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The IKN Weekly
Week 604, December 20th 2020
Contents
This Week: In today’s edition, USD drops copper leads and everything follows, Week three (of
three) for Basket Case ideas, The Weekly over the holiday period.
Fundamental Analysis: Vizsla Resources (VZLA.v) 2q21 financials.
Stocks to Follow: Top Picks Minera Alamos (MAI.v) and Rio2 Ltd (RIO.v), Excelsior Mining
(MIN.to), Trilogy Metals (TMQ), Copper Mountain (CMMC.to), Royal Road Minerals Ltd. (RYR.v),
Mene Inc (MENE.v), New Gold (NGD), Minera IRL (MIRL.cse), Norsemont Mining (NOM.cse),
Great Bear Resources (GBR.v).
Copper Basket: Overview, Oroco Resources (OCO.v), Chibougamau (CBG.v), Doré Copper
(DCMC.v), Regulus Resources (REG.v), Capstone Mining (CS.to).
Producer Basket: Overview, Pan American Silver (PAAS).
Tiny Dogs: Overview, Chakana Copper (PERU.v).
Regional Politics: Your brief Covid-19 regional update, Argentina Chubut mining law and
corruption news, Ecuador: A new poll puts the left ahead, Chile: Sebastian Piñera’s 7% approval
rating, Peru lipsticks its 2021 mining FDI pig, Peru: A second early poll plus left wing Veronika
Mendoza on mining, Peru and its IIMP want to improve permitting.
Market Watching: C3 Metals (CCCM.v) drilling for “cobre” in Peru, Chesapeake Gold (CGK.v)
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
 Last call for Basket Cases in today’s intro, your idea for the 2020 lists for copper,
producer and perritos pequeñitos welcome. We run the new lists in IKN606, the day
before 2021 trading kicks off.
 Today’s main fundies section takes a look at the financials at Vizsla Resources (VZLA.v)
and its latest quarter, filed Friday evening. A look at where the money has gone and
(and is set to set) gives needed perspective to this heavily marketed junior.
 Royal Road Minerals (RYR.v) delivered an early Christmas present to holders, the
vindication of its business model worth at least as much as the 10c/share payout from
selling its 50% of Luna Roja. The longest piece in today’s Stock to Follow notes.
 Copper Basket continues to be a centre of real attention and in The Copper Basket,
inventories data out of Shanghai and LME support the fast bull run in the metal. Also,
after getting a couple of mails on the subject (thanks as always) I’ve tried to lay out the
bullish case for Regulus Resources (REG.v) in The Copper Basket notes. However, even
best efforts only get us to “spec buy” with plenty of risk involved.
1

 In Regional Politics, the theme is the clear shift to the left we’re now seeing in South
America. The country that gets most focus today is Peru and part of that is an outline
of what a left wing President Veronika Mendoza, currently third in the polls, would
mean to the country’s mining industry.
USD drops, copper leads and everything follows
It’s going to be another brief intro, if only because it’s Christmas week (Happy Holidays to one
and all) and I have cake to eat. The world hardly
watched aghast as the USD dropped against
everything last week, the world thought it was
long past time. The result was a flat market and
no Santa Rally (EDIT Sunday evening: yet, as the
USD index pushed back up over 90 in early Asia
trading), but metals hit a sweet spot:
The copper surge continues (+3.3% on the week),
the other base metals follow and I know uranium
caught light as well, because several of you have
told me . However, it’s notable how GLD
inventory continues to drop, even as spot gold
climbs back to the U$1,900/oz line:
GLD gold holdings, 2020 to date (metric tonnes)
1300
1250
1200
1150
1100
1050
1000
950
900
850
800
As the above selling of another 12 metric tonnes last week seems to be insto-driven (see chart
above right and our 7x ratio signal) I have two theories and I prefer the first, that desks are
liquidating bullion in order to leverage into mining stocks. Plenty of evidence to support that in
the moves from the big PM ETFs, with GDX up 4.3% on the week and GDXJ up 6.5%. The
other is that the bottom is about to drop out of the gold price, the instos are right and we are
all wrong. As stated above, I prefer my former theory to the latter.
Week three (of three) for Basket Case ideas
Your final call for ideas and suggestions for the 2021 versions of The Copper Basket, Producer
Basket and The Tiny Dogs baskets, thanks once again for the ideas in the last seven days and
rest assured that, while I now have three fully slated lists, there’s room for potential
improvement in all three and I’m still open to ideas. Here are the criteria for each basket:
 For The Copper Basket: We look for a group of 15 stocks that as a whole represent the
junior copper mining world. The maximum market cap is $1Bn but preferably, I like
them a lot lower to better reflect our sector of interest. We welcome tinycaps, as a
cross section is required. As we’re not trying to beat the street and want a faithful
reflection of the sector, always happy to include bad copper companies or dog stocks if
they bring something to the table.
 For The Producer Basket: There is no upper limit in market cap size, but we do require
a minimum market cap of U$2Bn. For this list, I’m looking for suggestions for precious
metals producers that will out-perform in 2020, because a minor game is also to try
2
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 02/21/7 02/21/71
mt 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 source: SPDR GLD data
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 7/21 71/21
Source: SPDR data, IKN calcs

and beat the GDX benchmark on the year.
 For The Tiny Dogs: The main criterion is a maximum market cp of $20m, as we want to
reflect the market of the smallest companies. However, at this level of market cap there
are many broken stocks and dead companies with projects going nowhere; They are
not interesting, as although we cannot expect operational or managerial perfection at
this level, the company still needs to “have a pulse” and be a reasonable trade or
speculative alternative.
As Monday January 4th is 2021’s first trading day, IKN606 on January 3rd rolls out the new
baskets, all new names get their explanation and reasoning. Thanks in advance for any
suggestions.
The Weekly over the holiday period
“Nothing changes on New Year’s Day”
Bono, 1983
Unlike other years (2020 gets that a lot), The IKN Weekly will continue to be published as
normal on the Sundays of Christmas and New Year period, though next week’s will be a lighter
version. Here’s the proposed schedule:
 IKN605 Sunday December 27th: Bare bones episode, with tables updated and some
commentary where required (I’m taking a break over that weekend). However, my
friend David Bhadreshwar has promised some content in another “half a page of A4
and a couple of photos” to show how he spent your money.
 IKN606 Sunday January 3rd: Normal edition that also includes the new Baskets for
copper, producers and tinycaps, so there should be plenty of reading.
 IKN607 and onward: Normal service.
Finally, a sincere wish to everyone for the happiest of Christmases, along with peace and
prosperity in the year to come. Have a great week, people.
Fundamental Analysis of Mining Stocks
Vizsla Resources (VZLA.v) 2q21 financials
Toward the end of this note on Vizsla Resources (VZLA.v) there’s a list of some of the odd
things surrounding this company. Down that list of strange things at is the minor fact that,
unlike any other normal junior, its website provides no access to either its financial reports, its
filed MD&As or even a link to SEDAR. The experienced investor
would go straight to SEDAR anyway, but it might stop the casually
curious from taking a careful look at the financial structure of this
company. It’s one of those things that gives me one of those small
negative feelings about a company and the same feeling comes
from the latest corporate presentation. Overly pumpy talk of
geology and regional advantages in any company corp pres is fine
by me or anyone else, so when VZLA lays it on about Panuco-
Copala it’s normal and shows their enthusiasm, but the amount of
financial sophistry contained in the December VZLA PDF (1) was too
much to stomach. As just one example, the penultimate slide (right)
which promotes the idea that VZLA has a “$23m path to
production”, an idea so daft you only need to point out that the company had C$29.4m cash at
bank on October 31st. So stop everything else, build a mine and return the excess to
shareholders as a dividend please, guys.
As such, The IKN Weekly has taken its cue from the blurb on the VZLA website home pages
3

