With consumers tightening their wallets over economic concerns, crude oil will suffer its first annual decline in seven years, as supplies rise over decreasing demand.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, prices fell 99 cents for February delivery of crude oil, settling at $39.03 a barrel. Earlier in the day it fell below $38 a barrel. So far this year oil prices are down by 59 percent.
Crude-oil inventory fell last week by 1.45 million barrels, while on the other hand, according to analysts' estimates, gasoline stockpiles are rising, with projections of an extra 1.7 million barrels added for the week ending December 26.
Also increasing were heating oil, diesel, and other distillate fuel supplies, adding 1.5 million barrels to the inventory.
On London's ICE Futures Europe exchange, Brent crude oil fell by 40 cents to end the session at $40.15 a barrel.
I don't see anything changing the primary fundamental of declining oil demand changing any time soon, and that should be the key element to watch with oil, barring any geopolitical problems that may unfold.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Adventure Gold Announces Closing of an $800,800 Private Placement With Desjardins Securities Inc.
MONTREAL, QUEBEC, Dec 30, 2008 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) ----Adventure Gold Inc. (TSX VENTURE: AGE) (the "Company"), is pleased to announce the closing of a private placement with Desjardins Securities Inc. on December 30, 2008, for gross proceeds of $800,800 (the "Offering"). The Offering consisted of the issuance of 650 Units (the "Units") at a price of $1,232 per Unit. Each Unit is comprised of 6,600 flow-through common shares at a price of $0.14 per flow-through share and 2,800 common shares at a price of $0.11 per common share. All shares issued in relation to this Offering are subject to a four-month hold period.
In connection with the Offering, Desjardins Securities received a cash finder's fee of $80,080 (10% of the gross proceeds of the Offering) and non-transferable broker warrants entitling it to acquire 427,700 common shares (7% of shares issued in this Offering) at a price of $0.14 per common share for a period of 18 months following the closing date.
The net proceeds from the private placement will be used for exploration activities on the Company's Senore property located in the Abitibi region of Quebec and for working capital purposes.
Profile:
Adventure Gold Inc. is a mining exploration company focused on discovering high quality gold deposits in the Abitibi greenstone belt located in north-west Quebec and north-east Ontario - one of the richest gold deposit areas in the world. Adventure Gold holds quality assets in the Val-d'Or, Quebec and Timmins, Ontario areas and is led by highly motivated management and technical teams with extensive exploration and mine production experience.
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Contacts: Adventure Gold Inc. Maureen Doherty Manager Corporate Communications
613-745-4041 maureen@adventure-gold.com
Adventure Gold Inc. Marco Gagnon President & CEO 450-743-5527 marco@adventure-gold.com
www.adventure-gold.com
SOURCE: Adventure Gold Inc.
mailto:maureen@adventure-gold.com mailto:marco@adventure-gold.com
Adventure Gold
Copyright 2008 Market Wire, All rights reserved.
In connection with the Offering, Desjardins Securities received a cash finder's fee of $80,080 (10% of the gross proceeds of the Offering) and non-transferable broker warrants entitling it to acquire 427,700 common shares (7% of shares issued in this Offering) at a price of $0.14 per common share for a period of 18 months following the closing date.
The net proceeds from the private placement will be used for exploration activities on the Company's Senore property located in the Abitibi region of Quebec and for working capital purposes.
Profile:
Adventure Gold Inc. is a mining exploration company focused on discovering high quality gold deposits in the Abitibi greenstone belt located in north-west Quebec and north-east Ontario - one of the richest gold deposit areas in the world. Adventure Gold holds quality assets in the Val-d'Or, Quebec and Timmins, Ontario areas and is led by highly motivated management and technical teams with extensive exploration and mine production experience.
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Contacts: Adventure Gold Inc. Maureen Doherty Manager Corporate Communications
613-745-4041 maureen@adventure-gold.com
Adventure Gold Inc. Marco Gagnon President & CEO 450-743-5527 marco@adventure-gold.com
www.adventure-gold.com
SOURCE: Adventure Gold Inc.
mailto:maureen@adventure-gold.com mailto:marco@adventure-gold.com
Adventure Gold
Copyright 2008 Market Wire, All rights reserved.
Monday, December 29, 2008
iShares Silver Trust Bullion Increases by 30.69 Tons on December 26
iShares Silver Trust (SLV) increased its physical bullion holdings by 30.69 tons on December 26, the highest level since the latter part of October.
The iShares Silver Trust fund is the largest ETF backed by silver in the world. They now have a total of 6,792.99 tons of bullion on hand, against the 6,762.3 tons they had on December 24.
Since the early part of December, silver tonnage held by the trust is up 1.5 percent or 106.24 tons.
The iShares Silver Trust fund is the largest ETF backed by silver in the world. They now have a total of 6,792.99 tons of bullion on hand, against the 6,762.3 tons they had on December 24.
Since the early part of December, silver tonnage held by the trust is up 1.5 percent or 106.24 tons.
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Bob Moriarty, 321 Gold: Riots in the Streets of America in Several Months! How to Prepare for it
Bob Moriarty in an explosive interview on what he sees in the not-too-distant future for America, and how people can prepare for the unsettling times.
The Gold Report: Bob, what do you think of the Fed’s latest move—cutting to a flexible zero to a quarter rate? Where do you see us going?
Bob Moriarty: We are to the point where we are about 14 feet from going over the edge of Niagara Falls. We haven’t gone over the edge yet; we haven’t gone to a total collapse. We don’t have riots in the streets; we don’t have a revolution. That’s coming; that’s about two to three months off.
Here’s what we’ve got: the Fed has committed to $8.5 trillion of taxpayers’ money to bail out the worst run companies and banks. It hasn’t worked. Now, they’re at a 0% to .25% on the Fed Funds rate for funds for banks, which means if you go down and you pay $100,000 for a T-bill for 90 days, your return is zero, which is to imply that there is zero risk to investing with the government. Anybody who actually believes that is going to be in for a real shock in the first quarter of next year.
GM has lost has lost $80 billion dollars in the last four years. They’re burning through $2 billion a month when everything is going well. Their sales are down 37% in November; the mathematical probability of GM surviving is zero. But we’re going to pour more taxpayer money down that hole. AIG's also turned into the proverbial black hole. I would think that at $300 billion or $400 billion or $500 billion or $600 billion, somebody’s going to wake up and say, “You know, we’re losing a lot of money here.”
TGR: It’s getting to be real money at that point.
BM: What we have done is guaranteed hyperinflation in the United States. We have guaranteed the destruction of the United States. We will have riots starting in the first quarter of next year; we will default by the summer of 2009.
TGR: Default on how many of the bonds? All? Or just some?
BM: 100%. The US government is going to default. Treasuries, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the whole lot. It’s the end of empire. The United States government will not exist in its current form a year from now.
TGR: When you say “its current form,” what form will it take?
BM: I don’t know. It’s a really good question. I’m sure it will be a total state of chaos. I mean we’ve never been here. I think the analogy of the Soviet Union is probably the closest; we could break up into a series of little fiefdoms. But here’s what’s important to understand—the United States government has failed at every single level. It is too big; it is too unwieldy; it doesn’t work.
TGR: So, what does it mean? We’ve got impending chaos in the United States—and the financial markets will continue to go downward. Are we talking globally or U.S.?
BM: U.S. primarily, but globally because the U.S. is so important. The U.S. is the linchpin right now, but the rest of the world is going to have to learn to get by without the United States. What George Bush and Dick Cheney have done is essentially destroyed the United States; they have bankrupted the country. We are going to end up having our troops march out of Iraq to the nearest border because we can no longer afford to pay for them. We’re going to go into Zimbabwe-type inflation where they’re printing off $200 million dollar bills to buy a loaf of bread.
TGR: Other than moving to a nice island in the Caribbean, what does an investor or a resident of the U.S. do?
BM: You have to prepare; first of all, it’s important to prepare mentally and that means doing some education. Second, you don’t want to be in debt. You don’t want to be buying real estate. You don’t want to be taking any chances financially whatsoever. You want to be investing in real resources: good solid producing gold companies or silver companies or energy companies. You want to really hunker down.
TGR: If the financial markets continue to get clobbered, I would assume the gold equity stocks would continue to get clobbered?
BM: I don’t think they will. Here’s what is going to happen. There is actually a lot of money sitting on the sidelines. I’ve heard there's billions of dollars waiting to be invested in resource stocks. Resource stocks are selling for 5 cents or 10 cents on the dollar; that’s not going to last for very long.
What I want to get across to everybody is and it’s very important, is that when you go through chaos, the worse it gets, the more inclined you are to solve it. There are some easy solutions to this financial situation in the United States.
First of all, we downsize; we stop spending all this money at the federal level; we stop spending money at the state level. We end up with a much smaller government that isn’t trying to make every decision for every person all the time. Big government doesn’t work any more. We need to change that. We need to go back to self-sufficiency; we need to go back to citizens participating in government.
We need to go back to Economics 101 where you invest to make money, save money. The gold companies that have the business model of print shares and drill, print shares and drill—those guys aren’t going to succeed. But the guys who have producing assets and real stories, they’re going to succeed beyond their wildest imagination.
We need to kill the Federal Reserve System and go back to honest money. That’s 90% of our problem right now. We are all playing at investing with Monopoly money backed by nothing. It’s about as smart as you sitting down at a high stakes poker game, you have a wad of $20 gold pieces and everyone else is playing with their Mobil Oil credit card. Those fools will bet on anything, it’s not real money.
TGR: Can they perform in a falling financial market?
BM: Of course.
TGR: Assuming gold is rising.
TGR: Do you see think a lot of these juniors have bottomed? A lot of the producers have doubled off of bottoms.
BM: Yes, they have actually—they bottomed in October. If you go back to what I was saying back then, I said we were at a bottom. They had definitely bottomed. The HUI has doubled since then and no one noticed.
The general stock market is going to be good until maybe January or February. But it’s going to get far worse after that. We have some real problems that will be surfacing between now and then. But there’s an enormous amount of money sitting on the sidelines waiting to go somewhere safe. When people realize that resource stocks are the only safe haven, they’re going to go up more than anybody can imagine.
So, there are two things I would do with new money. First of all, gold and silver serve as an insurance policy against chaos. If you cannot put your hands on some physical gold, physical silver, it’s like living without an insurance policy. When you need food, if you don’t have gold or silver, you’re going to be a bit shocked. Second of all as far as an investment program, beyond the insurance policy, you want to be in real assets. That’s gold or silver or energy producers or near-term producers, or companies with a good business model.
TGR: Any names you could share with us?
BM: Look at the recent Haywood Securities report, "Junior Mining: Report on Cash Sustainability." Now, 96 companies currently traded at discount to their last reported net working capital. This is the greatest opportunity to invest that I have ever read or heard about; it’s absolutely unimaginable. It’s not going to last very much longer, but stocks could move up. The really bad gold stocks are going to move up 500%.
TGR: You mentioned that you looked at gold and silver as an insurance policy and recommend investing in real assets. Do you have a recommendation of a percentage of the portfolio that people should be holding in these? How much cash should they keep for future opportunities?
BM: Ah, very little. Cash is going to be the most dangerous thing you can invest in. Cash, T-bills, T-bonds are going away; they’re going to be worth zero. You’re going to walk into a bank one day and your ATM machine is not going to work, and your cash is going to be no good. I would think two to three months' living expenses, if you can do that in cash or silver, would be a very high comfort level. That percentage will change depending on what people have. Everybody—I really want to emphasize that—everybody needs to have some physical gold or silver.
TGR: Bob, you don’t see that we’re going to get this hyperinflation kicking in or it’s going to be so short, it won’t matter?
BM: Hyperinflation is starting to kick in now. I think you’re going to see it turn shortly. The government has been flooding the system with money and in short order it’s going to try to find a safe haven. Here’s what to look for. If you take a look at a chart right now, the 10-year, 30-year bonds have gone curve linear. They’re going straight up to the moon. Any time a market does that, it’s about to crash. When the bond market crashes, it’s going to be 15 on the Richter scale. It’s going to be enormous. It’s far more dangerous than the stock market crashing. When the bond market crashes, the hyperinflation starts.
TGR: And what’s your timeline on that? You were saying before, January or February?
BM: The bond market is literally going to start crashing any day now. I mean it’s very, very soon. I think that the stock market is good through January or February. I think the resource market will start up in an explosive way literally in a few weeks or so. It’s actually going up now. If you go back the last month or six weeks, it’s gone up a lot more than anybody would believe. Everybody thinks, “Well, my gold stocks are all down, I’m going to lose money hand over fist.” But they’re actually 50% better off now than they were in October.
TGR: Bob, earlier you mentioned investing in real assets. You said gold and silver and energy producers. That’s a pretty broad-based statement; could you give us an idea of what you mean when you say energy producers?
BM: Coal producers, oil producers, natural gas producers—energy is absurdly cheap now; it was absurdly expensive at $147. You can buy energy producers really cheaply, and I have written up a number of them on 321energy.com. I like anything real, anything that’s based on Economics 101. We’re going to take something of value and we’re going to increase its value, and we’re going to sell it to the public for a profit. That’s just a really good business model.
Here’s what I want to emphasize, and what’s important to get across—I don’t want to sound like I’m totally negative because I’m not totally negative. The worse it gets in the United States, the more impetus there will be to say, “Hey, what caused this in the first place? And what can we do to prevent it in the future?” And the answer to that is quite simple. We got off the gold standard in 1933 and in 1971, and that let government grow totally out of control. We need to rein government in; we need to go back to government of the people, by the people, and for the people. The way to do that is to go back to a gold and silver based currency. Once we do that we can start investing with some kind of common sense.
TGR: So the good news is that through all this chaos there will be some change in the way the government operates?
BM: Government will be much smaller; I think that any rational American can look at big government and say, “Hey, wait a minute. This doesn’t work.” And the funny thing is it’s not because I’m a liberal or I’m a conservative. I’m not sure there is any such thing as a perfect liberal or a perfect conservative, even though we act like they’re two totally different things. Big government doesn’t work; we need to go back to Economics 101 and only spend the money that you earn.
TGR: OK, other than getting mentally ready, getting into gold and silver and real assets, do you have any other thoughts on where to put our cash if we have any cash right now? What about other commodities, such as food commodities?
BM: Absolutely. I believe in peak oil, and peak oil is an analog of peak food. So, it requires X number of calories of energy to produce X number of calories of food, so when you run out of cheap energy, you run out of cheap food. Americans are going to be very angry. We have a very dangerous system in the United States where we essentially have a day and a half’s worth of food in our food stores. It’s a just in time now system. And it’s very vulnerable to civil disorders.
TGR: Is there an investment play within the food component?
BM: I think anything in food. Strangely enough, what I like is fertilizers. Fertilizers are a real cheap way of betting on food. Some of the big food companies, like R Gill, are just as corrupt as everybody in Washington, everybody in Wall Street, so I can’t recommend them. I don’t know that big food stocks are good, but maybe equipment manufacturers would be a good bet.
TGR: Bob, do you think there’s any gold in Fort Knox?
BM: That’s a really good question. I hope there is. But I don’t know. The really interesting thing is nobody in the government has ever even pretended that they might do something with it. If it was me, I’d go count the bars; I’d figure out who owns them and I’d come up with some kind of currency tied to gold, you know—1 gram notes, and 5 gram notes and 10 gram notes. I think mathematically there probably isn’t, but I don’t know. Nobody knows.
TGR: And there’s no accountability?
BM: Ah, are you kidding? George Bush is president of the United States.
TGR: Yes, but soon he won’t be. You know, I’ll write a letter to Obama and ask him. Well, Bob, as usual, it’s always great to do these interviews. We appreciate it.
Bob Moriarty and his wife, Barb, launched 321gold.com as a private website seven years ago, when they were convinced gold and silver were at a bottom and wanted to help others understand what they needed to know about investing in resource stocks. Since then, they’ve introduced a second resource site, 321energy.com. Bob travels to dozens of mining projects a year. He was one of the first analysts to write about NovaGold, Northern Dynasty, Silver Standard, Running Fox and YGC Resources, among others. Prior to his Internet career, Bob was a Marine F-4B pilot at the age of 20 and a veteran of over 820 missions in Viet Nam. Becoming a Captain in the Marines at 22, he was one of the most highly decorated pilots in the war.
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The Gold Report: Bob, what do you think of the Fed’s latest move—cutting to a flexible zero to a quarter rate? Where do you see us going?
Bob Moriarty: We are to the point where we are about 14 feet from going over the edge of Niagara Falls. We haven’t gone over the edge yet; we haven’t gone to a total collapse. We don’t have riots in the streets; we don’t have a revolution. That’s coming; that’s about two to three months off.
Here’s what we’ve got: the Fed has committed to $8.5 trillion of taxpayers’ money to bail out the worst run companies and banks. It hasn’t worked. Now, they’re at a 0% to .25% on the Fed Funds rate for funds for banks, which means if you go down and you pay $100,000 for a T-bill for 90 days, your return is zero, which is to imply that there is zero risk to investing with the government. Anybody who actually believes that is going to be in for a real shock in the first quarter of next year.
GM has lost has lost $80 billion dollars in the last four years. They’re burning through $2 billion a month when everything is going well. Their sales are down 37% in November; the mathematical probability of GM surviving is zero. But we’re going to pour more taxpayer money down that hole. AIG's also turned into the proverbial black hole. I would think that at $300 billion or $400 billion or $500 billion or $600 billion, somebody’s going to wake up and say, “You know, we’re losing a lot of money here.”
TGR: It’s getting to be real money at that point.
BM: What we have done is guaranteed hyperinflation in the United States. We have guaranteed the destruction of the United States. We will have riots starting in the first quarter of next year; we will default by the summer of 2009.
TGR: Default on how many of the bonds? All? Or just some?
BM: 100%. The US government is going to default. Treasuries, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the whole lot. It’s the end of empire. The United States government will not exist in its current form a year from now.
TGR: When you say “its current form,” what form will it take?
BM: I don’t know. It’s a really good question. I’m sure it will be a total state of chaos. I mean we’ve never been here. I think the analogy of the Soviet Union is probably the closest; we could break up into a series of little fiefdoms. But here’s what’s important to understand—the United States government has failed at every single level. It is too big; it is too unwieldy; it doesn’t work.
TGR: So, what does it mean? We’ve got impending chaos in the United States—and the financial markets will continue to go downward. Are we talking globally or U.S.?
BM: U.S. primarily, but globally because the U.S. is so important. The U.S. is the linchpin right now, but the rest of the world is going to have to learn to get by without the United States. What George Bush and Dick Cheney have done is essentially destroyed the United States; they have bankrupted the country. We are going to end up having our troops march out of Iraq to the nearest border because we can no longer afford to pay for them. We’re going to go into Zimbabwe-type inflation where they’re printing off $200 million dollar bills to buy a loaf of bread.
TGR: Other than moving to a nice island in the Caribbean, what does an investor or a resident of the U.S. do?
