Bunker Hill Mining (BNKR.cse): The Bobby Genovese scam collapses

This morning we had this terse four-liner from the latest in a long line of Bobby Genovese scam stocks, Bunker Hill Mining (BNKR):

TORONTO, Oct. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bunker Hill Mining Corp. (the "Company" or "Bunker Hill") (CSE:BNKR) announces  that it has defaulted on its payment obligations with respect to its Lease with Option to Purchase Agreement (the "Agreement") with Placer Mining Corporation, the lessor of the Bunker Hill Mine.  As such, the Agreement is terminated.

About Bunker Hill Mining Corp.

That news comes at the end of a string of events which, when taken as a whole, point to very strange things going on.

1) BNKR files its latest set of financials (nine months to March 31st) which show the company has U$2.06m in cash, no debts of any import, working capital of over U$2.4m. A few rough calcs show the burn rate at the company at about $550k a month, which is a lot for this type of small junior. We also note that CEO Bruce Reid is on $20k a month and CFO Julio DiGirolamo is on $15k a month, cash.

2) On June 21st, the company publishes an update which lists all the good things going on, including the tireless work and the way in which sophisticated investors are looking to fund activities. They also say a 43-101 technical report would be filed soon, which would allow the company to list on the TSXV. However, just a few days later IIROC makes them publish a correction to the NR with a list of things that did not conform to standards. 

3) On August 13th  BNKR announced it had closed a financing deal to the tune of $1.379m with two investors, namely a group of Chinese who were already neck deep and throwing good money after bad, then also Hummingbird Resources, a London AIM listed junior that really should have known better than to get involved with scamsters like Genovese. Still, nearly $1.4m would surely be enough to keep the lights on, right?

4) On September 6th BNKR announces its 43-101 compliant technical report. Which is a joke document, the compilers seem to have based their report on 12 grab samples.

And then suddenly, things go downhill fast:

5) On October 2nd BNKR announces it has missed its option payment on the Bunker Hill property and is in default.

6) On October 12th (last Friday) BNKR announces that CEO Bruce Reid had resigned. No more $20k/month paychecks for him.

7) Which brings us to this morning, and the announcement of the default and termination. 

This company has been bled dry of cash by the people in the centre of the scam, Bobby Genovese (of course) and it's worth noting that this was a $3 stock at the beginning of the year, sold down relentlessly as somebody turns paper into cash. We also remind readers that Bobby Genovese is currently facing SEC charges due to his pump and dump selling activities at his former company, Liberty Silver, the very same one that paid James West of The Midas Letter to pump it to Canadian retail fools.

The IKN Weekly, out now

IKN490 has just been sent to subscribers. I'm off to open up and read the latest edition of Notes From The Rabbit Hole, the weekly newsletter from Gary Tanashian which is simply best of breed. I didn't get chance today when it came. After what we saw from the broad equity markets, the bonds markets and the precious metals, Gary's words are going to be worth their weight in gold this weekend.

Bunker Hill Mining (BNKR.cse): The latest Bobby Genovese scam loses its CEO

Here's the news:

TORONTO, Oct. 12, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bunker Hill Mining Corp. (the “Company” or “Bunker Hill”) (CSE: BNKR) announces that the Company has accepted the resignation of Bruce Reid as President and CEO and as a Director of the Company. Mr. John Ryan, Director of the Company, shall assume the function of the Company’s President and Chief Executive Officer on an interim basis. The Board of Directors would like to thank Mr. Reid for his contributions to the Company.

The rats leave the sinking ship. Bruce Reid was also the false head of the previous iteration of this BS pump and dump, Liberty Silver. And yes, the same pump and dump Liberty Silver that now sees Bobby G facing securities fraud charges.

The top three most visited IKN posts this week are...

...in reverse order:
.

Third Place: "Fortuna Silver (FVI.to) (FSM) and its tailings dam breach". It never ceases to amaze me how much gets reported about Canadian mining companies in LatAm that never makes it to English language reports or corporate news releases.

Second Place: "Cartier Resources (ECR.v) and the perils of announcing good news". The only decent and original work on the blog this week.

 

First Place: "Regarding Continental Gold (CNL.to): A mining CEO writes in". This CEO is right, anyone even remotely supporting CNL in its pathetic media campaign of denial is in an indefensible position. This company is everything that's wrong about the mining industry and if the sector had any sort of moral compass, Ari Sussman (check how he screwed all and sundry at Colossus Gold) and all others at CNL would be ostracized forever. Instead, we have this company as main sponsor of an upcoming conference and influential media voices hardly batting an eyelid about the fact, taking the coin and readily supporting their corporate ethos.

Not a single loss at managerial or board level? Shame on you, mining industry! Shame on you, Newmont! How many more employees of this company have to die before the lessons are learned?

The Friday OT: Ismo; I don't know shit

My thanks to reader 'K' for the forward, this guy is good:




Youtube here.

Catching up with the Nick Hodge "Outsider Club" Millrock (MRO.v) pump

Back in early June this humble corner of cyberspace published this post on the BS pump being run by another of these Vancouver snake-oil salespeople, one Nick Hodge and his "Outsider Club". The choice of vehicle was Millrock Resources (MRO.v) and Nick Hodge (who happens to be BFFs with Marin Katusa, well there's a thing) was claiming a potential 25,000% return on the trade (seriously, that's two numbers and three zeroes, I checked before blocking this scampump dumbass on Twitter). 

So anyway, let's see how MRO has got on since then:

Down 54% since June 1st and even worse if you start counting from the top of that pump spike. And once again, consider the volume surge on the publication of the Outsider Club pump and ask yourself not about the number of greenhorns (now bagholders) who were buying that week. Ask yourself who was selling to them.

There will be no posts on this blog today

For secret reasons.

