IKN #601Premium

The IKN Weekly
Week 601, November 29th 2020
Contents
This Week: In today’s edition, Mailbag, The “stock pickers market” call has been perfect,
except for one small detail, A word of warning: I want your money.
Fundamental Analysis: Aston Bay Holdings (BAY.v) and a sleeper trade, Minera IRL
(MIRL.cse) reveals the vacuum.
Stocks to Follow: Tinka Resources (TK.v), Cartier Resources (ECR.v), Copper Mountain
(CMMC.to), Excelsior Mining (MIN.to), Pucara Gold (TORO.v), Great Bear Resources (GBR.v).
Copper Basket: Overview, Atico Mining (ATY.v), Amerigo Resources (ARG.to), Regulus
Resources (REG.v).
Producer Basket: Overview, Barrick (GOLD).
Tiny Dogs: Overview, Chakana Copper (PERU.v), Wolfden Resources (WLF.v).
Regional Politics: Argentina: Chubut prepares to debate its mining law project, Peru goes
quiet and its mining ministry goes Gold Fields, Peru: An all-star Spanish language online mining
conference, Ecuador and China and copper, Mexico: Zacatecas scares the mining companies.
Market Watching: A quick Wesdome redux.
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 edition
 We consider the present and future of Minera IRL (MIRL.cse), now that we have more
information to base a considered opinion. Don’t expect cheerful reading.
 Copper continues to surge and the metal runs through this edition, with the best gains
of the week from copper juniors in Stocks to Follow, an extended Copper Basket and
thoughts in Regional Politics on China’s interest in Ecuadorian copper.
 Also in today’s main Fundies section, base metals are also the base reason why Aston
Bay Holdings (BAY.v) may be a buy while at its low price ebb. It went hunting for gold
last year, but it still has its high grade Cu and Zn targets in Nunavut.
 As well as the long piece on Ecuador, Regional Politics covers the progress in the law
project to allow mining in Chubut, plus the fall-out and state of play in Peru, where
things are happily much quieter.
Mailbag
Reader ‘MS’ was kind enough to write in:
I was wondering if you would consider including some kind of magnitude of holdings indicator on
your "stocks to follow" section? Not necessarily your actual number of shares owned, or book cost
of your holdings, but maybe showing each one as a % of the portfolio? I would be interested in
knowing if MAI is 30% of your total holdings, or 5% for example. I imagine others might find it
useful as well. The only other thing I would find tremendously useful is if you included on the
"stocks to follow" section maybe a current status in relation to that week's stock price? For
1

instance MAI - you bought in at $0.21 - is it still worth investing in at the current $0.69?
Here’s the reply:
I've thought two or three ideas of that type over, also it's one of the things that
subscribers occasionally suggest. In sum, I'm happy with the system as-is and it's not
going to change in the foreseeable future. I do understand the opposite point (have
internally debated), but ultimately another strand of the weekly is the desire to get
people to understand that trades are always going to be subjective. They depend on
factors such as age/marital status/total net wealth, so if you follow me too closely my
life biases will negatively affect your portfolio performance due to incorrect weighting.
Having two Top Picks and making it clear the bottom few on the recos list are hi risk
spec, that's enough. You need to work out how much money to apply to your
investment picks according to your circumstances, not according to mine.
It that “I am not you, you are not me” line again. Ultimately, the following is the type of mail
exchange I prefer, even if it means one less annual subscription fee for the back pocket. Reader
LW wrote in on Friday, November 20th to cancel their payment:
Hi Mark, I just received notification for auto renewal for my annual membership. I'd like to cancel
my account so please advise if you need anything further and can you confirm how refund and/or
prorating will occur if the annual charge went through? Thanks
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi ____, I saw your cancellation go through, I will of course refund your subscription. Please allow me
until Monday morning latest. Thanks for being a subscriber, appreciated.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Thanks Mark. Cheers to a fruitful portfolio ahead. I did appreciate your insights and
considerations in your portfolio, for what it's worth, my reasoning to cancel is taking a lesson I
observed from you and doing more personal DD in what I invest in. Your content was helpful and
profitable overall as I got my "sea legs" in this sector and ready to more actively manage my
portfolio moving forward to get the greatest ROI of personal education.
The “stock pickers market” call has been perfect, except for one small detail
This one:
Last weekend, your author was confident that the drop in gold prices was just about done and
we could move into the Biden hand-over phase more confident of better times for miners. But
one look at the above chart tells you how I got my blithe assertions served back like a roasted
turkey on the best family platter, all the trimmings It’s going to be rough and choppy at the
bottom, because they always are. Gold is being sold by cash that wants better returns than the
2

pet rock with no counterparty or yield, and we’re in a market turn point like few others, with a
world recession balanced against new vaccines. And my timing sucks at the best of times, but
the reasons to hold gold have not changed in two weeks. Out of fashion with the fast money
perhaps, and last week’s “…the trend clearly a friend” took a hit, so we must take the drop at
face value, but as the third Thursday in November (followed by Black Friday and Cyber Monday)
sometimes throw abnormal signals and POTUS45 now not much more than background noise to
the markets, the Biden bumpy start will become smoother sooner or later. As for the fundies,
GLD vaults saw some redemption but there’s no panic rush over another 25mt (and change)
leaving, the running total now 1,194.72mt:
GLD gold holdings, 2020 to date (metric tonnes)
1300
1250
1200
1150
1100
1050
1000
950
900
850
800
3
02/1/2 02/1/21 02/1/22 02/2/1 02/2/11 02/2/12 02/3/2 02/3/21 02/3/22 02/4/1 02/4/11 02/4/12 02/5/1 02/5/11 02/5/12 02/5/13 02/6/01 02/6/02 02/6/03 02/7/01 02/7/02 02/7/03 02/8/9 02/8/91 02/8/92 02/9/8 02/9/81 02/9/82 02/01/8 02/01/81 02/01/82 02/11/7 02/11/71 02/11/72
mt
source: SPDR GLD data
We’re back to where we were in around July, when the Full Bull was still on and as the second
chart shows, insto interest to date is still as good as it was back then.
7.60 GLD: Inventory/Price Ratio, 2020 to date
7.40
7.20
7.00
6.80
6.60
6.40
6.20
6.00
5.80
5.60
2/1 21/1 22/1 1/2 11/2 12/2 2/3 21/3 22/3 1/4 11/4 12/4 1/5 11/5 12/5 13/5 01/6 02/6 03/6 01/7 02/7 03/7 9/8 91/8 92/8 8/9 81/9 82/9 8/01 81/01 82/01 7/11 71/11 72/11
Source: SPDR data, IKN calcs
A word of warning: I want your money
Consider this fair warning, next week The IKN Weekly will run a feature written by David
Bhadreshwar, my friend the priest here Lima, who will tell you what he and they have been up
to in their social programs since we last heard from him mid-year. Your donations to David and
his church helped a lot of people at a tough time for the country and with Christmas rund the
corner, we have a plan to bring some cheer to some needy families. The Christmas appeal will
not be heavy or try to lean on you for cash, it will also be somewhat different because the aim
isn’t to fill empty stomachs, but to put smiles on faces. Details in IN602, next weekend.
Fundamental Analysis of Mining Stocks
Aston Bay Holdings (BAY.v) and a sleeper trade
In a world where the money always chases after momentum, today’s trade idea is the opposite.
Aston Bay Holding (BAY.v) is a fairly standard set-up Canadian junior exploreco: A geologist
with reputation and market backing thanks to previous successes (Thomas Ullrich) founds an

exploreco, adds in prospective projects and early-stage assets, gets funded and goes exploring
on the search for the big find that . To date, BAY.v has had more success in raising capital than
raising ounces of gold out the ground which is why it boasts a 12 month chart like this:
It’s not difficult to spot where expectation was built up and where drill results didn’t match the
hype. However, one of the main attractions of BAY at the back end of 2020 is its recent failures,
as it wouldn’t be trading at this weekend’s bargain entry point of 4c.
Company background: Our task is to lay out the potential trade but before getting to the
numbers, we run a potted history of the company as context is required. Head honcho at BAY is
Thomas Ullrich, a successful economic geologist who has worked for majors and juniors over
his extensive career. BAY is his exploreco vehicle and he makes the decisions on what the
company does. The latest iteration of the company began in 1q16, timed to the turnaround in
metals at the time, which set the company exploring on its Storm Copper and ZSEal inc
properties in the North of Canada. BAY raised money, set about its plan of exploration and
through 2016. The share price spiked on initial strong results, flopped at the end of the season
and in 2017, returned enough in the way of interesting results from the project to keep
shareholders willing to fund activities.
Then came 2018 and a bad year for BAY, as the 2018 drilling season was interrupted by bad
weather and curtailed drilling. We know that the main issue was high winds that stopped
helicopters (the only means of logistical transportation) from landing and making deliveries, but
bad planning and assuming the best didn’t help matters either. Whatever the true reason,
things didn’t go well and a lot of expensive lessons were learned. Despite that, BAY still liked
what they saw from the limited core retrieved that year. The Chief Geologist at BAY at the time
was David Broughton, brought in specifically for his peer-renowned knowledge of sediment
hosted copper deposits. Despite the interrupted drilling program and scant good news at the
end of 2018, here’s what he had to say about the results received (1):
“Aston Bay is very encouraged by the discovery of zinc mineralisation coincident with Polaris-type
pseudobreccia spatially associated with the S12 gravity anomaly at Seal South, at this early stage
of testing the multiple anomalies in the vicinity of the Seal deposit,” commented Dr. David
Broughton, Chief Geologist. “Results at Storm will provide impetus for continued improvement of
geophysical modeling, and refinement of drill targets for the 2019 season.”
In the same NR CEO Ullrich added this:
“These results demonstrate that we now better recognize the signature of both copper and zinc
mineralization in our data,” stated Thomas Ullrich, CEO. “We are eager to apply these insights to
drilling throughout this large and prospective property.”
Pleasant talk not backed up by action. Just a couple of months later on January 23rd 2019, BAY
announced it had signed a LOI with a forestry landowner in Virginia USA. From there, Don
Taylor (of Arizona Mining among other successes) brought his private company in, the company
pivoted to concentrate all its efforts on chasing gold in the Virginia Gold Belt, its main target
being the Buckingham discovery on what they now call the Blue Ridge Project. In fact, through
4