and also invites you to “See Vizsla from a new perspective” (2), via a look at the company
financials as it so happens VZLA filed its latest quarter on Friday evening without any sort of NR
or public announcement.
We begin with the balance sheet items and first
up is assets, as is our normal wont. Below left
shows how assets changed when the big cash
raises arrived. To the right, we see working capital
closely match that cash position as total liabilities
at the company are the smallest possible and
there’s no debt of any sort to concern. However,
also note that the fixed asset column is improving
fast as well because VZLA has elected to capitalize
its exploration and development costs
Along with the big change in cash come this,
shares out position:
VZLA: Shares out (m)
4
33.33 76.33
88.75 09.85
85.88 50.19 01.19
110
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
naj_91q3 rpa_91q4 yluj_02q1 tco_02q2 naj_02q3 rpa_02q4 yluj_12q1 tco_12q2 won
VZLA: Working capital, per qtr
40
34.011
35 30.817
30
25
20
15
10
4.679
5 0.179 1.781 0.251 2.81
0
S/O (m)
source: company filings
We know VZLA has raised cash successfully, most recently its C$34m gross proceeds equity
financing that added nearly 30m shares to the count and this time, with VZLA to pay attention
to the derivatives so here’s script from the MD&A:
As of the date of this MD&A, the Company had 91,095,718 issued and outstanding common
shares. In addition, the Company has 8,728,000 options outstanding that are expiring through
October 1, 2025, and 23,830,759 warrants outstanding that are expiring through July 30, 2022.
Details of issued share capital are included in Note 4 of the condensed interim consolidated
financial statements for the six months ended October 31, 2020.
Of the warrants, around 17m are priced out at $2.30 and not an issue today, but another 6m
approx are struck at 20c. Meanwhile, another 5.3m options are priced at 35c and should also be
considered whole paper. As this chart shows, it’s not just equity financings that lay behind
these derivates, the company has been generous with its incentive options as well.
rpa_91q4 yluj_02q1 tco_02q2 naj_02q3 rpa_02q4 yluj_12q1 tco_12q2
VZLA: Assets, per qtr C$m
45
40
35
30
25
20 source: company filings
15
10
5
0
rpa_91q4 yluj_02q1 tco_02q2 naj_02q3 rpa_02q4 yluj_12q1 tco_12q2
C$m
fixed
other current
Cash&Eq
source: company filings
VZLA: Liabilities, per qtr
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
rpa_91q4 yluj_02q1 tco_02q2 naj_02q3 rpa_02q4 yluj_12q1 tco_12q2
C$m
LT liab
current liab
source: company filings

C$m
VZLA: Share-based compensation, per qtr
3.5
2.989
3
2.5
2
1.5 1.178
0.968
1
0.5 0.19 0 0.076
0
1q20_july 2q20_oct 3q20_jan 4q20_apr 1q21_july 2q21_oct
source: company filings
Over to operations and, as VZLA is an exploreco, we’re going to see all outgoings and no
income. Not only that, but as VZLA currently has five rigs turning at Panuco-Copala and in its
latest MD&A states it expects to move the count up to eight in the new year, the burn is only
going to get quicker. Here we see two charts, the first displays the P+L data and corporate
expenses:
C$m
VZLA: Recent expenses
1.6 other
1.4 travel
prof fees
1.2
office/misc
1 marketing
0.8 exploration 0.637
consulting fees
0.6
0.298
0.491
0.4
0.192
0.2
0
1q20_july 2q20_oct 3q20_jan 4q20_apr 1q21_july 2q21_oct
source: company filings
Consulting fees have elevated in the last year, while professional fees ballooned just once.
However, the line item that most catches the eye is marketing, those are big numbers for a
small company. The next chart below covers the exploration and evaluation expenditures line
item on the statement of cash flows, as it gives the easiest look into spend on the ground:
VZLA: Exploration and evaluation expenditures, per qtr
C$m
3 2.578
2.5
2
1.5 1.148
1.049
1 0.731
0.5 0.13
0
0
1q20_july 2q20_oct 3q20_jan 4q20_apr 1q21_july 2q21_oct
source: company filings
There are several other ways to show how the cash spent C$m VZLA: Drilling costs, per qtr
2
at VZLA tends to be away from its actual projects. Take for
example the VZLA total exploration costs since April 2020 1.5
of C$5.376m. Those include many items (analysis,
1
equipment maintenance, camp costs etc), but drilling is source: company filings
usually the lion’s share at an exploreco. Not so here, 0.5
where just C$2.2m has made it into the ground as drilling
0
costs. Geological consulting, at over C$1.4m, has been
5
al most as expensive and makes one wonder whether VZLA
4q 1
9_a pr
1q 2
0_j uly
2q 2
0_o ct
3q 2
0_j an
4q 2
0_a pr
1q 2
1_j uly
2q 2
1_o ct

bothered to hire any geologists for the company.
In its filings, VZLA noted it had drilled 29,000m to October 31st, which works out at around
C$75m on straight drill costs (very cheap) and C$200m per metre on total exploration and
evaluation costs, still cheap as that type of number in typical in Mexico for USD invoices rather
than CAD. In that context, consider that the company’s six month spend on marketing in the
current financial year would have been good for over 5,600m of core. Or another few minutes
of crunching the numbers shows that in the last two financial years to date (end April 2019 to
and October 2021) and the period in which VZLA has been active, it has spent almost as much
on keeping the company running (C$6.648m net operating activities) as it has on the
exploration, drilling and development of Panuco-Copala (C$6.696m net investing activities).
But now the program is running and likely accelerating, the latest drill cost column is likely to be
repeated at VZLA in the next two to three quarters because the company wants to get a move
on. As later in 2021, the costs begin to rise more sharply:
The two tiered option deal entered into by VZLA is typical in the way its payment schedule is
back-end heavy, however this one is really heavy. We can at least take the work commitment
schedules as read, the company is not sparing time to drill out its property. However, option
payments totalling just under U$2.9m are due nine months from now, then every September
from then gets more expensive. Presumably the company will look to be in production (or at
least say it will be) for the longer dated payments, but those near-dated ones will need
economic studies to justify their payment. That means VZLA moving to PEA as soon as possible
Discussion and conclusion
Vizsla Resources (VZLA.v) is a been a heavily marketed stock, which shows in general market
radar as it does in its financials, above. We looked at the way in which it had been generous
with its shares and payments in the piece covering its end July 2020 financials that appeared in
IKN588, dated August 30th. At that time VZLA was a C$1.84 stock, today it’s C$1.48 despite the
recent rally in silver.
The market has not been impressed to date with the results, its early hits of wide mineralization
have been difficult for VZLA to emulate and all too often, assay NRs are full of strong but thin
6

