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The IKN Weekly
Week 740, July 23rd 2023
Contents
This Week: In Today’s Edition, Summer and FOMC Week.
Fundamental Analysis: Provenance Gold (PAU.cse): Ignored and Interesting.
Stocks to Follow: Goldshore Resources (GSHR.v), Contango ORE (CTGO), Equinox Gold
(EQX), Minera Alamos (MAI.v), Faraday Copper (FDY.to), Surge Copper (SURG.v), AbraSilver
(ABRA.v), Western Exploration (WEX.v), Minera IRL (MIRL.cse), SolGold (SOLG.to) (SOLG.L),
Libero Copper (LBC.v).
Copper Basket: Overview, Hot Chili (HCH.v), Oroco Resources (OCO.v).
Producer Basket: Overview, Newmont (NEM).
TinyCaps Basket: Overview, Palamina Corp (PA.v), Precipitate Gold (PRG.v).
Regional Politics: Peru: Mostly harmless, Ecuador: The political use of contentious projects,
Colombia: A minister down and a speech to Congress.
Market Watching: Fortuna Silver (FSM) (FVI.to) redux, The moly market, A good webinar this
week, Heliostar Metals (HSTR.v) and Director Holes.
I remind subscribers that no part of this newsletter can be copied, reproduced or
given to any third party without the express permission of the author.
This Week
In Today’s Edition
 Market Watching is the Catch-All section of The IKN Weekly, the one where items of
interest or longer notes on covered companies go. It hasn’t seen much action in recent
weeks, but it comes back today with a real pot-pourri of subjects. There’s a look at the
molybdenum market, a mention on the good relative performance we’ve seen in
Fortuna Silver (FSM) that matches the thoughts in the coverage in the last two editions,
a heads-up on an interesting and comprehensive webinar happening this week, plus an
extended thought on the big drill hole of last week announced by Heliostar (HSTR.v).
 As for the main Fundamentals section, we take a look at a tinycap that might not be aq
buy just yet, but its recent drill results have been good and thanks to the nature of its
financial position, is likely to offer plenty of clues for us retail grunts on whether the
“serious people” in the sector think they have a live project. That’s Provenance Gold
(PAU.v) and you get the 30,000ft overview today.
 Today’s Regional Politics goes deeper on the political goings on in Colombia and
Ecuador and how they are affecting the mining sectors in each country. We also get to
quote my favourite modern author.
 Other things, too. There are always other things.
Summer and FOMC Week
It’s another week in which we keep the introduction to a minimum. The summer Doldrums aere
with us, the mining sector is saving the juiciest news for later in the quarter, the macro financial
world want to keep powder dry until Jackson Hole and the main event this coming week, the
July FOMC, is one that comes with a clearly telegraphed main decision. So for what to expect,
let’s go straight for the financial jugular (to to say) and quote the Vampire Squid, Goldman
Sachs (1):
1

"A 25bp rate hike is fully priced for the July FOMC meeting next week. The key
question is how strongly Chair Powell will nod toward the “careful pace” of tightening
he advocated in June, which we and others have taken to imply an every-other-
meeting approach. We expect Powell to cautiously avoid implying that the FOMC has
already reached an agreement but are confident that he does want to slow the pace
and that the FOMC will end up skipping in September."
So, 25bps this time and another not-hawkish-not-dovish skip framework for the post-Jackson
Hole FOMC (that meeting gets two mentions today because it’ll set the agenda more than
anything else we hear in August). Please note we also get US Q2 GDP first reading on
Thursday, with +1.8% expected. And that’s enough intro and as last week, we’ll get on with
some real work.
Fundamental Analysis of Mining Stocks
Provenance Gold (PAU.cse): Ignored and Interesting
“Mighty oaks from little acorns grow.”
Trad. English proverb, origin unknown
Though we’re focusing on a gold exploreco and that’s nothing new for The IKN Weekly, today’s
main fundies event is not the same as our normal coverage or companies of focus. For one
thing, it’s going to be truly concise (I’m not just trying and failing to deliver a short note this
time, the format is different today). It’s not a recommended purchase in the days ahead either,
instead it’s a heads-up on a tinycap with very little market radar or presence that returned an
interesting drill assay from its current flagship asset that, despite a strong headline result that
added to what was already a prospective project, got zero reaction or traction from this current
market. The company is Provenance Gold (PAU.cse), it trades on the Canadian CSE market, it’s
run by a small team with plenty of geology background and as we’re not hanging around today,
we’ll dive in with a quick overview of the three projects of interest on its books:
 Eldorado: Located in East Oregon, this is the one that’s piqued my interest in the company
and at the moment, its main development project. PAU has optioned it from Gold Royalty
Corp (GROY) and has the right to earn 100% of the property, with GROY retaining a 3% NSR.
The Eldorado zone has seen drilling and exploration for perhaps 40 years, it’s not been mined
at a formal level but it has seen informal/artisan placer mining activity from time to time.
 White Rock: Located in Elko County Nevada USA, White Rock comes with a good address and
is the PAU property that’s seen the most exploration and development work. Also optioned
from GROY and also picked over for the last four decades or so, White Rock has seen 100
holes drilled and has a 43-101 compliant technical report published on it. The company
considers its geology to be similar to Liberty Gold’s Black Pine, i.e. Carlin-style, sedimentary
hosted gold, and its near surface gold mineralization ranges around the 0.5 g/t gold level. The
plan is to develop it into an open pit bulk mining operation, which is fair enough.
 Silver Bow: The earliest stage of the three properties on the PAU books, this is a large
concession area in central Nevada USA and is outlined as an epithermal gold project with
several grassroots targets generated to date. No drilling of note at the moment, as the
company has been focusing its efforts on White Rock in 2021 and 2022 then Eldorado in 2022
and 2023.
White Rock is interesting and in a market that isn’t as depressed as the one we have today,
would arguably be enough to cover its current tiny market cap of C$8.35m all on its own. As for
Silver Bow that’s something for the future and may/may not become something, but it’s not of
our concern today. That leaves Eldorado and that project is why this report exists today. The
trail starts with the NR (2) that dropped on Tuesday, July 18th under this headline:
Provenance Hits Further High-Grade Gold at its Eldorado Project of 32 meters
Containing 4 g/t Gold within 137 Meters of 1.65 g/t Gold
As drills into open pit targets go, that’s a long intersect and a good average gold grade that also
2