2019 and 2020 every single NT out of the company has been on its Virginia activities, not a
single mention of the Nunavut Property, of Storm Copper or Seal Zinc.
However, it turns out Blue Ridge and Buckingham have also failed to meet expectations to date.
They’ve found gold mineralization all right, but not enough to interest the market and in the
two years of BAY’s focus on Blue Ridge, the stock price has deteriorated to today’s lows and 4c.
Financials overview: Which brings us to today and the trade potential in BAY. Our first task is
to check company financials and the balance sheet items have the need-to-know. The liabilities
overview chart is presented, simply to show there’s nothing weighing down the books and the
structure is clean (the scale goes to C$1.0m in increments of 0.1…enough said).
BAY.v: Liabilities Breakdown per qtr
1
0.9
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
5
61.peS 61.ceD 71.raM 71.nuJ 71.peS 71.ceD 81.raM 81.enuJ 81.peS 81.ceD 91.raM 91.nuJ 91.peS 91.ceD 02.raM 02.nuJ 02.peS
source: company filings, IKN ests
srallod
fo
snoillim
All good and we move to the assets: BAY capitalizes its exploration activities and never bothers
to impair after, which means it accrues a fixed asset value that’s akin to a ledger of how much
money they’ve wasted to date and is of little importance to us.
BAY.v Assets breakdown, per qtr
20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
51.ceD 61.raM 61.nuJ 61.peS 61.ceD 71.raM 71.nuJ 71.peS 71.ceD 81.raM 81.enuJ 81.peS 81.ceD 91.raM 91.nuJ 91.peS 91.ceD 02.raM 02.nuJ 02.peS
C$m
fixed
other current
prepaid ex
cash&eq
:
source: BAY filings
There’s more to read into the ebb and flow of current assets, these charts of cash treasury and
working capital:
BAY.v: Cash and ST
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
61.raM 61.nuJ 61.peS 61.ceD 71.raM 71.nuJ 71.peS 71.ceD 81.raM 81.enuJ 81.peS 81.ceD 91.raM 91.nuJ 91.peS 91.ceD 02.raM 02.nuJ 02.peS
6 BAY.v: Working Capital per qtr
5
4
3
2
1
0
-1
source: company filings, IKN ests
61.raM 61.nuJ 61.peS 61.ceD 71.raM 71.nuJ 71.peS 71.ceD 81.raM 81.enuJ 81.peS 81.ceD 91.raM 91.nuJ 91.peS 91.ceD 02.raM 02.nuJ 02.peS
source company filings, IKN ests
srallod
fo
snoillim

Here we see more of the BAY life cycle to date. Funded to drill in 2016 (the loan converted),
BAY met with enough success to get funded to the tune of $4m in early 2018. With that they
went to drill Storm Copper and Seal Zinc, the program hit the glitches, those copter charters
were expensive all the same. Since then and on a more limited budget, BAY has advanced in
Blue Ridge VA while under a constant battle to fund operations. This shows in our next chart,
shares out:
BAY.v Shares Out
220
200
180
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
6
51.ceD 61.raM 61.nuJ 61.peS 61.ceD 71.raM 71.nuJ 71.peS 71.ceD 81.raM 81.enuJ 81.peS 81.ceD 91.raM 91.nuJ 91.peS 91.ceD 02.raM 02.nuJ 02.peS
source: company filings
serahs
fo
snoillim
Since the bigger raises in 2018 for the ill-fated drill program in Nunavut that year, BAY has
been to market in increasingly dilutive raisings. This weekend we stand at 163.975m shares
out, more than double the count of December 2017.
The filing of the 3q20 financials this Friday underscores the way BAY is running on fumes, as
CEO Ullrich has lent the company C$200,000 of his own money (at 9% annual) in order that
they have lights-on money and enough to cover the annual audit. Cash poor but with
prospective assets to its name, BAY this weekend has a market cap of C$6.55m and is priced
like a shell, but has a lot more going for it.
Reconsidering Storm Copper and Seal Zinc: Another way to consider BAY’s history is via
its share price and in this six year version, we
see the two periods when the company got
momentum on its side. In 2016 and its first
exploration move sin Nunavut, then 2018 with
the advent of the fund raising and drilling that
ended badly. Since then BAY has benefited
from the cheaper costs of exploring the Blue
Ridge instead of remote North Canada, but
real success has not come its way.
It’s this desk’s contention that BAY has not
kept maintenance payments up on its large
concession package for nothing and once
again, it’s telling that CEO Ullirch was willing
to put his hand into his own pocket to cover
corporate costs for what’s left of 2020.
The 2018 campaign failed to live up to expectations, but that doesn’t detract from the potential
of the project and its two main targets. A reminder of the salient points of both Seal Zinc and
Storm Copper can be found in this 2018 corporate presentation (2) (including the above map),
which include items such as Seal Zinc’s maiden 43-101 resource of 1m tonnes grading 10.24%
zinc with mineralization starting at surface. Or Storm Copper at its 56.3m of 3.07% Cu, or 110m
of 2.45% Cu. There’s no doubting the strength of mineralization and the company also notes
their land is on strike to the Polaris mine. That “on strike” is in fact on the other side of the
Northwest Passage, but the Polaris mine works and mines 14% Zn rock, showing the location is
workable as long as grades stand up.

BAY moved its focus away from its high grade base metals targets, but with the copper market
now moving into Red Hot status and Zinc prices moving up as well, there’s a high likelihood
these get dusted off again. BAY has plenty of options, it could decide to explore and drill itself,
it could do a JV, it could even sell as newly non-core assets and concentrate its effort on VA.
The trade: The “sleeper trade” is an attractive alternative, but the vehicle has to be right in
order to minimize risk. In Aston Bay Holdings (BAY.v) the mix looks good…
 Clean corporate structure
 Low risk of big dilution
 Prospective assets
 Likelihood of turnaround
 Management looking for real exploration success
…and the trade is simple, buy an amount at the current 4c and go fishing. We don’t know how
or when BAY will move to improve its condition in 2021 and we don’t know their plans, this is a
bet on the probability BAY doesn’t take its bad year laying down and comes out active in 2021.
The company will need to fund itself and that would likely be an equity raise at the start of the
year, so a purchase at 4c will have a lid on it for what’s likely to be months before any
turnaround plan shows up. Also, with 164m shares out, the next raise may come after a
rollback so any buyer today needs to ready for that dilutive moment tomorrow.
Depsite its drawbacks, BAY fits the bill as a sleeper trade because it’s not going away, it will be
active in 2021 at one or other of its projects and the 4c price is the one that has difficulty going
any lower. At a personal level this is also an attractive trade, because the likely window before
BAY moves is weeks, and any price surge caused by over-enthusiastic buyers in the next day or
two will have plenty of time to unwind. With solid management, good backers and attractive
assets, if BAY does what I suspect and revives Storm and Seal for the year’s season, the price
could move on just the announcement. I am not an immediate buyer of the stock, but it’s now
on my high risk/reward radar.
Minera IRL (MIRL.cse) reveals the vacuum
Not a great week for the company. As noted on the blog Friday (3), MIRL published its latest
shareholder newsletter that day and it contained plenty of relevant material on the
7

Cofide/Ollachea situation. We were also given brief biographies of the two directors up for re-
election and in the piece on Michael Iannacone, this catches the eye:
As we move closer to financing Ollachea, Michael’s experience and qualifications will become
even more important to our company, as we expect that he will play an important role in
evaluating the financing alternatives, and in negotiating and in implementing the selected
financing strategy
That is not the type of sentence written by a company with a near-closed financing deal, that is
what companies say in the early stages of a financing track. This is underscored later in the
Q&A “When is your target date to finalize financing?”, as the answer begins “This is hard to
predict at this stage, as we are still ramping this process up.”
The fissure becomes more apparent with direct communication, as reader and fellow MIRL
shareholder “P” discovered when communicating with CEO Benavides this week. Among other
follow-up questions to the newsletter, Reader P asked whether the company had a plan for a
43-101 resource update in 1q21. His point, one with which this desk fully agrees, is that it
would be helpful or better for both market valuation and the eventual capex financing to have a
valid and updated 43-101. Here is how CEO Benavides answered the MIRL shareholder (I have
made minor edits to correct the text, but zero changes to information):
The feasibility study (FS) was done by Amec on a NI 43-101 in 2012. Then after the
tunnel was built Mining Plus revised the FS, getting an improved value on ore grades
and reducing Capex. Since then, nothing has been touched. So our potential is
based on the following:
1) Reserves 1,000,000 oz 43-101
2) Inferred resources 900,000oz 43-101, located 300m from the reserves not included
in the feasibility study
3) 350,000 to 500,000 oz inferred resources not under 43-101, located East
and continuation (of strike) from the reserves area drilled underground in 2014.
These resources can be upgraded up to reserves and added to our current reserve,
increasing reserve value by 30% to 35 %. We would need more drilling to get to FS
stage, which would cost around U$3m to U$4m. We will do (this) but once we start
production and or earlier if we can source (the funds)
In addition, there is still plenty to explore as we have advanced and based our FS on
only 15% of the potential. Ollachea should be a 5 million oz plus gold project.
I thank reader P for forwarding that mail, even though it’s difficult reading. It also allowed me
to step back and not contact the company personally, as CEO Benavides has already supplied
all the information required. Let’s make a few basic points, starting with the fact that P asked
one thing and CEO Benavides answered another. Let’s also throw in a pithy observation that
Ollachea should not be a 5m oz gold project. It should be a working mine by now, or at least
being built around the 800k oz we know about.
Now for the real issue: Earlier this year, on discovering MIRL was deficient in paperwork to
close with COFIDE, I wrote on these pages that it beggared belief the company still didn’t have
a 43-101, the apparent bottleneck in order to reach agreement with the State bank (the word
“apparent” appears because MIRL’s word has been proven unreliable). In this case, we can now
state two facts:
 MIRL reached agreement with COFIDE
 MIRL still doesn’t have a valid and updated 43-101
Is this the reason why COFIDE didn’t budge an inch on the deal and MIRL now faces the
U$31m in bridge loan interest? We’ll probably never know, but what we do know is that MIRL
managed to prove its own word wrong by reaching agreement with COFIDE without a valid and
updated 43-101. We also know the company is not working on a 43-101 resource update now
and won’t do so until it has the funds, around U$3m to U$4m and it’s around this point I felt
like screaming on reading the correspondence between Reader P (he and I have been
exchanging for years, for what it’s worth) and CEO Benavides, as one of them wants to find
8