vein hits of silver with by-product kickers. They make for flashy headlines, but the local
reputation for high grading skinny veins (and mined out main veins) has so far held true. That’s
not good news, vein width is the one thing mining engineers want from their silver deposit and
makes for the best of mining, such as at Escobal or Juancipio. Here, Panuco-Copala is headed
the way of Velardeña, those 300m oz of silver (inferred) will stay underground indefinitely.
But today’s note is separate to that made previously on its drilling and results issues, as despite
having a very strong cash treasury at present VZLA is on course to burn through it all in quick
time. The company isn’t actively hiding its financial situation, but it’s not in any hurry to show
the documents to you either. That may be because the money won’t last long, or it may be
because of the way the company has spent its money up to now, but we do know that only a
small percentage of cash has turned into core so far and that its corporate outgoings all-but
match the money the company spends in Mexico. That corporate spend is unusual, not unique,
but obviously heavy for its size and stage of development. If it were the only unusual thing then
it might not matter as much, but it stacks against a list of odd matters not least of which being
the recent and sudden departure of its CFO (and from sister company Tarachi, too). This didn’t
seem to bother the market, but set red alarm bells ringing at this desk when word came it was
because he is under investigation by the SEC. There’s the out-sized incentive and bonus
warrant awards that don’t just happen, but are then timed to promo and marketing event that
allow the brokerages to cash in and make what’s tantamount to free money.
What the end October financial filings tell us is that VZLA is also open to further dilution as that
big cash pile will not last through a 2021 with eight rigs running for two of the quarters and the
first larger option payment to deal with in September. This company will need to keep up
regular newsflow because the cash burn alongside will be just as heavy as it moves toward the
first milestone and a PEA (which we can fully expect to have strong theoretical economics).
Further down the line is the real risk, that of a project and developed mine plan that nobody
wants to buy because the flashy results were great for retail only. That’s the message being
flashed by six months of decadence in the stock price, as its cash is turned into marginally
economic rocks.
Stocks to Follow
A good week for the juniors and for the portfolio, with just four of our 16 open positions being
losers (RIO.v, AUL.v, MIRL.cse, MENE.v) and of them, only Rio2’s drop of any concern. There
were no UNCHes this time so that means 12 winners, but in a week where GDX improved by
4.34% and GDXJ by 6.52%, we need a “five percent or above” performance from stocks to
keep pace and got it from most of them, with the best moves from Royal Road (RYR.v up
33.3%), Copper Mountain (CMMC.to up 16.9%), Kuya Silver (KUYA.cse up 14.4%) and
Excelsior Mining (MIN.to up 9.4%) and another four stocks beating the rough benchmark.
However, the relative lack of silver exposure in The IKN Weekly portfolio means it will
underperform when silver makes the type of 78X to 72x move against gold that we saw this
week and overall, the bigger winners weren’t enough for the total portfolio to keep pace with
the market. Thoughts on the laggardly nature of out two Top Picks, below.
We currently have 16 open positions in the Stocks to Follow list and until we sell another it’s
staying like that, even though we are one over our normal, self-imposed limit. Twelve are in the
green, four are in the red.
7

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$0.69 228.6% New $1.14 tgt Aug'20 #1 idea
Rio2 Ltd. RIO.v STR BUY C$0.83 22-Apr-18 C$0.84 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$1.47 50.0% $2.00 target, small growth PM
Copper Mountain CMMC.to STR BUY C$1.40 22-Nov-20 C$1.80 28.6% Added Dec'20, trade for FY21
Excelsior Mining MIN.to STR BUY C$0.98 10-Mar-19 C$1.16 18.4% Added again Dec'20, Cu'21
Norsemont Mining NOM.cse STR BUY C$1.55 6-Sep-20 C$0.97 -37.4% Add 3rd time, for 2021 run
Trilogy Metals TMQ STR BUY U$1.84 15-Sep-19 U$1.96 3.9% Added Dec'20, Cu for 2021
Royal Road Min. RYR.v STR BUY C$0.155 17-Mar-19 C$0.36 132.3% Model paying off in Nica
New Gold NGD STR BUY U$0.76 9-Feb-20 U$2.29 201.3% 3q20 tgt $2.80 confirmed
Great Bear Res GBR.v STR BUY C$15.83 26-Aug-20 C$17.11 8.1% M&A major tgt, added IKN590
Orezone ORE.v BUY C$0.79 21-Jun-20 C$0.93 17.7% Now in news period, trade buy
Kuya Silver KUYA.cse spec buy C$1.66 8-Nov-20 C$2.30 38.6% new Peru Ag jr w/good plan
Aurelius Res AUL.v spec buy C$0.075 28-Jun-20 C$0.05 -33.3% 1st assays promising, spec buy
Pucara Gold TORO.v wait to add C$0.80 4-Oct-20 C$0.82 2.5% Will add at under 65c
Minera IRL MIRL.cse hold C$0.195 22-Jul-12 C$0.15 -23.7% hold until further news
Long-term non-mining hold
Mene Inc. MENE.v LT Hold C$0.65 6-Dec-20 C$0.62 -4.6% LT bet on jockey&horse,will add
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
Tinka Res TK.v Dec'20 C$0.195 19-Apr-16 C$0.195 0.0% Closed on a round trip fail
2015 to 2019 annual closed positions in appendices below, 2009 to 2014 closed positions in editions IKN553 or earlier
Now for some notes on our covered stocks:
Top Picks Minera Alamos (MAI.v) and Rio2 Ltd (RIO.v): To make sure no elephants start
visiting any living rooms, let us note the current relative underperformance in the two IKN
8

Weekly Top Pick stocks, Rio2 Ltd (RIO.v) and Minera Alamos (MAI.v). Just a few editions ago I
sang their praises as stalwarts while those around were fading, which demonstrates that as
much is about personal perception as anything else. My preferred timescale to demonstrate the
hardiness of RIO.v and MAI.v this year was months, but if we cut it down to the last ten days…
…they are nobody’s idea of winning trades. So yes, agreed, the IKN Top Picks are stodgy at the
moment but that’s the way long-term trades run sometimes, they go against the run of the
sector by their very definition of being successful (while 85% of exploreco/developer companies
are not). However, RIO.v is also up for criticism over the longer-term, as it may have done a
great job of recovery in 2020 to date but that’s largely all it is, a return to Square One for seed
and early investors (e.g. take a look at my personal cost average).
The above is fact, as is the right for holders to either stock to criticize their recent performance.
The chart shows the facts and while a coincidental soft week for both stocks is hardly a game
changer, we are talking Top Picks here and they aren’t just supposed to perform, but out-
perform. We therefore consider reasons and there is some coincidence in the timing of both
company news cycle, but for different reasons. MAI is at that “on the cusp of” moment, when
the developer is re-rated if and when it successfully moves into production. Meanwhile, RIO is
now in its capex raise period set to run for the next quarter and close in early 2q21, that’s not
the time you’d normally expect massive runs on share prices, as those who would finance like
to keep things under control (and to their liking, to boot). And while MAI has other fronts on
which to act now, neither company is going to be “newsy” for a few more weeks. If this were
the cliché strewn mining commentator begging patience from his audience, then you could
hang me out to dry but it’s not, these are my two largest positions on the list by quite a
distance and neither of them are causing ant great concern. For sure I’d like them up first and
fastest as well, but I’ll take the manifestation of long-term multi-bagger value the way it comes.
Excelsior Mining (MIN.to), Trilogy Metals (TMQ), Copper Mountain (CMMC.to): The
additions of a couple of weeks ago start to pay dividends. With copper the metal doing largely
what we wanted, those stocks dependent on the metal pushed higher and once you consider
how tight the market is now (see The Copper Basket below), there’s every reason to expect
current momentum to continue and push us higher still. There’s every reason to expect
U$4.00/lb copper soon, at least on a spike, I’ve positioned accordingly. See below for more.
Royal Road Minerals Ltd. (RYR.v): A week is a long time in politics. Last weekend I was
bemoaning the lack of catalyst at RYR with words such as these:
“…(t)he company has drilled and found some success to date, Luna Roja and Caribe in
Nica both showing the type of results the team wanted, but there hasn’t been a big
market mover from the company either in the Triangulo Minero de Nicaragua…”
I even managed to mention its “mediocre 2020” in the note, which was also thrown straight
back in my face by Thursday’s NR (3) and as noted on the blog that day, here are the main
terms of the sale of the company’s 50% of the Luna Roja project to its JV partner, Mineros S.A.
(locally Hemco):
9