includes a very high grade sweet spot. This is the second good assay from the project since the
current drill program began, as the first return came on July 6th with this headline (3):
Provenance Gold Hits High Grade Intercept at Eldorado Gold Project of 4.59 g/t Gold
over 23 Meters as Drilling Continues
Put the assay tables from those two NRs together and you get this:
That’s a good start, now for a rough outline on the project via three bullet points:
 It’s located in Oregon. That’s not a great thing, as Oregon is generally regarded as one of the
“difficult states” for permitting and eventual mine building in The USA. However, in this case
Eldorado is located in Malheur County in the East of Oregon neighbouring Idaho, the most
sparsely populated county in the State. It’s also more miner-friendly than most of the State
and has a long history of mining, at both formal and informal levels. For example, it hosts the
Grassy Mountain gold project being developed by Paramount Gold Nevada (PZG) (PZG.v) (4).
While I’d be the first to admit that the project under PZG (and Calico before it) has taken a
long time to get to the late-stage permitting point it finds itself today, it does show that mines
can be developed in the State and specifically, in Malheur County.
 As noted above, PAU.cse is optioning in on Eldorado from its owner, Gold Royalty Corp
(GROY). That’s not my favourite royaltyco (to say the least) but it does have a book of
grassroots projects and in the event it moves forward, PAY gets 100% bar that 3% NSR.
 Eladorado is known as a location for artisan and placer mining and is what attracted the team,
it believes that the shallow mineralization mined out by informal placer operations continues
below. We shouldn’t take ciggypack calculations too far (and we won’t today), but it’s fair to
mention that on considering the footprint of mineralization, the company’s assumptions of
continuation below surface and the type of grades that have typically been mined, it thinks
there may be up to 4m oz of gold here. It’s important not to place too much emphasis on that
interesting looking number at this point, but it gets a mention to give an idea of the scale and
size of the prize they are chasing over the longer-term.
As for the company and what it has been doing with it finances and structure, we’ll try to sum it
up as quickly as possible with these six Usual Suspect charts, starting with assets and liabilities:
PAU.cse: Assets, per qtr
5
4.5
4
3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
3
02q4 12q1 12q2 12q3 12q4 22q1 22q2 22q3 22q4 32q1
fixed PAU.cse: Liabilities per qtr
C$m other current 0.55
cash 0.5
0.45
0.4
0.35
0.3
0.25
0.2
0.15
0.1
0.05
0
source: company filings
02q4 12q1 12q2 12q3 12q4 22q1 22q2 22q3 22q4 32q1
C$m LT liab
current liab
source: company filings

The main takeaway from the above charts is the size; this company is a true tinycap. Total
assets sum less than C$3m as at the latest filing (1q23) and it’s difficult to imagine liabilities as
lower than the $100k PAU has shown since end 2021. In fact, the only set of numbers that are
worth extra consideration is the cash position:
PAU.cse: Cash treasury per qtr
4
430.0 84.0 982.0
118.0
155.0
611.1
467.0
894.0 683.0 301.0
1.2
1.1
1
0.9
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4 0.3 0.2
0.1
0
02q4 12q1 12q2 12q3 12q4 22q1 22q2 22q3 22q4 32q1
C$m
source: company filings
There has never been a ton of money held in treasury as even the peak in the above chart is
little more than C$1m. But as we know PAU has been drilling in 2q23 and at the end of 1q23,
treasury was down to just C$0.103 and it hasn’t run a financing recently it’s fair to assume the
company is now running on fumes. That’s an important point and we’ll come back to it later.
To give an idea of the cash burn (while not drilling), these two charts suffice:
C$m PAU.cse: Expenses breakdown C$m PAU.cse: losses before other items/Net Loss, per qtr
0.4 other 0.7 loss before other items
0.35 share comp 0.6 net loss
0.3 IR/sharehold comms 0.5
consult/mgmt fees
0.25
0.4
0.2
0.3
0.15
0.2
0.1
0.05 0.1
0 0
1q21 2q21 3q21 4q21 1q22 2q22 3q22 4q22 1q23 1q21 2q21 3q21 4q21 1q22 2q22 3q22 4q22 1q23
source: company filings source: company filings
As you’d expect from a company that can make $1m last a full year, expenses are tiny and the
only outliers are the two share incentive awards and they’re non-cash. As for the corporate
losses, I like the fact that even this tinycap is willing to make impairments on its mining assets
and in 4q22, it wrote down its work on a previously
held company and $500k came from assets. PAU.cse: Shares Out
The final chart today is shares out and it’s worth a
second look as for me it allays one of my latent
concerns about PAU. This company is quoted on the
CSE market, the least regulated market in Canada
(and that’s saying something) and home to some of
the sketchiest junior mining companies out there.
That’s not always the case and it’s always worth
considering each company on its own merits (e.g.
Snowline Gold started on the CSE), so it’s more a
case of by their fruits shall we know them and one of
the worst traits of the scummy junior is the ability and propensity to mine paper, rather than
rock. This doesn’t show at PAU and as we can see here, it’s kept its share structure reasonably
tight. We know that at some point in the near future it’s going to have to raise capital and it’s
not difficult to imagine another 10m share added to the pile and $1m or so entering treasury,
but if history is our guide PAU will not overspend and will make the most of any money raised.
And on the subject, the C-suite salary roster is also small.
5.34 5.34
2.35 0.16 0.16
5.47 5.97 5.97 5.97 5.97 5.97
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
02q3 02q4 12q1 12q2 12q3 12q4 22q1 22q2 22q3 22q4 32q1
C$m
source: company filings/IKN ests

