Advance Gold Corp (AAX.v): How do I love thee? Let me count the ways

Advance Gold (AAX.v) bears some stunning similarities with Alset Minerals (ION.v)

• Same country as Alset
• Same pump and dump BS waste of time as Alset
• Same background Mexican landowners and major insiders as Alset
• Same know-nothing blowhard CEO as Alset when it was in pump and dump mode, the 100% unqualified Allan Barry Laboucan
• Same medium of BS dissemination as Alset, i.e. Allan Barry flapping his lips on CEO.ca
• Same target audience for the pump as Alset, i.e. the neophyte greenhorns who get sucked into Tommy Humphreys' den of iniquity
• Same price ramp on nothingburger news to draw the tyros in, with the Mexican gangsters bankrolling this scam selling millions of worthless shares to idiots with dreams.
• Same dump on the reality when results show it's just another chinchilla pasture
• Same "aw shucks but it'll work out" attitude from the front man of this scam, the two-faced sociopathic liar Allan Barry
• Same bunch of idiots who don't realize their pockets have been picked by professional thieves cursing their bad luck

All with apologies to Ms Barrett Browning, of course.

Bobby G is looking for friends

Want to be Bobby G's friend? Maybe to console him when the SEC convicts his sorry ass on the insider trading of the pump and dump Liberty Silver? Maybe protect him from the Triads when the Chinese he's currently ripping off via Bunker Hill realize they're being ripped off? Well you too can befriend Bobby Genovese now and thanks to his mailer, it's as easy as this:

Dumbass biz wires on copper and La Escondida

It takes a special sort of ignorance to call the effects of a strike at La Escondida (BHP et al, world's biggest copper mine) wrong all the way down. Then switch and get it wrong all the way back up. But fear not, you too can find that brand of dumbassery any time you open the mining trade papers.

Facts:  The 2017 strike didn't not affect copper prices, the 2018 threatened strike did not affect copper prices, the end of the threat is not affecting copper prices. And if you don't understand why, perhaps you too should stop reading the morons you pretend to be thought leaders in the industry.

What's happening at Red Eagle (R.to)

Q: How to make a small fortune in precious metals mining?

A: Start with a large fortune and... (etc)

The guy who recently filed a 42m shareholding, Fernando Palazuelo, is a Spanish born property developer who moved to Peru maybe 10 years ago after getting into trouble with the law in his native country. Since then he's been doing the same sort of buy-renovate-sell business in Peru and with great success too (to the point where he's branched out and started to do the same to properties in Detroit USA). Anyway, he was one of the guys suckered into buying part of that 35c placement back in November by Kallpa, but instead of putting the loss down to experience and realizing he's been ripped off, his ego has got in the way and he seems to have decided to become a gold mine magnate. To that effect, he's bought more shares at the current levels but more importantly, he's negotiating to buy out the debt positions of Orion, Liberty and Stracon at distressed levels (this desk has heard 26c on the dollar, though that's unconfirmed). These negotiations have been going on for weeks and R.to has been telling people off record that a "holistic solution" was about to be revealed to the world all that time...any minute now....like next week....no, make that a few more days (etc etc) so there's obviously some sort of hitch to it all (my guess, Graña). We know Orion are desperate to get out and will happily accept this type of deep haircut in order to recuperate at least some money.

Assuming that happens, he'd then be in tacit control of R.to and would then inject capital via a dilutive raising (lets guess at 200m shares at 10c), which would give R.to the cash needed to pay down its very large and problematic accounts payables (i.e. the local suppliers who have not seen a penny recently). 

Bottom line: Fernando Palazuelo is paying something around $50m or $60m to become the one third owner of R.to shares and hold all its debt position as well, in a re-capitalized company that he believes will then be able to get on wit the job of producing gold and making him rich. And that last part of the plan is where it all falls down, because he may be good at property development but he's obviously a dumbass about precious metals mining, this one might start well in 2018 but he's destined to lose every single penny of his new hobby.

So now you know.

The IKN Weekly, out now

i like this one

IKN482 has just been sent to subscribers. Lots of things to read and look at inside it.

The Friday OT: Nils Frahm; #2

I'm listening to more Frahm than anything else at the moment and suggest you do the same. But this week, instead of my words I'll steal the blurb Resident Advisor put under its video:

"Nils Frahm's music has its own distinctive place somewhere between electronic music and classical. A gifted pianist on the one hand—he was tutored by Nahum Brodski, whose own teacher was a protégé of Tchaikovsky—he's also captivated by electronics, developing a mastery of synths and drum machines. Anyone who's seen Frahm perform will know his musical gifts are complemented by a bubbling energy and playful streak that marks him as a unique live act. Though he's been credited on more than a dozen albums stretching back to 2005, 2013 was something of a breakthrough year for Frahm. His Spaces album, released on UK label Erased Tapes, was widely acclaimed, and made it into RA's rundown of 2013's best LPs. Spaces showcased his exceptional skill on stage. The album was built from live recordings made over a two-year period. In 2014 he's been busy touring, with a second round of North American dates coming up in November. Stopping by RA's London office with a Juno, Fender Rhodes, drum machine and tape delay, Frahm performed two brand new songs: "All Melody" and "#2.""

Youtube here:

In The IKN Weekly this Sunday

Rick Rule tells me I'm abysmal at marketing and in fact, he's right. Thing is, I've never wanted an audience attracted by rah-rah marketing that comes, doesn't get what it wants in three weeks (i.e. a double on its money) and then pisses off to slag the service on social media. So it's always been the soft marketing route, this way there's less churn, more discerning readers and fewer dumbasses jumping on (they can subscribe to Casey Research, after all it's what they deserve).

Oh crap, I'm losing the point of this. Okay, anyway this weekend subscribers to The IKN Weekly get to read about my recent site visit to Contact Gold (C.v), which was more interesting than I expected. We also crunch numbers on several companies that have just filed their Q2 financials and laugh together about the amount of money we've lost this week due to our collective addiction to junior mining stocks. Oh what fun. So subscribe as well, I promise to send you a crapload of back copies if you do. In that way you'll see how lucky you were not to have subscribed months ago.

How am I doing, Rick? Do I need Porter's proofreaders and legal team?

Lydian International (LYD.to) gives us the news release of the day

Lydian (LYD.to) scores double points for its NR today. Not only does it qualify magnificently for the IKN First Law of Mining NRs...