ways forward and solutions, the other is content with the status quo. Please also note a distinct
change in attitude toward timelines and dates from CEO Benavides. Back in August and
September and then October…and then November…and then a couple of extra days in
November, CEO Benavides was facing hard deadlines. He had to say something, so he informed
us of specific periods to extend the MOU with COFIDE. We got limit dates, no matter that they
were ignored on umpteen occasions, because CEO Benavides was forced out of his comfort
zone and out into a world where he had to answer direct questions. Now his attitude has
reverted and, with COFIDE deal in hand, back inside his zone and less willing to offer solid
timelines that can be used to check progress, now we are merely informed that it is difficult to
give firm estimates.
The lack of advancement on financing is also evident. We know the company has two active
Confidentiality Agreements (CA) open and according to MIRL, they are apparently moving
forward and “…have already begun a due diligence review.” We have no idea how much DD
they did in the first place, what stage of the review they are on or how long their reviews will
take. If they get an adverse result from either, don’t expect MIRL to come forward with the
news, either. We also know from multiple sources that MIRL is in conversations with several
Canadian brokerages, which smells like a plan to dilute their way into production and raise via
equity to me, but without a 43-101. That’s not how this job is done and we must return to the
question of the 43-101 because, from what we understand, the financing will happen before
any resource update that would allow financiers to move normally and make their calculations.
It doesn’t have to be an equity deal either, who would offer industry-competitive rates on a
loan under these conditions? Or, as reader P put it to me during our exchange, “How will he get
financing that’s not a rip-off without some better assessment of potential size and grade and
recovery of resource, improved mining plan, lower capex, without more info out there?” This
desk could not have put it better.
This situation is unacceptable. CEO Benavides has used selective disclosure, slow-hand news
flow and plain deception to get to this point in 2020, an AGM vote that takes place without his
name or that of the Chair being remotely threatened. Deception is the lowest calibre word that
comes to mind and yes, that means I have been deceived but I got over that a long time ago,
this is now about the money. We should also acknowledge how well he has entrenched himself,
as not only does he control the fiefdom and pay himself a cash salary that works out at around
U$1,500 per day, the money a typical middle class Peruvian family earns in a month, but now
controls the only means by which Ollachea gets financed and offers no viable alternative. His
position is not under threat, it would be impossible to fire him with cause (in Peru, don’t even
bother trying) and even if a third party steps up, his worst case is a U$1.5m severance fee. He
bought 350k shares at market over a month ago at 20c, the first insider purchase in a decade
and clearly thinks C$70k of commitment is enough to assuage his fellow shareholders, his one
and only foray into the market as we watched the price sink.
However, we also have a real-world situation: Unless a third party steps up to challenge the
current executive at MIRL, we have a vested interest in seeing the share price under CEO
Benavides. So in order to frame it clearly and not put cart before horse, we now consider MIRL
today using the bluntest weapons available to the investor: Reasons why we might buy/add,
sell or hold MIRL shares next week:
BUY: Cannot see it happening under current management. The 16.5c price combined with
231.15m shares out means a market cap of C$38.14m, very cheap for a company two years
from production at an asset like Ollachea if the pathway were certain. But it is nowhere near
certain and this a simple lack of confidence (a.k.a. trust), MIRL under Benavides has lost its
rights to that good will item. Until we have concrete news, instead of vague promises of Jam
Tomorrow, there’s little in the way of new value in MIRL and the long wait for the recent
Nothingburger made that plain, a purchase today would be a tacit vote of approval for
improvisation and corporate sloth.
SELL: The Catch-22 manifests when considering whether or not to sell, as one of the
9

interesting aspects of MIRL in 2020 (and likely beyond) is how its centre of ownership gravity
has changed. We still have RTZ as block holder and plenty of long-term (suffering) holders, but
since MIRL has been on the Canadian CSE its traded volumes have been far greater than in its
other open ticker, the BVL in Lima. That trend accelerated in 2020 to the point where the
“Canadian Vote” (let’s call it) is at least a significant and possibly a deciding factor in agenda
votes and corporate direction. True I am neither Canadian nor a recent buyer (a cordial salute
to fellow MIRL LTers), but for arguments sake by lumping myself in with the Canadian block, if
we as a group sold there would be no bottom for the MIRL share price. One thing is opposing
an ineffectual CEO, another is committing financial suicide and, until the situation clears, I am
not a seller of the stock for the most obvious and practical of reasons. However we must be
clear, unless MIRL improves rapidly there will be a move to the door by holders and I wouldn’t
blame anyone for selling.
HOLD: My decision by default. I will abstain in the AGM, in itself a passive protest as there is
nothing worth voting upon. The resolutions are an insult, I cannot support the current board
and its corporate direction, in this case my back pocket is more important than my personal
opinions, the result is to abstain. Though CEO Diego Benavides is deceitful, self-serving and
overpaid, he’s hardly the only CEO that fits the description and we’re not here to judge
character, we’re here to sell high and that only happens when Ollachea happens. If a third
party shows up I will happily vote my shares to an alternative slate, but realistically that is not
going to happen so, until further notice, MIRL becomes a stodgy and unwelcome “HOLD” on
the IKN Weekly ‘Stocks to Follow’ list.
The bottom line is that MIRL’s lack of news elicits a lack of response. I will hold and take
MIRL shares into 2021, which allows time for me to be wrong and the opportunity for surprise
to the upside, as MIRL may indeed find a
line of a competitive financing or one of
those two entities currently doing their DD
could make an offer. However, the
ineptitude at managerial level at Minera
IRL isn’t likely to attract the financing we
need because COFIDE no longer leading
the financing, it falls to the reputation of
the company itself to raise the capital.
Until there’s a change at the top, it’s
unlikely Ollachea gets financed because
the objections raised above will get raised
by anyone with the means to a seven or
eight figure chequebook.
Stocks to Follow
The precious metals indices were a bunch of turkeys last week, first the sharp axe and then
stuffed with the same filling. GDX down 4.65%, GDXJ down 4.39% and gold bullion via GLD
down 4.5% makes for heavy losses everywhere, which reflects well on our 16 names and the
fact we got six winners (NGD, GBR.v, TORO.v, TMQ, MIN.to, CMMC.to) and an unchanged
stock (AUL.v) to leaven the load. Even the nine losers were too bad, the only large loss taken at
Royal Road (RYR.v down 11.3%). Finally, among the winners we managed to catch two real
springers in the shape of new copper trade Copper Mountain (CMMC.to up 15.3%) and Great
Bear (GBR.v up 13.0%). Considering what gold did last week, could have been a lot worse.
10