Summing up and keeping things concise (said I would), in Provenance Gold (PAU.cse) we have
a small and neatly-run exploreco with an interesting project. The drill results have been good,
the promotion and market visibility has been poor, the location has a bad reputation but seems
workable, the company won’t be able to get much further without a new cash injection.
Discussion and conclusion
One of the reasons I like the set-up offered by PAU is that as things stand today, any bullish
case for the company has to fly in the face of conventional market wisdom (which verges on an
oxymoron in and of itself). These days, any given junor will be quickly told “the world has
changed” and they “need promotion” in order to get ahead in exploration, find funding, make
discoveries and get their blessed share price up. And I don’t think that’s true, quite the contrary
in fact; for me the world of finance and trading around junior mining companies has fallen into
some type of mass hypnosis. The cottage industry of hangers-on and superfluous spending has
always existed in the sector, of course, but the way in which it has exploded recently makes me
wonder what they’re putting in the water supply in Vancouver to make an entire group of
executives think this way. For me, all you really need to get ahead in exploration is a competent
team and a good project to work on, because if you find good rocks people will eventually
notice, no matter how much you spend on sundry G&A or third party social media awareness
campaigns. Now for sure, the team at PAU.cse probably expected more by way of reaction than
they got from the NR last week, indeed it’s worth noting the CEO comment in the May 10th NR
that announced the start of drilling at Eldorado (5):
“We believe this is a major catalyst for Provenance that will finally begin to give our
Company the recognition we believe it should have.”
After saying that, they cannot have been impressed with last week’s trading:
So let’s sort the wheat from the chaff on this issue as yes, for the reaction PAU wanted or even
expected, an exploreco needs to get the word out in some way or form to a wider audience and
that means via “the usual suspect” channels. The apparent PAU position of “build it and they
will come” is rather naïve, though it’s also all-too typical for small exploreco teams headed up
by geologists who love their rocks, assume others love them too and seem to think that all you
need to do is publish a couple of NRs and the world immediately pays attention. Not true, but
on the other hand that near-term point of view only goes so far. We watchers of this sector
have witnessed no end of early blooming explorecos that are hyped out of the gates by
compliant (and often expensive) third-party marketing and promotional pushes, only to flame
out and fade early. On the other hand, there are companies that get an early push and go
higher, then higher still, but they need to provide something that the majority of tinycaps
cannot; a decent and truly prospective project.
However, there’s always the old-fashioned Third Way, one that gets forgotten in our modern
and thrusting world, where explorecos become successful because they’ve got a hold of a good
project with real chances of becoming a mine. That looks possible here at PAU and it doesn’t
really matter that this company doesn’t have a clue about marketing or promoting itself to the
retail audience, or making a splash on social media. In fact, this current set-up may turn out to
be an advantage for us on the outside, quietly watching. We do of course need a positive
scenario to play out but, if it does, it may well look something like this:
5

 Despite the non-reaction to last week’s news, its NR likely caught the attention of serious
people in the mining world, the ones that don’t take their cues from Twitter but instead know
their geology and what it takes to put together a bulk open pit mine together (in fact, I know
it did because I’ve exchanged with at least three of them and two expressed some-or-other
level of interest in the project).
 We know that PAU is low on treasury and will need to finance sooner, rather than later, in
order to maintain working capital levels of treasury and fund further drilling. Due to the nature
of this tight market, that likely means we’re not going to get much price upside before the
financing is announced.
 Therefore, we can gauge the real interest its Eldorado project has garnered in among “real
mining people” when that financing is announced. Clues for us on the outside will include a)
the size of the placement (e.g. I guess they’d need around a million to continue, if they look
for and get substantially more it would mean something), b)its nature and sponsors, c) any
announced participants in the deal d) whether it closes successfully and in a timely manner,
etc.
 Its need to finance also means there’s no need to jump the gun and buy in now, there will be
plenty of time to pick the right price at which to enter, if at all.
The bottom line: Away from the world of hardcore geology, it’s only the OCD nerds like your
author who spend time reading junior exploreco NRs that would have spotted the decent
numbers generated by Provenance Gold (PAU.cse) at its Eldorado project in the last few weeks
and particularly last week’s NR, that was the right grade and the right thickness in the right
spot of a clearly prospective target with a historic gold resource and the potential to get big. It
bears repeating that even among the dedicated retail mining investment and speculation
community, most traders and players stick to what they know or what they are told and that
means companies such as PAU and assays such as last week’s 137m of 1.65 g/t Au that
includes a sweet 32m of 4.0 g/t Au flying under their radar. There’s also enough to like about
the corporate structure and for once, the fact the company is running on treasury fumes is an
advantage to us retail grunts, as it may well allow us insight into the real potential of Eldorado
when PAU moves to finance, something they’re going to need to do sooner rather than later.
As such, today’s fundies note is more of a
heads-up on a possible tinycap than any firm
trade plan or recommendation. There’s enough
to like to make this into a possible, but at this
point in time that’s as far as it goes. However, if
PAU can raise the cash it needs in good style, it
would be its own green flag and show that the
team’s high opinion of Eldorado is shared by
peers. In a world of flashy and noisy
promotions and “media content providers” who
sell the sizzle and not the steak, the low key
Provenance Gold may have found itself a truly
prospective project. Oaks grow from acorns,
after all.
Stocks to Follow
Metals prices trod water on the week, investors saw no reason to make strategic entries into
mining companies, the NEM quarter put a damper on Tier One names, traders cared more
about the summer sun than the markets. The result was a mildly negative week for mining
stocks and that filtered down into the juniors and also our Stocks to Follow list.
Out of the 21 names on the Stocks to Follow list at present, seven were week-over-week
6

winners (MAI.v, WEX.v, RIO.v, ALDE.v, LMS.v, SURG.v, GSHR.v), four remained unchanged
(QCCU.v, OCI.v, RUG.v, RUG.v) and the other ten were losers (ARG.to, SOLG.to, EQX, ABRA.v,
NCAU.v, MIRL.cse, MARI.to, LBC.v, CTGO, MENE.v) but overall, no real damage was done to
the ones that dropped, apart of course from Minera IRL (MIRL.cse down 66.7%) which dropped
to one penny on someone somewhere liquidating at any price. Cannot blame them. The other
big percentage loser was Libero Copper (LBC.v down 16.7%), down another penny but as we’d
like that as low as possible while on the Watch List, that’s not so bad. As for the winners, the
only double figure percentage winner was Surge Copper (SURG.v up 16.7%), which saw
bargain hunters move in now that drills are turning.
We’re still on 21 stocks in our table, one above the self-imposed maximum number of covered
stocks with 13 of them owned personally. That’s still a problem. Nine stocks are in the green
and eleven are in the red.
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$0.345 64.3% $0.75 first tgt, #1 idea
RECOMMENDED STOCKS
Amerigo Res ARG.to STR BUY C$1.36 12-Dec-21 C$1.55 14.0% Main Cu trade, top fundies
SolGold SOLG.to STR BUY C$0.265 19-Feb-23 C$0.28 5.7% Cu in Ecuador, M&A tgt
QC Copper&Gold QCCU.v BUY C$0.265 25-Apr-21 C$0.16 -39.6% delayed MRE now due end Q3
Equinox Gold EQX SPEC BUY U$4.46 30-May-23 U$5.08 13.9% Au leverage trade, trading well
Faraday Copper FDY.to BUY C$0.79 26-Mar-23 C$0.81 2.5% Latest Cu exploreco, IKN723
AbraSilver Res. ABRA.v BUY C$0.36 4-Dec-22 C$0.31 -13.9% added for last time Mar'23
Western Explor. WEX.v BUY C$1.87 9-Apr-23 C$1.30 -30.5% Au spec in NV USA
Newcore Gold NCAU.v SPEC BUY C$0.205 23-Oct-22 C$0.14 -31.7% Financing closed, bottom in
Rio2 Ltd. RIO.v BUY C$0.83 22-Apr-18 C$0.26 -68.7% Cheap on permit probs, appeal
SPECULATIVE TRADES
Orecap inv OCI.v SPEC BUY C$0.04 20-Nov-22 C$0.035 -12.5% corp revamp, new strategy
Aldebaran Res. ALDE.v SPEC BUY C$0.72 16-May-21 C$0.87 20.8% now in drill assay season
Minera IRL MIRL.cse avoid C$0.195 22-Jul-12 C$0.01 -94.9% run into ground byCEO, AVOID
A WATCHLIST OF POTENTIAL TRADES. NB: I DO NOT OWN
Marimaca Copper MARI.to WATCH C$3.65 26-May-23 C$4.00 9.6% Likely buy, want cheap entry
Latin Metals LMS.v WATCH C$0.15 11-Sep-22 C$0.14 -6.7% Peru&Arg prospect generator
Surge Copper SURG.v WATCH C$0.11 18-Jun-23 C$0.125 13.6% tinycap Cu in BC Canada
Libero Copper LBC.v WATCH C$0.065 2-Jul-23 C$0.05 -23.1% Watching for Arg drill permit
Rugby Resources RUG.v WATCH C$0.06 26-Mar-23 C$0.045 -33.3% tinycap Cu in Colombia
Goldshore Res GSHR.v WATCH C$0.165 26-Mar-23 C$0.155 -6.1% needs change of mgmt
Contango Ore CTGO WATCH U$23.25 2-Dec-22 U$26.50 14.0% Manh Choh asset backbone
LONG-TERM NON-MINING HOLD
Mene Inc. MENE.v adding C$0.63 6-Dec-20 C$0.37 -41.3% LT bet, adding slowly
CLOSED TRADES IN 2023 date closed close price
Altiplano Metals APN.v jan'23 C$0.31 17-Sep-21 C$0.17 -45.2% delayed and will dilute soon
Western Copper WRN.to mar'23 C$2.02 13-Nov-22 C$2.32 14.9% sold on reduced M&A prob.
Chesapeake Gold CKG.v may'23 C$3.07 20-Feb-22 C$1.75 -43.0% Closing on legal action news
Amerigo Res ARG.to may'23 C$1.36 12-Dec-21 C$1.48 8.8% sold 20% to raise cash
2015 to 2022 annual closed positions in appendices below, 2009 to 2014 closed positions in editions IKN553 or earlier
Now for notes on some of the covered companies:
Goldshore Resources (GSHR.v): MAY DROP FROM WATCH LIST. According to Oscar
Wilde, here is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked
about. After the fun and games of the week before last and its monumental own goal (see
7

IKN739 Market Watching) it was the calm after the storm and that’s the last thing this company
needs right now. GSHR flat-lined last week and as the
red ink in this ten-day chart shows, the reason is
market apathy.
The only way this project and company can regain
momentum and market interest is by a change at the
top and the removal of the people behind the series of
strategic errors that have brought GSHR to this point.
Until and unless CEO Richards “is retired”, there’s no
point in owning this and that’s how capitalism works.
This is mining, if you want a friend buy a dog. I’m still
in two minds about it, but may remove GSHR from the
current Watch List because without real change, it’s
difficult to imagine this company getting anywhere. I need to get the total number on the table
down to 20 somehow. I know the re-instatement of GSHR on the list in March was a welcome
development for some of you (I got the mails) so if those people or anyone else has strong
feelings on the subject, please drop me a line. I’m going to give myself another week to think
about it.
Contango ORE (CTGO): The expected share placement news finally arrived on Friday and
was timed to the closing bell. Here’s how the NR starts, check the link (6) for more:
“…today announced it has commenced an underwritten public offering (the “Offering”)
of shares of its common stock. All of the shares of common stock in the Offering are to
be sold by Contango. In addition, Contango intends to grant the underwriters in the
Offering, a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 15% of the shares of common
stock offered in the Offering. The Offering is subject to market conditions, and there
can be no assurance as to whether or when the Offering may be completed, or as to
the actual size or terms of the Offering.
The NR states that proceeds will be used to fund Manh Choh development, Lucky Shot
exploration and the catch-all “working capital requirements”, which covers everything but as the
former and latter are covered by the current financing deal, it’s fair to say that this raising is
about funding the exploration and development of Lucky Shot as and while Manh Choh gets
built by majority JV partner and operator, Kinross. I pinged company head honcho Rick van
Alphabet on receipt of the news to ask on the likely sizing of the deal, as he’d previously
mentioned a figure of around U$10m. He didn’t give away much in his reply, but did elaborate
on a longer-term vision for CTGO and I got the feeling they’d be looking for more than U$10m
in this raising. It now all depends on the pricing and interest, so this is a tape to watch closely
tomorrow Monday morning.
Equinox Gold (EQX): Save the date for the EQX 2q23
earnings report, as on Wednesday August 2nd post close
we get the documents, then the Conference Call
happens at the bright and early hour of 7am ET the next
morning August 3rd, which gets it all done before the
markets open.
As for trading, EQX had a soft week and is back at the
market median, with a particular lack of love showing on
Friday.
Minera Alamos (MAI.v): Less disappointing:
8

