IKN #395Premium

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The IKN Weekly
Week 395, December 11th 2016
Contents
This Week: In today’s issue, Ideas welcome for the 2017 Copper Basket and Producer Basket,
Fedwatch, Quiet blog next week (again), Gold and its friends this week.
Fundamental Analysis: Two Nicaragua ideas.
Stocks to Follow: Overview, Red Eagle (R.to), Wesdome Gold (WDO.to), Starcore Intl
(SAM.to), Rye Patch Gold (RPM.v), Sandstorm Gold (SAND) (SSL.to), Continental Gold (CNL.to),
Cordoba Minerals (CDB.v), Tinka Resources (TK.v), Lara Exploration (LRA.v), Excellon
Resources (EXN.to).
Copper Basket: Overview, Ivanhoe (IVN.to), Copper Mountain (CMMC.to), Hot Chili (HCH.ax).
Low Cost Producer Basket: Overview, Sibanye Gold (SBGL).
Regional Politics: Argentina: Mining tax fun, Nicaragua: A close escape for 26 miners,
Nicaragua: Mining is now the best paid industrial sector in the country, Ecuador: A new tax law
to benefit mining companies, Colombia: Government formalization plans for mining in Huila.
Market Watching: They all want big copper, Minera IRL: Diego Benavides named CEO,
Contact Gold is a name to watch in 2017.
I remind subscribers that no part of this newsletter can be copied, reproduced or
given to any third party without the express permission of the author.
This Week
In today’s issue
• It’s not the biggest of editions this weekend, a reflection perhaps of the end-of-year
feeling in the market and a gold price that hasn’t budged much. Or perhaps I’m just
lazy Perhaps the best piece is in ‘Regional Politics’ entitled “Argentina: Mining tax fun”.
IKN’s constant warnings of the fragile nature of Argentina’s economic and political
recovery hit a lot of deaf ears, perhaps this one will get your attention a little more.
• Copper stocks zoomed higher despite copper the metal essentially treading water. The
way that certain popular copper names traded last week looked very frothy to me, I’d
urge caution unless the metal pushes on.
• In this quiet week for fundies news I’m taking the opportunity to roll out a couple of
ideas covering one of the better mining jurisdictions in The Americas, the often under-
rated Nicaragua. That’s your fundies section today.
Ideas welcome for the 2017 Copper Basket and Producer Basket
It’s that wonderful time of the year, mistletoe and holly, the joy of receiving new socks, half-
finished bottles of oversweet alcoholic beverages, impromptu walks in cold air to avoid bitter
arguments with in-laws, children roasting by an open fire and let’s hope there’s enough
cranberry sauce to go round. It’s also the time when The IKN Weekly looks again at its “Low
Cost Producer Basket” and “Copper Basket” components, getting ready to swap out some of the
names and bring in others.
As usual, I have a few ideas already cooking. For example in The Copper Basket we obviously
1

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need to get rid of the bought-out Reservoir Minerals, but the way in which the market caps of
both HudBay and Ivanhoe have expanded means they’re simply too big for the purposes of
following the junior end of the sector, as is our normal wont. To replace those I’ve already
thought of a few names and I’m happy to say there’s more real choice than this time last year.
Also, I’m still okay about having a smattering of small producers in there these days (ATY, ARG
etc) but the market caps have to be much lower than HBM or IVN.
So to the point of this opener (the message will get a small repeat in the relevant sections
below, too): Although I have some ideas brewing for new names, I’d very much welcome
any ideas you might have. You may end up naming names I’m already considering, thereby
helping me make the final decision. Or you may come up with a company I haven’t considered
yet that’s a better idea than any of mine. Either way, a bit of collective brainwork would be
greatly appreciated so if you have a good idea, please drop me a line as the usual addresses.
P.S: As I’m travelling next week you’re more likely to get a reply from my private renrutkram
yahoo mailbox, as it’s the one hooked up to my low-end Samsung smartphone.
Fedwatch
Tuesday and Wednesday this week sees the FOMC December meeting, with the financial world
bating its breath 2pm Wednesday for the announcement (then Janet gives a presser at
2:30pm). That same financial world now has a 0.25% rate increase fully baked into our pie but
there’s now an outside chance that The Fed takes a bigger bite and raises by 0.5%. As things
stand (and using gold as our gauge) even 0.25% may slightly disappoint the Trump Rallyists
and seeing gold move up on that number wouldn’t surprise me. However, as important as any
headline number will be the guidance in the FOMC communique so until we read the words
there’s no call being made here.
If so desired, keep tabs on the whole build-up plus intelligent commentary on the fallout by
checking in on Bill McBride at Calculated Risk (1).
Quiet blog next week (again)
Sometimes I’m full of blogging beans and pumping out eight posts a day and other times, for
example the last couple of weeks, I get hit by a lack of oomph to blog a lot. And it shows. Next
week will also be quiet on the blog but this time for logistical reasons, as Monday through
Thursday I’m on the Continental Gold (CNL.to) site visit to its newly permitted Buriticá mine in
Colombia. This does of course mean that next weekend’s main event is just about set in stone
already, a site visit report with all photos, script, bells and whistles.
Gold and its friends this week
It was another tough one for the precious metals sector, with all our standard benchmarks
(GLD 1.6% down, GDX 3.3% down, GDXJ 3.6% down) losing ground. Here below are the two
charts featured this time last week, the normal GLD inventories chart since Brexit and the new
inventory/price ratio chart, both showing further deterioration (GLD holdings now at 857.47
metric tonnes, its lowest since May 18th). Data here (2).
GLD gold holdings, Brexit to date (metric tonnes)
1000
980
960
940
920
900
880
860
840
820
800
2
61/22/6 61/82/6 61/5/7 61/11/7 61/51/7 61/12/7 61/72/7 61/2/8 61/8/8 61/21/8 61/81/8 61/42/8 61/03/8 61/6/9 61/21/9 61/61/9 61/22/9 61/82/9 61/4/01 61/01/01 61.01.41 61/02/01 61/62/01 61/1/11 61/7/11 61/11/11 61/71/11 61/32/11 61/03/11 61/6/21
GLD: Inventory/Price Ratio, Brexit to date
mt 8.2
8.1
8.0
7.9
7.8
7.7
7.6
7.5
7.4
source: SPDR GLD data 7.3
7.2
61/22/6 61/82/6 61/5/7 61/11/7 61/51/7 61/12/7 61/72/7 61/2/8 61/8/8 61/21/8 61/81/8 61/42/8 61/03/8 61/6/9 61/21/9 61/61/9 61/22/9 61/82/9 61/4/01 61/01/01 61.01.41 61/02/01 61/62/01 61/1/11 61/7/11 61/11/11 61/71/11 61/32/11 61/03/11 61/6/21
Source: SPDR data

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The mining sector seems to have settled into an end-year funk. We’re at the zenith of tax loss
selling (though it hasn’t had a big impact this year, Friday may have seen latecomers booking
credits) while gold has fallen out of fashion as the casino players hail the greatest President
since Reagan who has already made America Great Again even before taking office, no doubt
or question. So gold gets shuffled back to the periphery of the action and has a period of year-
end grinding down. So be it, but the net result is a sector that’s lost momentum and is now
limping to January 1st at which point everything will become wonderful again, of course.
Fundamental Analysis of Mining Stocks
Two Nicaragua ideas
As long-term readers should know, I’ve been a fan of Nicaragua as a jurisdiction in which to do
mining or exploration for quite a while. Its score first improved in the quarterly Regional Risk
Review and has since consolidated well, mining activity is promoted by the Daniel Ortega
government (which is nobody’s idea of a perfect democracy but can be reasonably categorized
as a benign quasi-dictatorship that’s done well for Nicaragua on macro-economic and social
scales), if you’re in the right places mining is welcomed by locals, plus it’s geological
endowment is rich and it’s still very under-explored. It’s easily the best place to go mining in
the Central America States region and I’ve been looking for exposure there for quite a while,
aside of course from my interest in B2Gold and its La Libertad and Limón operations, part of its
wider global footprint.
The problem is that up to now I’ve not found a decent vehicle, but that might have changed. I
now have not one but two ideas that I like enough to commit to publication, at least on a
preliminary watchlist level (I’m not a buyer of either just yet.
1) There’s a new deal in town on a junior with established exploration projects in
Nicaragua and the new package looks more interesting to me.
2) The closure of a deal in the Central America zone, plus the corporate connections to a
junior working Nicaragua, makes for a potential M&A play.
So let’s reveal the ideas.
Caza Gold (CZY.v) and Royal Road (RYR.v)
On Tuesday Royal Road Minerals (RYR.v) announced (3) its friendly deal to purchase Caza Gold
(CZY.v). Here’s how that NR starts:
December 6, 2016 – Toronto, Ontario: Royal Road Minerals Limited (TSXV:RYR) (“Royal Road
Minerals” or the “Company”) announced today that its board of directors and the board of
directors of Caza Gold Corp. (TSXV:CZY) (“Caza”) have approved a proposed business
combination by way of a friendly offer that Royal Road Minerals’ intends to make to acquire 100%
of the outstanding common shares of Caza, and that Royal Road Minerals and Caza have signed
a support agreement pursuant to which Caza’s board of directors has unanimously agreed to
support the Royal Road Minerals offer.
Highlights of the Transaction
For each Caza common share, Royal Road Minerals intends to offer 0.16 of a Royal Road
Minerals ordinary share. Royal Road Minerals expects to issue approximately 22,608,321
ordinary shares pursuant to the transaction (assuming no exercise of any Caza options or
warrants), representing approximately 34% of Royal Road Minerals’ current outstanding ordinary
shares.
The board of directors of Caza has unanimously determined that the Royal Road Minerals
proposed offer is in the best interests of Caza’s shareholders, and unanimously recommends that
the Caza shareholders tender their common shares to the offer, if and when made by Royal Road
Minerals in accordance with the support agreement.
The proposed offer is also supported by Caza’s largest shareholder, Polygon Mining Opportunity
Master Fund (“Polygon”) and by Caza’s directors and officers that hold Caza common shares,
and Polygon and these directors and officers have each entered into a lock-up agreement with
Royal Road Minerals and have agreed to tender all of their Caza common shares to the offer, if
and when made by Royal Road Minerals in accordance with the support agreement. Collectively,
these supporting shareholders beneficially hold an aggregate of 116,345,568 Caza common
shares representing approximately 82.3% of the outstanding Caza common shares on both a
non-diluted and fully-diluted “in the money” basis.
3