Fortuna Silver (FVI.to) (FSM) and its tailings dam breach

We should expect Fortuna Silver (FVI.to) (FSM) to inform the market about the breach in its tailings facility at its San José mine in Oaxaca, Mexico, tomorrow. At the locality the environmental authorities have been called in, the company has admitted the breach and locals report that the water in the local river "has turned white".

And if Fortuna Silver doesn't inform the market tomorrow, it will speak volumes about the company's attitude.

Joe Mazumdar at the Metals Investor Forum September 2018

This 30 minute presentation by Joe Mazumdar was reco'd to me* and called "superb" by my contact. who was right. It is.

He explains what went on at Beaver Creek this year and it's chock full of insights, but perhaps the most interesting is when he talks passive investment in the mining sector, the advent of private equity and its effect on today's market. Metalheads should dedicate some of an evening to this. Youtube here.

*Not by Joe M or Brent Cook

Biiwii on the real safe haven

Right here.

Amid the carnage, gold and the miners held steady and firm. Gary T puts it into words and pictures.

Some friendly advice about Plateau Energy (PLU.v)

Those of you thinking about participating in the placement announced this morning should Google the name "Walter Aduviri". And if you're thinking of going heavily in, make sure you do so in Spanish language (and if not versed, pay someone who is).

Thank you for your attention. And don't say you weren't warned.

Continental Gold (CNL.to) shareholders must be happy...

...that the company decided to draw a line under its recent problems by holding a memorial service, planting some trees, publishing a news release and refusing to accept the resignations of the executives whose "close monitoring" and corporate security strategies ended with the deaths of four employees.

Now at $2.45, a new multi-year low.

A flash update...

...has just been sent to subscribers, on this Wednesday morning. A purchase.

Cartier Resources (ECR.v) and the perils of announcing good news

I normally don't like writing up in a positive light on my own long positions on the blog like this, but this exception proves the rule because circumstances are different. Two things:

1) I do own shares in Cartier Resources (ECR.v), but it really is a small position and even if it triples it's not going to change my life much (unless I add more in the meantime). My ECR is strictly smalltime, toe-in-water stuff and that needs to be clear.

2) This post isn't about my portfolio, nor is it about exhorting you into share ownership of ECR. It's about the shape and climate for exploreco stocks at the moment. Because the atmosphere out there continues to be pure rank horrid, no matter that Barrick and Randgold are now a melded U$20Bn superminer.

What happened to Cartier Resources (ECR.v) today is a great example of the current market for junior explorecos. It had news out this morning pre-bell on its current drill program at the flagship Chimo project near Val D'Or and while there's plenty of technical information to chew over, what matters is the hit you see in this segment of one of the NR visuals:

Now, you really need to have studied ECR for a bit of time to be able to come to even a sketched-out conclusion on what they announced today, because ultimately these people aren't trying to wow the retail audience. Their target market is Agnico (AEM) or any other Tier 1 or Tier 2 company that is looking to get a foothold in this part of the world. Because of that, ECR doesn't do much dirty crazy sexy flashy promo script or fancy photos. This NR is geologists talking geology to geologists.

All the same, anyone who has taken an interest in ECR.v and its Chimo project would have known that the 5.6g over 3m next to the 5.5g over 4.7m they cut was a serious and strong piece of news, especially considering where they cut it from. ECR's theory is that there's a whole separate structure of gold-bearing mineralization running parallel to the known (and previously mined) vein at Chimo, so if they can find it and hit it, while expanding the known vein at depth, it means that the deposit gets immediately more interesting due to the way in which upper levels, previously considered dead and mined out, become sources of cheap and accessible feed. Meanwhile, that parallel vein continues down and makes what they've been finding at depth that much more succulent...more ounces, more fun. Anyway, to cut a long story short today's NR was positive and the guys most likely to buy Chimo, AEM, know that too. So would anyone else who studies the Val D'Or environs closely in order to trade (and there are many of those), but what happened to the stock price today was this:

A bounce scoring 0.1 on the Crap-O-Meter. And this is my point; even in a more-or-less market, a NR like the one delivered by ECR today would have shot the stock higher because those equipped with the smarts and understanding would have piled in (then sold to us as they explained how good it all was). Not today folks, because the market is flatter than a donut under a CAT 797 and even though AEM will love what they see, the equity does nothing at all.

Am I frustrated with this? No, not really. Well yes a bit, but only because I'm not a re-buyer of ECR until it starts to move up and today's news in a different year would have been enough to put it in play. But it's not frustration about failing to make a fabbo profit, that is a by-product and will come and go. The other frustration is to see things happen to ECR and others that only happen when the world does not give a flying sexual intercourse about junior explorecos. It's not that it will change either, because I can guarantee on all that's sacred that it will. Sentiment will improve and good times will be had by all, just don't ask me when because I don't have a freakin' clue. 

In the meantime, stocks like ECR will fill the market bandwidth with good news and be totally ignored for their efforts. Right up to the moment when they're not.

Regarding Continental Gold (CNL.to): A mining CEO writes in

Mailbag this morning included the missive seen below here, from A.Reader who also happens to be a highly experienced and peer-respected mining person as well as a CEO of a Canadian listed junior mining company. It was his response to the news out of Continental Gold (CNL.to) yesterday:

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TITLE: The decent thing to do...

BODY: ...after a series of sad and terrible incidents such as this, is to resign the entire CNL Executive Team and a large part of the Board regardless of fault, implied or real. If not, the fact that the same senior management team remains, will lead inevitably to a decay in morale, beleaguered performance and a loss of confidence. The Company needs to pay its respects then start afresh.

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He is right. CNL is trying to wriggle out of admitting its responsibility in this sordid affair, a series of serious corporate lapses that culminated in the latest horrific event that saw three of its geologists murdered by terrorist dissidents. Will their shareholders let them get away with this? Newmont, got a view on this?

Mark Bristow resigns from the Kaplan "Panthera" conservation group

A timeline for your consideration:

September 22nd: IKN scoops the world on the Barrick/Randgold (aka Randick) merger.

