Peru Presidential circus update

Here's the take of the wonderful Carlin in Peru's La Republica today:

And here's your humble scribe's translated version.

Yes, Keiko Fujimori really did say that she "swears to God" that she wouldn't pardon her father if elected President. Hey, maybe she's already done a deal with Twobreakfasts and he'll do it before leaving office. Nothing would surprise me in the next couple of months of Banana Republic politics that Peru has in store.

Anyway, things start heating up tomorrow, as IPSOS/Apoyo is due to release its first opinion poll results for the second round run-off. It's actually difficult to believe that whoever is President of Peru next will be worse than the present mediocre incumbent, but that's the sad truth.

Good Friday art

Christ of St. John of the Cross, painted by Salvador Dali in 1951.

 click to enlarge (gets very big)

We'll leave the comments to Dali himself, along with a chunk out of the wiki page on the painting.

The painting is known as the "Christ of Saint John of the Cross," because its design is based on a drawing by the 16th century Spanish friar Saint John of the Cross. The composition of Christ is also based on a triangle and circle (the triangle is formed by Christ's arms; the circle is formed by Christ's head). The triangle, since it has three sides, can be seen as a reference to the Trinity, and the circle may be an allusion to Platonic thought. On the bottom of his studies for the painting, Dalí explained its inspiration: "In the first place, in 1950, I had a 'cosmic dream' in which I saw this image in colour and which in my dream represented the 'nucleus of the atom.' This nucleus later took on a metaphysical sense; I considered it 'the very unity of the universe,' the Christ!"

For what it's worth, your humble scribe has visited the museum where this painting hangs on many occasions. Mainly to see this work, really. I don't know where they hang it these days, but back then it used to be at the end of a very long corridor on the first floor and the best way of reaching it was to walk the corridor from one end to the other, watching the painting get bigger and bigger in front of your eyes. It's awe-inspiring.

The Friday OT: Andres Calamaro; Sexy y Barrigon

Goodbye to all that.

Andres rocks and rare that you find someone in the English speaking world that even knows his name, let alone his music. Meanwhile, ask anyone South of Rio Grande and you'll get a wiser response.

ECU Silver (ECU.to): Checking in on Wistar Holt's market prowess

Hey dudettes and dudes, anyone remember back in November 2010 when your author got mails from Wistar Holt, the scumball scamster that shows GATA for what it really is? Well if you don't recall, let's just remind you of a couple of the phrases used by Wistar in his missives:

I swear to God that if I ever come across you in person, I will rip you apart.

Got it? 

But of course, you won't ever show up, cause you are a coward!

Isn't this guy just the cutest ever? Anyway, the subject was, of course, his non-stop pumping of ECU Silver (ECU.to) and the way ECU.to had just made spurt in the market. Poor little lost boy Wistar couldn't contain his excitement and just had to blurt out how wonderful he was at the time. So let's see how ECU.to has done since your humble scribe's exchange with Wister Holt:

Hmm...and let's remind people of the wider context of ECU.to and Wistar, too:

 

And by some bizarre coincidence, since the continued demise of ECU.to, even in the face of the amazing run in silver, Wistar Holt seems to have ....

DYODD

the right reasons to be long silver

I'm really warming to Kid Dynamite's blog and reasons include this post today on being long silver. I suppose that in the end it doesn't really matter if you're long silver because of the impending collapse of the dollar or the impending rapture or a bad translation of a Mayan prophecy or whatever other madcap balderdash you want to believe, because as long as you're long PMs (which really means gold, but the pseudo-PM silver is getting all the headlines) you get to enjoy the same ride (and continue in your fantasy worlds and think you're right about the world's end or the lack of physical silver out there). But what KD does is point out the sensible, well-adjusted, non-fearmongering reasons why long silver (including its most liquid form, SLV) has been, is and will continue to be the right side of the trade.

Go read his post now, it's linked here.

I'd add one thing to it, though. He's right on that the world isn't coming to an end and this is why I'm happy to sit through a rather dreary period for PM juniors and watch them underperform to silver and even gold bullion, because the current risk-off mode for the PM juniors will come to an end and they'll make for the most magnificent gains once the market decides to stop being so chickenshit. You can sum it all up with a phrase that's close to the centre of value investment, a phrase which found its way into The IKN Weekly edition 102 last Sunday.