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First let’s consider the pro-forma share count of “New RYR”. As things stand RYR has 66.7m
shares out (F/D 95.6m). Once 22.61m shares are added from the transaction, New-RYR is an
89.31m S/O company. I also understand that part of the transaction will be an approximate
$3m financing to fund up New-RYR that will be coordinated by CZY’s main shareholder Polygon,
though Polygon itself won’t be a participant (or if it is, it will be a minor taker). So I’m going to
assume that financing happens at 10c, which means 30m extra shares in the mix. That gives
me the approximate share count of 119.3m...let’s round it up to 120m.
I’m also led to under stand that Polygon, the current 77.5% major holder of CZY, doesn’t want
to make the same mistake of holding an overwhelming portion of the newco and will limit itself
to 19.9% of New-RYR. As Polygon would have pro-rata 17.4m shares of RYR, that would be
14.5% of the company without the 30m share financing and gives Polygon some space to add
to its position without becoming a Control Person (about 6.5m shares worth if it wants).
All this is good. One of the things that put me off of owning CZY previously is that big position
held by Polygon. To hear that they want to be around and sponsor New-RYR and its team, led
up by Tim Coughlin and Peter Mullens, is good but hearing that Polygon is going minority holder
is even better.
Another thing that put me off about owning CZY previously was the lack of project momentum
it produced, combined with a relatively heavy cash burn. These two charts give an idea of the
larger spreadsheet data and show the burn rates involved:
CZY.v: Cash treasury per qtr
4
3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
These charts cover the period in which Polygon has been the main sponsor and provider of
cash. In fact, if you count up the cash injections made by Polygon into CZY so far they come to
around $7m, including the latest you can see as that long-term liability on the chart right, a
U$500k loan payable in 2018 (they didn’t want to buy any more shares in 2016). Count that in
(and you should it was a cash injection and used by management) and not only is CZY running
on fumes today, but it has a working capital deficit of over $1.2m. Therefore to see Polygon
willing to exchange its embedded $7m or so for around $1.75m of RYR shares catches the eye,
it strongly suggests Polygon is fed up throwing money at the current CZY team and want to
change the way things are being done. Even a fund that “likes the rock” such as Polygon will hit
a limit to its patience with a team that costs too much to cover and doesn’t produce much in
the way of actionable results (and yes, I am trying to be as diplomatic as possible, how did you
guess? ☺).
As for RYR, its main assets are its frontmen Coughlin and Mullens, who have worked as a team
on several projects and have made many significant discoveries. RYR got a recent mention on
these pages, as it’s the exploreco working the Southwestern corner of Colombia and was one of
the presenting companies at the Colombia Gold Symposium in November. There were things to
like about RYR and its Colombia assets, because its concessions are obviously very prospective
and begging to be explored in detail and best targets developed and moved forward. But to cut
a long story short it wasn’t a story for me at the moment because that particular corner of
Colombia in the far Southwest backing onto the Ecuador border is still politically very hot and is
4
31q4 41q1 41q2 41q3 41q4 51q1 51q2 51q3 51q4 61q1 61q2 61q3
source: company filings
srallod
fo
snoillim
CZY.v: Liabilities Breakdown per qtr
2
1.8
1.6
1.4
1.2
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
31q4 41q1 41q2 41q3 41q4 51q1 51q2 51q3 51q4 61q1 61q2 61q3
C$m
LT liab
current liab
source: company filings

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set to remain that way in the medium-term future, even after the implementation of the
recently signed peace agreement. It’s going to stay difficult and outright dangerous to get
geology boots on the ground, at least for a while, so although I greatly respect the RYR team it
was marked as a pass until further notice.
That further notice is today, as with this deal RYR will get access to a lot of very prospective
land that they can actually explore safely, instead of sitting on their hands until the political risk
situation on their (Colombia) concessions calms down. I managed to have a quick exchange
with Tim Coughlin last week and on what he plans for the CZY properties and without going
into details (unfair because the conversation is off-record), it’s clear that Coughlin likes the
geology a lot and will be able to bring new ideas and different strategies to those used by CZY
to date. And all at a far lower burn cost to the company. But one aspect of the conversation
that I can mention is how Coughlin, like I and many others, sees great advantage in securing
quality concession acreages at this moment in the mining cycle and this deal gives them exactly
that opportunity.
And that sums up the way I see this new deal: In “New-RYR” we’re getting a project with reach
in Nicaragua and Colombia, large swathes of exploration ground, a first class brains trust and
cash and a sponsor that will be happy to
take a back seat and let the RYR team
take control. It’s also a nominal bargain
for the current RYR, with Polygon having
been willing to spend $7m there and
value their position at less than $2m in
the deal. We’re looking at a company set
to have around $4m in treasury and
120m shares out once the deal is closed,
so the current share price, fluctuating
between 9c and 11c, looks a vert
reasonable entry point for anyone with
risk capital and a longer-term timeframe
which will allow Coughlin/Mullens to do
their thing.
Calibre Mining (CXB.v) and Orla Mining
The second idea is more conceptual at this point and it’s also less of a long-term sponsorship of
good explorers, more a nearer-term dice-throw on possible merger and acquisition action. The
two sides of the story are Orla Mining (OLA.v), a new company set up by Pierre Lassonde and
featuring a quality management team (CEO Marc Prefontaine, ex-Grayd) that’s just closed on its
first deal, the purchase of Pershimco (ex-PRE) in order to develop its promising (but with
potential community issues) Cerro Quema property in Panama.
OLA.v has made no secret of the fact that it wants to expand and become a larger player in the
mining space so it’s fair to assume the Pershimco deal is the first of several others. And this is
where the concept of it buying Calibre Mining (CXB.v) comes in, please consider the following:
• OLA is already in Panama, CXB is also a Central America footprint with its flagship
properties in Nicaragua. The geography is a fit (a New B2Gold in the making?).
• OLA.v was set up by Pierre Lassonde, a man who doesn’t think small. It just so
happens that Lassonde owns 13% of CXB and has family on the CXB board of directors.
For backroom driver of both companies Pierre Lassonde, such a deal makes sense
because in one stroke it would reduce his cost average in OLA to close to zero and from
that point own shares using OPM, a favourite strategy.
5

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• The other big holder of CXB is B2Gold, which has just closed a land ownership deal with
CXB and given the smaller company 100% ownership of two of its flagship properties in
exchange for shares (4). Not only has this made the asset ownership structure of CXB
cleaner, but it means B2Gold owns around 18.5% of shares out.
• It’s something of an open secret now that B2Gold (BTO) wants to sell its Limón and La
Libertad mines in Nicaragua (we’ve mentioned this on a few occasions on these pages
previously. This makes corporate sense for BTO as it shifts gears to become a Tier 2
miner with three and then four large, low costs mines which will make it a very
attractive M&A target a couple of years down the line. Selling its minor operations (as
well as wanting to sell its 49% of Gramalote in Colombia) is intelligent, it makes itself
more attractive and with less hair for a major miner buyer. Therefore, wouldn’t it make
sense that BTO sells on its 18.5% of CXB as well? If it wants to leave Nicaragua and
streamline its corporation, it’s just another logical step to take.
• If you put these two together, over 31% of voting stock is covered and that would
make any merger much easier to get through. Add in OLA’s stated growth ambitions
and the geography involved, plus the way CXB just got much cleaner in its ownership
thanks to it closing its own deal with BTO, and there are many signposts pointing in the
same direction.
And that, in a nutshell, is the concept behind a trading position in CXB. I want to make it clear
that I have no special inside information on this, it’s more an idea that’s been germinating in
my head for a while and now, with the
closure of the Pershimco/Orla deal
happening at nearly the same time as last
week’s closure of the Calibre/B2Gold deal,
the time is right to lay out the theory. I’m
not a buyer of CXB yet, for one thing it
would be a strange time of year to do
such a merger deal and for another, I’m
not in the mood to commit more cash to
this dreary market aside from my planned
small opener in Red Eagle. But the idea
will definitely stand into 2017 so if you
open an edition of The IKN Weekly in the
new year and read that I’m a buyer of
CXB, don’t be surprised.
Stocks to Follow
It wasn’t all bad and with four weekly winners to leaven the burden (SAM.to, CDB.v, RRI.v,
LRA.v) as well as one unchanged stock (FCV.v) we can rightfully claim to have beaten the
averages this week, but it was still a drudge of a week with nine losers overall. Not naming
them all, just the bigger percentage losses in Regulus (REG.v down 8.1%) and Tinka (TK.v
down 6.4%), so no big losers either (and Regulus bounces around on thin volumes these days
so that one really doesn’t worry me at all).
I didn’t pick up any Red Eagle (R.to) on my “75c or less starter position” plan, which means
we’re still at 14 open positions on the ‘Stocks to Follow’ list, one less than our self-imposed
maximum number at any given time. Ten of the positions are in the green, four in the red.
6

