spring 2003,
ABX made an announcement about covering 30 million ounces of silver
they sold short. Then, a large buyer showed up in the futures
contracts for about that amount.
1 Q 2004 note on hedging silver, p.
33: "At March 31, 2004, we had
fixed-price commitments to deliver 22.3 million ounces of silver over
periods primarily of up to 10 years. We also had written silver
call
options on a notional 7 million ounces of silver with an average
exercise price of $5.76 per ounce. These options expire at
various
dates in 2004 and 2005. The options are classified as non-hedge
derivatives for accounting purposes.
Looks like they never closed out the
silver hedge, like they said, but that they just bought options or
futures that expired, or maybe were rolled over. I don't know
whether they stilll have paper contracts that offset their hedges.
In fact, perhaps the dip in the silver price can be explained by the
options that Barrick wrote on some silver?
I expect silver bullion to continue to outperform ABX
stock at these prices.
I don't really count Barrick as a silver company... Let
me be abundantly clear. I primarily list Barrick to show how
poorly it compares to all the rest, and to help show how much better
the rest compare. This is a "comparative valuations" report,
after all.
IPOAF.PK (INDUSTL PENOLES) http://www.penoles.com.mx
397.5 mil shares outstanding (2003 annual, unchanged since 2001)
@ $3.85/share
$1530 mil MC
419 proven and probable reserves of silver (from 2002 annual report
on website)
$1530 mil MC / 419 oz. silver = $3.65/oz.
You get "approx" 1.84 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.
Produced 21.5 mil oz. silver 1 Q 2004 (Net earnings of $342.5 million 1
Q 2004)
The word late Feb. 2004 from ECU Mini, who reported to
lemetropolecafe.com, is that Penoles hedged silver at low prices. 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."
From 2003 annual statement, by Dec 31,
2003, Penoles hedged 1.5 million ounces of silver at $5.31/oz.
That looks to be a bad bet, but easily coverable for Penoles.
They bought an option to sell (put) 17 million ounces of silver at
4.94. Another bad bet. Totally wasted money, it appears to
me. They also have an option to buy 8.5 million ounces (call) at
$5.53. Not bad. Such hedging practices, win or lose, make
it more difficult for investors to know and guess the current
operational state of the company. Who knows whether Penoles will
lock in more silver, and take away the upside potential profitability
for shareholders, or even waste money on put options that will never be
exercised.
Whether Penoles hedged an entire 2
years worth of production by Feb, 2004, I don't know, and remains to be
seen. Penoles also engages in hedging dollars in the foreign
exchane markets, further complicating matters.
77 million oz. silver refined by the metals division in 2003, and
1 mil oz. gold.
They probably refine almost all the silver that comes out of Mexico.
They produce about 48 mil oz. of silver from their mines 2003, 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 in March, 2004, that Penoles has hedged silver for
two years, I expect silver bullion to continue to outperform IPOAF.PK
stock at these prices. CDE (COEUR D'ALENE) http://www.coeur.com coeurir@coeur.com (208) 769-8155 or (800) 624-2824
214 mil shares outstanding (June 2004) not fully diluted
@ $3.31/share
$708 mil MC
"Current cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments stand at
approximately $252.7 million at January 31, 2004, giving effect to
recent
$180 million offering of 1.25% Senior Convertible Notes due 2024, net
of
offering costs." July 15th, 2004: Cour Presents Resources in Cdn 43-101 form: http://biz.yahoo.com/cnw/040715/id_coeur_d_alene_mine_1.html
Total of proven & probable reserves: 175 mil oz. silver, 1.4 mil oz. gold. Total silver equiv: 189 mil oz.
Total of measured, indicated, and
inferred resources: 76 mil oz. silver, 1.4 mil oz. gold.
Total silver equiv: 90 mil oz.
(This increases the number from 189
mil to 279 mil oz. silver). Before, Cour was not reporting any
resources, only reserves.)
(Produced 14.2 mil oz. silver in latest fiscal year (early 2004)
$708 mil MC / 279 mil oz =
$2.54/oz.
You get "approx" 2.65 ounces
in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
Wheaton recommends rejecting the CDE buy out offer: Wheaton Does not Intend to Pursue the Coeur D'alene
Mines Proposal: Recommends Shareholders Vote IAMGold Combination Monday May 31 http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/040531/315071_1.html
Interestingly, as one reason, Wheaton says: CDE has a history of losses and
negative operating cash flow.
For the full year 2003, the
Company reported a net loss of $67.0 million,
or $0.40 per share, compared to a net loss of $81.2 million, or $1.04
per
share in 2002.
Why does CDE continue to mine and sell silver at a loss?
Why has
CDE borrowed $180 million to continue expanding this business
plan? Why couldn't CDE have raised the money from issuing more
shares? Why has CDE stock increased over seven times from about 30 million shares
outstanding at the end of 1999 to 214 million shares outstanding by the
first quarter 2004? How was CDE able to secure such favorable
terms for a loan? "giving effect to recent
$180 million offering of 1.25% Senior Convertible Notes due 2024, net
of
offering costs."" Who did CDE borrow money from? Who stants to
gain if CDE continues to produce silver at a loss?
If CDE produced silver at a loss during the first quarter 2004, how
much money will they make if silver hits $10/oz? Perhaps the
break-even price for production is a constant $8.00/oz.?
Regardless of their "cash cost" numbers. If so, and if CDE
produces 15 million oz. of silver per year, then at $10/oz., CDE may
make up to $30 million dollars, at the most, from their silver
production, if none of their other costs like energy costs rise in
price due to inflation. Mining uses a lot of energy, just so that
you know, so I don't think it is likely that CDE will have profits even
with higher silver prices in the $8-10 range due to inflation.
Given that CDE has a market cap of up to $1000 million dollars, CDE
just is not worth it at all, in my opinion. And neither would CDE
stock be worth the price if they had a market cap of $300 million, in
my opinion. I would rather own silver, as it moved in price from
$6 to $10. And in the meantime, CDE may well move in price from
$6.49/share down to $2.16/share (assuming no further dilution, and a
reduction to a more reasonable $333 million market cap), and by then,
with silver at $10, CDE may have a P/E ratio of 10, and a huge heavy
debt load of $180 million dollars that may take up to 6 years of
possible profits to pay off.
At $2.16/share, $10 silver, and a P/E of 10: $333 mil MC / 189 mil oz.
= $1.76/oz. = You'd get about 5.68 oz. of silver for each silver
oz. worth of stock.
I expect silver bullion to continue to outperform CDE
stock at these prices.
SIL (APEX SILVER) http://www.apexsilver.com/ information@apexsilver.com
(303) 839-5060
47.4 million shares outstanding (late May, 2004) (not fully diluted)
(derived from share price & market cap, late May, 2004)
@ $17.85/share
$846 mil MC
cash on hand: ~ $390 million March
2004
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
$846 mil MC / 454 mil oz = $1.86/oz.
You get "approx" 3.61 ounces
in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
Additional comments: Apex's
webpage on silver, "Commodity Fundamentals" says nothing about silver
as money. Unbelievable and shameful! Unless you count this
phrase, "As a
precious metal, it has been a source of human adornment since the
beginning of time." At
least they recognize that silver is a precious metal, and at least they
recognize it has been precious since the beginning of time.
That's a start!
