Visible Gold Mines (VGD, TSX-V)
Visible Gold Mines (VGD, TSX-V) was unchanged last week, closing at 23 cents, but the trading action Friday suggests a reversal could finally be in the works for this stock which hasn’t posted an “up” week since the end of March…the company released news very late in the trading session Thursday…while drill results from its Silidor Property were unimpressive, VGD announced it’s proceeding almost immediately with a major exploration program at its flagship Joutel Project…this gave hope and some new energy to the market…several high priority drill targets are being finalized and work begins on the ground at Joutel in two or three weeks…the property will be drilled through the balance of the year…the stock sold off to 20 cents in early trading Friday but quickly reversed and closed at its high of the day at 23 cents on the strongest volume since May 3…selling in VGD in recent weeks has been technically driven and unrelated to the fundamentals and what’s about to happen on the ground – hence we see a major opportunity at the moment with this company’s market cap not much above its cash value of $6.5 million…on Thursday evening we posted our interview with VGD President and CEO Martin Dallaire…the “trigger” for a comeback in this stock is Joutel which is a massive project with multi-million ounce potential…it’s a significant former producer that Agnico-Eagle (AEM, TSX) mined from three zones between 1974 and 1993…the project was closed prematurely as Agnico-Eagle turned its attention to the huge LaRonde Mine…the theory is that there are extensions to the Joutel deposits as well as potential undiscovered zones elsewhere on that large land package (it’s more than 10 times the size of Granada)…Joutel is a geologist’s dream with a great story and it was Agnico-Eagle that actually approached VGD to take on this project through a joint venture – that’s the confidence they have in Visible Gold Mines’ geological team, in particular senior geologist Robert Sansfacon who was instrumental in the discovery of Osisko’s (OSK, TSX-V) Canadian Malartic deposit…”When we picked up all the Joutel boxes and maps from the Agnico-Eagle exploration offices, it took us two pick-up trucks for all the data,” Dallaire told us…”We were flooded with data but we love it because we have the capacity to analyze all of it and bring some fresh ideas to the project…the trend is very large and there’s a lot of potential for many new mines in the area”…Dallaire, an engineer and entrepreneur from Rouyn-Noranda, understands the mining industry and what an exploration company needs to do to succeed and build shareholder value…he’s fluently bilingual, presents himself extremely well and knows how to run a business and make money…he thinks big but is focused…he has also recruited some key people including Sansfacon who honed his skills for many years with Lac Minerals…in short, Dallaire has put something together you don’t often see in the junior speculative market – a powerful dynamic of business, geological and marketing expertise with a strategic plan to rapidly build value…the company’s niche and sole geological focus is northwestern Quebec where it has acquired several promising land packages, mostly west and north of Rouyn-Noranda…Dallaire is taking an aggressive approach to exploration and he’s targeting under-explored areas and past producing mines where major new extensions are possible…
Cadillac Mining (CQX, TSX-V)
Cadillac was unchanged for the week, closing at 10 cents, but on continued very light CDNX volume…this is a company with tremendous potential given its property packages but management has yet to demonstrate an ability to make things happen in the market and create shareholder value…we are frustrated but remain patient for now because the possibilities with CQX are still incredible, especially considering the current market cap which is just $2.5 million…not often does a company get the kind of opportunity that Cadillac was handed (and still has)…CQX holds a 100% interest in a very strategic piece of property that adjoins Richmont Mines‘ (RIC, TSX) Wasamac deposit, 15 kilometres west of Rouyn-Noranda…the principal Gold structure hosting mineralization at Wasamac dips northerly onto the seven claims held by Cadillac…Richmont started drilling Wasamac a year ago and steadily ramped up its drilling due to excellent results…in February of this year, Richmont reported a nearly five-fold increase in resources (from 285,000 to 1.4 million ounces) at Wasamac…as a result RIC has been one of the best performing Gold stocks on the TSX this year…BMR brought the Wasamac situation to the attention of its readers in December…investors got excited about the story and the potential of Cadillac’s “Wasa” claims…the stock ran to 50 cents by early January and the market was clearly eager to see Cadillac pursue this project as quickly and vigorously as possible…in this business, it’s critical to “seize the moment” and take immediate advantage of opportunities like this when they present themselves…the company easily could have leveraged the Wasamac situation into a major financing anywhere between 25 to 40 cents (they began the year with only about $200,000 in the bank)…in order to take advantage of any opportunity, a company must be well-financed and Cadillac management absolutely dropped the ball during the first quarter of this year when they did have a chance to raise at least $1 million (potentially much more) and failed to do so…we give the company credit for securing