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company Ticker this week Avg Price Reco date Current PPS Gain/Loss% Notes
TOP PICKS
B2Gold BTO.to STR buy C$2.11 12-sep-14 C$3.16 49.8% tgt $5.30 IKN375, good Q3
Regulus Res REG.v hold C$0.64 06-apr-15 C$1.24 93.8% LT exploreco top pick
Starcore Intl SAM.to buy C$0.61 10-jan-15 C$0.50 -18.0% $1.04 tgt, very poor Nov'16
Long positions (in current order of preference)
Sandstorm Gold SAND STR buy U$3.80 17-apr-16 U$3.84 1.1% $7 tgt IKN378, cheap
Tinka Res TK.v buy C$0.195 19-apr-16 C$0.22 12.8% Under-radar Zn, annoying
Wesdome Gold WDO.to selling C$1.72 22-may-16 C$2.36 37.2% Will sell at $2.88
Cordoba Min. CDB.v buy C$0.73 15-sep-16 C$0.80 9.6% $1.50 tgt added IKN392
Excellon Res EXN.to spec buy C$1.71 09-oct-16 C$1.39 -18.7% Hit by Ag sell-off, $3.13 tgt
Atico Mining ATY.v STR buy C$0.51 24-jul-16 C$0.79 54.9% New tgt $1.36, Cu play
Rye Patch Gold RPM.v buy C$0.32 02-sep-16 C$0.245 -23.4% 75c tgt, added IKN388
Riverside Res RRI.v buy C$0.39 27-jun-16 C$0.48 23.1% Added IKN380, 60c tgt
Continental Gold CNL.to hold C$2.68 22-may-16 C$4.34 61.9% Site visit, then decision
Lara Expl. LRA.v hold C$1.15 08-apr-12 C$1.16 0.9% solid biz model
Focus Ventures FCV.v hold C$0.23 01-jul-12 C$0.06 -73.9% refi news good
Short positions
None at present
Closed in 2016 closed close price
Phoscan Chem FOS.to jan16 C$0.28 29-mar-15 C$0.265 -5.4% Buyout trade, bot but poor deal
True Gold TGM.v jan16 C$0.18 23-aug-15 C$0.25 38.9% okay trade, sold on pol risk
McEwen Mining MUX jan16 U$1.09 25-jan-15 U$1.20 10.1% sold due to lack of value
Lake Shore Gold LSG.to feb-16 C$1.10 07-apr-15 C$1.69 53.6% bot out, sold early in process
Atacama Pacific ATM.v feb-16 C$0.19 26-apr-15 C$0.40 110.5% sold for a double on big pop
New Gold NGD feb-16 U$2.06 24-jan-16 U$2.96 43.7% closed good near-term trade
Sandspring Res SSP.v mar-16 C$0.195 18-oct-15 C$0.32 64.1% Hit tgt, took profit
Teranga Gold TGZ.to mar-16 C$0.54 15-feb-15 C$0.60 11.1% disappointing trade
B2Gold BTG mar-16 U$0.85 13-jan-16 U$1.30 52.9% Separate trade on B2, hit tgt
Dalradian Res DNA.to mar-16 C$0.67 27-oct-13 C$1.00 49.3% Hit target, sold, good win
HudBay Min. HBM may-16 U$4.10 03-apr-16 U$4.36 -6.3% Short trade, poor timing
Nevada Sunrise NEV.v may-16 C$0.185 28-feb-16 C$0.23 24.3% V. small, no big deal either way
Richmont RIC jun-16 U$7.60 01-may-16 U$9.30 22.4% near-term trade, profit taken
INV Metals INV.to jul-16 C$0.25 03-apr-16 C$0.95 280.0% Trade closed on time
HudBay Min. HBM aug16 U$4.98 09-jun-16 U$4.80 3.6% short trade covered, no big deal
Miranda Gold MAD.v oct-16 C$0.125 03-jul-16 C$0.10 -20.0% tiny spec trade, didn't work
Avino G & S ASM nov-16 U$2.00 21-oct-16 U$1.40 -30.0% Abandon trade on bad bot deal
2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015 closed positions in appendices below
Now for some notes on current basket stocks:
Red Eagle (R.to): Will try to buy again next week. It’s not a part of the basket yet but
I’m putting in a mention today because I want it to be, at least on a smaller-sized initial
position. R.to shares spiked down twice to exactly 75c, the top limit of where I would buy, but I
didn’t get any on either occasion. Apart from those moments the stock played cutiepie tease
with me all week, trading at 76c and 78c. So be it, not in a hurry to take their price and I’ll look
for mine. However it’s going to be difficult to follow the market next week due to the CNL site
visit, so even though I’m not a big fan of them and try not to use them, I’ll probably stick in a
couple of fixed price bids to see if they fill. That’ll be me at 70 and 73.
In real news, R.to gave us results of its infill drilling at San Ramón on Tuesday (5) and once
again they were good, with cuts such as these from the current ore stopes (ripped straight from
7

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the NR)...
SRD-0054 – 3.92m at 12.83 g/t Au from 50.78m down hole (incl. 1.40m at 30.70 g/t Au)
SRD-0068 – 2.90m at 27.35 g/t Au from 69.90m down hole
SRD-0083 – 4.05m at 10.45 g/t Au from 68.30m down hole
SRD-0091 – 2.40m at 23.34 g/t Au from 72.60m down hole
SRD-0093 – 12.60m at 16.47 g/t Au from 89.90m down hole (incl. 0.50m at 83.60 g/t Au)
...adding confidence to the R.to position that once commercial production begins in 1q17 we
can look forward to some positive reconciliation of grades and a resulting better than planned
production schedule. Recall that the mine plan has San Ramón running at 50k for the first year
and 75k for year two. The IKN model (see IKN393 last week) plans in 70k for year one and
100k for year two.
Wesdome Gold (WDO.to): Still selling at $2.88. Same message, even though we crept
just a little further away from my sell number. As you were.
Starcore (SAM.to): Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time that SAM.to has inexplicably missed
announcing a quarterly production number (I’ve seen it happen two other times since 2014).
The thing that grates here is the inconsistency; these days most mining companies give a
quarterly production number a few
weeks before they file their
quarterly results, however a few
don’t and that’s okay, it’s not
obligatory anyway. But when a
company has a regular policy of
announcing a production number
and then suddenly doesn’t, it
smacks of poor professionalism.
It’s another reason why I’m going
to find it easy to demote SAM.to
from Top Pick when this quarter’s
financial results are posted and that
should be this week (last year SAM
filed the equivalent quarter on
December 15th, two years ago it
was December 9th; those were Q1s and this will be a Q2 due to the change in financial year, so
nothing to stop them there).
It’s a little brighter in trading, though, with SAM coming off the 45.5c floor and was doing well
until the Friday sectorwide dumpage stopped the rebound in its tracks (and again, lack of
volume did for the stock). I was pretty freakin’ desolate about SAM a couple of weeks ago and
although at least the price is in better
shape, I obviously have a decision to
make here. The 2q17 financials and MD&A
will be the buy/hold/reduce/sell catalyst.
Rye Patch Gold (RPM.v): The Friday
weakness caught up with RPM shares,
which was a shame because as seen in
this five day chart the stock had started a
mini-rally on increased volume just before
then. In this way a 10% weekly winner is
quickly converted into a weekly loser, such
is the nature of the shares in which we
dabble. But succour can be taken from
this action; Last week was a bit of a weird
8

,
one with capital leaving precious metals names as if they were radioactive and buying up the
most popular copper/base metals names with gleeful abandon. It would take very little to see
gold pop back $20 and from the signals put out by RPM, it’s ready to bounce back higher.
Sandstorm Gold (SAND): On Friday afternoon SAND filed a short form base shelf prospectus
(6), for the offering of up to U$200m in capital raisings over the next 25 months, the type of
paperwork which allows the company to raise capital quickly and efficiently at their chosen
moment. Similarly to the filing made by Red Eagle (R.to) recently, this filing doesn’t mean that
SAND is about to go to market and run a large placement, in fact the timing of filing this
document in December makes that very unlikely indeed (it’s not the time to go to market in the
mining financial cycle). It doesn’t mean they’ll rise the full $200m either, but it does mean
SAND is thinking hard about its next capital raising moment and added to this, it still has that
untapped U$110m revolver it can use at a moment’s notice, as well as increasing cash at bank.
Stick those together and it becomes clear that SAND is thinking big in 2017 and is looking to
add something large to its portfolio (i.e. it doesn’t need to file a prospectus to buy something of
up to U$120m in value tomorrow morning).
Continental Gold (CNL.to): Next week I’ll be thinking a lot about CNL, what with being on
the site visit to Buriticá conducted by the CNL team and led by the suave, worldy-wise Ari
Sussman himself. You can expect the full site
visit write up next weekend in a weekly that’s
bound to be more interesting than this one.
In trading, CNL had a strange week. It found
real bid momentum midweek and then moved
higher Friday morning when most PM stocks
were fading. I thought it might even make a
run on the $5 level (not seen since March
2014) and there may be undisclosed news
floating around, only for the run to come to a
screeching halt midday Friday and reverse
sharply as buyers vacated the scene and a
chunky sized big seller apparently took profits.
The five day chart that compares CNL to the
Gold and Silver Index (XAU) above tells the story and the strong pop Wednesday (plus follow-
through Thursday and Friday morning) may be due to there apparently being a site visit to
Buriticá by a company newly under CA which is considering making a move on CNL. In other
words, MUX isn’t the only potential bidder in the house any longer.
Cordoba Minerals (CDB.v): A pulse from CDB, which is good. It’s nice to see the stock price
with an 8-handle again but better still was the return of a bit of traded volume, particularly
Tuesday and Wednesday when all the low-70s prices were mopped up. Still waiting on drill
numbers, perhaps we’ll have to wait until 2017 now.
Tinka Resources (TK.v): It wasn’t the pop forward I was looking for from TK last week, at no
point did it threaten to break out from the six month old range and trades bounced it between
22.5c and 23.5c all week. Therefore its Friday fade to 22c was an outlier trade and I’d expect it
to perk back up in the week to come, but it’s going to need something else to break out. One of
these days one of the larger-circulation voices will latch onto the stock’s potential and it’ll fly.
Lara Exploration (LRA.v): LRA is back in favour and more stable after the out-sized selling
wave, which makes it easier to hold through. Back in the green by a penny on my list, big deal.
That’s about all.
Excellon Resources (EXN.to): This is the one I want to see news from in the next few days,
that brand new water pumping system is supposed to be up and running by now and it would
be good to get news on that. Trading was flat in the stock and if I stuck on my rose-tinted
9

