BullMarketRun   BullMarketRun.ca

A Daily, Vibrant Voice Focused on Speculative Opportunities,
Commodities, and Economic & Political Trends Impacting
The Resource Sector & Equity Markets
 

"Market-Trouncing Returns Through Unbeatable
Technical & Fundamental Analysis of Niche Sectors"

July 30, 2011

The Week In Review And A Look Ahead: Part 3 of 3

Visible Gold Mines (VGD, TSX-V)

Visible Gold Mines (VGD, TSX-V) enjoyed another solid week, climbing as high as 37.5 cents and closing at 33.5 cents Friday, down 1.5 pennies for the week but up 49% for the month – VGD’s best monthly performance of the year…the stock found strong support at previous resistance of 32 cents where the 10-day moving average (SMA) now sits and continues to rise…VGD’s 20 and 50-day moving averages are also advancing, the first time this year all three of these SMA’s have been in bullish alignment…this sets up an interesting scenario for August…technically, there’s no question VGD is in a new uptrend which could easily gather fresh momentum in the days and weeks ahead with higher trading volumes (necessary to push through resistance around 40 cents) as the news flow begins with Joutel and intensifies with the Lucky Break Project…VGD has a first-rate land package in northwest Quebec (over 20,000 hectares, west and north of Rouyn-Noranda) and investors are beginning to see things start to come together for the company on the exploration front…VGD is in the midst of a 40,000 metre drill program and we’re intrigued by the July 21 news release that stated three drill rigs were on the newly-named “Wasa Creek” Property which is part of the company’s Lucky Break Project optioned from Cadillac Mining (CQX, TSX-V) last December…Wasa Creek adjoins the southwestern part of Richmont Mines‘ (RIC, TSX) Wasamac Property…the property is south of the north-dipping Wasa Shear which is responsible for Richmont’s significant and growing Wasamac deposit but it’s just north of the prolific Cadillac Fault that also runs through the area…geologically, therefore, the chances of a discovery are very real…the fact that VGD has put three rigs at Wasa Creek suggests they may have been encouraged by core visuals but nothing to that effect was stated in the news release…the company also announced July 21 that its Joutel Project, a joint venture with Agnico-Eagle Mines (AEM, TSX), has an eastern extension with a 6-kilometre strike length that exhibits similar lithologies to the previously mined Telbel, Eagle and Eagle West deposits at Joutel…VGD has identified several promising drill targets and a drill program is expected to start there in August…we added VGD to the BMR model portfolio a few months ago when it was trading around 40 cents in part because of the quality of this company’s projects, its aggressive approach to exploration, and the team of people it has on the ground and in the front office…the company’s senior geologist is Robert Sansfacon who’s a genius at understanding structure…he honed his skills for many years in the exploration division of Lac Minerals and was involved in the discovery of Osisko’s (OSK, TSX) Canadian Malartic deposit, now the largest Gold mine in the country…Sansfacon is determined to make a discovery for VGD and if anyone can, it’s him…he sees great potential with the company’s projects along a 2o+ kilometre stretch of the Cadillac Break west of Rouyn-Noranda, where drilling continues, but he’s particularly anxious to start drilling Joutel which is 150 kilometres north of Rouyn-Noranda…a geologist from another company we spoke to recently called this a “fabulous” project…Joutel is a significant former producer that Agnico-Eagle mined from three zones between 1974 and 1993…the operation was closed prematurely as AEM turned its attention to its huge LaRonde Mine…the theory is that there are additional potential undiscovered deposits on this 500+ claim land package, and the area VGD will be targeting initially is the eastern portion of Joutel which has not been fully explored and has similar geological signatures to the previously mined deposits to the west…Joutel is a geologist’s dream with a great story…”When we picked up all the Joutel boxes and maps from the Agnico-Eagle exploration offices, it took us two pick-up trucks for all the data,” VGD President and CEO Martin Dallaire told us in a recent interview…”We were flooded with data but we love it because we have the capacity to analyze all of it and bring some fresh ideas to the project…the trend is very large and there’s a lot of potential for many new mines in the area”…Dallaire, an engineer and entrepreneur from Rouyn-Noranda, understands the mining industry and what an exploration company needs to do to succeed and build shareholder value…he’s fluently bilingual, presents himself extremely well and knows how to run a business and make money…he thinks big but is focused…he has also recruited some key people including Sansfacon…in short, Dallaire has put something together you don’t often see in the junior speculative market – a powerful dynamic of business, geological and marketing expertise with a strategic plan to rapidly build value…the company’s niche and sole geological focus is northwestern Quebec where it has acquired several promising land packages, mostly west and north of Rouyn-Noranda…on Thursday, the company released a very positive NI-43-101 report on its Stadacona-East Property to support the initial inferred resource estimate of 163,000 ounces announced last April…more drilling is about to begin at Stadacona-East… Dallaire is taking an aggressive approach to exploration and he’s targeting under-explored areas and past producing mines where major new extensions are possible…armed with over $5 million in working capital, Visible Gold Mines is well positioned to make things happen in northwest Quebec…