Bullishly, they note: "As a result of the silver inventory
drawdown, by the end of 2002, the worldwide stockpile of refined silver
has been reduced to levels sufficient to satisfy less than
approximately six months of the existing demand."
A positive article was written about Apex in Business Week Online: A Bright Gleam On Apex -- Friday June 4
"Apex has rights in some 100 mineral-exploration holdings at 34
properties in countries such as Bolivia, El Salvador, Mexico, and Peru."
The article's analyst notes that in 2-3 years, when/if production comes
online, "At silver's current price of $6 an ounce, Apex could earn $2
to $3 a
share, he figures. If silver runs up to $10, earnings could hit $6, he
says."
I note that this means that at a P/E of 10, if production comes online,
Apex may more than tripple in 3 years to $60/share, while silver nearly
doubles. That's not much leverage, given the increased
risks of mining and owning a public company, and given that management
of Apex seems to not recognize that silver is money, and debt is aweful.
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%.
See my silver stock report #40 for
reasons why Apex will not likely use their cash to buy silver bullion
while they wait for higher silver prices.
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 hit a
recent high of $.51/lb., from a low of about $.35/lb. For zinc prices,
see http://www.metalprices.com
Apex is not mining now,
but are waiting for higher silver prices. George Soros,
Billionaire, owns a bit of
this one, his group of funds owns over 14% I read recently. 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.
GRS GAM.TO (GAMMON LAKE) http://www.gammonlake.com/ gammonl@sprint.ca
(902) 468-0614
62 mil shares Fully Diluted: (Feb 27th, 2004)
@ $5.24/share
$325 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.
$325 mil MC / 231 mil oz.= $1.41/oz.
You get "approx" 4.79 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:
At 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 (March 2004) @ $2.10/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $1.60 US
$61.6 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.
$61.6 mil MC / 42 mil oz. = $1.47/oz.
You get "approx" 4.59 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.
1st Q, 2004, FSR.TO earned $1.45
million Cdn?, or 4 cents/share, ending a string of losses for the 6
quarters prior. Seems as if their break even cost to mine is
$6.00/oz silver. Produced 565,332 oz. silver for the quarter, and
1288 oz. gold.
They are unhedged, and remain committed to remaining unhedged.
MFN MFL.TO (MINEFINDERS) http://www.minefinders.com/
39.1 mil shares fully diluted 1 Q 2004
@ $7.06/share
$276 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."
$276 mil MC / 195 mil oz. = $1.42/oz.
You get "approx" 4.76 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.
On PAAS's page on silver fundamentals, it says little about silver as
money. Except maybe for the following phrases: "Many analysts
forecast continuing weakness in the US dollar in 2004, which should
bode well for higher silver prices." and "
The outlook beyond 2004 is also promising for the silver market, due to
continuing investment demand..."
Pan
American of Canada buys Morococha silver mine in Peru for US$35 million
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.
PAAS stilll refuses to recognize that silver is money,
and
they refuse to hold their money in the form of silver.
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 may
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."
In my opinion, hedging prudence
depends entirely on the price level to which silver will rise as
denominated in dollars. Since I believe the potential is for
silver to cross over $2000 to $4000 per ounce (on the way to infinity)
in a monetary collapse, I would never hedge silver and never lock in a
dollar price for long term production. If PAAS will, it goes to
show that they don't view silver as money, which is a counterproductive
management philosophy for a shareholder who intends to invest in PAAS
for the exposure to rising silver prices.
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.
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.
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"
$52 mil MC / 42 mil oz. = $1.23/oz.
$52 mil MC / 1000 mil oz. = $.052/oz.
You get "approx" 5.48 ounces in
the ground for 1 oz. silver.
Exploration Potential: 130
Additional comments: Note the "exploration potential" is very
large, but it also assumes that their JV partner, Dumont, does not
acquire any interest in the property at all.
Perhaps an interesting and novel way
to determine percentage ownership of the projects would be uo look at
the relative market caps for both Clifton, and Dumont, and then assume
that the market has it "about right", and then use thier relative
values to determine a possible percentage ownership of each. And
then, simply
decide to own both, keeping your percentage ownership of each company,
about the same. For
example, if the MC of Clifton is $43 mil, and Dumont is about $10 mil,
so own about 4.3 times as much Clifton as Dumont.
JV agreements were primarily entered into during a time when it was
difficult to raise money through share offerings, as a way to advance
the projects. Unfortunately, JV agreements also make it difficult
for investors to value a company! Several companies at the NY
Gold show
in June were just completing buyout agreements (or working on doing so)
with their JV partners.
For more info on what's going on with Clifton, see http://www.dumontnickel.com ,
JV partner. One man
suggested buying both Clifton and Dumont to ease the difficulty in
trying to figure out their JV agreement.
Clifton has 28% 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. Clifton Mining Company - ASAP Product to Be Produced in
Brazil
The minimum royalty
payable to ABL will be $57,000 per month. 28% for Clifton is
$191,520/year.
ABL signs a
contract with GNC. (April)
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!
* TM.V TUMIF.OB (TUMI RESOURCES) (TUY Frankfurt Exchange) (I
own shares) http://www.tumiresources.com nicolaas@attglobal.net Nick
Nicolaas IR (604) 657 4058
24 mil fully diluted shares (Mar. 1, 2004)
@ $1.33/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $1.01 US
$24 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
$24 mil MC / 25 mil oz. = $.97/oz. ***I'm using this number***
$24 mil MC / 50 mil oz. = $.48/oz. (exploration potential)
You get "approx" 6.94 ounces
in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
Exploration Potential: 14 (likely plus more after bonanza silver
discovery late November, 2003.)
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.
WTZ WTC.TO (WESTERN SILVER) (formerly western copper) http://www.westernsilvercorp.com info@westernsilvercorp.com
Jay Oness Toll Free: 1-888-456-1112
43.3 mil fully diluted (July 2004)
@ $6.10/share
$264 mil MC
(not actively mining)
$14 million Cdn in cash in the tilll (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 Western
Silver Completes Pre-Feasibility Study on Chile Colorado Zone at
Penasquito
New info: 267 mil oz. silver at a grade of just over 1 oz. per tonne.
(an increase of 54 mil oz. over previous est.)
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
Plus, they have 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.
$264 mil MC / 287 oz. = $.92/oz.
$264 mil MC / 1000 oz. = $.26/oz. --exploration potential
You get "approx" 7.32 ounces
in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
Exploration Potential = 26
Additional comments: WTZ's
silver page: "Why Silver?" While acknowleding the silver
fundamentals as produced by the Silver Institue, and shrinking
supplies, it says nothing about silver as money. WTZ acknowledges
their role is to make sure their shareholders are "well positioned to
take advantage of any shortage of supply or rise in the price of
silver."
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
SSRI SSO.V (SILVER STANDARD RESOURCES)
http://www.silver-standard.com/ paull@silverstandard.com
(604) 689-3856 or (888) 338-0046 57
mil shares fully diluted (could bring in another $45 million) as of May
15, 2004 (not sure if this number is right, could not confirm at
the website, but it came in a forwarded email from Paul, and I'll use
it, because I'm so bullish on the entire sector.)