September 24th: Merger announced and, along with the flurry of fun, we re-publish photos of Mark Bristow with his trophy big game kills first featured on this blog in August 2016.

September 26th: This humble corner of cyberspace receives more photos of Bristow and his trophy hunting kills, therefore we publish them.

However, unlike August 2016 when nobody cared about this humble corner of cyberspace, the fact that IKN had run that scoop got it a whole new set of eyeballs. In particular, the eyeballs of UK based journalists who were all over the Randick merger like a rash by then. As a result...

October 1st: The Financial Times and the Daily Telegraph picked up and published on the story, then on October 2nd The Daily Mail ran its report on Mark Bristow and his disgusting hobby. All collated in this post, right here.

And with a roll on the drums...

October 7th: "RandGold CEO resigns from conservation group after trophy hunting scandal", which is a happy little report that starts like this:

 RandGold Resources CEO Mark Bristow has resigned from the conservation council of a big cat protection organisation, Panthera following UK reports picturing him on hunting trips.

Just goes to show what a pissant blog can achieve sometimes...

The Pretium $PVG show continues: 3q18 production numbers

Here's the link, here's the headline number sat next to the previous quarters:

That's 92.641oz to you, madame and sire. Behind that, the 12.4 g/t average gold grade willmake a few people go "hmmmm...", it's significantly behind the 14.9g of Q2. 

No position in PVG. Staying that way

Continental Gold (CNL.to): Please name the fired executive

Today from Continental Gold (CNL.to), sandwiched between two heavy slices of schmaltz, this:

With the goal of strengthening and reshaping our security team and protocols, the Company has engaged Control Risks, the world’s foremost security and risk consultancy, to lead efforts in restructuring our security department and reassessing our security risk matrix. The Company is also pleased to announce our new security manager, Juan Carlos Chacón, who joins us from Control Risks and has an impressive military and private sector background with a strong understanding of international standard best practices. In addition, the security manager reporting line has now been elevated directly to our Country Manager, Luis Germán Meneses, former Executive Vice-President and COO of Cerrejón, Colombia’s largest private coal producer and exporter and one of the largest integrated mining companies in the world.

Therefore the obvious question: Who has been fired from the company? Who will stand up and take responsibility for the shortcomings at CNL which resulted in the deaths of its employees? Where is the accountability? Why do you continue to hide the truth behind marketing, bullshit and paid-for puff pieces? The key phrase is in the first line; "With the goal of strengthening and reshaping our security team and protocols...", the logic is simple and cannot be covered by company-speak.

• They need to strengthen their security team
• They need to strengthen their protocols
• Those items were, therefore, weak. Of if you prefer to play semantics they were "less strong", but it amounts to exactly the same thing.
• Those weaknesses were a direct factor in the deaths of four of its employees. By the company's own admission, the security team and protocols were not good enough and due to that, people were unnecessarily put in harm's way. Four of them died.

Who was responsible? Are they still employed by CNL? If so, why?

Updating on the insider trading investigation against Paul McRae of Lundin Mining (LUN.to)

Paul McRae

A brief reminder that despite overwhelming evidence of obvious illegal insider trading conducted by Paul McRae, a director of Lundin Mining LUN.to) Lundin Gold (LUG.to), Filo Mining (FIL.v) and Bluestone Resources (BSR.v) in transactions that clearly contravene the insider trading laws of Canada as well as the code of ethics of all the companies at which McRae is connected, we have heard nothing from Lundin Mining, nothing from the other companies and nothing from the regulatory authorities of Canada on whether there has, is or will be any type of investigation into McRae and his profitable trading on the back of non-public material information.

Why have rules if they are not applied to clear-cut cases of illegal activity, ladies and gentlemen?

Would somebody please inform B2Gold $BTG that gold is down 1.4% this morning?

Thank you in advance.

The Bovespa rally

The 5% move in the Bovespa today on the back of Jair Bolsonaro's showing is just part of the recent rally. Ever since polls showed his move last week, the index is up 12%.

Brazil 2018: Polling versus results in an interesting visual

Over at The IKN Weekly over the last few weeks, we diligently took a reading of the polling for the 2018 Brazil Presidential election every weekend and gave it a small space in the Regional Politics section. The Readings in this poll started on September 6th (the grey bars at the back) and came every weekend, apart from the last two earlier this week and then the result today (in red). It gives an interesting visual on the way the campaign swung sharply in the last few weeks:

• We now know that far-right-wing candidate and now hot favourite to become the next President of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, got 46.03% of votes yesterday Sunday. But at the start of the sampling on September 6th (with the Brazil opinion poll conducted September 1st to 3rd) Bolsonaro was still back at 22%. As late as September 29th he was polling a steady 28%, but something happened in literally the last few days of the campaign, some sort of crystallization. Two days before the vote, Brazil's normally reliable pollsters Datafolha had him on 36%. He ends up with 46%.

• Once Fernando Haddad was shifted up by Lula from the Vice-President ticket to the President's and the "Haddad Is Lula" campaign kicked in, his voter intention rose sharply. But then it stalled with the final two readings at 22%. Therefore his final result of 29.27% will give his supporters some hope for the run-off vote in three weeks time, even though Bolsonaro needs to pick up just four extra clicks.

• Ciro Gomes' campaign was pure inertia, at the 14% level for weeks and where he finished.

• The right-wing Gerardo Alckmin faded badly and saw half of his real support and all the potential support he planned to pick up siphoned away to the very-right-wing Bolsonaro.

• But even Alckmin's collapse is chickenfeed next to that of Marina Silva. it's worth remembering that just five weeks ago Silva was polling at 12% and though not front-runner at the time, she was in the mix for the coveted second spot and was being talked about as a serious alternative. She ended up with less than 1% of the vote, an impressive collapse.