Cadillac Mining (CQX, TSX-V)

It was a quiet week for Cadillac until Friday when a 100,000 share sell order was dumped into the market and the stock quickly fell to a dime…it recovered slightly to close the day at 11.5 cents, a loss of 3 pennies for the week…there is considerable resistance in the 15 to 16-cent area as recent trading has demonstrated…this continues to be a company with tremendous potential given its property packages and tight share structure but we don’t see a game plan yet from Cadillac management for building shareholder value and moving CQX forward in an effective and sustainable manner – when we do, we’ll let our readers know it’s time to pile back in…we are frustrated but remain patient for now because the possibilities with CQX are still incredible, especially considering the current market cap which is just $2.9 million…not often does a company get the kind of opportunity that Cadillac was handed (and still has)…CQX holds a 100% interest in a very strategic piece of property that adjoins Richmont’s Wasamac deposit, 15 kilometres west of Rouyn-Noranda…the principal Gold structure hosting mineralization at Wasamac dips northerly onto the seven claims held by CadillacRichmont started drilling Wasamac a year ago and steadily ramped up its drilling due to excellent results…in February of this year, Richmont reported a nearly five-fold increase in all-category 43-101 resources (from 285,000 to 1.4 million ounces) at Wasamac…as a result RIC has been one of the best performing Gold stocks on the TSX this year…BMR brought the Wasamac situation to the attention of its readers in December…investors got excited about the story and the potential of Cadillac’s “Wasa” claims…the stock ran to 50 cents by early January and the market was clearly eager to see Cadillac pursue this project as quickly as possible…management’s delay in doing so has been frustrating and has led to a substantial drop in CQX’s share value…the company is also cash poor and needs to raise some money…we give CQX credit for securing an excellent project (Goldstrike) in Utah on fabulous terms but several million dollars is going to be required to tackle Goldstrike in the right way…the best solution in our view is for Cadillac to cut a deal with another company for exploration at Wasamac and the natural partner for that appears to be Visible Gold Mines (VGD, TSX-V) which last December entered into a JV with CQX on its other Rouyn-Noranda area properties…VGD has all the money and expertise necessary to unlock the value of Cadillac’s Wasa claims…Cadillac could let others do the heavy lifting at Wasa and then focus its energies on developing the Goldstrike Project…talk is cheap – the onus right now is on Cadillac to show investors that it can “walk the walk” and make things happen, however they decide to proceed…

Abcourt Mines (ABI, TSX-V)