 "The IKN First Law of Mining News Releases: Considering that anything contained in a mining news release is presented in the best possible way for the company in question, any piece of information contained in a NR that comes across in any way negative means the real news and/or events behind it must be very, very bad indeed."

...but thanks to its title line "Lydian Announces Financing Update" and first paragraph content, it also gives us a top class buried lede: Here ya go, enjoy it as much as I did:

TORONTO, Aug. 16, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Lydian International Limited (TSX:LYD) (“Lydian” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce that its senior lenders have agreed to extend the initial repayment date and the availability period from previously announced August 15, 2018 to August 31, 2018.

Lydian continues to have further discussions with key stakeholders in order to complete comprehensive revisions to several key funding instruments to ensure appropriate funding is available to Lydian as the Company works towards removing the illegal blockades at the Amulsar site, resuming construction activities, and completing construction and commissioning of its Amulsar Gold Project.

João Carrêlo, President and Chief Executive Officer of Lydian, stated, “We are extremely pleased with the continued support from our senior lenders and stream providers and have made significant, positive progress on the principal terms of the financing amendments to deal with the current situation in a comprehensive fashion. We are proceeding to formalize terms in final documentation that will allow the Company to continue in the current circumstances and be ready to remobilize when the illegal blockades are removed.”

Aretha Franklin

The world just got a little dimmer

Catching up with Plateau Energy (PLU.v)

On July 18th we ran the note "Plateau Energy (PLU.v): Real journalism 1, Business journalism 0" that noted what El Pais (Spain's newspaper of record and normally regarded in the same light by the rest of the Spanish spekaing world) had to say about Plateau Energy (PLU.v) and the issues it faces on the Macusani plateau of Peru...y'know, the ones it forgot to mention in its puffy press circuit that week. Since then we've had the company telling us the rupestral artwork "isn't in the lithium zone" and that's nice. They glossed over how the priceless artworks are in the uranium zone however and that it wouldn't be possible to extract the Li without taking the U...but hey, details, right?

Also, this detail:

Just the 27% down in less than a month, is it? Please, no need to thank me, it's just part of the service sir, ma'am.

Today you can watch Argentina being financially raped in real time

I know this isn't the most popular subject on IKN, but I have a freakin' bee in my bonnet about it at the moment and today you can actually watch in real time as the "friendly, loving and caring industrialized North" systematically rapes Argentina and takes its money away. Forever. And not coming back.

What is being done to Argentina's people right now (not its rich privileged few, who are sponsoring this madness) is sickening and everything that's wrong with the nasty end of capitalism. This is rich people feeding at the trough of quasi-free dollars and leaving nothing for anyone else. The above pattern will go on and on and on until there's nothing left, at which point those incredibly annoying "Don't Cry For Me" headlines will appear in your bizmedia of choice.

UPDATE: And this from President Macri this morning takes the cake. When asked about the Dollar/Peso situation he replied, "No pasa nada. No pasa nada, tranquilos". No need for me to translated the words of that scoundrel, I believe.

Garibaldi Resources (GGI.v) and a subtle change of marketing strategy

2017: Starts drill program. Announces first preliminary results (photos of sulphides and all) eight days afterwards.

2018: Starts drill program. Now at 65 days without any sort of news of the program (and with two rigs running instead of one this year).

I'm sure there's nothing for longs to be concerned about, though.

This is a very good article

Keith Weiner on all sorts of things, including the Dollar, trade (deficits), global growth, the trade war and tariffs and yes, gold too. An excellent, easy to read framework for what is going on in the macro today and I cannot recommend it too highly. In fact, I'd rate it as required reading for anyone regular visitor to this blog, no matter how experienced you are in capital markets.

Go here and read it yourself. Thanks for putting it in front of me, Gary.

Argentina and the calm after (and before) the storm (from IKN480, dated August 5th)

It seems like weeks in the past, but in fact it was only eight days ago that the following piece, "Argentina and the calm after (and before) the storm" was published by your humble scribe in IKN480, dated August 5th. And here we are, lo and behold, just eight days on the Peso (ARS) is plumbing new lows, down 8.6% from the time of the note. 

I didn't expect Argentina to start falling apart again quite this quickly, but the falling apart thing was and still is a given and this evening I'm reading of all sorts of bizarre out of the country too, the pro-Macri local media (i.e. nearly all the main channels) trying desperately to lipstick the pig of a situation. The latest piece of wonderment is how the government plans to phase out the LEBAC (short term Peso bonds, currently paying an official 45% annual interest rate and close to 60% on the secondary market) by the end of the year with just a wave of the magic wand and "the deployment of reserves" (i.e. throwing good Dollars after bad local paper). It's 1998 all over again, quite remarkable to see this country willingly commit financial suicide on such a regular basis and not learn a jot from its own history.

Anyway, have a read at what subscribers saw two issues ago.

Argentina and the calm after (and before) the storm

I ran a running commentary on the Argentina Peso (ARS) as it did its collapsing show earlier this year, so for the sake of balance it’s only right to note that since it peaked at just under 29 to the US Dollars a few weeks ago, the government and its emergency policies (that include turning the dollar spigot on and raising Peso interest rates sky high) have stemmed the bleeding. The Peso has traded for the last month in a reasonably tight band of just over 27 to just under 28, with 28.24 marked this weekend.

The calm will not last. For one thing, the government is mopping up the Peso liquidity by offering 49% annual interest on its short-term paper and if anyone reading this thinks that is sustainable they are wasting their money by subscribing to a financial publication. At some point the interest rate must drop (and not just by a point or three, there’s no virtuous circle that begins this high) and to do that, the real economy needs to improve. Unfortunately the reality is the exact opposite and a quick trawl through headlines on the very useful AgendAR website (12) shows supermarket sales down 2% year-over-year (YoY), retail sales down 4% YoY, industrial production down 8.1%, and the Central Bank forecasting a GDP of negative 0.3% for 2018. To put that last one into context, the December the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) was forecasting +3.2% for the country and in May downgraded its forecast to 2.0%. As recently as June, Argentina’s FinMin Dujovne said that growth would be +1.2% this year. News of large scale job losses is becoming common, with the auto industry now being hit (despite that cheap Peso making production competitive for foreign markets).

Meanwhile, on the other side of the equation the Central Bank now forecasts 31.8% annual inflation for the country. We’ve just seen electricity prices rise again by 30% (August 1st, the hikes are non-stop) and fuel prices are about to rise between 4% and 8%, depending on the type of hydrocarbon. That list continues as well, so when you combine both sides of the coin you come to one simple conclusion; Stagflation.

