Ranting Andy: Individualism

RANTING ANDY – The global economy is like the train at the end of Back to the Future III, careening down the track at 88 miles per hour en route to its inevitable crash into Clayton Ravine.  No matter what sticks and stones are placed on the track to slow its momentum (such as FAKE bailout schemes, such as we saw last week, and “Yenterventions”, as we see this morning), the train will inevitably crash, and do so in spectacular fashion.  This is why it is GUARANTEED that PHYSICAL Precious Metal prices will rise until a new gold standard is forced upon the world by the litany of collapsing currencies.

Advanced Explorations Announces $5mm Debenture

Advanced Explorations (OTC Other: ADEXF; TSX-V: AXI) has entered into an agreement with XinXing Ductile Iron Pipes Co. Ltd. (“XinXing”) involving a $5,000,000 convertible debenture.  This financing follows the execution by the Company and XinXing of the previously disclosed Framework Agreement in 2010, providing for the completion of feasibility assessments to bring the Company’s Roche Bay project to commercial operation.

The Debenture will be non-interest bearing, have a term of 24 months from the date of initial advance of funds, and be convertible prior to maturity and repayment at any time in whole or from time to time for common shares at a conversion price of $0.45 per common share. If fully converted, the Debenture would result in the issuance of 11,111,111 common shares.

The proceeds from the Financing will be used for advancing AEI’s Roche Bay Feasibility Project and other general corporate purposes.

Read More

Creditors Always Pay, Keep Your Gold As Currencies Become Worthless

London (BullionVault.com) - The world has endured these sorts of crises before. Somehow they come to an end. What happens?

Sometimes, someone turns up who can prop up the collapsing debt mountain, and they make it grow higher, for a little bit longer. For a short while they are even called brilliant, but they leave a bigger problem than they started with. Eventually the thing comes crashing down and the creditors pay – always.

Whether the creditor pays through default or rapid inflation, or the mandated acquisition of government bonds by their pension fund, or the sequestration of their deposits, the result is the same: it’s always the creditor who pays.

Thunderbird Energy Update

Thunderbird Energy (OTC Other: TBDYF; TSX-V: TBD) has commenced drilling and workover operations at the Company’s Gordon Creek natural gas field. This represents the commencement of a total program of 50 new wells and 5 workovers of existing wells to be carried out in 2011 and 2012. A substantial portion of the funding for these operations was provided through a $25 million commodity stream agreement with Sandstorm Metals & Energy announced July 13, 2011.

Further to the Company’s August 11, 2011 press release, the Southwest Regional Partnership on Carbon Sequestration’s (SWP) Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) deployment phase (Phase III) which is sited at Gordon Creek, is proceeding with a variety of design and permitting activities. The initial focus of the field activities will include an extensive 3D seismic shoot in order to gain further understanding of the structure that is believed to host the previously discovered CO2 at Gordon Creek and to optimize the location of the initial CO2 source well to be drilled in 2012. The project will also be re-working the existing injection well at Gordon Creek in order to conduct a high rate combine CO2-Water injectivity test.

Read More

Gold to Rise in 2011 and 2012, But What About 2013?

LONDON (Thomson Reuters) - Gold prices have had a spectacular run up from their historic lows in the early years of the last decade.  In April 2001 gold prices were hovering around 220 – 250 USD/ounce.  With the slowing of central bank selling of their gold reserves and the forward delivery costs of gold changing dramatically, the pressures that had been weighing on gold for almost 10 years were lifted and a 10 year run up in prices started.  Some gold analysts are now claiming that the long secular bear market has ended and a bull market has returned.  Others are wondering if gold prices have the wherewithal to rise further and if not, is the current stage of gold prices signaling a bubble?

According to my analysis of Thomson Reuters commodities futures data, it’s probable that gold prices will continue to climb this year and the next, supported by good fundamentals, bullish sentiment and an overall environment supportive of gold.  However, it’s likely that sometime in 2013 a critical point will be reached for gold prices, more than likely because herding or crowd behavior will have overtaken such basic fundamentals as mining and purchases and uses of gold.   This speculative market will bring with it the potential for prices to decline sharply.

George Maniere: Today Europe Promised Us a Profitable Christmas

InvestingAdvicebyGeorge – On Wednesday night EST, Euro zone leaders struck a deal with private banks and insurers for them to accept a 50 percent loss on their Greek government bonds under a plan to lower Greece’s debt burden and try to contain the two-year-old euro zone crisis.

The agreement was reached after more than eight hours of hard-nosed negotiations involving bankers, heads of state, central bankers and the International Monetary Fund and aims to draw a line under spiraling debt problems that have threatened to unravel the European single currency project.

Under the deal, the private sector agreed to voluntarily accept a nominal 50 percent cut in its bond investments to reduce Greece’s debt burden by 100 billion Euros, cutting its debts to 120 percent of GDP by 2020, from 160 percent now.