Haddad's only real chance is to capture ALL the Gomes vote, then woo away a few of the people from Bolsonaro by recognizing they were voting in protest and doing something that appeals to them even more, then crossing his fingers. Nothing's impossible in politics and that's doubly true for LatAm politics, but it's a very tall order and this election is now Bolsonaro's to lose. Assuming that he wins, the continent has taken the recent right-shift results seen in Argentina, Chile and Colombia and lurched them a long way further to the right.

Angry Geologist does Ivanhoe (IVN.to)

The IVN Makoko project to be precise, that new one they announced a few days ago. TAG struts her stuff right here.

The IKN Weekly, out now

spooky

IKN489 has just been sent to subscribers. A sub-standard issue that has a few decent items, but overall it's far from the best I've done. So be it.

The Brazilian Real (BRL) opens for business

A 2.4% move against the US Dollar. It likes Jair:

A subscriber cancels their subscription to The IKN Weekly

Reader 'S' has kindly given permission to reproduce her unsolicited testimony here on the blog.

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Subscription cancellation

I am taking a break from the market as my husband and I are starting a major house and garden renovation.

Thank you for your illuminating information regarding the ins/out and ups/downs of the stock market and the characters in it and their shenanigans.  These last thirteen years of my life 'investing' and learning how money goes around and by whom has been the most educational time.  Of all the 'money' people I have either read or listened to, you are the most honest and bravest to say what others who know don't. 

Please cancel my subscription.

Wishing you well,

(name withheld)

I will be stopping at your website now and then to catch up on the never ending story. lol

Best mail of the week

It was a short one, too. From a VP Corp Dev of an exploration stage junior mining company that will remain nameless, but I can say that I personally hold no shares in the company nor have any type of reco out on the stock. The VP Corp Dev first quotes a line from this post, the one that exposes Brian Bri-Bri Paes-Braga's extortion tactics to the world, then adds his own thought. Here's the whole thing, aside from the name:

“I suppose that more than anything else, this post exists for the junior explorecos to come that get offers from Bri-Bri to participate in their placement offerings.”

 

Yes, and thank you. Added to the very long list of people we don’t want owning our shares.

I may need to take a closer look at the company where this guy works, my kind of mentality.

The top three most visited IKN posts this week are...

...in reverse order:
.

Third Place: "Continental Gold (CNL.to), the Colombia Gold Symposium and IKN". The only post worth reading on the blog this week, I'm glad it made the weekend frame.

Second Place: "The unbearable lightness of being a Novo Resources (NVO.v) skeptic". I still find it hilarious when I get lectured by NVO longs on how stupid I am about this stock. The same people who told the world to buy NVO at $8, at $6, at $4, all the way down to its current $2.72. Their lack of self-awareness is incredible, their arrogance unsurpassable.

 

First Place: "The Brian Paes-Braga extortion strategy for muscling in on junior mining companies". You want a cleaner capital market, Canada? If you just want to play lip-service to the idea but continue the way you are, do nothing about people like Brian Paes-Braga. If you do, the first job is to uncover the ways in which they go about ripping off the market. The second is to make sure they can't do it again. IKN provides evidence of one example of the former. 

Tommy Humphreys, currently lying his ass off at CEO.ca

Struck a nerve, Tommy?

Easy scam paydays in jeopardy, Tommy?

Quite seriously, these sociopaths will quite literally say anything to stop their gravy train scams from coming to a sudden halt. Lithoquest was gutsy enough to stand up to these bullies, extortionists and pathological liars and good for them, with luck their example will stop other CEOs from accepting the poisoned chalice of Fiore placement money. That the readership of CEO.ca keep swallowing the blather and nonsense of innocence is mere testament to their naivete and general stupidity. They are all marks in the world of scum like Humphreys, he will do anything to keep their pockets from closing on him and his cohorts.

PS: For those of you just joining, this post is the reason they're in trouble with paymaster Frank Giustra. They were too clumsy you see, didn't pay attention and learn how to do it right. Now they've blown the scam.

The Friday OT: Kiasmos; Looped

I'm obsessed. This has been 24/7 in my ears for the last two weeks, it's stunningly good music and I only just found out what millions of other people knew.

For some reason, you count 11 seconds before the music starts on this Youtube. Which can also be found here.

Regulus (REG.v): A slight delay on the Aldebaran spin-out

This desk hears that the REG trading halt is due to the Aldebaran spin-out, which has hit a delay or two. There's nothing nefarious going on, it's more bureaucratic hold-ups, but it means in practical terms that the listing of the spin-out Aldebaran company and its share distribution isn't going to happen today. With the delay and what with waiting on this-and-that legal thing to happen, the spin-out and Aldebaran's first day of trading is likely to happen end of next week, or perhaps the start of the week after. So now you know.

By the way, the ticker will be ALDE.v.

The Brian Paes-Braga extortion strategy for muscling in on junior mining companies

 Photo from Brian Paes-Braga's private 

Instagram account, September 2018. 

Lithoquest Diamonds Inc (LDI.v) has quite a tale to tell, one that lays bare the dirty, underhand and likely illegal way in which the scumbag Frank Giustra acolyte, Brian Bri-Bri Paes-Braga, along with the merry band of pranksters that have congregated around Tommy Humphrey's  Vancouver scam pump website CEO.ca, manipulate share prices, strong-arm companies and try to extort them into one-way deals that benefit nobody bar the Paes-Braga gang of thieves.

LDI is a recently set-up exploreco run by an experienced and peer-respected diamond hunter, Bruce Counts. It put together its company structure and raised IPO cash (at 27c, with attached warrants at 40c) late last year and eventually went public in 2018. At first it did well, on the back of positive early exploration results at its property in Western Australia. It hit an apparent setback in early August when it returned dusters at one of its targets, but since then about a month ago the good exploration news has returned, when it hit exactly the kind of Kimberlite structure one needs for diamond prospecting in this news release.