,
specs could say that it’s now consolidating at what looks like a pretty firm base level, the logical
type of precursor for a rebound later. But maybe I’m just a hopeless romantic who refuses to
admit that I bought badly.
Riverside Resources (RRI.v): In the midst of a grey drab week for our Stocks to Follow, the
strongly positive NR from RRI stood out like a beacon. On Tuesday Afternoon RRI.v announced
(7) that it had done another deal on one of its early stage properties in Mexico, this time
optioning out the Clemente silver exploration property to Silver Viper, a so-far private company
run by the Orex people. The deal is a typical looking one, with Silver Viper earning up to 100%
of the property in staged payments. Here’s a NR snippet:
“...paying $750,000 in cash, 2,000,000 Silver Viper common shares and incurring $4,000,000 in
exploration expenditures within five (5) years. Riverside will retain a 2% net smelter returns
royalty (NSR).”
Of that little lot, RRI has already banked $40k in cash and has one million Silver Viper shares.
In other words, once again we see RRI working the Prospect Generator model very well. It gets
its hands on the Clemente Property via work on its own database and inexpensive staking, does
enough grassroots work to attract a buyer, and options it out to a decent company and
management team for cash, shares and plenty of forward payments that will keep its treasury
up and share dilution down. Very shareholder friendly stuff that allows for a big win if one of its
other JV deals hits a discovery (e.g. should be hearing from Centerra and Antofagasta
exploration teams soon enough).
The Copper Basket
After forty-nine weeks of 2016, The Copper Basket shows a 136.75% gain to level stakes.
company ticker price 1/1/16 Shares out Market Cap current pps gain/loss%
1 HudBay Min. HBM.to 5.31 235.23 2201.75 9.36 76.3%
2 Ivanhoe Mines IVN.to 0.61 778.96 2134.35 2.74 349.2%
3 Capstone Min. CS.to 0.44 382.04 504.29 1.32 200.0%
4 Reservoir Min. RMC.v 4.08 48.69 449.41 9.23 126.2%
5 NGEx Resources NGQ.to 0.65 205.06 246.07 1.20 84.6%
6 Copper Mtn CMMC.to 0.445 118.8 133.06 1.12 151.7%
7 Western Copper WRN.to 0.38 94.19 112.09 1.19 213.2%
8 Atico Mining ATY.v 0.28 97.59 77.10 0.79 182.1%
9 Trilogy Metals TMQ.to 0.395 104.33 74.07 0.71 79.7%
10 Cordoba Min. CDB.v 0.16 86.86 69.49 0.80 400.0%
11 Nevada Copper NCU.to 0.66 80.5 61.99 0.77 16.7%
12 Amerigo Res ARG.to 0.205 173.61 58.16 0.335 63.4%
13 Copper Fox CUU.v 0.125 417.64 54.29 0.13 4.0%
14 Hot Chili Ltd HCH.ax 0.09 445.723 17.38 0.039 -56.7%
15 Revelo Res. RVL.v 0.055 128.486 12.85 0.10 81.8%
NB: HCH.ax priced in AUD$, rest CAD$ Portfolio avg 136.75%
Before diving in, a note to add to the 140% The Copper Basket 2016, weekly evolution
announcement in the intro today: I’m 120%
considering the new make-up of the 2017 100%
Copper Basket at the moment, so if you have 80%
any good ideas for components please feel free 60%
to drop me a line with your suggestion. 40%
20%
So to business and after the breather of last 0%
week, copper names girded their loins and -20%
blasted higher, with special mention for the
producer companies again. Just two of our list
10
dr3naj ht71 ts13 ht41 ht82 ht31 ht72 ht01 ht42 ht8 dn22 ht5nuj ht91 dr3luj ht71 ts13 ht41 ht82 ht11 ht52 ht9 dr32 ht6von ht72 ht11
source: IKN calcs

,
went down (NGQ.to, ATY.v) and Reservoir was unchanged of course, which means the other
twelve were all winners and some of those big indeed. The charge was led by Copper Mountain
(CMMC.to up 41.8%), then Capstone (CS.to up 29.4%), Western Copper & Gold (WRN.to up
25.2%), sector hotpot Ivanhoe (IVN.to up 20.7%) and Amerigo (ARG.to up 13.6%).
And here’s the thing, all those big pops and the biggest single week percentage since March
came on the back of a copper price which did virtually nothing. Here the preferred near-dated
futures contract shows how prices tried and failed to break U$2.70/lb early week, then settled
into a reasonably tight range around $2.63/5. To get massive moves in the copper plays, and
notably the best moves were either in producers or highly liquid explorers, you’d normally need
significant impulse from the underlying metals but that wasn’t the case here. As I watched asks
getting pulled down without mercy and stocks like WRN and CMMC flying, it all looked a little
too much like hot money arriving late to a party for me, a reflection of the Trump Bull that’s
pushed the Dow close to the magic 20k number lately. I don’t trust this move in The Copper
Basket.
Here right is a chart I’ll occasionally use
on the blog but rarely on these pages,
the gold/copper ratio. The drop has been
precipitous since Trump won the vote
and it’s knocked the ratio back to where
it was in 2014 and early 2015 before
copper made its final dive to $2.00/lb.
After such a steep change it’s difficult to
predict the short-term, we could see
things level out here at 440X or we may
see 400X or a bit less, but even if we’re
not at the bottom we’re almost certainly
darned close to it. That would suggest
that copper won’t be able to make a next
leg move up until gold gets off the floor
and finds its own buyers.
Now for the regular weekly copper warehouse inventory bullets:
11

,
• Overall world copper inventory levels dropped again last week, this time down a more
substantial 23,329 metric tonnes (mt) (-5.3%) to finish at 417,101mt. Last week’s
move was no biggie, this week’s is bigger and it’s copper bullish, too.
• The SHFE Shanghai warehouse inventory dropped a modest 3,413mt (-2.5%) to finish
Friday at 131,950mt and the SHFE is beginning to consolidate its level.
• But the big drop came at the LME too where stocks dumped 20,700mt (-8.8%) and
finished the week at 213,325mt. That’s a hefty drop in stocks and the main talking
point of the week, as Chinese demand shows real macro strength all of a sudden.
• Comex stocks did their usual “up a bit” thing, quite the habit they’re forming. This time
stocks moved up 784mt (+1.1%) to finish Friday at 71,826mt.
Here’s the regular Shanghai-only chart and the drop to 100k now looks like history. It’s around
about now, just before Christmas, that SHFE sticks in its traditional low point. It may have
come early this year (could be global warming?). But before leaving the copper macro and
looking at a couple of stocks, one more datapoint about cancelled warrants at the LME which
jumped 8.4% last week to total 104,475mt, some 49% of all stocks in the LME warehouse
system. Now that’s a high number and it’s usually a bullish indicator.
Shanghai Futures Exchange Warehouse Stocks, 2014-2016
400000
350000
300000
250000
200000
150000
100000
50000
12
ht5naj ht61 ht03 ht11 dn22 dr3gua ht41 ht62 ht7ced ht81 ts1ram ht21 ht42 ht5luj ht61 ht72 ht8 ht02 ts13 ht31 ht42 ht5nuJ ht71 ht82 ht9 ht72
Mt Cu
source: Cochilco
Now for notes on a couple of the basket component stocks:
Ivanhoe Mines (IVN.to): USA sellside brokerage
Bernstein reportedly opened coverage on IVN
Friday morning and gave it a very chunky looking
$10 price target, which is almost certainly the
reason behind the contrarian upmove the stock put
in that day. However “re-opened” is probably more
accurate, as Bernstein pushed IVN hard in the
previous cycle up to the point when the base metals
mining names collapsed.
Anyway, the Bernstein reco on Friday was the cause
behind the stock’s big pop on Friday.
Copper Mountain (CMMC.to): Style over substance, it turns out that all CMMC had to do all
these years was to change that ticker symbol, right? Well it did help things along by coming out
on Tuesday with a “Two Month Operational Update” (8) (yes they’re that desperate for a pump
opportunity), which told us copper production for the first two months of Q4 was 14.4m lbs,
which is a little better than previous rates but not blowing away any numbers either. In the NR,
Pres/CEO Jim O’Rourke was quoted as saying, “The new production records being achieved at