BM: You have to prepare; first of all, it’s important to prepare mentally and that means doing some education. Second, you don’t want to be in debt. You don’t want to be buying real estate. You don’t want to be taking any chances financially whatsoever. You want to be investing in real resources: good solid producing gold companies or silver companies or energy companies. You want to really hunker down.
TGR: If the financial markets continue to get clobbered, I would assume the gold equity stocks would continue to get clobbered?
BM: I don’t think they will. Here’s what is going to happen. There is actually a lot of money sitting on the sidelines. I’ve heard there's billions of dollars waiting to be invested in resource stocks. Resource stocks are selling for 5 cents or 10 cents on the dollar; that’s not going to last for very long.
What I want to get across to everybody is and it’s very important, is that when you go through chaos, the worse it gets, the more inclined you are to solve it. There are some easy solutions to this financial situation in the United States.
First of all, we downsize; we stop spending all this money at the federal level; we stop spending money at the state level. We end up with a much smaller government that isn’t trying to make every decision for every person all the time. Big government doesn’t work any more. We need to change that. We need to go back to self-sufficiency; we need to go back to citizens participating in government.
We need to go back to Economics 101 where you invest to make money, save money. The gold companies that have the business model of print shares and drill, print shares and drill—those guys aren’t going to succeed. But the guys who have producing assets and real stories, they’re going to succeed beyond their wildest imagination.
We need to kill the Federal Reserve System and go back to honest money. That’s 90% of our problem right now. We are all playing at investing with Monopoly money backed by nothing. It’s about as smart as you sitting down at a high stakes poker game, you have a wad of $20 gold pieces and everyone else is playing with their Mobil Oil credit card. Those fools will bet on anything, it’s not real money.
TGR: Can they perform in a falling financial market?
BM: Of course.
TGR: Assuming gold is rising.
TGR: Do you see think a lot of these juniors have bottomed? A lot of the producers have doubled off of bottoms.
BM: Yes, they have actually—they bottomed in October. If you go back to what I was saying back then, I said we were at a bottom. They had definitely bottomed. The HUI has doubled since then and no one noticed.
The general stock market is going to be good until maybe January or February. But it’s going to get far worse after that. We have some real problems that will be surfacing between now and then. But there’s an enormous amount of money sitting on the sidelines waiting to go somewhere safe. When people realize that resource stocks are the only safe haven, they’re going to go up more than anybody can imagine.
So, there are two things I would do with new money. First of all, gold and silver serve as an insurance policy against chaos. If you cannot put your hands on some physical gold, physical silver, it’s like living without an insurance policy. When you need food, if you don’t have gold or silver, you’re going to be a bit shocked. Second of all as far as an investment program, beyond the insurance policy, you want to be in real assets. That’s gold or silver or energy producers or near-term producers, or companies with a good business model.
TGR: Any names you could share with us?
BM: Look at the recent Haywood Securities report, "Junior Mining: Report on Cash Sustainability." Now, 96 companies currently traded at discount to their last reported net working capital. This is the greatest opportunity to invest that I have ever read or heard about; it’s absolutely unimaginable. It’s not going to last very much longer, but stocks could move up. The really bad gold stocks are going to move up 500%.
TGR: You mentioned that you looked at gold and silver as an insurance policy and recommend investing in real assets. Do you have a recommendation of a percentage of the portfolio that people should be holding in these? How much cash should they keep for future opportunities?
BM: Ah, very little. Cash is going to be the most dangerous thing you can invest in. Cash, T-bills, T-bonds are going away; they’re going to be worth zero. You’re going to walk into a bank one day and your ATM machine is not going to work, and your cash is going to be no good. I would think two to three months' living expenses, if you can do that in cash or silver, would be a very high comfort level. That percentage will change depending on what people have. Everybody—I really want to emphasize that—everybody needs to have some physical gold or silver.
TGR: Bob, you don’t see that we’re going to get this hyperinflation kicking in or it’s going to be so short, it won’t matter?
BM: Hyperinflation is starting to kick in now. I think you’re going to see it turn shortly. The government has been flooding the system with money and in short order it’s going to try to find a safe haven. Here’s what to look for. If you take a look at a chart right now, the 10-year, 30-year bonds have gone curve linear. They’re going straight up to the moon. Any time a market does that, it’s about to crash. When the bond market crashes, it’s going to be 15 on the Richter scale. It’s going to be enormous. It’s far more dangerous than the stock market crashing. When the bond market crashes, the hyperinflation starts.
TGR: And what’s your timeline on that? You were saying before, January or February?
BM: The bond market is literally going to start crashing any day now. I mean it’s very, very soon. I think that the stock market is good through January or February. I think the resource market will start up in an explosive way literally in a few weeks or so. It’s actually going up now. If you go back the last month or six weeks, it’s gone up a lot more than anybody would believe. Everybody thinks, “Well, my gold stocks are all down, I’m going to lose money hand over fist.” But they’re actually 50% better off now than they were in October.
TGR: Bob, earlier you mentioned investing in real assets. You said gold and silver and energy producers. That’s a pretty broad-based statement; could you give us an idea of what you mean when you say energy producers?
BM: Coal producers, oil producers, natural gas producers—energy is absurdly cheap now; it was absurdly expensive at $147. You can buy energy producers really cheaply, and I have written up a number of them on 321energy.com. I like anything real, anything that’s based on Economics 101. We’re going to take something of value and we’re going to increase its value, and we’re going to sell it to the public for a profit. That’s just a really good business model.
Here’s what I want to emphasize, and what’s important to get across—I don’t want to sound like I’m totally negative because I’m not totally negative. The worse it gets in the United States, the more impetus there will be to say, “Hey, what caused this in the first place? And what can we do to prevent it in the future?” And the answer to that is quite simple. We got off the gold standard in 1933 and in 1971, and that let government grow totally out of control. We need to rein government in; we need to go back to government of the people, by the people, and for the people. The way to do that is to go back to a gold and silver based currency. Once we do that we can start investing with some kind of common sense.
TGR: So the good news is that through all this chaos there will be some change in the way the government operates?
BM: Government will be much smaller; I think that any rational American can look at big government and say, “Hey, wait a minute. This doesn’t work.” And the funny thing is it’s not because I’m a liberal or I’m a conservative. I’m not sure there is any such thing as a perfect liberal or a perfect conservative, even though we act like they’re two totally different things. Big government doesn’t work; we need to go back to Economics 101 and only spend the money that you earn.
TGR: OK, other than getting mentally ready, getting into gold and silver and real assets, do you have any other thoughts on where to put our cash if we have any cash right now? What about other commodities, such as food commodities?
BM: Absolutely. I believe in peak oil, and peak oil is an analog of peak food. So, it requires X number of calories of energy to produce X number of calories of food, so when you run out of cheap energy, you run out of cheap food. Americans are going to be very angry. We have a very dangerous system in the United States where we essentially have a day and a half’s worth of food in our food stores. It’s a just in time now system. And it’s very vulnerable to civil disorders.
TGR: Is there an investment play within the food component?
BM: I think anything in food. Strangely enough, what I like is fertilizers. Fertilizers are a real cheap way of betting on food. Some of the big food companies, like R Gill, are just as corrupt as everybody in Washington, everybody in Wall Street, so I can’t recommend them. I don’t know that big food stocks are good, but maybe equipment manufacturers would be a good bet.
TGR: Bob, do you think there’s any gold in Fort Knox?
BM: That’s a really good question. I hope there is. But I don’t know. The really interesting thing is nobody in the government has ever even pretended that they might do something with it. If it was me, I’d go count the bars; I’d figure out who owns them and I’d come up with some kind of currency tied to gold, you know—1 gram notes, and 5 gram notes and 10 gram notes. I think mathematically there probably isn’t, but I don’t know. Nobody knows.
TGR: And there’s no accountability?
BM: Ah, are you kidding? George Bush is president of the United States.
TGR: Yes, but soon he won’t be. You know, I’ll write a letter to Obama and ask him. Well, Bob, as usual, it’s always great to do these interviews. We appreciate it.
Bob Moriarty and his wife, Barb, launched 321gold.com as a private website seven years ago, when they were convinced gold and silver were at a bottom and wanted to help others understand what they needed to know about investing in resource stocks. Since then, they’ve introduced a second resource site, 321energy.com. Bob travels to dozens of mining projects a year. He was one of the first analysts to write about NovaGold, Northern Dynasty, Silver Standard, Running Fox and YGC Resources, among others. Prior to his Internet career, Bob was a Marine F-4B pilot at the age of 20 and a veteran of over 820 missions in Viet Nam. Becoming a Captain in the Marines at 22, he was one of the most highly decorated pilots in the war.
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African Queen Mines Abandons Braganza Gold Project In Mozambique to Focus On
Vancouver, British Columbia CANADA, Dec 27, 2008 (Filing Services Canada via COMTEX) ---- African Queen Mines Ltd. (AQ - TSX Venture, QM0 - FWB), (the "Company") announces that it has provided formal notice of abandonment to Bobcat Mining Limitada ("Bobcat") with respect to the Braganza Gold Project in Mozambique (the "Project"). The Company has the right to earn up to a 75% interest in the Project pursuant to the Letter Agreement dated August 17, 2007, between Pan African Mining Corp., predecessor to the Company, and Bobcat, as amended on October 4, 2007 and May 30, 2008 (the "Agreement"). By abandoning the Project at this time, the Company is relinquishing all rights with respect to the underlying property licenses and otherwise relating to the Project.
The Agreement covered exploration and development of the historic Braganza gold mine situated at the eastern end of the Mutare - Penhalonga Greenstone Belt in Manica Province in central Mozambique. The Project comprises a single exploration license (EPL 857L) and a portion of EPL 679L to the immediate south, encompassing in aggregate approximately 6 km2. Included in the regional project area are also the Diaz Pereirra, Damp, Richmond and Marianas historic minesites, marked by pits, trenches and small adits.
During the past two years, the Company carried out exploration activities on the Project under the guidance of Senior Consulting Geologist Pete Siegfried, P. Geol., a qualified person. Work included detailed mapping and sampling, ground magnetic and IP surveys of the area, trenching, channel sampling of old adits and limited reconnaissance drilling.
The prospecting operations were carried out on behalf of the Company by Remote Exploration Services of Cape Town, South Africa. The data compiled reflects the results of a highly professional and intensive geological study of the area with aggregate costs approximating $600,000.
While surface sampling of the area reflected the presence of gold with grades typically ranging from 0.1 g/t Au to 1.0 g/t Au, and individual grab samples as high as >5 g/t Au, trench sampling and limited reconnaissance drilling did not provide encouragement for the existence of a commercially viable primary deposit in the area. To the contrary, results just received indicate a disappointing tenor of gold below surface, with the most intensely mineralized and sheared part of the structure yielding 0.22 and 0.25 g/t Au over 2 m contiguously. Other values were in the range of 0.1 g/t Au.
Due to the results of the exploration program to date, management of the Company has concluded that no further work on the Project is recommended, although some potential may exist on other parts of the regional structure, albeit with difficult access in steep and mountainous terrain. The Company has therefore decided to abandon the Project and relinquish its rights.
According to Irwin Olian, CEO of the Company, ?Results from Braganza to date simply do not justify further expenditure of time, energy and funds on the part of the Company. It appears that the Portuguese did a very efficient job of mining all of the productive, higher-grade zones at Braganza decades ago; in this rather difficult economic environment it is important that we prioritize our projects with a view toward committing our resources to those projects most likely to add value long-term for our shareholders. We remain very excited about our diamond projects in Botswana and Namibia, which will be the principal focus of our activities in the coming months. At the same time, we will be evaluating results from our other three gold projects in Mozambique with a very sharp pencil to ensure that our efforts there are being optimized.
About African-Queen
The Company is an exploratory resource company with diversified mineral properties in Southern Africa. It is exploring its properties in Botswana and Namibia for diamonds, and it is exploring its properties in Mozambique for gold and other metals. The Company licences in Botswana and Namibia comprise approximately 11,800 sq km of diamond prospects. In Mozambique it has approximately 2,000 sq km of gold and other metals licences under agreements with three other companies. Its operations in Botswana are carried out through its operating subsidiary, PAM Botswana (Pty) Ltd.; its operations in Namibia are carried out through its operating subsidiary PAM Minerals Namibia (Pty) Ltd.; and its operations in Mozambique are carried out through its subsidiary PAM Mocambique Limitada.
The Company has its executive offices in Vancouver, Canada.
On Behalf of The Board of Directors of
African Queen Mines, Ltd.
"Irwin Olian"
Irwin Olian
Chairman & CEO
For more information, contact:
Irwin Olian, President and CEO
E-mail: tigertail@africanqueenmines.com
Phone: (604) 899-0100
Fax: (604) 899-0200
Carrie Howes, Corporate Communications
Email: carrie@totumos.com
Phone: Dusseldorf - +49 (0) 1722 1234 47
Phone: London - +44 (0) 7780 602 788
The TSX Venture Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of the content of the information contained herein. The statements made in this press release may contain certain forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Actual events or results may differ from the Company's expectations.
Source: African Queen Mines Ltd.
Maximum News Dissemination by Filing Services Canada Inc. *
www.usetdas.com
http://www.useTDAS.com Copyright (c) 2006 Filing
Services Canada Inc.
The Agreement covered exploration and development of the historic Braganza gold mine situated at the eastern end of the Mutare - Penhalonga Greenstone Belt in Manica Province in central Mozambique. The Project comprises a single exploration license (EPL 857L) and a portion of EPL 679L to the immediate south, encompassing in aggregate approximately 6 km2. Included in the regional project area are also the Diaz Pereirra, Damp, Richmond and Marianas historic minesites, marked by pits, trenches and small adits.
During the past two years, the Company carried out exploration activities on the Project under the guidance of Senior Consulting Geologist Pete Siegfried, P. Geol., a qualified person. Work included detailed mapping and sampling, ground magnetic and IP surveys of the area, trenching, channel sampling of old adits and limited reconnaissance drilling.
The prospecting operations were carried out on behalf of the Company by Remote Exploration Services of Cape Town, South Africa. The data compiled reflects the results of a highly professional and intensive geological study of the area with aggregate costs approximating $600,000.
While surface sampling of the area reflected the presence of gold with grades typically ranging from 0.1 g/t Au to 1.0 g/t Au, and individual grab samples as high as >5 g/t Au, trench sampling and limited reconnaissance drilling did not provide encouragement for the existence of a commercially viable primary deposit in the area. To the contrary, results just received indicate a disappointing tenor of gold below surface, with the most intensely mineralized and sheared part of the structure yielding 0.22 and 0.25 g/t Au over 2 m contiguously. Other values were in the range of 0.1 g/t Au.
Due to the results of the exploration program to date, management of the Company has concluded that no further work on the Project is recommended, although some potential may exist on other parts of the regional structure, albeit with difficult access in steep and mountainous terrain. The Company has therefore decided to abandon the Project and relinquish its rights.
According to Irwin Olian, CEO of the Company, ?Results from Braganza to date simply do not justify further expenditure of time, energy and funds on the part of the Company. It appears that the Portuguese did a very efficient job of mining all of the productive, higher-grade zones at Braganza decades ago; in this rather difficult economic environment it is important that we prioritize our projects with a view toward committing our resources to those projects most likely to add value long-term for our shareholders. We remain very excited about our diamond projects in Botswana and Namibia, which will be the principal focus of our activities in the coming months. At the same time, we will be evaluating results from our other three gold projects in Mozambique with a very sharp pencil to ensure that our efforts there are being optimized.
About African-Queen
The Company is an exploratory resource company with diversified mineral properties in Southern Africa. It is exploring its properties in Botswana and Namibia for diamonds, and it is exploring its properties in Mozambique for gold and other metals. The Company licences in Botswana and Namibia comprise approximately 11,800 sq km of diamond prospects. In Mozambique it has approximately 2,000 sq km of gold and other metals licences under agreements with three other companies. Its operations in Botswana are carried out through its operating subsidiary, PAM Botswana (Pty) Ltd.; its operations in Namibia are carried out through its operating subsidiary PAM Minerals Namibia (Pty) Ltd.; and its operations in Mozambique are carried out through its subsidiary PAM Mocambique Limitada.
The Company has its executive offices in Vancouver, Canada.
On Behalf of The Board of Directors of
African Queen Mines, Ltd.
"Irwin Olian"
Irwin Olian
Chairman & CEO
For more information, contact:
Irwin Olian, President and CEO
E-mail: tigertail@africanqueenmines.com
Phone: (604) 899-0100
Fax: (604) 899-0200
Carrie Howes, Corporate Communications
Email: carrie@totumos.com
Phone: Dusseldorf - +49 (0) 1722 1234 47
Phone: London - +44 (0) 7780 602 788
The TSX Venture Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of the content of the information contained herein. The statements made in this press release may contain certain forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Actual events or results may differ from the Company's expectations.
Source: African Queen Mines Ltd.
Maximum News Dissemination by Filing Services Canada Inc. *
www.usetdas.com
http://www.useTDAS.com Copyright (c) 2006 Filing
Services Canada Inc.
Saturday, December 27, 2008
New "Guinea" Leader Captain Moussa Dadis Camara Shutters all Mining Contracts, Stops Gold Production
The new military leader of Guinea, Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, almost immediately after taking control of the country in a coup, announced he was blocking all existing mining contracts and would start to renegotiate them.
Just hours after the death of President Lansana Conte late Monday, the coup began.
According to Camara, production in gold mines has already been stopped, and there'll be "no more extraction until further notice."
Along with gold, there are significant deposits of iron, nickel and diamonds in the country. Guinea also is the world's largest exporter of bauxite. In 2007 uranium deposits were found in the country as well.
Friday, December 26, 2008
Government-created Ethanol Industry now Begging for their Bailout!
Already gouging taxpayers for $25 billion in handout subsidies, the ethanol industry lobbying arm - the Renewable Energy Association - is now begging the government for another billion in short-term credit, along with up to $50 billion in loan guarantees to expand the diastrous industry.
In an even more evil move, the association is asking for the government to lower the existing 10 percent limit on how much ethanol can be added to fuel for regular cars and trucks. That has the potential to wreak havoc on the engines of the car, as those mixtures are unproven.
So what we have is a false market created by the government because it's great to get votes and give the illusion that jobs are being created. So now the non-market business needs to be bailed out in order to keep our politicians from looking like the uniformed, dangerous people they're increasingly becoming.
In an even more evil move, the association is asking for the government to lower the existing 10 percent limit on how much ethanol can be added to fuel for regular cars and trucks. That has the potential to wreak havoc on the engines of the car, as those mixtures are unproven.
So what we have is a false market created by the government because it's great to get votes and give the illusion that jobs are being created. So now the non-market business needs to be bailed out in order to keep our politicians from looking like the uniformed, dangerous people they're increasingly becoming.
DJ US Export Sales: Commodity Highlights - Dec 26
Kansas City, Dec 26, 2008 (Dow Jones Commodities News via Comtex) -- USDA Thursday released the following export highlights in its Export Sales report for week ended Dec 18.