Until Tinka Resources leaves as planned, we have 16 open positions which is one above our
normal, self-imposed maximum. Ten are in the green, five are in the red, one is unchanged on
its cost average.
company Ticker this week Avg Price Reco date Current PPS Gain/Loss% Notes
TOP PICKS
Minera Alamos MAI.v STR BUY C$0.21 13-Oct-19 C$0.67 219.0% New $1.14 tgt Aug'20 #1 idea
Rio2 Ltd. RIO.v STR BUY C$0.83 22-Apr-18 C$0.82 -1.2% $1.58 tgt, bot again Nov'20
Recommended stocks (In order of preference)
Fiore Gold F.v STR BUY C$0.98 21-May-20 C$1.37 39.8% $2.00 target, small growth PM
New Gold NGD BUY U$0.76 9-Feb-20 U$1.83 140.8% 3q20 tgt $2.80 confirmed
Norsemont Mining NOM.cse STR BUY C$1.55 6-Sep-20 C$1.00 -35.5% Add 3rd time, for 2021 run
Great Bear Res GBR.v STR BUY C$15.83 26-Aug-20 C$17.68 11.7% M&A major tgt, added IKN590
Trilogy Metals TMQ BUY U$1.78 15-Sep-19 U$1.76 -1.1% Permit received. Holding thru
Excelsior Mining MIN.to BUY C$0.93 10-Mar-19 C$1.00 7.5% added Nov'20, catch-up Cu play
Copper Mountain CMMC.to BUY C$1.35 22-Nov-20 C$1.51 11.9% New Cu trade, momentum
Royal Road Min. RYR.v spec buy C$0.155 17-Mar-19 C$0.275 77.4% Good progress in Nica
Orezone ORE.v BUY C$0.79 21-Jun-20 C$0.92 12.7% Now in news period, trade buy
Kuya Silver KUYA.cse spec buy C$1.66 8-Nov-20 C$2.15 29.5% new Peru Ag jr w/good plan
Aurelius Res AUL.v spec buy C$0.075 28-Jun-20 C$0.055 -26.7% 1st assays promising, spec buy
Pucara Gold TORO.v wait to add C$0.80 4-Oct-20 C$0.73 -8.8% Will add at under 65c
Minera IRL MIRL.cse hold C$0.195 22-Jul-12 C$0.165 -15.4% hold until further news
Tinka Res TK.v SELLING C$0.195 19-Apr-16 C$0.20 2.6% SELL ON NOV'20 DRILL NR
Short positions
no current short positions
Closed in 2020 closed close price
TMAC Resources TMR.to Jan'20 C$3.41 20-Dec-19 C$3.61 5.9% TLS flip play, sold new year
Regulus Res REG.v Jan'20 C$1.10 20-Dec-19 C$1.30 18.2% TLS flip play, profit taken
Bonterra Res BTR.v Jan'20 C$1.90 9-Dec-19 C$1.66 -12.6% TLS flip play, loss taken
McEwen Mining MUX Jan'20 U$1.12 2-Dec-19 U$1.18 5.4% TLS flip play, profit taken
Core Gold CGLD.v Jan'20 C$0.255 7-Apr-19 C$0.305 19.6% arb trade, profit taken
HudBay Min HBM Jan'20 U$3.56 9-Dec-19 U$3.36 -5.6% TLS flip play, loss taken
Midas Gold MAX.to Feb'20 C$0.71 5-Jan-20 C$0.57 -19.7% sm & silly trade
Warrior Gold WAR.v Feb'20 C$0.08 3-Aug-18 C$0.05 -31.3% clean out non-perf sm stocks
Contact Gold C.v Feb'20 C$0.40 19-Aug-18 C$0.18 -55.0% clean out non-perf sm stocks
Sandstorm Gold SAND Feb'20 U$3.73 17-Apr-16 U$7.21 93.3% Sold during port rebalance
NexGen Energy NXE Feb'20 U$1.20 2-Dec-19 U$1.06 -11.7% TLS flip play, loss taken
MAG Silver MAG Apr'20 U$8.95 1-Mar-20 U$10.07 12.5% Sold to cut silver exposure
Alexco Res AXU Apr'20 U$1.69 7-Sep-17 U$1.69 0.0% sold to close Ag exp. in FY20
Bonterra Res BTR.v Jun'20 C$1.62 2-Feb-20 C$1.10 -32.1% under-performer cash moved
Regulus Res REG.v Jun'20 C$0.64 6-Apr-15 C$0.79 23.4% moved $ TMQ/MIN & Au stocks
Great Panther GPR.to Aug'20 C$0.60 21-Jun-20 C$1.10 83.3% Profit taken, good trade
Jaguar Mining JAG.v Aug'20 C$0.42 21-Jun-20 C$0.65 54.8% Profit taken, good trade
Sandstorm Gold SAND Aug'20 U$7.76 10-May-20 U$9.37 20.7% Profit taken, good trade
Integra Resources ITR.v Aug'20 C$2.23 13-Aug-18 C$5.40 142.2% Profit taken, good trade
Wesdome Gold WDO.to Aug'20 C$2.37 14-Oct-17 C$14.82 525.3% last 1/2 of big win closed
INV Metals INV.to Sep'20 C$0.40 17-May-20 C$0.45 12.5% Cut all Ecuador exposure
Cartier Resources ECR.v Nov'20 C$0.155 3-Aug-18 C$0.25 67.7% Exact close price TBA
2015 to 2019 annual closed positions in appendices below, 2009 to 2014 closed positions in editions IKN553 or earlier
11

Now for some notes on our covered stocks:
Tinka Resources (TK.v): POTENTIALLY SELLING THIS WEEK: It will be good to see the
back of this long position, though I remind readers the opportunity to short the stock once it
has run its promo is also clear for 2021 (we’ll see what the price looks like at the time). In its
primer NR of ten days ago, CEO Carman told us to expect drill results by the end of the month.
That’s this week and if so, don’t expect a Flash Update to tell you I’m selling into the volume
surge because you should assume that happens. However, I’m also aware that by selling the
first blush I may miss out on better prices. If TK is putting together a period of marketing it
won’t be based on just one NR, we can expect follow-up assays and whatever other news
would go along the lines of the normal Vancouver pump play (example VZLA.v). This will not
change the personal strategy and if TK is still an open position this time next weekend, it’s only
because there was no NR.
Cartier Resources (ECR.v): POSITION CLOSED. Be clear that my decision to sell once ECR
delivers its updated 43-101 remains as stands, this is simply removing a position form the Open
list which is to all intents and purposes closed and the exact timing and day of my own sale
won’t affect your life.
ECR my not get its sale of Chimo in 2020, but it’s in good shape for 2021 with around C$13m in
treasury as stands. This alone puts a solid 8c baseline to the current share price and ECR has
already bounced off the 23c line enough times to make the line in the sand evident. Whatever
my eventual selling price, it won’t be at distressed levels and it will mean a healthy profit on the
round trip.
Copper Mountain (CMMC.to): POSITION OPENED. Before its financing closed and before
copper started really popping last week CMMC was fairly easy to buy (particularly on Monday,
happy to say). Then it set off again, legging up Thursday and Friday and finding plenty of
buyers willing to pay up. The company’s near-term price moves will closely correlate to copper
spot and makes its relentless upmove look more dependable than it is, any copper spot reversal
will quickly show on this chart as well:
With risk comes reward. A good start to this spec position on copper backed by a heap of
strong fundamentals.
Excelsior Mining (MIN.to): MIN crept over the $1.00 line late Friday, which is some sort of
minor prediction victory but in truth, seeing the stock move over a Loonie is a staging post
along the way to its real value.
Pucara Gold (TORO.v): Tuesday December 1st has a webinar run by Jamie Keech featuring
TORO.v CEO Steve Zuker and the free registration for the gig is on this link (4).
Great Bear Resources (GBR.v): Up 13.0% and the strongest swimmer against the tide, last
week GBR got bought as if its buyout were imminent (once again). The catalyst was its
12

Tuesday morning NR (5), which not only included headlines of “…101.50 m of 4.69 g/t Gold,
Including 5.25 m of 41.25 g/t…” but the company making a big fuss of its modelling and the
way Dixie has become largely predictable. This is a major plus for likely mineability and the
result is here:
Not even a precipitous gold drop could stop the buyers. Holding.
The Copper Basket
After 48 weeks of 2020, The Copper Basket shows a 49.98% gain to level stakes.
company ticker price 1/1/20 Shares out Market Cap current pps gain/loss%
1 Capstone Min CS.to 0.76 399.598 767.23 1.92 152.6%
2 Imperial Metals III.to 2.06 128.49 443.29 3.45 67.5%
3 Trilogy Metals TMQ.to 3.38 138.905 326.43 2.35 -30.5%
4 Copper Mtn CMMC.to 0.71 191.3 288.86 1.51 112.7%
8 Oroco Res OCO.v 0.45 181.52 255.94 1.41 213.3%
5 Excelsior Min. MIN.to 1.00 238.658 238.66 1.00 0.0%
6 Marimaca Cop MARI.to 1.625 64.358 212.38 3.30 103.1%
7 Western Copper WRN.to 1.07 107.586 169.99 1.58 47.7%
9 Amerigo Res ARG.to 0.59 180.169 138.73 0.77 30.5%
10 Regulus Res. REG.v 1.28 101.85 97.78 0.96 -25.0%
11 Atico Mining ATY.v 0.31 119.023 64.27 0.54 74.2%
12 Chakana Cop PERU.v 0.245 93.2 45.20 0.485 98.0%
13 Aldebaran Res. ALDE.v 0.47 77.636 25.62 0.33 -29.8%
14 Doré Copper DCMC.v 1.25 31.798 24.48 0.77 -44.0%
15 Chibougamau CBG.v 0.17 46.695 6.30 0.135 -20.6%
NB: All stocks in CAD$ Portfolio avg 49.98%
Let’s not underestimate the long-term showing, 50% up for an unweighted index of 15 stocks
in under a year is a big move. It was another positive week for the base metals sector as spot
copper prices shot forward once again and allowed your author to bask in the brilliance of his
perfectly timed long call on copper. Yeah whatever but it was hardly one-way traffic for the
junior coppers considering the strength of the metal, nine winners (TMQ.to, CS.to, III.to,
MIN.to, CMMC.to, WRN.to, ARG.to, ATY.v, PERU.v) and two unchanged stocks (DCMC.v,
CBG.v), but also four losers (REG.v, MARI.v, OCO.v, ALDE.v). Biggest winners came from
Amerigo (ARG.to up 28.3%), Copper Mountain (CMMC.to up 15.3%) and Western (WRN.to up
13