@ $12.97/share
$739 mil MC
debt free, cash: $Cdn 60 mil As of May 12: The
company has budgeted $8.2 million in 2004 for feasibility and scoping
studies and exploration of its 15 projects. With cash of $61
million, and marketable securities of approximately $10 million at
March 31, the
company
decided to invest approximately 20% of its cash and securities in
physical silver following the
decline in silver prices in April
and May. Silver Standard now owns over 1.95 million ounces of
silver. This silver is held on an allocated and segregated basis
and, consequently, is not available to be loaned. not mining or producing; 23 silver properties
measured and indicated resources totaling 403.6 million ounces of
silver
plus inferred resources totaling 446.4 million ounces of silver = 850
mil oz.
2.2 mil oz. gold. Silver equiv = 22 mil oz. silver. (22 + 850 =
872 mil oz.)
$739 mil MC / 872 mil oz. = $.85/oz.
You get "approx" 7.95 ounces
in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
Additional comments: Congradulations
to SSRI for converting some of their cash, 20%, to silver
bullion! I wish it was more, but it is certainly a great
start! SSRI decided to hold such a
large percentage of their cash in the form of bullion, first, of all
silver miners!
SSRI now has more silver resources than PAAS.
I'd expect SSRI's market cap to soon exceed PAAS, especially given PAAS
management's lack of understanding that
silver is money, and can be used as money.
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 resources through drilling and acquisition. 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, 2003. 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 RESOURCES) http://www.oremex.com/s/Home.asp info@oremex.com
28.8 mil shares fully diluted (End of May, 2004) after, and including
financing? @ $.72/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.55 US
$16 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 mannagement 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 silver properties)
$16 mil MC / 24 mil oz. = $.66/oz.
$16 mil MC / 100 mil oz. = $.16/oz. --exploration potential
You get "approx" 10.3 ounces
in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
Exploration Potential: 42
Additional comments: Oremex
Closes $2.6 Million Private Placement FinancingMay 28 "The Company issued a total of
2,890,023 units at $0.90 and
1,445,012 warrants exercisable at $1.10 for a period of 12 months from
closing. In addition, 269,940 Agents' Warrants were issued entitling
the
holder to purchase one unit at $0.90 for a period of 12 months."
SHSH.PK (SHOSHONE SILVER) http://www.shoshone-mining.com
Carol Stephan, director, 208-666-4070
18 million outstanding shares
@ $.50 US
$9 mil MC
Lakeview Mine and Mill: 24,190 tons of mineralized material delineated
at Lakeview, grading an average of 11.8 oz/t silver.
= 285,000 oz. silver. But is a narrow (high grade) vein mine,
like Cour d'Alene and Hecla, with few reserves.
Conjecture (in Lakeview district): 336,000 tons at a grade of 11 ounces
per ton of silver = 3.7 mil oz. silver. "Terms of the
25-year lease [of the conjecture] include payment of a $3000 per year
advance royalty,
issuance of one million shares of Shoshone common stock to Chester,
and a sliding scale net smelter return based on the spot price of
silver." At .$60/share, that's $.6 mil MC more for the lease.
blende project: 21.4 million tons grading 1.63 ounces per ton (oz/t)
silver. (low grade) 34.8 mil oz. silver
(not 43101 compliant, plus 5.8% lead-zinc )
Shoshone must issue 1 million shares,
and spend $5 million on exploration by December 31, 2008 to complete
its 60 percent earn-in on the blende project. How to count
that? As
an investor, I hate evaluating these kinds of complex deals. 60% of 34.8
mil
oz. silver is 20.9 mil oz. that will cost an additional $5 million,
plus a million shares. At $.60/share, that's $5.6 million for
20.9 mil
oz. resource. That's $5.6 million / 20.9 mil oz. = $.27/oz.
acquisition cost to Shoshone for blende, which they don't own yet, just
an option. I don't like options, which is why I buy silver
bullion, and mining companies in the first place, as they are "unexpiring call options" if they own their properties.
Total: 4 mil oz. silver, plus an option on 20.9 mil oz. silver at
blende.
$9 mil MC (plus $6.2 mil they need to raise to maintain leases) / 4 mil oz, plus 20.9 mil oz.
(24.9 mil
oz.) = $.61/oz.
You may get options and leases
that may give "approx" 11.04
ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
CZN.TO CZICF.PK (CANADIAN ZINC) http://www.canadianzinc.com/ czn@canadianzinc.com
1-866-688-2001
78.5 mil fully diluted shares as of June, 2004 @ $.75/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.57 US
$45 mil MC
$14.6 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.
$45 mil MC / 70 mil oz. = $.64/oz.
You get "approx" 10.54 ounces
in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
CZN
likely has much more silver in the ground, and has good profit
potential.
To
get the mine up and running, they might be able to pay back debt
financing 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 perhaps over $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 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 headed up? Currently, 45
cents/lb. for zinc! Check http://www.metalprices.com/
for updates.
FAN.TO FRLLF.PK (FARALLON RESOURCES)
http://www.farallonresources.com/fan/Home.asp info@hdgold.com (604) 684-6365 Erick Bertsch
77.5 mil shares fully diluted as of April 1, 2004
@ $.87/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.66 US
$51 mil MC
Exploration and development in Mexico.
Run by hdgold.com (Hunter-Dickinson)
On 4 sulphide deposits out of 16, 29 mil tonnes of ore grading 89 grams
silver/t and 1.57 g gold/t.
Conversion: 89 grams x .03215 troy oz./gram
= 2.86 oz./t silver
RE: those 29 mil tons, they "anticipate increasing resources to 50
mil tonne range..."
2.86 oz./t silver x 29 mil tons = 83
mil oz. silver
1.5 mil oz. gold x 10 = 15 mil
oz "silver equiv".
Total: 98 mil oz. silver
equiv.
(Exploration potential = x 1.7 = 167)
(Minus: The recoveries on low
grade ores such as this are typically not 100%, but may be more like
50-85%, but it also depends on which metal in the polymetalic deposit
that they most focus on extracting, and also depends on advances in
technology.)
$51 mil MC /98mil oz. silver
equiv. = $.52/oz.
$51 mil MC / 167 mil oz.
silver equiv. = $.30/oz. --exploration potential
You get "approx" 13.0 ounces
in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
Exploration potential = 22
Oddly, in their mineral
report, they use US$0.58/lb for Zn, but zinc is $.43/lb. It is
likely that the report was done a few years ago, when zinc prices were
significantly higher, and when gold was lower at $325/oz. Given
the cut off range used, they may have up to 45 million tonnes, which is
more than the 29 million tonnes used for my calculations above.
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 in late 2003 was 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.)
The stock once had a market cap of $450 million, Canadian.
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.
SRLM.PK (STERLING MINING) http://www.sterlingmining.com/
RDemotte@aol.com Ray DeMotte 208 666 4070
12.2 mil shares outstanding (May 31, 2004)
16.6 mil shares fully diluted (May
2004) --(I use fully diluted whenever possible in my market cap
calculations)
@ $6.70/share
$111 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. "
Other properties:
Baroness 15 mil -- tailing project, no further exploration
potential.
Tesorito 17 mil -- + exploration potential
sa
14 mil -- + exploration potential
Total: 231 mil oz. silver
$111 mil MC / 231 mil oz. = $.48/oz.
$111 mil MC / 550 mil oz. = $.20/oz. (exploration potential)
You get "approx" 14.00 ounces
in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
(Exploration potential is 33.)
Additional comments: This
last week, Sterling got some press from David Morgan and
myself. We didn't appear to significantly affect the stock
price. Interesting.
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 had "more than 360
million ounces of production
over the past century" and 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 stilll way undervalued. Just do the math, people. 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."