Argentina is in a deep financial mess and just because it’s not made any headlines recently, it doesn’t mean that the crisis is over. This weekend the Argentina airwaves are filled with apparent smoking gun evidence of notebooks from the Kirchner era of Argentina that document that government’s corruption and while they may or may not be true (I think they’re the real deal, the CFK people are screaming that they’re fake), the noise will blow over. Be clear that even if CFK and her buddies end up in jail (unlikely CFK, possible to probable others) once the dust has settled Argentina will still have all its economic pain in front of it. In 2016, Macri told them the turning point would be in 2017. In late 2017 he and his government promised things would be better in 2018 (and backed by all the world’s friendly financial bodies who all predicted GDP growth…all wrong). It’s now Q3 of 2018 and Argentina is in recession, with no clear path out. Time is running out for Macri and don’t think for a second that CFK is his only political enemy. Avoid this country until further notice.

TMAC Resources (TMR.to) 2q18 financials

They were posted tonight on SEDAR, here are a couple of charts:

Lots more where they came from, too. This is not good, people. Not good at all.

Congratulations, Argentina! A new record!

A round of applause for the Macri government, which has managed to push the Argentina Peso (ARS) over the 30-to-1 barrier against the US Dollar (USD) for the first time ever:

Yes, Mauri, we know you have inflation under control. Of course, relax. Now, cue up those front page headlines about how Chileans are happy to come and buy in Buenos Aires and how that's going to benefit the economy. You know it makes sense.

You guys can keep your Turkish Lira, I'll take the 62.3% deval in the Argy Peso in 2018 YTD and the total fruitcake country behind it every single time.

The Barrick (ABX) Lagunas Norte gold mine in Peru is under blockade by locals

As of this morning, the nearby town of Chuyugual is blocking the roads around the Lagunas Norte gold mine in La Libertad, Peru. They say the protest is due to the constant abuses they have suffered at the hands of the company, with water pollution issues at the top of their list. Apparently, representatives from Barrick (ABX) went to speak with the this morning but were given short shrift.

It's worth noting that as Lagunas Norte is a big operation, this type of protest is unlikely to have any immediate effect on production. However, it would seem the locals have been trying to at least negotiate with ABX for a long period of time and are now at their wits end, so if the blockade moves from hours and into days it could have a meaningful effect on the company.

The IKN Weekly, out now

No, this is not a subtle comment on the current 

state of the gold market. It's just a cool picture.

IKN481 has just been sent to subscribers. Words, pictures and numbers, there are always numbers.

You too should read Notes From The Rabbit Hole, edition 512

As usual for a Sunday morning Gary Tanashian's subscription weekly, Notes from The Rabbit Hole (NFTRH) plopped into my inbox and, despite being a bit pushed for time today, I decided to open and skim it before getting on with my own stuff and then giving it a good read later. After about five minutes I stopped skimming and started reading. That was about 45 minutes ago and now I'm even further behind schedule, but damn it was worth it.

Even by Gary's high standards, NFTRH 512 is a tour de force. Anyone wanting to know about the US Dollar, gold and how to set their portfolio for the rest of the year should read it. Better still, subscribe to him (right here, it's cheap) and read it. Top class work, Gary. Applause and thank you for getting my head right.

Dear RayJames

I will now start to post everything you publish to your clients, here on the blog, for free.

If you want to read my subscription weekly, subscribe to it you tightwads.

The Friday OT: Johnny Cash; Folsom Prison Blues

This the live version he did at San Quentin jail (including one of the most famous gig intros of all-time, "Hello I'm Johnny Cash"). For reader GS.

Youtube here.

Barrick (ABX): Thornton says they're not buying Detour Gold (DGC.to)

Barrick (ABX) Chair John Thornton gave a wide-ranging interview to Bloomie today with plenty of corners covered (sounds like he wants to get rid of those "he's a banker he doesn't know mining" comments that have started to swirl), but the paydirt comment is the one about Detour Gold (DGC.to) and whether or not they're interested in buying:

"The company will be as disciplined in making acquisitions as it was divesting assets, Thornton said, and that means it will not be buying Detour Gold Corp. Barrick was recently said to be the undisclosed gold miner cited by Paulson & Co. as interested in potentially buying Detour. It doesn’t meet the three criteria to be a tier 1 mine, Thornton said, “so guess what the answer is as to whether we are going to buy it. The answer is no.”"

So now you know.

In this weekend's edition of The IKN Weekly

A site visit report on a very interesting gold exploration company.

Today's view

Was very nice.

Details on Sunday, subscribers.

You'd forgotten that IAMGOLD (IAG) (IMG.to) is a piece of crap mining company

Letwin just reminded you.

This blog will be quiet for a few more days

For secret travel and work reasons.

The IKN Weekly, out now

The Fiat 480 tractor is a total legend in Eastern Europe

 and the Asia subcontinent, I am reliably told

IKN480 has just been sent to subscribers. Updates and an addition.

The Nicolás Maduro "assassination attempt" in Venezuela today looks like a false flag set-up

I'm no conspiracy theorist either, to the point where I've been in arguments with people who insist the financial world, gold, silver, what-have-you is rigged by, the "Powers That Be", the Bildebergs or just plain "them". But I've watched the footage of what happened on the stage in Venezuela this afternoon a dozen times and the supposed assassination attempt sure looks like a set-up to me. Consider this for example, from a tweet I posted earlier after getting a batch of photos of the incident from Twitter then zooming in on details:

How would you feel if you were on a platform with your husband the President, Nicolás Maduro, he was under attack from flying bombs and everyone else seems to be staring at flying things and worrying about them? Would you be like Venezuela's first lady here, relaxed and smiling? No tension in those hands? However, what if you were one of the very few people who knew it was being staged? What if you knew there would be bangs and flashes, but nothing would get close to the stage where you were standing?

And then what about this? Reports that a social media campaign  set up by the Venezuela government and featuring our old friends the Russian bots and fake news boilerhouses was up and running almost immediately after the attack, hashtags and everything.Within minutes we "knew" the attack was via drones carrying C4 explosive, too. Really? They knew it wasn't Semtex or any other type of plastic explosive that fast? Also tell me how the people plotting against Maduro are technically proficient enough to kit out drones as bombs, evade security in the zone, fly them to within a few metres of the President and then manage to get the timing of the trigger wrong so they explode at a safe distance? Just unlucky I guess, but with multiple drones of which at least two exploded?