Like week I had a bit of a kvetch because MAI hadn’t held onto early week gains the same way
as its peers, this week is a better situation with MAI out-performing GDX/J and returning a
decent dose of catch-up since last weekend. So after a wretched May and June, MAI seems to
have turned a corner this month. More, please.
Faraday Copper (FDY.to): On Wednesday afternoon, FDY published another one of its (well-
producer in-house) corporate videos, this time a five minute segment featuring Zach Allwright,
VP Projects & Evaluations at FDY, who tackled questions arising from the recently published
PEA. Go here (7) to check it out yourself but for me it was interesting enough to do the
following transcript on two of the four subjects tackled by Mr. Allwright, as they give the
company position on the main criticisms we’ve leveled at the PEA and its subsequent fall-out:
What are the opportunities at Copper Creek going forward?
The PEA is really the start of our journey. For us it’s a foundation on which we can
continue to add value and over the next 18 months or two years and through both the
drill bit and technical assessments we have a strategy of adding value to this asset.
The first one being including the phase two drilling that was recently completed into the
resource and what we expect from that is increasing the high grade portions of the
open pit and expanding the inventory of the open pit. Secondly is what we call the Gold
Program. We know there is a gold occurrence through the resource and predominantly
in the open pit domain specifically in certain breccias. The gold program we are
running now is set to quantify the amount of gold in the deposit and hopefully start to
communicate that part of our story moving forward.
Thirdly the phase three drilling which is proposed for Q4 this year. It’s going to embark
on a 20,000m program. Again it’s looking within the resource, but also looking at new
discoveries outside of the current resource. And last but definitely not least is speaking
to the scalability element of our story. We know that the underground can produce well
above 40,000 kilotonnes per day, that is the outcome of our geotec assessment. And
we know that through adding additional resource to the open pit we can target a higher
throughput for the open pit and marry that with a life of mine at a higher throughput
than is proposed in the PEA. So the accumulation of those value additions, we are
hoping to be able to communicate to our shareholders in the coming months and
years.
What feedback have to received on the PEA so far?
The feedback we’ve received on the PEA so far and this is after quite an extensive
marketing through Europe and North America and engaging with our analysts is really
been around the theme of quality. That’s a story that really came through as we
published our PEA. There were really two elements to the quality that were recognized,
the first one being around the robust nature of the costing that we used, we’ve gone
ahead and we’ve recognized we’re in a high inflationary environment, so with that
we’ve brought in what we’ve called an EPC or EPCM style of cost modeling, one that
can stand up to the inflationary environment that we’re in. And secondly it’s around the
mine design: So the quality of the mine design, what is typically done in a spreadsheet
for a PEA, we’ve taken through to a dynamic mine-planning package, so every bench
of the open pit has been designed and scheduled, every metre of the underground has
been designed and carried forward for a full dynamic mine plan, those have been
integrated and have essentially formed a tool we can use as we start to develop the
asset and advance technical studies.
9

So yes, FDY has taken the “glass half full” position and framed the information in a positive
light, but it’s clear the company has been taking some flak about the subdued nature of the
PEA economics as well as the price reception, as we noted only last weekend. And the video
Q&A format does a good job in reminding people that the PEA was only ever going to be a
“snapshot in time” and that there are plenty of bonuses expected to project scale and
economics in the pipeline. I continue to like this exploreco and its videos on YouTube are a
great shop window into the way it’s conducting its business with integrity.
Surge Copper (SURG.v): This is what speculative copper stocks are supposed to do, up
16.7% on somewhat improved volume. That looks like bargain hunters moving in now that
drills are turning, so I can only applaud those less cowardly than I who bought the very bottom.
AbraSilver (ABRA.v): Glass half full or glass half empty. Every fundies sinew in my body tells
me ABRA is woefully undervalued at anything under 40c, especially with silver now nudging the
U$25/oz line.
Western Exploration (WEX.v): We’ve mentioned the unduly slow start this trade has had
since its IPO on a couple of recent occasions and that’s
still true, but there is change in the air now and for three
reasons:
1) The selling has stopped. For sure I would prefer
to see a rebound on volume instead of the
bits’n’bobs trading we’ve witnessed in July, but
the $1.30 finish this week is certainly healthier
and while the stock hasn’t attracted much
speculative attention yet, at least the dedicated
seller has had enough.
2) Newsflow is about to begin. The delay has been
all about the delay in permitting its initial drill
program and we understand that is now either
solved or very close to a solution. We should get a green light announcement on the
drilling this coming week.
3) The company is active. Despite the delay to drilling, we understand management has
been actively trying to improve the concession area with a specific focus on the zone
they don’t currently control between the Saddle, Wood Gulch and Gravel Creek targets.
They own the area they’re now calling “The Gap” but there’s another claim contingent
and owned by Barrick (no less). The
parties are in talks to consolidate the
concession area, as WEX believe it may
host the continuation of the Wood Gulch
open pit oxide mineralization.
It’s been slightly painful to sit and do nothing
while waiting for news and a price bottom, but
here we are and we now have both in the very
near term, it seems. From here we can let WEX
get on with the reasons why we liked the stock in
the first place and those of you who have sat out
until now and are considering a trade have better
timing and the potential of a cheaper entry than
your author.
Time to drill baby drill, I’ll be watching the wires
this coming week for a WEX NR.
10

Minera IRL (MIRL.cse): It’s been on AVOID on the list for many moons and we’ve
documented the stock price drop due to its poor
results for the same amount of time. The internal
disputes, the exit of officers, the deterioration of
operating results at Corihuarmi and, of course, the
approaching limit date on the Ollachea loan
repayment that is set to see MIRL lose its prize
asset. Last week, the stock slide accelerated
(right). The stock doesn’t trade with a liquid size
every day, but the last three months or so have
seen days in which large lumps have hit the bid
and at some point last week, the seller(s) decided
they weren’t going to try and fish for 2c or 3c
prices any longer. The stock dropped to a penny
and stayed there and it’s the best guess of this
desk that the exit of the CFO last month is the tipping point.
SolGold (SOLG.to) (SOLG.L): Interesting newsflow from SOLG last week, which included a
live webinar that allowed company CEO Scott Caldwell to explain how the company sees
developments. First the news and after another minor NR that announced the extension of its
concession agreement to 25 years (renewable), the main news hit on Wednesday July 19th (8):
SolGold PLC Announces Exploitation Agreement with Government of Ecuador
In other words, the company has been though the required process for any mining project that
wants to be developed into a mine in Ecuador and reached its own, tailor-made stability
agreement with the national government. Mirador did this, Lundin Gold at Fruta del Norte did
this and now SolGold at Cascabel has achieved this important step and as noted, each
agreement is different and depends on the project and company. In the case of SOLG, there
are three main stipulations that include $75m of forward royalty payments (so that local
communities benefit early from the mine, in much the same way as they did around Fruta del
Norte) and there’s also a pledge to apply the upcoming 20% corporate tax rate, instead fo the
current 25%. But the one that matters is this:
SolGold plc, through its wholly owned subsidiary in Ecuador, Exploraciones
Novomining S.A. ("Mining Concessionaire"), has negotiated the right to develop the
Cascabel Project and produce copper, gold, and silver from the contract area for 33
years, which may be renewed.
That is a big thing and means SOLG has a legally binding deal on working Cascabel that any
future government must honour. The next morning we got the webinar from SOLG as
mentioned in IKJN739 last weekend and the timing of the slot became clear. It’s good
presentation to watch (find it here (9) and CEO Caldwell walked us through the deal, then
answered all questions correctly and professionally, but he wasn’t about to give away company
strategy and didn’t go into any detail about potential dealflow.
One other matter that caught this desk’s attention from the webinar are the efforts SOLG under
Caldwell to reduce cash burn are paying off. He came in with the remit and has been working
hard to get its notoriously rapid cash burn under control and while he promised more details
from the YE financials (dated June 30th) he mentioned that burn was down and the near-term
goal is to well below U$3m a month, corporate-wide. That the company isn’t currently drilling is
a big help toward that, which in itself is another reminder of the goal to find a buyer in 2023
(and let them do the drilling). But the main event was the stability deal with Ecuador and later
in the week, the news made the international bizwires such as here, from Reuters (10):
Ecuador, SolGold seal deal to launch nearly $5 billion mining project
The agreement, which the ministry said was signed on Wednesday, commits SolGold
(SOLG.L) to invest $4.882 billion during Cascabel's useful life, according to the
ministry's statement.
The agreement with SolGold will "position Ecuador as an important producer and
11

copper exporter," said Minister Fernando Santos, noting that the project has been
awarded all necessary environmental and water permits.
Initial mineral reserves at Cascabel are estimated at 3.3 million metric tons of copper,
9.4 million ounces of gold and 30 million ounces of silver, according to company data.
Construction of the mine is seen starting in 2025, with operations kicking off in 2030,
the ministry added.
I expect SOLG will begin to rally when the market realizes the gravity of last week’s agreement,
it has removed a potential stumbling block to the eventual M&A outcome we all expect. Once
this election is out of the way and the world decides that Luisa González has got the job, I think
SOLG will be firmly in play.
Libero Copper (LBC.v): Aside the 1c drop in the share price, bringing it down to 5c and close
to the other Ian Slater junior disaster, Zacapa Resources (ZACA.v, now 4c), there are two
things to report:
1) Company CEO Ian Harris last week accepted the CEO job at Colombia based junior Outcrop
Silver (OCG.v) (11) but there has been no news on whether he’s leaving LBC. Even though
these companies are both microcap explorecos, one has to wonder how one person can
perform the role of CEO at two separate companies. It’s worth noting that Ian Harris lives in
Colombia and may not be so keen on the way LBC has shifted its attention away from Mocoa in
Colombia and toward Esperanza in Argentina. We should also note that Ian Slater is Chair of
OCG.v.
2) On the subject of Mocoa, this report surfaced in Colombian generalist biznews medium
‘Semana’ last Wednesday featured an interview with the Mayor of the local town of Mocoa (12)
which includes some clear statements on the chances of the project getting its permits. He
references the court ruling from September 30th last year that ratified the “020 Agreement” that
allows local municipalities to prohibit mining activity on the grounds of environmental protection
and how Mocoa has decided not to allow the Mocoa project to go ahead. Example quotes
(translated):
“We do not want the city to become a mining city because we understand the
environmental, social and economic consequences of what that can bring to our
municipality. The 020 Agreement has not been overturned. At the moment, (our)
Development Plan decree that states Mocoa id a tourist city is valid and that we must
not allow mining under any circumstances. We know that the exploration process (at
Mocoa) is advancing but the citizenry, as per today, has said that this is not what they
want for Mocoa.”
“…we want Mocoa to be a capital of life and of nature, of fauna and biodiversity, we
want to make it into a tourist power.”
None of this comes as a surprise to this desk, as we
are only interested in LBC for its permitting
opportunity in Argentina. As that is also best classed
as “likely, not certain, don’t know exactly when” the
strategy is to leave it on the Watch List and if those
drill permits for Esperanza arrive, buy some shares.
However, one glance at the annual chart (right) will
remind you there’s no need to try catching a falling
knife. Waiting for the right moment is far wiser.
The Copper Basket
After twenty-nine weeks of 2023, The Copper Basket shows a loss of 5.50% to level stakes:
12

company ticker price 1/1/23 Shares out Market Cap current pps gain/loss%
1 Solaris Res SLS.to 6.44 146.599 828.28 5.65 -12.3%
2 Marimaca Cop MARI.to 3.22 88.226 352.90 4.00 24.2%
3 Western Copper WRN.to 2.41 151.597 321.39 2.12 -12.0%
4 Arizona Sonoran ASCU.to 1.92 105.96 175.89 1.66 -13.5%
5 Hot Chili HCH.v 0.78 119.455 155.29 1.30 66.7%
6 Oroco Res OCO.v 0.91 213.438 149.41 0.70 -23.1%
7 Faraday Copper FDY.to 0.54 175.2 141.91 0.81 50.0%
8 Aldebaran Res. ALDE.v 0.78 153.96 133.95 0.87 11.5%
9 Regulus Res. REG.v 1.10 124.509 105.83 0.85 -22.7%
10 Pan Global Res PGZ.v 0.46 212.145 72.13 0.34 -26.1%
11 Kodiak Copper KDK.v 1.12 56.2 40.46 0.72 -35.7%
12 QC Copper QCCU.v 0.165 162.815 26.05 0.16 -3.0%
13 Element 29 Res ECU.v 0.16 86.966 14.78 0.17 6.3%
14 Libero Copper LBC.v 0.155 93.869 4.69 0.05 -67.7%
15 Atacama Copper ACOP.v 0.16 35.94 4.31 0.12 -25.0%
NB: All stocks in CAD$ Portfolio avg -5.50%
The Copper Basket had a negative week, though it was hardly an abject disaster even with a
ratio of ten losers to just two winners (plus three
The Copper Basket 2023, weekly evolution
UNCH) looks bad at first sight. However, most of 12%
10%
the losers (SLS.to, WRN.to, MARI.to, OCO.v, 8%
ASCU.v, HCH.v, PGZ.v, REG.v, KDK.v, LBC.v) were 6%
4%
small drops and only Libero Copper (LBC.v down 2%
16.7%) saw a double figure drop. The two 0%
-2%
winners (ALDE.v, ECU.v) were both up exactly one -4%
-6%
Canadian cent, that leaves three unchanged
-8%
stocks (FDY.to, QCCU.v, ACOP.v) to report. And -10%
that’s that.
As for copper-the-metal, this chart takes in most
of June and all of July to date to show that while not setting the world on fire, copper held its
own last week and traded consistently above the U$3.80/lb level. The move up and above
U$3.90/lb we saw the week before last
couldn’t hold, there doesn’t seem to be
buying interest at that price and the
suspicion is that we’re now fully
becalmed in the middle of summer
Doldrums. Indeed, our carefully curated
weekly copper macro review notices that
theme and runs further. It also sees the
return of The IKN Weekly’s #1
mancrush, Andy Home of Reuters, via
this op-ed published on Tuesday (13)
entitled “Funds don't buy into Doctor
Copper's green credentials”, which
reports on, yes you guessed it, the way
funds aren’t buying into copper. Here’s a
sample of the script toward the end of
the note as Home pulls the ideas together and synthesizes a working theory as to why copper
isn’t flying, despite the well-understood supply deficit in the pipeline, but as always you’ll do
well not to stop at this sample and go read the whole thing, as Andy Home tends to cover
several angles of his subjects in a single publication.
The overall impression is of money managers staying on the sidelines of the copper
market, reluctant to short the market too heavily due to low stocks but equally loathe to
13
ts1naJ ht8naJ ht51 dn22 ht92 ht5bef ht21 ht91 ht62 ht5raM ht21 ht91 ht62 dn2rpA ht9 ht61 dr32 ht03 ht7yam ht41 ts12 ht82 ht4nuj ht11 ht81 ht52 dn2yluj ht9 ht61 dr32
source: IKN calcs