If you didn't know any different, you'd think the NRs above explain the share price movements seen this year. But once you know what Brian Paes-Braga has been doing in the background, the sharp movements seen and the latest lackluster phase becomes crystal in its clarity.

This slimeball has a modus operandi and this certainly isn't the first time he and his gang of two-faced slimeballs has used it, but this time it's come to light. Here's how it works:

1) At the funding stage, Brian Paes-Braga (or the bankroll behind him, e.g. Fiore and Frank Giustra) takes a chunk of the funding placement and get hands on a significant amount of shares.

2) Then once the funding is done and the new exploreco in place, Brian sets up a new private company and buys up a whole swathe of concessions all around the new company. In fact, Bri-Bri has learned this scheme from his new BFF Tim Young and how that particular toerag works his way around the Canadian Athabasca, but the way in which this dynamic duo got together to rip off the Chinese who bought Lithium-X (my stars, there's a bunch of people with buyers' regret that's only cured by suicide) has emboldened this team to the point where they think they can export their extortionate business model to the world.

3) So, LDI sets itself up and welcomes Bri-Bri, unbeknown to them Bri-Bri secures large-scale concession land around the LDI property. The company gets into gear and goes public.

4) Soon after the IPO, Bri-Bri phones up LDI CEO Brian Courts and informs him that he has a private concern with the concession land around LDI's gig in Western Australia. In fact what Bri-Bri has nailed down is pure kangaroo pasture, worth zero-zip-nada in economic geological terms, but that doesn't matter to the two-faced shyster. What matters is the shakedown so Bri-Bri offers this adjacent land to LDI at a crazily inflated price. LDI says thanks but no thanks.

5) Then comes August 20th. Yes for sure LDI released news that wasn't positive, but there's no way it deserved to be whacked the way it did from 50c down to 15c and on massive volume. And the reason it got hit so hard was Bri-Bri, who had been waiting for his moment to sexually intercourse the LDI share price deliberately and for his own ends. He and his pals hit on the bid time and again with his cheap entry shares and cave the price.

6) Then comes the moment that isn't just strategic, it's plain straight extortion. Paes-Braga phones up LDI again and even though it was his selling (via Anon and oh-what-a-surprise-Haywood) that pushed the price so low, he complains bitterly to the company management about the negative NR, the subsequent price dump, the lack of fiduciary care, the way in which shareholder concerns were being ignored, the whole nine yards. He then offers to LDI the opportunity to buy the land he has around the project, once again at a crazily over-inflated price, as well as telling Courts that the project would be better off in their hands and by reversing into his privco, the change in management control would be simple and easy. Meanwhile, Bri-Bri makes it abundantly clear on the call that if LDI doesn't play ball and accept his offer, the share price pain will continue.

7)  Fortunately, Brian Courts is neither naive not lacking internal fortitude. He sees straight through the Bri-Bri attempt at extorting money from his company and tells him to go make love to his own body all alone. Perhaps because Courts and LDI knew their company was far from dead and had plenty of good new to offer on its project, as witnessed a few days later on September 10th.

8) However, even though the LDI share price bounced nicely from the 15c level it failed to re-gain the 50c line of before and it's been telling that in recent days, its been reeled in from the 30c mark it managed to reach, down to the latest 23c or so. There's no particular reason as to why it should have stalled this way, apart from the suspicious manner in which the bid has been hit on occasion. LDI has all the hallmarks of a share price that's being boxed in and, consider the way Bri-Bri has already tried to extort LDI out of a massive amount of cash in exchange for worthless kanagaroo pasture (that he hasn't even paid for it's still in application stage) it's clear to anyone with an IQ over 80 and a couple of years in Canadian capital markets that the manipulator of August 20th is at it again. That's Bri-Bri.

I suppose that more than anything else, this post exists for the junior explorecos to come that get offers from Bri-Bri to participate in their placement offerings. It may look like a neutral thing to you, a business-is-business exchange of a minor slice of your company's equity for the Fiore-backed cash but what you're really doing is opening the door to a whole house of pain, This scumball doesn't just want your shares and warrants, he'll use the slightest leverage plus the tricks learned from Athabasca Tim to get his claws deeply into your company and he won't let go until he's screwed you for all the money he can squeeze from you. Therefore IKN applauds Lithoquest (LDI.v) for standing up to this scumball, to the point where without a single word coming out of the C-Suite this humble corner of cyberspace has testimony from two different and trustworthy sources about the dirty tricks and extortion tactics Bri-Bri uses to screw explorecos. One wonders how may times he and his scumbag cohorts have already got away with this modus operandi.

B2Gold (BTG) (BTO.to): Keeping tabs on this house's best call for an M&A target

Updating from a couple of days ago:

The quiet accumulation continues.

IKN comments on Continental Gold (CNL.to) making multi-year lows this morning

A comment of one word: Good.

How low before it makes the necessary C-suite changes? How long before it admits its responsibility in the mess of last month? How long before Newmont starts wondering just what it let itself in for?

No position in CNL.to at all. 

PS: Hey Lobito, how's that Golden Runway doing?

A final note on New Gold (NGD) (from IKN489)

The New Gold (NGD) trials and tribulations were interesting for a while, but there is a limit one's attention once it becomes clear there's no decent trade available. This short piece is from IKN489, out last Sunday for subscribers.

A final note on New Gold (NGD)

For the time being, at least.  In the short-ish piece on NGD in IKN487 last week (18) in which we noted its continued mediocre price performance on the back of the Mesquite sales and rejected it as a trade candidate, one of the lines used was, “If and when NGD can do a deal to sell Blackwater, it may be worth revisiting this stock.” Among the feedback mails from IKN487, one from somebody I consider to be very well placed to comment on the current NGD situation (and who must remain anonymous, but I vouch 100% for the source) wrote in and said that he didn’t think NGD would get “North of U$50m for Blackwater”.