In the end, price governs risk.

That's all. Have a nice day. And go read Kid Dynamite's thingy today, because reading smart people is smart.

another day's mailbag

You guys keep me amused via my mailbox, and for that I thank you. Here's an example from "regular reader" this morning:

Just in case you are tempted to partake in a bit of self-flagellation on this Easter weekend, I recommend you listen to this instead.

http://www.financialsense.com/financial-sense-newshour/guest-expert/2011/04/21/marin-katusa/americas-looming-energy-disaster

It should do the trick...

Thanks for that, RR (you know who you are).

Meanwhile, we note that Marin's dead horse energy play Ram Power (RPG.to) got flogged today:

Inquiring minds wonder if there two occurrences are related? And said minds also wonder if CBM Asia (TCF.v) got its own pumperooney from the morally bereft p&d scamster? Doubt that, cos it's just sooooo 2010, innit Marin?

UPDATE: Stunningly good feedback from reader TK:

I got a chuckle when I tried to open the Katusa link RR sent you in RealPlayer, and this message popped up (I’m not kidding!): “This clip cannot be played. It contains unexpected data and may be corrupt.”

 

Even RealPlayer has figured Katusa out…?

Canaccord keeps dancing

The Can of Corn today applies the "keep dancing til the music stops" principle of markets and raises its targets for gold bullion, silver bullion and therefore shouts "gotta buy em" about the miners, too. You can download the 500Kb, 23 page first quarter review of precious metals and their picks right here and below you get the front page synopsis to give you an idea of the contents.

Happy reading.

  We are raising our peak gold/silver scenario to $1,600/$47.50 (from $1,500/$30) for equity target price setting. For earnings purposes, we are also raising our 2011 price deck to $1,525/$42.00 (from $1,450/$29.75). See Figure 1 for the revised profile.
*   We continue to believe that macroeconomic conditions continue to favour higher gold and silver prices, including record global liquidity, inflation prospects and low real interest rates, currency debasement on sovereign debt woes and political unrest in the Middle East & North Africa. The Standard and Poor's cut in the US credit outlook to negative and higher inflation readings have been the catalysts to move gold through our previous peak of $1,500/oz.
*   Our average implied return for the group is 36%, based on a target P/NAV multiple of 1.20x (revised down from 1.30x but higher than current 1.05x). Ratings revisions include: Agnico-Eagle, Hecla and Silver Wheaton upgraded to BUY from Hold, and Alamos Gold upgraded to SPECULATIVE BUY from Hold. 2011 Focus list picks include Goldcorp, Allied Nevada and Primero Mining.
*   We expect Q1/11 results to highlight year-over-year increases in earnings but some sequential declines due to production levels and cost pressures with only a modestly higher gold price. Our Q1/11 EPS estimates are notably above consensus for ABX, and sequentially higher for GAM, MFL, SLW and PAAS. Our estimates are below consensus for AEM, ANV, YRI and ELD, and we expect sequential declines for CG, ANV, GG and P.

And now Scotia's chart of the day

This came along with Scotia's morning mailer letter today and it's worth passing on, methinks. Note that of all the equities covered, only Minefinders (MFN) (MFL.to) has outperformed the wildman called silver over the last three months.

Chart of the day is....

..the US Dollar (USD) index, 2002 to date.

Whither goest thou, Greenback?

Mining PRs and the Ottotrans™, Part 39

Today's Miner-NR-Into-Normal-English falls to Sinchao Metals (SMZ.v):

This is what they said:

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - April 20, 2011) - The Board of Directors of Sinchao Metals Corp. ("Sinchao" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE:SMZ) reports that, further to the announcement made on February 7, 2011, regarding the ownership status of four of the property claims comprising the Sinchao Project, it has determined that title to the claims were not properly transferred to a subsidiary of Andean American Gold Corp. ("Andean"), the party that purported to transfer the claims to Sinchao. As a result neither Andean nor Sinchao holds any proprietary interest in the claims, which claims contain approximately 40% of the inferred resource previously disclosed by the Company. The Company has been striving to reach an agreement with the parties that Andean originally dealt with in order to remedy the deficiencies in title however it has been unable to reach such an agreement. The Company is therefore not optimistic that it will be able to remedy the deficiencies in title, and will make the necessary adjustments to its financial statements to reflect the write down of these four properties.

