In just six seconds....Child Wins!
Yay!
8/6/11
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Entertaining, educating and edifying things to read this weekend
"Y’all, this is Texas A&M, where they had to rename the town of Bryan to College Station so that the college students would know where to get off the train."
Gold (GLD) & Silver (SLV) & Miners (GDX) & Juniors (GDXJ)
Here's the chart that points out a simple truth:
When the going gets tough, the world sells its juniors and runs to mommy. Whimpering.
8/5/11
The Friday OT: The Walker Brothers; The sun ain't gonna shine anymore
Kirsty sneaks in on the rails and brings us this gem rarity of a video....love the close-up headshot
From the days when people wrote songs and then trained their voices to sing. Classic
How to make a small fortune in junior mining stocks
1) Start with a large fortune.
2) Follow Louis James's advice over at Casey Research.
3) Wait three months.
I've just bought some of this
A quick trade planned for this admittedly small chunk that won't be included as part of any core holding.
The drop was just too tempting and I've had cash on the sidelines for this kind of reason. DYODD.
UPDATE 2: Yup, my timing sucks. I'll live.
UPDATE 3: Hey, not so bad. Please ignore update 2 (that happened when FVI dipped under 5). Methinks the market is rallying on thoughts of next week's FOMC. By the way, the single most fascinating stock out there, for me at least, is Stillwater (SWC). No position in that one but I'd love to be a fly on the wall of that boardroom these last 48 hours.
UPDATE 4: This received from reader "B", a market professional, about the above comment on Stillwater (SWC):
Agree with you.. Stillwater is extremely interesting down here. It’s ridiculously cheap trading at base metals multiples for a largely platinum group metals producer; especially one outside of South Africa with all those labour and power issues driving costs up.The deal with Peregrine is locked in that SWC has 0 outs, aside from walking away and getting sued, but management has no intention of doing that.It’d be crazy if Xstrata or someone came in and scooped up SWC for $18… but my gut tells me nothing happens and the deal goes through as planned.Once they drill up Peregrine in Q4/11 I think the market will like what they see and the stock (SWC) will see big gains.
UPDATE 5: Closed the trade, taken the neat little profit. The end
Ecuador delays its mining contracts...again
Rafael Correa: Mining Activity Will Be Beneficial
Various contracts will be signed next October for mineral exploitation, amongst them that of the Rio Blanco project of International Minerals (IMC), situated in the Molleturo area.
Date of publication: 4 Aug 2011
During his visit to Cuenca, President Rafael Correa said during a visit to the Azuay government that he had hoped to conclude negotiations this month, but the demands of the mining companies had delayed the process.
Copper: A Russian proverb
8/4/11
We Twitter
Chile today
Louis James of Casey Research needs to remember the basics: When In Hole, Stop Digging
Bottom line, yes, beware of smearing, but also don’t let yourself get stampeded by critics seeking to make
names for themselves as would-be whistle-blowers.
Peru's metal production slipping
NB: Please note that the Y-axes on these charts have been altered to show the changes more clearly. I'm not trying to fool anyone, just trying to make the changes as clear as possible.
Silver
Zinc
Lead
Malaga's (MLG.to) poor 2q11 production numbers
Wondering why Malaga (MLG.to) hasn't announced its 2q11 production numbers to the world? Wonder no longer, this is why:
Chart of the day is...
...GLD, the gold ETF, 12 month chart plus squiggles.
8/3/11
Minefinders (MFN) (MFL.to) 2q11 financials
A simple yet interesting chart from your author's numbercrunch of the 2q11 numbers:
On the whole MFN gave us a good set of numbers, by the way.
This must be drawn to your attention
SEWARD, NE—Claiming he wasn't afraid to let everyone in attendance know about "the real mess we're in," Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke reportedly got drunk Tuesday and told everyone at Elwood's Corner Tavern about how absolutely fucked the U.S. economy actually is.
Bernanke, who sources confirmed was "totally sloshed," arrived at the drinking establishment at approximately 5:30 p.m., ensconced himself upon a bar stool, and consumed several bottles of Miller High Life and a half-dozen shots of whiskey while loudly proclaiming to any patron who would listen that the economic outlook was "pretty goddamned awful if you want the God's honest truth."