That, if true or even half true, would be another massive hole blown in the balance sheet of NGD, as currently Blackwater is carried at over U$500m by the company (!!). Perhaps this is why NGD did what it did the day after IKN487, the next 15% dive in the stock price. More perspective on the mess that Renaud Adams has inherited and how badly run NGD was in the years before his arrival. We’ve already seen Mesquite sell for $228m less than its carried position, and now the potential arises for at least an internal impairment to Blackwater, if not a firesale. Year-end impairments testing at the company in the years before was a joke that falls little short of criminal. I would like to know how Randy Oliphant still has director’s positions in other companies. That’s enough NGD for the time being, if anything substantive changes at the company we may revisit, but only if a trade is in the offing. Rubbernecking car crashes gets tiresome after a while.

I expect NGD to flatline. No need to run away any longer, just walk.

Now that we know Brien Lundin is listening...

....we'll try to get him to answer the question again:

How much do these bullshit scam companies pay you to run their promo pump and dump rubbish, Brien?

We know that Brien Lundin sends out paid promo material on no-hope junior explorecos in exchange fo pay, because that's exactly what he did with the heap of trash and upcoming financial trainwreck called Idaho Champion (ITKO.cse) earlier this week. 

>>>>>>But now the fun part<<<<<<

Thanks to Gary T over at Biiwii who picked up on the  post earlier in the week. And thanks to some numbnuts called Fergus (who is dumb enough to think that Gary actually wrote it, instead of pinging it on his Biiwii site), we now know that Brien Lundin has seen the IKN post, too:

Link right here.

C´mon Brien, don't be shy: How much does it cost for your mailing list whoredom to plant BS in front of the sheep like this? My best guess is $20,000, it could be more though. What's your going rate, Brien? You do specials and extras? Do they get happy endings?

I'll tell you what's funny about Novo Resources (NVO.v)

What's funny is getting the permabull promo cheerleader dumbasses who have exhorted their band of sheep to buy Novo Resources (NVO.v) all year and HODL, who then read my post on the stock from yesterday and have the brass neck and sheer temerity to turn round to me and say that they're glad I'm starting to get smart about the stock.

Seriously, you dumbfucks? I call avoid on this stock all year, you call buy on it and I was the stupid one? For crying out loud, it closed at $2.78 today, look in a fucking mirror one time.

A zinc price chart

Very likeable:

On how the real media picks up on Mark Bristow's dirty hunting habits

We note with interest that in the last few days both The Financial Times. The Daily Mail and the UK Daily Telegraph (i.e. real media, not grubby pissant blog hand their badly written crap like here and here) have run reports on Mark Bristow, CEO of Randgold (GOLD) and soon-to-be head honcho of Randick (ABX), and his penchant for shooting large African animals until they are dead. Then proudly posing for the cameras with the dead animal afterwards (normally behind the carcass, as it hides his erect penis. Probably).

Here's the FT report, entitled "Randgold CEO Mark Bristow has shot a lot of animals". It has the photos. It has words.

And here's the Daily Mail with its version (including the dead leopard photo, bless him).

And here's The Daily Telegraph with, "City boss on board of conservation charity pictured with slaughtered animals from African big game hunt". I thought this one was particularly good because it gets further comment from people who know the issue and gives lie to the hackneyed "shooting them helps conservation" shtick that big game hunters like to hide (their erections) behind. We quote:

The international wildlife charity Born Free was scathing. Will Travers, president of Born Free, said: “Mark Bristow is obviously fond of big numbers. His company, Randgold, just bought by Canada’s Barrick Gold, is worth at least £5bn. But there are other numbers he may be less willing to discuss. Mr Bristow shoots African elephants – there are about 415,000 left.

“Mr Bristow shoots African hippo – there are about 130,000 left. He also shoots zebra, antelope, gazelle and leopard.

“He will claim that it supports conservation and development but evidence suggests that only around 3pc of what people like Mr Bristow spend on their deadly predilection ends up in ­local communities.”

And don't forget that Marcelo Kim, John Paulson's Mini-Me at Paulson & Co, Chair of International Tower Hill and all-round arrogant fleabag is also a lover of this despicable pastime.

Continental Gold (CNL.to), the Colombia Gold Symposium and IKN

For what it's worth.

I was one of the attendees of the inaugural Colombia Gold Symposium, in Medellín Colombia, in 2016 and thought it an excellent conference. So much so that last year in November 2017 not only did I attend, but IKN was one of the sponsors of the event. It was again a fine show, so this year 2018 I pledged to sponsor and attend once again. Sponsorship cash handed over, flights booked, hotel reserved, time set aside.

However, that has now changed due to two factors:

1) The events of two weeks ago, in which three geologists working for Continental Gold (CNL.to) were murdered by FARC/ELN dissident separatists. 

2) The fact that Continental Gold (CNL.to) remains one of the main sponsors of the event.

Not only did the company behave irresponsibly by putting a team of geologists in harm's way by sending them into a politically hot zone, but since that time they have done just about everything in their power to cover up the litany of mistakes they made in the run-up to the horrific events by employing a self-centred media strategy that has stretched the truth to breaking point. The fact remains that no matter what else they may say, CNL knew full well that the area around the Berlín project was a high security risk (if not, why has the Colombian army had large-scale patrols in the area in recent months and were in the area in heavy numbers when the murders occurred?). They knew the party felt threatened and had heard rumours of some sort of attack days, even up to two weeks before the event. They finally decided to pull the party out on that fateful Wednesday, but instead of acting immediately decided to wait until the next day when it was too late. But perhaps worst of all, there has not been a single utterance of regret for their failings in the public sphere, we have no idea if internal action has been taken against those responsible for putting this team of geologists in harm's way, the person ultimately responsible for the company's actions in Colombia, Mateo Restrepo, has to all intents and purposes suddenly become deaf and dumb. 