And this is what it means:

We're screwed.

ddx
UP

 UPDATE: SMZ just opened after being halted all day:

The SMZ mothership, AAG.v, having a bit of a drop too.

No nationalizations in Bolivian mines

Bolivia Weekly has the English language scoop on it, which includes:

"Last week, Coeur d’Alene announced that the Morales administration had assured it that it wouldn’t be nationalized; now it appears that the Pan American Silver’s San Vincente and Swiss-owned Sinchi Wayra’s mines will not be affected."

The reason? It seems that the unions at the mines don't want them to be "recovered" (i.e. nationalized) by the State. Meanwhile the deputy mining minister said, "A recovery of the mines that were owned by the State mining company Comibol and had been passed over to private mining companies for their administration and exploitation had been considered; but the condition was that the unions working in each of the mines were to agree to this (recovery). All the unions are against (this move), it's not going to happen."

Read more at Bolivia Weekly here.

How Casey Research fakes its track record

One of the ways it does it like this:

1) Recommend hundreds of stocks
2) Never sell the losers
3) Boast about the amazing track record of closed trades.

Here's an example: Remember last year when we looked at Marin Katusa's bullshit about CBM Asia (TCF.v), the stock he pumped no end before it started sinking in classic Katusa Krush style*? Well at the time he decided to give up on the stock he put a "sell at 30c" call on it, thus avoiding the embarrassment of selling at half that price when his initial recommend was up there at 80c. He justified his bullshit sell-that-isn't-a-sell call by saying that "..[i]t may take some time to sell our stock, but with patience, the merits of the property should allow us an opportunity to exit the stock at or above C$0.30."

So let's see if patience has paid off since those words of Katusa's back in late July 2010:

Hmmm...more of that patience medicine needed, yeah Marin?

This is the Casey Research modus operandi and how it manages to fool so many people into believing its totally unaudited propaganda about unbeatable returns. What's more the above is one example of the many because this happens all the time. So, dear reader, why not start your own unaudited research house yourself? Remember, all you need to do is:

1) Pick a boatload of stocks

2) Take profits on the winners

3) Ignore the losers and never sell them by putting stupid "sell at" calls on them

4) Boast about closed trades.

You'll get 'em flocking to your door, too. Then with the money you make you can leverage yourself into the private placement world and scam them both sides....just like our hero Marin.

*by the way, the similarity between the TCF.v chart and that of EW.v is remarkable. I wonder why? And the RPG.to chart, come to think of it. Anyone else spot a common denominator between those three?

Is anyone out there still betting on the deflation trade?

Just askin'

dyodd

Minera Andes (MAI.to) and its mediocre quarter

One of the problems with producing miners is that they have a reputation to live up to every quarter. An explorer can go through a quiet achievement period and get forgiven, as long as it comes up with a cool hole or aneconomically robust PFS after a while, but a producer is judged every quarter on what it does.

With that preamble done, here are a couple of charts for Minera Andes' (MAI.to) and production at its 49% owned San José mine in Argentina, including the 1q11 numbers that hit the wires just a few minutes ago:

Silver production per quarter

Gold production per quarter

Mineral throughput per quarter

Put simply, gold and silver grades were good but the whole shebang has been let down by crappy production numbers at the mine. MAI.to and HOC.L at MSC: Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory since 2009. Leguis served, the end.

UPDATE: Ok ok if you insist here's a disclosure, but for Pete's sake this is a blog, not something worth trusting, so stop being so freakin' anal all the time. Your humble scribe holds no position in MAI.to but might think about buying a bit if it drops far enough. Subscribers should understand why cos we went into the numbers in more depth back in IKN101 a couple of weeks ago. Happy now? Jeesh...

Chart of the day is....

...gold pornography, aka the hourly chart from today.