HDA.V (HUSIF.PK) (HULDRA SILVER)
no website
Phone: Magnus 1 (604) 261-6040
6.924 million shares out (fully diluted) (Nov or Dec '03?)
@ $.55/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = US $.42
$2.9 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
$2.9 mil MC / 8 mil oz. silver = $.36/oz.
You get "approx" 18.63 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."
CHD.V CHDSF.PK (CHARIOT RESOURCES) http://www.chariotresources.com/ ullir@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.
(Stilll much exploration work to do.)
$12 mil MC / 32.7 mil oz. = $.36/oz.
You get "approx" 18.95 ounces
in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
RDV.TO RDFVF.PK (REDCORP VENTURE) http://www.redcorp-ventures.com/ http://www.redfern.bc.ca/index.html info@redcorp-ventures.com
52.7 mil shares fully diluted (March 2004)
@ $.33/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.25
$13 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.
$13 mil MC / 38.3 mil oz = $.35/oz.
You get "approx" 19.53 ounces
in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
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.
IMR.V IMXPF.OB (IMA EXPLORATION) http://www.imaexploration.com/s/Home.asp info@imaexploration.com
49,059,825 mil Fully Diluted shares (May 27, 2004)
@ $2.23/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $1.69 U.S
$83 mil MC
Exploring in Argentina.
$4.5 million cash Snowden
Reports Over 200 Million Ounces of Contained Silver at IMA's Galena Hill
-- May 25th
Indicated + Inferred Resource = 243 mil oz.
"This resource includes only the Galena Hill deposit and portions
of the adjacent Connector zone, and does not include known and
interpreted mineralization at Navidad Hill, Barite Hill, Calcite Hill,
or along the Esperanza Trend." My comments: This resource might be perhaps 1/4 or 1/5th
of the
overall potential resources, based on estimating by looking at size of
the land area being explored, compared to the size of the land area
covered by the resource calculation. The full exploration
potential might be 4 times as big.
$83 mil MC / 243 mil oz. = $.34/oz
You get "approx" 19.72 ounces
in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
(Exploration potential might be (times 4) or 79.
Additional comments: Positive drilling results are coming in, and
drilling continues.
IMA has several joint venture partners in the area in Argentina near
Navidad. See Tinka, Cloudbreak, Consolidated Pacific Bay.
Other companies are in the near area such as Pategonia Gold, Pacific
Rim, and Silver Standard. And, of course Aqualine who, based on
their lawsuit, seems as if they think they own the entire area for 50
miles around all their mining claims. That's a total of 7 other
companies in the area. And of course, Cardero also has
significant exploration properties in Argentina.
IMA had many other silver properties that they just spun off into a
new company, Golden Arrow. For every 10 shares of IMA existing
shareholders got 1 share of Golden Arrow.
GGC.V GGCRF.PK (GENCO
RESOURCES) http://www.gencoresources.com/
IR: Rob Blankstein: 604-682-2205, or info@gencoresources.com
20+ mil shares fully diluted (April, 2004)
@ $.91/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.69
$14 mil MC
--Producer in Mexico. http://www.gencoresources.com/reserves.html
Inferred resources: 484g/t silver x .03215 = (15.5 oz/t) x 2.3 mil t =
35.8 mil oz. silver
2.00g/t gold x .03215 = 148,000 oz. gold x 10 = 1.5 mil oz. "silver
equiv"
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
$14 mil MC / 40 mil oz. silver = $.35/oz.
You get "approx" 19.49 ounces
in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
Additional Comments: As of
April, 2004, Genco is producing 35,000 oz/month of silver, earning
$100,000 Cdn/month, and expects to earn $1,000,000 Cdn/month by year's
end by doubling both the tonnage and the grade. Genco is also
aggressivly planning on making property acquisitions.
* SVL.V STVZF.PK (SILVERCREST MINES) (I own shares)
http://www.silvercrestmines.com/ info@silvercrestmines.com
(604) 691-1730
25.9 million fully diluted March, 2004 @ $.88/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.67 US
$17 mil MC
$3 mil cash in the till.
Honduras - Arena Blanca: high grade exploration project, 7,600 g/t silver, no samples, adit inaccessable.
Honduras - Opoteca Deposit: Indicated and Inferred silver: 12.8 mil oz. silver
Honduras - La Pochota: a vein, 1-4 meters in width, of between 300 to 500 g/t silver, needs drilling
Honduras - El OCote Deposit: Indicated and Inferred silver: 19.8 mil oz. silver
Ultimate exploration potential may be another 40 to 100 mil oz?
See the Rosita Extension, grades 100 to 200g/t silver, news release
dated Sept., 2003, "SilverCrest Makes Significant Discovery at El Ocote
Silver Project" (in Honduras) El Salvador - El Zapote Project: Indicated and Inferred silver: 14.3 mil oz. silver
Guatemala - Concepcion Concession (pending): includes several
past producing silver mines. documented results of greater than
13,714 g/t silver -- a historical resource of 1.9 million tonnes
grading 86 g/t (2.5 opt) silver (4.75 mil oz., non- 43-101 compliant) Mexico - Silver Angel Project-- a 100% interest in 10,300
hectares located in the northern Sierra Madre Range... with structural
features that host seven past producing, high grade silver-gold mines.
--currently exploring this project.
Totals: 12.8 + 19.8 + 14.3 + 4.75 = 51.65 mil oz.
$17 mil MC / 52 = $.33/oz.
$17 mil MC / 150 = $.11/oz.
You get "approx" 20.23 ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
(Exploration potential = 59+ oz.)
Additional comments: The two projects of current
focus are in Mexico and El Salvador. The El Salvador project is
moving "full speed ahead" with a feasibility study expected by
November. Depending on the study, hoping for produciton perhaps
by Jan or July, 2006.
The company's target goal remains to acquire up to 100 to 150 million ounces of silver resources.
I own shares of SVL.V
ADB.V ADBRF.PK (ADMIRAL BAY RESOURCES) http://www.admiralbay.com/ info@admiralbay.com 604 628
5642 -- Curt Huber-- Business Development
33.3 mil shares fully dilluted. (March, 2004)
@ $1.05/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.80 US
$26.6 mil MC
They have $6 million cash.
--owns an option to earn 70% interest inn "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.
$26.6 mil MC / 89.3 mil oz. = $.30/oz.
You get "approx" 22.65 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
stilll 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. After
speaking with Curt Huber at the NY Gold show in early June, 2004,
Admiral Bay soon expects to be cash flow positive soon from the gas
projects.
They are actively digging, drilling, and releasing results in press
releases.
ABI.V ABMBF.PK (Abcourt Mines
Inc.) http://www.abcourt.com/
Jeff Tremblay (IR) (418) 575-1169 cell phone jftremblay@abcourt.com
28.3 mil shares fully diluted (June 21, 2004)
@ $.24 share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.18
$5 mil MC
no debt., North of Montreal., 8 mil shares family owned.
proven reserves... not ready to be opened, re-opened perhaps in mid
2005?
--Past producer, so there's existing infrastructure.
--Resource: 18.1M oz silver, 120,000 oz.. gold, 303,000 tons zinc, 2,308
tons copper
$273 million worth of zinc at .45/lb, $108 million worth of
silver at $6/oz, $45.6 mil worth of gold at $380
$5 mil MC / 19 mil oz. = $.27/oz.