Then within two hours, Maduro appears on live TV to denounce the attack, tell the world that the first arrests have been made of the perps and that outgoing Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, along with "far right oligarchs" living in Miami, were behind the plot. If that's true it's impressive, world-record pace detective work. Also, at the same time reporters on the scene said that a small team of reporters had been taken away by police and not seen since.

And finally, there's the Cui Bono aspect to this. To say that Maduro is under pressure is an understatement and when that happens, there's nothing a quasi-dictator likes more than to wrap himself* around the flag. Forget your troubles, lack of food, medicine and the fact that millions of Venezuelans are now living as virtual refugees all over LatAm instead of where they want to live, "Look at me they tried to kill me! Viva La Revolución!" People are telling me on Twitter this evening that it was a failure, I don't think so. I think it was a roaring success, because the person behind this is Maduro himself.

*I choose "himself" deliberately, there hasn't been a female head of state that evil for several centuries.

The Friday OT: Beastie Boys; Sure Shot

It got in my ear this week and stayed there. Probably because it's brilliant.

I remember listening to it the first time because previous Beastie stuff had left me cold. At a pal's place in 1994, he'd just bought the new album (yeah, seriously, 1994 is 24 years ago), I shrugged and said yeah stick it on and this, Sure Shot, track one, made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. The sample, the delivery and then 2/3rds of the way through this from MCA...

I wanna say a little something that's long overdue

The disrespect to women has got to be through

To all the mothers and the sisters and the wives and friends

I wanna offer my love and respect til the end

...which threw a massive curveball at all the sexist rap crap at the time. Then I caught the video later and loved it even more. This track was the first time I took the genre seriously and for that, it will always be a classic in my book. Youtube here.

Ecuador: The Appeals Court rules in favour of locals opposing the Rio Blanco mine project

This just in:

Minutes ago, the Azuay appeals court (in a ruling delayed since Monday) has decided that the Rio Blanco mining project (owned by Chinese company Junefield) must remain suspended until it has sought approval in a "prior consultancy" with locals around the zone. This was a hotly contested court ruling because the government of Ecuador brought the case to the Appeal court, knowing the as the clear majority of locals are opposed to the mine it would mean the project, now in construction phase, would come to an indefinite halt. Also worth noting that as this is a "second appeal" it is no longer subject to higher court appeals and in fact, the government stated during the process that if it lost it would take no further action.

The ruling creates legal precedent for the whole of Ecuador and means nearly all its projects will need to go through a "prior consultancy" before being allowed to move to production. And one final thing: It's plain awful news for INV Metals (INV.to) and its equally locals-hated 'Loma Larga' project a near neighbour to Rio Blanco and in the exact same regon of Ecuador.

IKN anticipates Great Panther Silver (GPR.to) $GPL on Coricancha

It wasn't even a month ago that this humble corner of cyberspace ran its post on the Coricancha (CMC) PEA, delivered to and by Great Panther Silver (GPR.to) (GPL) which told of the extra work, time and expense that would be needed by a serious mining company in order to make a reasonable decision on whether to put the shuttered mine back into production.

However, GPR is not a serious mining company. This from the company yesterday (IKN highlights):

VANCOUVER, Aug. 2, 2018 /CNW/ - GREAT PANTHER SILVER LIMITED (TSX: GPR; NYSE American: GPL) ("Great Panther"; the "Company") is pleased to provide an update on the progress of the trial stope and bulk sample program (the "Bulk Sample Program" or "BSP") at its 100% owned Coricancha gold-silver-lead-zinc-copper underground mine ("Coricancha"). Coricancha is located approximately 90 kilometres east of Lima, Peru, and has a 600 tonne per day processing plant, well established infrastructure, and is fully permitted for production.

Coricancha was placed on care and maintenance in 2013 and acquired by Great Panther in June of 2017. In December 2017, the Company released an updated mineral resource estimate for Coricancha. The Bulk Sample Program was initiated following the release of the results of the Preliminary Economic Assessment for Coricancha (the "PEA"), as detailed in the Great Panther news release dated May 31, 2018. The BSP will process about 6,000 tonnes of material and is expected to be finished in the first quarter of 2019. Its objective is to validate key mine and processing plant operating parameters in the PEA and further de-risk Coricancha. The Company will use these results as a basis for a formal decision to restart production.

Yup, they're running a Bulk Sample Program (BSP) and on the back of that, some time in Q1 they'll make a decision on whether to open the mine. Please compare the GPR plan, i.e. rushing to production decision in eight months max on the back of a BSP, to the recommendations of the 43-101 PEA. We quote:

CMC is highly sensitive to process plant head grades, gold and silver prices, and operating costs. Variances associated with these factors pose a high risk to the project economics.

And

Based on this TR, the Qualified Person recommends additional drilling and exploration activities designed to upgrade the existing Resource classifications and expand the current Mineral Resource inventory. Details on the extent of exploration programs are to be determined however are estimated to cost up to US$1M to US$2M per annum over the next two to three years. In addition, associated mine rehabilitation and development costs could be up to US$3M.

And

The Qualified Person also recommends additional technical studies aimed to reduce risks and increase the level of confidence regarding CMC advancement. Depending on the level of detail for technical work, these are estimated at US$600,000 to US$1,000,000 over the next one to two years.

The QP who put the PEA together knows that a tiny, 6,000 tonne BSP won't be anything close to enough to gauge the risk of turning Coricancha back on. They recommend study and caution, they know this one is difficult. The resource is not understood to anything near the extent necessary and what GPR plan to do is little more than go back into production on the back of a PEA and relying on inferred resources. Now, if it were a reasonably predictable orebody they might get away with it, but this is a deposit that's been a widowmaker for a decade, not even Nyrstar could make it work. But GPR isn't like that, they're going for the bluster. With this, GPR is showing the world exactly what it is, a bunch of cowboys who prefer to cut corners and BS investors rather than do things the right way.

Stormy times for Frank Giustra

So nice to see Frank Giustra, his new mini-me Bri-Bri Paes-Braga and Michael Avenatti (Stormy Daniels' lawyer) hanging out and having a jolly good time. Bri-Bri really rockin' the deep tan too, didn't even recognize you at first.

Caption competition, perhaps?

Another day...

...with virtually nothing on this blog. Things will be back to normal soon.

Just when you thought Tahoe Resources (TAHO) couldn't get any worse...