Yep we got U$1500/oz booked now, but frankly I'm beginning to care a lot more about gold in Loonies than in Greenbacks. Gold's only CAD$1437/oz today in the North American currency that actually has something to back up its value (apart from a shitload of nuclear weapons, that is).

Oxymoron of the day: Argentine political culture

Post written with Mexfiles in mind.

The recent Nobel Literature prizewinner Mario Vargas Llosa is on something akin to a tour of South America right now and has just landed in Argentina. To mark the occasion Argentine politicos have been on full "oh yeah I just love them there book things" toady alert, with the usual hilarious consequences including:

1) José Adrián Pérez, idiot member of Argentina's national congress said that he was "a good author", but when pushed by a reporter said that he'd done "a lot of valuable things, for example 'One Hundred Years of Solitude'."

2) Diana Conti, another idiot member of congress (and ex-Senator to boot), noted Vargas Llosa as "a man true to his principles" but also the dude that wrote 'The Open Veins of Latin America'.

I'm pretty sure Galeano would have a good chuckle about it all, but it'd be fun to know what García Márquez thinks. Thus ends another day in the paradise that is South America, ladies and gentlemen.

Madre de Dios: A new academic paper on the region's destruction

We've covered the ecological disaster area called Madre de Dios on many occasions here on the blog and it since we started the issue of the destruction of the Amazon rain forest due to the search for gold has started to get picked up by real media services that reach a wider audience. But I'm happy to say that the world of academia is also starting to care more, with a new paper out today headed by Jennifer Swenson of Duke University putting the spotlight on MDD and its enviro trainwreck that nobody in Peru with any power cares about (they just want the freakin' money).

Here's the link to the paper and here's the abstract to get you in the mood. We applaud Swenson and company for the good job done.

Many factors such as poverty, ineffective institutions and environmental regulations may prevent developing countries from managing how natural resources are extracted to meet a strong market demand. Extraction for some resources has reached such proportions that evidence is measurable from space. We present recent evidence of the global demand for a single commodity and the ecosystem destruction resulting from commodity extraction, recorded by satellites for one of the most biodiverse areas of the world. We find that since 2003, recent mining deforestation in Madre de Dios, Peru is increasing nonlinearly alongside a constant annual rate of increase in international gold price (~18%/yr). We detect that the new pattern of mining deforestation (1915 ha/year, 2006–2009) is outpacing that of nearby settlement deforestation. We show that gold price is linked with exponential increases in Peruvian national mercury imports over time (R² = 0.93, p = 0.04, 2003–2009). Given the past rates of increase we predict that mercury imports may more than double for 2011 (~500 t/year). Virtually all of Peru's mercury imports are used in artisanal gold mining. Much of the mining increase is unregulated/artisanal in nature, lacking environmental impact analysis or miner education. As a result, large quantities of mercury are being released into the atmosphere, sediments and waterways. Other developing countries endowed with gold deposits are likely experiencing similar environmental destruction in response to recent record high gold prices. The increasing availability of satellite imagery ought to evoke further studies linking economic variables with land use and cover changes on the ground.

continues here

There's been a decent media reaction to the Swenson & Co paper too, which you can also check out on this link.

Tuesday Tune

To celebrate receiving my first ever Passover greetings card yesterday (thanks..you know who you are) and to liven up a boring blog on a boring day (gold hits $1.5k/oz, world yawns) here's a once-removed tribute to the Jewish celebrations this week. It's also a tippy top version of the song.

And before you ask, we bought Bosch.

Take the rest of the day off, people

I'm off to buy a fridge with the wife. Have fun

Chart of the day is....

...the Greenback (USD) vs Loonie (CAD) forex rate, last 5 days as an example of Murphy's Law.

Reason for Murphy's Law: All this time I've been holding out on adjusting price models and targets due to the ever-strengthening Loonie, but last Sunday in IKN102 (as subscribers will witness) I bowed to the inevitable and adjusted targets to the CAD0.96/USD1 rate instead of using 1:1. Sure enough, the very next day the Loonie starts fading. Yet another top called inadvertantly.

Anyway, enough of my griping. Have a nice day and put a 15 handle on that gold price for me, willyaz?