an excellent project (Goldstrike) in Utah on fabulous terms but several million dollars is going to be required to tackle Goldstrike in the right way…after talking about getting a drilling program going at Wasamac “in the near future” shortly after their mid-February AGM, Cadillac soon reversed course and stated in a news release May 16 that it needs more information from Richmont’s work before drilling for down-plunge extensions of the Wasamac main, #1 and #2 zones…President and CEO Victor Erickson’s heart is with the Utah project, not with Wasamac…in retrospect, that has been demonstrated in many ways over the last six months…Erickson would have to admit that himself…the best solution in our view is for Cadillac to cut a deal with another company for exploration at Wasamac and the natural partner for that appears to be Visible Gold Mines (VGD, TSX-V) which last December entered into a JV with CQX on its other Rouyn-Noranda area properties…VGD has all the money and expertise necessary to unlock the value of Cadillac’s Wasa claims…Cadillac could let others do the heavy lifting at Wasa and then focus its energies on developing the Goldstrike Project…talk is cheap – the onus right now is on Cadillac to show investors that it can “walk the walk” and make things happen, however they decide to proceed…
Abcourt Mines (ABI, TSX-V)
It was another quiet week for Abcourt which was unchanged at 12 cents…volume has dried up significantly and ABI hasn’t enjoyed a 1 million+ share day since May 16…the drop-off in volume is actually a good sign as that’s what typically occurs near the end of a decline…Abcourt has traded in a narrow range between 11.5 and 13 cents over the last 29 sessions…the stock, which now has 149 million shares outstanding for a market cap of $18 million, has found support at current levels and should begin to firm up over the summer given strong fundamentals and an aggressive exploration program at two properties…ABI’s decline from a 52-week high of 25.5 cents in late March was brought on by the closing of a financing (35 million units at 18 cents), a sharp drop in Silver, overall CDNX weakness, and selling by MineralFields Group…ABI’s 100-day moving average (SMA) is now in decline and will provide resistance for now around 16 cents while the declining 50-day is at 14 cents…it’s going to take some significant news or bullish new overall market sentiment to drive ABI through resistance over the next month or two, so investor patience will be required here…the company released more results from its Abcourt-Barvue Silver-Zinc Property last Monday including 20 metres grading 108.33 g/t Ag and 1.49% Zn, and 4.5 metres grading 239.43 g/t Ag and 2.00% Zn… metres grading 300.99 g/t Ag and 3.05% Zn in AB-11-24, and 10 metres grading 129.48 g/t Ag drill results to date should significantly upgrade and increase all-category reserves and res0urces…more drilling will take place at Abcourt-Barvue later this year…the rig was just recently moved to the Vendome Gold-Silver-copper-zinc property approximately 13 kilometres south of Abcourt-Barvue…the last set of results from the company’s Elder-Tagami Gold Property near Rouyn-Noranda came out May 16…mineralization continues to expand to the west and the east of the former underground Elder Mine which is now being dewatered…the Tagami area to the north, meanwhile, has untapped potential including some higher grades…the latest NI-43-101 resource estimate of 216,000 ounces was released in the summer of 2009…the possibility of Abcourt expanding that resource beyond 500,000 ounces certainly exists given the encouraging results to date (look what Richmont has done at Wasamac)…the heavy accumulation that began in Abcourt in December was no fluke in our view…this is a company with significant assets that could justify a substantially higher valuation…nearly 60 million shares of ABI changed hands on the CDNX in December and January – record volume for this stock, accompanied by a price jump from 14.5 cents…while the stock price is now slightly below that level, the record volume in ABI since late last year (take a look at a 10-year chart) is still a very bullish sign…Abcourt has been under significant accumulation and our best guess is that some savvy players like the assets in the ground…continued drilling success and higher prices for Gold, Silver and zinc would be exciting developments for this stock which has a history of major moves…from mid-2005 to early 2006, Abcourt rocketed from 15 cents to nearly $1.40…
Greencastle Resources (VGN, TSX-V)
Greencastle was off another penny for the week at 17 cents with volume remaining relatively light…the company released its Q1 financials June 9 which show working capital of 16.4 cents per share ($7.5 million)…oil royalties have declined significantly – just $212,000 for the first three months of 2011 vs. $355,000 over the same period a year ago which underscores the need for VGN to make some changes as Primate just isn’t the cash cow it used to be…the fact Tony Roodenburg is no longer at the helm of Seafield Resources (SFF, TSX-V) is a positive development in our view for Greencastle…Roodenburg had been trying to ease his way out of Seafield since 2009 without much success until last month…he’ll now be able to focus almost exclusively on Greencastle which has been a favorite project of his for many years…we suspect he’s going to take a serious look at spinning out the oil assets or the Gold assets into a separate company…something needs to happen here to move this company forward and