 Purchase Price – Mineros will pay to the Company a purchase price of (i) US$22.5
million payable in cash on the closing of the proposed transaction, plus (ii) a 1.25% net
smelter royalty on all future mineral production from the Monte Carmelo I and Monte
Carmelo II mining concessions commencing from the first production therefrom.
 Expenditure Commitment – The Company will invest no less than US$7.5 million over
a five-year period in exploration operations on the strategic alliance properties in
Nicaragua.
And here right is the chart of market reaction and this excellent win for RYR, adding 10c/share
to the company treasury, confirming and
vindicating the RYR JV with Hemco/Mineros S.A.,
and committing $7.5m over the next three years
to finding the next deposit to sell on. At least I
did make it clear last weekend that I’m a fan of
RYR and the way it does business.
Finally, here’s something that even RYR doesn’t
know I know about them. Due to the fact I was
on a site visit with the team last year, I still have
the WhatsApp of certain members of the
Nicaragua team and last week, they published
photos for their friends and colleagues (they’re
not trying to impress the public) of their
Christmas campaign to the people in and around the Rosita project (main village Wasakin). For
context, note the people to the Northeast of Nica may be in the denominated “Mining Triangle”,
but they are not in a traditional mining zone and recently got hit by not one, but two high
category hurricanes and have lost nearly all crop harvests, as well as the widespread damage
caused.
The caption that came with that image on his social media
above was (translated), “Taking toys for the community of
Wasakin Walangas, Rosita.” The caption on this second image
(right) was (translated), “Delivering food packages to the
families (then exact location added)”, once again in the
Wasakin/Rosita zone. With that, you have a another reason to
feel good about your investment in RYR.v.
Mene Inc (MENE.v): No news, just a seller or two that
brought the stock back down to where it was before the note of
two weeks ago. I won’t add yet, because the nature of this
trade will be to pick at cheap prices when I have available cash
in the portfolio. Today the prices are certainly cheap, but cash
levels are too low.
10

New Gold (NGD): In IKN601 on November 29th NGD marked the weekend at U$1.83. Here
we are, three weeks later and 25% higher, back challenging YTD highs as 2020 closes out.
The house 201% win on this trade confirms the forecast made in February, NGD is indeed the
Turnaround Company of the Year in 2020.
Minera IRL (MIRL.cse): In the NR that confirmed the result of last week’s AGM, we were
told that “shareholders voted overwhelmingly in favour of all items put forward by the Board of
Directors and Management”. We even got a CEO comment, as well
“Diego Benavides, the Company’s Chief Executive Officer, said “we are grateful for the clear
message of support from our shareholders as we transition back to advancing our project at
Ollachea. We are looking forward to next steps and the opportunity to demonstrate our gratitude
for the support”.
That’s all we got. Note that MIRL didn’t bother giving us the actual numerical result of the AGM,
because is doesn’t have to under CSE rules and expecting any sort of transparency from its
$544,000 a year CEO is too much to ask. As expected and predicted, this deceitful CEO has
gone immediately back into his shell and will treat us all will disdain for a few more weeks until
he decides there’s something to say.
Norsemont Mining (NOM.cse): The last ten days of trading look like this, Thursday and
Friday’s action most welcome. I’ve fielded a
few more “concerned about this” mails from
fellow holders of NOM, all I have for you is
the fundamental value on offer compared to
a rough start at market, with the stock
targeted for trading fun (consensus is “a
European fund”, which would make sense
considering how hard NOM was pumped on
the German market. I’ve been to the well
several times already and feel slightly jealous
over those people buying in now, but zero
issues about the stock, the company or
Choquelimpie. Which concludes this week’s
pep talk for fellow bagholders, but we can
add that unofficial talk is of a marketing campaign kicking off in the New Year, as well as
executive and operational-level appointments to be announced.
Great Bear Resources (GBR.v): GBR continued its corporate moving last week by making
Michael Kenyon chair. If that isn’t “Dear Mark Bristow, we are now ready to negotiate a price”, I
don’t know what is.
11

The Copper Basket
After 51 weeks of 2020, The Copper Basket shows a 76.07% gain to level stakes.
company ticker price 1/1/20 Shares out Market Cap current pps gain/loss%
1 Capstone Min CS.to 0.76 399.598 939.06 2.35 209.2%
2 Imperial Metals III.to 2.06 128.49 614.18 4.78 132.0%
3 Trilogy Metals TMQ.to 3.38 138.905 345.87 2.49 -26.3%
4 Copper Mtn CMMC.to 0.71 191.3 344.34 1.80 153.5%
5 Oroco Res OCO.v 0.45 181.52 319.48 1.76 291.1%
6 Excelsior Min. MIN.to 1.00 238.658 276.84 1.16 16.0%
7 Marimaca Cop MARI.to 1.625 64.358 220.10 3.42 110.5%
8 Western Copper WRN.to 1.07 107.586 175.37 1.63 52.3%
9 Amerigo Res ARG.to 0.59 180.169 149.54 0.83 40.7%
10 Regulus Res. REG.v 1.28 101.85 104.91 1.03 -19.5%
11 Atico Mining ATY.v 0.31 119.023 66.65 0.56 80.6%
12 Chakana Cop PERU.v 0.245 93.2 53.12 0.570 132.7%
13 Aldebaran Res. ALDE.v 0.47 77.636 34.94 0.45 -4.3%
14 Doré Copper DCMC.v 1.25 31.798 31.16 0.98 -21.6%
15 Chibougamau CBG.v 0.17 46.695 7.47 0.16 -5.9%
NB: All stocks in CAD$ Portfolio avg 76.07%
The Copper Basket average had another 80% The Copper Basket 2020, weekly evolution
70%
strong week, with just two losers and one
60%
stock unchanged in price (CBG.v) since last 50%
40%
weekend. 30%
20%
10%
That leaves 12 winners and here we list the 0%
-10%
bets percentage gains, starting with -20%
-30%
Imperial (III.to up 18.6%) and continuing -40%
-50%
with Doré Copper (DCMC.v up 18.1%), -60%
Chakana Copper (PERU.v up 17.5%),
Copper Mountain (CMMC.to up 16.9%),
Capstone (CS.to up 13.0%), Aldebaran
(ALDE.v up 12.5%) and let’s add in the
good move from Excelsior (MIN.to up 9.4%) for good measure. As the chart right shows, we’re
leaving 2020 at the high point. Reason? Obvious:
12
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 ht6ced ht31 ht02
source: IKN calcs

Copper the metal did what we suspected it would do and pushed higher on pure demand >
supply dynamics, the best there are in the world of capitalism. As for me, better late than never
is the phrase, above being a prime visual aid. Since IKN600 and its main fundies note “The
bullish case for copper”, which was “…the day when we throw in the bearish towel, admit I
underestimated China’s gravitational pull on copper…, and the accompanying anal ysis on and
Copper Mountain (CMMC.to) “…a call option on copper” the Cu trades have gone well. Or put
another way, if I hadn’t seen the signs by late November it would have meant a likely change of
profession. Consider IKN as in the “better late than never” copper camp. As for the week’s
carefully curated trade excerpt, this stands out as the quoted trader is a brave man (4):
LONDON, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Copper pulled back after breaching the $8,000 a tonne level on
Friday as some investors were cautious due to a tapering off of physical demand at high prices.
Copper has joined stocks and other risk assets in buoyant gains in recent weeks, lifted by
optimism about global economic recovery after positive news about COVID-19 vaccines.
Warning signals are flashing, however, since the most recent extension of copper’s rally has been
dominated by speculators, not buying from industrial users, said Gianclaudio Torlizzi, partner at
consultancy T-Commodity in Milan.
“We think the market is driving higher only from financial euphoria. The industrial Chinese buyers
are not buying this spike and this real time indicator has been stalling over the last two weeks,” he
said.
“Demand is not going along with the price, so I’m starting to be sceptical about this rally and I’m
taking this upside in prices as a very good opportunity to short the market.”
For one thing, “industrial Chinese buyers” are not buying in mid-December because they never
buy in mid-December. For another, J.M. Keynes would explain to Mr. Torlizzi that “financial
euphoria” can outlast its counterparties, and easily too. We move to our regular look at copper
inventories, data as usual from the database at Chile’s Cochilco (5) (in Spanish, navigation not
difficult, numbers always fresh):
 World copper stocks in the three world systems dropped again and significantly, the
aggregate down 31,280 metric tonnes (mt) (-10.4%) to close the week at 269,453mt
and leaving the world’s reserves of copper looking extremely thin.
 At the SHFE, another 7,870mt left stocks to leave this weekend’s total at 74,222mt, the
lowest since 2011. The visual below shows the change, this is easily the lowest stock
level in the last five years and the lowest in our copper inventory database that goes
back to January 2012 (before that time, the Shanghai Futures contract for copper was
a more discrete entity, certainly not the market force of today). If other years are out
guide, we have two more weeks of out-sized demand to cover before the re-stock cycle
begins.
 The biggest drop came at the LME, down 22,925mt (-15.7%) to close Friday at
123,400mt, a big bite of tonnage coming out of already historically low inventory levels.
 Comex completes the week with a smaller, 485mt drop to close at 71,831mt. Its
withdrawals have been remarkably constant in recent weeks, always just below 500mt.
The Shanghai-only inventories “How Low Can You Go?” stakes continue, the phrase “scraping
the bottom of a barrel” more apt by the day.
Shanghai Futures Exchange Warehouse Stocks, Dec'16 to date
400000
350000
300000
250000
200000
150000
100000
50000
13
ht72 ht42 ts12 ht02 ht71 ht51 ht21 ht01 ht7guA ht4peS dn2tcO ht03 ht4ceD 7102ts1naJ ht92 ht62 ht62 dr32 ts12 ht81 ht61 ht31 ht01 ht8 ht5von dr3ced ts13 ht82 ht52 ht52 dn22 ht72 ht42 dn22 ht91 ht61 ht41 ht11 ht9 ht6naJ 9102
dr3bef
dr3ram ts13 ht82 ht62 dr32 ts12 ht81 ht51 ht31 ht01 ht8 0202ht5naj 0202dn2bef 0202ts1ram ht92 ht62 ht42 ts12 ht91 ht61 ht31 ht11 ht8 0202ht6ced
Mt Cu
source: Cochilco