Gold crystal ball
Portage Resources (POTG.pk): Don't say I didn't try to warn you
A chart:
An owl:
Nothing new under the sun
"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."
UPDATE: I'm sorry if you're feeling upset now. Here's a nice cartoon bunny for you
Chart of the day is...
8/2/11
Chile: President Piñera's approval ratings drop to all-time low
So IKN goes for the succinct analysis commentary: It sucks. Casillero del Diablo served, the end.
One news source per country
Argentina: La Nacion
Bolivia: La Razón
Brazil: Folha de S. Paulo
Colombia: Semana
Chile: La Tercera
Ecuador: El Comercio (Ecuador)
Paraguay: ABC Color
Peru: El Comercio (Peru)
Uruguay: El Pais
Venezuela: Noticias24
This little list will move across to a separate links category as of tomorrow.
Why Southern Copper (SCCO) is a long-term hold
And for what it's worth*, it was bought way back then at just under $8 a share (split adjusted).
*not much
Nouriel Roubini brings us today's market lesson
Nov. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Nouriel Roubini, the economist who predicted the global economic crisis, said a forecast by investor Jim Rogers that gold will double to at least $2,000 an ounce is “utter nonsense.”
There is no inflation or “near-depression” to drive gold prices that high, Roubini said today at the Inside Commodities Conference in New York. If a severe depression came to pass, with investors buying canned goods and hiding out in log cabins, “maybe you want some gold in that scenario,” Roubini said.
“Maybe it will reach $1,100 or so but $1,500 or $2,000 is nonsense,” Roubini said. Gold rose to a record $1,098.50 today in New York on speculation that central banks and investors will purchase the metal to hedge against a declining dollar.
8/1/11
Something to watch that's actually worth your time
Move over Jane Fonda, Hugo haz teh workout video
CARACAS – Venezuelan state television showed Saturday new pictures of President Hugo Chavez wearing sports togs and doing exercises together with some of his officials while commenting on government issues.
The video footage, edited and set to music, shows an enthusiastic Chavez directing the physical exercises of his ministers, who lift hands and legs along with the president as he talks about the need for healthy routines.
Oh my stars, how I love South America. Anyway the report continues here
Gold
Let's say it again, just to make sure:
Chart of the day is...
...Colombian President Santos' popularity ratings:
These are six-monthly Apoyo numbers that go back into his days as Defence Minister and then to his time as a Candidate for the job, but the recent 71% is post honeymoon period, real deal. In other words, Colombians like their man and quite frankly I can't blame them.
OT: about that weekend video
Did i say i was an atheist? No, i said it was good brainfood.
As inferred in the text of the post, much of the time is taken up by the old "rationality" argument in different guises. This one has been batted back and forth between the two sides more times than can be mentioned in polite company and is, intellectually speaking, old hat (though fun to watch how it manifests itself in different people's brains). However, there were a couple of good and well constructed points made and i particularly liked the way the question of whether there is a "grand purpose" to it all was framed.
It made me think, and i like to think.
It made me think above all about social morality and whether religion is a necessary tool in society to keep things working and for us not to descend into anarchy (in its strictest sense) and chaos. It also made me think a helluva lot about my daughters. Finally, it made me revisit a lot of the texts and sayings attributed to Gautama Buddha (because the Bible's view is ingrained into this westerner, whether he likes it or not).
My best advice would be not to jump to conclusions about my religious leanings. I'm not going to force mine upon anyone (nor will i reveal my beliefs), equally i reject others forcing theirs on me.
7/31/11
Message to subscribers
Money talks bullshit walks, debt ceiling edition
From Reuters (via twitter) eleven minutes ago at time of writing:
18:02 31Jul11 RTRS-S&P 500 STOCK INDEX FUTURESJUMP 15.5 POINTS AS MARKET OPENS
The paymasters have told their minions to stop the BS and vote something that won't cost them money. The end.
Update: Market Narrative leaves this link in the comments section to show how wonderful he really really is. And oh of course he's wonderful and to otherwise think is to badly know him.
Update 2: Just wondering to myself how long I can look at that update 1 without correcting the deliberate mistakes. Gawd, it's ugly.