...they post the company's 2q18 financials. My stars, this is embarrassing. Examples:

• Remember when they announced the strike at La Arena (not before being prompted to do so by a pissant blogger) on April 22nd and said there would be no material effect on production. Then on May 3rd when they announced the end of the strike with no further word on any production changes? Well now, "The quarterly production at La Arena was impacted by the 13-day labor strike at the end of April." 

• La Arena production of 36koz Au is stupidly low, a crazy miss.  

• At the end of 2017, working capital stood at  $143.3m. It's now $121.2m, that despite booting $35m of financial debt from ST to LT liabilities. Main reason? Cash treasury is down $56m. Where has all the money gone, guys? Seriously, where? We need line items from you now, not approximations. The days of getting a pass on discretionaries have long gone, adult supervision is kicking in now. 

• Another net loss, this time 5c/share, despite the company claiming an AISC $250/oz lower than gold spot for the quarter.

• And to add insult to injury, despite the second quarter of losses this year G&A is actually accelerating! $13.7m on lord-only-knows what.

That's just a few line items. Never forget TAHO as a test case, ladies and gentlemen readers of this blog. The archetype of how great mining assets can be ruined by morons. The industry isn't laughing directly in your face yet, Ferrari Kev, but this humble corner of cyberspace can guarantee that it's laughing at you behind your pompous back.

Just so you know the Tahoe Resources (TAHO) position on all this

You may note the following in their reply:

1) I'm not "that ##***ing Otto" any longer.
2) TAHO is trying to confuse the readers by mixing the Constitutional Court with the Supreme Court. That the Supreme Court has given opinion is neither here nor there (and TAHO knows it), it's not them making the decision. That's up to the Constitutional Court and the fact that they asked for and received a separate, independent report on the matter is no minor point.
3) The "Nómada doesn't count because it's lefty" is a classic straw man tactic, even when the media has the original documents from source and is reporting, not trying to op-ed.
4) Edie Hofmeister is off the case.

                 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

From: Alexandra Barrows [mailto:ABarrows@tahoeresources.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, July 31, 2018 10:41 AM
To: Alexandra Barrows
Subject: Escobal Blog Post Clarification

Good morning, All. 

I understand Mr. Turner has blogged on us again (it’s been a while!), so I thought I’d provide a bit of clarification and context on his latest post in case you have any inbound calls this morning. As always, I’m also happy to jump on the phone.

1.      We do understand at least a portion of the Guatemalan University’s reports that were requested back in March by the Constitutional Court (CC) were leaked to Nomada, however haven't been formally notified by the CC regarding these studies nor provided with a copy

2.      For context, Nomada is more of an activist left-leaning online newspaper in Guatemala

3.      The Nomada article alleges that they are Xinka in the area around Escobal.  However, as you all know very well by now, in September 2017, the Supreme Court already declared that there were Xinkas in the surrounding areas and that an ILO 169 Consultation would need to take place, so this isn’t really new

4.      I’d like to remind you that as recently as February, Tahoe directly acknowledged the existence of Xinka in the communities surrounding the mine in addition to announcing our intention to develop a standalone indigenous people’s policy:http://www.tahoeresources.com/English/investors/news-releases/press-release-details/2018/TAHOE-TO-DEVELOP-COMPREHENSIVE-INDIGENOUS-PEOPLES-POLICY-IN-2018/default.aspx

5.      Finally, if the CC upholds with the Supreme Court, the consultation will need to take place as outlined in their ruling.  ILO 169 is a government-to-government consultation process that must be conducted by the Ministry of Energy and Mines (“MEM”). 

Please let me know if you have any other questions otherwise we’ll look forward to speaking with you all on our conference call Thursday morning 7am PT/10am ET.

Cheers,

Alex

Tahoe Resources (TAHO) (THO.to) and the indigenous population of San Rafael Las Flores, Guatemala

Here are an interesting couple of links, this one and then this one to two documents leaked to the press in Guatemala. They tell of how the Constitutional Court of the country asked two respected universities to investigate as to whether indigenous Xinca peoples (as well as other tribes and/or cultures) live in the zone around the Tahoe Resources (TAHO) (THO.to) Escobal mine, San Rafael Las Flores. The issue is an important one, because the case on whether TAHO needs to run a prior consultancy and get permission from locals to operate the mine largely rests on whether local inhabitants are indigenous (they claim they are, which means they must be consulted) or not (the company claims that they are not, which means they wouldn't need locals' permission). 

The two universities came to the same conclusion and reported as such to the Constitutional Court; Yes, Xinca indigenous peoples live in the zone. These reports were handed into the court in April, since then they were kept secret from one and all. However they were leaked last week and we on the outside have now found out what the court has known for nearly four months.

This blog will continue with a lower than normal frequency of posts for the next few days

For secret reasons.

The IKN Weekly, out now

The IKN Weekly is never fried

IKN479 has just been sent to subscribers. Its main event is...

...little dogs.

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

...in reverse order:

Lots of posts got plenty of hits this week. In fact after checking, the 5th placed this week would have been #1 last week. Anyway, to the list. "...in reverse order":
.

Third Place: "Globalive Technologies (LIVE.v): Proven liar Daniel Ameduri and Tommy Humphreys get together to pump a BS junior...". Posts on the scumbag pumpers are always popular. These two are among the worst and most two-faced in the industry.

Second Place: "Angry Geologist does Garibaldi". Quite right, too. TAG is a better blogger than I'll ever be.

 

First Place: "New Gold (NGD) 2q18 financials". Down 33% on the week and don't say IKN didn't try to warn you. This week's hit winner by a nautical mile.

The Friday OT: Choir of Young Believers; Hollow Talk

I had another Friday OT lined up, but that can wait for another week because kind reader 'S' sent me the link to this track this very morning. I've only listened to it eight times so far (and downloaded the 2008 album "this is for the white in your eyes" on Spotify). Yes they've been around for a while but it's a new discovery for me, so you get to share the enthusiasm.

Thank you reader S. Youtube here.

Posting will be light for the next couple of days

For secret reasons.

The IKN First Law of Mining News Releases takes on triple strength when it's a Henk van Alphen stock

Regular readers will know the law, for those new to this happy space here you go:

 "The IKN First Law of Mining News Releases: Considering that anything contained in a mining news release is presented in the best possible way for the company in question, any piece of information contained in a NR that comes across in any way negative means the real news and/or events behind it must be very, very bad indeed."