It’s worth reflecting that we haven’t seen world stocks aggregate at under 300k for an extended
period since 2014, here’s a chart we usually only feature at months’ ends, as it illustrated the
2014 dip well:
Copper inventories, per month, 2012 to date
1000000
900000
800000
700000
600000
500000
400000
300000
200000
100000
0
14
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
Back then the market was very different, the financial world steered well clear of holding
copper, funds dumping their 2013 positions before the price lows of 2015 and 2016 came
along. This time, the lack of stock is due to pure physical demand from end-users, houses only
have control of large positions via futures contracts, not by ownership.
Oroco Resources (OCO.v): A short line to clear up any confusion about the end of last
week’s short note on OCO:
There’s a long tradition of mine owners who also run coinage mints, the two are
historically complementary. The mindset of for example, Hieronymus Schlick and his
16th century Joachimsthaler, the coin that eventually gave us the word “dollar”. At
OCO, we see Craig Dalziel continuing the tradition, as he apparently thinks he has the
right to print money.
…from last week. Please note that listed companies in Canada cannot issue incentive options
(to insiders and connections) at under the closing share price of the company stock that day.
However, OCO has just issued 120,000 incentive warrants at $1.20 strike which isn’t just under,
but is way under the current OCO share price. Agreed, what OCO is doing is technically legal,
but that doesn’t make it morally viable; It’s another example of a company quietly feeding itself
and its friends and another reason not to trust this junior, priced too highly for its early stage of
development.
Chibougamau (CBG.v) and Doré Copper (DCMC.v): Highlighted in IKN603 as a momentum
play, DCMC moved up 18.1% and was the list’s biggest mover on the week. Meanwhile, my
idea of a cheap value area play as the mining camp starts to form, CBG.v, was one of only
three stocks on the list not to improve. Which shows you how much I know.
Regulus Resources (REG.v): The bullish case for REG goes as follows:
 Drill results coming up soon
 Rocks are still there
 Drilling will re-start eventually
 Stock is cheap
I have no problem with those. To begin, at some point (REG told us December, that might be
January) we get the assay results from the two uncompleted holes, here’s a reminder (6):
Hole AK-20-044 stopped at 813.40 m depth and hole AK-20-45 stopped at 841.40 m
depth (see Figure 1 for location). Both holes have cut an extensive sequence of
prospective carbonate host rock stratigraphy cut by porphyry dikes and breccias with
increasing intensity of skarn development and sulphide mineralization at depth. When
drilling was stopped, both holes were in mineralized material. These holes confirm the

hypothesis that favourable alteration and mineralization extend significantly to the north
of both the reported AntaKori resource and the previously released drill holes in this
area. Final assays for these two holes are expected to be received in approximately
three weeks and will be press released after the Company has completed its
customary QA/QC analysis of the lab results.
Count three weeks from the November 23rd date of the NR, now count the four weeks to today.
The uncertainty is now on how long REG holds the numbers for itself before publishing them.
From the description above, we should expect decent mineralization and results and that could
start momentum running again. As for the other points, let’s make them before the company
does: Yes the rocks are still there, yes
drilling will eventually re-start (and it’s not
as if REG shareholders aren’t used to long
delays and missed time windows) and yes,
the stock is now obviously at a discount to
peers (right).
On the other hand, the above chart laying
REG against the copper ETF COPX also
visualizes the failure of (an expensive)
marketing and promotion campaign around
Labor Day and your author opines that the
errors committed by REG in the last two
years won’t cease before real change at the
company. For example, let’s compare the
CSR atmosphere at REG AntaKori December 2020 to that around Antares during those
Decembers when AMN was developing Haquira. The C-suite were on site (and dressed as Santa
Claus), handing out gifts and making strong connections with the community (that served them
well, they sold to First Quantum who proceeded to ruin CSR and stop the project from moving
forward). The head office was in Arequipa and access was straightforward. This year, we do not
know if John Black and Kevin Heather are in Canada, USA, Chile or Argentina. Perhaps they are
in Peru, but even if they are they’ve dropped the ball compared to their winning formula of
before. Lazy and inefficient corporate spreading has negatively affected AntaKori and its CSR is
a pale comparison to the hands-on successes at Haquira, the executive has gone soft and likes
its home walls too much, they’ve also expanded their time horizontally and feathered nests a
priori. Why should this C-suite and corporate structure dedicate so much time to the iffy and
badly located Aldebaran, risking ruin for its flagship investment?
A trader or near-term speculator is a buyer of REG on the upcoming drill results, you take your
chances the usual way around assay NRs. However, in my opinion an investor in REG at a
Loonie is buying a company in need of corporate turnaround, there have been too many errors
in too short a time that do not involve minerals or geology to ignore, but as the main C-suite
players are also large shareholders I doubt they’ll fire themselves.
Capstone Mining (CS.to): Once again, unstoppable:
15

After a short rest of maybe a week, CS is back running and is 25% up in the last two weeks,
with most of that coming on Thursday and Friday. CS.to is a poster child for the medium-scale
producer and how this copper rally has come to the rescue. Even CS cannot help but make a lot
of money at $3.50 copper, the same goes for III, CMMC, ARG, ATY and the other producers on
the list, though how the smaller ones get the money to the bottom line is not as clear)
The Producer Basket
After 51 weeks of 2020, the Producer Basket shows a gain of 27.38% to level stakes.
company ticker price 1/1/20 Shares out Mkt Cap (Bn) current pps gain/loss%
1 Newmont NEM 43.45 819.84 49.60 60.50 39.2%
2 Barrick GOLD 18.59 1779.04 41.40 23.27 25.2%
3 Franco-Nevada FNV 103.30 188.6 25.04 132.77 28.5%
4 Agnico Eagle AEM 61.61 238.985 17.10 71.57 16.2%
5 Kinross Gold KGC 4.74 1253.5 9.16 7.31 54.2%
6 Royal Gold RGLD 122.25 65.375 7.31 111.84 -8.5%
7 Pan American PAAS 23.69 209.61 7.02 33.48 41.3%
8 B2Gold BTG 4.01 1025.75 5.73 5.59 39.4%
9 Alamos Gold AGI 6.02 391.19 3.62 9.25 53.7%
10 Buenaventura BVN 15.10 254.19 3.25 12.78 -15.4%
Prices in U$, NYSE/NASDAQ tickers Portfolio avg 27.38%
All ten were winners, nine of those ten up between 0.7% and 3.4% in standard tidal action that
lifts all boats as money pours in from the top, down. The exception to prove the rule was the
silver exposed PAAS, up a strong 12.9% and the outlier of the bunch.
The 2020 Producer Basket: Weekly performance and
60%
comparative to GDX control
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
-10%
-20%
-30%
-40%
16
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 ht6ced ht31 ht02
basket
gdx control
source: Google, IKN calcs
No surprises that GDX performed better than our selection of ten over the week, we’re still
more than 2% up and likely winners of the yearlong race (by a nose), but top-down action will
suit all components of the massive indices, the stockpicker only get some of that benefit.
The 2020 Producer Basket: Percentage difference between
GDX benchmark and basket (negative = IKN basket ahead)
2.0%
1.0%
0.0%
-1.0%
-2.0%
-3.0%
-4.0%
-5.0%
-6.0%
-7.0%
-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 ht6ced ht31 ht02
source: IKN calc, NYSE/Nasdaq data