,
the mine has greatly strengthened our operating base and our balance sheet. The recent rise in
copper price is a welcome change. In addition,
gold production continues to provide a strong
by-product credit”, Which sounds great but in
fact means very little.
Hardly the first time a stock pumped by every
sellside brokerage boiler room suddenly gains
traction and is suddenly propelled to a
massively overvalued market cap. It won’t be
the last, either. Still debt ridden, still barely
profitable even at these copper prices. Avoid.
Hot Chili (HCH.ax): What with everything
else running like the wind and what with this
one and its main Productora project using
U$3.00/lb copper to get its economic numbers up to scratch, it might be time HCH makes its
own belated run and catch-up with the rest of the world. After all, its share count may be
Pacific Ocean diluted but its market cap that really counts and at less than A$18m, you’re now
getting a lot of leverage bang for your buck. An optionality play on $3/lb copper for you,
fliptraders of the world may want to consider this as a vehicle.
The Low Cost Producer Basket
After 49 weeks of 2016, the Producer Basket shows a gain of 59.39% to level stakes.
company ticker price 1/1/16 Shares out Mkt Cap (Bn) current pps gain/loss%
1 Barrick ABX 7.38 1165.33 18.00 15.45 109.3%
2 Newmont NEM 17.98 530.595 17.40 32.79 82.4%
3 Goldcorp GG 11.56 832.381 10.99 13.20 14.2%
4 Franco Nevada FNV 45.75 178.01 10.04 56.39 23.3%
5 Agnico Eagle AEM 26.28 223.475 8.55 38.28 45.7%
6 Ang/Ashanti AU 7.10 405.27 4.32 10.67 50.3%
7 Buenaventura BVN 4.28 254.19 2.84 11.19 161.4%
8 Detour Gold DGC.to 14.41 174.06 3.18 18.29 26.9%
9 New Gold NGD 2.32 512.8 1.95 3.80 63.8%
10 Sibanye Gold SBGL 6.09 228.71 1.62 7.10 16.6%
Prices in U$/NYSE tickers, except DGC.to (CAD$) Portfolio avg 59.39%
Copper Yin/PM Yang and once again there was a split between larger caps that suffered less
(ABX down 1.3% on the week, NEM down 2.4%, GG down 2.7%) and the smallers that
suffered more (AEM down 6.9%, AU down 6.8%, SBGL down 16.2%). There were outliers to
those of course and Sibanye was one of them for its own reasons (see below). Also, there were
“just” eight losers on our list because New Gold (NGD up 4.7%) and Detour (DGC.to up 1.7%)
even managed to surprise us all and rebound from lows. Hell I dunno, it was a weird week.
The Low Cost Producer Basket: Weekly performance
200% and comparative to GDX control
180%
160%
140%
120%
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
-20%
13
dr3naj ht71 ts13 ht41 ht82 ht31 ht72 ht01 ht42 ht8 dn22 ht5nuj ht91 dr3luj ht71 ts13 ht41 ht82 ht11 ht52 ht9 dr32 ht6von ht72 ht11
Low Cost Basket: Percentage difference between
basket and GDX control, 2016
5%
0% basket
gdx control -5%
-10%
-15%
-20%
-25%
-30%
source: Google, IKN calcs -35%
-40%
ht01 ht42 ht7bef ts12 ht6 ht02 dr3rpa ht71 s1yam ht51 ht92 ht21 ht62 ht01 ht42 ht7gua ts12 t4peS ht81 dn2tco ht61 ht03 ht31 ht4ced
source: ikn calcs, NYSE/Nasdaq data

,
Thanks to the relatively decent display by the top half and those two lucky winners, the Basket
managed to absorb nearly all the outsized hit taken by SBGL and the gap between it and the
GDX benchmark only closed by a few hundredths. And before moving to this week’s featured
stock story, if you have any ideas for new member(s) of this basket in 2017, I’d love to hear
them from you. I don’t think we’ll be swapping many around in this particular basket, but two
or perhaps three could change.
Sibanye Gold (SBGL): SBGL has said for quite some time that it was looking to expand
operations. Not only that, but it had strongly flagged that it was shopping outside South Africa
and looking at locations with better political
risk profiles, so when on Friday it
announced (9) its all cash friendly bid for
Stillwater Mining (SWC) the news didn’t
really surprise. I thought the price tag of
U$2.2Bn cash looked pretty expensive (as
the NR points out, its 14X forecast EBIT for
2017) and wasn’t surprised to see the stock
price sink on the news, though the 15% hit
for a pretty solid operation and its mines
(as well as the Altar copper deposit in
Argentina) looks too harsh to me. It didn’t
help that SBGL managed to time the
announcement to the Friday dump in the
sector of course, but if you want a stock to
play a potential rebound next week, this one is my idea of a trade.
But the weird one is how SBGL shareholders are kvetching about the agreed price being to low.
There are even ambulance chaser firms opening potential class actions against the board of
SWC because they think they smell an (easy settlement?) buck or two. These people are crazy,
this is a more-than-full price offer and they should grab at it, both hands. And if they’re not
happy, just plough the amount of cash they’re about to get from the sale of their shares into
SBGL at U$7.10...that’s a no-lose trade if they’re so sure SWC is going cheap because if the
deal is called off they get the bounce back in SBGL, if it goes through they get all the cheapness
transferred into the new vehicle. Seriously, you can’t please anybody these days...
Regional politics
Argentina: Mining tax fun
One of the most interesting side-aspects of last week’s vote by Deputies to push through their
own tax reform laws that go against the plans of President Mauricio Macri, a law project that
includes the reinstatement of the 5% duty on mining exports, was the way it was under-
reported by English language press. Funny how such an important development in the country
and one that runs against the whole Macri agenda gets ignored by the Northern press, is it not?
In fact a search on Google this weekend only got me one article and that from the pro-lefty
Telesur (run by the Venezuelan government) (10) which of course warmly applauded the result
in its piece “Blow to Austerity Agenda as Argentine Opposition Pass Tax Law”. Here’s an extract,
which features comments from the ex-FinMin in the previous CFK government, Axel Kicillof:
While Macri called the law “irresponsible,” adding that he expects the Senate will
defeat the bill, Kicillof argued that the measure would actually help the Marci
government which has faced massive opposition to its increasingly harsh economic
policies. Kicillof said the bill “will put money in the pocket of the people" who have
received "all the blows they could" this year with increases in utility rates, inflation and
falling wages.
The new law raises the tax floor by 40 percent, meaning that single people would begin
paying income tax after earning US$27,700, whereas previously they paid taxes on
anything earned above US$18,800. For workers with at least two kids, the tax floor will
14

,
go from US$25,000 to US$36,300.
The new law seeks to reinstate a 5 percent tax in the mining sector, which Macri had
eliminated upon coming to office. It also imposes a 7.5 to 10 percent tax on the
gambling industry and imposes new taxes on short-term financial speculation
transactions.
First let’s explain that Macri comment on how he expects the Senate to kill the bill. For the law
project to become law, it has to get through three stages:
• Passed by Congress’s lower house, the Deputies
• Passed by Congress’s upper house, the Senate
• Signed off by President Macri
Of those, only the first happened last week and as things stand this weekend the law is deemed
“semi-approved” in Argentina (in Spanish, “media sanción”). The bill now goes to the upper
house, The Senate, at which it gets its debate and vote. In the above report Macri expects the
Senate will defeat the bill and relieve the pressure on him, but I really think “expect” is the
wrong verb and “hope” would be more apt. The Senate is made up of 72 seats and one leader
and in this case, a simple majority is needed to carry any motion. And here’s the rub, as the
current Senate has just 15 members who are from true government ranks and a full 55 that, in
political party terms at least, can be deemed opposition and of those 38 are from the Peronist
(PJ) or Kirchnerist (FpV) ranks. That doesn’t mean Macri is wrong though, because Senate
members normally vote according to their provincial regional agendas rather than on hardline
party political terms. But what we can say is that the way in which the Senate votes, come the
day of the debate (probably early next year, but it’s possible in 2016 as this Senator pointed out
today (11)), will be big political news in the country no matter if this law project prospers or
fails. If it does prosper it will go to the President who has right of veto. At that point he’ll almost
certainly use his veto but if he’s forced to do so it will be acutely embarrassing for him and his
political movement (that cannot be underestimated, it would considerably weaken his mandate
and his image of governability). And once again I point you to the congressional mid-term
elections at the end of 2017, already framed as a quasi-referendum on the Macri government
and if he loses that vote, all bets on Argentina are off.
To give an example of the vote reaction in Argentina, this report (12) gives the views of the
mining industry in the country. Here’s a translation:
The Salta Chamber of Mining warned of the lack of stability that the re-establishment of
the mining export duty would generate, because it would force a review of all growth
expectations.
It stated that the effect on future investments would be serious due to the loss of jobs
and because it would halt the Federal Mining Agreement being promoted by the
government.
The spokesman for the Argentina Chamber of Mining Business Persons (CAEM) and
president of the Salta Chamber of Mining, Facundo Huidobro, called for calm and
reason from the nation’s Upper House of Senators, due to the U$3.22Bn dollars
expected in investments in mining projects that mainly favour high altitude regions of
Salta province.
Huidobro said, “They (mining companies) are going to have to review a lot of the things
they’re doing. They will have to review mine life which manifests in fewer jobs, not to
mention the future jobs that were being forecast (for the sector). This (law) creates a lot
of uncertainty when it comes to investment. We call on the Senators to be reasonable
because we cannot get a mining agreement with export duties”.
To say the mining industry is worried about the way in which the nation’s Upper House votes is
an understatement of considerable proportions. They know what’s at stake here, even if it
hasn’t filtered through to the outside world of mining yet.
15