You get "approx" 24.8 ounces
in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
Additional comments: looking to raise $5 mil to reopen the gold
mine.
looking to raise $5 mil to reopen the silver mine. (drilling the silver
mine
planned for summer, 2004)
looking to raise $5 mil for the zinc project.
PLE.V (PLEXMAR RESOURCES INC)
http://www.paradox-pr.ca/
http://www.plexmar.com/
(in construction)
Guy Bedard, President, Phone: (418) 658-6776 Fax: (418) 658-8605 info@plexmar.com
"Plexmar Resources
recently took the opportunity of acquiring 2 Peruvian Gold/Silver
properties.
Our web site is currently being updated to reflect those new projects."
62 mil fully diluted (March 2004)
@ $.20/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.152 US
$9 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.
$9 mil MC / 38.4 mil oz. = $.25/oz.
You get "approx" 27.46 ounces
in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
* MGN (MINES MGMT) (I own shares)
http://www.minesmanagement.com/ info@minesmanagement.com
(509) 838 6050 Doug Dobbs
12.4 mil shares fully diluted (April 2004)
@ $5.15/share
$64 mil MC
261 mil oz. silver resources. Previous drilling spent over $100
million drilling the property.
$64 mil MC / 261 mil = $.24/oz.
You get "approx" 27.55 ounces
in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
"The revised mine plan, as currently conceived, envisions an
operating capacity of 12,500 tons per day, yielding average annual
production of approximately 7.8 million ounces of silver and 32,000
tons of copper, at a capital cost of approximately $236 million."
"The cash operating costs of the project remain attractive at
approximately $12.14 per ton, taking into account inflation offset by
increases in productivity from improved mining methodology and
technology."
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 recently at $1.24/lb.),
2 Billion pounds of copper, and 261 mil oz. of silver. Doing the
math:
261 mil oz. silver x $5.70/oz.
= $1.487 Billion.
2 Billion lbs copper
x $1.24/lb.. = $2.5 Billion.
Total value of mineralization before costs to extract, $4.0
billion. It was recently a high of:
$4.8 Billion.
This number increased from around $3 Billion just a few months
ago! These
numbers do not suggest a potential market cap value of the
company. The costs to extract that mineralization will be
substantial, along the way. However, if they are cost effective
at today's prices, and if metals prices double, then that is
substantial profit, and creates the leverage investors seek.
They do not have an active working mine--which is a minus. They
will need to raise capital to get a mine going: $236 million current
estimate.
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.
I own shares of MGN. EXR.V EXPTF.PK (EXPATRIATE RECS)
http://www.expatriateresources.com/ info@expatriateresources.com
1-877-682-5474 Dr. Harlan D. Meade, President and CEO
118 mil shares fully diluted June 2004 (including July 22 financing at .25/share Cdn)
@ $.265/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.20
$24 mil MC
$1.2 mil CAN capital in the tilll no debt.
Mostly a base metals company: Zinc. Also has some silver
& gold. 6 properties. Most of the value is concentrated in the 100% owned Wolverine Project.
Total mineralization across 6 properties: 97.2 mil oz. silver, 565,000 oz. gold, = 103 mil oz. "silver equiv."
3.8 million pounds zinc, also some copper and lead.
$24 mil MC / 103 mil oz. silver
= $.23
You get "approx" 29.21 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, but that assumes old low prices for silver, about
$5-6?/oz. 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 both silver and zinc.
* ASM.V ASGMF.PK (AVINO SILV GOLD) (I own shares.) http://www.avino.com/ shares@avino.com 604 682-3701 --
David Wolfin
10.5 mil shares outstanding. / 12.5 mil shares fully diluted (June 2004)
16.5 mil shares fully diluted (including, and after the purchase of
remaining 51% of the Avino mine) @ $1.70/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $1.29 US
$21.3 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 only have numbers for one, the Avino mine
= 28 + 50 + 27 = 105
Avino owned 49% of that, or 51.5 mil oz., prior to the purchase
agreement for the remainder for an additional 4 million shares.
$21 mil MC / 105 mil oz. = $.20/oz.
You get "approx" 33.20 ounces
in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
(I own shares of ASM.V)
UNCN.OB (UNICO INC) http://www.uncn.net/
Ray Brown, 530-873-4394
90 mil shares (about, in June, 2004)
@ $.052/share
$5 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 September 1, 2004 ($1 million payment
due, plus fees) or August 31, 2005 ($4 million total due), so they need
to raise significant money.
49 mil oz. total.
$5 mil MC / 49 mil oz. = $.09/oz.
You have a lease on "approx" 70.57
ounces in the ground for 1 oz. silver's worth of stock.
Additional comments: Unico had a dramatic price movement the last
two weeks. From about 5 cents, to 10 cents, and back to 5 cents
again. It appears to me as if the financers tried to buy stock,
then saw that they would push up the price to 10 cents if they tried to
buy too much--so they were encouraged to begin a partial
financing. Then, the financers likely stepped back, and watched,
as existing holders sold right back down to the 5 cent level
again. Very strange. Where is the compromise? Why
doesn't the stock trade at 7.5 cents? Sometimes the problem is
that buyers don't like to show how much they really want to buy, and
shareholders don't show how much they really want to sell. So,
sellers who may have been eager to sell at 7-8 cents were too slow to
put their shares on offer, and watched as the stock moved up to 10
cents too fast on too little volume, and then came out to sell after
the buyer was done buying! That's just what happens
sometimes. Also, maybe the buyer turned around and a little,
adding to the selling pressure, to try and release more stock, and
encourage others to sell so he can buy what he wants.
This is also an example of the danger of these very small market cap
stocks. It's like they trade "by apppointment," and are not very
liquid--as they are difficult to buy and sell in large
quantities. Other examples of such volatility are Huldra
and Ecu Mini.
This is a significant
development for Unico. They may well secure their lease on the
Dear Trail property. Depending on the ability of the private
investment group to follow through, Unico will be able to buy their
option. Unfortunately, the press release does not list the share
price of the deal, but I assume it's 10 cents. $5 million,
at 10 cents/share, might be another 50 million shares, and also
unfortunately, there is no information in the press release about any
options or warrants. But Congradulations, Unico!
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. A few explorers may also be producers, but
they are listed here, because they do not have well-defined resources.
This list, although at the bottom, in no way indicates that these
companies are more highly valued, or less valued, than companies listed
above. There may be less certainty in the companies listed below,
and more certainty in the companies 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.
IE, everyone is an explorer!
The list above is not a list
of
producers, the list above is a list of companies with
significantly
measurable resources in the ground. Those below, generally do
not. Or, if they do have resource numbers, the numbers are very
small compared to their much larger exploration potential, and thus,
they are listed here.
(The order in this list is by largest market cap first, not by
"comparative value" of the market cap divided by the resources, as
above.)
HL (HECLA MINING CO) http://hecla-mining.com/ hmc-info@hecla-mining.com
(208) 769-4100
118 mil shares outstanding (derived from the market cap and share
price late May, 2004)
@ $5.22/share
$616 million Market Cap (MC)
near zero debt, cash: $123 mil (Feb., 2004) (est. 2004 production 9 mil oz. silver and 215,000 oz. gold )
La Camorra gold mine, 547,885 oz gold.) (x 10 = 5.5 mil oz silver equiv.