UPDATE 3: Then there's this:
x
Bayfield Resources (BYV.v) smearing and Brent Cook's rebuttal
Exploration Insights
by Brent Cook
www.explorationinsights.com
Issue No. 152
July 31, 2011
Normally Exploration Insights is exclusive to subscribers and we appreciate that you don’t cut and paste or forward the timely information herein. However, as soon will become clear, the Rant in today’s letter is for general distribution and you are welcome to send it along to anyone you think may be interested its subject (if you would prefer a .pdf send us an email).
The Rant
US Based Newsletter Writer Clarifies Bayfield Ventures’ Clarification of Misinformation Regarding Potentially Confusing Drill Information that Bayfield Clarified in a Previous Confusing Release as Mandated by BCSC
On Tuesday, July 26 a US based newsletter writer was asked during this BNN interview (Tuesday, 11:50 EST) to comment on Bayfield Ventures’ (BYV.TSX-V) potentially confusing drill results. Subsequent to his comments, Bayfield distributed this news release in which they stated that factual errors were made by said newsletter writer in the discussion.
Let’s get factual
In their June 30 news release, Bayfield Ventures reported that the British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC) required BYV to “clarify” certain details of its technical disclosure of previously released drill results. The “potentially confusing” information in question relates to BYV’s reporting of long intervals of mineralized drilling results that were created by diluting a few, sporadic high grade intercepts with lengthy intervals of lower grade (and even some barren) intercepts. This equates to a mathematical smearing of the isolated high grade intervals throughout a larger volume of low and possibly sub-economic material. By smearing gold grades, the character of the geologic occurrence is misrepresented and can be confusing and/or misleading to the general public who, on the whole, don’t have the tools or experience to recognize this mathematical misrepresentation. (We have examined this issue many times here at Exploration Insights using the free drill interval calculator.)
That was the gist of the BNN conversation. BYV was not represented as the “poster child” of smearing; rather, their recent press releases and the restatement required by the BCSC merely made them a timely example for a respected daily business show.
With respect to the BCSC mandated clarification-- this addresses five drill holes from four separate news releases dated September 8, 2010 to June 27, 2011. Specifically*:
Sept 8, 2010 RR10-18: BYV reported 81 meters grading 5.08 g/t Au, between 488 to 569 meters drill depth; this was restated to 13 meters of high-grade contained in three separate intervals (see table below).
- Dec. 14, 2010 RR10-52: (My personal favorite, with erratum to the BNN discussion where I misstated 80 meters, rather than 58) BYV reported 58 meters grading 1.84 g/t Au between 394 to 452 meters drill depth; this was restated as 1.1 meter grading 89.96 g/t Au, at 402.4 meters depth.
- Feb. 16, 2011 RR11-1: BYV reported 116.6 meters grading 1.05 g/t Au between 509 meters to 626 meters drill depth; this was restated as 20.8 meters containing three, isolated, high-grade intercepts.
- June 27, 2011 RR11-70: BYV reported 43.8 meters grading 1.02 g/t Au between 41.00 to 84.80 meters depth; this was restated as two separate higher grade intervals totaling 10.4 meters.
- June 27, 2011 RR11-71: BYV reported 79.5 meters grading 8.66 g/t Au between 15.50 meters to 95 meters depth; this was restated as 25.5 meters grading 26.7 g/t. Both drill holes 70 and 71 are good drill intercepts, the significance of which is dependent upon pending results from nearby holes.
- Yet to be restated: RR11-14: 56.9 meters grading 0.62 g/t between 275 to 328.3; should be two separate intervals of about 3 meters each grading 6.75 and 2.14 g/t.
*Note that we are only considering gold assays, as some of the earlier releases did not include silver assays.
(Fig. 1- One-year BYV chart showing news release dates for drill results that were subsequently “clarified”, and the apparent market reaction to original news releases)
Summarizing:
1. 81 meters becomes 13 meters beginning at 488 meters drill depth;
2. 58 meters becomes 1.1 meter beginning at a drill depth of 402 meters;
3. 116 meters becomes 20.8 meters beginning at a drill depth of 509 meters;
4. 79.5 meters becomes 26.5 meters beginning at a drill depth of 38 meters;
5. 43.8 meters becomes 10.4 meters beginning at a drill depth of 41 meters.