Wheat: Net sales of 253,600 metric tons were down 3 percent from the previous week and 12 percent from the prior 4-week average. Increases reported for Mexico (58,600 MT), Egypt (57,800 MT), Taiwan (56,000 MT), Japan (53,700 MT), Guatemala (30,900 MT, including 30,200 MT switched from unknown destinations), Yemen (28,000 MT), and South Korea (23,800 MT), were partially offset by decreases for unknown destinations (50,800 MT) and Spain (40,000 MT). Exports of 290,900 MT--a marketing-year low--were down 30 percent from the previous week and 34 percent from the prior 4-week average. The primary destinations were Mexico (96,900 MT), Egypt (57,800 MT), Japan (46,500 MT), Guatemala (30,900 MT), Morocco (19,600 MT), and Colombia (15,400 MT).
Corn: Net sales of 551,400 MT were down 10 percent from the previous week and 6 percent from the prior 4-week average. Increases reported for Japan (263,900 MT), Taiwan (90,500 MT, including 79,000 MT switched from unknown destinations), Mexico (81,000 MT), Venezuela (80,000 MT), Guatemala (22,400 MT), and Syria (18,000 MT), were partially offset by decreases for South Korea (24,600 MT), Egypt (16,300 MT), unknown destinations (12,000 MT), and Colombia (5,800 MT). Exports of 831,300 MT were up 17 percent from the previous week and 7 percent from the prior 4-week average. The primary destinations were Japan (289,200 MT), Mexico (119,000 MT), Taiwan (117,200 MT), South Korea (114,300 MT), Colombia (69,100 MT), Canada (28,900 MT), and Egypt (24,100 MT).
Barley: There were no sales reported during the week. Exports of 5,600 MT were for Japan (4,900 MT) and Mexico (700 MT).
Sorghum: Net sales of 88,900 MT were for Mexico. Exports of 12,800 MT were for Mexico (12,700 MT) and Canada (100 MT).
Rice: Net sales of 23,300 MT were down 77 percent from the previous week and 71 percent from the prior 4-week average. Increases were reported for Venezuela (20,000 MT), Mexico (1,400 MT), Canada (1,200 MT), Jordan (600 MT), and the Bahamas (200 MT). Decreases were for Japan (600 MT). Exports of 61,800 MT were down 34 percent from the previous week and 5 percent from the prior 4-week average. The primary destinations were Costa Rica (33,000 MT), Mexico (16,500 MT), Canada (2,600 MT), Honduras (2,500 MT), South Korea (2,000 MT), Jordan (1,900 MT), and New Guinea (1,400 MT).
Soybeans: Net sales of 584,800 MT were down 35 percent from the previous week and 18 percent from the prior 4-week average. Increases reported for China (374,400 MT, including 167,000 MT switched from unknown destinations), the Netherlands (129,800 MT, including 120,000 MT switched from unknown destinations), Indonesia (114,500 MT), Egypt (60,000 MT), and Taiwan (59,600 MT, including 56,000 MT switched from China), were partially offset by decreases for unknown destinations (232,000 MT) and Morocco (23,800 MT). Net sales of 6,100 MT for 2009/10 delivery were for Japan. Exports of 951,500 MT were down 18 percent from the previous week and 13 percent from the prior 4-week average. The primary destinations were China (609,200 MT), the Netherlands (129,800 MT), Japan (57,000 MT), Mexico (39,900 MT), Morocco (31,200 MT), Israel (23,300 MT), and Taiwan (23,000 MT).
Soybean Cake and Meal: Net sales of 145,700 MT were up two and three-tenths times from the previous week and nearly two and two-fifths times from the prior 4-week average. Increases were reported for Mexico (33,300 MT), Venezuela (23,000 MT), Turkey (16,700 MT, including 15,000 MT switched from unknown destinations), Canada (16,200 MT), the Dominican Republic (15,700 MT), and Guatemala (11,900 MT). Exports of 229,700 MT were up 77 percent from the previous week and 44 percent from the prior 4-week average. The primary destinations were Venezuela (56,200 MT), Mexico (43,600 MT), Ecuador (27,400 MT), Canada (23,300 MT), Turkey (16,700 MT), and the Dominican Republic (16,300 MT).
Soybean Oil: Net sales of 5,400 MT were mainly for Canada (2,200 MT), Mexico (2,000 MT), Nicaragua (600 MT), the Dominican Republic (300 MT), and Guatemala (200 MT). Decreases were for Saudi Arabia (100 MT). Exports of 7,400 MT were up 23 percent from the previous week, but down 43 percent from the prior 4-week average. The destinations were primarily Mexico (2,600 MT), Costa Rica (1,500 MT), El Salvador (800 MT), Canada (700 MT), Barbados (700 MT), and Nicaragua (600 MT).
Cotton: Net Upland sales of 118,900 running bales were up 52 percent from the previous week and 7 percent from the prior 4-week average. Increases reported for Turkey (26,700 RB), Morocco (17,100 RB), Indonesia (16,400 RB), China (13,700 RB), Bangladesh (10,200 RB), and Malaysia (9,700 RB), were partially offset by decreases for Pakistan (7,700 RB), El Salvador (1,900 RB), and unknown destinations (1,800 RB). Net sales of 1,000 RB for delivery in 2009/10 were for South Korea. Exports of 210,700 RB were up 18 percent from the previous week, but down 1 percent from the prior 4-week average. The primary destinations were China (54,600 RB), Turkey (47,700 RB), Vietnam (29,500 RB), Mexico (12,600 RB), and Thailand (10,400 RB). Net American Pima Sales of 100 RB resulted as increases for Indonesia (600 RB), Thailand (400 RB), and Japan (400 RB), were partially offset by decreases for China (1,300 RB). Exports of 400 RB were for India.
Hides and Skins: Net sales of 689,400 pieces were up 7 percent from the previous week and 24 percent from the prior 4-week average. Whole cattle hide sales of 719,500 pieces were primarily for China (352,900 pieces), South Korea (142,700 pieces), Taiwan (118,700 pieces), Mexico (30,300 pieces), and Japan (25,500 pieces). Exports of 455,700 pieces were up 12 percent from the previous week and 14 percent from the prior 4-week average. Whole cattle hide exports of 443,400 pieces were primarily to China (224,300 pieces), South Korea (77,900 pieces), Thailand (39,500 pieces), Taiwan (34,800 pieces), and Mexico (27,100 pieces).
Net sales of 81,100 wet blues were down 9 percent from the previous week and 46 percent from the prior 4-week average. Increases were mainly for Thailand (52,300 unsplit), Taiwan (28,400 unsplit), China (4,800 unsplit), Mexico (2,400 grain splits), and Hong Kong (1,800 unsplit). Exports of 78,800 hides were up 3 percent from the previous week and 17 percent from the prior 4-week average. The primary destinations were China (35,600 unsplit), Hong Kong (16,600 unsplit), Italy (14,700 unsplit), and Mexico (4,900 grain splits). Net sales of splits totaling 419,200 pounds were primarily for China (405,000 pounds). Exports of 128,200 pounds were down 63 percent from the previous week and 65 percent from the prior 4-week average. The destination was China.
Beef: Net sales reductions of 6,200 MT resulted as increases for Mexico (1,900 MT), Canada (800 MT), and the Philippines (100 MT), were more than offset by decreases for South Korea (7,100 MT), Vietnam (900 MT), Japan (600 MT), and Russia (400 MT). Net Sales of 13,000 MT for delivery in 2009 were primarily for South Korea (6,400 MT, switched from marketing year 2008), Vietnam (2,400 MT, including 900 MT switched from marketing year 2008), Mexico (2,400 MT), and Japan (1,100 MT, including 400 MT switched from marketing year 2008). Exports of 8,200 MT were primarily to Mexico (3,900 MT), Canada (1,500 MT), Japan (800 MT), South Korea (600 MT), and Taiwan (400 MT).
December 26, 2008
FOREIGN AGRICULTURAL SERVICE/USDA
SUMMARY OF EXPORT TRANSACTIONS
Reported Under the Daily Reporting System
For Period Ending December 18, 2008
Commodity Destination Quantity (MT) Marketing
SOYBEANS 1/ CHINA 116,000 2008/09
1/ Export sales.
-By Valena Henderson; Dow Jones Newswires; 913-322-5171;
csstat@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
12-26-08 0832ET
Copyright (c) 2008 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Wheat: Net sales of 253,600 metric tons were down 3 percent from the previous week and 12 percent from the prior 4-week average. Increases reported for Mexico (58,600 MT), Egypt (57,800 MT), Taiwan (56,000 MT), Japan (53,700 MT), Guatemala (30,900 MT, including 30,200 MT switched from unknown destinations), Yemen (28,000 MT), and South Korea (23,800 MT), were partially offset by decreases for unknown destinations (50,800 MT) and Spain (40,000 MT). Exports of 290,900 MT--a marketing-year low--were down 30 percent from the previous week and 34 percent from the prior 4-week average. The primary destinations were Mexico (96,900 MT), Egypt (57,800 MT), Japan (46,500 MT), Guatemala (30,900 MT), Morocco (19,600 MT), and Colombia (15,400 MT).
Corn: Net sales of 551,400 MT were down 10 percent from the previous week and 6 percent from the prior 4-week average. Increases reported for Japan (263,900 MT), Taiwan (90,500 MT, including 79,000 MT switched from unknown destinations), Mexico (81,000 MT), Venezuela (80,000 MT), Guatemala (22,400 MT), and Syria (18,000 MT), were partially offset by decreases for South Korea (24,600 MT), Egypt (16,300 MT), unknown destinations (12,000 MT), and Colombia (5,800 MT). Exports of 831,300 MT were up 17 percent from the previous week and 7 percent from the prior 4-week average. The primary destinations were Japan (289,200 MT), Mexico (119,000 MT), Taiwan (117,200 MT), South Korea (114,300 MT), Colombia (69,100 MT), Canada (28,900 MT), and Egypt (24,100 MT).
Barley: There were no sales reported during the week. Exports of 5,600 MT were for Japan (4,900 MT) and Mexico (700 MT).
Sorghum: Net sales of 88,900 MT were for Mexico. Exports of 12,800 MT were for Mexico (12,700 MT) and Canada (100 MT).
Rice: Net sales of 23,300 MT were down 77 percent from the previous week and 71 percent from the prior 4-week average. Increases were reported for Venezuela (20,000 MT), Mexico (1,400 MT), Canada (1,200 MT), Jordan (600 MT), and the Bahamas (200 MT). Decreases were for Japan (600 MT). Exports of 61,800 MT were down 34 percent from the previous week and 5 percent from the prior 4-week average. The primary destinations were Costa Rica (33,000 MT), Mexico (16,500 MT), Canada (2,600 MT), Honduras (2,500 MT), South Korea (2,000 MT), Jordan (1,900 MT), and New Guinea (1,400 MT).
Soybeans: Net sales of 584,800 MT were down 35 percent from the previous week and 18 percent from the prior 4-week average. Increases reported for China (374,400 MT, including 167,000 MT switched from unknown destinations), the Netherlands (129,800 MT, including 120,000 MT switched from unknown destinations), Indonesia (114,500 MT), Egypt (60,000 MT), and Taiwan (59,600 MT, including 56,000 MT switched from China), were partially offset by decreases for unknown destinations (232,000 MT) and Morocco (23,800 MT). Net sales of 6,100 MT for 2009/10 delivery were for Japan. Exports of 951,500 MT were down 18 percent from the previous week and 13 percent from the prior 4-week average. The primary destinations were China (609,200 MT), the Netherlands (129,800 MT), Japan (57,000 MT), Mexico (39,900 MT), Morocco (31,200 MT), Israel (23,300 MT), and Taiwan (23,000 MT).
Soybean Cake and Meal: Net sales of 145,700 MT were up two and three-tenths times from the previous week and nearly two and two-fifths times from the prior 4-week average. Increases were reported for Mexico (33,300 MT), Venezuela (23,000 MT), Turkey (16,700 MT, including 15,000 MT switched from unknown destinations), Canada (16,200 MT), the Dominican Republic (15,700 MT), and Guatemala (11,900 MT). Exports of 229,700 MT were up 77 percent from the previous week and 44 percent from the prior 4-week average. The primary destinations were Venezuela (56,200 MT), Mexico (43,600 MT), Ecuador (27,400 MT), Canada (23,300 MT), Turkey (16,700 MT), and the Dominican Republic (16,300 MT).
Soybean Oil: Net sales of 5,400 MT were mainly for Canada (2,200 MT), Mexico (2,000 MT), Nicaragua (600 MT), the Dominican Republic (300 MT), and Guatemala (200 MT). Decreases were for Saudi Arabia (100 MT). Exports of 7,400 MT were up 23 percent from the previous week, but down 43 percent from the prior 4-week average. The destinations were primarily Mexico (2,600 MT), Costa Rica (1,500 MT), El Salvador (800 MT), Canada (700 MT), Barbados (700 MT), and Nicaragua (600 MT).
Cotton: Net Upland sales of 118,900 running bales were up 52 percent from the previous week and 7 percent from the prior 4-week average. Increases reported for Turkey (26,700 RB), Morocco (17,100 RB), Indonesia (16,400 RB), China (13,700 RB), Bangladesh (10,200 RB), and Malaysia (9,700 RB), were partially offset by decreases for Pakistan (7,700 RB), El Salvador (1,900 RB), and unknown destinations (1,800 RB). Net sales of 1,000 RB for delivery in 2009/10 were for South Korea. Exports of 210,700 RB were up 18 percent from the previous week, but down 1 percent from the prior 4-week average. The primary destinations were China (54,600 RB), Turkey (47,700 RB), Vietnam (29,500 RB), Mexico (12,600 RB), and Thailand (10,400 RB). Net American Pima Sales of 100 RB resulted as increases for Indonesia (600 RB), Thailand (400 RB), and Japan (400 RB), were partially offset by decreases for China (1,300 RB). Exports of 400 RB were for India.
Hides and Skins: Net sales of 689,400 pieces were up 7 percent from the previous week and 24 percent from the prior 4-week average. Whole cattle hide sales of 719,500 pieces were primarily for China (352,900 pieces), South Korea (142,700 pieces), Taiwan (118,700 pieces), Mexico (30,300 pieces), and Japan (25,500 pieces). Exports of 455,700 pieces were up 12 percent from the previous week and 14 percent from the prior 4-week average. Whole cattle hide exports of 443,400 pieces were primarily to China (224,300 pieces), South Korea (77,900 pieces), Thailand (39,500 pieces), Taiwan (34,800 pieces), and Mexico (27,100 pieces).
Net sales of 81,100 wet blues were down 9 percent from the previous week and 46 percent from the prior 4-week average. Increases were mainly for Thailand (52,300 unsplit), Taiwan (28,400 unsplit), China (4,800 unsplit), Mexico (2,400 grain splits), and Hong Kong (1,800 unsplit). Exports of 78,800 hides were up 3 percent from the previous week and 17 percent from the prior 4-week average. The primary destinations were China (35,600 unsplit), Hong Kong (16,600 unsplit), Italy (14,700 unsplit), and Mexico (4,900 grain splits). Net sales of splits totaling 419,200 pounds were primarily for China (405,000 pounds). Exports of 128,200 pounds were down 63 percent from the previous week and 65 percent from the prior 4-week average. The destination was China.
Beef: Net sales reductions of 6,200 MT resulted as increases for Mexico (1,900 MT), Canada (800 MT), and the Philippines (100 MT), were more than offset by decreases for South Korea (7,100 MT), Vietnam (900 MT), Japan (600 MT), and Russia (400 MT). Net Sales of 13,000 MT for delivery in 2009 were primarily for South Korea (6,400 MT, switched from marketing year 2008), Vietnam (2,400 MT, including 900 MT switched from marketing year 2008), Mexico (2,400 MT), and Japan (1,100 MT, including 400 MT switched from marketing year 2008). Exports of 8,200 MT were primarily to Mexico (3,900 MT), Canada (1,500 MT), Japan (800 MT), South Korea (600 MT), and Taiwan (400 MT).
December 26, 2008
FOREIGN AGRICULTURAL SERVICE/USDA
SUMMARY OF EXPORT TRANSACTIONS
Reported Under the Daily Reporting System
For Period Ending December 18, 2008
Commodity Destination Quantity (MT) Marketing
SOYBEANS 1/ CHINA 116,000 2008/09
1/ Export sales.
-By Valena Henderson; Dow Jones Newswires; 913-322-5171;
csstat@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
12-26-08 0832ET
Copyright (c) 2008 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Warren Buffett Investing Heavily in ConocoPhillips
Regulatory filings show that Warren Buffett has been buying up shares of ConocoPhillips (COP) since the end of March. At that time Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-B) owned 17.5 million shares, while now they've acquired over 83 million shares.
That move by Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway make it the largest shareholder in Conoco at this time.
Other major investment managers have been making large share acquisitions of Conoco as well, including Chris Davis and Ken Feinberg's Davis New York Venture (NYVTX) fund. They believe investment in commodities will be a big part of increasing returns in the years ahead, even though they are temporarily out of favor.
"As developing nations add to worldwide incremental demand for commodities like oil and natural resources, we believe the long-term average price ranges for such resources could climb, notwithstanding the recent pullback in certain commodity prices. Consistent with our energy and natural resource-related investments to date, we will remain on the lookout for disciplined capital allocators who can generate attractive profits for shareholders given a stable price environment and windfall profits under more bullish scenarios."
For a good look at what differentiates ConocoPhillips from its competitors, Morningstar analyst Allen Good gives an indepth analysis of the company.
That move by Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway make it the largest shareholder in Conoco at this time.
Other major investment managers have been making large share acquisitions of Conoco as well, including Chris Davis and Ken Feinberg's Davis New York Venture (NYVTX) fund. They believe investment in commodities will be a big part of increasing returns in the years ahead, even though they are temporarily out of favor.
"As developing nations add to worldwide incremental demand for commodities like oil and natural resources, we believe the long-term average price ranges for such resources could climb, notwithstanding the recent pullback in certain commodity prices. Consistent with our energy and natural resource-related investments to date, we will remain on the lookout for disciplined capital allocators who can generate attractive profits for shareholders given a stable price environment and windfall profits under more bullish scenarios."
For a good look at what differentiates ConocoPhillips from its competitors, Morningstar analyst Allen Good gives an indepth analysis of the company.
Monday, December 22, 2008
DJ CBOT Corn Review: Up Slightly Amid Pre-Holiday Positioning
CHICAGO, Dec 22, 2008 (Dow Jones Commodities News via Comtex) --
By Ian Berry Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
Chicago Board of Trade corn futures inched slightly higher Monday in light, pre-holiday trade, with weak demand limiting any bullish sentiment, analysts said.
March corn ended up 1 cent to $3.81 3/4, May corn was up 1 cent to $34.92 and July corn settled up 1 1/2 cents to $4.02 1/2 per bushel.
Prices had been a couple cents lower for most of the day before mounting a mild rally late. The market tends to gain in the days leading up to Christmas and the day after, and some traders "will try to pick up on some of these statistical tendencies to try and pick up a few pennies here and there," said Arlan Suderman, analyst for Farm Futures.
Some analysts said China's reported purchase of 20 million metric tons of corn was likely supportive, although not a clear factor in Monday's trade. Analysts questioned its long-term impact.