9.0%), biggest losers were Regulus (REG.v down 15.3%) and Aldebaran (ALDE.v down 8.3%)
but nothing I can think of connects those two companies. As for copper the metal and its
trading, I think “whoosh” covers it:
For reasons unexplained, copper traded lower on early Monday traded and dropped under
U$3.25/lb (hourlies above left). Then North America opened and from that moment it was one-
way traffic, copper adding another 4.6% on the week and closed at prices not seen since 2013
(when the decadence from the 2011/12 highs had already set in) and makes the dailies chart
(above right) a better visual, because the bull move in copper continues and now that house
sentiment is on board it’s a little easier to enjoy the rush up. Only a little, mind you, this is also
a wall of worry that begs the constant question of at what point we are overbought. FWIW, this
author says that we’re overbought already and the squiggly lines under this dailies chart agree,
but we’re not crazily overbought yet and crazy seems to be a recurring theme this year. This
time next week, I would not be surprised to find myself writing a commentary around U$3.50/lb
copper or U$3.20/lb copper.
Enough of me, here’s the title of an accurate wire commentary on week in copper (6): “Copper
hits near 7-year high on vaccine hopes, fund buying”, and here’s an extract:
“Copper’s rise is generally macro driven because of the vaccine and risk sentiment
remains upbeat ... We are seeing synchronised gains across all metals,” said ING
analyst Wenyu Yao.
“Fundamentals look good but it’s the funds that are having enthusiasm for copper
particularly right now.”
Thank you, Wenyu Yao. Insto support is welcome and price supportive (until the moment that
it’s not), however we should raise a yellow warning flag as it’s around this point we begin to
hear of more funds basing their trade liquidity on collateral positions in physical copper. A fund
manager strategy is to consider copper as an asset and draw cash from it for their day-to-day
use, but when the higher risk desks start including “deliverable copper” on a open interest
futures position as an asset, leverage is of the nosebleed variety, so beware sharp reversals on
“technical selling” as that’s the sound of widow(er)s being made. Your author isn’t suddenly
reverting to bearish on copper; far from it, the newest additions to the portfolio are largely
copper coloured and the future demand looks baked in thanks to China’s unquenchable
appetite. However, there will be a near-term top to the current price move and I’m not going to
stick my neck further out on leverage to the metal. Copper companies in this portfolio need to
be robustly economic at U$3.00/lb, there’s no need for that U$3.50/lb or above.
At the other end of the spectrum the IKN mancrush, Andy Home of Reuters, published an
14

insightful strategy piece on the new SHFE copper contract that started trading this month.
Priced in Yuan and open to international traders, the contract is already being used by “heavy
hitters” and is attracting the right sort of serious players to build its momentum. As usual the
Home piece covers a lot of ground and the whole piece is required reading, but here’s an
extract (7):
Fang Xinghai, vice-chairman of the CSRC, the same body that locked the LME and
HKEx out, told the China Daily he expected the contract “to become one of the pricing
benchmarks in the Asia-Pacific region”. Emphasis on the word “one” there.
The long-term view seems to revolve around the world “one” in that quote, as SHFE with its
new contract is expected to overshadow Hong Kong and its LME physical warehouses to
become the regional sorting house for copper. However, Home doesn’t expect SHFE to take
over world price discovery, more likely is that it becomes the reference point for Asian copper
prices. One thing is certain, China these days is keen on controlling as much of the supply chain
as possible.
It’s the end of the month (literally) and we run the long-term copper inventory price charts:
Copper inventories, per month, 2012 to date
1000000
900000
800000
700000
600000
500000
400000
300000
200000
100000
0
15
21.naJ ram yam luj pes von 31.naJ ram yam luj pes von 41.naj ram yam luj pes von 51.naj ram yam luj pes von 61.naj ram yam luj pes von 71.naj ram yam luj pes von 81
naj
ram yam luj pes von 91
naj
ram yam luj pes von 02
naj
ram yam luj pes von
Mt Cu source: Cochilco
Comex
Shanghai
LME
Copper stocks are not just tight, they are now historically tight and the headline numbers would
look a lot worse if the economically cut-off COMEX
stocks (due to transport costs, metal that’s only
useful to the domestic market) are subtracted from
the equation. In this chart (right) we do just that,
focusing on month-end stocks at LME and SHFE,
2019 to date:
As for the relative percentages held in the three
systems, the only reason Comex is rising is because
its stocks are stranded and staying where they are
while LME/SHFE dwindle:
Copper inventories: percentage held per exchange
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
21.naJ ram yam luj pes von 31.naJ ram yam luj pes von 41.naj ram yam luj pes von 51.naj ram yam luj pes von 61.naj ram yam luj pes von 71.naj ram yam luj pes von 81
naj
ram yam luj pes von 91
naj
ram yam luj pes von 02
naj
ram yam luj pes von
Copper inventories, per month, 2019 to date
550000
500000
450000
400000
350000
300000
250000
200000
150000
100000
50000
0
LME Shanghai Comex source: Cochilco
91
naj
ram yam luj pes von 02
naj
ram yam luj pes von
Mt Cu
Shanghai
LME
source: Cochilco

Once again, plenty of logical fundamental support for higher copper prices. That’s the long-term
on inventories, as usual we now look at weekly data changes:
 World copper stocks continued to drop in quieter holiday week trading, down 10,429
metric tonnes (mt) (-3.2%) to 317,706mt today.
 At the SHFE, some 3,852mt (-4.0%) left stock, leaving 92,912mt this weekend. Already
at emergency low levels, there are still plenty of buyers willing to take control of
inventory reserves at these prices. As bullish signals from inventory data go, this one is
as strong as it gets and suggests more price speculation to come the week ahead.
 At the LME, a similar sized drop of 4.0%, or 6,575mt, saw inventory levels drop from its
already low stock levels to close Friday at 157,350mt this weekend. Cancelled warrants
edged up another 2% and now cover 32% of stocks, still not high in historical terms.
 Comex was down a little under 200mt and this weekend holds 74,019mt of copper in its
stores.
The Shanghai-only inventories chart asks, “How low can you go?”
Shanghai Futures Exchange Warehouse Stocks, Dec'16 to date
400000
350000
300000
250000
200000
150000
100000
50000
16
6102
dr3naj
ts13 ht82 ht72 ht42 dn22 ht91 ht71 ht41 ht11 ht9 ht6voN ht11 ht8 ht5beF 7102
ht5raM
dn2rpA ht03 ht82 ht52 dr32 ht02 ht71 ht51 ht21 ht01 8102
ht7naj
ht4bef 8102
ht4ram
8102
ts1rpa
ht92 dr3nuj 8102
ts1yluj
ht92 ht62 dr32 ts12tco ht81 ht61 ht31naj ht01 ht01 9102
ht7rpa
ht5yam 9102
dn2nuj
ht03 ht82 102ht52pes dn22 ht02 9102ht71von ht51 0202ht21naj ht9 ht8 ht5rpa 0202dr3yam ht13 ht82 0202ht62luj dr32 ht02 ht81 ht51
Mt Cu
source: Cochilco
In a normal year SHFE inventory lows are reached around Christmas, with warehouse re-
stocking beginning again in January and accelerating into the Chinese New Year holiday period.
What we are seeing this year is way too early and is as abnormal as the peak we hit at the
height of world lockdown.
Now for notes on a couple of basket stocks:
Atico Mining (ATY.v): The may start to get a rep for being pumped on Fridays. The week
before last and as noted in IN600 last weekend, ATY rose on an overenthusiastic reception to
what was another uninspiring quarter from this
company. Sure enough there wasn’t much support
at the start of last week but, as the Friday volume
shows, there was suddenly a rush or people who
decided they needed to own the stock and on a
day the USA was closed for business, too. I don’t
know what promo or marketing channel that came
from (I’d guess a Stansberry/Casey author, but
don’t know for sure), but thanks to the move ATY
managed to finish a penny up on the week. It will
need more promotion in the week ahead to
maintain this level.

Amerigo Resources (ARG.to): ARG shot higher to 70c, then another 10% during the quiet
Canada-Only trade day Friday. That last move may come off next week, but the reason people
are buying ARG is the leverage it gives to higher copper prices, what we have right now of
course. I cannot join them, after witnessing how badly run the company has been and with the
threat of droughts now an annual constant, I will find another vehicle.
Regulus Resources (REG.v): REG got hit hard on announcing it had to suspend its current
drilling program due to social unrest (8):
We can offer mitigation of sorts; new Covid-19 regulations make travel difficult at both national
and local levels and the company is unlikely to have its full headcount in Cajamarca at the
moment. However, there’s no hiding this is a major ball-drop by the REG CSR team, less for the
$15m or so in market cap that vanishes and more a delay at exactly the wrong moment that
sucks momentum out when its stop-start world had finally got back on track. The central issue
is apparently trivial too, surely a better placed team would have been able to calm local fears
about discoloured water before outsiders got wind and aggravated the affair? REG should have
been better prepared to field social grumbles in what is still a highly-charged political
atmosphere in the country, what with the recent turmoil and now a Presidential election less
than half a year away. Not only that, but there are also elections this weekend as lower key but
still important internal political party elections, many of which will decide national and regional
level candidates. They happen today Sunday with up to one million Peruvians expected to vote
across the country.
As for the future, if I were a shareholder of REG and the company were talking to me, I’d want
to know about the timing of the next hole, not the expected assay results of the two ¾ (ish)
hols that they sent to the labs before the locals closed the drills down. The problem is one of
both optics and timing, as for one the local complaints are over water and we are about to
move into the Andean uplands rainy season. North Peru usually get wet before South Peru and,
with the rains expected in two weeks maximum, there is both precious little time to get drilling
again before Christmas and then a sodden terrain that makes for difficult drilling (if locals
eventually allow them to turn). As the rains don’t normally die down until March and the
country traditionally taking its summer vacations January and February (schools summer
holidays), it would not surprise to learn nothing else about AntaKori, AntNorter and Colquirrumi
until April or May of 2021.
The Producer Basket
After 48 weeks of 2020, the Producer Basket shows a gain of 19.63% to level stakes.
17