,
Bottom line: Last week’s vote by deputies to re-instate the mining export duty was a blow to
the Macri government’s image but it won’t be too bad as long as the Senate vote it down in the
weeks to come. However if it’s voted up (and even if you put a gun to my head I couldn’t make
a call on that, it looks 50/50 to me today) it will be a severe blow to Macri and his free market
plans for the country, no matter whether he signs it into law later (unlikely) or vetos the bill
(put money on it).
Nicaragua: A close escape for 26 miners
On Thursday December 8th at 01:13am a group of 26 miners at a privately operated gold mine
in Nicaragua were trapped underground when a tunnel support pillar gave way. According to
local reports (13) (14) (and there are plenty, this was page one national news ) it was
something of a miracle that none of them were killed in the cave-in at the mine, owned and
operated by Empresa Minera de Occidente (15), a private capitals company with several small
mining operations across Central America, but one of the miners is in hospital this weekend in a
serious condition, with head and neck injuries. After being reached by rescuers 21 or the 26
walked out on their own, the other five were trapped and needed further assistance.
Nicaragua: Mining is now the best paid industrial sector in the country
According to a report from the Nicaragua Central Bank this week (16), the mining sector (metal
and non-metallic including stone quarrying) has experienced the largest wage increases in the
country this year. Average salaries increased by 13.7% in the period January to August 2016,
compared to the same period in 2015, which compares to a nationwide all-sectors salary
increase of 2.5% in the same period. The average monthly salary in mining is now 19,602.7
Cordobas (NIO), approximately U$672 at this weekend’s exchange rate.
Colombia: Government formalization plans for mining in Huila
Huila is one of the 32 departments of Colombia and sits on the
Cauca belt of mineralization that has attracted most FDI in mining.
But to date everyone has stayed in the Middle Cauca regional
departments of Antioquia, Tolima and Cordoba (with a little in
Caldas) and the investment dollars haven’t reached Huila yet,
despite it being a traditional centre of mining activity. Reasons for
this include the lack of formalization as well as long-term terrorist
activity, but with the advent of the Peace Agreement between
government and FARC, the Colombian government is now moving
to cure the second ill in the region’s mining activity. According to
this report (18) in serious Colombian newspaper La Nacion, only 48
of Huila’s 713 mineral titles are currently hosting mining operations
and nearly all mining in the region is informal or illegal. The plan is
to formalize some 228 informal mining operations in the region
(that cover metal and non-metallic mining). To date, those mining
the deposits have refused to go formal because the paperwork is
complicated and very expensive (compared to incomes), so the plan
includes fast-tracking the permitting track and sponsoring the
formalization process so that it’s economically accessible. By doing
this, the government hopes to make Huila more attratctive to
foreign mining investment.
Ecuador: A new tax law to benefit mining companies
The Rafael Correa government last week sent a new law project to the Ecuador parliament
which has been a centre of debate in the country. Called the “Plusvalia Law” (17), it has several
initiatives for different economic sectors but the one we’ll concentrate on is the benefit planned
for the mining industry.
As the law stands today (and aside from the fact that each mining project eventually negotiates
its own deal with the government), the law states that the mining company starts paying
16

,
Windfall Tax (WFT) on earnings as soon as the company has recuperated its original investment
cash (capex), assuming of course that the metal price is above a pre-arranged level (e.g. right
now gold would have to go over U$1,480/oz approx for the WFT to kick in. The new law
proposes that WFT payments would not start until four years after capex is fully recovered by
he company. That’s a big break and would mean in effect that a company such as Lundin Gold
(LUG.to) at Fruta del Norte wouldn’t have a WFT bill to pay for the first eight to ten years of its
operations, no matter what the price of gold did.
Ecuador Mining Minister Javier Córdova commented on the new law in the press, saying that
the WFT is a problem for the image of Ecuador’s mining sector because there isn’t a similar law
in any other country (which is up for debate, but that’s what he told the local press at least). He
said, “The investor doesn’t look well on investment if there’s an excessive State burden,
therefore we have made this modification (proposal to the current law)”.
Market Watching
They all want big copper
A news story out of Chile Friday (19) got me thinking about how many times I’d heard the
same thing recently. Chile’s big mining company SQM is best known in English language circles
for its potash, lithium and iodine production lines it’s also a copper explorer in its home country,
with large concession areas to explore. But the new news is that it wants to go international
and has started the search abroad for large copper, copper-gold or even zinc (dedicated
followers of fashion).
Join the queue, that’s what I say. In South America alone, we have BHP running up and down
the Andean Codillera looking for its next big porphyry and joining in the hunt from Australia are
Newcrest (who recently secured a minority position in SolGold at Cascabel in Ecuador) and iron
ore miner Fortescue, which has secured large concession areas in the recent Ecuador auction
but is also reportedly looking for a big copper project all along the Andes. Then of course “the
Chinese”, then Friedland’s HPX looking in other corners such as Jamaica...the list goes on.
This is, of course, why I’m long in a couple of the best big copper juniors out there in Regulus
and Cordoba. When the big players realize that there are very few mega-sized copper porphyry
and/or skarn deposits out there in the hands of juniors, they’ll be making their way to the
handful of top ones.
Minera IRL: Diego Benavides named CEO
Although Lawrie Williams and I have some differing views on how the IRL saga played out, he
was absolutely correct to start his note last week (20) with these words:
“In a move that many will consider should have happened some time ago, Diego
Benavides – who has headed up the Minera IRL Peruvian operating company for some
years – has been accepted onto the parent company board and will be the company’s
new Chief Executive.”
Yes, it should have happened a long time ago but the the fact is that the usurpers who wanted
all the riches for themselves knew for a fact that Benavides would have blocked their nefarious
plans if he were in charge and/or a board member and refused to give him a place. But now
that the second set of selfish bastards have been sent packing (along with Frank O’Kelly who
did at least try to get Benavides on the board but was first blocked by the architects of the
shareholder-ripoff plans and then eventually went along with them), we have finally got Minera
IRL in the hands of the person who’s protected our rights all along. If anyone ever deserved the
title “right man for the job” it’s Benavides as CEO and director of IRL. At long last the company
is in safe hands and Ollachea can move forward and add value for all stakeholders, not just
self-serving Canadian criminals in suits.
17

,
As noted last weekend (21) I won’t be covering the company on the open blog any longer
because we can now expect a far more transparent company that will tell its own story well,
you won’t need me. But once the company is trading again we’re bound to re-start coverage of
Minera IRL here, with full analysis and so forth. Until re-listing then and once again, thanks are
due to all you shareholders out there for supporting the cause and fighting the good fight. The
good guys do win on occasion.
Contact Gold is a name to watch in 2017
Thursday December 8th saw the publication (22) of a long-ish and rather dry news release from
shell company Winwell Ventures, announcing that its deal to buy a large Nevada land package
from Waterton. Here’s how the NR starts:
Winwell Ventures Inc. ("Winwell") announces that it has agreed to complete a
series of transactions with Carlin Opportunities Inc. ("Carlin") and Waterton
Precious Metals Fund II Cayman, LP ("Waterton") that will result in Winwell
(after its continuance and change of name to "Contact Gold Corp." as
discussed below) acquiring Clover Nevada II LLC ("Clover Nevada") from a
subsidiary of Waterton (being, Waterton Nevada Splitter, LLC ("Waterton
Nevada")). Clover Nevada holds a portfolio of 2,762 unpatented mining claims
distributed over 13 gold properties located in Nevada (the "Carlin Trend
Properties"), including the Pony Creek, North Dark Star and Dixie Flats
properties. The proposed transactions will be effected through a securities
exchange agreement (the "Securities Exchange Agreement") and an
arrangement agreement (the "Arrangement Agreement"). The transactions
are conditional on Carlin and Winwell raising net proceeds of CAD$20,000,000
in financing transactions with closing occurring within 18 months, and other
customary conditions.
There’s plenty more in the release to consider so go and take a look, but what I want to do
more than anything is give the heads-up on this 2017 IPO-to-come (most likely in Q1). I’ve
heard good things about its properties and team from all the right people and when it rolls out
the marketing, you can rest assured it’s going to generate a lot more interest than last week’s
dry and straight NR.
Conclusion
IKN395 is done, we end with bullet points:
• Copper the metal may have found a new and sustainable level, but the moves made by
a lot of the copper stocks look blow-off toppy to my eyes, the type that comes from
late, larger money. If copper metal prices push on they can be justified, but if not
there’s a good chance we’ll see burned fingers soon.
• The Macri government turns one year old today, but the signals coming from the
country this week don’t fit with the Utopian ideal of the ‘New Argentina’ promoted by
people who want to exchange their company shares for your money. Be very careful.
• I’m off to pack a backpack for three nights in Colombia. Next week, expect the full
show on CNL.
I thank you in advance for any feedback. Our Top Pick stocks are Regulus (REG.v), B2Gold
(BTG) (BTO.to) and Starcore Intl (SAM.to). Flash updates will be sent if required by events.
I wish you good trading fortune, ladies and gentlemen. Namaste.
Mark
18