"It seems like the higher Chinese market is what gave it its support on the open," said Chad Henderson, analyst for Prime Ag Consultants. "But when the dust settles on it all, it just looks like they're trying to support their domestic prices. It does nothing to alleviate the glut of grain on the world market."
After climbing $1 from its recent low, lingering weak demand has kept corn from climbing any higher, analysts added. Demand in exports, ethanol and feed is all weak, they said.
You have the corn farmers saying 'man, I don't want to give my corn away at $3.50 cash,' and you've got the hog farmers saying 'look, I'm losing money on $3.50 corn,'" Henderson said.
Volume is expected to be light all week because of the Christmas holiday.
The trade continues to eye weather in South America, which some analysts say is supportive because of dry crops. Others say the region appears to be getting enough rain.
CBOT oats futures ended flat. March oats closed at $2.19 per bushel and May oats closed at $2.28.
Ethanol futures were lower. January ethanol ended down $0.011 to $1.559 per gallon and March ethanol ended down $0.010 to $1.570.
-By Ian Berry, Dow Jones Newswires; 312-341-5778; ian.berry@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
12-22-08 1545ET
Copyright (c) 2008 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
By Ian Berry Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
Chicago Board of Trade corn futures inched slightly higher Monday in light, pre-holiday trade, with weak demand limiting any bullish sentiment, analysts said.
March corn ended up 1 cent to $3.81 3/4, May corn was up 1 cent to $34.92 and July corn settled up 1 1/2 cents to $4.02 1/2 per bushel.
Prices had been a couple cents lower for most of the day before mounting a mild rally late. The market tends to gain in the days leading up to Christmas and the day after, and some traders "will try to pick up on some of these statistical tendencies to try and pick up a few pennies here and there," said Arlan Suderman, analyst for Farm Futures.
Some analysts said China's reported purchase of 20 million metric tons of corn was likely supportive, although not a clear factor in Monday's trade. Analysts questioned its long-term impact.
"It seems like the higher Chinese market is what gave it its support on the open," said Chad Henderson, analyst for Prime Ag Consultants. "But when the dust settles on it all, it just looks like they're trying to support their domestic prices. It does nothing to alleviate the glut of grain on the world market."
After climbing $1 from its recent low, lingering weak demand has kept corn from climbing any higher, analysts added. Demand in exports, ethanol and feed is all weak, they said.
You have the corn farmers saying 'man, I don't want to give my corn away at $3.50 cash,' and you've got the hog farmers saying 'look, I'm losing money on $3.50 corn,'" Henderson said.
Volume is expected to be light all week because of the Christmas holiday.
The trade continues to eye weather in South America, which some analysts say is supportive because of dry crops. Others say the region appears to be getting enough rain.
CBOT oats futures ended flat. March oats closed at $2.19 per bushel and May oats closed at $2.28.
Ethanol futures were lower. January ethanol ended down $0.011 to $1.559 per gallon and March ethanol ended down $0.010 to $1.570.
-By Ian Berry, Dow Jones Newswires; 312-341-5778; ian.berry@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
12-22-08 1545ET
Copyright (c) 2008 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Governor Palin Disappointed by Shell Decision to Cancel Drilling Activities in the OCS
December 18, 2008, Anchorage, Alaska – Governor Sarah Palin today expressed her disappointment in Shell Oil Company’s decision to cancel drilling activities in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) of Alaska’s Beaufort Sea for 2009.
The decision comes on the heels of a ruling by a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on November 20. “Alaska’s economic past and future are tied directly to the development of our abundant natural resources," the governor said. “The loss of this exploration activity will cost our state’s families hundreds of jobs next year.”
The governor also announced today that the state of Alaska intends to support Shell’s petition to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for a rehearing in front of the full court.
The decision comes on the heels of a ruling by a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on November 20. “Alaska’s economic past and future are tied directly to the development of our abundant natural resources," the governor said. “The loss of this exploration activity will cost our state’s families hundreds of jobs next year.”
The governor also announced today that the state of Alaska intends to support Shell’s petition to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for a rehearing in front of the full court.
Shoreham Farms Out Black Banana Gold Project in Guyana
TORONTO, ONTARIO - Shoreham Resources Ltd. (TSX VENTURE: SMH), a Canadian based exploration company dedicated to the exploration of advanced precious metal and polymetallic deposits in South America and Canada, is pleased to announce that the company has signed a Letter of Intent ("LOI") with Mulgravian Ventures Corporation (a privately held company) whereby Mulgravian may acquire a 60% working interest in the Black Banana Property through a series of qualified exploration and development expenditures on the Property and direct investments in Shoreham Resources Ltd. This investment will include the cost of a due diligence review, land holding costs, payments to underlying vendors, costs to incorporate and capitalize a Guyana holding company, (Black Jack Mines Ltd.), and exploration funding. Upon completion of this program, Mulgravian shall become the beneficial owner of 60% of the capitalized shares of Black Jack Mines Ltd. with Shoreham holding the remaining 40% of the shares. During this exploration and development program, Shoreham shall be the operator of the program on behalf of Mulgravian and Black Jack Mines Ltd. In consideration for this service, Shoreham shall be entitled to charge a management fee equal to 10% of the qualified expenditures in the program.
The Black Banana Property consists of a group of 10 medium scale prospecting permits totaling approximately 8,290 acres located in northwestern Guyana near Matthews Ridge. The property lies in the same stratigraphic package as the El Callao gold district in Venezuela, which boasts a combined historical production plus reserves in excess of 25 million ounces of gold. Recent sampling on the Property has returned gold grades of up to 1,914.5 gm Au/tonne (55.8 oz. Au/ton - see SMH News Release 2008-17 dated October 8, 2008). Mulgravian has completed due diligence sampling and mapping of the property which confirmed the presence of multiple mineralized veins, visible gold in the high grade veins, and a favourable geological setting; assay results from 41 soil samples, 42 chip/channel samples and 7 vein samples are imminent. Crews are presently constructing camp facilities to support an extensive geological mapping and geochemical sampling field campaign to be launched in mid-January.
Private Placements into Shoreham:
Upon satisfactory completion of Mulgravian's due diligence review, Mulgravian will complete a private placement financing in Shoreham for $250,000 at C$0.20 per share. Within one year of exchange approval of this LOI, Mulgravian will complete a second private placement financing in Shoreham for an additional $250,000 at a price of $0.40 per share. The completion of these private placements shall be governed by private placement agreements, which will be subject to TSX Venture Exchange approval.
Exploration Expenditures:
Mulgravian will invest US$500,000 in qualified exploration expenditures within one year of exchange approval of the LOI, an additional US$600,000 in qualified exploration expenditures prior to the second anniversary and an additional US$900,000 for a cumulative total of US$ 2,000,000 in qualified exploration expenditures prior to the third anniversary.
David Bending, M.Sc., P.Geo., President and CEO of Shoreham Resources Ltd., a Qualified Person as defined in National Policy 43-101 ("NI43-101"), is responsible for all technical information contained in this news release. He reports that; "The exploration team is pleased that the due diligence program completed to December 6 confirmed our expectations for the project and gave Mulgravian Ventures the confidence to move forward on its commitments. Mulgravian has committed to invest in both Shoreham and the project. While it will not detract our focus from our Flagship Marudi Mountain prospect, the Black Banana opportunity provides for SMH's long term growth plans in Guyana."
For further information regarding our Black Banana Project please visit our website at www.shoreham.ca or our Investor Relations Hub at www.agoracom.com/IR/Shoreham where you can post questions and receive answers or review questions and answers already posted by other investors or contact our Investor Relations Representative, Mr. Mike Kachanovsky via email at mike@shoreham.ca.
The TSX Venture Exchange has not reviewed and accepts no responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.
Contacts:
Shoreham Resources Ltd.
David Bending
(416) 867-1101
Email: dabending@cs.com
Website: www.shoreham.ca
© MarketWire 2008
The Black Banana Property consists of a group of 10 medium scale prospecting permits totaling approximately 8,290 acres located in northwestern Guyana near Matthews Ridge. The property lies in the same stratigraphic package as the El Callao gold district in Venezuela, which boasts a combined historical production plus reserves in excess of 25 million ounces of gold. Recent sampling on the Property has returned gold grades of up to 1,914.5 gm Au/tonne (55.8 oz. Au/ton - see SMH News Release 2008-17 dated October 8, 2008). Mulgravian has completed due diligence sampling and mapping of the property which confirmed the presence of multiple mineralized veins, visible gold in the high grade veins, and a favourable geological setting; assay results from 41 soil samples, 42 chip/channel samples and 7 vein samples are imminent. Crews are presently constructing camp facilities to support an extensive geological mapping and geochemical sampling field campaign to be launched in mid-January.
Private Placements into Shoreham:
Upon satisfactory completion of Mulgravian's due diligence review, Mulgravian will complete a private placement financing in Shoreham for $250,000 at C$0.20 per share. Within one year of exchange approval of this LOI, Mulgravian will complete a second private placement financing in Shoreham for an additional $250,000 at a price of $0.40 per share. The completion of these private placements shall be governed by private placement agreements, which will be subject to TSX Venture Exchange approval.
Exploration Expenditures:
Mulgravian will invest US$500,000 in qualified exploration expenditures within one year of exchange approval of the LOI, an additional US$600,000 in qualified exploration expenditures prior to the second anniversary and an additional US$900,000 for a cumulative total of US$ 2,000,000 in qualified exploration expenditures prior to the third anniversary.
David Bending, M.Sc., P.Geo., President and CEO of Shoreham Resources Ltd., a Qualified Person as defined in National Policy 43-101 ("NI43-101"), is responsible for all technical information contained in this news release. He reports that; "The exploration team is pleased that the due diligence program completed to December 6 confirmed our expectations for the project and gave Mulgravian Ventures the confidence to move forward on its commitments. Mulgravian has committed to invest in both Shoreham and the project. While it will not detract our focus from our Flagship Marudi Mountain prospect, the Black Banana opportunity provides for SMH's long term growth plans in Guyana."
For further information regarding our Black Banana Project please visit our website at www.shoreham.ca or our Investor Relations Hub at www.agoracom.com/IR/Shoreham where you can post questions and receive answers or review questions and answers already posted by other investors or contact our Investor Relations Representative, Mr. Mike Kachanovsky via email at mike@shoreham.ca.
The TSX Venture Exchange has not reviewed and accepts no responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.
Contacts:
Shoreham Resources Ltd.
David Bending
(416) 867-1101
Email: dabending@cs.com
Website: www.shoreham.ca
© MarketWire 2008
GoldQuest Reports Drill Results From New Gold Zone at Las Animas
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA - GoldQuest Mining Corp. ("GoldQuest" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE: GQC)(FRANKFURT: M1W) is pleased to report drill results from ten holes completed on its 100% owned Las Animas project located in the central Dominican Republic. The Las Animas project is excluded from the Gold Fields Option Agreement.
HIGHLIGHTS
- New gold-zone discovered at Las Guazumitas, 950 meters southeast of main Las Animas Zone;
- Drill hole LA-44 intercepted 27.95 meters grading 1.32 g/t Au;
- Drill hole LA-45 intercepted 18.00 meters grading 1.32 g/t Au;
- Las Guazumitas is disseminated gold mineralization with base metals, hosted by sericite altered rhyolite;
- Partially tested gold-in-soil anomaly approximately 1,200 meters long by 200 meters wide.
The drill results of the last ten diamond drill holes totalling 1,879 meters of the Phase 3 drill programme at Las Animas are reported. Nine of these holes (1,208 m) were drilled in the Las Guazumitas zone located approximately 950 meters southeast of the main Las Animas zone. Results from a tenth hole completed on the main Las Animas zone are also reported.
Drilling at Las Guazumitas tested a large gold in soil anomaly defined over an approximate 1,200 by 200 meter area. The soil gold anomaly trends in a north-south direction obliquely across the topography and is still open to the south. The anomaly is terminated at the north end by a NE-trending creek which follows a late fault zone. Surface trenching within the soil anomaly returned 9.10 meters grading 4.33 g/t Au and grab samples of rock float in the area returned values up to 21.40 g/t Au. The soil anomaly correlates with a mapped body of sericite schist approximately 1,200 meters long, which is elongated north-south and 150 to 200 meters wide. North of the sericite schist and gold anomaly there are sediments with a NE-strike which are the eastward continuation of the sediments that form the hanging wall to massive sulphide mineralization at the main Las Animas zone. The sediments appear to thin and pinch out to the east of Las Guazumitas.
Gold mineralization is related to sericite alteration and bands of disseminated to semi-massive pyrite in the schistosity. Gold is associated with silver, lead, zinc, barium and anomalous arsenic, antimony, copper, and molybdenum. Mineralization is interpreted to be related to either a blind massive sulphide body or a deep epithermal intermediate sulphidation system hosted by felsic volcanic rocks possibly related to an underlying or adjacent intrusive or porphyry source that has either not been identified or is not exposed at surface.
Hole LA-38 was a deep hole drilled directly south of LA-26 on the main Las Animas Zone. It was drilled to test for the continuation of the massive sulphide body directly below hole LA-26 which returned a drill intercept of 67.77 meters grading 3.38% Cu, 3.98% Zn, 1.49 g/t Au and 26.52 g/t Ag. LA-38 intercepted 631.20 meters of sericite altered rhyolites before intersecting 0.71 meters of pyritic semi-massive sulphide with 0.17 g/t Au and 0.22% Zn, interpreted to be a band of massive sulphide within the footwall felsic volcanics. This interpretation is significant since it extends the alteration zone 153 meters vertically below LA-26, and implies potential mineralization over 500 meters below surface. The hole continued in weakly altered rhyolite to a depth of 671 m.
Hole LA-41 returned anomalous Au from surface with 16.25 meters grading 0.34 g/t Au in sericite schist with up to 50 ppm Mo. Gold values correlate with amount of hematite and jarosite after sulphides. The hole also returned 9.35 m from 43.00 m grading 0.45 g/t Au in sericite schist with pyrite, with 8.1 g/t Ag, 0.15% Cu, and 0.28% Zn.
Hole LA-42 intercepted 10.60 m grading 0.53 g/t Au with 24.90 g/t Ag and 0.13% Pb in oxidized sericite schist. The hole was drilled below the trenching that returned 9.10 meters grading 4.33 g/t Au.
Hole LA-43 intercepted rhyolite and rhyolite breccia with propylitic alteration grading 0.13% Zn over 73.06 m. The hole was drilled to test the extension of mineralization intercepted in hole LA-42.
Hole LA-44 intercepted sericite schist and rhyolite which returned an interval of 27.95 m grading 1.32 g/t Au with 11.80 g/t Ag from the top of hole. The hole also returned 14.40 m grading 0.19 g/t Au and 18.00 m grading 0.16 g/t Au, 4.60 g/t Ag, and 0.24% Zn. The hole was drilled below a deep surface pit that returned 2.60 g/t Au.
Hole LA-45 intercepted rhyolite and sericite schist. The hole intercepted 18.00 m grading 1.32 g/t Au with 11.30 g/t Ag, 0.15% Cu, 0.16% Pb, and 1.00% Zn in sericite schist with sulphides. At depth the hole intercepted 16.00 m at 0.32 g/t Au and 39.60 g/t Ag with 0.05% Cu, 0.30% Zn. The hole was drilled below a deep surface pit that returned 1.00 g/t Au.
Hole LA-46: The upper part of hole is anomalous in Zn over 67.95 m grading 0.14% Zn in dacite and mudstone with volcanic sandstone and volcanic breccia. At the base of this interval there is 5.06 m grading 0.14 g/t Au at a contact between volcanic sediments and rhyolite.
Hole LA-47 was completely in sericite schist drilled partially sub parallel to schistosity. The hole has drill intervals of anomalous gold associated with pyrite including 72.00 m grading 0.23 g/t Au including 3.26 m at 1.35 g/t Au. Results from drill holes LA-39 and 40 did not return any significant results.
Table of Results
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
From To Length Gold Silver Copper Lead Zinc Oxide or
Hole (m) (m) (m) (g/t) (g/t) (%) (%) (%) Sulphide
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
LA-41 4.57 20.82 16.25 0.35 0.01 Oxide
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
and 27.00 31.00 4.00 0.24 Sulphide
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
and 43.00 52.35 9.35 0.45 8.10 0.15 0.05 0.28 Sulphide
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
and 71.00 80.77 9.77 0.21 Sulphide
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
LA-42 73.22 83.82 10.60 0.53 24.90 0.13 Oxide
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
and 79.77 88.10 8.33 0.24 Sulphide
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
LA-43 58.00 131.06 73.06 0.13 Sulphide
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
LA-44 3.05 31.00 27.95 1.32 11.80 0.20 Oxide
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
and 45.53 59.94 14.41 0.19 Oxide
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
and 72.00 90.00 18.00 0.16 4.70 0.09 0.03 0.24 Sulphide
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
LA-45 54.00 72.00 18.00 1.32 11.30 0.15 0.16 1.00 Sulphide
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
and 112.00 128.00 16.00 0.32 39.60 0.05 0.30 Sulphide
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
LA-46 3.05 71.00 67.95 0.14 Oxide
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
and 65.94 71.00 5.06 0.148 0.09 Oxide
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
and 94.00 100.00 6.00 0.12 Sulphide
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
LA-47 105.00 119.00 14.00 0.216 Sulphide
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
and 153.00 225.00 72.00 0.232 Sulphide
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
inc 205.74 209.00 3.26 1.356 Sulphide
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
About GoldQuest
GoldQuest is a Vancouver based Exploration company focused on the Dominican Republic. Through regional grass-roots generative exploration and new geological models the Company has built a portfolio of new gold and copper discoveries including its 100% owned Las Animas Au-Ag-Cu-Zn project excluded from the Gold Fields joint venture.
Dr Stewart D. Redwood, FIMMM, Consulting Geologist to the Company, is the qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and has reviewed and approved the content of this news release. Preparation and geochemical analyses of samples were carried out by Acme Analytical Laboratories Ltd. Standards and blanks are routinely inserted into all sample batches for quality assurance and quality control.
GoldQuest is traded on the TSX-V under the symbol GQC.V and in Frankfurt/Berlin with symbol M1W.
On behalf of the Board of Directors
Alistair H. Waddell
Forward-looking statements:
This news release contains certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". All statements in this release, other than statements of historical fact, that address events or developments that GoldQuest expects to occur, are forward looking statements.
Forward looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "potential" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could" or "should" occur. Although GoldQuest believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results may differ materially from those in forward looking statements. Factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include market prices, exploitation and exploration success, continued availability of capital and financing and general economic, market or business conditions. Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Forward looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of GoldQuest's management on the date the statements are made. GoldQuest undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the event that management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.
Contacts:
GoldQuest Mining Corp.
Alistair Waddell
President & Chief Executive Officer
(604) 632-4333
GoldQuest Mining Corp.