company ticker price 1/1/20 Shares out Mkt Cap (Bn) current pps gain/loss%
1 Newmont NEM 43.45 819.84 47.94 58.48 34.6%
2 Barrick GOLD 18.59 1779.04 40.37 22.69 22.1%
3 Franco-Nevada FNV 103.30 188.6 24.72 131.09 26.9%
4 Agnico Eagle AEM 61.61 238.985 15.41 64.47 4.6%
5 Kinross Gold KGC 4.74 1253.5 8.91 7.11 50.0%
6 Royal Gold RGLD 122.25 65.375 7.19 109.97 -10.0%
7 Pan American PAAS 23.69 209.61 6.10 29.12 22.9%
8 B2Gold BTG 4.01 1025.75 5.61 5.47 36.4%
9 Alamos Gold AGI 6.02 391.19 3.22 8.24 36.9%
10 Buenaventura BVN 15.10 254.19 2.76 10.87 -28.0%
Prices in U$, NYSE/NASDAQ tickers Portfolio avg 19.63%
Another big dump of the big names, as instos exit GDX and the liquidity suck is felt across the
board. That explains the homogenous nature of the losers, most down between 4.7% and
6.8%. The exceptions were:
 B2Gold (BTG), down 3.7% as midcap stocks continue to fare better. The assumption of
sector consolidation is the difference.
 Royal Gold (RGLD) was remarkably unchanged to the penny on the week, staying at
U$10.97.
 Franco-Nevada (FNV) up 0.8% and along with RGLD, a clear indication that not all the
money leaving GDX left the sector, as some went to more defensive PM positions
instead.
On the week our list managed to eke out a gain of a couple of tenths against the GDX
benchmark and with four weeks to go, we are 2.77% ahead. Not much to be honest, little more
than a wash against the proverbial monkey with a dartboard. I’ll stick to juniors.
Barrick (GOLD): Along with bullion’s price drop, GDX and Tier1 selling was spurred on by the
news (9) on November 14th that Warren Buffett had dropped 40% of the long position he took
in Barrick in August. Ultimately, it’s not that difficult to work out why Buffett is exiting GOLD…
 He’s nobody’s goldbug and never will be
 BRK took several market defensive positions in August and GOLD was one of them
 He has done well from the trade and is right to cash in.
…but the delusions previously set up by the financial community that started factoring in long-
term ownership of GDX by every insto and index, simply because they needed to copy Warren,
needed to be unwound. Warren Buffett hadn’t suddenly turned into a goldbug after all. The
latest Berkshire Hathaway filings note the company had sold out of its position in GOLD during
Q3 and taken profit, I look forward to a pithy paragraph on the trade in the BRK 2021 annual
report to shareholders.
The 2020 Producer Basket: Weekly performance and
60%
comparative to GDX control
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
-10%
-20%
-30%
-40%
18
ht5naJ ht21 ht91 ht62 dn2bef ht9 ht61 dr32 ts1ram ht8 ht51 dn22 ht92 ht5rpa ht21 ht91 ht62 r3yam ht01 ht71 ht42 ts13 ht7nuj ht41 ts12 ht82 ht5luj ht21 ht91 ht62 dn2gua ht9 ht61 dr32 ht03 ht6pes ht31 ht02 ht72 ht4tco ht11 ht81 ht52 ts1von ht8 ht51 dn22 ht92
The 2020 Producer Basket: Percentage difference between
GDX benchmark and basket (negative = IKN basket ahead)
2.0%
1.0%
basket
0.0%
gdx control
-1.0%
-2.0%
-3.0%
-4.0%
-5.0%
-6.0%
-7.0% source: Google, IKN calcs
-8.0%
ts13ceD ht5naJ ht21 ht91 ht62 dn2bef ht9 ht61 dr32 ts1ram ht8 ht51 dn22 ht92 ht5rpa ht21 ht91 ht62 dr3yam ht01 ht71 ht42 ts13 ht7nuj ht41 ts12 ht82 ht5luj ht21 ht91 ht62 dn2gua ht9 ht61 dr32 ht03 ht6pes ht31 ht02 ht72 ht4tco ht11 ht81 ht52 ts1von ht8 ht51 dn22 ht92
source: IKN calc, NYSE/Nasdaq data

The Tiny Dogs
Here are our ten and after thirty-eight weeks, the average is up by 32.10%:
company ticker price 16/2/20 Shares out Mkt Cap current pps gain/loss%
1 Aston Bay BAY.v 0.065 136.26 5.45 0.04 -38.5%
2 Chakana Copper PERU.v 0.175 93.2 45.20 0.485 177.1%
3 Constantine Met CEM.v 0.19 45.35 7.71 0.17 -10.3%
4 Contact Gold C.v 0.175 84.472 9.29 0.11 -37.1%
5 Manitou Gold MTU.v 0.065 230.79 10.39 0.045 -30.8%
6 Salazar Res* SRL.v 0.18 126.55 41.76 0.33 83.3%
7 Radius Gold RDU.v 0.235 86.94 23.47 0.27 14.9%
8 Red Pine Expl RPX.v 0.035 477.22 19.09 0.04 14.3%
9 Warrior Gold WAR.v 0.055 68.2 6.14 0.09 63.6%
10 Wolfden Res WLF.v 0.13 129.532 24.61 0.19 46.2%
Prices in CAD$, data from TSXV (*SRL price from May 2nd) basket avg 32.10%
This section attempts to track the tinycap mining sub-sector of the market, our ten companies
chosen under the following criteria to put together a list that represents what’s going on in the
whole sub-sector of tinycap exploration company stocks.
 Market capitalization of under $20m. They have to be tiny. In two cases I’ve stretched the window a
little and allowed sub-U$20m market capper in that are just over the C$20m level, but the spirit is unaltered.
 A “non broken” stock price and project story. There are literally hundreds of tinycap juniors of the right
size, but it was a particularly depressing exercise to trawl through the whole of the TSXV and find companies
that are small enough, but with life in them. The vast majority of sub-$20m stocks are broken stocks, either
traded to death on the exchange or with projects that are a bust or with entrenched management more
interested in their monthly paycheck than anything else.
 Likelihood of meaningful newsflow in 2020. This connects to the company’s “unbroken” status, as we
want news and potential catalysts from companies with projects that can work.
 Decent management if possible. When you are down among the little guys it doesn’t pay to be too
choosy, but still I preferred companies that have teams or people with good peer reputations.
Another week of faint-to-no signal from The Tiny Dogs, as the larger bull/bear battle gets
played using bigger market cap companies. Four of the basket stocks went up (PERU.v, SRL.v,
RPX.v, WLF.v), five went down (CEM.v, C.v, MTU.v, RDU.v, WAR.v), one was unchanged
(BAY.v) nothing moved by an out-sized percentage and the basket average dropped a modest
0.8%.
Chakana Copper (PERU.v): When your author owned shares of PERU.v, covered the
company, did Soledad site visits (the first under PERU.v, fwiw) and reco’d the stock CEO David
Kelley would swear blind to me that he’d never pay for retail coverage. Here we are in late
2020 and PERU.v pays another $45,000 to a Florida based pay-to-play analysis firm for four
analysis reports over the course of the next 12 months. I’m in the wrong business. And the
beaches are nicer.
Wolfden Resources (WLF.v): Up 8.6% during a difficult week, which would have been even
better had somebody not insisted on selling 1,800
shares at a half cent discount on Friday. The two-
month price chart shows the dip last Friday that
caught my attention, plus the rebound on a return
to some volume (but not massive) which ticked
the highest close price for a month:
I’m going to guess at somebody in this crowd
agreeing with the house thoughts on WLF last
week. For full disclosure, I did not buy any shares
of WLF last week and there are no plans to
change that for the time being.
19

NB: Please be clear that The Tiny Dogs is NOT a list of recommended tinycap stocks. It is a list of companies with
market caps of under $20m offering a reasonable representation of the wider tinycaps market. It is possible that in the
future I may buy shares in one or several of these stocks, but at the moment both my opinion and my wallet are strictly
neutral.
Regional politics
Argentina: Chubut prepares to debate its mining law project
This week coming should (but you never know in Argentina) see the start of the formal
parliamentary debate in Chubut’s Congress on changes to its current Constitution and mining
law. Last week, the 10 page law project (read it here (10) was presented to parliament by its
sponsor, a congressional ally to governor Mariano Arcioni. The objective is to “Zonificate” (yes,
that is now a word) Chubut and allow mining activity and the use of chemicals otherwise
banned in the province in the central zone. The law project does not want to change the
current laws for the Western Andean Cordillera foothill zone (Yamana and Suyai will not
happen), nor to the more populous Atlantic East coast. Instead, its changes are aimed at the
Meseta, location of the Pan American Silver (PAAS) Navidad project, with the law project
looking to section off around 16% of the total surface area of the province.
The battle lines are now drawn, with pro and anti mining sides peppering the media with their
viewpoints and explanations in Chubut. For what it’s worth, the law project looks smart to me,
contains six key points to answer anti-mine accusations and by limiting the zone to the area in
which the locals actually want the mine to occur (jobs and opportunities, etc), it goes a long
way to combat the “No is No” argument of the anti miners (based on a local vote in the town of
Esquel). We now wait to see whether the project is given floor space next week (Chubut’s
normal parliament sessions are on Tuesdays and Thursdays), but even after that we are in
Basket Case Country and anything can happen
Peru goes quiet and its mining ministry goes Gold Fields
After ex-GFI executive José Galvez was chosen by interim President Sagasti to head up the
transition government’s Ministry of Energy and Mining, last week the Vice-Mnister of Mines job
was designated to José Luis Montero, who was head of Community Relations and Sustainable
Development at Gold Fields La Cima, the company subsidiary controlling the Cerro Corona mine
in Cajamarca (11). That makes for a lot of corporate ideals at the top of the Peru mines world
at the moment, with the Vice-Minister surely chosen by the minister due to a previous good
working relationship. Peru has five months to limp to its Presidential election, as which point the
disastrous 2015-2020 administration (just the three President and 10 Mining Ministers) comes
to an end.
I’ll use the appointment of a Tier 2 public servant to segue into a few words that try to address
correspondence received during the week (was going to put “mails”, but these days there are
other channels as well). The main concern of those on the outside looking in is whether Peru is
gong to erupt again, and quite right too. Any further disruption will damage country image, risk
perception and proves expensive to one and all, so I’m happy to report interim President
Sagasti has been doing everything in his power to calm the waters, including national
Presidential addresses to assure the population that no stone will remain uncovered into the
investigations into the Congressional coup and the subsequent police violence, ordered from
high in the chain of command in Merino’s de facto regime. On that road, Sagasti has already
fired 18 top Police officers and “has retired” a couple of key military generals. Next, he has met
with the leaders of all the political parties and groupings, left-to-right, getting assurances of
democratic behaviour from one and all (even if Keiko didn’t mean it) and that the country would
arrive at the 2021 Presidentials with no further crises.
Overall, interim-President Sagasti has done as good a job as possible and deserves plenty of
applause; in naming his ministerial cabinet the way he has, with (near) cross-party
20