Abcourt hovered between 11.5 and 13.5 cents last week, closing at 11.5 cents for a weekly loss of a penny…volume picked up Tuesday (1.5 million shares) and Wednesday (1 million shares)…ABI has been looking a little healthier technically lately but still faces stiff overhead resistance with the 100-day moving average (SMA) at 14.5 cents and the 200-day SMA at 15.5…both SMA’s are declining…if you’re bullish on Silver and Zinc prices, however, which we are, you have to love this play as the current market cap ($17 million) really doesn’t take into account the value of the company’s Abcourt-Barvue Silver-Zinc deposit…ABI is ripe for a takeover given the value of its assets and management’s apparent inability to unlock that value which is why we still view this company with considerable interest…ABI’s decline from a 52-week high of 25.5 cents in late March was brought on by the closing of a financing (35 million units at 18 cents), a sharp drop in Silver, overall CDNX weakness, and selling by MineralFields Group…the company released more results from Abcourt-Barvue June 13 including 20 metres grading 108.33 g/t Ag and 1.49% Zn  in hole #31…drill results to date should significantly upgrade and increase all-category reserves and resources, most of which can be mined by open-pit…four years ago, GENIVAR produced a very positive feasibility report for the project which showed robust economics…more drilling will take place at the property later this year…the rig was just recently moved to the Vendome Property (Gold, Silver, Copper, Zinc) approximately 13 kilometres south of Abcourt-Barvue…more results came out July 5 from the company’s Elder-Tagami Gold Property near Rouyn-Noranda including 8.50 metres grading 3.71 g/t Au…that was from the Tagami area to the north which has untapped potential including some higher grades…the latest NI-43-101 resource estimate of 216,000 ounces was released in the summer of 2009…the possibility of Abcourt expanding that resource beyond 500,000 ounces certainly exists given the encouraging results to date (look what Richmont has done at Wasamac)…the heavy accumulation that began in Abcourt in December was no fluke in our view…this is a company with significant assets that could justify a substantially higher valuation…nearly 60 million shares of ABI changed hands on the CDNX in December and January – record volume for this stock, accompanied by a price jump from 14.5 cents…while the stock price is now slightly below that level, the record volume in ABI since late last year (take a look at a 10-year chart) is still a very bullish sign…Abcourt has been under significant accumulation and our best guess is that some savvy players like the assets in the ground…continued drilling success and higher prices for Gold, Silver and zinc would be exciting developments for this stock which has a history of major moves…from mid-2005 to early 2006, Abcourt rocketed from 15 cents to nearly $1.40…

Greencastle Resources (VGN, TSX-V)

Greencastle certainly firmed up a bit in July, closing at 20 cents for a 3-cent gain for the month…for the week the stock was off half a penny…bids have increased and there seems to be an anticipation of something coming down the pipe in the near future…a breakout above the still-rising 200-day moving average (SMA) at 23.5 cents is what we’re watching for to confirm that a new uptrend is indeed underway…as far as the fundamentals go, our gut feeling is that something is cooking here – President and CEO Tony Roodenburg has been quiet for too long…with the correction over in the CDNX and a new phase in the bull market having just started, Roodenburg likely won’t waste too much time getting Greencastle back on track…the company released its Q1 financials June 9 which show working capital of 16.4 cents per share ($7.5 million)…oil royalties have declined significantly – just $212,000 for the first three months of 2011 vs. $355,000 over the same period a year ago which underscores the need for VGN to make some major changes as Primate just isn’t the cash cow it used to be…the fact Roodenburg is no longer at the helm of Seafield Resources (SFF, TSX-V) is a positive development in our view for Greencastle…Roodenburg had been trying to ease his way out of Seafield since 2009 without much success until a couple of months ago…he’s now able to focus almost exclusively on Greencastle which has been a favorite project of his for many years…we suspect he’s going to take a serious look at spinning out the oil assets or the Gold assets into a separate company…something needs to happen here to move VGN forward and boost shareholder value, but we’re confident Roodenburg will do it – sooner or later…Greencastle’s market cap of $9 million means the stock is now trading just 3.5 cents above its cash value…history shows that whenever VGN is near cash value, a terrific buying opportunity has opened up though investors must be patient…Greencastle tripled over a six-week period from late October to early December…since the beginning of January, though, the stock has struggled due mostly to impatient investors frustrated with the lack of news…patience is definitely required with VGN or one shouldn’t invest in it…over the years the successful strategy with Greencastle has been to accumulate on weakness when the stock is near cash value and then sell into strength when something develops…with $7.5 million in working capital, three Gold properties (including land near the Blackwater Project and a couple of very good Nevada properties) and monthly (albeit declining) cash flow from an oil royalty, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that Greencastle does offer excellent value at current levels…the long-term chart remains encouraging with rising 200 and 300-day SMA’s that are in no danger of reversing at the moment (the 200-day could start declining however if something doesn’t develop by the end of August)…it’s also important to note that Roodenburg, a large shareholder in VGN, refrained from selling any of his holdings during the late 2010 run-up in the share price…this is different from past bullish in the stock and adds further credence to our view that we haven’t seen the highs in this cycle yet from Greencastle – it’s poised for what we believe could be a massive breakout sometime during the last half of this year…Pinetree Capital also accumulated more shares in Greencastle late last year, so there’s every reason to be very optimistic regarding this company’s prospects…Greencastle is up 43% since we added it back in to the BMR model portfolio last October…