Dan Maarsman
Investor Relations - Vancouver, Canada
(604) 632-4333
Email: investorrelations@goldquestcorp.com
Website: www.goldquestcorp.com
© MarketWire 2008
HIGHLIGHTS
- New gold-zone discovered at Las Guazumitas, 950 meters southeast of main Las Animas Zone;
- Drill hole LA-44 intercepted 27.95 meters grading 1.32 g/t Au;
- Drill hole LA-45 intercepted 18.00 meters grading 1.32 g/t Au;
- Las Guazumitas is disseminated gold mineralization with base metals, hosted by sericite altered rhyolite;
- Partially tested gold-in-soil anomaly approximately 1,200 meters long by 200 meters wide.
The drill results of the last ten diamond drill holes totalling 1,879 meters of the Phase 3 drill programme at Las Animas are reported. Nine of these holes (1,208 m) were drilled in the Las Guazumitas zone located approximately 950 meters southeast of the main Las Animas zone. Results from a tenth hole completed on the main Las Animas zone are also reported.
Drilling at Las Guazumitas tested a large gold in soil anomaly defined over an approximate 1,200 by 200 meter area. The soil gold anomaly trends in a north-south direction obliquely across the topography and is still open to the south. The anomaly is terminated at the north end by a NE-trending creek which follows a late fault zone. Surface trenching within the soil anomaly returned 9.10 meters grading 4.33 g/t Au and grab samples of rock float in the area returned values up to 21.40 g/t Au. The soil anomaly correlates with a mapped body of sericite schist approximately 1,200 meters long, which is elongated north-south and 150 to 200 meters wide. North of the sericite schist and gold anomaly there are sediments with a NE-strike which are the eastward continuation of the sediments that form the hanging wall to massive sulphide mineralization at the main Las Animas zone. The sediments appear to thin and pinch out to the east of Las Guazumitas.
Gold mineralization is related to sericite alteration and bands of disseminated to semi-massive pyrite in the schistosity. Gold is associated with silver, lead, zinc, barium and anomalous arsenic, antimony, copper, and molybdenum. Mineralization is interpreted to be related to either a blind massive sulphide body or a deep epithermal intermediate sulphidation system hosted by felsic volcanic rocks possibly related to an underlying or adjacent intrusive or porphyry source that has either not been identified or is not exposed at surface.
Hole LA-38 was a deep hole drilled directly south of LA-26 on the main Las Animas Zone. It was drilled to test for the continuation of the massive sulphide body directly below hole LA-26 which returned a drill intercept of 67.77 meters grading 3.38% Cu, 3.98% Zn, 1.49 g/t Au and 26.52 g/t Ag. LA-38 intercepted 631.20 meters of sericite altered rhyolites before intersecting 0.71 meters of pyritic semi-massive sulphide with 0.17 g/t Au and 0.22% Zn, interpreted to be a band of massive sulphide within the footwall felsic volcanics. This interpretation is significant since it extends the alteration zone 153 meters vertically below LA-26, and implies potential mineralization over 500 meters below surface. The hole continued in weakly altered rhyolite to a depth of 671 m.
Hole LA-41 returned anomalous Au from surface with 16.25 meters grading 0.34 g/t Au in sericite schist with up to 50 ppm Mo. Gold values correlate with amount of hematite and jarosite after sulphides. The hole also returned 9.35 m from 43.00 m grading 0.45 g/t Au in sericite schist with pyrite, with 8.1 g/t Ag, 0.15% Cu, and 0.28% Zn.
Hole LA-42 intercepted 10.60 m grading 0.53 g/t Au with 24.90 g/t Ag and 0.13% Pb in oxidized sericite schist. The hole was drilled below the trenching that returned 9.10 meters grading 4.33 g/t Au.
Hole LA-43 intercepted rhyolite and rhyolite breccia with propylitic alteration grading 0.13% Zn over 73.06 m. The hole was drilled to test the extension of mineralization intercepted in hole LA-42.
Hole LA-44 intercepted sericite schist and rhyolite which returned an interval of 27.95 m grading 1.32 g/t Au with 11.80 g/t Ag from the top of hole. The hole also returned 14.40 m grading 0.19 g/t Au and 18.00 m grading 0.16 g/t Au, 4.60 g/t Ag, and 0.24% Zn. The hole was drilled below a deep surface pit that returned 2.60 g/t Au.
Hole LA-45 intercepted rhyolite and sericite schist. The hole intercepted 18.00 m grading 1.32 g/t Au with 11.30 g/t Ag, 0.15% Cu, 0.16% Pb, and 1.00% Zn in sericite schist with sulphides. At depth the hole intercepted 16.00 m at 0.32 g/t Au and 39.60 g/t Ag with 0.05% Cu, 0.30% Zn. The hole was drilled below a deep surface pit that returned 1.00 g/t Au.
Hole LA-46: The upper part of hole is anomalous in Zn over 67.95 m grading 0.14% Zn in dacite and mudstone with volcanic sandstone and volcanic breccia. At the base of this interval there is 5.06 m grading 0.14 g/t Au at a contact between volcanic sediments and rhyolite.
Hole LA-47 was completely in sericite schist drilled partially sub parallel to schistosity. The hole has drill intervals of anomalous gold associated with pyrite including 72.00 m grading 0.23 g/t Au including 3.26 m at 1.35 g/t Au. Results from drill holes LA-39 and 40 did not return any significant results.
Table of Results
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
From To Length Gold Silver Copper Lead Zinc Oxide or
Hole (m) (m) (m) (g/t) (g/t) (%) (%) (%) Sulphide
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
LA-41 4.57 20.82 16.25 0.35 0.01 Oxide
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
and 27.00 31.00 4.00 0.24 Sulphide
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
and 43.00 52.35 9.35 0.45 8.10 0.15 0.05 0.28 Sulphide
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
and 71.00 80.77 9.77 0.21 Sulphide
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
LA-42 73.22 83.82 10.60 0.53 24.90 0.13 Oxide
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
and 79.77 88.10 8.33 0.24 Sulphide
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
LA-43 58.00 131.06 73.06 0.13 Sulphide
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
LA-44 3.05 31.00 27.95 1.32 11.80 0.20 Oxide
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
and 45.53 59.94 14.41 0.19 Oxide
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
and 72.00 90.00 18.00 0.16 4.70 0.09 0.03 0.24 Sulphide
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
LA-45 54.00 72.00 18.00 1.32 11.30 0.15 0.16 1.00 Sulphide
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
and 112.00 128.00 16.00 0.32 39.60 0.05 0.30 Sulphide
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
LA-46 3.05 71.00 67.95 0.14 Oxide
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
and 65.94 71.00 5.06 0.148 0.09 Oxide
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
and 94.00 100.00 6.00 0.12 Sulphide
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
LA-47 105.00 119.00 14.00 0.216 Sulphide
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
and 153.00 225.00 72.00 0.232 Sulphide
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
inc 205.74 209.00 3.26 1.356 Sulphide
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
About GoldQuest
GoldQuest is a Vancouver based Exploration company focused on the Dominican Republic. Through regional grass-roots generative exploration and new geological models the Company has built a portfolio of new gold and copper discoveries including its 100% owned Las Animas Au-Ag-Cu-Zn project excluded from the Gold Fields joint venture.
Dr Stewart D. Redwood, FIMMM, Consulting Geologist to the Company, is the qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and has reviewed and approved the content of this news release. Preparation and geochemical analyses of samples were carried out by Acme Analytical Laboratories Ltd. Standards and blanks are routinely inserted into all sample batches for quality assurance and quality control.
GoldQuest is traded on the TSX-V under the symbol GQC.V and in Frankfurt/Berlin with symbol M1W.
On behalf of the Board of Directors
Alistair H. Waddell
Forward-looking statements:
This news release contains certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". All statements in this release, other than statements of historical fact, that address events or developments that GoldQuest expects to occur, are forward looking statements.
Forward looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "potential" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could" or "should" occur. Although GoldQuest believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results may differ materially from those in forward looking statements. Factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include market prices, exploitation and exploration success, continued availability of capital and financing and general economic, market or business conditions. Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Forward looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of GoldQuest's management on the date the statements are made. GoldQuest undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the event that management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.
Contacts:
GoldQuest Mining Corp.
Alistair Waddell
President & Chief Executive Officer
(604) 632-4333
GoldQuest Mining Corp.
Dan Maarsman
Investor Relations - Vancouver, Canada
(604) 632-4333
Email: investorrelations@goldquestcorp.com
Website: www.goldquestcorp.com
© MarketWire 2008
Arctic Oil & Gas Corp. (AOAG) Alaska Placer Gold Mines; Forward Gold Sales Offering
Arctic Oil & Gas Corp. (PINKSHEETS: AOAG), a resources development company, is pleased to announce the Company is rapidly progressing its plans for two new Alaska placer mine developments for commissioning in 2009 to produce approximately 300,000 ounces gold p.a. in the first year.
The Company has completed preparing and is now distributing a $250 million private offering for delivery of 500,000 ounces of gold at $500 per ounce paid upfront, with bullion deliveries estimated to commence in July 2009. The forward gold purchase offer promises Banks and Institutional investors delivery of gold bullion at a discount to the spot price.
The unique forward gold purchase offer promises qualified investors a potentially more profitable mechanism than gold exchanges for securing large quantities of gold bullion, with a lower net cost of $500 per ounce.
The non NI 43-101 compliant gold resources providing security to the forward gold purchase offer total approximately 1.00 million ounces of placer gold based on detailed historical resources estimates in the following placer deposits:
Nome Offshore: 7.3 million cubic yards measuring only the first yard depth, (in a 10-15 yard deep placer deposit) grading 0.0269 Oz/yard, (0.83 grams/yard) Gold reported by Westgold and others in 1980s and cited in previous news releases. Adjacent lease application areas could hold an additional 1-10 million ounces.
Denali North Mine, Onshore: At least 15 million cubic yards grading 0.029 to 0.039 Oz/yard Gold from sampling, drilling and mapping, reported by independent geologists, the mine operator and others and cited in previous news releases. Gold reserves on this property are in excess of 500,000 ounces.
The Company plans to re-evaluate the substantial amount of historical drilling and bulk sampling on the two project areas to prepare new NI 43-101 compliant reserves statements.
Use of Historic Resource Estimates: All historical resource estimates quoted herein are based on prior data and reports obtained and prepared by previous operators and certain other information. The historical estimates should not be relied upon. No qualified person (as defined by NI 43-101) has done sufficient work to classify the historical estimate as current mineral resources or mineral reserves. Further work will be required to evaluate these resource estimates.
This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ from management's expectations. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that include, among others, risks associated with resource exploration risks related to competition, management of growth, new products, services and technologies, potential fluctuations in operating results, international expansion, commercial agreements, acquisitions and strategic transactions, government regulation and taxation. More information about factors that potentially could affect AOAG's financial results is included in its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Contact:
Peter Sterling
323-356-7777
Email Contact
The Company has completed preparing and is now distributing a $250 million private offering for delivery of 500,000 ounces of gold at $500 per ounce paid upfront, with bullion deliveries estimated to commence in July 2009. The forward gold purchase offer promises Banks and Institutional investors delivery of gold bullion at a discount to the spot price.
The unique forward gold purchase offer promises qualified investors a potentially more profitable mechanism than gold exchanges for securing large quantities of gold bullion, with a lower net cost of $500 per ounce.
The non NI 43-101 compliant gold resources providing security to the forward gold purchase offer total approximately 1.00 million ounces of placer gold based on detailed historical resources estimates in the following placer deposits:
Nome Offshore: 7.3 million cubic yards measuring only the first yard depth, (in a 10-15 yard deep placer deposit) grading 0.0269 Oz/yard, (0.83 grams/yard) Gold reported by Westgold and others in 1980s and cited in previous news releases. Adjacent lease application areas could hold an additional 1-10 million ounces.
Denali North Mine, Onshore: At least 15 million cubic yards grading 0.029 to 0.039 Oz/yard Gold from sampling, drilling and mapping, reported by independent geologists, the mine operator and others and cited in previous news releases. Gold reserves on this property are in excess of 500,000 ounces.
The Company plans to re-evaluate the substantial amount of historical drilling and bulk sampling on the two project areas to prepare new NI 43-101 compliant reserves statements.
Use of Historic Resource Estimates: All historical resource estimates quoted herein are based on prior data and reports obtained and prepared by previous operators and certain other information. The historical estimates should not be relied upon. No qualified person (as defined by NI 43-101) has done sufficient work to classify the historical estimate as current mineral resources or mineral reserves. Further work will be required to evaluate these resource estimates.
This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ from management's expectations. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that include, among others, risks associated with resource exploration risks related to competition, management of growth, new products, services and technologies, potential fluctuations in operating results, international expansion, commercial agreements, acquisitions and strategic transactions, government regulation and taxation. More information about factors that potentially could affect AOAG's financial results is included in its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Contact:
Peter Sterling
323-356-7777
Email Contact
Sunday, December 21, 2008
More Reasons to Abandon Ethanol Subsidies
USDA Secretary Pick Vilsack Faces Ethanol Decision
“We’re also hopeful that Governor Vilsack will take an objective look at the volatility corn ethanol has imposed on the food and fuel system, and its adverse impact on the environment,” said Ken Cook, the president of Environmental Working Group, an environmental advocacy organization in Washington.
Bentley plan to cut CO2 with ethanol comes under fire
"The weight of the evidence against ethanol as a net reducer of greenhouse gas emissions vis-À-vis gasoline is by now quite overwhelming."
Environmental Groups Oppose Ethanol Bailout in Stimulus Package
The Clean Air Task Force, Environmental Working Group, Friends of Earth, and the Network for New Energy Choices released a statement today saying that federal government subsidies and mandates for corn-based ethanol produce potentially catastrophic consequences to the environment, and have no payback to taxpayers in terms of alleviating global warming effects, providing for energy security, or even simply reducing the cost of driving.
“We’re also hopeful that Governor Vilsack will take an objective look at the volatility corn ethanol has imposed on the food and fuel system, and its adverse impact on the environment,” said Ken Cook, the president of Environmental Working Group, an environmental advocacy organization in Washington.
Bentley plan to cut CO2 with ethanol comes under fire
"The weight of the evidence against ethanol as a net reducer of greenhouse gas emissions vis-À-vis gasoline is by now quite overwhelming."
Environmental Groups Oppose Ethanol Bailout in Stimulus Package
The Clean Air Task Force, Environmental Working Group, Friends of Earth, and the Network for New Energy Choices released a statement today saying that federal government subsidies and mandates for corn-based ethanol produce potentially catastrophic consequences to the environment, and have no payback to taxpayers in terms of alleviating global warming effects, providing for energy security, or even simply reducing the cost of driving.
Cold Weather Drives Up Weekly Wheat Prices
With the bulls concerned over the first strong cold weather of the season possibly may damage the dormant wheat crops, prices for the week ended up.
Even though Friday prices were softer, the overall week had KCBT wheat rising by 44.75 cents to $5.83 a bushel, MGE grew by 35.25 cents to $6.2525 a bushel and March CBOT led them all, gaining 50.25 cents to finish the week at $5.6325.
Although there was worries over the weather, a number of meteorologists suggested the cold spell probably wouldn't do enough damage to the crops to make much of a difference. Even so, prices rose on the possibility.
Weather will be especially rough in the central and southern Plains, with below-zero forecasts in the mix. Some of the concern was directed to areas that had little or no snow to protect from the bitterly cold temperatures.
Of course it won't be known until the spring if the dormant crop really had any damage to it, so it's a wait-and-see game at this time.
Spring wheat traded on the MGE hasn't been planted yet.
Even though Friday prices were softer, the overall week had KCBT wheat rising by 44.75 cents to $5.83 a bushel, MGE grew by 35.25 cents to $6.2525 a bushel and March CBOT led them all, gaining 50.25 cents to finish the week at $5.6325.
Although there was worries over the weather, a number of meteorologists suggested the cold spell probably wouldn't do enough damage to the crops to make much of a difference. Even so, prices rose on the possibility.
Weather will be especially rough in the central and southern Plains, with below-zero forecasts in the mix. Some of the concern was directed to areas that had little or no snow to protect from the bitterly cold temperatures.
Of course it won't be known until the spring if the dormant crop really had any damage to it, so it's a wait-and-see game at this time.
Spring wheat traded on the MGE hasn't been planted yet.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Avipel Corn Seed Treatment to Repel Birds Gets EPA Approval in Minnesota
NEW CASTLE, Del., Dec 18, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Arkion Life Sciences has received US EPA approval to market Avipel(R) Corn Seed Treatment in Minnesota for the 2009 planting season. The Section 18 application filed by the State of Minnesota is effective December 5, 2008, through July 30, 2009. Arkion's proprietary bird repellent Avipel(R), formerly known as Avitec, protects both field and sweet corn seed against foraging cranes.
According to Ken Ballinger, Arkion Life Sciences has been a pioneer in the development and commercialization of several formulations of bird repellent and bird management technologies. Arkion's patented formulations of anthraquinone have been effectively repelling geese with FlightControl(R) Plus and repelling birds from structures through the Airepel Humane Bird Management business.
This is the fourth year Minnesota has been approved for this Section 18 and allows Minnesota farmers to treat up to 625,000 acres of corn seed during the season. Avipel(R) Corn Seed Treatment is non-lethal to birds but highly effective in repelling them. Various organizations have supported Arkion's development of bird repellents including The International Crane Foundation (ICF), The United States Humane Society and the Audubon Society. ICF spearheaded the cause to find a solution to the growing conflict between farmers and the cranes eating their planted seed. "We have been working since 2000 to find a way to support the growing crane population and, at the same time, save our farmers' crops and Avipel(R) is the solution," said Jeb Barzen, ICF spokesperson in Baraboo, WI.
Arkion(R) has three major businesses: Bio-Technical Resources (Manitowoc, WI) develops and improves processes and products based on fermentation technology for contract customers as well as internal needs; hyperimmune eggs with markets in human and animal nutrition; and bird repellent applications for crop, structure and turf protection.
SOURCE Arkion Life Sciences
Copyright (C) 2008 PR Newswire. All rights reserved
According to Ken Ballinger, Arkion Life Sciences has been a pioneer in the development and commercialization of several formulations of bird repellent and bird management technologies. Arkion's patented formulations of anthraquinone have been effectively repelling geese with FlightControl(R) Plus and repelling birds from structures through the Airepel Humane Bird Management business.
This is the fourth year Minnesota has been approved for this Section 18 and allows Minnesota farmers to treat up to 625,000 acres of corn seed during the season. Avipel(R) Corn Seed Treatment is non-lethal to birds but highly effective in repelling them. Various organizations have supported Arkion's development of bird repellents including The International Crane Foundation (ICF), The United States Humane Society and the Audubon Society. ICF spearheaded the cause to find a solution to the growing conflict between farmers and the cranes eating their planted seed. "We have been working since 2000 to find a way to support the growing crane population and, at the same time, save our farmers' crops and Avipel(R) is the solution," said Jeb Barzen, ICF spokesperson in Baraboo, WI.
Arkion(R) has three major businesses: Bio-Technical Resources (Manitowoc, WI) develops and improves processes and products based on fermentation technology for contract customers as well as internal needs; hyperimmune eggs with markets in human and animal nutrition; and bird repellent applications for crop, structure and turf protection.