Apparently, these people think that I am going to turn up to the Colombia Gold Symposium show in November, sit beside Continental Gold as a fellow sponsor, watch as they sponsor the morning coffee break, press flesh and make themselves out to be the butter-wouldn't-melt-in-mouth corporate citizens, auto-absolve themselves of any responsibility and brown-nose the Newmont reps who will arrive in a throng? And tacitly support this two-faced nonsense? Sorry, no way.

The IKN Weekly and this IKN blog has withdrawn its sponsorship of the 2018 Colombia Gold Symposium. Your author has cancelled his travel arrangements and will not attend. By the way, graciously and without a single prompt, organizer Paul Harris returned my sponsorship money and that was good of him. But the rest of this sordid mess is not good and I certainly hope that CNL doesn't try to come across as the innocent victim which didn't have a clue about the dangers around the Berlín area during the two day event. I refuse to share a platform with these people, they make me sick and are a disgrace to the industry.

The unbearable lightness of being a Novo Resources (NVO.v) skeptic

Here's the thing; I have this friend, he's in the mining scene and not only is he one of my better friends but he's also someone with an excellent take on the market and ample experience to back it up. He knows I'm a Novo Resources (NVO.v) skeptic without being outright negative about the company, he knows I'm strictly neutral on the stock price (NB: note that stock price and company are two separate matters), he himself is certainly interested without being convinced. He also knows all the main players personally. And I get a mail from him on Monday evening, a two line missive:

"I watched the Novo webcast.

I thought it worthwhile"

The link to that webcast is right here. At that point I hadn't seen the NVO presentation at the Denver Forum, neither on the live webcast when it happened nor on the replay, because I'd been busy watching the companies that interest me more (mostly those where I cover/own shares, some others too) and hadn't got around to seeing all the Denver gigs. Still, I replied that evening (with slight edit to protect both guilty and innocent):

"I watched a lot of others from Denver, didn't bother with the dog and pony shows ...(slight edit)... NVO has decayed into BS and will remain there until such time that it starts producing standardized assays of some shape or form. Now trading under $3. Good. So why should I bother watching it?"

Frankly, that was bad of me. Poor show, incorrect and Luddite, so I'm always glad when a friend throws my BS back in my face. Here's his reply:

"All that opinion on NVO  without bothering to see what they are doing or attempting to do?

That would be like me calling GGI BS without going thru the available info."

Absolutely. I was in the wrong, period. Chastened, I went and watched the NVO presentation featuring Quinton Hennigh. In fact, before opening my fat mouth again I watched it twice. Credit where due, it includes an excellent, well thought-out and visually pleasing video overview of "The Pilbara" which does a fine job of putting it all into scale. Then after the cool video comes frank and straight talk from Quinton Hennigh (QH) too, he's not trying to market to the Nth degree here, he gives it straight and perhaps to the point where the message is detrimental to the company. I replied to my friend:

Okay, so I watched it. Slick video. Yes, it does do a great job in conveying the scale of the project(s). And yes, it is interesting. When QH talks about delivering assays and resource numbers soon, it's credible and I'm looking forward to those. The segment close to the end is the most important, when he explains that the work now is required to get a mine licence in order to start the essential bulk mining trials. In other words, I don't need to own this until they start bulk mining. And that's why it's gone under $3.00. It's not only the time factor, it's now clear that $62m or not they're going to have to raise again before we get a definitive handle on the company.

Bottom line: Yes I'm more interesting in NVO now, but no need to own yet and there's not going to be any Kirkland takeover until the large scale bulk sampling gives up results. I think I can come back here in two years' time and buy it for $3.

And on that, my friend replied to say he agreed. Moral of the story; don't be an ass with the market, with your preconceptions, with prejudices or with your friends. Thankfully, good friends will tell you you're being an ass and you get the lesson cheaply, but the lessons doled out by Mr Market tend to be far more expensive. I remain neutral NVO. As does my friend (to my knowledge), but the days of dismissing this company out of hand are gone. True that I see no reason to be long today. Also true that I'll be watching its 2019 very closely.

Bunker Hill (BNKR.cse): the latest Bobby Genovese scam is falling to pieces

News today:

Bunker Hill Mining Announces that it is in Default of its Lease Agreement on the Bunker Hill Mine Due to a Missed Property Payment

TORONTO, Oct. 02, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bunker Hill Mining Corp. (the “Company” or “Bunker Hill”) (CSE: BNKR) announces  that it is in default of its Lease with Option to Purchase Agreement (the “Agreement”) with Placer Mining Corporation, the lessor of the Bunker Hill Mine. The default has arisen as a result of missed property payments, totalling US$400,000, which were due at the end of September and on October 1, 2018.   As per the Agreement, the Company has 15 days, from the date notice of default was provided (September 28, 2018), to remedy the default by making the outstanding payment.  Bunker Hill is working with urgency to resolve this matter.

About Bunker Hill Mining Corp.

Palisade pump and dump

Add another to the growing list of complete rip-offs from these people:

B2Gold (BTG) (BTO.to): This house's best idea for an M&A play is...

...having a very interesting three days at market:

On volume. Welcome back, The Clive.

In which we witness how Brien Lundin peddles bullshit juniors for cash

This is an example, just one, of why I've never been comfortable with Brien Lundin's stuff. Yes I know he's loved by one and all and yes I know he's supposed to have this great rep and yes I know he puts on the New Orleans show and does a lotta great work for chaaaaariteeee, but it all falls apart when he whores himself out and takes a five figure sum to pump complete and utter wankery junior flotsam and jetsam to his readership.

Step forward today's mailer from his stable, exhorting you to buy into a no-hope vehicle set to crash and burn that's trading on the CSE called Idaho Champion (ITKO.cse). Here's how the pump job starts...

...it then goes on with vapid puffery for a few column inches (pretty maps included) and in case you're in any doubt about this, here's the send-off:

Yes, that says in clear English that investors "will want to buy Champion" before the drill results come out. Complete wank, start to finish. However, there is some good news to report because according to the list of trades in this thing today...