And here's Wealth Mineral (WML.v):

Vancouver, British Columbia: Wealth Minerals Ltd. (the “Company” or “Wealth”) – (TSXV: WML; OTCQB: WMLLF; SSE: WMLCL; Frankfurt: EJZN), announces delays in its Atacama Project (the “Project”) drilling program.  The Company mobilized and transported a sonic drill rig to the Project area this week, at which time local community representatives expressed concerns to Wealth’s drilling crew about the Project’s impact on the area.  While legally within its rights to continue drilling, the Company has chosen a non-confrontational approach with local stakeholders.  As a result, Wealth is undertaking additional consultation with local community representatives, government officials and with Wealth’s state-partner, Empresa Nacional de Minería de Chile (National Mining Company of Chile) (“ENAMI”).

Continues here. So much for having the big name local expert Marcelo Awad on board...

Angry Geologist does Garibaldi

And we're not talking about the 19th century Italian general and key figure in the reunification of his beautiful country. TAG gets out her pointed stick to poke at Garibaldi (GGI.v) and the band of True Believers who think it's just a matter of time before their three buck shares turn into Lambos. All good clean fun.

New Gold (NGD) 2q18 financials

In this post just three weeks ago, your humble scribe wrote the following:

Here's the carrying value of NGD properties per quarter split into two piles: Rainy River and Everything Else:

What amazes me isn't that Rainy River is now over 50% of the total of everything at NGD, what amazes me is that NGD still thinks this thing is worth U$1.6294Bn. 

Consider that back in January 2014, when NGD had recently bought Rainy River and carried it on its books at U$394.6m, it told us that the development capital costs of the project would be, "$885 million inclusive of a $70 million contingency." Does this mean that an over-cost, overdue mine that is under-performing, producing far less gold than planned and making an operating loss has goodwill of U$349.8m?

Hey...let's call it $350m, just for fun.

Seriously, how stupid do these people think we are?

Do these C-suiters read this pissant blog, perhaps? This evening New Gold (NGD) reported its 2q18 financials and holy wow, they've bitten the bullet and taken a net-tax $282m impairment on the thing. That means a net loss of $302m (ouch) and an adjusted net loss of $2m on the quarter. In other words, they have begun the process of reducing RR to its true value (and don't be fooled by today's slice, there's more to come). 

What we'll now get to enjoy is a bunch of dumbass anal ysts who will tell you, "Yeah, but don't look at that $302m number because it's just an impairment, it doesn't affect anything." The same numbskulls that have had the stock on auto-buy reco for years and ignored the fact RR was a FUBAR of biblical proportions will applaud the company for coming clean. As day follows night, IKN can guarantee they'll consider the fact that $300m of shareholder money has been flushed down the toilet as a minor technical detail.

Southern Copper (SCCO) today

Today on the ConfCall, Southern Copper (SCCO) told those present that they expect to receive the construction permit for Tia Maria this year. A better example of an official lie is impossible to imagine.

• They have to say it (they're in the bond market, after all)
• Nobody believes it (not even the company heads, who get told by the Peru government it's not going to happen anytime soon)
• Analysts covering SCCO won't call it out in their update reports for fear of upsetting readers (because they are whores)
• Lather rinse repeat 2019 (and yes, of course everyone will be disappointed it didn't show in 2018, but things can only get better now right?)

Let us be crystal clear about this: There is more chance of Conga going ahead than Tia Maria. There is more chance of President Trump admitting he was wrong about something and apologizing in public. There is more chance of the hole in my ass healing up than the Tia Maria construction permit being awarded under present circumstances. You may not like it, you may not agree that the locals in that spot in the world are against the project, you may question their true motives, it does not matter. Not gonna happen folks, and at least one person needs to tell you the unvarnished truth about SCCO and its people, who are lying to you.

Barrick (ABX): The market is trying to tell John Thornton something

On the five day chart, the Gold & Silver Miners' Index (XAU) is down 1%. Meanwhile major index component Goldcorp is up 0.5%, Newmont is up 1% and even Randgold has managed a long overdue rally, up 2%. And...

...Barrick is down 4.5%, most of that since the bell on Monday. The market is trying to tell him to keep ABX on the straight and narrow and...wait for it...not take the detour (oh I'm so witty).

The real boss of Cordoba Minerals (CDB.v) begins to paper up

And you definitely get the impression this is only one stage of the process. I mean, this is just HPX getting theirs, we need to wait for the non-brokered placement when Robert's inner circle get their slices of the cake as well. Lucas and Rick, cheque books ready in 1q19, yeah?

Anyway, this:

Cordoba proposes to issue HPX 16,289,619 common shares in Cordoba through the Placement at a deemed price of C$0.105 per common share. Cordoba also proposes to convert the principal and interest owed to HPX under the short-term loans that it previously advanced to the Company (the “Loans”) into common shares (the “Debt Conversion”) at a price per share that is equal to the issue price under the Placement. Accordingly, HPX is expected to receive an additional 21,941,567 common shares in connection with converting the US$1.75 million owed under the Loans.

Cordoba also proposes to issue 5,336,103 Shares to HPX at the same price per share as under the Placement to satisfy a deferred payment owed to HPX totalling US$425,850 relating to Cordoba’s acquisition of the Alacran Project (the “Omni Settlement”).

Completion of the Placement, the Debt Conversion and the Omni Settlement are subject to TSX Venture Exchange approval and closing is expected to occur on, or about, August 3, 2018. Upon completion of the transactions, HPX is expected to own 180,984,035 common shares in Cordoba, representing a 72.3% interest.

Full thing here.

Globalive Technologies (LIVE.v): Proven liar Daniel Ameduri and Tommy Humphreys get together to pump a BS junior...

..with predictable results.

The only thing I need to add to the post done by website Penny Mining Stocks on this disaster of a pump and dump, Globalive Technologies (LIVE.v), is the change in the chart price since that post went up on the 20th. It was already down 43% that day in the space of five weeks since its IPO (and downhill all the way) and had closed at 78c.

Now it's 56c. Bet those people who took Humphreys' advice and waded in on the opening day to the tune of over 4m shares are felling happy. The good news is that Daniel Ameduri promised us he was "going all in" on this stock, which means he's also broke as well as a proven liar.

Ecuador's new mining ministry is run by dumbasses

Anyone with exposure to mining in Ecuador should be watching what's going on in a courtroom in Azuay this week, with the main hearing yesterday and the verdict on the appeal due next Monday or Tuesday. The case is the government's appeal on the suspension of the Rio Blanco gold mine project (Chinese capitals Junefield) and the issue is whether the company needs prior permission to build its mine. The company and the government says no, the locals say yes, the courts agreed with the locals a couple of months ago, now that ruling is being tested by the appeals court which will be a binding decision. According to the government at least, because the anti-mine locals aren't about to give up their fight if the call goes against them as witnessed by their laywer who said (quote translated), "If the court rules in favour of the State, it's a declaration of war".