San Sebastian silver mine, (proven & probable reserves) 3.8 mil (down from 8)
Greens Creek silver mine (proven & probable reserves) 31 mil (HL
owns 30% of this, but the 31 mil oz. number reflects that percentage
ownership.)
the Lucky Friday mine (proven & probable reserves) 10 mil. (down from 14)
5.5 + 3.8 + 31 + 10 = 48.9
Total silver equiv. reserves = 48.9 mil oz.
$616 mil MC / 48.9 mil oz. = $12.60/oz.
Additional comments: Given
that CDE made a share offer in week #36 for Wheaton River, I expect
that
Hecla will try a similar tactic very soon, and offer shares to acquire
another silver company.
Hecla is the most expensive company on the list in terms of cost per
oz. of silver in the ground. But
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.
Hecla has a net income of $6.2 million
for the first quarter of 2004, which silver prices were high. Annualized, that's $24.8
million for the year, which gives a P/E ratio!of
$616 mil MC / $24.8 mil = 25,
which indicates
to me that HL is stilll too expensive of a stock to buy. Other
silver properties and companies in the silver world have P/E ratios of
as low as 3.
At the NY Gold show in June, I spoke with Vicki Veltkamp, Hecla's vice
president of investor and public affairs, and I listened to her 15
minute presentation on Hecla at the show. I felt that her
presentation honored my work, since she focused on the fact that Hecla
does not have substantial reportable reserves, due to the nature of
vein mining. She also emphasized that they already had detailed
plans for spending all of their available cash, of $123 million, which
implied that they had nothing left over to buy silver
bullion. Point: HL is not going to buy silver
bullion with their cash anytime soon.
One of Vicki's arguments was that HL only produces 9 million
ounces of silver, and that in a market that produces 500 million ounces
of silver a year, that withholding production would not significantly
move up the price. I think she's looking
at the wrong numbers. HL's market cap has recently ranged from
$600 million to up to $1,000 million. The remaining silver at the
COMEX, available for delivery in the registered category is only about 50
million ounces, not the 500 million ounes annually produced. The
available silver is valued, at $6/oz., at $300 million. HL could
issue 1/4 to 1/3 more stock than they already have outstanding, and use
the proceeds to buy perhaps $300 million worth of silver bullion, and
break the price to sky high levels, which would boost profits
enormously.
If HL mines 9 million ounces of silver a year, at a cost of about
$5-6/oz. (because their profits are slim), then if the silver price
rises to about $33/oz, and other costs remain the same, HL could be
making $250 million dollars per year. It seems the largest silver
companies have absolutely no vision about how they can affect the
markets, and take a leadership role in the world of silver.
I urged Vicki that HL should use their stock or cash, if not for buying
silver bullion, then to acquire other silver companies, since I believe
their stock is overvalued. Vicki said HL does look at many
acquisition opportunites, and would be interested in looking at others.
I expect silver bullion to continue to outperform HL
stock at these prices. MGR.V MGRSF.PK (MEXGOLD RSCS) http://www.mexgold.com/
52.5 mil shares fully diluted (spring 2004)
@ $2.40/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $1.82 US
$96 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"
$96 mil MC / 185 mil oz. = $.52/oz. That's an "exploration potential target"
Additional comments:
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."
CDU.V CUEAF.PK (CARDERO RSCS) http://www.cardero.com/ hvanalphen@cardero.com
Henk Van Alphen -- President (604) 408-7488
40.1 million shares, fully diluted (July 1 2004)
@ $2.79/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $2.12 US
$85 mil MC
($17 million Cdn cash in the treasury)
Additional comments: Cardero has three silver properties in Argentina; two main silver
exploration properties: Chingolo and Providencia.
Providencia -- high grades of silver, former silver mine, could have
100-250 mil oz.
Chingolo -- 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.
June, 2004: Company quote: "The Company is actively evaluating silver,
gold, copper and iron-ore
projects which will ensure the recognition of Cardero as a
world-class exploration and development company."
AOT.V
ASOLF.PK (ASCOT
RSCS) http://www.bmts.bc.ca/aot/
1 604 684 8950
39.7 fully diluted. (Nov 2003)
@ $.36/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.27 US
$10.86 mil MC (US)
----
Additional comments: They own 5.82 million shares and 388,000 warrants
of Cardero at $.35, which usually is a greater asset value than their
market
cap. Ascot's share price is typically around 80% of the value of their
Cardero Stock, and less liquid.)
(I'm listing this one out of order, not by market cap, and next to
Cardero, because of their position in Cardero.)
It may be better to buy Ascot than
Cardero, depending on prices. Check the math, and call Ascot to
verify Cardero stock holdings, and number of shares.
SPM.V SMNPF.PK (SCORPIO MINING) http://www.scorpiomining.com
http://www.scorpiomining.com/s/SendMessage.asp
52.2 mil shares fully diluted April 2004 (after recent $16
million Cdn private placement)
@ $1.71/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $1.30 US
$68 mil MC
Scorpio's recent March 2004, $16 million financing was at $2.25/share!
* FCO.TO FCACF.PK (FORMATION CAPTL) (I own shares) http://www.formcap.com/s/Home.asp --totally redesigned website! inform@formcap.com 604-682-6229
165 mil fully diluted, March 2004
@ $.43/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.33
$54 mil MC
(Recently completed $10 million financing)
Very large cobalt 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)
cobalt 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 cobalt.
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 cobalt project needs more drilling, and with recent financing,
things look bright.
The refinery has started up, on time
and under budget sunshinerefinery.com
I own shares of FCO.TO
* OTMN.PK (O.T. MINING) (I own shares) http://www.otmining.com/ info@otmining.com Jim Hess Tel:
514-935-2445
12.8 mil fully diluted (May 15, 2004)
@ $4.20/share
$54 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.
MCAJF.PK (MACMIN LTD) http://www.macmin.com.au/
450 mil shares and options (Feb., 04)
@ $.08/share
$36 mil MC
This stock seems extremely volitille in price, ranging from 8 cents to
13 cents.
"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.
TVI.TO TVIPF.PK (TVI PACIFIC) http://www.tvipacific.com tvi-info@tvipacific.com
Dianne (IR) Phone: (403) 265-4356
400.5 mil shares fully diluted (June 14 2004)
@ $.14/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.11 US
$43 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.
TVI 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!
* NPG.V NVPGF.PK (NEVADA PAC GOLD) (I own shares)
http://www.nevadapacificgold.com/ dhottman@nevadapacificgold.com
(604) 646-0188 David Hottman 43.9 mil shares fully diluted (April 2004)
+ 9.3 mil shares fully diluted in the June 25th private placement
53.2 mil shares fully diluted (June 25, 2004)
@ $.97/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.74 US
$39 mil MC
$2.8 million cash (April 2004)
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.
$39 mil MC / 200 mil oz. = $.21/oz.
$39 mil MC / 1000 mil oz. = $.041/oz.
Excerpt: Core drill hole RRC04-07, includ[ed] a 90 foot intersection averaging 0.176 ounce per ton gold.
That's nearly 1/5th of an ounce of gold! At $406/oz., 0.176 ounce
per ton is $71/ton, over 90 feet! If that was silver at
$6.50/oz., that's like 11 ounces of silver per ton, which would be
huge, somewhat like what IMA Exploration found in Argentina! Of
course, gold is not as good as silver in my book, but still, that's a
substantial find.