Pan American Silver (PAAS): PAAS was one of the go-to stocks during last week’s silver
rally, beating GDXJ and even the Global X Silver
Miners ETF (SIL) easily (right). There will be
plenty of eyes on the Chubut parliament on
Tuesday December 22nd, last day for legislative
work for the house and the last chance to debate
and vote on the “Zonification” law that would
allow Navidad to move forward. See the latest on
that in Regional Politics below.
Tomorrow we see a march in Chubut (in fact
marches, plural in several locations) organized by
mining and hydrocarbons unions (7) supporting
the law project and if there’s a massive support
and turnout, that might change things for the
better for PAAS. However, while it’s difficult to predict anything in Argentine politics let alone
the type of backroom stuff going on around Navidad this year and particularly this month, my
personal best guess is the debate is deferred until the New Year and that would probably mean
March 2021 before it comes to the floor again.
The Tiny Dogs
Here are our ten and after forty-one weeks, the average is up by 43.69%:
company ticker price 16/2/20 Shares out Mkt Cap current pps gain/loss%
1 Aston Bay BAY.v 0.065 136.26 6.13 0.045 -30.8%
2 Chakana Copper PERU.v 0.175 93.2 54.99 0.57 225.7%
3 Constantine Met CEM.v 0.19 45.35 8.16 0.18 -5.3%
4 Contact Gold C.v 0.175 84.472 9.29 0.11 -37.1%
5 Manitou Gold MTU.v 0.065 230.79 11.54 0.05 -23.1%
6 Salazar Res* SRL.v 0.18 126.55 39.23 0.31 72.2%
7 Radius Gold RDU.v 0.235 86.94 26.08 0.30 27.7%
8 Red Pine Expl RPX.v 0.035 477.22 21.47 0.045 28.6%
9 Warrior Gold WAR.v 0.055 68.2 6.14 0.09 63.6%
10 Wolfden Res WLF.v 0.13 129.532 31.09 0.24 84.6%
Prices in CAD$, data from TSXV (*SRL price from May 2nd) basket avg 43.69%
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.
The basket rose by 8% and change on a rally that saw some of the cash reach down this far,
with just two losers (CEM.v, C.v) and three others unchanged on the week (BAY.v, RPX.v,
WAR.v). That means five winners (PERU.v, MTU.v, SRL.v, RDU.v, WLF.v) including the best
moves in Chakana Copper (PERU.v up 17.5%) and Wolfden Resources (WLF.v up 12.2%).
17

Chakana Copper (PERU.v): PERU.v moved up more than most copper juniors last week on
the back of this NR (8) which had this title:
Chakana Copper Intersects 101.5m of 0.61 g/t Au, 0.91% Cu, and 19.8 g/t Ag (2.26 g/t
Au-eq) from 32m at Paloma West, Soledad Project, Peru
The company highlighted the thickness of the mineralization and quite right too, but any
eventual mine will have to mine both this type of rock and the thinner, tubular shape more
normally associated with Tourmaline Breccia pipes.
However, the look further out on the price chart that
take sin the last six months can most generously and
diplomatically described as a stock in distribution. If I
rallies further and breaks out of this apparent ceiling on
further copper price rises, then so be it.
Please be clear I once held shares in PERU.v and was
enthusiastic about its concept, as well. However, the
poor execution and corporate shenanigans got too much
and as such, there are no desk plans to return to PERU.v
as an investment or speculation in the future.
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
Your brief Covid-19 regional update
I hope you and yours are safe and well, wherever you and they may be. Now for local sickness
news and a different type of viral spread, as vaccine politics sweeps over LatAm and those
countries that prepared for this phase are now in a better position. Example Chile, which
secured vaccines in a competitive world market while other countries dithered. Chile will begin
its vaccine roll-out as early as this week, meanwhile neighbouring Peru, in full political turmoil in
October and November including the change of President, was not in position to access the
world market and has also decided upon a system of free vaccinations for its population
(logistically challenging). The result is a singular lack of vaccines arriving in Peru and the
likelihood of a wait of months before even key workers and hotspot coastal areas are covered.
Over in Argentina, the Russian Sputnik vaccine goes into distribution in the next few days
(Argentina flying a plane to Moscow on the 22nd to pick up their doses) and while Argentine
health infrastructure is better developed than most in the region and an advantage, they have
also hit refusals on price and delivery dates from Pfizer and the Sputnik V vaccine is not on
people 60 years old and above (Russia now states “at your own risk” to countries who buy the
vaccine for all its population). Finally we check in at the worst mess and in Brazil, Jair
Bolsonaro’s depravity has not yet reached bottom. In a live TV interview (9) in which he
explained the government’s strategy toward COVID-19 and the vaccine (or total lack of it in
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Brazil, the country having rejected all vaccine deals except that of Oxford AstraZeneca, the jab
that has to go through further phases of testing). The country has opened a U$20Bn line of
credit to purchase vaccinations, but Bolsonaro added that is “not in a hurry to spend this
money” because he continued to state that the pandemic is coming to an end. “The pandemia
really is coming to its close. The numbers have shown this. We are in a small rise now, but it’s
nothing but a small and predictable rebound.” But that’s not enough for him, he also denigrated
the vaccination process itself: “But the rush for the vaccination isn’t justified, because it’s
something that affects the lives of people. When you are inoculated, the immune system can
react in unexpected ways.” The man is evil.
Argentina Chubut mining law and corruption news
Chubut parliamentarian Leila Lloyd Jones has caused a storm in her province after accusing
fellow members of parliament of accepting bribes from Pan American Silver (PAAS) in order to
pass the upcoming “Zonificación” law that will allow the development of the Navidad mine. The
episode started when pro-mining groups surrounded her house in what Argentines call an
“escrache” (mob makes scenes where you live for hours on end in order to intimidate, all sides
use it and it’s ugly politics), at which Lloyd Jones was recorded saying that members of
parliament were getting 10 million pesos from the company for their vote.
This is a serious accusation and its publication set off a formal investigation, which included the
written testimony of Lloyd Jones which set off more fireworks. In her deposition, Lloyd Jones
explains how a lawyer representing the pro-mining side gave a presentation and then later, in a
private phone call, told her partner (translated) that “..the companies would be willing to
reward the contribution of those deputies (parliamentarians) who accompany the zonification
project with the sum of between 10 and 15 million Pesos in hand” (depends on the exchange
rate, but the implication is “U$100k”). She also stated that they would also get service contracts
with the mine (transport, catering etc) for at least five years (10) but at the end covered her
back by stating that although she had heard the offers, she had no concrete proof that other
members of the Chubut parliament had accepted it. This comes on the back off the other big
corruption scandal last week, the recording of parliamentarian Sebastián López, who in 2018
was filmed asking for a “100,000” bribe (not known whether dollars or Pesos, but bet on
Dollars). He then added chutzpah to the mix by complaining (11) that those accusing him were
trying to place conditions on his vote as a member of parliament, and that he would continue to
vote for the Zonification in the upcoming debate. In order to mitigate damage, the other
members of his political group in Chubut (PRO, the Macri party) have suspended López’s
membership (though his vote will still be valid, the irony) and have demanded a full inquiry.
Ecuador: A new poll puts the left ahead
This week, the LatAm think tank CELAG published its voter intention poll on the upcoming
Ecuador election, here is one of the slides from their report (12):
19