SOURCE Arkion Life Sciences
Copyright (C) 2008 PR Newswire. All rights reserved
International Minerals -- 2008 Review and 2009 Business Plans
SCOTTSDALE, AZ, Dec 18, 2008 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) -- International Minerals Corporation (CA:IMZ) (SWX: IMZ) ("the Company") reports a calendar year-end summary of its corporate and project activities during 2008 and its business plans for calendar year 2009.
Corporate
-- The Company's share price, like that of most resource companies,
has not performed well in 2008 due primarily to prevailing adverse
market conditions not only in the natural resources sector but also
in the general financial market. IMZ's current share price is
essentially at the same level as five years ago.
-- Management believes that the Company's accomplishments of the past
year (especially at the Pallancata underground silver-gold mine in
Peru) combined with our future plans will remedy this situation and
IMZ's share price should recover in 2009 together with a likely
resurgence in metal prices.
-- In terms of financial health, the Company is in the enviable
position of having a strong balance sheet with cash and short-term
investments of over US$50 million at calendar 2008 year end, with
expected cash dividends commencing in late 2009 from the 40%-owned
Pallancata Mine.
-- In mid-October 2008, IMZ instituted a share repurchase program
because the Board believed that the market price of the Company did
not fully reflect the underlying value of the Company's business
and its future business prospects. An update on the share
repurchase program will be provided in the Company's second fiscal
quarter financial information for the period ending
December 31, 2008.
A brief update on the Company's key projects is provided below:
Pallancata Silver-Gold Mine, Peru
-- Owned 40% by IMZ and 60% by the mine operator, Hochschild
Mining plc.
-- Pallancata has become one of the success stories in the mining
industry in 2008 and is now the number-one primary silver mine
in Peru in terms of silver reserves.
-- Proven and probable reserve estimates in August 2008 were
approximately 80 million ounces of silver equivalent (using a
75:1 silver:gold ratio) contained within 5.8 million tonnes at
329 g/t silver and 1.2 g/t gold in proven and probable reserves.
See IMZ news release dated August 25, 2008 for further details.
-- Production (100% project basis):
- From start-up (September 2007) to September 30, 2008 almost
3 million ounces of silver and over 10,000 ounces of gold have
been produced.
- For calendar year 2008, production is expected to reach
approximately 4.5 million ounces of silver and 18,000 ounces
of gold.
- In 2009, Pallancata should become one of the top-10 largest
primary silver mines in the world, producing an expected 6 to
7 million ounces of silver annually.
-- Total cash costs, including the government royalty, are currently
under US$6.00 per ounce of silver net of by-product gold credits.
Currently, direct mine site costs (included in the US$6.00 cash
cost) are approximately US$3.15 per ounce (assuming only mining,
processing and mine G&A costs).
-- IMZ's net earnings from the Pallancata Mine to September 30, 2008
are approximately US$3.8 million.
-- Because all cash flow has been required for funding the aggressive
capital expansion program at the Pallancata Mine, to date there
have been no cash dividends distributed to the joint venture
partners. Cash dividends are expected to commence, however, in the
final quarter of calendar year 2009, dependent on metal prices and
ongoing capital requirements.
Rio Blanco and Gaby Gold Projects, Ecuador
-- It has been a difficult year for the mining/exploration sector in
Ecuador.
-- The market awaits the expiry of the mining mandate (that suspended
exploration and mining activities in April) and approval of the new
mining law in January 2009. Normalization of exploration/mining
activities likely will take several months longer while the detailed
regulations for the mining law are prepared and approved.
-- The negotiation of project-specific mining contracts (covering
issues such as income/windfall taxes and royalty payments) for the
more advanced projects (such as IMZ's Rio Blanco, Kinross' Fruta
del Norte, IAMGOLD's Quimsacocha and Corriente's Mirador projects)
are expected to take up to an additional six months to negotiate
with the government.
-- In calendar year 2009, IMZ does not expect to spend significant
funds in Ecuador at the Rio Blanco underground gold-silver project
and the Gaby open-pit gold project and has already reduced its
workforce accordingly. The Company is, however, maintaining its
significant in-country infrastructure and its commitment to
developing its Ecuadorian projects.
-- IMZ has previously completed much of the environmental permitting
process for the proposed development of a mining operation at Rio
Blanco. Final permitting approval is expected by the end of 2009,
with construction (subject to required additional financing)
starting in 2010.
-- In February 2008, the Company completed a preliminary feasibility
report at Gaby, which was not positive at US$650 per ounce gold
price but is currently being optimized for higher tonnage
production. Results of the optimization program will be announced
in the first quarter of 2009.
New Acquisitions
-- In the current market there are significant opportunities for IMZ
to acquire gold-silver companies and/or projects that are in or
near production at low acquisition costs that have not been seen
in the industry for the past 20 years. IMZ is well-positioned with
its cash resources and strong technical team to take advantage of
this situation.
-- IMZ's preference is to seek these opportunities in the Americas,
especially in South America in order to leverage off of IMZ's
considerable technical and corporate expertise from over 15 years
of exploration and development of projects in that region.
-- The Company has evaluated at least 25 companies/projects in 2008,
using its experienced acquisition team, and management is confident
that IMZ will achieve at least one major acquisition during the
coming year.
The technical information in this news release was reviewed by IMZ's Qualified Person, Nick Appleyard, Technical Manager.
Cautionary Statement:
Some of the statements contained in this release are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Canadian securities law requirements. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from the anticipated results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements in this release include statements regarding capital expansion costs and completion, drilling and development programs on the Company's projects, timing of commencement of production, completion of feasibility studies, obtaining of required environmental and production permits, and timing and amounts of future cash flows from operations. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from anticipated results include risks and uncertainties such as: risks relating to estimates of mineral resources and reserve; risks relating to project capital and production costs; risks relating to obtaining mining and environmental permits; mining and development risks; risk of commodity price fluctuations; political and regulatory risks; risks related to a new mining law in Ecuador, and other risks and uncertainties detailed in the Company's Renewal Annual Information Form for the year ended June 30, 2008, which is available at www.sedar.com under the Company's name. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
For additional information, contact:
Wendy Yang
Tel: (303) 357-4863
Internet Site: http://www.intlminerals.com
SOURCE: International Minerals Corporation
http://www.intlminerals.com
Copyright 2008 Market Wire, All rights reserved.
Corporate
-- The Company's share price, like that of most resource companies,
has not performed well in 2008 due primarily to prevailing adverse
market conditions not only in the natural resources sector but also
in the general financial market. IMZ's current share price is
essentially at the same level as five years ago.
-- Management believes that the Company's accomplishments of the past
year (especially at the Pallancata underground silver-gold mine in
Peru) combined with our future plans will remedy this situation and
IMZ's share price should recover in 2009 together with a likely
resurgence in metal prices.
-- In terms of financial health, the Company is in the enviable
position of having a strong balance sheet with cash and short-term
investments of over US$50 million at calendar 2008 year end, with
expected cash dividends commencing in late 2009 from the 40%-owned
Pallancata Mine.
-- In mid-October 2008, IMZ instituted a share repurchase program
because the Board believed that the market price of the Company did
not fully reflect the underlying value of the Company's business
and its future business prospects. An update on the share
repurchase program will be provided in the Company's second fiscal
quarter financial information for the period ending
December 31, 2008.
A brief update on the Company's key projects is provided below:
Pallancata Silver-Gold Mine, Peru
-- Owned 40% by IMZ and 60% by the mine operator, Hochschild
Mining plc.
-- Pallancata has become one of the success stories in the mining
industry in 2008 and is now the number-one primary silver mine
in Peru in terms of silver reserves.
-- Proven and probable reserve estimates in August 2008 were
approximately 80 million ounces of silver equivalent (using a
75:1 silver:gold ratio) contained within 5.8 million tonnes at
329 g/t silver and 1.2 g/t gold in proven and probable reserves.
See IMZ news release dated August 25, 2008 for further details.
-- Production (100% project basis):
- From start-up (September 2007) to September 30, 2008 almost
3 million ounces of silver and over 10,000 ounces of gold have
been produced.
- For calendar year 2008, production is expected to reach
approximately 4.5 million ounces of silver and 18,000 ounces
of gold.
- In 2009, Pallancata should become one of the top-10 largest
primary silver mines in the world, producing an expected 6 to
7 million ounces of silver annually.
-- Total cash costs, including the government royalty, are currently
under US$6.00 per ounce of silver net of by-product gold credits.
Currently, direct mine site costs (included in the US$6.00 cash
cost) are approximately US$3.15 per ounce (assuming only mining,
processing and mine G&A costs).
-- IMZ's net earnings from the Pallancata Mine to September 30, 2008
are approximately US$3.8 million.
-- Because all cash flow has been required for funding the aggressive
capital expansion program at the Pallancata Mine, to date there
have been no cash dividends distributed to the joint venture
partners. Cash dividends are expected to commence, however, in the
final quarter of calendar year 2009, dependent on metal prices and
ongoing capital requirements.
Rio Blanco and Gaby Gold Projects, Ecuador
-- It has been a difficult year for the mining/exploration sector in
Ecuador.
-- The market awaits the expiry of the mining mandate (that suspended
exploration and mining activities in April) and approval of the new
mining law in January 2009. Normalization of exploration/mining
activities likely will take several months longer while the detailed
regulations for the mining law are prepared and approved.
-- The negotiation of project-specific mining contracts (covering
issues such as income/windfall taxes and royalty payments) for the
more advanced projects (such as IMZ's Rio Blanco, Kinross' Fruta
del Norte, IAMGOLD's Quimsacocha and Corriente's Mirador projects)
are expected to take up to an additional six months to negotiate
with the government.
-- In calendar year 2009, IMZ does not expect to spend significant
funds in Ecuador at the Rio Blanco underground gold-silver project
and the Gaby open-pit gold project and has already reduced its
workforce accordingly. The Company is, however, maintaining its
significant in-country infrastructure and its commitment to
developing its Ecuadorian projects.
-- IMZ has previously completed much of the environmental permitting
process for the proposed development of a mining operation at Rio
Blanco. Final permitting approval is expected by the end of 2009,
with construction (subject to required additional financing)
starting in 2010.
-- In February 2008, the Company completed a preliminary feasibility
report at Gaby, which was not positive at US$650 per ounce gold
price but is currently being optimized for higher tonnage
production. Results of the optimization program will be announced
in the first quarter of 2009.
New Acquisitions
-- In the current market there are significant opportunities for IMZ
to acquire gold-silver companies and/or projects that are in or
near production at low acquisition costs that have not been seen
in the industry for the past 20 years. IMZ is well-positioned with
its cash resources and strong technical team to take advantage of
this situation.
-- IMZ's preference is to seek these opportunities in the Americas,
especially in South America in order to leverage off of IMZ's
considerable technical and corporate expertise from over 15 years
of exploration and development of projects in that region.
-- The Company has evaluated at least 25 companies/projects in 2008,
using its experienced acquisition team, and management is confident
that IMZ will achieve at least one major acquisition during the
coming year.
The technical information in this news release was reviewed by IMZ's Qualified Person, Nick Appleyard, Technical Manager.
Cautionary Statement:
Some of the statements contained in this release are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Canadian securities law requirements. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from the anticipated results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements in this release include statements regarding capital expansion costs and completion, drilling and development programs on the Company's projects, timing of commencement of production, completion of feasibility studies, obtaining of required environmental and production permits, and timing and amounts of future cash flows from operations. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from anticipated results include risks and uncertainties such as: risks relating to estimates of mineral resources and reserve; risks relating to project capital and production costs; risks relating to obtaining mining and environmental permits; mining and development risks; risk of commodity price fluctuations; political and regulatory risks; risks related to a new mining law in Ecuador, and other risks and uncertainties detailed in the Company's Renewal Annual Information Form for the year ended June 30, 2008, which is available at www.sedar.com under the Company's name. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
For additional information, contact:
Wendy Yang
Tel: (303) 357-4863
Internet Site: http://www.intlminerals.com
SOURCE: International Minerals Corporation
http://www.intlminerals.com
Copyright 2008 Market Wire, All rights reserved.
Endeavour Silver Arranges CA$4 Million Special Warrant Private Placement
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA - Endeavour Silver Corp. (TSX: EDR)(NYSE ALTERNEXT US: EXK)(DBFrankfurt: EJD) announces that it has arranged a CA$4 million private placement financing of special warrants brokered by certain Canadian placement agencies. The agents have an oversubscription right to place up to an additional CA$1 million and the financing is expected to close no later than December 30, 2008, subject to TSX and regulatory approvals.
The private placement will consist of up to 3,080,000 special warrants priced at CA$1.30 per special warrant for gross proceeds of up to CA$4,004,000. Each special warrant is exchangeable for one common share and one half share purchase warrant. Each full share purchase warrant can be exercised to purchase an additional common share at an exercise price of CA$1.90 per share within a 5 year period from the earlier of the closing of the placement plus 60 days, or from the issuance of a final receipt for a prospectus to qualify the special warrants in all relevant Canadian jurisdictions.
The agents will receive a 6% cash fee and brokers' special warrants equal in number to 6% of the number of special warrants sold pursuant to the private placement. Each broker special warrant will be exchangeable for one broker warrant. Each broker warrant can be exercised to purchase an additional common share at CA$1.51 per share and will have the same expiry term as the share purchase warrants. The units will be subject to a four month plus one day hold period. Endeavour will use its commercially reasonable efforts to prepare and file a preliminary prospectus and final prospectus in the Canadian offering jurisdictions as soon as possible after the closing of the private placement, and seek to obtain receipts within, respectively, 45 days and 60 days after closing. If Endeavour has not filed and obtained receipts for a final Prospectus within 60 days of the date of the closing of the private placement, the placees will be entitled to receive 1.1 Common Shares (in lieu of 1 Common Share) and 0.55 Warrants (in lieu of 0.5 Warrants) on the exercise of each Special Warrant.
The net proceeds of the financing will be added to working capital to fund the Company's operating and capital plans at its two producing silver mines in Mexico and to provide additional capital for possible acquisitions in 2009.
The offered securities will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), and may not be offered or sold in the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of, "U.S. persons", as such term is defined in Regulation S under the U.S. Securities Act absent registration or an applicable exemption from registration requirements.
This news release shall not constitute an offer to sell or an offer to buy the securities in any jurisdiction.
Endeavour Silver Corp. (TSX: EDR)(NYSE ALTERNEXT US: EXK)(DBFrankfurt: EJD) is a small-cap silver mining company focused on the growth of its silver production, reserves and resources in Mexico. The expansion programs now underway at Endeavour's two operating mines, Guanacevi in Durango and the Guanajuato Project in State, coupled with the Company's aggressive acquisition and exploration programs in Mexico should enable Endeavour to join the ranks of mid-tier primary silver producers.
ENDEAVOUR SILVER CORP.
Bradford Cooke, Chairman and CEO
CAUTIONARY DISCLAIMER - FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS
Certain statements contained herein regarding the Company and its operations constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements that are not historical facts, including without limitation statements regarding future estimates, plans, objectives, assumptions or expectations of future performance, are "forward-looking statements". We caution you that such "forward looking statements" involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and future events to differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Such risks and uncertainties include fluctuations in precious metal prices, unpredictable results of exploration activities, uncertainties inherent in the estimation of mineral reserves and resources, fluctuations in the costs of goods and services, problems associated with exploration and mining operations, changes in legal, social or political conditions in the jurisdictions where the Company operates, lack of appropriate funding and other risk factors, as discussed in the Company's filings with Canadian and American Securities regulatory agencies. Resource and production goals and forecasts may be based on data insufficient to support them. Godfrey Walton, P.Geo. and/or Bradford Cooke, P.Geo. are the Qualified Persons for the Company as required by NI 43-101. The Company expressly disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements other than as required by applicable securities legislation. We seek safe harbour.
The TSX Exchange has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release.
Contacts:
Endeavour Silver Corp.
Hugh Clarke
(604) 685-9775 or Toll Free: 1-877-685-9775
(604) 685-9744 (FAX)
Email: hugh@edrsilver.com
Website: www.edrsilver.com
The private placement will consist of up to 3,080,000 special warrants priced at CA$1.30 per special warrant for gross proceeds of up to CA$4,004,000. Each special warrant is exchangeable for one common share and one half share purchase warrant. Each full share purchase warrant can be exercised to purchase an additional common share at an exercise price of CA$1.90 per share within a 5 year period from the earlier of the closing of the placement plus 60 days, or from the issuance of a final receipt for a prospectus to qualify the special warrants in all relevant Canadian jurisdictions.
The agents will receive a 6% cash fee and brokers' special warrants equal in number to 6% of the number of special warrants sold pursuant to the private placement. Each broker special warrant will be exchangeable for one broker warrant. Each broker warrant can be exercised to purchase an additional common share at CA$1.51 per share and will have the same expiry term as the share purchase warrants. The units will be subject to a four month plus one day hold period. Endeavour will use its commercially reasonable efforts to prepare and file a preliminary prospectus and final prospectus in the Canadian offering jurisdictions as soon as possible after the closing of the private placement, and seek to obtain receipts within, respectively, 45 days and 60 days after closing. If Endeavour has not filed and obtained receipts for a final Prospectus within 60 days of the date of the closing of the private placement, the placees will be entitled to receive 1.1 Common Shares (in lieu of 1 Common Share) and 0.55 Warrants (in lieu of 0.5 Warrants) on the exercise of each Special Warrant.
The net proceeds of the financing will be added to working capital to fund the Company's operating and capital plans at its two producing silver mines in Mexico and to provide additional capital for possible acquisitions in 2009.
The offered securities will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), and may not be offered or sold in the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of, "U.S. persons", as such term is defined in Regulation S under the U.S. Securities Act absent registration or an applicable exemption from registration requirements.
This news release shall not constitute an offer to sell or an offer to buy the securities in any jurisdiction.
Endeavour Silver Corp. (TSX: EDR)(NYSE ALTERNEXT US: EXK)(DBFrankfurt: EJD) is a small-cap silver mining company focused on the growth of its silver production, reserves and resources in Mexico. The expansion programs now underway at Endeavour's two operating mines, Guanacevi in Durango and the Guanajuato Project in State, coupled with the Company's aggressive acquisition and exploration programs in Mexico should enable Endeavour to join the ranks of mid-tier primary silver producers.
ENDEAVOUR SILVER CORP.
Bradford Cooke, Chairman and CEO
CAUTIONARY DISCLAIMER - FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS
Certain statements contained herein regarding the Company and its operations constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements that are not historical facts, including without limitation statements regarding future estimates, plans, objectives, assumptions or expectations of future performance, are "forward-looking statements". We caution you that such "forward looking statements" involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and future events to differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Such risks and uncertainties include fluctuations in precious metal prices, unpredictable results of exploration activities, uncertainties inherent in the estimation of mineral reserves and resources, fluctuations in the costs of goods and services, problems associated with exploration and mining operations, changes in legal, social or political conditions in the jurisdictions where the Company operates, lack of appropriate funding and other risk factors, as discussed in the Company's filings with Canadian and American Securities regulatory agencies. Resource and production goals and forecasts may be based on data insufficient to support them. Godfrey Walton, P.Geo. and/or Bradford Cooke, P.Geo. are the Qualified Persons for the Company as required by NI 43-101. The Company expressly disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements other than as required by applicable securities legislation. We seek safe harbour.