Mining PRs and the Ottotrans™, Part 38

Today's example of junior mining speak translated into something we can understand comes from Redhill Resources (RHR.v), the scumbag company that used to be the scumbag company called ATW Gold and is still run by the same scumbags.

This is what they wrote:

Redhill Clarifies and Restates Disclosure on Properties

Press Release Source: Redhill Resources Corp. On Monday April 18, 2011, 6:06 pm

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - April 18, 2011) - Redhill Resources Corp. (TSX VENTURE:RHR - News) -
"As a result of a review by the British Columbia Securities Commission, we are issuing the following news release to clarify our disclosure."
On its website, investor relations material, and corporate presentation, Redhill discloses a mineral resource for the Gullewa Gold Project that

On its website, investor relations material, corporate presentation, news releases, and MD&A, the Company discloses:

On its website, investor relations material, corporate presentation, news releases, and MD&A, the Company fails to identify and disclose the relationship to the Company of the qualified person who approved, prepared or supervised the preparation of the technical information it is disclosing, contrary to section 3.1.
On the company's website, redhill-resources.com under the Guellewa project, the Company's NI 43-101 was incompletely reported as:
"Redhill purchased the Gullewa Gold Mine in 2008, and completed a NI 43-101 Technical Report on the project for a Measured and Indicated Resource centered at the main open pit area at Deflector of 1.7 million tonnes at 6.74 g/t gold equivalent for 369,000 ounces, and an Inferred Resource of 1.6 million tonnes at 7.71 g/t gold equivalent for 400,000 ounces. Other areas have an Inferred Resource of 72,700 ounces of gold."
This is non compliant to section 2.2(d) and 3.4(b), which states that the grade of each contained metal used to obtain the gold equivalent is to be included in the mineral resource reported.
The company website and future presentations will now indicate the following:
Redhill purchas

ed the Gullewa Gold Mine in 2008, and completed a NI 43-101 Technical Report on the project reporting Measured and Indicated Resource centered at the main open pit area at Deflector of 1.7 million tonnes at 4.18 g/t gold, 6.87 g/t silver and 1.03 percent copper for a gold equivalent grade of 6.75 g/t gold equivalent. Also reported in 2008 are Inferred Resource of 1.6 million tonnes at 6.50 g/t gold, 3.41 g/t silver and 0.48 percent copper with a gold equivalent grade of 7.71 g/t gold equivalent.
The following resource estimation was filed on June 13, 2008 in a report titled; "Technical Report Gullewa Gold-Copper Project, Yalgoo Mineral Field, South Murchison District, Western Australia", by Stephen J. Godden, and was an independent Qualified Person as defined under NI 43-101. The resource estimation section, dated August 2006, was prepared by J. Graindorge, who at the time was the Senior Resource Geologist for Snowden Resources, and was an independent Qualified Person as defined under NI 43-101. The resources were prepared according to JORC 2004, and as such they may be reasonably be construed to be NI 43-101 compliant, as defined by CIMM 2005 (i.e the codes that applied at the time the Mineral Resources were compiled).