Sidon International (SD, TSX-V)

Still nothing new to report here…we’re all entitled to have one dog in our portfolio and Sidon is that dog for us at the moment, though it did increase five-fold for us last year and still holds potential…things remain very quiet on the Sidon front with the stock down half a penny last week at 3.5 cents…the company hasn’t been able to recover yet from its fall in March, one day after the CDNX correction began, on poor drill results from its Morogoro East Gold Property in Tanzania…there has been no news from the company since March 14 – they effectively “sat out” the correction in the CDNX – when it announced a proposed private placement at 8 cents and an option to acquire an 80% interest in a 50-square kilometre property adjacent to Canaco’s (CAN, TSX-V) Handeni discovery in Tanzania…the 6 shallow holes drilled in December at Morogoro East failed to produce significant results, the best hole showing 3 metres grading 1.7 g/t Au…the company has drilled 4 deeper holes with results for those still pending…what the initial 6 holes have given Sidon, however, is a better understanding of the Morogoro geological structure which would aid in any future drilling…exploration, especially at such an early stage, is never easy and disappointing early results don’t necessarily mean a property doesn’t hold excellent potential…the company is also trying to develop a placer operation at Morogoro…there is certainly the possibility of better days ahead for Sidon but the lack of news is not encouraging…the climb back up won’t be easy and the company potentially may have to look at a consolidation of its capital…Sidon ran as high as 26.5 cents last winter but is now off a penny-and-a-half since we introduced it to BMR readers just over a year ago at a nickel…the company currently has approximately 140 million shares outstanding for a market cap of $4.9 million…

2 Comments

  1. Looks as if the U.S. will have a deal tonight/tomorrow a.m., which will be very positive
    for the markets, but let’s not forget gold, which usually moves up with bad news/uncertainty,
    so should we expect gold to fall with good news. No doubt, it will fall, but time will heal the
    fall & no doubt, gold will rebound as more uncertainty surfaces, from out there somewhere. One thing
    is for certain though & that is, any future uncertainty would never equal the U.S. failing to get
    it’s house in order, so we should expect up/down/sideways trading for the time being, depending on world
    happenings, or something like that. I will state that we are entering the best time of year for Venture
    stocks, which should improve, as we move along, call it a gut feeling. Good luck to my cyber friends &
    remember, any profit will bring more happiness that a loss.

    R !

    Bert

    Comment by Bert — July 31, 2011 @ 2:55 pm

  2. We’ll see if the votes are there in Congress. Could have a situation where it initially doesn’t get through the House, we’ll see. Moderate Democrats and Republicans seem ok with it, but Tea Party Republicans and far-left Democrats in the House may have a problem with it. At least taxes weren’t raised but doesn’t do a lot to seriously tackle the debt issue IMHO. That’s going to have to wait until the 2012 elections. Bodes well for Gold going forward but initially Gold could drop a little more if a deal is approved in Congress and the broader stock markets move higher.

    Comment by Jon - BMR — August 1, 2011 @ 5:18 am

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.

  • All Posts: