IKN #668Premium

The IKN Weekly
Week 668, March 6th 2022
Contents
This Week: Trade heads-up, In Today’s Edition, Record mailbag, The Mining’s Future-Facing
Forward-Facing Conference Season, Our target-rich environment arrives, The nuclear option
changes the house position on geopolitical risk.
Fundamental Analysis: Buying Element 29 Resources (ECU.v), Amerigo Resources (ARG.to),
the 2022 Cash Cow.
Stocks to Follow: Chesapeake Gold (CKG.v), Trilogy Metals (TMQ), QC Copper & Gold
(QCCU.v), Aldebaran Resources (ALDE.v), Palamina Corp (PA.v), McEwen Mining (MUX).
Copper Basket: Overview, Nevada Copper (NCU.to), Regulus Resources (REG.v), Meridian
Mining (MNO.v), Copper Mountain (CMMC.to), Western Copper & Gold (WRN.to).
Producer Basket: Overview, Kinross (KGC).
TinyCaps Basket: Overview.
Regional Politics: Chile: Boric begins and mining’s nationalization tempest in a teacup
continues, Argentina: BHP franks our position on Argentina and copper in 2022, Peru: Pedro
Castillo’s lame duck government, Honduras bans open-pit mining, Brazil: Bolsonaro’s position on
Russia and Presidential election polling, Nicaragua is Russia’s political ally, part two.
Market Watching: Palladium and Platinum, Atex Resources (ATX.v): A high risk high reward
copper idea, Why Alamos (AGI) sold Cerro Jumil to Zacatecas Silver (ZAC.v), Deferring on
McEwen Mining (MUX) until next weekend.
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
Trade heads-up
I am a buyer of Element 29 Resources (ECU.v) next week. Please see the first note in today’s
main Fundamentals section for more.
In Today’s Edition
 The main fundies section today is all copper, with the decision to open a position in the
prospective and attractively priced Element 29 Resources (ECU.v). We also consider the
results and conference call last week from our largest copper position, Amerigo
Resources (ARG.to) with a focus on its future, rather than another dissection of a
quarter gone. The good news is that ARG has finally become the company it promised
to be and under CEO Aurora Davidson, is now a rock-solid way of playing the rise in
copper and has a place in any long-term mining portfolio.
 The developments in and around the war in Ukraine dominated everything last week,
the mining sector was no exception. Though the situation is abhorrent, The IKN Weekly
tries its best to leave the news, events and op-eds to places better suited and sticks to
its own knitting.
 Be long everything. This edition gives a few idea and pointers an with a general slant
toward copper, but this is now the Target Rich Environment for mining companies we
expected around a quarter ago and you and your money need to be future facing as
1

war captures all world headlines. That’s today’s intro.
Record mailbag
Thank you all for your replies, mails, social media comments, pings and all other
correspondence from last week’s edition of the Weekly, I have never received as much
feedback from a single edition in the 12 years of this newsletter and sincerely hope to have
replied to you all, though fear I may have missed a few (feel free to nudge this sinner if so). I
speak for all three of us when offering our sincere and heartfelt appreciation to you all. And for
what it’s worth, Joseph has put on half a kilo in his first week.
Mining’s Future-Facing Forward-Facing Conference Season
Even though PDAC has been put back this year, the first days of March are still the kick-off
point for mining’s promotion and marketing season. With no PDAC until later, the focal point
has been the big BMO conference just outside Miami Florida, traditionally a pre-PDAC event for
bigger mining players and often a venue at which M&A deals are struck. However, this year has
also seen no end of webinars and associated online conferences and that trend will continue.
It’s not easy to pin down exactly where and how 2022’s new buzzword began, this desk
suspects either South Africa or Australia began the talk about “Future-Facing Metals” late last
year, but Whatever the origins the mining industry has jumped on its new catchphrase. BMO
gave the buzzphrase its seal of approval, Woodmac made it the title of its keynote presentation
(1) so now it’s official and baptized into our sector language.
You are going to hear all about Future-Facing Metals, or Forward Facing Metals, Minerals or
Commodities, pick your preferred variant but they all point to the same trend for renewable
energy, electric vehicles, low-carbon tech, the Green Economy, Green Energy and even the
decarbonisation/carbon credits sector. As for naming metal names, the buzzphrase is appealing
as it covers both precious and base metals such as gold, silver, copper, lithium nickel, zinc,
cobalt, PGMs, and others besides and while not a metal, graphite is up there. Also, the phrase
is bound to end up meaning different things to different people but one of the touchstones for a
Future-Facing project or deposit is how the operation should be a net benefit for the
environment, with strong ESG and CSR characteristics. Under this banner, mining gets to green
up, become an acceptable investment and a building block to our Brave New World. No more
looking back into the dark ages, fellow investor, in 2022 the mining industry future-faces. You
see, it’s a verb already.
Our target-rich environment arrives
Also around the turn of last year, these pages made the case for the mining sector becoming a
target-rich environment. Aside a few headline events and deals (e.g. Agnico buying Kirkland or
Kinross “winning” (see below) Great Bear) the last months of 2021 and the first weeks of 2022
didn’t show as well as expected, but with metals prices finally moving up across the board our
moment has arrived.
Be clear, when the mining sector runs it runs hard and most every company will go up, as long
as the story is intact and it can provide positive newsflow along with a reasonable story.
Therefore, the important point is not to limit yourself to the opinions of others. That means me,
as first and foremost I’m thinking the publication you’re reading right now, The IKN Weekly, but
it equally applies to your brokerage, its sell side analysis team, other mining publication of your
preference, that social media channel you like, the YouTube or Twitter Guru, or that world
champion ace trader who is never wrong that sends you promo mails non-stop. In a target-rich
environment, winning trades are not limited to the best companies and in fact, it’s often the
contrary and suddenly we watch as the perennial, beaten-down disappointing company that
limped through a couple of years suddenly catches fire. Or the brand new, heavily promoted
story stock with way more “sizzle than steak” gets undue momentum, runs hard and then
confounds the fundies based analysts and market soothsayers (such as myself) who predict
that it will all end in tears. They can run and run, be in no doubt.
2

Be clear that with gold doing what it’s doing, copper doing what’s it’s doing, or nickel,
palladium, aluminium, zinc etc, any company with a heartbeat can return impressive gains and
many CEOS that don’t deserve success will see their stock spike higher. There are no end of
possibilities for wins from the good, the bad and the ugly of our weird and wonderful sector.
This is important to understand, because as this market takes off and flies The IKN Weekly isn’t
about to change tack. I’m certainly not against running speculative trades on industry stocks
that can be described, generously or not, as “second tier”. We all know value is only a function
of price and when there’s money to be made in lesser but beaten-down tickers, e.g. the
recently opened trade in Chesapeake Gold (CKG.v, to which I added modestly last week) or
even the serially disappointing McEwen Mining (MUX), which is about to be saved by the metals
price hike in much the same way as it was back in 2016, then I will happily highlight the trade
potential as and when they appear. However, there are two things on which to be crystal clear
about the service provided by The IKN Weekly as gold approaches U$2,000/oz:
1) The IKN Weekly can’t cover ‘em all. There will always be trades missed, stories left
unheard and decisions not to buy that look stupid later. For sure I can make mention of dozens
of companies, then forget about the stories that don’t work out them all while claiming
undeserved victories on others, but over the years I’ve found it pays to treat one’s readers with
respect. Instead, the least worst method of “this is my portfolio, what do you think?” is used
and from there, it’s up to you to agree or ignore my views.
2) The IKN Weekly’s preferred trades will continue to be “good companies”. In the
most buoyant market moments, it’s the weaker companies that typically enjoy most share price
percentage pop. However, this publication will recommend and keep recommending companies
with solid fundamentals, strong economics (operational or project-level) and run by “real”
mining people. For example:
 We like Minera Alamos (MAI.v) as it moves into commercial production at Santana on a
shoestring, then repeats the proven formula of low capex, small and profitable gold
mine developments in other places
 We like Rio2 Ltd (RIO.v) and the strong economic set-up at Fenix, the current
permitting lag will not stop this company from winning bigtime
 We like Amerigo Resources (ARG.to) as it becomes an impressive cash cow
 We like Discovery Resources (DSV.v) as a best-in-breed silver play
Etc. All those fit the bill, not for nothing do they have the upper rows of the Stocks to Follow
list. So for sure you’ll get trade ideas as and when they come, but don’t expect The IKN Weekly
to start strutting its stuff online about 200%-winners-in-three-weeks, our perspective is still on
building true wealth and asset value, not flipping stocks. The cream will rise to the top.
The nuclear option changes the house position on geopolitical risk
In my schooldays it was a real thing. For example, I distinctly recall a couple of my more
reactionary teachers telling us all to enjoy life…while it lasted. Thankfully since then, the world
enjoyed a few decades in which phrases such as “nuclear option”, “M.A.D.”, “go ballistic”,
“nuclear bunker” “fallout” became allegorical, used as descriptive concepts for far less serious
matters. But here we are, as time and again over the last two weeks Vladimir Putin has reached
for the “We Got Nukes” phraseology, the threat he knew and knows would freeze adversaries in
their paths of retaliation. Strange to think it took just three weeks to get from the end of the
Winter Olympics to where we are today, sic transit gloria mundi.
You do not need another long sermon on the evil deeds unfolding in The Ukraine and I will limit
myself to reading extensively on the despotic Putin and his motives (real or imagined), rather
than joining a throng and writing amateur psychoanalysis on the person. Instead we cut to the
chase and remain practical here at the IKN Weekly, shifting our focus to gold and the major
shift in our view of geopolitical risk as it affects the metal. My adult life has been one in which
(and to quote myself from the last three weeks’ worth of Weeklies) geopolitical events do not
affect the price of gold, not in the long-term anyway. However, the Ukraine war is no petty
3

border dispute any longer, it has caused a seismic shift in the way the world’s financial system
works and yes, that matters. This major shift since February 2022 has nuclear weapons as its
cleavage point, it’s the first time in decades they have been used as a threat, not merely a
deterrent, by a country wishing to force its philosophy on others. That means the world has
really changed and really for the worse. Gold will become more expensive as a result.
Nukes are the ultimate threat and we have all seen the chilling effect of Putin’s carefully
considered strategy. The Free World has responded in the ways it can, with heavy duty
weaponry of sanctions of the like we’ve never seen before. The recoil of “money” (in its most
general term) from Russia has changed to course of the way we all do business and while I can
still defend the position of how gold does not make you rich (instead it stops you from
becoming poor) in this new financial world, it’s now clear the world’s attitude toward gold
ownership is changing rapidly. This time last week we watched the gold price bounce up and
down on the U$1,900/oz line but, as the impact and consequences of the Western world’s
financial recoil from Russia rolled out, gold started getting bid up in an altogether different way:
We also saw Wall Street’s attitude toward bullion alter as GLD inventories broke above 1,050
metric tonnes. The tide has turned in no uncertain terms…
GLD gold holdings, 2021 to date (metric tonnes)
1250
1200
1150
1100
1050
1000
950
900
4
12/1/4 12/1/41 12/1/42 12/2/3 12/2/31 12/2/32 12/3/5 12/3/51 12/3/52 12/4/4 12/4/41 12/4/42 12/5/4 12/5/41 12/5/42 12/6/3 12/6/31 12/6/32 12/7/3 12/7/31 12/7/32 12/8/2 12/8/21 12/8/22 12/9/1 12/9/11 12/9/12 12/01/1 12/01/11 12/01/12 12/01/13 12/11/01 12/11/02 12/11/03 12/21/01 12/21/02 12/21/03 22/1/9 22/1/91 22/1/92 22/2/8 22/2/81 22/2/82
mt
source: SPDR GLD data
…and to be clear on the bullish nature of that move, the price increase was rapid enough to
keep our inventory/price ratio firmly below 6X, indicating that there should be plenty more
appetite for gold among the world’s financial institutions once momentum toward the monetary
metal picks up:
GLD: Inventory/Price Ratio, 2021 to date
7.00
6.80
6.60
6.40
6.20
6.00
5.80
5.60
5.40
5.20
5.00
4/1/1202 41/1/1202 42/1/1202 3/2/1202 31/2/1202 32/2/1202 5/3/1202 51/3/1202 52/3/1202 4/4/1202 41/4/1202 42/4/1202 4/5/1202 41/5/1202 42/5/1202 3/6/1202 31/6/1202 32/6/1202 3/7/1202 31/7/1202 32/7/1202 2/8/1202 21/8/1202 22/8/1202 1/9/1202 11/9/1202 12/9/1202 1/01/1202 11/01/1202 12/01/1202 13/01/1202 01/11/1202 02/11/1202 03/11/1202 01/21/1202 02/21/1202 03/21/1202 9/1/2202 91/1/2202 92/1/2202 8/2/2202 81/2/2202 82/2/2202
Source: SPDR data, IKN calcs

All this points to gold regaining it role as an active reserve currency, one that will appeal to
Central Banks and individuals alike. Gold is going higher and considering the circumstances,
that’s a rather unfortunate thing to say.
Fundamental Analysis of Mining Stocks
Buying Element 29 Resources (ECU.v) (all dollar amounts CAD$ unless stated)
I’m buying this chart at this time…
…because at its current price deck and with positive newsflow coming soon, Element 29
(ECU.v) offers good risk/reward in a market now hungry for Big Copper ideas. A new member
of this year’s Copper Basket, I’ve had my eye on ECU.v for over a year and even owned some
shares briefly in early 2021, before handing them back as Peru’s political risk due to its bizarre
election rose sharply. Since then it stayed on the back burner, became part of the Copper
Basket and most recently, we ran something of a heads-up note on the stock in IKN663, dated
February 6th. Back then the Winter Olympics had just started, copper had just come of a brief
dip to U$4.30/lb and was back in its sub-U$4.50/lb trading range, a fair number of personnel in
the Russian army were conducting training exercises close to the country’s southern borders
and your author didn’t know how to spell Kyiv correctly. How times change.
By way of reminder, Element 29 (ECU.v) is an exploration stage junior with two main projects,
both in Peru. Our brief note in IKN663 focused mainly on ECU.v’s current drill program at one of
those, Flor de Cobre. Today we offer a little more on that, on its other project in the North of
Peru named Elida, but first we run the ruler over its financial structure for the first time.
Financials overview
ECU is a relatively new company and as an exploreco, a simple financial story so today we
K.I.S.S and tell...on balance sheet items only. Assets look like this, with a recent over-
subscribed financing that closed in 4q21 topping up treasury for its 2022 exploration season.
The IKN forecast for closing cash balance this quarter is C$7.8m and while we only go up to
1q22 in this chart, ECU has enough in the coffers to get it through the year.
ECU.v: Assets per qtr
20
18 16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
5
02q3 02q4 12q1 12q2 12q3 tse12q4 tse22q1
ECU.v: Liabilities per qtr C$m
2.0
fixed 1.8
other current 1.6 cash
1.4
1.2
1.0
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0.0
source: company filings
02q3 02q4 12q1 12q2 12q3 tse12q4 tse22q1
source: company filings, IKN ests
srallod
fo
snoillim
LT debt
current debt

Regarding liabilities, once it had organized and begun serious trading (3q21) it’s kept to one of
those optimal positions, with just the typical small going concern matters on its books. This is
as clean as it comes, we like.
10
ECU.v: Working Capital per qtr
The most important metric for the year is its 9
8
cash position and rate of burn, so as liabilities
7
are tiny we can use the working cap data to 6
gauge things. As you can see, we expect ECU 5
4
to get to the end of June with C$5m at bank,
3
more than enough for it plans in the second 2
half of 2022. Zero issues here. 1
0
-1
As for the share count, that stands at 79.8m
shares out (99.1m fully diluted, mostly warrants
and a lump at 85c) with retail holding around
two thirds. Management led by Richard Osmond and Paul Johnson (both highly experienced in
Peru) is fully aligned with around 21% of
shares out, via either direct holdings or their
position in Globetrotters, their privco from
which ECU was spun out. That’s all good, but
before moving on we are going to mention
one other specific name from the share roster.
One of the co-founders of brokerage
Haywood, David Elliott, first declared his 1.2m
share position in ECU.v at the end of
December and since then, he’s built his ECU
position to 1.786m shares via steady buying
on the open market. As for those who don’t
know who David Elliott is, try this link to his
Mining Hall of Fame page (2), but here we’ll
keep it brief by saying he’s “The Acceptable Face of Haywood”. A final finally, note this past
week ECU handed out its annual incentive options and RSUs to insiders. Summing up, we’re
short and sweet on ECU’s financials today as the share structure is clean and, via balance sheet
items only, we see that its projected 2022 cash burn on
projects is covered by current treasury. When it comes to
junior financials, simple is good.
We move on to an overview of its two projects, with visuals
from its latest corporate presentation found here (3)
starting with this one, a map of most of the country
(apologies to the jungle Loreto and Amazonas regions)
showing their general location, as well as the capital city for
reference:
Elida: The Elida property is a little under 200km North of
your author’s desk in Lima, at a mid-altitude area of the
country’s prospective belt. Please see the corporate
presentation for more, I’ll pick just one visual to help the
story that shows its five designated target zones. So far,
ECU has only drilled Target 1 and with good results, its best
holes being…
 Hole 012: 503.0 m at 0.42% Cu
 Hole 024: 451.75 m at 0.38% Cu
 Hole 025: 908.75 m of 0.39% Cu
…with all those showing better CuEq numbers thanks to moly and silver credits, as well as
6
02q3 02q4 12q1 12q2 12q3 tse12q4 tse22q1 tse22q2
source company filings
srallod
fo
snoillim
ECU.v: Shares outstanding
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
91q4 02q1 02q2 02q3 02q4 12q1 12q2 12q3 tse12q4 tse22q1 tse22q2
source: company filings, IKN ests

higher grading zones inside the long interval. While not eye-poppers like Filo de Sol or
Josemaria these are good results. The copper grades may not match the most eye-catching out
there but the relatively low altitude of the project, its
good local infrastructure and other factors, such as
the low arsenic levels encountered (important for
North Peru projects, where As causes issues) all
point to Elida being a promising and valid discovery.
The task at hand at Elida now is to first offer a
maiden resource for Target 1 only and that should
happen at some point in the first half of this year.
ECU will then move to drill and delineate the
resource at the other targets on site, beginning with
Target 2, in the second part of 2022. Elida has
already generated plenty of prospective targets and
ECU is not scared of using the Truth Machine on
them, the package makes for good speculative
reward potential.
Flor de Cobre: (Map below right). The feature of
our heads-up note in IKN663, Flor de Cobre in South
Peru sits next to a recently operating mine (Chapi)
and in the same regional belt as large operations and deposits such as Cerro Verde (that’s big)
and Teck’s Zafranal project. This map shows the two main zones, with ECU permitted to drill at
“Candelaria” and waiting on permits for “Atravezado”, which should see the drills turning in
2023. Meanwhile, ECU is now well into its 3,700m
diamond drill program to sink nine holes into the
area previously drilled by other operators in order
to test and confirm the historic resource, which as
seen on the visual is around 57.4m tonnes of
0.67% copper mineralization.
Results from Candelaria at Flor de Cobre should
start flowing soon, back-ups at Peruvian labs
notwithstanding, could come as early as this month
but they are probable as from April. At that point,
ECU will have regular newsflow to the end of 2q22
before the team pivots its focus to Elida.
The timing is good here and the reason to CU
today is its upcoming and near-guaranteed drill
success into our hot copper market. While not just
for fun and with the clear purpose of bringing
Candelaria up to 43-101 compliance, ECU is
basically twinning historic holes and as the
company is flying under most radars, it’s the right
combo in a market that suddenly cannot get
enough of copper stories.
Discussion and conclusion
This isn’t a long note to introduce a new trade and we get to the point. Element 29 (ECU.v)
offers the appealing combination of…
 Low market cap compared to peers
 Actively drilling with results coming soon
 Two prospective projects in Peru, which is finally seeing the end of its recent negative
political risk image as its political scene cleans up and influence of The Left fades
7

 The copper price
…and that final item tips the balance this weekend. Back in IKN663 the house trade strategy
went like this (quote):
“…I’m certainly considering a foothold position but the strategy at Flor de Cobre allows
time to make a decision, one that would be based as much on market conditions as
the company’s likely assay results.”
Copper’s run last week precipitates our decision to return to ECU and add another copper
exploreco story to the portfolio. To hark back a
final time to the IKN663 note, a month ago we
mentioned its direct peer rivals Regulus (REG.v),
Chakana (PERU.v) or C3 (CCCM.v), all doing the
same thing in the same country. Here’s the
comparative chart since then and while none of
them have run up in the way other copper tickers
have recently, ECU has held its own and now
offers a great entry point, closer to results time.
With a share price this weekend of C$0.59
implying a market cap of C$47.1m, ECU offers
plenty of leverage to upcoming drill results and all
into the type of share structure that should
support rapid gains without large lumps selling
out. To date, ECU hasn’t been a high-profile copper story but with real news of drill results to
come and a fully-financed year of exploration to come at two good-looking projects, this desk
believes its time has come.
I’m glad the stock price didn’t run with the rest late last week and I’m a buyer of Element 29
Resources (ECU.v) in the week to come, it will become our 15th open position on the ‘Stocks to
Follow’ list as from next weekend.
Amerigo Resources (ARG.to), the 2022 Cash Cow (in US Dollars unless stated)
As noted last weekend, Amerigo Resources (ARG.to) posted its 4q21 and year-end financials on
schedule and while last weekend’s edition wasn’t detailed, the news ARG was upping its newly
inaugurated dividend to 3c Canadian as from this month was the major takeaway and a
required footnote at the end of the edition. Then on Monday morning February 28th came the
ARG ConfCall with the company telling us on the call that the reason behind the delay between
earnings and CC was that analysts are more awake on Mondays.
Whatever. Fair enough. More importantly, there’s no apparent shareholder activism in the
background any longer. CAO Aurora Davidson mentioned how Geologic Resource Partners was
in the process of dissolving but main player George Ireland was still a strong supporter and had
in fact increased his personal position. She also made mention of a new and highly regarded
fund that preferred not to be mentioned, but had soaked up some of the recent disposals that
8

includes significant selling by director Michael Luzich/Luzich Partners LLC. Along with the upbeat
tone of the ConfCall and a notable lack of piercing questions from analysts on the call
connected with the 2021 dissenters, it indeed seems that ARG’s current management team has
appeased the 2021 activists and fended off any major boardroom attack thanks to its newly-
inaugurated dividend policy and its share buyback plans, along with its guidance for 2022. That
shows in the way ARG has reacted in trading over the last two weeks, as seen above in the
annual chart but also here, as we set ARG next to the main copper producers ETF (COPX).
As for ARG’s 4q21, we not going to dwell too long over its numbers for two reasons:
1) Overall, results were a general beat of our forecasts as seen in IKN665 two weekends ago.
ARG did better than our model, mostly due to 1) a better average received price for copper
than expected (U$4.32(lb) and 2) a $2.64m adjustment to fair value of settlements. Those
turned our $49.57m revenues estimate into $52.009m and our net forecast $7.8m into a
realized 4q21 net profit of $8.888m.
2) Today’s note on ARG is about the future and why ARG is going higher, rather than looking
backward to results we’d pre-picked over. What really mattered about last week’s results was
the message; ARG has listened to its activists, is now all about returning capital to its
shareholders in the year ahead and that is a good thing for us longs. Guidance for 2022 was set
at 61.9m lbs copper and 1.3m lbs moly, both on the low side and probably due to the
company’s desire to under-promise and over deliver. However, even with those lower end
production targets and a budget run on a U$3.90/lb copper price (now a full dollar lower than
spot) ARG pledged to maintain the newly upped C$0.03 per quarter dividend. But that’s not all,
as CEO Davidson had more good news after running down ARG’s financial obligations for the
year, which include previously budgeted capex, sustaining capex, the pledge to maintain
working capital in a $20m to $25m range and even the signing bonus they’ll pay to unions at
some point in either 3q22 or 4q22. They are not going to call it a “special dividend” and there
are only going to be four payments, not five (the company repeatedly clear on this point) but,
come the fourth quarter will likely “top up” the dividend payment using any excess cash
forecast at year-end.
In other words, unless the price of copper drops under U$3.90/lb for the rest of 2022 and its
costs skyrocket, we can all-but guarantee a 3c/quarter dividend from the company at a
minimum and, if all goes well, the Q4 dividend payment will be out-sized and come as a juicy
bonus. Long story short, CEO Davidson and Amerigo Resources last week pleased its
shareholder base tremendously by promising sector-beating dividends, the share price rallied as
a result. Quite right, too.
Our new 2022 guidance
To honour the fact that copper is now a “Future-Facing Metal”, the rest of today’s note on ARG
leaves behind its 4q21 and updates on what we can expect from the company in 2022. The
backbone to the following is straightforward, our task is to demonstrate how ARG is set to
become a leading dividend payer in the mining sector and a cash cow for its shareholders of no
small measure. We firmly believe this corporate strategy send the share price higher as the
dividends start to roll in and will set ARG apart from its peers, making it a “Blue Chip Junior”
9

that will appeal to a wide range of retail and institutional holders.
We begin with our forecast for copper production in 2022, with notes below to set the scene:
ARG.to: Copper sales
10
29.21 568.31
945.91
70.42
28.11 7.31 29.41 9.51 11.51 31.51 9.61 298.61 61 41 61 61
25
22.5
20
17.5
15
12.5
10 7.5
5
2.5
0
91q1 91q2 91q3 91q4 02q1 02q2 02q3 02q4 12q1 12q2 12q3 12q4 tse22q1 tse22q2 tse22q3 tse22q4
source: company filings
rtq/uC
sblM
ARG has guided production at just under 62m lbs Cu for 2022 and while this desk firmly
believes the company is under-promising on that number, we’re going to follow their prudent
course and assume that in our model, too. In fact there’s reason to expect total 2022
production at between 64m lbs and 66m lbs if we consider the rhythm established in the last
two quarters, however we’re going to go with the ARG guidance to show how its cash cow
plans are rock solid. Please note that we assume 2q22 with lower production, due to the
scheduled maintenance shutdown at El Teniente that will restrict supply of fresh tailings for an
estimated eight days. Aside that, we run with a flat 16m lbs copper per quarter
As for assumed copper prices we go with U$4.50/lb for the current quarter and then U$4.80/lb
for the rest of the year, reflecting last week’s price jump without presuming too much:
ARG: Average Cu price for MVC
29.2 76.2 26.2 67.2 53.2 16.2 40.3
25.3
80.4 44.4 32.4 23.4 05.4 08.4 08.4 08.4
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
91q1 91q2 91q3 91q4 02q1 02q2 02q3 02q4 12q1 12q2 12q3 12q4 tse22q1 tse22q2 tse22q3 tse22q4
U$/lb Cu
source: Company data/IKN ests
After fair value of settlement adjustments, our gross copper value per quarter looks like this:
ARG: Cu gross value, per qtr
6.83 1.43
7.24 6.34
8.12
8.43
2.05
4.16
7.66 4.17 1.96 3.57 0.37 5.96 8.67 8.67 90 80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
91q1 91q2 91q3 91q4 02q1 02q2 02q3 02q4 12q1 12q2 12q3 12q4 tse22q1 tse22q2 tse22q3 tse22q4
U$m
source: company filings, IKN ests
Be clear that these values may go higher (or a lot higher) depending on production and spot
prices for copper, but we prefer to aim at a reasonably conservative level and leave surprises to
the upside. From those columns, we subtract the charges to production, with the main one

being the El Teniente royalty:
ARG: Charges to gross Cu value
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
11
91q1 91q2 91q3 91q4 02q1 02q2 02q3 02q4 12q1 12q2 12q3 12q4 tse22q1 tse22q2 tse22q3 tse22q4
U$m
Transport
smelting/refining
DET royalties
source: company filings, IKN ests
We then add back the moly credit, which is
assumed at 0.3m lbs production per quarter. So
far this year, moly prices have moved up
somewhat and are trading around U$20/lb, but
we may see the same effect in this metal as in
others due to the Ukraine war. For the time
being, we again pitch to the low side:
One we subtract the charges and add the Mo
credit, we compare gross copper to the total
revenues number in this chart, with “total
revenues” the number that appears as the top
line of the company Profit and Loss:
ARG: Gross Cu value vs Total revs, per qtr
637.72 296.22 9.33
474.53
836.51
640.62
555.73
881.74 709.84 305.05 231.84 900.25
8.94 6.94
6.35 6.35
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
91q1 91q2 91q3 91q4 02q1 02q2 02q3 02q4 12q1 12q2 12q3 12q4 tse22q1 tse22q2 tse22q3 tse22q4
ARG: Credit metal revenues
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
U$m
source: company filings, IKN ests
And here’s the first overview chart of the P+L, which takes that top line number (green bars)
and removes COGS to bring a gross profit per quarter:
91q1 91q2 91q3 91q4 02q1 02q2 02q3 02q4 12q1 12q2 12q3 12q4 tse22q1 tse22q2 tse22q3 tse22q4
U$m
Cu slag revs
Mo revs
source: company filings
ARG.to: Quarterly Earnings overview
139.8-
593.0-
389.8
927.51
878.81
721.91
291.41
198.91
8.51 6.71 6.91 6.71
65
60
55
50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
-5
-10
02q1 02q2 02q3 02q4 12q1 12q2 12q3 12q4 tse22q1 tse22q2 tse22q3 tse22q4
source: company filings
srallod
fo
snoillim
revenues
COGS
Gross profit

The model then moves to an operating and net profit per quarter, below. In this chart, we offer
the operating profit as a gauge on how ARG will easily manage to cover its financial obligations
in FY22.
ARG.to: Gross, operating and net profits, per qtr
12
09.4-
13.3-
60.8
44.31
40.61
70.81
56.21
15.71
05.31
03.51
03.71
03.51
26
24
22
20 18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
-2
-4
-6
-8
-10
02q1 02q2 02q3 02q4 12q1 12q2 12q3 12q4 tse22q1 tse22q2 tse22q3 tse22q4
U$m
Gross profit
op profit
Net Income
source: ARG data
As for net earnings, the best framework is in net EPS…
ARG.to: Earnings per share, per qtr
10.0-
40.0- 10.0- 00.0 20.0- 20.0-
30.0
50.0
60.0 60.0
50.0 50.0
60.0 70.0
90.0 80.0
0.10
0.09
0.08
0.07
0.06
0.05
0.04
0.03
0.02
0.01
0.00
-0.01
-0.02
-0.03
-0.04
91q1 91q2 91q3 91q4 02q1 02q2 02q3 02q4 12q1 12q2 12q3 12q4 tse22q1 tse22q2 tse22q3 tse22q4
U$
source: company filings, IKN ests
…as another key factor at ARG this year is its aggressive share buyback policy. In the
Conference Call (link here (4)) CEO Davidson
mentioned that the company may run another 200 ARG.to: Shares Out
Substantial Issuer Buyback of shares, aside 195
NB CUT DOWN Y-AXIS
from the current Normal Course Bid currently in 190
185
progress. If so, the Normal Course buyback
180
program would be suspended for a period but
175
that wouldn’t be an issue, as the total share 170
count would almost certainly drop even more. 165
However, our model merely assumes the 160
155
Normal Course buybacks continue as per the
150
rhythm established since December and implies
ARG shares out drop to around 166m by the
end of this year.
Finally, this small table shows our assumptions for dividend payments in 2022:
71q1 71q2 71q3 71q4 81q1 81q2 81q3 81q4 91q1 91q2 91q3 91q4 02q1 02q2 02q3 02q4 12q1 12q2 12q3 12q4 tse22q1 tse22q2 tse22q3 tse22q4
source: company filings, IKN ests
serahs
fo
snoillim
ARG.to: Dividend projection, per qtr
8
7
6
5
4
3
5
2
3 3 3 3 3
1 2
0
12q4 22q1 tse22q2 tse22q3 tse22q4 tse32q1 tse32q2
source: ARG filings, IKN ests
stnec
DAC

With the first 2c paid and the 1q22 3c in the pipeline, the forward quarters become a safe bet
for the same 3c baseline payment considering the forecast higher EPS in 2q22 and beyond. We
then assume that ARG “tops up” the 4q22 dividend to 5c, which again is probably on the
conservative side but even that means the company is set to pay 14c Canadian in 2022.
And it’s this “Cash Cow” status that should drive the share price upside going forward. Even
after the surge of the last two weeks, if the market assumes a 12c annual forward dividend AEG
offers an excellent gross yield of just under 6.67%, as seen in the first 12c column highlighted
boxes in this table:
Amerigo (ARG.to): Dividend Yield Percentage Spread Table
Share Dividend paid per year (Canadian Dollar Cents)
price CAD$ 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
1.50 5.33 6.67 8.00 9.33 10.67 12.00 13.33
1.60 5.00 6.25 7.50 8.75 10.00 11.25 12.50
1.70 4.71 5.88 7.06 8.24 9.41 10.59 11.76
1.80 4.44 5.56 6.67% 7.78 8.89 10.00 11.11
1.90 4.21 5.26 6.32% 7.37 8.42 9.47 10.53
2.00 4.00 5.00 6.00% 7.00 8.00 9.00 10.00
2.10 3.81 4.76 5.71 6.67% 7.62 8.57 9.52
2.20 3.64 4.55 5.45 6.36% 7.27 8.18 9.09
2.30 3.48 4.35 5.22 6.09% 6.96% 7.83 8.70
2.40 3.33 4.17 5.00 5.83 6.67% 7.50 8.33
2.50 3.20 4.00 4.80 5.60 6.40% 7.20 8.00
2.60 3.08 3.85 4.62 5.38 6.15 6.92 7.69
source: ARG data, IKN estimates
However, once the market realizes that 12c is just the baseline and the real expected dividend
is at least 14c for 2022, that will only drive the stock price higher. Your author estimates that
ARG will move to at least C$2.10 and perhaps as high as C$2.50 before getting to a level that
reflects its true cash cow status. That’s just on the current market perception too, as 6% still
compared favourably to most dividend-paying mining companies in a world that reaches for
yield. Summing up, the corporate strategy to prioritize the return of capital to shareholders in
2022 (and beyond) transforms ARG into a veritable Cash Cow that is bound to appeal as a solid
foundation stock for many mining portfolios. CEO Davidson has done a great job in first
cleaning up corporate financials and then reacting to shareholder activism, giving the people
what they want. With copper prices now flying high and the MVC Cauquenes operation set fair
to produce at a steady rate for the indefinite future, it’s easy to see Amerigo Resources
(ARG.to) going a lot higher as 2022 rolls out. C$2.00 is first stop on the way higher, own some.
Stocks to Follow
Twelve of our 14 stocks made ground last week, with six of those registering double figure
percentage moves so those are the ones you get here: Rio2 (RIO.v up 15.2%), Chesapeake
(CGK.v up 14.3%), Altiplano (APN.v up 13.6%), Amerigo (ARG.to up 12.3%), Minera Alamos
(MAI.v up 11.5%) and Strategic Metals (SMD.v up 11.1%). Then two went down by 2c apiece
(ALDE.v, MENE.v) so overall, the type of positive week you’d want from a precious metals
portfolio under these metals market conditions.
We currently have 14 open positions in our Stocks to Follow list, one less than our self-imposed
maximum. Seven are in the green, seven are in the red.
13

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$0.58 176.2% $1.14 tgt Aug'20, #1 idea
Rio2 Ltd. RIO.v STR BUY C$0.83 22-Apr-18 C$0.76 -8.4% $1.30 1st tgt, building now
Recommended stocks (in order of preference)
Amerigo Res ARG.to STR BUY C$1.36 12-Dec-21 C$1.82 33.8% Strong Q4 & FY22 guidance
QC Copper&Gold QCCU.v STR BUY C$0.275 25-Apr-21 C$0.28 1.8% Now drilling. Easy hold
Discovery Silver DSV.v STR BUY C$1.77 24-Oct-21 C$1.99 12.4% Best Ag play, 1st tgt $2.75
McEwen Mining MUX BUY U$0.89 2-Jan-22 U$0.80 -10.1% 1q22 trade, Au & Cu beta
Aldebaran Res. ALDE.v SPEC BUY C$0.72 16-May-21 C$1.00 38.9% Assay catalyst in Q1 and Q2
Strategic Metals SMD.v BUY C$0.42 31-Jan-21 C$0.40 -4.8% Canada land bet+Zn in FY22
Chesapeake Gold CKG.v SPEC BUY C$3.26 20-Feb-22 C$3.60 10.4% Leverage trade on $1.9k/oz Au
Altiplano Metals APN.v SPEC BUY C$0.31 17-Sep-21 C$0.335 7.9% Cheap entry, 1q22 re-rate
Palamina Corp PA.v SPEC BUY C$0.295 21-Nov-21 C$0.14 -52.5% Au expl in S.Peru
Trilogy Metals TMQ hold U$1.84 15-Sep-19 U$0.99 -46.2% negative permit news, may sell
Minera IRL MIRL.cse hold C$0.195 22-Jul-12 C$0.09 -53.8% CEO change will move stock
Long-term non-mining hold
Mene Inc. MENE.v adding C$0.67 6-Dec-20 C$0.60 -10.4% LT bet, adding slowly
Closed in 2022 closed close price
Great Bear Res GBR.v Jan'22 C$15.83 26-Aug-20 C$28.58 80.5% Bought out by Kinross, print
Copper Mountain CMMC.to Jan'22 C$3.40 18-Jun-21 C$3.78 15.9% Sold 1/2 position in rebalance
Copper Mountain CMMC.to Feb'22 C$3.40 18-Jun-21 C$3.70 8.8% Sold rest on FY22 guidance
2015 to 2021 annual closed positions in appendices below, 2009 to 2014 closed positions in editions IKN553 or earlier
Now for notes on a few of our covered stocks:
Chesapeake Gold (CKG.v): ADDED. Once gold took off, this was an easy place to reach and
add a few more but I stress, this is still a small and speculative position.
Trilogy Metals (TMQ): With the highly disappointing news of the permit suspension now
baked in, the question going forward is now a simple one, either to hold or to sell. Up to mid-
week, I was leaning toward cauterizing this trade today and putting the money to work in
another place then on Wednesday, I received this from long-term subscriber “JE”
I do follow politics in the US pretty closely, and I'm really surprised by the cancelling of
the road permit for Ambler. Lisa Murkowski is one of the few republican senators that
has some influence on the Biden administration. She's got a tough re-election this year
against a Trump supporter and the Biden admin strongly prefers her over another
TrumpyBear (there is no chance for Democrats in Alaska). So it wouldn't surprise me if
Biden gave her a little assistance, either before the primary or the general election.
They're not going to bend on Pebble, but they might on Ambler.
The argument makes sense, as this (5) report underscores. Incumbent Senator Lisa Murkowski
is anti-Trump, respected in Alaska, voted
to impeach him for the January 6th
episode and has a history of working
across party lines. However, the primaries
aren’t until June and we’d need an
indication of better things for Ambler long
before then, as I simply don’t want dead
money in my portfolio in this market
atmosphere. Therefore and with the TMQ
share price at least showing a heartbeat
last week (though in Intensive Care), I’m
14

going to wait a week or two and see what happens. However, this is still a highly annoying
situation and the next time somebody preaches to this desk about political risk in Chile, Peru or
wherever else, TMQ will be in my reply. A thousand ways of losing money in mining, it seems.
Altipano Metals (APN.v): The trade thesis behind APN has always been to sponsor its
“bootstrap” approach as it generates better revenues from its small scale Farellon operation in
Chile, then uses the cash flow to expand its exploration footprint. That plan took a step forward
last week when the company announced (6) the start of work at its Pastillas property in upland
Chile, located in the Maricunga Gold Belt. For a little extra here’s the CEO comment from the
NR, link through for the interesting visuals and full work program plan:
Alastair McIntyre, CEO comments: "We are excited to get boots on the ground in the
Maricunga Gold District of Chile and begin our field work program at Pastillas. Our
initial mapping program will provide guidance for future sampling programs,
geophysical surveys with the goal of ultimately identify potential drill targets."
The program is largely baseline geology work and we’re not going to get news of drill results
soon, but that’s okay. This is a clear step forward for the company and another sign that its
strategy of building from a small and tight base is paying off.
Aldebaran Resources (ALDE.v): The ALDE webinar on Thursday (replay available here, I
believe (7)) was informative and useful, laying out the company’s likely strategy for the year
ahead. The good news is that we’re going to get plenty of newsflow in the next four to five
months as drilling returns assays as ALDE already has 6,000m of 25,000m of its planned drilling
program complete as at Wednesday March 2nd, with core either at or on the way to the labs.
There are currently four rigs turning, with three at the QDM/Radio target to the West of Altar
and one drilling step-out at one of the higher grading zones of Altar Central. ALDE is targeting
QDM/Radio in order to get the target into 43-101 resource (most likely inferred), but will also
dedicate a couple of shorter holes (that will take less time) to attempt to delineate the newly
discovered high grade gold zone, located above the porphyry there (and likely epithermal in
nature. In other words, after a long gap without news we’re about to get more and, assuming
they drill all the 25km before winter closes exploration down, the next four months should see
plenty of newsflow from Altar.
Minera IRL (MIRL.cse): This week’s NR from MIRL (8) was another example of how this
most nefarious of CEOs changes his narrative at will in order to cover his tracks. Funny how in
2021 it was an advantage to have Haywood marketing the company, we now learn it’s an
advantage not to have them marketing MIRL in 2022! It’s so pathetic it’s almost funny.
However, the news that MIRL has hired a market maker to provide an orderly market does at
least allow the opportunity for those who are fed up with this story to exit the stock without
doing much damage to the share price. As a sidebar, please note the last “Monthly Newsletter”
from the company came out in December 2021 and now we are in March 2022, giving us
another example of the reliability of this company and how we can trust their word. Not.
Stay tuned for more interesting developments as March rolls out. I’m looking forward to giving
you some real news about the management team and the way they are approaching 2022 on a
professional and personal level, all with a view to providing shareholders and the general
market with insight on how Diego Benavides operates. There’s much to tell and you will hear
about it all. Unlike MIRL and its crooked team, I have nothing to hide.
Strategic Metals (SMD.v): Another strong positive price move for our list last week. It’s
taken this long and the sufferance of a heavy price dip in the process, but our trade thesis for
SMD may at last be coming into fashion. SMD holds large swathes of low-risk land in Canada
and North USA and is prospective for base metals as well as silver (and gold), which is suddenly
the right formula. It’s not a big position and due to the tight corporate structure, one that
doesn’t need nannying on a weekly basis, but it looks ready for a price re-rate in our new
environment and if/when that happens, it will be time to revisit and take a closer look at how
the company plans are developing.
15

Palamina Corp (PA.v): On Thursday I met up with PA CEO Andrew Thomson in a meeting
that went on for nearly two hours and touched a whole series of bases, as we conversed about
Palamina as well as other companies and wider market matters. The time flew by with the
personable Thomson and afterwards on considering my notes, it was interesting to note how I
could condense down the meeting.
Despite its low treasury level of $1.65m, Palamina is
set to be remarkably active this year without any
need for extra financing. Thomson is uninterested
in raising new capital at the current price, unless a
big name strategic approaches the company (e.g.
Eric Sprott is already on board and may try to snag
a larger position at a budget price). Via its large
land position at the Puno Orogenic Belt and also its
Lagos property in South Peru which neighbours
work being done by other explorecos such as
Robert Friedland’s Kaizen and Aftermath, PA and
Thomson understand the company’s significant
first-mover advantage in prospective South Peru.
As for work plans, after digesting the geology from the four holes drilled during its first pass at
Usicayos last year the company plans one more hole from its man-portable rig before brining it
down the hill. After that, company focus wilol shift to its Lagos property, where PA expects to
be in receipt of permits and drilling within six weeks for a 20 platform drill program that would
test near-surface mineralization of the type being sought by its neighbours, in a cost-effective
drill program that according to Thomson, won’t break the bank.
In other words, despite the bad start to its year there’s plenty of potential leverage from a
company priced at just over C$9m Canadian. The paper-percentage loss in my speculative
position is worse than the real money hit and with plenty of newsflow in the pipeline, there’s no
reason at all to abandon this exploreco today. I will hold quietly as the company generates
news in the next two quarters.
The Copper Basket
After nine weeks of 2022, The Copper Basket shows a loss of 1.85% to level stakes:
company ticker price 1/1/22 Shares out Market Cap current pps gain/loss%
1 Copper Mtn CMMC.to 3.42 210.166 838.56 3.99 16.7%
2 Western Copper WRN.to 2.00 151.426 366.45 2.42 21.0%
3 Marimaca Cop MARI.to 3.77 88.028 363.56 4.13 9.5%
4 Oroco Res OCO.v 2.04 192.689 341.06 1.77 -13.2%
5 Nevada Copper NCU.to 0.71 448.437 313.91 0.70 -1.4%
6 Meridian Min MNO.v 1.18 153.735 182.94 1.19 0.8%
7 Hot Chili HCH.v 1.53 109.223 141.99 1.30 -15.0%
8 Aldebaran Res. ALDE.v 0.84 114.495 114.50 1.00 19.0%
9 Regulus Res. REG.v 1.06 101.845 103.88 1.02 -3.8%
10 Kutcho Copper KC.v 0.88 103.94 75.88 0.73 -17.0%
11 C3 Metals CCCM.v 0.16 645.379 64.54 0.10 -37.5%
12 Doré Copper DCMC.v 0.79 66.123 48.93 0.74 -6.3%
13 Element 29 Res ECU.v 0.58 79.24 46.75 0.59 1.7%
14 QC Copper QCCU.v 0.34 129.06 36.14 0.28 -17.6%
15 Coast Copper COCO.v 0.13 41.335 6.20 0.15 15.4%
NB: All stocks in CAD$ Portfolio avg -1.85%
16

To my mild surprise, the wholesale buying of the
mining sector as the financial world changed course
The Copper Basket 2022, weekly evolution
wasn’t enough to return our Copper Basket to 4%
positive overall territory for the year, the average is 2%
still underwater by 1.85%. Three stocks were losers 0%
on the week (REG.v, ALDE.v, ECU.v) and two were -2%
unchanged (NCU.to, CCCM.v) which leaves 10 -4%
winners so I’m not listing them all, just the biggest -6%
percentage moves in Meridian (MNO.v up 36.8%), -8%
Coast Copper (COCO.v up 15.4%), Copper Mountain -10%
(CMMC.to up 13.0%) and Dore Copper (DCMC.v up
10.4%).
As for the market action for copper-the-metal last week, would you like the long-term chart to
show the all-time high close on Friday…?
…or would you prefer the near-term chart showing last week and how copper busted away
from the U$4.50/lb line and then simply rocketed?
The IKN Weekly position is straightforward: There are no prizes for guessing that the catalyst
for this copper (and just about any other metal) breakout is due to the war in Ukraine, but
we’ve been crystal clear on the bullish fundamentals for the metal for a long time and while last
week’s gains may have been spectacular, when it comes to our metal of focus there’s every
reason to expect the higher prices to stick and even move up further. House predictions for
2022 had “Copper U$5/lb” at the top of the list (9) though admittedly, when writing the time,
“Expect plenty of headlines when the world's most important non-ferrous breaks U$5.00/lb…”
there was little expectation of being on that price threshold so early in the year (and can’t say I
was thinking much about Putin’s worldview either). But here we are and, to take the pulse of
the metals scene, this report (10) gives us two typical quotes from last week:
17
ts1naJ ht9naJ ht61 dr32 ht03 ht6bef ht31 ht02 ht72 ht6raM
source: IKN calcs

“The market is in a panic mode in terms of supply,” said Gianclaudio Torlizzi, a partner
at consultants T-Commodity, adding prices would keep rising while conflict raged in the
Ukraine.
“This Russia and Ukraine conflict has only fanned the flames of the already stretched
base metals markets,” Reuters quoted ING analyst Wenyu Yao.
Regarding copper, Russia isn’t a dominant player as it is in platinum or palladium (see ‘Market
Watching’ below for a thought on that) and produces around 3.5% of world supply, far behind
the Andean Chile/Peru zone, China or The USA. However, as recently as two weeks ago there
was plenty of talk about a Russia that was to dump around 150,000 tonnes of copper onto the
world from its reserves (or unsold stock, depending on the rumour you heard) and as that’s
now very unlikely to happen, it provided a little extra impetus in this hot market as European
supply worries turned into outright panic.
Of course, keeping a close eye on copper inventories and world supply is what we do round
these parts, thanks to our regular weekly copper inventories section. I know a lot of you
normally gloss over this segment but it will probably get a few more eyeballs in this edition .
Be clear, it’s this careful, week-over-week tracking of copper levels that has allowed this desk to
remain bullish on the metal in 2022, no matter how the price reacted to other events.
 Overall aggregate stocks rose slightly thanks to SHFE seasonal inflows, but only by the
thinnest of margins. Add the three official systems together and the total comes to
301,421 metric tonnes (mt), up just 2,663mt on the week.
 Shanghai’s SHFE warehouses added 8,928mt to close the week at 167,951mt, a quieter
move than the last three weeks, During its re-stocking period, SHFE does have the
occasional quiet period so we shouldn’t assume it’s over yet, but if the slowdown is
confirmed in the next couple of weeks it would be seriously bullish news.
 Meanwhile at the LME, stocks dropped by 5,050mt to close Friday at 69,825mt, the first
time in a decade that LME copper stocks have gone under 70k.
 The Comex joined in the supply suck and saw 1,215mt leaves its warehouses, leaving
63,645mt in stock. We can now confirm the trend change as demand in North America
sees its results as well. Everyone wants copper, there’s little to have.
Here’s the dedicated SHFE inventory chart, in which we see the sharp re-stocking take its
pause. Note that in previous years, there have been smaller upmoves interspersed with the
ones SHFE needs to re-stock effectively for the rest of the year. The jury is out.
Shanghai Futures Exchange Warehouse Stocks, 2014 to date
400000
350000
300000
250000
200000
150000
100000
50000
0
18
31'13ceD ht9 ht81 ht72 ht5tco ht41 dn22 dr3yam ht21 ht02 ht92 ht7bef ht71 ht62 ht4peS ht31 ht92 ht9 ht81 ht72 7102
ht5von
ht41 ht52 ht01 ht91 ht82 9102
ht6naJ
ht71 ht62 ht4gua ht31 dn22 0202ts1ram ht01 ht91 ht72 0202ht6ced ht41 ht52 1202ht4luj ht21 ts12 2202ht03naj
Mt Cu
|
source: Cochilco
Now for notes on a few of the stocks in our 2022 basket:
Nevada Copper (NCU.to): With the market’s rapidly changing view of Russian investment
capital and its “oligarchs”, investors and speculators in copper stocks need to be aware that the
main money behind NCU is Pala Investments, an entity owned by Vladimir Iorich, who made his

money in the Russian Steel sector and has since branched into other metals, such as his
controlling interest in NCU for copper. How any asset freeze on Pala and/or Iorich would affect
NCU is difficult to tell, but his lot isn’t helped by the fact that his mine is located in The USA.
Along with its welter debt burden, there are better ways to play the speculative copper upside
than NCU. Avoid.
Regulus Resources (REG.v): The good news for REG includes the copper price, of course. It
also has two rigs now turning on site at AntaKori so we should finally see some regular
newsflow from the company soon. Final good news is that the first hole in the 2022 season is
now complete and it went to 1.2km depth, which means the rig worked and ground conditions
were in favour. The downside is that our original guesstimate for March for assay results is now
almost certainly April and the snail’s pace development hasn’t picked up yet, which must be
frustrating for holders.
One of these fine days REG will surely move higher under current copper price conditions and
the likely catalyst is either the publication of this year’s first hole or perhaps its anticipation. For
what it’s worth, this desk assumes the first hole was chosen carefully in order to make a good
first impression for the year and there’s every reason to expect a good, long mineralized
interval from AntaKori/AntaNorte.
Meridian Mining (MNO.v): An interesting move in MNO late Friday:
Clearly driven by enthusiastic buyer(s), MNO ramped hard in the buoyant Friday afternoon
session and if there is a good reason for the move other than speculators jumping on, we’ll
probably find out next week.
Copper Mountain (CMMC.to): As copper moved through the gears on Wednesday and fully
broke out Friday, your author couldn’t help but reflect on the recent sale of Copper Mountain.
Yes, for sure, its C$3.99 closing price is better than my sale average but it would surely be
higher if it weren’t for this:
Subsequent to year‐end, zero‐cost collar options were purchased for 3.3 million
pounds of copper per month through 2022 with a floor price of US$4.00 per pound and
an average ceiling price of US$4.91 per pound.
That quote from the 4q21 MD&A. While its slightly drab 2022 results and semi-anticipated
downbeat 2022 guidance were the main reasons to sell the position (in two halves, the first to
reduce risk and the second on confirmation), its “costless collar” was a secondary factor on my
mind. With copper now busting out of the top of its range after mere weeks, we’ll now get to
find out how costless the hedge program turns out to be. As the collar covers around 40% of
projected annual guidance, this is not a small thing and if spot copper continues higher, CMMC
will take painful financial hits in forward quarters.
On the one hand, I do understand CMMC’s position and why they took out this collar, a growth-
oriented year with lower production and higher costs required financial certainty before going
19

in. Also, CMMC has always been somewhat conservative by corporate nature so it didn’t come
as a great surprise, the issue is more how the strategy potentially strips blue sky gains from the
company (which means a direct different on its equity price. In other words, I’m not against
hedging per se, it’s just that I don’t want my spec trade stocks to do it which I’m invested to
hedge . Finally, fundies issues or not we must recognize that CMMC is one of Canada’s go-to
stock tickers when copper trades get hot and with prices doing what they did last week, I’ve
almost certainly left money on the table by selling this last month.
Western Copper & Gold (WRN.to): This could be the best-positioned stock of our whole list
now, not just for its corporate title featuring two of the hot metals names. WRN has location, a
well-understood deposit and while its CSR situation isn’t perfect and has delayed the permitting
track somewhat, relationships are reportedly good with First Nations and after witnessing the
trick Biden pulled on Trilogy two weeks ago, I’d certainly rather be in the Canadian Yukon than
the USA side of the border now. WRN is another stock with typically good traded volume and
liquidity, used by Canada to speculate on copper’s future.
The Producer Basket
After nine weeks of 2022, the Producer Basket shows a gain of 15.28% to level stakes:
company ticker price 1/1/22 Shares out MktCap(U$Bn) current pps gain/loss%
1 Newmont NEM 62.02 797.44 59.23 74.28 19.8%
2 Barrick GOLD 19.00 1779 43.05 24.20 27.4%
3 Franco-Nevada FNV 138.29 191.192 30.25 158.24 14.4%
4 Agnico Eagle AEM 53.14 453.5 25.62 56.49 6.3%
5 Wheaton PM WPM 42.93 450.3 21.04 46.73 8.9%
6 Gold Fields GFI 10.99 887.72 13.78 15.52 41.2%
7 Kinross Gold KGC 5.81 1369.3 7.50 5.48 -5.7%
8 B2Gold BTG 3.93 1055.6 4.59 4.35 10.7%
9 Alamos Gold AGI 7.69 392.503 3.08 7.84 2.0%
10 Sandstorm SAND 6.20 191.4 1.52 7.93 27.9%
All prices and stock quotes in U$ Port. avg 15.28%
When considering gold proxy ETF (GLD) moved up 4.04% on the week, GDXJ by 8.5% and the
Producer Basket benchmark GDX by 8.75%, it’s somewhat surprising to have only nine winners
on our Producer Basket list. But that’s the result of Kinross (KGC down 0.9%) getting caught in
the Russian economic sanctions crossfire due to its operations at Kupol. So once again, our
Producer Basket cannot avoid itself in 2022 and as a result, we’ve fallen further behind the
benchmark:
The 2022 Producer Basket: Weekly performance and
30% comparative to GDX control
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
-5%
-10%
-15%
As for the others, they all went up last week as they jolly well should, with top performances
from Gold Fields (GFI up 17.5%) and Sandstorm (SAND up 12.0%), with Newmont (NEM up
9.4%) the outstanding Tier 1 performer (again).
20
ts1naJ ht9naJ ht61 dr32 ht03 ht6bef ht31 ht02 ht72 ht6ram
The 2022 Producer Basket: Percentage difference
between GDX benchmark & basket (negative = IKN ahead) 6.0%
5.0%
ikn 4.0%
gdx control
3.0%
2.0%
1.0%
0.0%
-1.0%
source: NYSE, IKN Calcs
J
an 1st
J
an 9t h 1 6th 2 3rd 3 0th
f
eb6t h 1 3th 2 0th 2 7th
m
ar6th
source: IKN calcs, NYSE data

Kinross Gold (KGC): A week is a long time in politics. On February 23rd, Kinross announced
(11) that its “Russia mines operating according to plan, unaffected by sanctions” and advised
the reader like this: “Kinross has successfully operated in Russia for more than 25 years and
has previously managed through similar situations while complying with applicable laws.”
Cut to March 2nd, the NR (12) “Kinross to suspend Russian operations” and without mentioning
“The W Word” announced that, “The Company is suspending all activities at its Udinsk
development project. The Company is also in the process of suspending operations at its Kupol
mine…”. Sure enough, Special K took the hit:
However, the market had already sensed the Thursday news and the major markdown of KGC
compared to peers (GDX comparison) came Monday morning, as Russia was already closing
down to anything western and the loss of Kupol (and the exploration activities) was only a
matter of time.
The TinyCaps List
After nine weeks of 2022, the TinyCaps show a gain of 3.29% to level stakes:
company ticker price 1/1/22 Shares out Mkt Cap current pps gain/loss%
Aurelius Min AUL.v 0.24 37.134 10.58 0.285 18.8%
Golden Pursuit GDP.v 0.13 34.638 5.89 0.17 30.8%
Infield Min INFD.v 0.06 48.276 2.17 0.045 -25.0%
Kingfisher Met KFR.v 0.30 84.57 18.61 0.22 -26.7%
Latin Metals LMS.v 0.12 57.296 6.88 0.12 0.0%
Manitou Gold MTU.v 0.06 344.47 22.39 0.065 8.3%
Melkior Res MKR.v 0.295 24.011 7.20 0.30 1.7%
Precipitate Gold PRG.v 0.105 129.322 16.81 0.13 23.8%
Signature Res SGU.v 0.07 238.4 17.88 0.075 7.1%
Winshear Gold WINS.v 0.08 61.585 4.62 0.075 -6.3%
Prices in CAD$, data from TSXV basket avg 3.29%
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 representing the state of play in the
sub-sector of tinycap exploration company stocks. At least, that’s the plan.
 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.
21

 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.
It wasn’t a massive gain, as only a few of our
representative list traded with the upsurge in 14% TinyCaps, 2022 weekly tracker
larger market cap stocks but it was enough to 12%
put the TinyCaps list back into the green. We 10%
saw five winners (GDP.v, INFD.v, MKR.v, PRG.v, 8%
SGU.v) including the biggest move from Golden 6%
Pursuit (GDP.v up 25.9%), perhaps because it 4%
had the right word in its corporate title. Two 2%
stocks were unchanged (LMS.v, WINS.v) and 0%
three went down on the week (AUL.v, KFR.v, -2%
MTU.v) showing it was hardly one-way traffic
here at the bottom of the market cap pile.
No stock notes this weekend, the action was in other places.
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’s possible in the future
I may buy shares in one or several of these stocks, at the moment both my opinion and wallet aretrictly neutral.
Regional politics
Chile: Boric begins and mining’s nationalization tempest in a teacup continues
Friday March 11th sees Gabriel Boric take over as President of Chile. Expect comments on the
ceremonial day to include plenty of references to his Left wing politics and government along
with the usual smattering of “Commie” epithets. Not many outside viewers will register Boric’s
own protest moves, such as the way Nicaragua’s authoritarian government was uninvited from
the occasion weeks ago (and long before Daniel Ortega’s love-in with Putin) and how Boric has
in fact invited one of Nicaragua’s most vociferous dissident voices against the dictator Ortega to
be present at the show.
We therefore repeat the message that outside FDI has little to fear from the upcoming Boric
government and Chile will remain wide open for mining business. We also repeat that in light of
the latest round of Commie Fear coming from Chile’s Constitutional Assembly, as last Friday the
project for the (we quote) “Nationalization of large-scale mining companies for copper, lithium
and gold” passed its committee stage (13) by ten votes to five (four abstentions).
Despite the way Chile and its mining scene now understands this committee stage decision to
be purely political theory in nature and extremely unlikely to get close to the real draft
constitution, the vote picked up another round of shock-horror headlines in foreign bizwires and
trade papers. Please people, give it a break, this is the same ultra-lefty committee that passed
the original motion and the step last Friday was always going to happen. The real debate on
what gets into the proposed constitution on mining starts now and all we’ve seen so far is
political posturing by interest groups who got their short day in the sun before the adults in the
room take over To start, the current law project now goes back to committee for “adjustment”,
then it goes to the main 155 seat assembly for debate and potential passage and it’s only at
this point that enough smarter heads will prevail. Hard lefties in Chile can take control of a 20
seat committee, they cannot do the same thing with the general assembly where it needs a
two-thirds majority to get to the draft constitution, something that these reactionary measures
are simply not going to get. So let Chile’s hard left make their noise, but anyone who thinks the
country is about to nationalize its mining industry simply does not know what they are talking
about.
22
dn2naJ ht9
naJ
ht61naJ dr32 ht03 ht6bef ht31 ht02 ht72 ht6ram
source: IKN calcs, TSX data