As such any resource numbers that Redhill has quoted in the above table cannot be relied on as they were not prepared for Redhill and therefore are not considered 43-101 compliant.
In March 2011, the Company prepared an investor presentation titled "Corporate Presentation", which was also posted on the company's website. The presentation and the company's website, news release, and management discussion and analysis contained the following information on page 7, Gullewa Gold Mine-Western Australia:
"The project area contains substantial existing resources of 650,000 oz gold (Au) and 25,000 tonnes of copper (Cu) 43-101".
This is non compliant to section 2.2(b) which requires each category of mineral resource and reserve to be stated separately and section 2.2(c) which does not allow inferred mineral resources to be added to other categories of mineral resources.
Future presentations will now indicate the following:
Redhill purchased the Gullewa Gold Mine in 2008, and completed a NI 43-101 Technical Report on the project reporting Measured and Indicated Resource centered at the main open pit area at Deflector of 1.7 million tonnes at 4.18 g/t gold, 6.87 g/t silver and 1.03 percent copper for a gold equivalent grade of 6.75 g/t gold equivalent. Also reported in 2008 are Inferred Resource of 1.6 million tonnes at 6.50 g/t gold, 3.41 g/t silver and 0.48 percent copper with a gold equivalent grade of 7.71 g/t gold equivalent.
The Company's Management Discussion and Analysis ("MD & A"), the most recent being January 31, 2011 for the third quarter ended November 30, 2010, does indicate the above correct 2006 Mineral Resource Estimate, however Table 2-Other Mineral Resources, Gullewa Project Area has been retracted.
The Company's Press Release dated, November 9, 2010, titled "Gullewa Drill Program Complete" indicated the above 2006 Mineral Resource Estimate, but incorrectly combined Measured and Indicated Resources, with Inferred Category, which is non-compliant with 43-101, section 2.2 (c), and should not be referred to.
The Company's Press Releases dated January 18, 2011, titled "Deflector Deposit Resource Upgrade and Recommencement of Drilling at Defector", and February 2, 2011, titled "Extension Drilling Underway at Gullewa", refer to Measured, Indicated and Inferred Resources announced by the Company's partner, Mutiny Gold Ltd. While these resources are believed to be compliant with JOREC, the Company has not completed a review of the data or resources with respect to compliance with 43-101, and should not be relied upon.
Content of the presentation, MD &A and the website failed to clearly indicate that the disclosure was approved by a qualified person as defined by NI 43-101. Going forward, all website content and materials distributed to the public will be under the supervision of Brent Butler, B.Sc. In Geology; Member SEG, AusIMM whom is the Company's Qualified Person as defined under NI 43-101.
The Company retracts the prior investor presentation, and will provide an updated and revised new presentation, to replace the prior presentation, which will be available on the company's website.
In addition to the removal of the retracted language, the following updated cautionary language, among others, has been added to the home page of the company's website.
Cautionary note regarding mineral resources and mineral reserves:
Readers should refer to the Company's current technical reports and other continuous disclosure documents filed by the company available on SEDAR for further information the mineral resource estimates of the company's projects, which are subject to the qualifications and notes set forth therein, as well as for additional information relating to the company more generally. Mineral resources which are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. Inferred mineral resources have insufficient confidence to allow the meaningful application of technical and economic parameters or to enable an evaluation of economic viability suitable for public disclosure. Neither the company nor readers can assume that all or any part of an inferred mineral resource will be upgraded to indicated or measured mineral resources. Most projects at the inferred mineral resource stage do not ever achieve successful commercial production. Each stage of a project is contingent on the positive results of the previous stage, and there is a significant risk that the results may not support or justify moving to the next stage.
In those instances where the company has retracted, revised, clarified or updated previous disclosure, the company advises readers not to rely on such statements as they may continue to be found in the public domain.
This news release has been reviewed by Brent Butler, a Qualified Person as that term is defined in NI 43-101.
REDHILL RESOURCES CORP.
Graham Harris, Chairman
This news release may contain forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements address future events and conditions and therefore involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements.
The TSX Venture Exchange does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Contact:

Investor Relations
Redhill Resources Corp.
604-662-8184 or Toll Free: 1-877-662-8184
604-602-1606 (FAX)
investor@redhill-resources.com
www.redhill-resources.com

And this is what it means:

Redhill Clarifies And Restates That It Is Still Run By Scumbags

We are still scumbags. The end.

Kid Dynamite's Friggin' Picasso (blogged response)

Today Kid Dynamite tells us that the chart of SLV (and therefore silver the metal) "...Looks Like A Friggin' Picasso." Meanwhile, here's how the latest moves in the junior silver stocks are best depicted:

(Click to enlarge, as it's just a good excuse to get my fave canvas ever on the blog, really)

But never fear, the times they are a changin'. DYODD and while we're here a big "HI" to the Rick Rule sycophants out there. Keep them there mails coming, y'all*.

*yeah i know, i'll never get a job as a financial analyst in California. Heartbreaking, so it is.

Alange Energy (ALE.v) hit with a class action suit

Now this is way, way interesting. Remember the great work Setty did in a whole series of posts uncovering the Alange Energy (ALE.v)? Well  this morning the ante has been upped and a decent Canadian law firm has opened a class action suit on ALE.v. If i were you I'd go check out what Setty found on that link above and read the following NR very closely.