commit to copper's upside.
In part this is down to a broader fund exit from the commodities sector with retail and
institutional assets under management declining by 11% in the first half of the year,
according to Citi.
Returns from both the energy and metals sectors have been negative, weighing on
commodity basket investments and encouraging funds to seek out better rewards in
global equity markets.
Passive commodity indices remain a key entry point for many bigger fund players with
trickle-down impact on all the individual component markets such as copper.
This year's outflow of money from the broader sector is one reason why investor
positioning in copper is so light.
But Doctor Copper's historic relationship with global manufacturing activity, currently
weak just about everywhere, also seems to have discouraged any market-specific
investment flows.
That’s a reasonable theory and makes sense, considering what we’ve witnessed. With buyers
staying away and uninterested in bidding copper up to a 4-handle, but with deep depletion in
world stocks and end user demand beating expectations, there’s an uneasy equilibrium
between bears and bulls that’s keeping copper from moving much in either direction. That, in
turn, deters the speculative entry of larger generalist money seeking quick alpha (they seem to
be gathering around the Big Tech). Until such time that copper makes a fundamentals-driven
move higher (or lower, but I’m betting it’s higher) it’s unlikely to entice bigger money into the
arena, the type that looks for a quick profit.
We move to our regular weekly look at copper inventories, data from Chile’s Cochilco:
 Another quiet week for copper stock movements, normal for this point in the annual
cycle. There was a very small aggregate drop in the world three official stocks system
of 322 metric tonnes (mt) of copper last week, with Friday closing at 176,652mt. It’s
the same message as last weekend, still extremely tight, but with no substantive
change in the scenario. I get the feeling this is the next six weeks or so.
 The Shanghai SHFE had added stock for three weeks, this week saw a drawdown of
4,792mt to close at 77,898mt.
LME: 12 months of Cu tonnage under cancelled warrant
 The reverse in LME stocks, which 100000
90000
have been dropping sharply in June 80000
and July but this week added 70000
60000
2,725mt to close at 59,900mt. So 50000
stocks back off from last weekend’s 40000
30000
new historic low, however 20000
10000
cancelled warrants are back down
0
to background minimum levels. Not
much happening.
 Another notable addition to Comex
stocks, it’s becoming quite the habit. This week saw a net entry of 1,745mt Cu to bring
its inventory total to 38,854mt.
The dedicated SHFE charts show little change in the pattern, those awaiting stock fireworks will
probably have to wait until Q4.
14
ht42 ht8 dn22 ht5nuj ht91 dr3yluj ht71 ts13 ht41 ht82 ht11 ht52 ht9 dr32 ht6von ht02 ht4ced ht81 3202
naJ
ht51 02ts1naJ ht21 ht62 ht21 ht62 ht9 dr32 ht7yaM ts12 ht4nuJ ht81 dn2luJ ht61
mt Cu
source: LME/Cochilco
Shanghai Futures Exchange Warehouse Stocks, 2014 to date
400000
350000
300000
250000
200000
150000
100000
50000
0
31'13ceD dr32 ht51 ht7 ht03 dn22 ht71 ht9 ts1von ht42 ht71 ht01 dn2tcO 7102ts1naJ ht62 ht81 ht01 dr3ced ht52 102ht72rpa ht91 ht11 9102
dr3bef
102ht82rpa ts12 ht31 0202ht5naj 202ht92ram ts12 ht31 0202ht6ced ht82 dr32 ht51 ht7 202ht03naj ht42 ht71 ht9 3202
naJ
ht62 ht81
Mt Cu
|
source: Cochilco

SHFE copper inventory levels, 2018 to 2023
400000
350000
300000
250000
200000
150000
100000
50000
0
15
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 01 11 21 31 41 51 61 71 81 91 02 12 22 32 42 52 62 72 82 92 03 13 23 33 43 53 63 73 83 93 04 14 24 34 44 54 64 74 84 94 05 15 25
MT Cu 2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
source: Cochilco data
Now for notes on a couple of basket stocks.
Hot Chili (HCH.v): It’s still definitely “look not touch” for me, despite its undoubted popularity
in the last couple of weeks. The price driver of HCH is
Australia and that benefited from the Canada Friday
trading when opening Monday Australian time, but in
the end the stock couldn’t hold on to that final surge we
noted last weekend on the Rick Rule reco (IKN739) and
on the week, finished down 6.5%. The other thing to
note is how volume tailed off last week in its main
Australian ticker, after three strong weeks on the back
of its PEA and then that timely pop in copper prices that
HCH rode well.
Oroco Resources (OCO.v): Our last mention of OCO
was two editions ago in IKN738 dated July 9th and I
don’t want to scratch this itch every week, so left out the news that Cantor Fitzgerald had
initiated coverage on the stock on July 10th
With a buy rating and a C$1.50 target, which is fair enough if the copper sector begins to get a
tailwind. If I hasd to pick one datapoint from the report it would by CF’s estimate of U$1.7Bn
for the upcoming PEA, expected at some point between now and the end of the year. That puts
the current market cap at a tiny 6.5% NPV and there’s room for that to double without
sweating if the market begins to like copper explorecos again, so the price target is reasonable
as long as we’re in a bullish environment for these type of stocks. And right now, we’re not.
The Producer Basket
After 29 weeks of 2023, the Producer Basket shows a gain of 8.44% to level stakes:
company ticker price 1/1/23 Shares out MktCap(U$Bn) current pps gain/loss%
1 Newmont NEM 47.20 799 34.52 43.21 -8.5%
2 Barrick GOLD 17.18 1761.54 30.65 17.40 1.3%
3 Agnico Eagle AEM 51.99 488.9 25.47 52.09 0.2%
4 Wheaton PM WPM 39.08 451.963 19.97 44.19 13.1%
5 Kinross Gold KGC 4.09 1256.1 6.32 5.03 23.0%
6 Alamos Gold AGI 10.11 393.1 4.88 12.42 22.8%
7 B2Gold BTG 3.57 1074.567 3.88 3.61 1.1%
8 Hecla Mining GFI 5.56 610.491 3.57 5.84 5.0%
9 Eldorado Gold EGO 8.36 185.73 2.04 10.98 31.3%
10 Wesdome Gold WDOFF 5.53 147.526 0.77 5.25 -5.1%
All prices and stock quotes in U$ Port. avg 8.44%