representation, 40% of ministers women and plenty of faces from Minister or Veep levels in the
Vizcarra admin taking over, the ministries themselves get vital continuity. As an example, a
couple of weeks ago I wrote that even the country’s 2021 budget was in doubt due to potential
time or staff restrictions, that’s less of a worry today and with Peru again going to market last
week to place U$4Bn of loans (including 100 year paper (!!) priced at 3.2%), the country
should make it to the elections okay. From there it’s a question of “how much would you like to
know?” as it’s easy to get lost in the minutiae of the soap-opera politics and relate the
repercussions or likely outcomes. Interesting for the PeruPolitik watcher (e.g. me), but how
much do you need on the way César Acuña has ruined his chances next year, how the AP and
APP parties are disintegrating under the weight of the failed coup that left those two students
dead, how brazenly ex-President Ollanta Humala has launched himself into the vacuum created
and styling his candidacy on “the only ex-pres left in the game”, or how vacated President
Martín Vizcarra this week ruined his innocent-til-proven-guilty image by announcing he would
run for Congress in the 2021 elections because he now thinks parliamentary immunity from
prosecution isn’t such a bad idea after all?
“Not much” is the house guess, so we’ll leave it there. Bottom line is that Peru remains a prime
jurisdiction to go mining and exploring for metals. Agreed that its politics will increase or
subtract from its attraction over time, but not by much. This isn’t Basket Case Country
(Argentina) or Mini Basket Case (Ecuador) and though you need to know what parts of the
country are off-limits (and why), exploration geologists and mining companies will always be
welcome.
Peru: An all-star Spanish language online mining conference
They are long, in Spanish for native speaker audience and centred on the title of the online
webinar that took place this week in Peru, the “First Congress on Mining Competitivity and
Social Sustainability”. The series isn’t for everybody who reads The IKN Weekly if only for the
language, but it would be remiss not to bring your attention to the series of talks published by
the IIMP, the Peruvian Institute of Mining Engineers.
This link (12) takes you to the first one and the other segments should follow on from the ten
minutes given to ex-Minister of Energy and Mining (until Vizcarra was thrown out) Luis Miguel
Incháustegui. Then follow ten 30 minute papers given by ranking names in the Peru mining and
the macro scene, including current Mining Minister Gálvez, the near ubiquitous Victor Gobitz
(now heading up Antamina) and star turn Central Bank head Julio Velarde, expounding half an
hour on mining from his study, prepared charts included (a rare treat). The sessions are closed
by 10 minutes of views on mining and sustainable development from Cajamarca governor, the
pro-mining Mesias Guevara.
Ecuador and China and copper
Following on from last week’s note on the growing antagonism toward mining activity among
locals in Ecuador, we today consider the flip side and examine how China has made inroads into
the country’s natural resource sector like in few other countries. With copper (and gold) high on
China’s world shopping list, nobody should doubt who juniors will be shopping to in the future
in that country.
We begin with a little perspective, as China’s growing control in Ecuador is not new news.
Consider this Reuters report from 2013 (13), when the country was under the mandate of
Rafael Correa, entitled, “How China took control of Ecuador's oil”, because history may not
repeat but the rhymes sometimes sound very similar indeed. It first explains how China offered
Correa’s Ecuador loans at competitive rates, the first U$1Bn deal in 2009. Then, and we quote
the 2013 piece, “…(w)hen the latest loan deal was made public, in August, it brought the
amount of financing that China has pledged to Ecuador during Correa’s presidency to nearly $9
billion – equivalent to 11 percent of Ecuador’s gross domestic product.” At that point China
controlled 90% of Ecuador’s 520,000bpd oil production, cut to today and a Lenín Moreno
government out of funds, as Covid-19 ravages the local economy. First the IMF and an
emergency bailout in exchange for more austerity, then China appears again and July to date,
21

has seen it agree to…yes indeed, an oil-backed loan. On the first news of a potential petroleum-
backed loan, this report (14) made an astute point in English that you only usually see in
Spanish language op-eds about the future of the country:
“The talks follow the government's restructuring of debt with a group of bondholders,
and the unveiling of economic reforms, including a planned auction for PetroEcuador's
110,000 b/d Esmeraldas refinery and the removal of most motor fuel subsidies.
“On 11 July Ecuador implemented the first monthly fuel price adjustments under a new
market-based pricing mechanism laid out in decree 1054 issued in May.”
The U$1.4Bn oil loan is now reality (15), China takes another part of Ecuador’s oil industry and
is now in vertical expansion, getting the main refinery and becoming the supplier of choice to
the population at the same moment price controls are finally lifted on notoriously cheap
Ecuadorian fuel.
Step forward copper: This is not a coincidence, neither is the fact that China is actively, nay
aggressively seeking mineral assets in South America these days. While Africa and neighbouring
Asia countries have proven good partners, China’s recent experiences in North America have
left plenty to be desired, diplomatic relations between China and USA/Canada are certainly
strained. That even shows up on our level of focus as the proposed acquisition of TMAC
Resources, the one deal they got to closure before the political window slammed shut, is under
scrutiny now and may fail.
Meanwhile in a country welcoming to Chinese funds to the point where China has kept
Ecuador’s economy from sinking for over a decade, the Chinese capitals Mirador copper mine
has finally gone into production and while still attracting protests, has started to export
concentrate to China this year. We also know that Ecuador is geologically endowed but for its
own cultural and historic reasons, hasn’t seen the type widespread and systematic mineral
prospecting that built the mining industries in Chile and Peru. We know the country is trying to
open its mining sector to investment, we know plenty of junior mining companies are working
the country, mostly in search of high grade gold deposits, large-scale porphyry copper projects
or VMS deposits (often multi-metal and usually high grade).
The result is that rather than looking toward Newcrest and BHP (and no matter what happens
to Alpala and SolGold), Ecuador and the juniors operating there should by have realized by now
who their likely client will be. As an example, come the day, nobody should be surprised if
Augusta Group sells its Warintza project (under Solaris (SLS.v) to Chinese capital as it checks all
the boxes, fits more than one of their geopolitical plans and besides, it’s the country that won’t
care too much (let’s say, to be as diplomatic as possible) about indigenous social protests
around any eventual development. Located close to Mirador too, I’m sure SLS has a industry
professional who is also a Mandarin speaker on board by now.
Does this mean that Ecuador’s mining sector is about to “Go Chinese” and become a rich source
of copper and other metals for its domestic market? Quite likely yes, though there are other
possible futures for the country that don’t involve China snapping up its mineral assets
wholesale. For example, the new President of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) is a
US citizen for the first time ever and Mauricio Claver-Carone has not been shy about his
strategy to provide a counterweight to China’s increasing investment presence in LatAm. This
doesn’t mean of course that a Biden government is about to use a suite of proven CIA
strategies and to propel Yaku Pérez to the presidency in 2021 and cause the banning of all
mining in the country, but it may mean that anti-mining groups are suddenly better funded
during the admin to come. Forgive any lapse into reverie, the point remains that the purchase
of Ecuador by China isn’t a done deal yet but that shouldn’t detract from the fact that China is
ready and willing to deal in politically riskier jurisdictions and in Ecuador, they have a willing
seller of the metal they most want.
Mexico: Zacatecas scares the mining companies
In 2014, an initiative backed by the Moreno party of now President AMLO sought to cordon off
22

some 2.58m hectares of the State. The plan was to turn the entire province of of Mazapil, part
of the larger State of Zacatecas, into a nature reserve and make the largely arid semi-desert
zone off-limits to all industrial development, mining included of course (16). Not surprisingly,
the local mining industry strongly opposed the plan, not least because Mazapil plays host to
mines such as Newmont’s (NEM) Peñasquito and Carlos Slim’s Minera Frisco (BMV:
MFRISCOA1), as well as projects such as Orla Mining (OLA.v) Camino Rojo project. As a result,
the law project got nowhere but this is 2020, the world is mad and AMLO’ party is now in
power. Last week the law project to revive the nature reserve plan reached Mexico’s
parliament, backed of course by plenty of anti-mining causes and environmental pressure
groups. An eye will be kept on this one.
Market Watching
Wesdome Gold (WDO.to) redux
The shortest of notes to follow up on last week’s Wesdome (WDO.to) piece, as the company
delivered good news on Kiena (17) on Tuesday 24th
As a result, WDO beat the street and improved by 6% in a week where wins were rare. The
serendipity of publishing less than 48 before good news is welcome, but WDO makes its own
luck. Less reliant on the price of gold, all WDO needs do is deliver on plans for share price
upside.
Conclusion
IKN601 is done, we end with bullet points:
 It’s still time to be bullish, position in metals today will pay dividends tomorrow. But the
price action remains rough, with timing tough and gold isn’t going to act to will. The
strategy is to buy value, choose stocks carefully based on fundamentals and not worry
too much if volatile metals prices drag down the over-promo’d end of the junior market.
 The sleeper trades are also lottery tickets, you never know which company will be next
to hit a mega hole run a price rocket, but having the type of structure that allows cheap
plays to retain their value is also a key ingredient. Aston Bay (BAY.v) looks the part at
the moment and I expect them to get back into gear when they raise capital early next
year.
 Minera IRL (MIRL.cse) is burden. I hold.
I thank you in advance for any feedback. Our Top Pick stocks are Minera Alamos (MAI.v) and
23