No joke. This appeal should never have happened and the new Vice Minister of mining, Henry Troya, is a world class dumbass for bringing the case to appeal. If the State loses, precedent is set against ALL mining companies and projects in Ecuador, if the State wins he incites outright rebellion in Azuay (which he should have known was going to happen). Not only that, but we've seen this exact same pattern roll out in other LatAm countries and the result is always the same; if you don't engage locals and get them onside you're not going to get anywhere, then it gets even worse when you resort to strong-arm legal or State forces strategies. Either Señor Troya is pig ignorant of his own sector, or he simply decided to do the one thing that would never work in order to have the chance to beat up some small brown people later. This new, gratuitously confrontational line is so stupid and self-defeating I'm even starting to miss the ex-Minister Javier Córdova. And that's saying something.

Rio2 and Atacama

Job done, fun begins, NR today, new company starts trading Friday:

TORONTO, July 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Rio2 Limited (“Rio2”) (TSX-V:RIO) and Atacama Pacific Gold Corporation (“Atacama Pacific”) (TSX-V:ATM) are pleased to announce that the business combination of Rio2 and Atacama has now been completed by way of a court approved plan of arrangement through which the companies amalgamated as a single entity (the “Arrangement”). The combined company that resulted from the Arrangement (“Rio2 Limited”) will continue to operate under the name “Rio2 Limited” and will be managed by Rio2’s existing executive team...(etc)

Whole thing here.

Reports of copper's death...

....have been greatly (etc):

Detour Gold (DGC.to) $DGC

For your information, Ron Clayton has been approached by Paulson & Co as a candidate to lead up a proxy salte against the current board of Detour.

Yes, they're that desperate.

The IKN Weekly, out now

Apparently it's a breathing technique to help people relax, get better sleep etc. You're supposed to take four seconds to breathe in, then hold the breath for seven seconds, then the exhale takes eight seconds. 

Anyway, IKN478 has just been sent to subscribers. Usual guff and nonsense.

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

...in reverse order:

Lots of posts got plenty of hits this week. In fact after checking, the 5th placed this week would have been #1 last week. Anyway, to the list. "...in reverse order":
.

Third Place: "McEwen Mining (MUX) and the magic of accountancy". Man, did I ever get feedback on this one!  1) No, I am not passing judgment on MUX, its stock price, its future or whatever else. 2) Yes, I do "have a freaking clue" about company accounts, thanks for asking. 3) Yes, I know what MUX did to get that result. If you cannot handle that the post is 100% factually correct, it is not my problem. If you think that your paragon god of mining Rob McEwen is too honest, upstanding and truthful to use every trick in the book in order to avoid paying corporate taxes, you really should not be investing in this sector at all.

Second Place: "As usual, Rick Rule is 100% correct". Why a post that states the obvious should become popular is beyond me.

 

First Place: "Plateau Energy (PLU.v): Real journalism 1, Business journalism 0". I think it fair to say that...

...investors in PLU.v do not read much in Spanish. Which begs the question as to how they do their independent DD into a company with a flagship asset in Peru. Surely they don't just take the management, IR department and hired gun anal ysts at their word....? Nah, surely not!

The Friday OT: Lou Reed; Satellite of love

There are songs that last the test of time. Satellite of Love belongs in the top tier of that group.



Deceptively simple melody, poetry as lyrics, Reed's laid back delivery. Wonderful. Youtube here.

Barrick (ABX) $ABX is the third party looking at Detour Gold (DGC.to)

Which means there won't be a sale. No way in the world does ABX pay up for a high cash cost miner.

Bloomberg wires with the news on this, I'll link as soon as Bloomie puts it on its public pages.

UPDATE: Okay, here's that linko. It starts this way:

Barrick Gold Corp. is the undisclosed gold miner who was asked to sign a confidentiality agreement alongside activist investor John Paulson to discuss potentially buying Detour Gold Corp., according to people familiar with the matter.

Continues.

HIVE Blockchain Technologies (HIVE.v): Why ROI matters

I received just one mail on this about HIVE.v today, but in this case one is enough and I'd like to explain just a little more about ROI and why I mentioned it in yesterday's post. We're talking about "Return On Investment" of course and in this case, we need to consider three things:

• How much has been invested
• What return there has been so far
• What return we can expect in the future

As noted last night, we know the answers to the first two. As at March 31st 2018 HIVE had raised $152m in cash and had around $14m left, so investments are $138m (as long as you agree that over $0.6m in travel expenses for HIVE executives in just six months is an "investment"). We also know the return, about $9.5m in coins. 

The future is the thing, there. Yesterday I also added a word on my guesstimate on the third element until the end of this year (when HIVE's money is likely to run out unless they get their sales tax cheques returned pronto). So it was interesting to tune into the HIVE.v conference call this morning, because at least one of my initial guesstimates was confirmed as pretty darned close. During the call, we were told that as at today HIVE.v holds U$17.7m worth of coins, a big jump from the year end number we were given yesterday. Even though they didn't give us exact coin numbers held (strangely coy, I wonder why) that's solid info and from that we can extrapolate a bit. Here's a table, notes below:

• The first thing to say is that by the nature of the beast, it's going to be rough and ballpark. I'm using a value of $500 for Ethereum coins and $18 for Ethereum Classic in order to be generous in the rounding, as explained and used yesterday. 

• I'm adjusting a little for the period ended June 30th based on what I heard today (mid-July). Also, I'm most interested in the ETH coins, as Ethereum Classic is a minor part of revenue.

• We can expect hash rates to go up in the current quarter to end September, that's why we can expect lower production compared to the June quarter.

• Finally, I'm taking another guess on the December quarter raising as that's when the Bitcoin (BTC) mining is supposed to begin at HIVE.v. So consider that larger number a "ETH Equivalent" that includes ETH and some BTC.

• Yesterday my guesstimate (using those prices for the coins) was U$42m by the end of the year. Today I've adjusted it upwards a touch, to U$43m. That's a minor thing and I'm aware I could be out by a lot more on either side, this is ballparking folks and a lot will depend on price changes in the future, for one thing.