The TSX Exchange has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release.
Contacts:
Endeavour Silver Corp.
Hugh Clarke
(604) 685-9775 or Toll Free: 1-877-685-9775
(604) 685-9744 (FAX)
Email: hugh@edrsilver.com
Website: www.edrsilver.com
Apex Silver Provides an Update Regarding the Company's Restructuring and Financing Arrangements
Apex Silver Mines Limited (AMEX: SIL) today provided an update regarding the company's restructuring and financing arrangements.
Letter of Intent for Sale of San Cristobal to Sumitomo
As announced on November 14, 2008, Apex Silver Mines Limited ("Apex Silver") entered into a non-binding letter of intent with Sumitomo Corporation ("Sumitomo") providing for the sale of Apex's interest in the San Cristobal mine to Sumitomo for a cash purchase price of $22.5 million, payable at the closing of the sale. Apex Silver would continue to manage the mine following the sale. Apex Silver and Sumitomo are continuing to negotiate definitive documentation related to this transaction. Upon completion of the sale, the holders of the Apex Silver $290.0 million in convertible notes would be entitled, under the existing terms of the notes, to redeem the notes for cash. The non-binding letter of intent is subject to significant conditions, including the restructuring of the Apex Silver convertible notes in a voluntary reorganization under chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.
Termination of Derivative Positions
Apex Silver, Sumitomo and Minera San Cristobal, S.A. ("MSC") have entered into agreements with BNP Paribas and Barlcays PLC for the termination of the derivative positions established as a requirement of the San Cristobal project financing arrangements. Apex Silver paid approximately $59.0 million, or 65% of the final net settlement amounts with respect to the derivative positions, and repaid Sumitomo $7.5 million in respect of 65% of funding previously provided by Sumitomo to MSC to settle certain derivative positions. Apex Silver made these payments from the $91.0 million previously deposited by Apex Silver as cash collateral for the benefit of the counterparties to the derivative positions. Apex Silver received the remaining cash collateral, totaling $24.5 million.
Project Finance Loans Acquired by Sumitomo
Sumitomo has acquired 90% of the San Cristobal project finance loans from the lenders at par plus accrued interest, together with the right to exercise remedies of the lenders against MSC, Apex Silver and other Apex Silver subsidiaries. As previously disclosed, Apex Silver anticipates that Sumitomo, as the current holder of the San Cristobal project finance loans and the rights to exercise remedies against MSC, will have the right to accelerate the indebtedness outstanding upon a default by MSC or Apex Silver and its affiliates including the circumstances described in Apex Silver's quarterly report on Form 10-Q, for the quarter ending September 30, 2008. As noted in that filing, Apex Silver does not have, and does not expect to have, sufficient cash to fully settle its share of the obligations if they were to become immediately due and payable and has reclassified such obligations as short-term in its consolidated balance sheets.
Amendment to Sumitomo Loan Agreement
Under the terms of the Amendment to the Loan Agreement dated August 11, 2008 with SC Minerals Aktiebolag, a subsidiary of Sumitomo ("SC Minerals"), SC Minerals has agreed to increase by $25.0 million the amount available for borrowing by MSC. SC Minerals is the 35% shareholder of MSC. The additional $25 million is to be used solely to fund MSC's operating expenses. The $25.0 million is in addition to the $125.0 previously borrowed pursuant to the original Loan Agreement and subsequent Amendments to the Loan Agreement. The additional loan amount may be borrowed by MSC at any time on or before December 31, 2008. Apex Silver expects that MSC will borrow the full Additional Loan Amount on December 22, 2008.
If the full amount available under the amended Loan Agreement is fully drawn (including the Additional Loan Amount), no payments are made by MSC prior to maturity, and SC Minerals were to convert all amounts payable into MSC shares as of the maturity date, Apex Silver's indirect ownership interest in MSC would be reduced to approximately 40.5% (approximately 48.2% on conversion of principal only).
Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act and Section 21E of the Exchange Act, including statements regarding the intention of Apex Silver to enter into a definitive agreement relating to the sale of Apex Silver's interest in the San Cristobal mine and the restructuring of Apex Silver's capital structure, the expected continuation of Apex Silver as a management services and exploration company, and MSC's anticipated borrowing from SC Minerals. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, including those relating to the ability of Apex Silver and Sumitomo to reach a definitive agreement on all terms of the sale, including terms relating to Apex Silver's management of the mine, the risk that creditors of Apex Silver or the mine will not agree to a restructuring on terms satisfactory to Sumitomo, and the risk that SC Minerals does not advance funds to MSC. The ability of Apex Silver to achieve the contemplated sale could also be affected by other factors, including those relating to its operations such as further decreases in metals prices, whether and to what extent the financial markets continue to experience significant volatility; and political unrest and uncertainty in Bolivia. Apex Silver assumes any obligation to update this information.
CONTACT:
Apex Silver Mines Corporation
Jerry W. Danni
(303) 839-5060
Sr. Vice President Corporate Affairs
Letter of Intent for Sale of San Cristobal to Sumitomo
As announced on November 14, 2008, Apex Silver Mines Limited ("Apex Silver") entered into a non-binding letter of intent with Sumitomo Corporation ("Sumitomo") providing for the sale of Apex's interest in the San Cristobal mine to Sumitomo for a cash purchase price of $22.5 million, payable at the closing of the sale. Apex Silver would continue to manage the mine following the sale. Apex Silver and Sumitomo are continuing to negotiate definitive documentation related to this transaction. Upon completion of the sale, the holders of the Apex Silver $290.0 million in convertible notes would be entitled, under the existing terms of the notes, to redeem the notes for cash. The non-binding letter of intent is subject to significant conditions, including the restructuring of the Apex Silver convertible notes in a voluntary reorganization under chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.
Termination of Derivative Positions
Apex Silver, Sumitomo and Minera San Cristobal, S.A. ("MSC") have entered into agreements with BNP Paribas and Barlcays PLC for the termination of the derivative positions established as a requirement of the San Cristobal project financing arrangements. Apex Silver paid approximately $59.0 million, or 65% of the final net settlement amounts with respect to the derivative positions, and repaid Sumitomo $7.5 million in respect of 65% of funding previously provided by Sumitomo to MSC to settle certain derivative positions. Apex Silver made these payments from the $91.0 million previously deposited by Apex Silver as cash collateral for the benefit of the counterparties to the derivative positions. Apex Silver received the remaining cash collateral, totaling $24.5 million.
Project Finance Loans Acquired by Sumitomo
Sumitomo has acquired 90% of the San Cristobal project finance loans from the lenders at par plus accrued interest, together with the right to exercise remedies of the lenders against MSC, Apex Silver and other Apex Silver subsidiaries. As previously disclosed, Apex Silver anticipates that Sumitomo, as the current holder of the San Cristobal project finance loans and the rights to exercise remedies against MSC, will have the right to accelerate the indebtedness outstanding upon a default by MSC or Apex Silver and its affiliates including the circumstances described in Apex Silver's quarterly report on Form 10-Q, for the quarter ending September 30, 2008. As noted in that filing, Apex Silver does not have, and does not expect to have, sufficient cash to fully settle its share of the obligations if they were to become immediately due and payable and has reclassified such obligations as short-term in its consolidated balance sheets.
Amendment to Sumitomo Loan Agreement
Under the terms of the Amendment to the Loan Agreement dated August 11, 2008 with SC Minerals Aktiebolag, a subsidiary of Sumitomo ("SC Minerals"), SC Minerals has agreed to increase by $25.0 million the amount available for borrowing by MSC. SC Minerals is the 35% shareholder of MSC. The additional $25 million is to be used solely to fund MSC's operating expenses. The $25.0 million is in addition to the $125.0 previously borrowed pursuant to the original Loan Agreement and subsequent Amendments to the Loan Agreement. The additional loan amount may be borrowed by MSC at any time on or before December 31, 2008. Apex Silver expects that MSC will borrow the full Additional Loan Amount on December 22, 2008.
If the full amount available under the amended Loan Agreement is fully drawn (including the Additional Loan Amount), no payments are made by MSC prior to maturity, and SC Minerals were to convert all amounts payable into MSC shares as of the maturity date, Apex Silver's indirect ownership interest in MSC would be reduced to approximately 40.5% (approximately 48.2% on conversion of principal only).
Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act and Section 21E of the Exchange Act, including statements regarding the intention of Apex Silver to enter into a definitive agreement relating to the sale of Apex Silver's interest in the San Cristobal mine and the restructuring of Apex Silver's capital structure, the expected continuation of Apex Silver as a management services and exploration company, and MSC's anticipated borrowing from SC Minerals. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, including those relating to the ability of Apex Silver and Sumitomo to reach a definitive agreement on all terms of the sale, including terms relating to Apex Silver's management of the mine, the risk that creditors of Apex Silver or the mine will not agree to a restructuring on terms satisfactory to Sumitomo, and the risk that SC Minerals does not advance funds to MSC. The ability of Apex Silver to achieve the contemplated sale could also be affected by other factors, including those relating to its operations such as further decreases in metals prices, whether and to what extent the financial markets continue to experience significant volatility; and political unrest and uncertainty in Bolivia. Apex Silver assumes any obligation to update this information.
CONTACT:
Apex Silver Mines Corporation
Jerry W. Danni
(303) 839-5060
Sr. Vice President Corporate Affairs
MAG Silver Provides Corporate Update
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA - MAG Silver Corp. (TSX: MAG)(NYSE-A: MVG) ("MAG") provides the following as an update to recent company activities.
MAG has approved an exploration budget of approximately CDN$17.0M for 2009. These monies are earmarked for the drilling of almost 30,000 metres on five MAG-owned properties in Mexico. Diamond drilling is expected to continue on the "Jose Manto" at Cinco de Mayo where MAG is outlining a new and potentially significant sulphide silver/lead/zinc carbonate replacement discovery. Drilling is also planned to commence in early 2009 at Sierra Ramirez/El Pavo, Lagartos SE and Salemex. Drilling at Juanicipio is expected to continue at roughly the same level as this year (25,000 metres). Relying on the same experienced team that discovered the Juanicipio Vein, MAG will aggressively continue to pursue high priority targets.
Presently MAG has two drills operating at Cinco de Mayo and one drill at each of Lagartos SE and Lorena. At Juanicipio, four drills in total are operating. Two drills are operating on the Valdecanas Vein completing the 100 metre by 100 metre grid pattern and two drills are operating on the Juanicipio Vein, located one kilometre south of the Valdecanas Vein. These holes are testing for deeper intersections on the western extension of the earlier high grade intercepts.
To the end of November approximately CDN$55.0M remains in the treasury.
Separately, MAG has informed Fresnillo plc that, without prejudice to any of MAG's rights and interests, MAG has created an independent committee that is proceeding to identify and retain an independent valuator to prepare a valuation of MAG as required under applicable securities legislation. Under these rules, the valuation will be prepared at Fresnillo's cost. MAG continues to evaluate a number of strategic alternatives and no action is required by shareholders at this time.
Qualified Person: Dan MacInnis, P.Geo., has acted as the qualified person as defined in National Instrument 43-101 for this disclosure and supervised and verified the preparation of the technical information in this release. Mr. MacInnis is not independent as he is the President, CEO and a director of MAG Silver Corp.
About MAG Silver Corp. (www.magsilver.com)
MAG is focused on district scale projects located within the Mexican Silver Belt. Our mission is to become one of the premier companies in the silver mining industry. MAG and its partner Fresnillo plc are delineating a significant new silver vein discovery on the Juanicipio Joint Venture in Zacatecas State, Mexico. MAG is based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Its common shares trade on the TSX under the symbol MAG and on NYSE-A under the symbol MVG.
On behalf of the Board of MAG SILVER CORP.
Dan MacInnis, President and CEO
This release includes certain statements that may be deemed to be "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the US Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts are forward looking statements, including statements that address future mineral production, reserve potential, exploration drilling, exploitation activities and events or developments. Forward-looking statements are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "seek", "anticipate", "plan", "continue", "estimate", "expect", "may", "will", "project", "predict", "potential", "targeting", "intend", "could", "might", "should", "believe" and similar expressions. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements. Although MAG believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, changes in commodities prices, changes in mineral production performance, exploitation and exploration successes, continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions, political risk, currency risk and capital cost inflation. In addition, forward-looking statements are subject to various risks, including that data is incomplete and considerable additional work will be required to complete further evaluation, including but not limited to drilling, engineering and socio-economic studies and investment. The reader is referred to the Company's filings with the SEC and Canadian securities regulators for disclosure regarding these and other risk factors. There is no certainty that any forward looking statement will come to pass and investors should not place undue reliance upon forward-looking statements.
Cautionary Note to U.S. Investors: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission permits U.S. mining companies, in their filings with the SEC, to disclose only those mineral deposits that a company can economically and legally extract or produce. We use certain terms in this press release, such as "Inferred resources", that the SEC guidelines prohibit U.S. registered companies from including in their filings with the SEC.
Please Note: Investors are urged to consider closely the disclosures in MAG's annual and quarterly reports and other public filings, accessible through the Internet at www.sedar.com and www.sec.gov/edgar/searchedgar/companysearch.html.
Neither the Toronto Stock Exchange nor the American Stock Exchange has reviewed or accepted responsibility for the accuracy or adequacy of this news release, which has been prepared by management.
Contacts:
MAG Silver Corp.
Gordon Neal
VP Corp. Development
(604) 630-1399 or Toll Free: 1-866-630-1399
(604) 484-4710 (FAX)
Email: info@magsilver.com
Website: www.magsilver.com
© MarketWire 2008
MAG has approved an exploration budget of approximately CDN$17.0M for 2009. These monies are earmarked for the drilling of almost 30,000 metres on five MAG-owned properties in Mexico. Diamond drilling is expected to continue on the "Jose Manto" at Cinco de Mayo where MAG is outlining a new and potentially significant sulphide silver/lead/zinc carbonate replacement discovery. Drilling is also planned to commence in early 2009 at Sierra Ramirez/El Pavo, Lagartos SE and Salemex. Drilling at Juanicipio is expected to continue at roughly the same level as this year (25,000 metres). Relying on the same experienced team that discovered the Juanicipio Vein, MAG will aggressively continue to pursue high priority targets.
Presently MAG has two drills operating at Cinco de Mayo and one drill at each of Lagartos SE and Lorena. At Juanicipio, four drills in total are operating. Two drills are operating on the Valdecanas Vein completing the 100 metre by 100 metre grid pattern and two drills are operating on the Juanicipio Vein, located one kilometre south of the Valdecanas Vein. These holes are testing for deeper intersections on the western extension of the earlier high grade intercepts.
To the end of November approximately CDN$55.0M remains in the treasury.
Separately, MAG has informed Fresnillo plc that, without prejudice to any of MAG's rights and interests, MAG has created an independent committee that is proceeding to identify and retain an independent valuator to prepare a valuation of MAG as required under applicable securities legislation. Under these rules, the valuation will be prepared at Fresnillo's cost. MAG continues to evaluate a number of strategic alternatives and no action is required by shareholders at this time.
Qualified Person: Dan MacInnis, P.Geo., has acted as the qualified person as defined in National Instrument 43-101 for this disclosure and supervised and verified the preparation of the technical information in this release. Mr. MacInnis is not independent as he is the President, CEO and a director of MAG Silver Corp.
About MAG Silver Corp. (www.magsilver.com)
MAG is focused on district scale projects located within the Mexican Silver Belt. Our mission is to become one of the premier companies in the silver mining industry. MAG and its partner Fresnillo plc are delineating a significant new silver vein discovery on the Juanicipio Joint Venture in Zacatecas State, Mexico. MAG is based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Its common shares trade on the TSX under the symbol MAG and on NYSE-A under the symbol MVG.
On behalf of the Board of MAG SILVER CORP.
Dan MacInnis, President and CEO
This release includes certain statements that may be deemed to be "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the US Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts are forward looking statements, including statements that address future mineral production, reserve potential, exploration drilling, exploitation activities and events or developments. Forward-looking statements are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "seek", "anticipate", "plan", "continue", "estimate", "expect", "may", "will", "project", "predict", "potential", "targeting", "intend", "could", "might", "should", "believe" and similar expressions. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements. Although MAG believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, changes in commodities prices, changes in mineral production performance, exploitation and exploration successes, continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions, political risk, currency risk and capital cost inflation. In addition, forward-looking statements are subject to various risks, including that data is incomplete and considerable additional work will be required to complete further evaluation, including but not limited to drilling, engineering and socio-economic studies and investment. The reader is referred to the Company's filings with the SEC and Canadian securities regulators for disclosure regarding these and other risk factors. There is no certainty that any forward looking statement will come to pass and investors should not place undue reliance upon forward-looking statements.
Cautionary Note to U.S. Investors: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission permits U.S. mining companies, in their filings with the SEC, to disclose only those mineral deposits that a company can economically and legally extract or produce. We use certain terms in this press release, such as "Inferred resources", that the SEC guidelines prohibit U.S. registered companies from including in their filings with the SEC.
Please Note: Investors are urged to consider closely the disclosures in MAG's annual and quarterly reports and other public filings, accessible through the Internet at www.sedar.com and www.sec.gov/edgar/searchedgar/companysearch.html.
Neither the Toronto Stock Exchange nor the American Stock Exchange has reviewed or accepted responsibility for the accuracy or adequacy of this news release, which has been prepared by management.
Contacts:
MAG Silver Corp.
Gordon Neal
VP Corp. Development
(604) 630-1399 or Toll Free: 1-866-630-1399
(604) 484-4710 (FAX)
Email: info@magsilver.com
Website: www.magsilver.com
© MarketWire 2008
B2Gold Corp. Announces Additional Positive Exploration Drill Results From the Quebradona Gold Property in Colombia
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA, Dec 18, 2008 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) -- B2Gold Corp. (CA:BTO) ("B2Gold" or the "Company"), is pleased to announce further exploration drilling results from the Aurora target on the Quebradona property in Colombia. The Quebradona property is a joint venture with AngloGold Ashanti Limited ("AngloGold Ashanti").
The new drilling results from Quebradona confirm the good grade and consistency of gold mineralization from the first 16 holes (see press releases dated 02/07/08 and 08/05/08) in the Aurora system. The drilling intersected up to 380 metres ("m") at 1.1 grams per tonne of gold ("g/t Au") in Hole 24.
Quebradona Property
The Quebradona property is located 60 kilometres ("km") southwest of Medellin, Colombia. The new results from the Quebradona property are from an additional nine holes (holes 17 to 25), totaling 2,782.6 m drilled in the La Mama zone of the Aurora system. The additional holes followed up positive results obtained from the first 16 holes at Aurora. A total of 25 holes and 7,280.8 m have been drilled at Aurora in 2008.