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Footnotes, appendices, references, disclaimer
(1) http://www.spdrgoldshares.com/usa/historical-data/
(2) http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/
(3) http://www.royalroadminerals.com/press-release-6th-december-2016/
(4) http://finance.yahoo.com/news/calibre-completes-acquisition-primavera-gold-194500720.html
(5) http://finance.yahoo.com/news/red-eagle-mining-intersects-12-103000598.html
(6) http://www.sedar.com/DisplayProfile.do?lang=EN&issuerType=03&issuerNo=00025297
(7) http://finance.yahoo.com/news/riverside-resources-options-clemente-silver-151000727.html
(8) https://www.cumtn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/161206_Operational_Update.pdf
(9) http://finance.yahoo.com/news/sibanye-acquire-stillwater-mining-company-060400304.html
(10) http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Blow-to-Austerity-Agenda-as-Argentine-Opposition-Pass-Tax-Law-20161208-
0002.html
(11) http://www.lanacion.com.ar/1966017-ganancias-un-senador-del-fpv-anticipo-que-propondra-cambios-en-el-
proyecto-opositor-para-atenuar-el-impacto-fiscal
(12) http://www.cadena3.com/contenido/2016/12/09/Preocupa-a-las-mineras-la-restitucion-de-las-retenciones-
174204.asp
(13) http://www.lajornadanet.com/index.php/2016/12/10/26-mineros-en-peligro-de-morir-tras-derrumbe-en-mina-de-
chontales-nicaragua/
(14) http://www.lavozdelsandinismo.com/nicaragua/2016-12-10/explica-rosario-accidente-de-empresa-minera-de-
occidente/
(15) http://grupoemo.com/grupoemo/
(16) http://www.elnuevodiario.com.ni/economia/412747-salario-real-sector-minero-que-mas-crece/
(17) http://www.elcomercio.com/actualidad/proyecto-leydeplusvalia-preocupacion-constructores.html
(18) http://www.lanacion.com.co/index.php/columnas-opinion/editorial/item/280845-formalizacion-minera
(19) http://www.aminera.com/2016/12/10/sqm-mira-opciones-exterior-buscar-cobre-oro/
(20) https://lawrieongold.com/2016/12/05/benavides-new-minera-irl-ceo/
(21)incakolanews.blogspot.com/2016/12/minera-irl-to-blanket-answer.html
(22) http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/winwell-ventures-announces-proposed-acquisition-nevada-gold-
properties-from-waterton-2182049.htm
19

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Stocks To Follow Closed Positions 2015
Closed in 2015 closed close price
Argonaut Gold AR.to jan'15 C$1.47 14-dec-14 C$2.53 72.1% Big gain small time, profit taken
Amerigo Res ARG.to jan'15 C$0.405 20-jul-14 C$0.285 -29.6% Given up on weak Cu prices
Reservoir Min. RMC.v jan'15 C$6.05 18-jun-14 C$4.12 -31.9% sold on Cu downturn
Coro Mining COP.to jan'15 C$0.075 26-jan-14 C$0.035 -53.3% sm, sold on Cu downturn
Fortuna Silver FSM mar'15 U$4.12 10-nov-14 U$3.75 9.0% Short used as hedge
GoldQuest Min. GQC.v mar'15 C$0.26 27-oct-13 C$0.085 -67.3% given up ghost
Rio Alto Mining RIO.to apr'15 C$2.30 07-apr-11 C$3.57 55.2% Top pick, bot out, big win
Timmins Gold TGD jun'15 U$0.60 19-apr-15 U$0.62 3.3% near-term trade, out of time
First Majestic AG jul'15 U$10.51 10-aug-14 U$4.55 56.7% horrible failed trade
NovaCopper NCQ.to jul'15 C$1.05 09-apr-14 C$0.50 -52.4% no more Cu exposure, sm sell
McEwen Mining MUX aug'15 U$0.695 21-jul-15 U$0.92 32.4% Closed nearterm flip for win
Midas Gold MAX.to sep'15 C$0.39 21-sep-15 C$0.35 -10.3% Sm. trade idea that didn't work
New Gold NGD oct'15 U$2.18 23-aug-15 U$3.05 39.9% trade closed, profit taken
Legend Gold LGN.v nov'15 C$0.085 01-mar-15 C$0.035 -58.8% tiny "land grab" idea, failed
Timmins Gold TGD nov'15 U$0.245 20-sep-15 U$0.15 -38.8% small near-term loser
Stocks To Follow Closed Positions 2014
Closed in 2014 closed close price
Fortuna Silver FVI.to jan'14 C$2.80 23-dec-13 C$3.19 13.9% small ST trade closed
Rio Alto Mining RIO.to jan'14 C$2.06 07-jun-13 C$2.30 11.7% trading position finally closed
Network Expl. NET.v feb'14 C$0.01 22-jul-12 C$0.005 -50.0% position closed, did nothing
Tahoe Resources TAHO feb'14 U$13.10 08-apr-13 U$21.72 -65.8% short closed due to reality
Darwin Res DAR.v mar'14 C$0.10 14-jul-12 C$0.045 -55.0% tiny risk play dropped
B2Gold BTO.to mar'14 C$3.07 28-nov-12 C$3.35 9.1% closed to free up capital
Pretium Res PVG mar'14 U$5.38 22-nov-13 U$6.50 -20.8% short closed as port longer
Gold Res Corp GORO may'14 U$5.07 26-jan-14 U$4.12 16.7% took profit
Bear Creek Min BCM.v may'14 C$1.63 23-mar-14 C$2.05 25.8% Took profit, sm near-term win
Eco Oro Min. EOM.to aug'14 C$0.48 22-sep-13 C$0.26 -45.8% sold small loser to make room
True Gold TGM.v sep'14 C$0.395 02-feb-14 C$0.41 3.8% M&A won't happen, sold
Santacruz Silver SCZ.v sep'14 C$1.04 26-jan-14 C$0.86 -17.3% silver/M&A spec, rel. small
Timmins Gold TGD nov'14 U$1.38 09-apr-14 U$0.99 -28.3% failed trade, sell, raise cash
Kinross Gold KGC nov'14 U$2.90 20-oct-14 U$2.15 -25.9% V small trade, didn't work, chau
Salazar Res SRL.v hold C$0.28 02-mar-14 C$0.145 -48.2% lost China sponsor
Stocks To Follow Closed Positions 2013
Closed in 2013 closed close price
USA Graphite USGT feb'13 U$0.93 08-jan-13 U$0.17 81.7% short tgt made/trade closed
Lachlan Star LSA.to feb'13 C$1.50 30-sep-12 C$0.95 -36.7% sold to reduce port risk
United Silver USC.to mar'13 C$0.21 28-oct-12 C$0.095 -54.8% small Ag sector trade, failed
Aurcana Corp AUN.v apr'13 C$1.07 11-nov-12 C$0.55 -48.6% closed on poor YE results
Gold Res Corp GORO apr'13 U$14.11 25-jan-13 U$9.38 33.5% short tgt made/trade closed
Marlin Gold MLN.v apr'13 C$0.075 10-feb-13 C$0.065 -13.3% closed trade
Bear Creek BCM.v may'13 C$2.58 01-apr-13 C$2.40 -7.0% near-term, time ran out
Lupaka Gold LPK.to may'13 C$1.12 23-oct-11 C$0.32 -71.4% towel thrown in
Tahoe Resources TAHO may'13 U$18.62 08-apr-13 U$14.70 21.1% took profit on ST short
OceanaGold OGC.to jun'13 C$3.03 16-sep-12 C$1.18 -61.1% sold on gold drop
IMPACT Silver IPT.v jun'13 C$1.14 13-jan-13 C$0.62 -45.6% sold on silver drop
Duran Ventures DRV.v jun'13 C$0.045 10-may-13 C$0.025 -44.4% ST trade never worked
Plata Latina PLA.v jun'13 C$0.79 10-apr-12 C$0.13 -83.5% closed
Bellhaven BHV.v jun'13 C$0.065 03-jun-13 C$0.12 84.6% closed ST trade
B2Gold BTO.to aug'13 C$3.07 28-nov-12 C$3.44 12.1% sold 1/2 to raise cash
Colossus Min. CSI.to aug'13 C$0.72 24-jul-13 C$0.79 9.7% closed thru nerves on future
20