Argentina: BHP franks our position on Argentina and copper in 2022
A brief comment on the news last week that the world’s biggest mining company BHP was
spending $100m to take a strategic position in the Lundin-backed Filo Mining (FIL.v). This is a
hearty franking of the house position regarding Argentina and its mining scene in 2022, it’s only
a matter of time before money moves into other large-scale copper mining projects and, with
San Juan the preferred landing zone, our trades in ALDE and MUX are in the right place at the
right time.
Peru: More on Pedro Castillo’s lame duck government
Peru’s Congress last week continued with its strategy of sniping away specific ministers from
the Pedro Castillo cabinet. On Monday, his Minister of Transport and Communications resigned
literally minutes before Congress was about declare its No-Confidence vote against him.
President Castillo’s response was to promote yet another native of his home town of Chota,
Cajamarca, into a ministerial position for which the candidate has thin experience. We are also
about to get the same process happening for the quack doctor who is now Peru’s Health
Minister and this list will continue, as Congress takes minister after minister to task over their
background, position, effectiveness or whatever other excuse they can find for their no-
confidence votes. The result is a dead-duck government with no progress made and a total lack
of institutional instability, all this aside from Castillo’s own woes. He’s now facing corruption
allegations of his own, having been connected to a scheme to award civil works contracts to
friendly faces and Friday saw another march in Lima demanding he either step down or is
“vacated” by Congress. Institutionally very weak, our message of it only being a matter of time
before this President falls gets another repeat on these pages.
In other mining news, we got another set of “Locals block Las Bambas” headlines this Friday
(14) as one village, some 250km down the road but still on the same “mining corridor”, made it
their turn to protest in order to receive benefits. The repeat of the news that stopped Las
Bambas operations in December is probably why it made headlines (along with the timing on
copper prices and the metal’s tight supply), but this time the blockade is less serious and rather
opportunistic on the part of locals. This is unlikely to spiral into another long-term issue that
truly makes a difference to exports or the mine’s operation.
Honduras bans open-pit mining
While campaigning for the presidency last year, left wing President Xiomara Castro made the
banning of open-pit mining and campaign pledge and last week, her newly formed government
announced (15) it was moving for the “revision, suspension and cancellation of environmental
licenses, permits and concessions” for open-pit mining in Honduras. The move doesn’t affect
many publicly listed companies, with Aura Minerals (ORA.to) the only Canadian listed entity to
this author’s knowledge with operations in the country and in its NR on the matter (16) ORA
stated, “The Company does not expect any immediate effect on production at its San Andres
Mine in Honduras” even though its San Andreas mine is an open-pit operation that produces
around one third of its total annual gold equivalent production. However, this move by the new
Honduras government is another step away from the mining industry in Central America and a
clear negative for the sub-region.
Brazil: Bolsonaro’s position on Russia and Presidential election polling
Among LatAm states, while the vast majority of countries have stepped up to condemn Russia
aggression and invasion of Ukraine, we’ve also seen the inevitable support for Putin’s Russia
from the usual suspects Venezuela and Nicaragua. Somewhat surprisingly, Cuba has been far
les vociferous in its support for Russia, though when pressed its government comes out with
the necessary rhetoric. We’ve also seen Bolivia and the left wing government of Luis Arce take
a strictly neutral position (e.g. abstain in recent United Nations votes) but perhaps the most
eye-catching position is that of Brazil. There, the hard-line right wing President Jair Bolsonaro
has also adopted the “we are strictly neutral” line, in his words “to avoid dragging Brazil into
the conflict”. This comes after his recent State visit to Russia and meeting with Vladimir Putin
during the Winter Olympics periods, in which relations were clearly friendly and Bolsonaro even
went as far as saying that he was the reason Russia withdrew troops from the Ukraine border.
23

It’s not difficult to suppose Bolsonaro’s own autocratic aspirations, even though his politics
come from the far right instead of (officially) Russia’s far left. The extremes meet, once again.
However, Bolsonaro’s position is tone deaf and may cost him dearly:
A new poll out this week from the reliable media channel Poder360 (16) saw Lula da Silva’s lead
cut from 14 points to 8 over main rival, current President Jair Bolsonaro. Ostensibly good news
for the President and since democracy returned, an incumbent has never lost their re-election
bid but that Brazilian record now looks under strain.
The main problem for incumbent Bolsonaro is Round Two, as polls indicate two third of “other”
votes will swing to Lula. As things stand today, the most likely outcome is a second round run-
off between Lula and Bolsonaro and polling puts Lula way ahead, at 51% to 37% of valid votes.
Other polls out in the last 14 days indicate President Bolsonaro has lost support from mainstay
Evangelical and Roman Catholic voting blocks that propelled him to his election win in 2018.
Nicaragua is Russia’s political ally, part two
On Tuesday, The Washington Post picked up on the geopolitical position of Nicaragua and ran
the op-ed “In pro-Putin Managua, tyrannical history is repeating itself — this time as tragedy”
(17). As it’s not a long note and covers an aspect of the country’s worsening political scene that
we haven’t touched upon recently, here’s the copypaste:
In December 1974, Hugo Torres helped lead a squad of Nicaraguan guerrillas in a dramatic hostage-taking that
succeeded in winning the release of a key member of the Sandinista National Liberation Front then held in
prison by the dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza. Last month, Mr. Torres died — as a 73-year-old political
prisoner of Nicaragua’s new dictatorship. In one of the awful symmetries that characterize this Central American
country’s history, the Sandinista whom Mr. Torres helped liberate in 1974 grew into the dictator in whose
custody he died: Daniel Ortega.
Having previously been aligned with Mr. Ortega, Mr. Torres was being punished for concluding that the current
regime is — as he said in his last public statement before being arrested in June 2021 — “more brutal, more
unscrupulous, more irrational and more autocratic” than Somoza’s. The Ortega regime is closely aligned with
Vladimir Putin’s Russia, which aids Nicaragua’s army and which dispatched two high-level delegates for talks in
Managua during the week prior to and week of the invasion of Ukraine. Mr. Ortega obediently praised Mr.
Putin’s recognition of breakaway Ukrainian provinces.
For his dissident position, it seems, Mr. Torres died. Though the government said only that “illnesses he had”
caused his death, political allies report that conditions in the jail where he was held are harsh; he was growing
steadily unwell in December but was not taken to a hospital until he fell unconscious. There should be an
independent investigation. Establishing the truth would be no academic exercise, since there is a real chance of
a similar tragedy: Several of the 46 political leaders Mr. Ortega’s regime jailed in 2021 are, like Mr. Torres,
24

people in their 60s or 70s, including Francisco Aguirre Sacasa, 77, a former Nicaraguan foreign minister
recently found guilty of trumped-up conspiracy charges in a closed-door proceeding. He could face eight years
in prison. In a similar predicament are academic Arturo Cruz Sequeira, 68, and Pedro Joaquín Chamorro
Barrios, 71. All told, the Ortega regime is holding approximately 170 political prisoners.
The State Department, the Organization of American States and the European Union condemned Mr. Torres’s
death in custody. Despite the international outcry, however, it appears that the Managua government is intent
on completing sham trials for the entire group of political prisoners. In a month of trials since Feb. 1, at least 26
people have been convicted and eight sentenced to prison terms ranging up to 13 years, including, on Feb. 23,
three who had tried to challenge Mr. Ortega for the presidency in last November’s election.
As the prisoners’ health continues to deteriorate, family members are growing increasingly desperate. Some 72
relatives have signed a document calling for the release of all political detainees as part of a “process of civic
unification.” There is a case for the United States relaxing certain of the sanctions it has imposed on the regime
in return for their freedom. Yet, like its patron in Moscow, the Ortega government has shown no willingness to
engage in meaningful dialogue.
We also had the start of another politically motivated trail this weekend, the opposition
politician Cristiana Chamorro next up. Here’s Al-Jazz (18):
One-time Nicaragua presidential aspirant Cristiana Chamorro and one of her brothers
were among five people formally placed on trial on Thursday.
Chamorro, 68, has been under house arrest since June 2. She was taken under heavy
guard to the notorious El Chipote prison in the capital, according to the Nicaraguan
Center for Human Rights.
With sanctions now rolling out and beginning to affect countries supporting Putin’s position, and
a Nicaragua that’s already seen a range of sanctions placed against it by The US government
and other, the likelihood of Nica now being cut off further from the world’s financial and
economic system is growing quickly. You therefore get the same message as flashed last
weekend in the note “Nicaragua is Russia’s political ally” and the advice to reduce your
exposure to Nica political risk sooner, rather than later. It’s notable that this weekend, The USA
even reached out to Venezuela (of all places) by sending an envoy to meet with Nicolas Maduro
(or his government) in order to sound out his position on Russia and The Ukraine with a view to
seeing him loosen ties with Putin. That’s the power of owning crude oil, I suppose, but The USA
has made no such effort towards Nicaragua.
Market Watching
Palladium and Platinum
More of a market-based musing than a solid trade idea, but as we watched spot prices of
palladium go bananas last week as the financial and business sanctions against Russia
ratcheted up, my contrarian mind turned to its PGM sister metal, platinum. Here’s a 2022 YTD
chart of palladium, platinum and gold spot prices:
(EDIT: Below a bonus 10 day chart, including tonight Sunday and Asia’s overnight open)
25

Once upon a time, platinum was the more expensive of the two PGMs and the star, but recent
market dynamics have flipped around their popularity. Palladium’s use in semiconductors and
non-diesel catalytic converters has seen its popularity soar in recent years, while platinum was
hit hard by the world’s move away from diesel as a fuel for ICE transport systems.
However, that might be about to change. The reason palladium has gone nuts this week is
Russia and more specifically, Norilsk. That unique mine and its orebody produces around 40%
of the world’s palladium as well as 10% of the world’s platinum and with Russia suddenly a
Pariah State like no other, the near-term panic over palladium supply is probably justified.
However, it’s not just a case of pricing any longer, as the removal of perhaps 40% of the
world’s supply of palladium is likely to cause manufacturers to move away from using the metal
and seek the most logical alternative, which is to use platinum instead. While Norilsk also
means 10% of platinum is now going offline, that’s not quite as desperate a situation. Up to
now, end users of palladium have been reluctant to re-tool from palladium to platinum in the
last few years despite the increase costs involved in staying with PL. That may now change, as
much through obligation as price and as a result, we may finally see the resurgence in platinum
prices that many have predicted over the last couple of years.
This note should be recognized as high-level strategy, rather than getting into the nitty-gritty of
PGM supply, demand and transfer costs. What’s more, as there are precious few ways of
playing PGMs in LatAm, my knowledge of the mines in the sub-sector is limited and the only
stock I would point you toward would be Sibanye-Stillwater, hardly an original pick. However, at
the current price deck of U$1,100 for an ounce of platinum, U$2,000/oz for gold and
U$3,125/oz for palladium, I see a better chance of getting a double from platinum than the
other metals.
Atex Resources (ATX.v): A high risk, high reward copper idea
Today, we feature a small copper exploreco for the first time by way of a heads-up, rather than
an immediate recommend. However, the fact it gets space in the ‘Market Watching’ section of
the weekly means it’s an interesting one and worth your consideration. Atex Resources (ATX.v)
(website here (19)) has been on the back burner my personal radar for a few months, almost
made this year’s Copper Basket and, but for its market cap, would have been a member of the
TinyCaps. The story is Chile, copper and the hunt for a massive porphyry in the high altitudes,
so when this video (20) appeared on Youtube last week of Crux Investor interviewing ATX CEO
Raymond Jannas, it became clear to this desk that ATX is moving into first period of promo and
marketing, as such it’s time to make mention of the company here at the Weekly.
Leading ATX is Raymond Jannas, a top-quality Chilean geologist with a high reputation among
peers and personally known to your author. The mere fact that he is taking the CEO’s role at
this exploreco is enough to make it interesting. The board is populated with smart and
respected mining people and what’s more, the main backer and source of financing to date is
one Pierre Lassonde, a name most of you will recognize. Here’s the six-month price chart that
26