Christopher Barker: Great Panther Silver From the Inside-Out

Christopher Barker (The Motley Fool) – I am a man on a mission: to provide my Foolish readers with the most comprehensive insight I can gather into the complex world of mining stock investments. I’ll go to just about any length — and even any depth — to unearth useful perspective. On Monday, I took it to a new depth: 510 meters below the surface of Great Panther Silver‘s (AMEX: GPL  ) flagship Guanajuato silver and gold mine!

Reminiscent of my visit to Brigus Gold‘s (AMEX: BRD  ) Black Fox mine in Canada, the extent to which a deep well of mining history is woven into the fabric of life in Mexico’s enchanting city of Guanajuato is immediately evident on the approach to the mine. From the taxi driver’s recommendation that I visit the 220-year-old site of the legendary Valenciana silver mine, to the large bronze statue depicting a miner operating a jack-leg drill, the moment you arrive at Guanajuato you know you’ve reached truly one of the world’s great mother lodes of silver. One of Guanajuato’s hotels is aptly named: Villa de la Plata (silver town).

John Hathaway of Tocqueville is Bullish on Gold and Gold Stocks

PETALUMA, CA - 

The Gold Report: In your recent article “A Golden Mulligan,” you called gold mining equities “a rational way to participate in what appears to be the end game for paper currencies on an attractive risk-adjusted basis.” After trailing the metals prices substantially since 2010, why do you think they are ready for a turnaround?

John Hathaway: Gold mining stocks have underperformed for a number of reasons. Gold ETFs created competition for gold stocks even as it made owning physical metal more attractive. Also, as gold flirted with $1,900 an ounce (oz), investors may not have priced that into the stocks as they weren’t convinced it would stick. Now that we have had a correction, investor analysis will show that the average price over time, as opposed to variable spot prices, is steadily rising-proof that industry profitability should also be on the rise. The best is yet to come for gold mining earnings as confidence in government monetary policy continues to erode.

Traveling Thom Calandra: Great Panther Seeks Victory at Guanajuato

TravelingThomCalandra (GUANAJUATO, Mexico) – Two underdog teams shared space on the Mexico return flight to the USA today: Pan-American Games baseball champion Team Canada and silver producer Great Panther Silver.

Team Canada, managed by former Toronto Blue Jays catcher Ernie Witt, told me USA, Cuba and Mexico are always the lead contenders. His Canada team snatched victory from Team USA in a 2-1 nail-biter Tuesday evening in Mexico.

Great Panther Silver (AMEX: GPL and TSX: T.GPR, Stock Forum) is poised to snatch victory in Guanajuato, a historic Mexico silver district. But that victory, beneficial to shareholders in my view, might be tinged with melancholy.

Bob Archer’s Great Panther Silver was the first small Canadian prospector to the city and surrounding region of Guanajuato. Bradford Cooke’s Endeavour Silver (NYSE: EXK and TSX: T.EDR, Stock Forum) followed closely in 2007. (Photo: Great Panther’s Robert Archer at the entrance to Guanajuato Mine Complex this week – Thom Calandra photo)

Both have been among the Mexico silver producers’ fastest up-and-comers on their way to mid-tier status of five million or more ounces yearly. First Majestic (TSX: T.FR, Stock Forum) gets top honors in that category.

In Great Panther’s case, the bucks, or growth, slowed in this year’s second and third quarters. “In 2009, when you were first here,” Mr. Archer tells me in this week’s mine tour, “we had a lot of assumptions built into our targets. Factor in a 33 percent drop in grades (vs. Q3 2010 at Guanajuato) and that is quite a production drop.”  In fact, slower than forecast mine development and a few exploration holes that were clunkers led to a 24 percent drop year to year in metal production at the picturesque hillside town’s labyrinth of rich silver and gold veins.

Advanced Explorations Discovers 63.85% Iron at Tuktu

Advanced Explorations (OTC Other: ADEXF; TSX-V: AXI) has reported the first set of assay results from the 2011 geophysical prospecting program at the Tuktu Iron Project located within 60 km north of the Company’s Roche Bay Iron Project on the east coast of the Melville Peninsula, Nunavut. High grade samples of 63.85% and 62.26% iron respectively were taken from banded iron formation (“BIF”) on the HABS 2 claim located approximately 6 km from the south-east portion of the Tuktu deposit where a 2011 drill program is about to deliver an initial NI 43-101 compliant resource estimate.

According to John Gingerich, President and CEO, “We are very encouraged by this recent high grade discovery at our Tuktu Project as we believed to see similar grades as Baffin Island’s Mary River deposit within our property, based on the steadily increasing iron values found during this summer’s drill program. The sample results clearly indicate a potential for direct ship ore from Tuktu and with the feasibility study for the Roche Bay Project’s C Zone near completion, these impressive results for Tuktu add further production dimensions to the Roche Bay Project. Considering its close proximity, high grade ore mined at Tuktu could be direct shipped using Roche Bay infrastructure. As Roche Bay is at a very advanced stage, this discovery also adds significant flexibility to the development scenarios within the Melville Peninsula iron district.”

Read More