boost shareholder value…Greencastle’s market cap of $7.8 million means the stock is now trading just half a penny above its cash value…history shows that whenever this occurs in VGN, a terrific buying opportunity has opened up though investors must be patient…it’s interesting to note that the stock’s rising 500-day moving average (SMA) and its 1000-day SMA, which has flattened out, have converged at 17 cents where there is exceptional support… Greencastle tripled over a six-week period from late October to early December…since the beginning of January, though, the stock has struggled due mostly to impatient investors frustrated with the lack of news…patience is definitely required with VGN or one shouldn’t invest in it…over the years the successful strategy with Greencastle has been to accumulate on weakness when the stock is near cash value and then sell into strength when something develops…with $7.5 million in working capital, three Gold properties (including land near the Blackwater Project) and monthly cash flow from an oil royalty, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that Greencastle does offer excellent value at current levels…the long-term chart remains very encouraging with rising 200 and 300-day SMA’s that are in no danger of reversing at the moment…it’s also important to note that Roodenburg, a large shareholder in VGN, refrained from selling any of his holdings during the late 2010 run-up in the share price…this is different from past bullish in the stock and adds further credence to our view that we haven’t seen the highs in this cycle yet from Greencastle – it’s poised for what we believe could be a massive breakout sometime this year…Pinetree Capital has also accumulated more shares in Greencastle, so there’s every reason to be very optimistic regarding this company’s prospects…Greencastle is up 21% since we added it back in to the BMR model portfolio last October…
Sidon International (SD, TSX-V)
Sidon simply hasn’t been able to recover yet from its fall in March, one day after the CDNX correction began, on poor drill results from its Morogoro East Gold Property in Tanzania…the stock hit another 52-week low of 3 cents last week which is where it closed at Friday, down half a penny for the week…there has been no news from the company since March 14 when it announced a proposed private placement at 8 cents and an option to acquire an 80% interest in a 50-square kilometre property adjacent to Canaco’s (CAN, TSX-V) Handeni discovery in Tanzania…the six shallow holes drilled in December at Morogoro East failed to produce significant results, the best hole showing 3 metres grading 1.7 g/t Au…the company has drilled four deeper holes with results for those still pending…what the initial six holes have given Sidon, however, is a better understanding of the Morogoro geological structure which will aid in any future drilling…exploration, especially at such an early stage, is never easy and disappointing early results don’t necessarily mean a property doesn’t hold excellent potential…the company is also trying to develop a placer operation at Morogoro…there is certainly the possibility of better days ahead for Sidon but the lack of news and the continuing weakness in the share price is not encouraging…from a technical standpoint, the stock has fallen to a support area and is in deeply oversold territory…the climb back up, however, won’t be easy and the company may have to look at a consolidation of its capital on a 1-for-5 basis at least…Sidon ran as high as 26.5 cents last winter but is now off 2 pennies since we introduced it to BMR readers just over a year ago at a nickel…the company currently has approximately 140 million shares outstanding for a market cap of $4.2 million…
hello, hard working folks,
Question: All these mths, with ur wkend reviews, u’ve basically posted the same ole, same ole for Sidon. With having ur resources, and many mths ago, anticipating and interview with them, which never materialized, has anyone tried to contact them and see what really is going on? Purhaps an interview with the CEO and where they are heading would boost investors hopes and get this stk. moving upward to true value levels.
Thanking u in Advance,
& With anticipation of ur Enquiry with SD
nikolay
Comment by nikolay — June 19, 2011 @ 5:27 pm
Dear Friends,
I quote below an email correspondent received from the CEO of SIDON.This is for you’ll info….
QUOTE:
Thank you for your email, I have so many emails to answer that sometime takes longer to get to them, I hope you understand. I would like to issue an update as soon as we have something to report. We are waiting on two things to take place, the drill results from the 4 holes and a respond from the Tanzanian Athourity on our mining permit and as soon as any of these events takes place an update will be out. I understand it is not easy being patient, I sit in the same boat.
.
Regards
ALAWAS
KA
UNQUOTE:
I would suggest BMR to please find out what going on.
Thanks
Eric
Comment by Eric Benson — June 20, 2011 @ 5:24 am
That’s all it took, someone with some Clout. THANKU BMR
and it’s good to know they are waiting for drill results and a permit. Both should be good news! thanx again BMR.
Nikolay
Comment by nikolay — June 20, 2011 @ 8:32 am
Things are quiet with SD as we’ve been stating….as a result, and with other things happening in the market, we just haven’t been paying much attention to it, so I’m glad Eric was able to provide the latest info…thank u.
Comment by Jon - BMR — June 20, 2011 @ 10:02 am