Rio2 Ltd (RIO.v). Flash updates will be sent if required by events.
I wish you good hand-washing fortune, ladies and gentlemen.
Mark
Footnotes, appendices, references, disclaimer
(1) https://astonbayholdings.com/news/aston-bay-announces-results-of-2018-summer-drilling-program/
(2)
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjTlsXWk6ntAhV
4SDABHbkbDJYQFjAAegQIAxAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Fastonbayholdings.com%2Fsite%2Fassets%2Ffiles%2F1259
%2Faston-bay-corporate-presentation-december-2017-1.pdf&usg=AOvVaw0wRHQsNXGVF27UefJaaAS6
(3) https://iknnews.com/a-good-minera-irl-mirl-cse-newsletter/
(4) https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/2057136089075009807
(5) https://www.greatbearresources.ca/news/great-bear-drills-101.50-m-of-4.69-g-t-gold-including-5.25-m-of-41.25-g-t-
gold-at-lp-fault-provides-update-on-successful-model/
(6) https://www.reuters.com/article/global-metals/metals-copper-rushes-to-near-7-year-high-on-vaccine-hopes-fund-
buying-idUSL1N2IC0HQ
(7) https://www.reuters.com/article/copper-shfe-ahome/column-hong-kong-is-the-real-loser-from-new-china-copper-
contract-andy-home-idUSL8N2ID2D0
(8) https://www.regulusresources.com/news/2020/regulus-provides-update-on-exploration-activities/
(9) https://www.fool.ca/2020/11/18/warren-buffetts-berkshire-trims-stake-in-barrick-gold-tsxabx-should-you/
(10) https://www.adnsur.com.ar/politica/conoce-el-proyecto-de-desarrollo-minero-del-gobierno-de-chubut-para-la-
meseta--los-puntos-centrales-de-la-zonificacion--los-controles-y-la-inversion_a5fbbff29b5902133c1fe96d0
(11) https://www.gob.pe/institucion/minem/funcionarios/33814-jorge-luis-montero-cornejo
(12) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3xpCbg9xEo
(13) https://financialpost.com/investing/how-china-took-control-of-ecuadors-oil-2
(14) https://www.argusmedia.com/en/news/2122758-ecuador-seeking-new-oilbacked-loan-from-china
(15) https://www.argusmedia.com/en/news/2148026-ecuador-to-ink-china-oilbacked-loan-in-nov-minister
(16) https://mineriaenlinea.com/2020/11/mexico-considera-revivir-planes-para-reserva-natural-en-distrito-minero/
(17) https://www.wesdome.com/news/press-releases/index.php?content_id=390
24

Stocks To Follow Closed Positions 2019
Closed in 2019 closed close price
Atico Mining ATY.v jan'19 C$0.55 24-Jul-16 C$0.32 41.8% patience ran out, made room
Candente Copper DNT.to jan'19 C$0.075 3-Ago-18 C$0.05 -33.3% tiny trade, made room for new
B2Gold BTO.to feb'19 C$2.11 12-Set-14 C$4.05 91.9% Took 1/2 profits, reduce size
Western Copper WRN.to mar'19 C$0.80 20-Ene-19 C$0.81 1.3% Spec trade that didn't work
B2Gold BTO.to mar'19 C$2.11 12-Set-14 C$4.15 96.7% Took rest of profit.
GT Gold GTT.v mar'19 C$1.17 10-Oct-18 C$0.90 -23.1% Took loss. Story changed
NovaGold NG apr'19 U$3.84 13-Ene-19 U$4.15 -8.1% Short that didn't work, sm loss
Zinc One Z.v jun'19 C$0.47 14-Set-17 C$0.025 -94.7% clearing out dead trade
Amarillo Gold AGC.v jun'19 C$0.24 22-Ago-18 C$0.20 -16.7% clearing out dead trade
New Gold NGD aug'19 U$1.44 31-Jul-19 U$1.23 14.6% ST short win thru Q2 earnings
IMPACT Silver IPT.v aug'19 C$0.39 21-Jul-19 C$0.46 18.0% took a quick profit
Fiore Gold F.v aug'19 C$0.34 26-May-19 C$0.56 64.7% Took profit, 2q19 avg
Chakana Copper PERU.v oct'19 C$0.84 22-Mar-18 C$0.16 -81.0% Exploreco trade fail. Want space
Wesdome Gold WDO.to oct'19 C$2.37 14-Oct-17 C$7.57 219.4% Sold half, profit taking
Superior Gold SGI.v oct'19 C$1.46 8-Abr-18 C$0.47 -67.8% Failed sm spec on Au. Moved on
Amerigo Res ARG.to nov'19 C$0.91 23-Set-18 C$0.50 -45.1% worst trade of year, hefty loss
Guyana Goldfields GUY.to dec'19 C$0.94 14-Abr-19 C$0.56 -40.4% taking the loss, financials weak
Tethyan Res TETH.v dec'19 C$0.30 8-Set-19 C$0.16 -46.7% tiny trade, word of probs in co
Stocks To Follow Closed Positions 2018
Closed in 2018 closed close price
Amarillo Gold AGC.v jan'18 C$0.38 24-Mar-17 C$0.31 -18.4% Cut away losing trade
Riverside Res RRI.v jan'18 C$0.39 27-Jun-16 C$0.31 -20.5% Cut away losing trade
Eros Res ERC.v jan'18 C$0.175 1-Mar-17 C$0.16 -8.6% CEO sudden exit, not good
Excellon Res EXN.to jan'18 C$1.54 9-Oct-16 C$1.66 7.8% 4q17 poor, one too many bad qtrs
Wesdome Gold WDO.to jan'18 C$1.68 15-Dec-17 C$2.06 22.6% Near-term trade block, took profit
Sabina G&S SBB.to apr'18 C$2.06 17-Dec-17 C$1.77 -14.1% Near-term trade, bad timing, small
B2Gold BTO.to May'18 C$2.11 12-Sep-14 C$3.67 73.9% sold 25% to reduce exposure
Lara Expl. LRA.v May'18 C$0.65 11-Feb-18 C$0.58 -13.8% Spec on Brazil didn't work
Solitario XPL June'18 U$0.72 19-Mar-17 U$0.41 -43.1% Failed trade, may return in 4q18
SolGold plc SOLG.to July'18 C$0.475 19-Nov-17 C$0.415 -12.6% cut, trade didn't perform
Pan American PAAS July'18 U$17.90 1-Jun-18 U$16.30 8.9% modest win on short position
NGEx Res NGQ.to Sep'18 C$1.01 22-Oct-17 C$1.00 -1.0% Closed to reduce Argentina exp
Sandstorm Gold SAND Oct'18 U$3.73 17-Apr-16 U$4.13 10.7% partial sale to raise cash for GTT
Aldebaran Res ALDE.v Nov'18 n/a n/a n/a n/a liquidate spin out of REG
Stocks To Follow Closed Positions 2017
Closed in 2017 closed close price
Continental Gold CNL.to Jan'17 C$2.68 22-May-16 C$4.17 55.6% trade closed, profit taken
Focus Ventures FCV.v Jan'17 C$0.23 1-Jul-12 C$0.05 -78.3% Give up, a disaster trade
Wesdome Gold WDO.to Feb'17 C$1.72 28-Aug-16 C$3.00 74.4% Target hit, sold, good trade
Belo Sun BSX.to Mar'17 C$0.90 30-Jan-17 C$0.90 0.0% failed near-term flip trade
Lara Expl. LRA.v Mar'17 C$1.15 8-Apr-12 C$1.05 -8.7% cut to make room for new trade
Rye Patch Gold RPM.v Apr'17 C$0.31 2-Sep-16 C$0.32 3.2% cut for doubts & new stock
Cordoba Min. CDB.v Jun'17 C$0.75 15-Sep-16 C$0.63 -16.0% closed
Constantine Metal CEM.v Aug'17 C$0.135 9-Apr-17 C$0.28 107.4% spec trade closed, good win
Red Eagle Min. R.to Sep'17 C$0.67 13-Dec-16 C$0.27 -59.7% IKN's biggest failure in years
Starcore Intl SAM.to Sep'17 C$0.61 10-Jan-15 C$0.31 -49.2% Patience ran out
B2Gold BTO.to Dec'17 C$2.11 12-Sep-14 C$3.39 60.7% sold small portion for liquidity
25

Stocks To Follow Closed Positions 2016
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-ago-15 C$0.25 38.9% okay trade, sold on pol risk
McEwen Mining MUX jan16 U$1.09 25-ene-15 U$1.20 10.1% sold due to lack of value
Lake Shore Gold LSG.to feb-16 C$1.10 07-abr-15 C$1.69 53.6% bot out, sold early in process
Atacama Pacific ATM.v feb-16 C$0.19 26-abr-15 C$0.40 110.5% sold for a double on big pop
New Gold NGD feb-16 U$2.06 24-ene-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-ene-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-abr-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-abr-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
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
Please note that due to space considerations closed positions 2009 to 2014 are now
available on request, or were published in any edition to IKN553 (end 2019).
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.
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