In addition to Aurora, the Company has drill tested the Isabella, La Sola, Chaquiro and Tenedor gold-bearing porphyry systems outlined by prior surface sampling over a six by four km area. A total of 13,318.8 m in 43 holes were drilled at Quebradona in 2008, comprised of 7,280.8 m in 25 holes in Aurora, 803.1 m in four holes in Isabella, 1,900.1 m in six holes in La Sola, 1,987.6 m in five holes at Chaquiro and 1,347.2 m in three holes at Tenedor. Assay results are pending on La Sola, Chaquiro and Tenedor, and will be released as available but results are not expected to show significant gold mineralization. Assay results on Isabella were previously released (see press release dated 08/05/08).
The Aurora system consists of two strong porphyry gold occurrences contained within a suite of intermediate intrusive and volcanic rocks. The Aurora system covers an 800 by 700 m area and is comprised of the La Mama zone and the La Isla zone, separated by 200 m of late, unmineralized porphyry.
The additional nine holes drilled at Aurora tested the continuity of previously outlined gold mineralization in the La Mama zone. Of the 25 holes drilled at Aurora, 22 holes totaling 6,129.9 m tested La Mama and three holes totaling 1,150.9 m tested La Isla.
Highlights of the results from the additional nine holes (Holes 17 to 25) at Aurora are shown below.
Aurora Drill Holes 17 to 25 Assay Results
--------------------------------------------------------------------
From To Metres Gold Silver Copper
Location Hole # (m) (m) (m) (g/t) (g/t) (%)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
La Mama 17 Low Grade
--------------------------------------------------------------------
La Mama 18 Low Grade
--------------------------------------------------------------------
La Mama 19 0 208.1 208.1 0.90 1.9 0.124
--------------------------------------------------------------------
La Mama 20 0 454.5 454.5 0.69 1.8 0.124
--------------------------------------------------------------------
La Mama Incl. 135.00 264.10 129.1 1.00 2.2 0.124
--------------------------------------------------------------------
La Mama(i) 21(i) 0 91.25 91.25 0.72 2.2 0.119
--------------------------------------------------------------------
La Mama 22 0 80.30 80.30 1.01 3.3 0.209
--------------------------------------------------------------------
La Mama 23 136.00 195.20 59.20 1.66 2.5 0.192
--------------------------------------------------------------------
La Mama 24 0 379.9 379.9 1.09 1.6 0.161
--------------------------------------------------------------------
La Mama Incl. 60.72 141.00 80.28 2.02 2.1 0.206
--------------------------------------------------------------------
La Mama(i) 25(i) 2.00 369.65 367.65 0.67 1.6 0.126
--------------------------------------------------------------------
La Mama Incl. 2.00 80.00 78.00 1.08 2.6 0.157
--------------------------------------------------------------------
(i)Parts of holes 21 and 25 are currently being re-assayed to meet B2Gold's
QA/QC standards
Drilling has now tested a 700 by 400 m area of the La Mama zone with intercepts from the recent drilling returning up to 129 m of 1.0 g/t Au in Hole 20, 80 m of 1.0 g/t Au in Hole 22, 380 m of 1.1 g/t Au including 80 m of 2.0 g/t Au in Hole 24 and 78 m of 1.1 g/t Au in Hole 25. Significant gold mineralization has been outlined over a 400 m long by 150 m wide zone extending to at least 450 m in depth. The zone remains open at depth. The Company expects to prepare a National Instrument 43-101 compliant resource study based on this drilling at the La Mama zone of Aurora by early 2009.
At La Isla, significant gold mineralization has been outlined over a 300 m long by 50 to 100 m wide zone extending to at least 350 m in depth with the zone remaining open in all directions. Drilling at La Isla has encountered significant mineralization over a 250 by 200 m area with intercepts up to 182 m at 1.08 g/t Au in Hole 8. Further drilling will test the extensions of the zone.
Highlights of the previously released first 16 drill holes at Aurora are shown below.
Aurora Drill Holes 1 to 16 Assay Results - Previously Released
--------------------------------------------------------------------
From To Metres Gold Silver Copper
Location Hole # (m) (m) (m) (g/t) (g/t) (%)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
La Mama 1 4.05 165.92 161.87 0.97 2.50 0.154
--------------------------------------------------------------------
La Mama 2(i) 0 52.70 52.70 1.36 2.10 0.144
--------------------------------------------------------------------
La Mama 3 0 86.15 86.15 0.99 2.10 0.134
--------------------------------------------------------------------
La Mama Incl. 0 32.90 32.90 1.67 2.60 0.167
--------------------------------------------------------------------
La Mama 4 0.70 87.00 86.30 2.07 2.60 0.166
--------------------------------------------------------------------
La Mama 5 0 65.80 65.80 0.94 2.50 0.162
--------------------------------------------------------------------
La Mama 6 5.40 235.00 229.60 0.79 2.00 0.152
--------------------------------------------------------------------
La Mama Incl. 29.00 154.00 125.00 1.07 2.00 0.163
--------------------------------------------------------------------
La Mama 7 No significant values
--------------------------------------------------------------------
La Isla 8 0 439.00 439.00 0.61 1.00 0.127
--------------------------------------------------------------------
La Isla Incl. 256.60 439.00 182.40 1.08 1.20 0.190
--------------------------------------------------------------------
La Isla 9 136.00 223.00 87.00 0.54 1.80 0.138
--------------------------------------------------------------------
La Isla and 251.10 272.90 21.80 0.54 1.70 0.138
--------------------------------------------------------------------
La Mama 10 1.00 268.00 267.00 0.50 1.60 0.101
--------------------------------------------------------------------
La Mama 11 211.00 296.00 85.00 1.20 2.80 0.247
--------------------------------------------------------------------
La Mama Incl. 258.00 296.00 38.00 1.66 2.80 0.269
--------------------------------------------------------------------
La Mama 12 Low Grade
--------------------------------------------------------------------
La Mama 13 No significant values
--------------------------------------------------------------------
La Isla 14 182.00 262.70 80.70 1.02 0.80 0.176
--------------------------------------------------------------------
La Mama 15 0 49.00 49.00 0.34 0.90 0.081
--------------------------------------------------------------------
La Mama 16 Low Grade
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(i)Lost hole at 52.70 m in mineralization.
Under the terms of the Colombian joint venture agreement (the "Agreement"), B2Gold has earned its 51% interest in the Quebradona property by completing 5,000 m of exploration drilling. In September 2008, B2Gold and AngloGold Ashanti reached an agreement to amend the Agreement and jointly fund an additional 10,000 m of exploration drilling at the Quebradona Property on a 51% B2Gold / 49% AngloGold Ashanti basis (see press releases dated 16/09/08).
An additional 8,318.8 m of the planned 10,000 m drilling was completed in 2008 and after receipt of all results, data and interpretation from the drilling program, AngloGold Ashanti will have 30 days to choose from the following participation alternative regarding further exploration at the Quebradona property: (i) elect to fund all future exploration as the operator at 65% and free carry B2Gold through to feasibility; (ii) elect to be the operator and fund on a pro-rata basis of 51% AngloGold Ashanti and 49% B2Gold; or (iii) elect to fund as the owner of a 49% interest with B2Gold as operator owning and funding to 51%.
The drilling program at the Quebradona property is reviewed and the results approved by Tom Garagan, B2Gold's Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101. The Quebradona drill program utilizes extensive QA/QC (quality assurance and quality control) protocols for assaying and core sample handling that consist of the systematic insertion of blanks, standards and duplicates as well as using a secondary laboratory for regular check assaying. Core samples are cut with a diamond saw with one-half of the core placed in sealed bags and shipped directly to ALS Chemex Labs in Bogota, Colombia for sample preparation with the pulps subsequently sent to ALS Chemex Labs in Lima, Peru for gold fire assay and ICP analyses. Further Colombian Exploration
B2Gold has carried out approximately 30,000 m drilling on the 51% B2Gold / 49% AngloGold Ashanti Gramalote gold property in 2008 and drilling is continuing. B2Gold intends to publish a National Instrument 43-101 compliant resource calculation of the Gramalote Ridge zone on the property in January 2009.
At the 100% owned Mocoa copper molybdenum deposit, B2Gold has completed a 5,122 m drill program. B2Gold has a 2008 Colombian exploration budget of US$23 million.
Corporate Update
B2Gold maintains a strong financial position with approximately CDN$57.6 million in cash. The Company continues to explore and evaluate potential acquisition opportunities, capitalizing on the extensive experience and relationships that its management team has developed in the mining industry over the past 25 years. B2Gold's corporate objective is to build an intermediate gold company through exploration and acquisitions.
ON BEHALF OF B2GOLD CORP.
Clive T. Johnson, President and Chief Executive Officer
The securities described herein have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from registration requirements.
Some of the statements contained in this release are forward-looking statements, such as estimates and statements that describe the Company's future plans, objectives or goals, including words to the effect that the Company or management expects a stated condition or result to occur. Since forward-looking statements address future events and conditions, by their very nature, they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results in each case could differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements.
The Toronto Stock Exchange neither approves nor disapproves the information contained in this News Release.
Contacts:
B2Gold Corp.
Ian MacLean
Vice President, Investor Relations
(604) 681-8371
B2Gold Corp.
Kerry Suffolk
Manager, Investor Relations
(604) 681-8371
Website: www.b2gold.com
SOURCE: B2Gold Corp.
http://www.b2gold.com
Copyright 2008 Market Wire, All rights reserved.
The new drilling results from Quebradona confirm the good grade and consistency of gold mineralization from the first 16 holes (see press releases dated 02/07/08 and 08/05/08) in the Aurora system. The drilling intersected up to 380 metres ("m") at 1.1 grams per tonne of gold ("g/t Au") in Hole 24.
Quebradona Property
The Quebradona property is located 60 kilometres ("km") southwest of Medellin, Colombia. The new results from the Quebradona property are from an additional nine holes (holes 17 to 25), totaling 2,782.6 m drilled in the La Mama zone of the Aurora system. The additional holes followed up positive results obtained from the first 16 holes at Aurora. A total of 25 holes and 7,280.8 m have been drilled at Aurora in 2008.
In addition to Aurora, the Company has drill tested the Isabella, La Sola, Chaquiro and Tenedor gold-bearing porphyry systems outlined by prior surface sampling over a six by four km area. A total of 13,318.8 m in 43 holes were drilled at Quebradona in 2008, comprised of 7,280.8 m in 25 holes in Aurora, 803.1 m in four holes in Isabella, 1,900.1 m in six holes in La Sola, 1,987.6 m in five holes at Chaquiro and 1,347.2 m in three holes at Tenedor. Assay results are pending on La Sola, Chaquiro and Tenedor, and will be released as available but results are not expected to show significant gold mineralization. Assay results on Isabella were previously released (see press release dated 08/05/08).
The Aurora system consists of two strong porphyry gold occurrences contained within a suite of intermediate intrusive and volcanic rocks. The Aurora system covers an 800 by 700 m area and is comprised of the La Mama zone and the La Isla zone, separated by 200 m of late, unmineralized porphyry.
The additional nine holes drilled at Aurora tested the continuity of previously outlined gold mineralization in the La Mama zone. Of the 25 holes drilled at Aurora, 22 holes totaling 6,129.9 m tested La Mama and three holes totaling 1,150.9 m tested La Isla.
Highlights of the results from the additional nine holes (Holes 17 to 25) at Aurora are shown below.
Aurora Drill Holes 17 to 25 Assay Results
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From To Metres Gold Silver Copper
Location Hole # (m) (m) (m) (g/t) (g/t) (%)
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La Mama 17 Low Grade
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La Mama 18 Low Grade
--------------------------------------------------------------------
La Mama 19 0 208.1 208.1 0.90 1.9 0.124
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La Mama 20 0 454.5 454.5 0.69 1.8 0.124
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La Mama Incl. 135.00 264.10 129.1 1.00 2.2 0.124
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La Mama(i) 21(i) 0 91.25 91.25 0.72 2.2 0.119
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La Mama 22 0 80.30 80.30 1.01 3.3 0.209
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La Mama 23 136.00 195.20 59.20 1.66 2.5 0.192
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La Mama 24 0 379.9 379.9 1.09 1.6 0.161
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La Mama Incl. 60.72 141.00 80.28 2.02 2.1 0.206
--------------------------------------------------------------------
La Mama(i) 25(i) 2.00 369.65 367.65 0.67 1.6 0.126
--------------------------------------------------------------------
La Mama Incl. 2.00 80.00 78.00 1.08 2.6 0.157
--------------------------------------------------------------------
(i)Parts of holes 21 and 25 are currently being re-assayed to meet B2Gold's
QA/QC standards
Drilling has now tested a 700 by 400 m area of the La Mama zone with intercepts from the recent drilling returning up to 129 m of 1.0 g/t Au in Hole 20, 80 m of 1.0 g/t Au in Hole 22, 380 m of 1.1 g/t Au including 80 m of 2.0 g/t Au in Hole 24 and 78 m of 1.1 g/t Au in Hole 25. Significant gold mineralization has been outlined over a 400 m long by 150 m wide zone extending to at least 450 m in depth. The zone remains open at depth. The Company expects to prepare a National Instrument 43-101 compliant resource study based on this drilling at the La Mama zone of Aurora by early 2009.
At La Isla, significant gold mineralization has been outlined over a 300 m long by 50 to 100 m wide zone extending to at least 350 m in depth with the zone remaining open in all directions. Drilling at La Isla has encountered significant mineralization over a 250 by 200 m area with intercepts up to 182 m at 1.08 g/t Au in Hole 8. Further drilling will test the extensions of the zone.
Highlights of the previously released first 16 drill holes at Aurora are shown below.
Aurora Drill Holes 1 to 16 Assay Results - Previously Released
--------------------------------------------------------------------
From To Metres Gold Silver Copper
Location Hole # (m) (m) (m) (g/t) (g/t) (%)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
La Mama 1 4.05 165.92 161.87 0.97 2.50 0.154
--------------------------------------------------------------------
La Mama 2(i) 0 52.70 52.70 1.36 2.10 0.144
--------------------------------------------------------------------
La Mama 3 0 86.15 86.15 0.99 2.10 0.134
--------------------------------------------------------------------
La Mama Incl. 0 32.90 32.90 1.67 2.60 0.167
--------------------------------------------------------------------
La Mama 4 0.70 87.00 86.30 2.07 2.60 0.166
--------------------------------------------------------------------
La Mama 5 0 65.80 65.80 0.94 2.50 0.162
--------------------------------------------------------------------
La Mama 6 5.40 235.00 229.60 0.79 2.00 0.152
--------------------------------------------------------------------
La Mama Incl. 29.00 154.00 125.00 1.07 2.00 0.163
--------------------------------------------------------------------
La Mama 7 No significant values
--------------------------------------------------------------------
La Isla 8 0 439.00 439.00 0.61 1.00 0.127
--------------------------------------------------------------------
La Isla Incl. 256.60 439.00 182.40 1.08 1.20 0.190
--------------------------------------------------------------------
La Isla 9 136.00 223.00 87.00 0.54 1.80 0.138
--------------------------------------------------------------------
La Isla and 251.10 272.90 21.80 0.54 1.70 0.138
--------------------------------------------------------------------
La Mama 10 1.00 268.00 267.00 0.50 1.60 0.101
--------------------------------------------------------------------
La Mama 11 211.00 296.00 85.00 1.20 2.80 0.247
--------------------------------------------------------------------
La Mama Incl. 258.00 296.00 38.00 1.66 2.80 0.269
--------------------------------------------------------------------
La Mama 12 Low Grade
--------------------------------------------------------------------
La Mama 13 No significant values
--------------------------------------------------------------------
La Isla 14 182.00 262.70 80.70 1.02 0.80 0.176
--------------------------------------------------------------------
La Mama 15 0 49.00 49.00 0.34 0.90 0.081
--------------------------------------------------------------------
La Mama 16 Low Grade
--------------------------------------------------------------------
(i)Lost hole at 52.70 m in mineralization.
Under the terms of the Colombian joint venture agreement (the "Agreement"), B2Gold has earned its 51% interest in the Quebradona property by completing 5,000 m of exploration drilling. In September 2008, B2Gold and AngloGold Ashanti reached an agreement to amend the Agreement and jointly fund an additional 10,000 m of exploration drilling at the Quebradona Property on a 51% B2Gold / 49% AngloGold Ashanti basis (see press releases dated 16/09/08).
An additional 8,318.8 m of the planned 10,000 m drilling was completed in 2008 and after receipt of all results, data and interpretation from the drilling program, AngloGold Ashanti will have 30 days to choose from the following participation alternative regarding further exploration at the Quebradona property: (i) elect to fund all future exploration as the operator at 65% and free carry B2Gold through to feasibility; (ii) elect to be the operator and fund on a pro-rata basis of 51% AngloGold Ashanti and 49% B2Gold; or (iii) elect to fund as the owner of a 49% interest with B2Gold as operator owning and funding to 51%.
The drilling program at the Quebradona property is reviewed and the results approved by Tom Garagan, B2Gold's Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101. The Quebradona drill program utilizes extensive QA/QC (quality assurance and quality control) protocols for assaying and core sample handling that consist of the systematic insertion of blanks, standards and duplicates as well as using a secondary laboratory for regular check assaying. Core samples are cut with a diamond saw with one-half of the core placed in sealed bags and shipped directly to ALS Chemex Labs in Bogota, Colombia for sample preparation with the pulps subsequently sent to ALS Chemex Labs in Lima, Peru for gold fire assay and ICP analyses. Further Colombian Exploration
B2Gold has carried out approximately 30,000 m drilling on the 51% B2Gold / 49% AngloGold Ashanti Gramalote gold property in 2008 and drilling is continuing. B2Gold intends to publish a National Instrument 43-101 compliant resource calculation of the Gramalote Ridge zone on the property in January 2009.
At the 100% owned Mocoa copper molybdenum deposit, B2Gold has completed a 5,122 m drill program. B2Gold has a 2008 Colombian exploration budget of US$23 million.
Corporate Update
B2Gold maintains a strong financial position with approximately CDN$57.6 million in cash. The Company continues to explore and evaluate potential acquisition opportunities, capitalizing on the extensive experience and relationships that its management team has developed in the mining industry over the past 25 years. B2Gold's corporate objective is to build an intermediate gold company through exploration and acquisitions.
ON BEHALF OF B2GOLD CORP.
Clive T. Johnson, President and Chief Executive Officer
The securities described herein have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from registration requirements.
Some of the statements contained in this release are forward-looking statements, such as estimates and statements that describe the Company's future plans, objectives or goals, including words to the effect that the Company or management expects a stated condition or result to occur. Since forward-looking statements address future events and conditions, by their very nature, they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results in each case could differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements.
The Toronto Stock Exchange neither approves nor disapproves the information contained in this News Release.
Contacts:
B2Gold Corp.
Ian MacLean
Vice President, Investor Relations
(604) 681-8371
B2Gold Corp.
Kerry Suffolk
Manager, Investor Relations
(604) 681-8371
Website: www.b2gold.com
SOURCE: B2Gold Corp.
http://www.b2gold.com
Copyright 2008 Market Wire, All rights reserved.
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