,
Pretium Res PVG.to aug'13 C$8.20 11-jun-13 C$10.14 23.7% closed to raise cash
Bear Creek BCM.v sep'13 C$2.06 30-may-13 C$2.20 6.8% sold on pol risk decision
MAG Silver MVG oct'13 U$7.00 12-sep-13 U$5.62 19.6% near-term short
Gold Res Corp GORO oct'13 U$9.52 03-may-13 U$4.98 47.7% short tgt made, covered
AQM Copper AQM.v oct'13 C$0.31 16-oct-11 C$0.125 -59.7% closed failed trade
First Majestic AG nov'13 U$11.51 07-nov-13 U$10.50 8.8% v near term short, closed
Fortuna Silver FSM nov'13 U$4.00 07-nov-13 U$3.68 8.0% v near term short, closed
Primero PPP nov'13 U$5.70 07-nov-13 U$5.75 -0.9% v near term short, closed
Starcore Intl SAM.to nov'13 C$0.235 08-sep-13 C$0.17 -27.7% ST trade didn't work, sm loss
B2Gold BTO.to dec'13 C$2.22 28-nov-12 C$2.16 -2.7% closed ST trade to raise cash
Stocks To Follow Closed Positions, 2012
Closed in 2012 closed close PPS
Soltoro SOL.v jan'12 C$0.87 07-nov-11 C$0.94 8.0% cash moved to BCM.v
Gold-Ore Res GOZ.to feb'12 C$0.84 13-oct-10 C$0.98 16.7% trade closed on ELG.v offer
Minefinders MFN feb'12 U$11.68 17-nov-11 U$14.80 26.7% target made, trade closed
Iron Creek IRN.v mar'12 C$0.58 26-sep-10 C$0.31 -46.6% time up on small bad trade
U.S. Silver USA.to apr'12 C$2.18 15-mar-12 C$1.86 -14.7% ST trade no good, cut loss
Augusta Res. AZC.to may'12 C$3.10 29-jan-12 C$2.07 -33.2% bad mkt, bad trade cut loss
Bellhaven BHV.v may'12 C$0.50 22-sep-10 C$0.28 -44.0% new mgmt not impressive
Zincore Metals ZNC.to may'12 C$0.325 29-jul-11 C$0.17 -47.7% bad mkt, bad trade cut loss
Soltoro SOL.v may'12 C$0.70 18-mar-11 C$0.41 -41.4% bad mkt, bad trade cut loss
U.S. Silver USA.to aug'12 C$1.78 27-jul-12 C$1.36 -23.6% fail ST trade close pre split
Estrella Gold EST.v aug'12 C$0.91 27-mar-11 C$0.14 -84.6% Closed on port realignment
Fortuna Silver FVI.to sep'12 C$1.07 03-may-09 C$5.32 397.2% sell call $6.17/ Mar25
Strait Minerals SRD.v oct'12 C$0.125 09-dec-11 C$0.12 -4.0% closing coverage til FY13
Sunward Res SWD.to oct'12 C$1.47 13-mar-11 C$1.21 -17.7% sold, took loss
Gold Res Corp GORO oct'12 U$21.47 09-sep-12 U$17.40 19.0% Short trade closed
Yellowhead Min. YMI.to nov'12 C$1.00 01-apr-12 C$0.63 -37.0% sold, took loss
Primero Mining PPP nov'12 U$7.26 07-oct-12 U$6.73 7.3% Short trade closed
Bear Creek Min. BCM.v nov'12 C$3.38 07-nov-11 C$3.72 10.1% Took small profit
Vena Resources VEM.to dec'12 C$0.70 31-may-09 C$0.18 -74.3% Failed trade (caps F)
Galway Res GWY.v dec'12 C$2.19 24-nov-12 C$2.30 5.0% closed good ST arb trade
Stocks To Follow Closed Positions, 2011
Closed in 2011 closed close PPS
Sunward Res SWD.v jan'11 C$1.05 21-nov-10 C$1.63 55.2% target made, trade closed
Serengeti Res SIR.v mar'11 C$0.245 05-dec-10 C$0.285 16.3% sold pre-tgt, ST trade fail
Fronteer Gold FRG apr'11 U$2.37 03-may-09 U$15.24 543.0% buyout, trade closed
Minefinders MFN apr'11 U$9.09 07-nov-10 U$16.89 85.8% target made, trade closed
Metalline Min. MMG may'11 U$1.04 26-jan-11 U$0.89 -14.4% exit, resource disappointed
Peregrine Met PGM.to jul'11 C$0.87 06-mar-11 C$2.60 198.9% buyout offer, closed
Dynasty Metals DMM.to jul'11 C$4.20 03-may-09 C$2.85 -32.1% Sold. Fail. Move on.
Aura Silver AUU.v aug'11 C$0.22 13-oct-10 C$0.16 -36.4% Bad pick. Take loss
U.S. Silver USA.v aug'11 C$0.52 26-jan-11 C$0.71 36.5% closed to make room
B2Gold Corp BTO.to sep'11 C$2.80 12-may-11 C$4.27 52.5% target made, trade closed
Bear Creek Min. BCM.v sep'11 C$3.80 27-may-11 C$4.17 9.7% macro sell call victim
Minefinders MFN sep'11 U$14.70 10-aug-11 U$15.15 3.1% macro sell call victim
Great Panther GPR.to sep'11 C$3.03 22-aug-11 C$2.64 -12.9% macro sell call victim
Fortuna Silver FVI.to sep'11 C$1.07 03-may-09 C$5.36 400.9% sold 20%, macro sell call
Focus Ventures FCV.v nov'11 C$0.40 20-apr-10 C$0.20 -50.0% cut losses, bad trade
Regulus Res. REG.v dec'11 C$1.17 14-aug-11 C$0.52 -55.6% cut on news of poor 43-101
2009 and 2010 closed positions in appendices below
21

,
Stocks To Follow Closed Positions, 2010
Closed in 2010 closed close PPS
B2Gold Corp BTO.to Jan'10 C$0.88 08-nov-09 C$1.49 68.2% target made, trade closed
Radius Gold RDU.v Jan'10 C$0.18 23-aug-09 C$0.40 122.2% target made, trade closed
MAG Silver MVG mar'10 U$5.60 23-nov-09 U$7.28 30.0% closed in pdac week
Riverside Res RRI.v mar'10 C$0.435 20-sep-09 C$0.60 37.9% closed in pdac week
Amarillo Gold AGC.v mar'10 C$0.81 31-may-09 C$0.70 -13.6% closed in pdac week
B2Gold Corp BTO.to apr'10 C$1.24 18-feb-10 C$1.50 21.0% target made, trade closed
Lumina Copper LCC.v apr'10 C$0.84 14-jun-09 C$1.55 51.2% total position now sold
Troy Resources TRY.to may'10 C$1.10 03-may-09 C$2.25 104.5% sold on negative results
AuEx Ventures XAU.to may'10 C$2.51 24-may-09 C$3.38 34.7% trade closed
Nevada Copper NCU.to jun'10 C$3.27 14-mar-10 C$2.03 -37.9% need to lower Cu exposure
Carpathian Gold CPN.to jun'10 C$0.39 14-mar-10 C$0.35 -10.3% too exposed to cap raising
Amerix PM Corp APM.v jun'10 C$0.065 08-nov-09 C$0.05 -23.1% victim of macro bear
Antares Minerals ANM.v jun'10 C$1.42 06-dec-09 C$2.10 47.9% sold half
Vena Resources VEM.to jun'10 C$0.37 31-may-09 C$0.23 -37.8% sold half
Minera Andes MAI.to sep'10 C$0.75 28-jul-10 C$0.95 26.7% ST trade closed
Gold-Ore Res GOZ.to sep'10 C$0.52 01-aug-10 C$0.75 44.2% target made, trade closed
B2Gold Corp BTO.to sep'10 C$1.45 25-may-10 C$2.01 34.5% target made, trade closed
Blue Sky Uran BSK.v oct'10 C$0.41 19-may-10 C$0.22 -46.3% v small v bad trade closed
Dia Bras Expl DIB.v oct'10 C$0.14 30-aug-09 C$0.35 150.0% target made, trade closed
S. Amer. Silver SAC.to nov'10 C$1.38 24-oct-10 C$1.60 -15.9% loss on short, small fail
Ventana Gold VEN.to nov'10 C$7.92 27-jun-10 C$13.51 70.6% trade closed on buyout
Lumina Copper LCC.v nov'10 C$1.42 11-aug-10 C$3.65 157.0% trade closed
Antares Minerals ANM.v dec'10 C$1.42 06-dec-09 C$8.40 491.5% trade closed
Rio Alto Mining RIO.v dec'10 C$0.69 23-mar-10 C$2.16 213.0% trade closed
Coro Mining COP.to dec'10 C$0.585 03-oct-10 C$1.24 112.0% target made, trade closed
Stocks To Follow Closed Positions, 2009
Closed positions closed closing PPS
Cardero Res CDY/CDU.to May'09 U$1.20 03-May-09 U$0.87 -27.5% sold on negative news
Eastmain Res. ER.to May'09 C$1.04 06-May-09 C$1.315 26.4% trade closed
Radius Gold RDU.v May'09 C$0.165 03-May-09 C$0.235 42.4% trade closed
Latin Amer Min. LAT.v May'09 C$0.12 03-May-09 C$0.158 29.2% trade closed
Aquiline Res. AQI.to July'09 C$2.03 16-Jun-09 C$1.68 -17.2% took loss, bad timing
Chariot Resources CHD.to Aug'09 C$0.20 12-Jul-09 C$0.415 107.5% trade closed
Castle Gold CSG.v Sep'09 C$0.64 02-Aug-09 C$0.60 -6.3% ST trade didn't work out
Guyana Goldfields GUY.to Sep'09 C$2.30 12-May-09 C$4.50 95.7% profit taken
Los Andes Copper LA.v Sep'09 C$0.09 21-Jun-09 C$0.09 0% trade closed
Pediment Gold PEZ.to Oct'09 C$0.80 09-Aug-09 C$1.00 25.0% trade closed
Minera Andes MAI.to Oct'09 C$0.68 03-May-09 C$0.71 4.4% too much bad news
Dynasty Metals DMM.to Nov'09 C$4.18 03-May-09 C$6.01 43.8% half sold
Rusoro Mining RML.v Nov'09 C$0.55 03-May-09 C$0.57 3.6% underperformed
Important Disclosure
The information and opinions contained within this report reflect the personal views of the author and therefore all
material within should not be construed as accurate or reliable or be utilized as advice for investment or business
purposes. Independent due diligence and discussions with ones own investment and business advisor is strongly
recommended. Accordingly, nothing in this report should be construed as offering a guarantee of the accuracy or
completeness of the information contained herein, as an offer or solicitation with respect to the purchase or sale of any
security or as an endorsement of any product or service. All opinions and estimates included in this report are subject to
change without notice. It is prohibited to copy or redistribute this report to any type of third party without the express
permission of the author.
22