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
Chairman, 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
* MMGG.OB (METALLINE MINE) (I own shares)
http://www.metalin.com/site_map.html metalin@attglobal.net Merlin
Bingham 208-665-2002
21.6 mil shares fully diluted (April, 2004) (only 2 mil options and
warrants)
@ $2.00/share US
$43 mil MC
$8 million cash in the till.
Metalline's
Sierra Mojada Project Status Report Wednesday May 5 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.
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."
ECU.V ECUXF.PK (ECU SILVER MINI)
http://www.ecu.qc.ca/indexen.html ecu@ecu.qc.ca (819) 797-1210
103.3 mil fully diluted shares = (6 January 2003)
@ $.36/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.27
$28 mil MC
ECU.V is also exploring other gold properties.
IAU.V ITDXF.PK (INTREPID MINRLS)
http://www.intrepidminerals.com/ scoates@intrepidminerals.com
Stephen Coates, Investor Relations (416) 368-4525
51 mil fully diluted (April, 2004) @ $.73/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.55 US
$28 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)
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.
CAUCF.PK (CALEDON
RES)
http://www.caledonresources.com/
Shares Outstanding - 180,721,142
@ .13 at Yahoo!
(Mining in China)
It trades on the London Stock Exchange, under the symbol, CDN
$23 mil MC
MAI.V MNEAF.OB (MINERA ANDES) http://minandes.com/ ircanada@minandes.com (604)
689-7017 Art Johnson
90 mil shares fully diluted (April, 2004)
@ $.41/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.31 US
$28 mil MC
Raised $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: 16.7 mil oz "silver equiv"
15 mil oz. silver + 1.7 mil oz. "silver equiv" of 170,000 oz. of gold.
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.
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/ invest@edrgold.com
Hugh Clarke, Investor Relations 1-877-685-9775
25.7 mil shares fully diluted (May 28th, 2004)
@ $1.27/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.97
$25 mil MC
As of May 28th, 2004, they have $9 mil Cdn cash.
If all options and warrants are exercised, they will have another $9.8
mil Cdn in cash.
They believe there may be a
chance they will not need to dilute further
to develop current silver production plans at the Santa Cruz
Mine.
Endeavour is not a "resource" play, but rather, a "production" play on
silver. They are listed with the explorers because they do not
have
large drill results or a resource calculation outlining significantly
large resources--they have only around 5 million ounces is all.
But so
they don't have a "prospective" mining property. Instead, they
have a working mine! Like Hecla.
http://www.edrgold.com/s/SantaCruzMine.asp
--currently producing 600,000 oz. silver/yr.
--plans to increase
production to 4,000,000 oz. silver/yr
In the article, I highlight what I
feel is Cabo's most imporant asset: Their property in Cobalt, Ontario. The "silver capital of Canada" produced
historically, over 500 million ounces of silver.
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
Additional Comments: three main properties in North America.
The main exploration project is the Nieves, near the massive Fresnillo silver
mine, owned by Penoles.
QTA.V is a Sister Company to Western Silver, WTZ above.
See also Bravo Venture, BVG.V, another sister company, with 34.5 mil
fully diluted shares (April, 2004)
EPZ.V ESPZF.PK (ESPERANZA SILVR)
http://www.esperanzasilver.com/s/Home.asp info@esperanzasilver.com
30.2 million shares fully diluted (june 2004)
@ $.72/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = US $.55
$16.5 mil MC
"Esperanza Silver Corporation is solely dedicated to the
identification, acquisition and exploration of new silver
projects." Looking for high grades.
PXI.V PNXPF.PK (Planet
Exploration Inc.) http://www.planetexploration.info/mexico.asp invest@planetexploration.info
30.8 mil shares fully diluted (Jan. 2004)
@ $.76/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.58
$18 mil MC
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."
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
87.4 mil fully diluted shares (April, 2004)
@ $.305/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.23
$20 mil MC
JV partner with APM.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.
$20 mil MC / 45 mil oz. =
$20 mil MC /150 mil oz. =
APM.V (Amerix Precious Metals Corp) http://www.amerixcorp.com/ john.andrews@amerixcorp.com
50 mil shares fully diluted (including 15 mil new PP) http://www.newbulletgroup.com/financial.htm
@ $.29/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.22 US
$11 mil MC
APM.V has a gold deposit in Brazil that's bigger than the silver project in Mexico. http://www.amerixcorp.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
APM.V partners with SDR.V
APM.V to get a 50-70% interest.
50% x 150 mil oz.= 75 mil oz., 70% x 300 mil oz. = 210 mil
oz.
$11 mil MC / 75 mil oz. =
$11 mil MC / 210 mil oz. =
NJMC.OB (NEW JERSEY MIN)
http://www.newjerseymining.com/
Fred or Grant Brackebusch
minesystems@usamedia.tv
23.9 fully diluted Apr, '04 @ $.70/share US
$17 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.
Additional comments: Mag Silver moved down in price substantially last week from 90 cents to 61 cents/share. I have no explanation.
--"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.
EXN.V EXLLF.PK (EXCELLON RSCS)
http://www.excellonresources.com info@excellonresources.com
87 mil shares fully diluted (Jan 9, 2004 press release)
@ $.195/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.15 US
$13 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%)
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.
This company has many silver and gold properties. Klondike has one silver property that could be producing within weeks.
(I own shares of KG.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)
@ $.27/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.20
$10 mil MC
SRY.V (STINGRAY RSCS) http://www.stingrayresources.com/ info@stingrayresources.com
(416) 368 6240
17.1 mil shares fully diluted (may 28, 2004)
@ $.90/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.68
$12 mil MC - Current projects centered in the Sierra Madre Belt of Mexico
DNI.V DMNKF.PK (DUMONT NICKEL) http://www.dumontnickel.com info@dumontnickel.com
(416) 595-1195
60 mil shares outstanding (April 15, 2004) does not include options and
warrants.
@ $.21/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.16
$10 mil MC
Dumont stilll needs to raise and pay several million to Clifton Mining 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 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 companies?"
* KRE.V KREKF.PK (KENRICH ESKAY) (I own shares) http://www.kenrich-eskay.com/
Toll-free 1-888-805-3940 or (604) 682-0557
29.2 mil shares fully diluted (July, 2004)
@ $.48/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.36 US
$11 mil MC
Recently completed a $2.3 million financing for exploration.
Adjacent to Barrick's silver property, Eskay Creek, which is "the fifth
largest silver producer in the world".
70% of the rights to
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
means the market cap of KRE.V may be worth 100% / 70% x $35 million, or
$50 million, plus exploration and development costs, to a major mining
company, and likely worth much more today, due to inflation of the
dollar, and the rise in the price of silver!
I own shares of KRE.V
BCM.V BCEKF.PK (BEAR CRK MINING)
http://www.bearcreekmining.com/s/Home.asp
39.2 million shares fully diluted
@ $.31/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.24 US
$9 mil MC
--About 6 properties in Peru
* CMA.V CRMXF.OB (Cream Minerals Ltd)
(I own shares.) http://www.creamminerals.com/cream/main.htm http://www.langmining.com/cream-mx/
34.8 mil shares fully diluted (March 31, 2004)
@ $.28/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.21 US
$7 mil MC
from: http://www.langmining.com/cream-mx/companyProjects_Summary.html
Project B: Potential Target: 400m x 500m x 150m x 2.5 t/m3 =
75,000,000 tonnes
Say at: Au 0.480 g/t Ag 149.33 g/t
Silver only, that's (1 gram = .03215 troy oz.) 4.8 oz./t x 75 million
tonnes = 360 million oz. "exploration potential" in a low-grade deposit.