...just 65,000 shares shifted to a TD Sec client (from Anon, oh what a surprise) and the last trade came through at 11:32am. Hopefully this pump job will stay firmly fallen flat on its face in the day to come, too. Still, that doesn't exonerate Brien Lundin from whoring himself this way. 

How much did they pay you, Brien? Come on, don't be shy.

The IKN Weekly, out now

The true truth is that aside from my early teenage years when, along with a couple of school friends I used to memorize auto specs and stats just for fun, cars have never been my thing. I've never been one to drool over flash models, I'm the guy who'll walk straight past a Porsche or Maserati with not so much as a second glance. But the Ferrari 488 is different, it's a work of art of wheels. That's just drop dead beautiful and I've been waiting patiently for 488 to come up to be able to feature this photograph. Anyway, IKN488 has just been sent to subscribers. A script-heavy edition, running to 17,600 words and 33 pages. Mind you the last four or so are just fillers, I'm making it sound like there's a ton of work here...

The top three most visited IKN posts this week are...

...in reverse order:
.

Third Place: "Barrick / Randgold and a Mark Bristow quote". It was The Randick Week on the blog and while just four posts were directly related to the merger (three others semi-connected), three of those take the gold, silver and bronze position this weekend. This one got hits because what with last weekend's scoop, mainstream media decided to pay attention to the blog for a nanosecond and quote bits and pieces, this one and its "probably the start of M&A action rather than an isolated incident" got picked up.

Second Place: "Some more photos of Randick* (ABX) CEO Mark Bristow with animals he has killed". And yes, a CEO's private life activities are fair game when they are abhorrent as this. Be clear that from now on, by owning shares in Barrick you give a tacit pass to a big game hunter who shoots wild animals for fun.

 

First Place: "M&A in Tier One and Tier Two precious metals miners: The two most obvious targets". This one was also picked up and distributed by several large circulation media channels, which is why it made the number one spot I suppose. My two cents on my two choices, feel free to come up with better ideas.

 

 

The Aussies Are Coming!

And the Canadians can see them coming. From a mile away.

February 26th, 2018:

Investment by Newcrest Mining Limited

The Company is also pleased to report that it has entered into a subscription agreement with Newcrest International Pty Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Newcrest Mining Limited (“Newcrest”) (ASX:NCM) pursuant to which Newcrest has agreed to acquire 14,025,312 Common Shares of Almadex by way of a non-brokered private placement at a price of $1.36 per share for aggregate gross proceeds of $19,074,425 (the “Private Placement”).  The Private Placement will close in conjunction with the proposed spinout transaction referred to above, subject to customary conditions of closing including the completion of the Spin-out transaction. Newcrest has completed its due diligence in regards to the Private Placement. Upon completion of the Private Placement, Newcrest will hold 19.9% of the issued shares of Almadex, and will have no ownership interest in Spinco.

The deal went live May 18th. So congrats due to Newcrest for buying 19.9% of ex-spinco AMZ at $1.36 a share. Well done guys, starting as you mean to go on.

The Friday OT: Burial and Four Tet; Moth

IKN goes ambient, the music I play to quench the burning anger deep inside.




High quality speakers a must. Youtube here.

The fruits of Garibaldi Resources (GGI.v)

In the post "Garibaldi Resources (GGI.v): Ye shall know them by their fruits" we previewed the long-awaited news expected out of the company that week from its Nickel Mountain (their choice of words, not mine) project up in the GWN. In the end it didn't show that week, we had to wait another eight days but the initial drill results finally showed upon Monday morning:

Within a lick and a spit, that's 50% down in a rough week for GGI.v longs. And when the fruits showed this desk knew them, as while here at the blog other things have been happening the NR did get a mention over at IKN Twitter:

At the time of that Tweet it was still a $2.50 stock, by the way. Now $1.50 and it really is this simple:

• Over-hyped by the pump-happy publications
• A core of vociferous "true believer" holders
• An over-inflated market cap
• Results that cannot in any way justify the value

And please do not bother either myself or yourself again with the hackneyed and erroneous "Eric Sprott disagrees" argument without learning how the guy goes about his speculation investment first. Now maybe GGI at its mountain isn't dead yet (and if I've heard "Voisey's Bay wasn't discovered until hole 121" once, I've heard it a thousand times even though it's a total apples-to-oranges situation) but in order to revive its chances, it's going to need to find a lot more than it has so far. What really grabbed my attention is that after months of drilling using three rigs, the only thing we see in the all-important first NR are results from the same small mineralized zone as before. Whatever happened to Lightfoot's "Rivers of Magma" theory that he wowed the unaware with last year? I see no flood. When the only thing you have to offer is the same thing as before, the implications are obvious. Hope is not an valid investment thesis. Listening to theoretical geologists is almost as bad.

Finally, as for those who were roped in by the unscrupulous into this trade, they can stay in denial for as long as they want. Some people learn their lessons quickly, others need them beaten into their heads with a 4 by 2, others still never learn. We are fortunate to live in a society that allows us to do whatever we want with our hard-earned money, after all.

The Palladium/Gold ratio chart

Putting this here for the record. And the amusement.

Overbot much?

FWIW, a constant palladium price and a re-trace to 0.825X on the ratio (e.g. similar to the re-trace in late 2016 when the spike was similarly overbought) would indicate a gold price of U$1,318/oz, with a time window to end 2018. Food for thought.

The SEC vs Elon Musk docket and the "Funding Secured" coffee mug

In light of this afternoon's turn of events in which the SEC has filed a complaint against Elon Musk for his "going private" pronouncements that caused Tesla $TSLA shares to fly a few weeks ago, this humble corner of cyberspace offers up two items:

1) Here's the SEC docket in full. You're welcome.

2) Remember that EBITBRAH has exactly the right coffee mug to celebrate the occasion:

That and 30 other designs. Go see them all here.