This result is different from most other recent polls are requires explanation. To begin, CELAG
now include the candidacy of right wing Álvaro Noboa, who is currently excluded from running
but is appealing the decision in order to get on the ballot. In the poll, he splits the right wing
vote and leaves the frontrunner in other polls, Guillermo Lasso, back in fourth place. Also
notable is the higher polling of Yaku Pérez, the ecologist-type candidate who represents to most
severe threat to mining in the country. However, the big difference is at the top: CELG puts
Andrés Arauz (the Rafael Correa dauphin) in a clear first place and with 36.5% of valid votes,
close to the 40% +1 vote required for a round one victory.
The questions are more around CELAG than Ecuador, because this study group is left wing
biased and has always supported the Rafael Correa cause in Ecuador. This means there may
well be political bias in the results and in many places, the poll is flagged as “left wing” by
media channels. However, we also need to point out that CELAG was one of the very few
bodies to correctly predict that Luis Arce of Bolivia would win in Round One and has been
accurate on polls on Argentina and Mexico recently, too. Dismissing CELAG just because “it’s
lefty” may be an error and the similarities between Ecuador and Bolivia, with a left wing
candidate running up against 90% right wing national media, may mean the real bias is to the
right in other polls.
Chile: Sebastian Piñera’s 7% approval rating
His numbers were already in the low teens, but this week saw the polling company Criteria
publish its November snapshot that gives Chile’s President just 7% approval (not a typo). His
reaction was this (13) (translated):
“Of course, any President would like to have greater support, but there’s only one poll
that really counts; the one we had on December 17th 2017, when an absolute majority
of Chilean elected a President.”
He went on to say that by December next year, month of the next Chilean elections, they would
be back to the support they had before. Indeed, just 12 months to go before he gives the job
back to Michelle Bachelet again, they seem to swap it like a baton.
Peru lipsticks its 2021 mining FDI pig
Current Peru mining minister Jaime Gálvez talked up his country’s 2021 mining investment
panorama last week, telling an online audience of reporters that they expected to start the
construction of seven projects that come to a total investment of U$3.577Bn. In the words of
Gálvez (translated) (14), “All these projects add up to U$3.577Bn, no small thing for mining
investment this year, and adds to the investment by companies in sustaining capital for mines
which is normally around U$3.0bn per year.”
However, as they say in Spanish, “the reality is other”. To begin, U$2.1Bn of the U$3.577Bn is
the Yanacocha Sulphides project, a multi-year expansion of the NEM/BVN Yanacocha mine to
turn its production from oxides and toward the sulphide mineralization laying (normally) deeper.
Calling this “an investment in 2021” is like organizing the Olympic Games starting from scratch
on January 1st of the Olympic year. Next in importance on the Peru ministry list is Bear Creek
Mining’s (BCM.v) Corani project, earmarked at U$579m. The proposal seems logical from the
Peru government’s point of view, after all they have fully permitted the project to operations,
however we in the sector know the issue is the lack of capex cash at BCM and that, so far at
least, they have failed to attract a buyer. That may change and BCN may get to enjoy the
success it’s been looking for and a sale in 2021, but assuming construction of Corani the way
the government of Peru does is another step up. Then comes the BVN San Gabriel project
(U$422m), which is likely to happen next year but it too has its detractors. These three make
up the lion’s share of capex in next year’s U$3.577Bn, the problems Peru has had in its
permitting and CSR showing all too clearly now.
Peru: A second early poll plus left wing Veronika Mendoza on mining
After last weekend’s early poll from IRP (see IKN603), Peru’s most reputable polling company
IPSOS published their early snapshot last week (1200 people, poll 10th and 11th December,
20

MoE +/-2.83%) that largely confirms the field (15) George Forsyth is leading on 18%, then
come Julio Guzmán (8%), Veronika Mendoza (7%), Keiko Fujimori (75), Daniel Urresti (6%)
and the others 4% and below. The poll also showed 18% of voters in this obligatory vote
country will spoil their ballot. Perhaps the most important data currently is the “antivote”, or the
candidates which voters say they will never vote for under any circumstances: The list has
many around the 40% to 50% range and the top three are Ollanta Humala (73%), Keiko
Fujimori (69%) and César Acuña (65%). On this metric, early frontrunner Forsyth scores well at
just 36%.
Switching gears now and considering how “the Left” in general is making progress in South
America (Argentina has its President, Bolivia’s left swept to power and surprised the pollsters,
Chile and Brazil hate their right wing presidents, Ecuador may be tilting left again), today we
pay extra attention to Veronika Mendoza, candidate for President of Peru for the “Juntos por el
Perú” (together for Peru) party. To start, do not forget the late surge enjoyed by Mendoza that
almost got her into the run-off for the 2016 election despite almost blanket negative coverage
in the (very non-lefty) Peru press. This is a serious candidacy and unlike many others, the JPP
party has a national network and is particularly strong in the South and rural regions. So to
2020 and on Wednesday 16th, Mendoza and her Veep candidate, José de Echave (check out his
background here (16), his academic specialty is the Peru mining sector), presented their plans
for the mining industry under their eventual government. The manifesto includes (17):
 Reorganization of concessions that allows locals more say in future development
 Better environmental controls and EIA studies done by third parties, not the mining
company
 Obligatory prior consultancy for indigenous communities
 Respect for the labour rights of mine workers
 The replacement of the concessioning system with a “permit to explore” system
 The elimination of third party contracts between police forces and mining companies
(police often provide “heavy handed” security at mines, the personnel being officers on
their days off work).
 A revision of tax laws for mining companies
 Raising of royalties on sales, rather than profits
 Windfall tax at time of high metals prices
In simple terms, a list that would decimate share price of any mining company exposed to Peru.
The less influence has Veronika Mendoza on the 2021 election, the better.
Peru and its IIMP want to improve permitting
The above note on Peru’s left wing and its plans for mining compares to a new Peru
government initiative, designed to get the country back to work as soon as possible. In it, the
government proposes that the current 12 month maximum period for “prior consultancy” be
reduces to six months and that the permitting track for exploration work should be loosened
even more, as Peru is the only regional country that demands prior consultancy for exploration
stage mining (17), This position was backed up by the Institute of Mining Engineers of Peru
(Instituto de Ingenieros de Minas del Perú, IIMP), who underscore the nature of prospection
and how most of the time, exploration leads to no mine.
Market Watching
C3 Metals (CCCM.v) drilling for “cobre” in Peru
The Spanish word for Cu makes the title because of the country location of C3 Metals Inc
(CCCM.v), as well as the way it’s a Spanish slang word for money. However, the object of
today’s note is not to smash CCCM.v, a new company on the scene and about to drill an
interesting copper project in Peru, into a thousand pieces. It’s more a case of examining all the
moving parts in this company to better understand it, once that’s in place you can decide
whether it’s a trade (speculation) that suits. That’s because C3 Metals is a strange and
21