$7 mil MC / 360 mil oz. = $.02/oz. (exploration potential) --not yet even a
"resource"!
Additional comments: Another silver property is the Kaslo.
"The Kaslo Silver Property encompasses the Keen Creek Silver Belt and
is comprised of nine former high grade silver mines"...
CHMN.PK (CHESTER MINING) http://www.chestermining.com/
William Campbell, president (800)222-1505 "2.3 million shares outstanding, positive working capital and no debt"
@ $4.00/share US
$9 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.
GPR.V GPRLF.PK (GREAT PANTHER RES) http://www.greatpanther.com
Robert Archer, President, & Kaare Foy CFO: 604 608 1766
25.4 mil shares fully diluted April 23, 2004
@ $.41/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.31
$8 mil MC
"Great Panther Resources Limited has combined experienced
management, access to capital and high quality projects in Mexico.
Silver and gold prices gained 26% and 21% respectively in 2003 and GPR
intends to leverage this through the acquisition and development of
high quality silver and gold projects."
--Option on the Topia Silver Mine
in Mexico, formerly owned by Penoles, closed in 1999. Est. 5
years worth of resources left. needs payments totaling about $2.5
million over 3 years.
ROK.V ROCAF.PK (ROCA MINES INC) http://www.rocamines.com
38.8 mil fully diluted (June 23, 2004)
@ $.22/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.165
$6.4 mil MC
Foremore project, 45km north of Eskay Creek
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)
@ $.46/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.34
$6 mil MC "advanced
silver project in Mexico" Real de Belem -- property has "all the
permits required for the commencement of a 200 tonne per day mining
operation." A range of 571 to 3,713 g/t Ag. (may not conform to
Canadian NI43-101 standards. ) A 16 hole, 1500 m drill program is
currently underway. At any time during the currency of the Option
Agreement, Energold will have the right to acquire a 100% interest in
the Real de Belem project for an additional US$5.0 million.
GNG.V GGTHF.PK (GOLDEN GOLIATH) http://www.goldengoliath.com/
604-682-2950
32.4 mil shares fully diluted
@ $.24/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.18
$6 mil MC
Additional comments: Silver Explorer in Mexico in the the Sierra
Madre mountains: Uruachic.
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.
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)
@ $.19/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.14 US
$6 mil MC
see also Teuton Resources Corp (TUO.V) --involved with 7 exploration projects, one near the Eskay Creek Silver Mine, one in China.
TBLC.PK (TIMBERLINE RES) http://www.timberline-resources.com
Company contact: Bill Hoyt, director.
785-383-9246
4.88 million shares outstanding.
@ $.95/share
$4.6 mil MC
The Company has acquired seven
mineral prospects to explore. These prospects are located in Nevada,
Idaho and Montana.
The Montana property is near the property owned by Mines
Management.
Silver Property: Minton Pass
project: 20 claims containing Revett formation silver/copper project in
Northern Montana. At least 5 drill holes were drilled on or near
the
claim group in the 1970s and 1980s. A 1971 geologic report
indicates
that mineralized outcrops of Revett quartzite containing bornite and
other copper minerals could be traced for about 1 mile along strike of
the outcrop.A short adit was driven to expose the
mineralization.Sampling results showed a stratographic thickness of
16.7 feet that averaged .7% copper and 1.78 opt silver.
Detailed work plans are under development, pending acquisition and
study of prior exploration data.
* AUN.V AUNFF.PK (Aurcana Corp) (I own
shares) http://www.aurcana.com/
CEO Ken Booth 604-331-9333 kbooth@aurcana.com
45.5 million shares fully diluted
(June 2004)
@ $.10/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.08 US
$3 mil MC
Cash $650,000 Cdn, no debt
Drilling to commence on high-grade, gold-silver targets. (in Mexico)
* PDO.V (PORTAL DE ORO RS) (I own shares) http://www.portalresources.net
Phone: (604) 629-1929 Reg Advocaat
9.45 mil shares fully diluted (mid 2004)
@ $.47 Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = US $.36
$3.7 mil MC
Arroyo Verde Project: Argentina,
& San Rafael project (Gold and copper in Argentina) Portal Outlines Anchoris Copper-Gold Porphyry July 22
BGS.V BLDGF.PK (BALLAD GLD SLVR) http://www.balladnet.com
16.3 mil shares outstanding
(fully diluted?)
@ $.17/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.13 US
$2 mil MC
Bonanza grade "grab samples" in southern Argentina near IMA.
32 oz./T gold and 22 oz./T silver grab samples.
GRG.V (GOLDEN ARROW RESC) http://www.tse.com/en/mediaNews/newsreleases/news7116.html
Sean Hurd (800) 901 0058 (604) 687-1828 (same # as for IMR.V, which spun off Golden Arrow)
4.3 mil shares outstanding.
$750,000 Cdn in the bank.
@ $.60/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.45
$2 mil MC
35 exploration properties
Argentine & Peru Property portfolio
--Spun off from IMR.V (IMA Exploration)
ASLM.PK (AMER SILVER MINI)
2.75 million shares issued
@ $1.00/share
$3 mil MC
Claim between CDE and the old Sunshine mine.
JV with CDE subsidiary untill 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
@ $.18/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.14
$2 mil MC
Silver projects:
Yukon --grab sample of 611 g/t Ag
Argentina --samples from 31 to 5640 g/t Ag
CLZ.V (Canasil Resources Inc ) http://www.canasil.com/
22.4 mil shares fully diluted (July 2004)
@ $.135/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.10
$2 mil MC
Exploration properties in Mexico and B.C.
LSM.V LASCF.PK (Langis Silver &
Cobalt Mining Co Ltd) no website: Patrick Sheridan Jr. President and
Secretary-Treasurer Phone: (416) 628-5936 Langis
has
11,565,890
issued
and
outstanding
common
shares. (not fully diluted)
@ $.14/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.10
$1.2 mil MC
CBP.V CPBMF.PK (CONS PAC BAY MIN) http://www.pacific-bay.com/
Guilford Brett, IR (604) 682-2421 11.2 mil shares outstanding (Jan 1, 2004)
@ $.08/share Cdn x .76 US/Cdn = $.06
$1 mil MC
--CBP.V is the smallest market cap silveer stock that I know of. It is truly a "penny stock".
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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.
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) --Leased by Sterling Mining
2.7 mil shares out?
Coeur d' Alene, Idaho
Mineral Mountain
Coeur d' Alene, Idaho
Independence Lead
Coeur d' Alene, Idaho
Metropolitain Mines Ltd (MEMLA.PK) --next to the Sunshine in
Coeur d' Alene, Idaho
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)
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.
Here are a few more stocks to look up. I don't even know if some
of these are silver miners.
Lfex - Lucky Friday Extention
Kcpm - King of pine creek
Vins - vindicator silver,
Osburn
Wallace
APNE
ALS
Royal Silver Mines (RSMI)
Bunker Hill ?
Nabob
New Era
Signal
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.
Many 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.
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 17 silver stocks: ASM.V, CMA.V,
PLE.V, PDO.V,AUN.V, EDR.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 require a disclosure regarding
finder's fees. Nevertheless, I have begun to receive "finder's
fees" from a few companies.
Jason Hommel