On July 19, some of these restated results from the June 30th clarification news release were posted to BYV’s website in a cross-section, as represented below (Fig. 2). The section actually appears to run slightly east of north, so the section may not be truly perpendicular to the strike of the feature; the true width may be somewhat less than drill width. I have edited the cross-section by including the approximate location of the long “mineralized” intervals as originally reported by Bayfield on the drill trace against the restated intervals where possible. This graphic visualization helps put some context to the restated mineralized intervals.
(Fig. 2- Burns Block Cross Section showing drill hole trace and mineralized intervals. The red bars represent the actual location of the mineralized intervals as restated in the June 30 news release. The length of the red bar is proportional to the grade. I added the green on the drill trace to represent the approximate drill interval the mineralization in red was smeared across in previous news releases. Note 50-meter scale on drill trace. So, does the green convey a different impression of the mineralization than the red?)
A key takeaway from the cross section is that, with the exception of mineralization intersected in RR-70 and 71, these high grade intersections are deep and, based upon the presently available information, would not be exploited via open pit mining. It is also very obvious that some of the “clarified” results are very narrow, high grade hits that were mathematically smeared over greater drill length —specifically RR-52—just as the BCSC noted.
The other topic discussed in the BNN segment relates to continuity of grade. In the cross section above, and in previous releases, BYV suggests that their drilling has identified a high grade gold shoot with a down plunge length of about 600 meters. Basically, BYV has connected the red bars on the drill holes above and are interpreting that these form a continuous mineralized body. The distance extrapolated between drill holes is up to about 100 meters – this is a big distance to extrapolate in deposits of this type. It will take considerably more infill drilling to prove continuity.
Bayfields’ location map suggests to me that there may be other drill holes that cross their section of choice, but that are not included; however, there is insufficient information to be certain, or to know why BYV selected the holes they used (the drill map is here for anyone interested). If drill hole data relevant to interpreting continuity are missing, one needs to ask why potentially useful data are omitted. Regardless, at this stage I am dubious about grade continuity of this projected shoot-- only time will tell.
There does, however, appear to be sufficient drilling immediately east and west of Bayfields’ section to establish or negate continuity along strike (Fig. 3). In some instances, gold ore bodies have continuity down plunge or dip which can be matched along strike. Basically, if an ore body is extensive or continuous in one direction it can be in the other as well; therefore, it is possible that we can use that on-strike data to guess at the down plunge continuity.
(Fig. 3- North Drill Fence map extracted from complete map, showing drill hole locations. Note the number of holes per location. Red are “high grade” holes, orange are drilled with assays complete, and yellow with assays pending. What is in the holes immediately adjacent to those selected for BYV’s cross section?)
The cross section in Figure 2 above is only a paper-thin two dimensional slice through the earth lined up along the holes BYV selected. Bayfield has drilled many dozens of holes along east west lines, usually with several holes from the same location. In order to evaluate the 600-meter long ore shoot BYV is postulating, we need to establish the east-west strike length of this zone. Although difficult to tell from the map, it appears drill stations are between 10 and 50 meters apart along the east-west lines—a good distance to establish grade and structural continuity.
I am afraid, however, that the drill data is too poorly organized and presented to permit any conclusion regarding grade continuity along strike and therefore the potential tonnes and grade of the proposed shoot, or continuity therein. Bayfield should present us with a series of north-south cross sections similar to Figure 2, indicating the thickness of the section (showing the distance holes are projected into the section), using all the drill holes with down-hole assays in order to prove BYV have discovered something of value. Many companies at this stage of outlining a possible resource do this on corebox.net or through their own websites. It’s basic exploration and disclosure practice in Canada.
When and if Bayfield does present the public with sufficient cross sections and maps to make an assessment of the grade and continuity of Burns Block and the postulated shoot, we are certain the US based newsletter writer will be happy to publicly review the data and, if need be, reconsider his current assessment of the company.
Are we clear now?
































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