shows the moment in November when ATX came out of mothballs, plus a decent buying spurt
in mid-November when Lassonde’s entry via placement brought the spotlight. Since then the
stock has traded reasonably and this weekend’s
C$0.49, its 100.7m shares out makes it a C$49.3m
market capper.
ATX has two projects on its books, but the company is
all about its flagship, Valeriano project, on which ATX
holds the option and is now earning in with work
expenditures and eventual back-end cash payments in
a standard deal. Valeriano is copper/gold porphyry
target in the heights of Atacama Region, North Chile.
Located next to Barrick’s (GOLD) El Encierro
copper/gold project, itself under active exploration,
Valeriano has been a known entity for many years as
a high-grading but porphyry with the potential of large size and strong grade, normally the
magic combination that majors covet.
Here are two tables from its latest corporate presentation, which is linked here and does a good
job of giving an overview without adding too much rose-tint to its spectacles (CEO Jannas is a
realist and is not into throwing sequins at the market):
The table above shows the current inferred resource, based on very few holes and with plenty
of room to expand if they hit enough mineralization this year. The main takeaway is the decent
average grade in copper as well as its credit metals, gold and silver.
However, note the cut-off isn’t much below the average CuEq grades. That’s partially explained
by this second table below, showing the three best previous drill holes sunk at Valeriano:
As you can probably appreciate, those are long hits of good mineralization. However, the “from”
column also shows that the porphyry is located quite deep in this system and that means it’s
going to be difficult to drill and adds expense, both to exploration and in the event things go
well, to eventual deposit economics and mining.
This is what ATX plan to test this year, with three holes budgeted to go deep and try to step
out on the known porphyry and expand resource tonnage (CEO Jannas says that 1Bn tonnes
plus is perfectly possible) and to that end, the company is now drilling two step outs around
200m from the previous limits, one of either side. When those assays come back from the lab,
we’ll know whether Valeriano has the potential to become a real monster deposit and that,
today in March 2022, is the trade proposition in the company. If that has whetted your
appetite, we strongly suggest downloading your copy of the corporate presentation (21) to
learn more, there’s plenty on its history, location, nearology to Barrick’s (GOLD) El Encierro and
the potential for mining if enough deep porphyry is found.
At its C$49.3m market cap ATX isn’t the cheapest thing out there and, as CEO Jannas candidly
explains in that YouTube interview, the current treasury position will only be enough to drill the
three budgeted holes. In other words, ATX is a real, old-fashioned high-risk drill play because if
they succeed in stepping out 200m on either side of the known resource and hit a long interval
of the same type of grades, its share price could move a lot higher and become the next Big
27

Thing in Chilean copper discoveries. However, be clear that if ATX swings and misses on these
two holes the price will indeed drop, as its plans hit a road bump at the same time as treasury
is depleted. A speculation in ATX today is a bet on assay results and frankly, that’s the reason
I’m sitting this one out until results come in, even though I like the look of the story, company
and players involved. I’m happier about buying into Element 29 (ECU.v) for exposure to South
American copper exploration at the current prices, which offers two projects and risk/reward
balance that better suits my tastes. However, those of you with a higher risk tolerance than the
author of The IKN Weekly that are looking for a copper exploration story with potential
explosive upside and a management team fully aligned with its shareholders would do well to
consider Atex Resources. Consider this note the beginning of your DD, rather than its end.
Why Alamos (AGI) sold Cerro Jumil to Zacatecas Silver (ZAC.v)
A brief note. This following slide comes from this presentation (22), one that your author first
referenced way back in 2014 (or 2015) while explaining why the Esperanza/Cerro Jumil project
in Morelos State, Mexico, was a non-starter
Despite being an interesting and potentially very economic open-pit mining operation, with a
resource of around 1m oz gold grading 0.9 g/t with easy mining and good metallurgy, the
location is extremely difficult on a social basis. As well as being located close to the town of
Tetlama and the small dormitory town of José Maria Morelos, the main issue is its proximity to
the Xochicalco archaeological complex, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and well-known tourist
destination (museum and all) which literally looks over onto the valley where the Cero Jumil
open pit mine would be located. The region has its pro and contra mine factions, but local anti-
mine sentiment has always been high. In today’s Mexico, this is a tough one to see permitted
and the decision by Alamos to sell and move on is understandable.
Deferring on McEwen Mining (MUX) until next weekend
As MUX is going to move up next week no matter what, I have decided to wait until after the
company conference call, scheduled for
March 9th, and to take a close look at the
company next weekend. However, we note
that the stock price reacted well to the 4q21
results initially last week, before fading back
with trading showing signs of bagholders
using the liquidity event to exit.
However, the way in which MUX reacted
positively to Friday’s move in gold is the big
clue to its 2022. Once again and in the same
way as in 2016, MUX looks set to get bailed
28

out by market conditions and enjoy a price increased based squarely on the move in the price
of gold (and silver), rather than its own corporate development or plans. Definitely a hold into
next week’s Conference Call.
Conclusion
IKN668 is done, we end with bullet points:
 We are all geniuses. With metals flying high across the board, you don’t need a mining
advisory service to make money in this sector.
 A purchase of Element 29 (ECU.v) offers another front in the bullish copper story for
2022. Meanwhile the way in which Amerigo Resources (ARG.to) has reacted to activist
shareholder pressure and made itself a very buyable cash cow is most pleasing.
 A full edition of the Weekly with hardly a mention of Top Picks Minera Alamos (MAI.v)
and Rio2 Ltd, (RIO.v), despite those two returning double figure percentage upsides on
the week. That’s the power and attraction of copper in this market, I suppose.
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 trading fortune, ladies and gentlemen.
Best wishes, Mark
Footnotes, appendices, references, disclaimer
(1) https://www.woodmac.com/events/future-facing-mined-commodities-forum/
(2) https://www.mininghalloffame.ca/david-elliott
(3) https://www.e29copper.com/_resources/presentations/corporate-presentation.pdf?v=0.230
(4) http://www.amerigoresources.com/investors/earnings-calls/
(5) https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2021-11-12/murkowski-announces-reelection-bid-opposed-by-trump
(6) https://www.juniorminingnetwork.com/junior-miner-news/press-releases/1741-tsx-venture/apn/116973-altiplano-
provides-an-update-on-the-exploration-program-at-the-pastillas-gold-copper-project.html
(7) https://6ix.com/event/promising-initial-results-from-aldebarans-altar-project-2022-drill-campaign
(8)
https://webfiles.thecse.com/Minera_IRL_Announces_ITG_Engagement_and_Termination_of_Agreement_with_Advisor.
pdf?Ia3uhrnDtG_h1b1O8OjXs3.N.PshCN60
(9) https://iknnews.com/latam-mining-in-2022-bet-on-copper-chile-and-argentina/
(10) https://www.mining.com/copper-price-hits-all-time-high-on-fears-of-supply-crunches/
(11) https://www.kinross.com/news-and-investors/news-releases/press-release-details/2022/Kinross-Russia-mines-
operating-according-to-plan-unaffected-by-sanctions/default.aspx
(12) https://www.kinross.com/news-and-investors/news-releases/press-release-details/2022/Kinross-to-suspend-
Russian-operations/default.aspx
(13) https://www.publimetro.cl/noticias/2022/03/06/convencion-constitucional-aprueba-en-general-la-nacionalizacion-de-
las-empresas-de-la-mineria/
(14) https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/peruvian-community-blocks-road-used-by-mmg-copper-mine-source-says-
2022-03-02/
(15) https://www.infobae.com/america/agencias/2022/03/01/actualiza-2-honduras-se-declara-libre-de-mineria-a-cielo-
29

abierto-revisara-permisos/
(16) https://www.poder360.com.br/poderdata/lula-40-x-32-bolsonaro-diz-poderdata-sobre-1o-turno/
(17) https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/03/01/pro-putin-managua-tyrannical-history-is-repeating-itself-this-
time-tragedy/
(18) https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/4/nicaragua-continues-to-try-jail-ortega-opponents
(19) https://www.atexresources.com/
(20) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7_M4wWjFeQ
(21) https://www.atexresources.com/_resources/presentations/corporate-presentation.pdf?v=0.662
(22) https://slideplayer.es/slide/22056/
Stocks To Follow Closed Positions 2021
Closed in 2021 closed close price
Fiore Gold F.v jan'21 C$0.98 21-May-20 C$1.17 19.4% closed as part of rebalance
Norsemont Min NOM.cse feb'21 C$1.55 6-Set-20 C$0.70 -54.8% Cut loser to reduce Au exp.
Element 29 Res ECU.v feb'21 C$0.49 7-Feb-21 C$0.54 10.2% Cut Peru exposure
Kuya Silver KUYA.cse feb'21 C$1.66 8-Nov-20 C$2.51 51.2% Cut Peru exposure
Pucara Gold TORO.v apr'21 C$0.65 4-Oct-20 C$0.26 -60.0% Cut loser, Peru risk call
Copper Mountain CMMC.to apr'21 C$1.40 22-Nov-20 C$4.18 198.6% tgt hit, profit taken
New Gold NGD may'21 U$0.76 9-Feb-20 U$2.14 181.6% Sold to buy AGC, nice win
Orezone Gold ORE.v jun'21 C$0.79 21-Jun-20 C$1.61 103.8% sold on pop, leaky boat
Wolfden Res. WLF.v sep'21 C$0.30 11-Abr-21 C$0.19 -36.7% Failed spec trade, cut loss
Cartier Res ECR.v sep'21 C$0.32 21-Mar-21 C$0.235 -26.6% Failed spec trade, cut loss
Amarillo Gold AGC.v sep'21 C$0.31 30-May-21 C$0.30 -3.2% Capex story changed: Out
Excelsior Mining MIN.to oct'21 C$0.93 10-Mar-19 C$0.53 -43.0% May return in 2022
Royal Road Min. RYR.v nov'21 C$0.155 17-Mar-19 C$0.275 77.4% Closed on Nica pol risk
Aurelius Min. AUL.v dec'21 C$0.75 28-Jun-20 0.24 -68.0% cut end 2021, failed trade
Argonaut Gold AR.to dec'21 C$2.95 25-Jun-21 C$2.15 -27.1% cut on capex blowout
Stocks To Follow Closed Positions 2020
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
30

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
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
31

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
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.
32