On Monday April 18, 2011, 12:11 pm

TORONTO AND WINDSOR, April 18 /CNW/ - A class action has been commenced in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on behalf of all investors who acquired shares of Alange Energy Corp. ("Alange") during the period August 30, 2010 to and including January 12, 2011 (the "Class Period").  The plaintiff alleges that the defendants engaged in violations of Ontario's Securities Act and the common law.
The plaintiff has retained Sutts, Strosberg LLP to prosecute the class action.
The plaintiff alleges that throughout the Class Period, the defendants misrepresented its daily production of oil that was reported and disseminated to the public.
On January 13, 2011, Alange disclosed that it overstated its daily production of oil by as much as 39 per cent.  After the disclosure, Alange's share price declined by more than 37 per cent on trading volume of more than 100 million shares.
Jay Strosberg, a partner of Sutts, Strosberg LLP said, "The question that is being asked is how could a company with experienced management so significantly overstate the amount of oil that it was producing?"
Sutts, Strosberg LLP pioneered securities class actions in Ontario.  As a result of resolving class actions such as YBM Magnex, Southwestern Resources, Atlas Cold Storage, CV Technologies and NovaGold Resources; Sutts, Strosberg LLP has recovered more than $150 million for its clients in securities class action alone.  Please visit the Sutts, Strosberg LLP website www.strosbergco.com and www.aleclassaction.com for more information about the Alange class action.

Contacts

Jay Strosberg  
Sutts
Strosberg LLP 
519.561.6285 or 1.800.229.5323
ext 8285                                                                           
jay AT strosbergco.com

DYODD

OH NOES!

SILVER'S UNDER U$43/OZ!!!!

WADDWEGONNADOO???

Oh yeah...right...so it's not too bad after all? Is that right? You're not worried about forward earnings here, Otto? Y'think we'll be ok for a net profit or two this year? You sure? Oh....ok....right....

A special request from Germany

Apparently and suddenly there are a whole bunch of scam pushing whores in Germany getting their pips squeaked by more honest (and far more naive) people who are apparently and suddenly wondering where all their money invested in the "sure thing" called Dorato Resources (DRI.v) has gone.

It's gone because you've been scammed, herrs and frauleins (sorry, German isn't my strong point). But look on the bright side, at least you've been keeping good company. After all Eric Sprott and "the legendary" Pierre Lassonde got fooled by the Carlos Ballon show, too.

Yeah, really. How do you say "DYODD, dude" in German anyhow?

Reasons why Ram Power (RPG.to) exists

Which one sounds the closest to you, kind and gentle reader?

1) To provide Rick Rule with another "heads i win tails you lose" vehicle.
2) To show Marin Katusa as the bullshit know-nothing self-serving pumper that he is.
3) To enhance Casey Research's growing reputation as a house of scams and bullshit promos.
4) To separate fools from their money in the time-honoured Canadian market tradition.
5) To make Ross Beaty's Magma Energy (MXY.to) look like a strong-performing stock.
6) To provide electricity supply to Nicaragua (and yeah, before you write in I know this one is pushing reality a little too far)
7) To help pay for the closure costs of the Lumiere and DB Bistro Moderne restaurants.

You be the judge!

USA ratings outlook revised to negative by S&P

This is not a joke.

S&P just completed its review on US debt and reaffirmed its rating on the paper, but revised its outlook down to negative.

I presume that nearly all readers of IKN own gold. This is a good thing.

UPDATE: Still 10 minutes before the bell and we now have reporter-type articles appearing on this big news. Here's marketwatch with its take. Meanwhile, gold is already at an all-time high after having lost 10 bucks overnight and got within inches of 1500.

UPDATE 2: Felix Salmon does a good job with his post, "The implications of a downgraded US"

Chart of the day is....

....the gold/silver ratio.

The one-way traffic just keeps on rolling.

The IKN Weekly, out now

Strange but true: this post series is now getting requests

IKN102 has just been sent to subscribers. I hope you all got your copy correctly, but if not please let me know.