So, for $152m invested (because by the end of 2018 its cash is all gone) HIVE.v would have produced around $43m in goods. That, ladies and gentlemen is not a good ROI. Putting it mildly. Very mildly. Even if we assume they manage to produce the same amount in 2019 and 2020 without any extra investment (which won't happen hash rates are going up and up all the time), they still won't get back the original investment unless ETH prices move up considerably.

Or if you like, consider it another way: Back when this started and HIVE raised U$152m, ETH coins were trading at between $250 and $300 apiece. Even if we take the top end of that range, it means HIVE.v could have turned its back on all that mining and mucking around, bought over 500,000 Ethereum coins on the open market and become a passive investment vehicle with a FAR better business model. Instead, it's blown the cash on machinery, professional fees ($1.306m), marketing fees ($1.309m), travel expenses ($0.606m), share based payments ($4.817m....WTF???), operating and maintenance costs ($2.916m) and quietly paid cash bonuses to management ($0.545m) which you have to read in the small print details of the Reg Fs in order to know about. Those are just a sample of the costs involved with this company too, there are a whole bunch of other ones and while they like to tell you about the approx $2m/qtr running costs of the equipment and the cheap electricity, what they don't mention is the approx $7m/qtr cash burn the whole corporate entity swallows.

All that for a projected production of around 84,000 ETH Eq coins to the end of 2018. Instead of holding 500,000 or so and having a company with something to show for its U$200m+ market cap.

So confound us all with the new tech and crypto and all that malarkey, the boffins can throw all the sequins into my eyes that they want. This is a company, it lives or dies on its financial well-being and the financials at HIVE.v are plain awful. One of the basic rules of successful capitalism is that when you invest $150m into something, you get more than $150m out of it afterwards. The only people making money in HIVE are those on the inside, carving themselves fat salary cheques, bonuses for no reason whatsoever, juicy expense benefits etc. The investors have negative ROI and even if its kit remains valid for years (which it won't, and don't get me started on how they have the brass neck to depreciate $113m of fixed assets by just $3.2m in the last quarter, that's borderline criminal) there is no ROI. And that matters. End of rant.

HIVE Blockchain Technologies (HIVE.v) files its annuals

Ahh wonderful, kid in a sweet shop time. So many things to choose from, so much fun I've had tonight and the charts that I have generated...oh so pretty! But instead of visuals, allow me to pick a few things to explain succinctly what HIVE.v has done in the 2017 period, as ended March 31st 2018:

• It raised U$152.852m in cash
• It finished the period with U$14.729m in cash
• Therefore it spent U$138.123m

Now for what it achieved:

• It mined approximately 17,000 Ethereum coins. It's slightly less, but let's be reasonable and say today's price is U$500 per ETH. That's U$8.5m worth of coins
• It mined approximately 54,000 Ethereum Classic coins. Again we can argue the toss but a reasonable price for that coin is U$18 each.  That's U$0.972m

So, U$9.472m in top line revenues for the year. I think it fair to say that ROI is lagging a little at this company, even if U$5.5m or so of that came from the latest quarter. FWIW, it looks as though HIVE has enough ready cash to get through two more quarters (longer if they get their sales tax back soon) and if they continue the acceleration of coin mining they may get to around U$42m worth of coins at today's prices before their money runs out. But hey, that's me just guessing. So maybe if you like the idea of investing in Ethereum you do something radical like buying Ethereum coins and getting more than 30c on the dollar for your initial entry. But again...hey...that's just me.

However for those of you still long, strong and HODL in this company, we recommend that you stick to reading the news release that came out with tonight's numbers and refrain from casting your eyes over the risk factors in the RegFs, because they aren't quite as bullish as in the literature HIVE is allowed to spin at you. For example:

An additional risk to the Company arises as a result of the potential shift from the use of a proof of work validation model by the Ethereum network to a proof of stake model. The current proposal for Ethereum’s shift to proof of stake has a number of unknown variables, including uncertainty over timing, execution and ultimate adoption; and there is not yet a definitive plan that is established and approved. As a result of these uncertainties, the Company cannot estimate the impact of a potential change to proof of stake on operations, but may see its competitive advantages decrease over time; this may have a material adverse effect on the Company. 

Specific to the Company, the Company may not be able to complete its planned expansion of SHA-256 ASIC miners with Genesis on the terms and timeline currently anticipated, or at all, and as such the Company may not realize on any additional electrical consumption or digital currency from the SHA-256 ASIC miners. Additionally, the Company may be required to sell its digital currency inventory in order to pay for its ongoing expenses (and in particular, expenses to maintain the Company’s facilities), and such sales may not be available at economic values.

I really like that one.

Tonight, HIVE.v has a market cap of C$291.45m, which is approximately U$221.5m. Nice big number.

Plateau Energy (PLU.v): Real journalism 1, Business journalism 0

Funny how it takes a real journalism media, such as Spain's newspaper of record El Pais, to seek and find the truth about a mining project. Because if you leave it with the fawning bizmedia they'll just swallow the company line wholesale and help the promoters pump the stock. Here's the link and here's the extract (translated) about the problem Plateau Energy (PLU.v) doesn't want you to know about:

Macusani Yellowcake, Peruvian subsidiary to the Canadian mining company Plateau Energy Metals, announced on Monday the discovery of 2.5m tonnes of lithium at high grade and 124m lbs of uranium at its Falchani concession, in the Puno region in South Peru. However, in 2008 local authorities and the World Monuments Fund stopped the mining projects of radioactive material because the concession lies over more than 100 sites of rock paintings and petroglyphs that are over 5,000 years old."

 "In 2005, the National Institute of Culture (Peru INC), today a ministry, declared the rock paintings of Corani and Macusani in the Carabaya province of Puno 'Cultural Patrimony of the Nation' after the initiative of Rainer Hostnig, an independent investigator who studied the art work between 2001 and 2008. Hostnig did so because the Peruvian State had awarded the Canadian mining company "Pacific" a concession of 30,000 hectares for the exploitation of uranium.

""The area under concession totally coincides with a zone that hosts the largest concentration of rock art in South-Eastern Peru, with the majority belonging to the era of hunter-gatherers", said Hostnig, quoting the regulation that was emitted by the rector of the institute. In 2011 the Ministry of Culture recognized the pre-hispanic archeological monument as Cultural Patrimony in the category "Archeological Cultural Land". The area covers more than 36,000 hectares at 4,500m above sea level."

Full report here. Oops, did PLU forget to tell you they won't be able to build the mine? How thoughtless of them...