wonderful conjunction of people looking to make money from a hot copper market, so if that
set-up appeals you may decide to join in and run with them. Our main moving parts are:
Carube Copper (ex-CUC.v): This is a dead company that to my active knowledge has been
searching the Andean cordillera for its next project for at least three years. A zombie junior with
uninteresting assets and a heap of shares out, it was a structure looking for a good idea and
had consultants working on several properties until finally they came across the Jasperoide
early stage project, held by LARG.
Latin American Resource Group (LARG), a private company owned by Kimberly Ann Arntson,
with herself, Brian Maher and Fernando Pickmann as shareholders. The company was set up to
flip mining properties to mining companies and in Carube Copper, they found the partner they
were looking for and in her own words, the deal to lift into Carube and form C3 Metals
“result(ed) in a 65% premium for LARG’s shareholders and push(ed) the value of Carube from
$7M to nearly $20M on closing.” (19). The other thing Kimberly Ann Arntson has is direct
contact with the the C-suite at Hochschild (HOC.L), they have done business with the same
teams in the past while at PPX Mining (Brain Maher CEO) and HOC recently drilled and handed
back her moose pasture land holdings in the USA held in another private company with Brian
Maher, KA Gold (also 19).
Hochschild (HOC.L): Viewed by many on the outside as a strange company, HOC hasn’t
survived as a mining entity for over a hundred years without understanding how the
concessioning system works. When Southwestern Resources blew up due to its salting scandal
a decade ago, most of its extensive Peruvian asset package was picked up by HOC. They have
over time either explored on done deals on the land assets, here we have an example as
Jasperoide is one of several in the zone taken by HOC and the main copper project of the suite.
For a while cerca 2012, HOC was interested in Jasperoide to the point where it got mentions in
its corporate presentations, but after the gold bubble burst it went on the back boiler and LARG
optioned out the property earlier this year. However, there are obvious devils in these details
when you scratch the surface of the agreements, such as the way LARG would have to trigger
options on zones of the total concession in order to move forward and claim full ownership,
including one small but strategically important zone owned by a private company with its only
owner a nobody and its mailing address as one of the main legal studios in Lima. This is the
type of backdoor payout deal that happens when land assets are removed from large
companies and taken up by smaller ones, of course.
Jasperoide. The project itself is sure to do what CCCM.v want it to do, i.e. deliver a few strong
drill results. We know there is mineralization because it’s been drilled, so don’t expect the team
to go chasing after the potential porphyry, they are going to twin the good ones and impress
the market with numbers like these:
Those would sit well as “discovery holes” in 2021, so expect the first round of drilling to be a
resounding success.
The market: Another part of this conjunction is the rampant copper bull run, C3 has got its
timing right and will be able to present the market with good copper intersects at a time when
it’s hungry for new copper stories. The best type of marketing is when the story sells itself and
with an influx of new investors in mining, the promo will be on.
Fernando Pickmann: Finally, a word on the new director at C3, as he has been working with
Kimberly Ann Arntson and Brian Maher for a number of years as counsel for PPX (among other
jobs) and they obvious get on well. This type of legal deal is one that suits Pickmann’s talents
22

of working with a large mining company in order to get a small junior moving, so with REG now
in The Doldrums, it will be interesting to see how much time and energy he puts into his new
role.
The structure is now primed, with all on board that want to get on and the insiders with large
amounts of incentive options priced at 8c and 9c, so there are Lamborghini’s in-play if they get
this up to 20c or so:
With 375.17m shares out and a 9c price this weekend (the marketing has already begun),
CCCM.v is a C$33.8m market cap company and just to begin, this group must be looking at the
$55m market cap currently commanded by Chakana Copper (PERU.v) as a reasonable first
target. That would signal 15c and considering the derivatives overhang and the history of the
stock, that’s a reasonable number for near-term speculators to shoot for. So yes, I think there’s
a reasonable flip trade opportunity here, as CCCM.v combines the right metal, right time, right
price and right place on the discovery curve for quick profits. However, in the longer term I’d
try to put you off investing in the stock. Anything held by HOC for eight years and then readily
flipped out is not my idea of a good risk to begin, then on top we have a clear marketing pump
in the works, plus a C-suite that has proven to my complete satisfaction that they put
themselves first and only after they are secure can benefits be given to others.
Chesapeake Gold (CGK.v) redux
Following on from last weekend’s note on CKG,
watching the tape on this stock was inevitable and I
thought it traded very well all week last week. All
those in last Friday are still making money, the
Monday buying surge wasn’t stupidly strong and,
once the market had settled and people had taken
spec profits, there were buyers at the new price deck
all week.
Still no plans to own immediately, but certainly on
the radar now.
Conclusion
IKN604 is done, we end with bullet points:
 Last weeks’ “Copper is set to go higher, position accordingly” worked well. Expect
more, copper isn’t stopping until it gets a four handle.
 The laggards are the ones we need to pay most attention to and I get annoyed with
mine at the best of times, but at present I’m fine with Rio2, Minera Alamos and
Norsemont, despite their current underperformances. If it’s any help, I do understand
23

how annoying I can be about sticking to an investment.
 Next week the reduced Christmas edition, but that may get stocking filler from an idea
that reader DC knows I’ve been trying to incorporate. As 2021 looks set to be the year
of M&A in the sector, the plan is to try to identify as many real takeover targets as
possible. Sounds simple, but the context has foxed me to date.
 Said it twice in this edition and will squeeze in a third one. Merry Christmas everybody!
I thank you in advance for any feedback. Our Top Pick stocks are Minera Alamos (MAI.v) and
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://www.vizslaresources.com/s/Vizsla-Corporate-Presentation-December-2020.pdf
(2) https://www.vizslaresources.com/
(3) https://www.royalroadminerals.com/news/2020/royal-road-enters-into-binding-letter-of-intent-for-the-sale-of-its-50-
interest-in-the-luna-roja-gold-project/
(4) https://www.reuters.com/article/global-metals/metals-copper-pares-gains-after-breaking-above-8000-level-
idUSL1N2IY0KH
(5)
https://www.cochilco.cl/Paginas/Estudios/Mercados%20de%20metales%20e%20insumos%20estrat%C3%A9gicos/Infor
mes-Semanales-2015.aspx
(6) https://www.regulusresources.com/news/2020/regulus-provides-update-on-exploration-activities/
(7) https://www.adnsur.com.ar/petroleo/gremios-petroleros-piden-participacion-en-la-movilizacion-de-apoyo-a-la-
mineria-en-la-meseta-de-chubut_a5fdfa4341ff12e43bc999efd
(8) https://www.juniorminingnetwork.com/junior-miner-news/press-releases/2200-tsx-venture/peru/89648-chakana-
copper-intersects-101-5m-of-0-61-g-t-au-0-91-cu-and-19-8-g-t-ag-2-26-g-t-au-eq-from-32m-at-paloma-west-soledad-
project-peru.html
(9) https://elcomercio.pe/mundo/latinoamerica/coronavirus-brasil-jair-bolsonaro-dice-que-prisa-por-vacuna-contra-el-
covid-19-no-se-justifica-noticia/
(10) https://www.elchubut.com.ar/nota/2020-12-20-1-50-0--que-dice-el-escrito-que-lloyd-jones-presento-a-la-justicia
(11) https://www.elchubut.com.ar/nota/2020-12-15-22-45-0-lopez-denuncio-que-quisieron-condicionar-su-voto-en-la-
legislatura-sobre-la-mineria
(12) https://www.celag.org/encuesta-ecuador-diciembre-2020/
(13) https://www.cnnchile.com/pais/presidente-pinera-encuestas-respuesta_20201214/
(14) https://larepublica.pe/economia/2020/12/15/en-2021-se-iniciara-la-construccion-de-7-proyectos-mineros/
(15) https://canaln.pe/actualidad/elecciones-generales-2021-george-forsyth-lidera-intencion-voto-18-segun-encuesta-
ipsos-peru-n428751
(16) http://cooperaccion.org.pe/periodista-y-antropologo-jose-de-echave/
(17) https://larepublica.pe/politica/2020/12/18/mendoza-en-el-sector-minero-tambien-se-necesita-un-nuevo-regimen-
laboral/
(18) https://gestion.pe/blog/mineria-2021/2020/12/el-acuerdo-previo-para-agilizar-las-exploraciones-mineras.html/
(19) https://www.ka-gold.com/about
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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