The basket lost 1.56% on the week, which was slightly better than the GDX benchmark and as
a result, we’re now trailing by 1.43%. We saw nine losers and just one winner, so a cheer for
Barrick Gold (GOLD up 0.3%) while boos ring out for the week’s biggest loser, Newmont (NEM
down 3.9%). More on both of those below, meanwhile the other eight on our list were smaller
losers and that tells you that the market was in neutral gear, with the funds flow in and out of
the ETFs marking the tempo. Overall, a week that won’t be remembered by the metals and
mining market.
Newmont (NEM): The honeymoon is over. We noted a couple of weeks ago how NEM had
been playing catch-up to the sector now that the Newcrest deal has been unofficially endorsed.
The gap started with the beginning of the
NEM/NCM fun in mid-March and grew quickly,
but if we zoom in on the last three months only
we can see that once the deal had been given
the non-binding handshake, NEM started to
recover and until last Wednesday, traded back
with the GDX benchmark. Then NEM dropped
its 2q23 financials (14) and that was the main
reason GDX dropped the way it did last week.
It’s also the likely reason for Barrick’s (GOLD)
relative strength, as larger fund money
abandoned NEM and its high cost to move to
money’s second choice for gold exposure.
With a company such as NEM, we can run the
numbers every which way and we’re not doing that, instead we focus on the main source of
complaint about last week’s financials:
NEM: AISC per qtr
16
319 529 819 009 388 149 139 349 879 598 548 709 6101 789 649 0301 7901 0201 3401 9301 5301 0211 6501 6511 9911 1721 5121
6731 2741
1600
1400
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
0
61q2 61q3 61q4 71q1 71q2 71q3 71q4 81q1 81q2 81q3 81q4 91q1 91q2 91q3 91q4 02q1 02q2 02q3 02q4 12q1 12q2 12q3 12q4 22q1 22q2 22q3 22q4 32q1 32q2
The 2023 Producer Basket: Weekly performance and
comparative to GDX control
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
-5%
-10%
U$/oz
source: company filings
If you recall, the market kvetched over NEM’s high 1q23 AISC of U$1,376/oz, so imagine the
reception that a number almost U$100/oz higher than that got last week. Another reason NEM
ts1naJ ht8naJ ht51 dn22 ht92 ht5bef ht21 ht91 ht62 ht5raM ht21 ht91 ht62 dn2rpA ht9 ht61 dr32 ht03 ht7yam ht41 ts12 ht82 ht4nuj ht11 ht81 ht52 dn2yluj ht9 ht61 dr32
The 2023 Producer Basket: Percentage difference
between GDX benchmark & basket (negative = IKN ahead)
4.0%
ikn 3.5%
gdx control 3.0%
2.5%
2.0%
1.5%
1.0%
0.5%
0.0%
source: NYSE, IKN calcs ts1naJ ht8naJ ht51 dn22 ht92 ht5bef ht21 ht91 ht62 ht5raM ht21 ht91 ht62 dn2rpA ht9 ht61 dr32 ht03 ht7yam ht41 ts12 ht82 ht4nuj ht11 ht81 ht52 dn2yluj ht9 ht61 dr32
source: IKN calcs, NYSE data

got hit and Barrick benefited is that once you scratch the surface, the high cost units at NEM
are the ones it doesn’t share with GOLD, In fact, its largest sources of gold production such as
the JV Nevada Gold Mines (AISC U$1,388/oz) and its wholly-owned Boddington (U$966/oz)
came in okay, it’s the smaller operations at Musselwhite (U$2,254/oz), Eleonore (U$2,213/oz).
Merian (U$2,010/oz) and Cerro Negro (U$1,924/oz) that did the damage.
The GDX got pulled down in two place by these numbers, as Newcrest is another of its largest
weighed companies and these days, whatever happens to NEM happens to NCM. The cynical
end of the peanut gallery looked on NEM’s 2q23 numbers and said that there’s no wonder it
was so keen on consummating this merger, the way its own assets were performing.
The TinyCaps List
After 29 weeks of 2023, the TinyCaps show a gain of 20.81% to level stakes:
company ticker price 1/1/23 Shares out Mkt Cap current pps gain/loss%
Aurelius Min AUL.v 0.07 49.787 1.00 0.02 -71.4%
Coast Copper COCO.v 0.045 64.001 2.88 0.045 0.0%
District Metals DMX.v 0.075 86.891 9.99 0.115 53.3%
Latin Metals LMS.v 0.13 69.962 9.79 0.14 7.7%
Manitou Gold MTU.v 0.02 344.568 18.95 0.055 175.0%
Nine Mile Metals NINE.cse 0.29 57.025 5.99 0.105 -63.8%
Palamina Corp PA.v 0.08 65.285 10.45 0.16 100.0%
Precipitate Gold PRG.v 0.075 130.367 9.78 0.075 0.0%
South Star STS.v 0.55 32.755 18.67 0.57 3.6%
Viva Gold VAU.v 0.14 106.721 16.01 0.15 7.1%
Prices in CAD$, data from TSXV basket avg 20.81%
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.
 Likelihood of meaningful newsflow in 2023. 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.
A winning week for our basket average, back over +20% thanks to its four winners (LMS.v,
PA.v, PRG.v, STS.v) and three unchanged stocks
TinyCaps, 2023 weekly tracker
(AUL.v, COCO.v, MTU.v) out-doing the three losers 50%
(DMX.v, NINE.cse, VAU.v). But it was mostly about the 45%
40%
rocket move in Palamina Corp (PA.v up 77.8%) on a 35%
special situations news event. 30%
25%
20%
Palamina Corp (PA.v): PA took a big jump on news 15%
10%
that its sister company Winshear (WINS.v), a company 5%
we featured in The TinyCaps basket last year, is now 0%
apparently very close to getting a favourable ruling on it
appeals case against the country of Tanzania at the
ICSID/CIADI international tribunal. Last week another
company involved in the same type of case against Tanzania, Indiana Resources, received its
binding verdict from ICSID and was awarded U$109.5m plus legal costs of U$3.9m. the case
17
ts1naJ ht8naJ ht51 dn22 ht92 ht5bef ht21 ht91 ht62 ht5raM ht21 ht91 ht62 dn2rpA ht9 ht61 dr32 ht03 ht7yam ht41 ts12 ht82 ht4nuj ht11 ht81 ht52 dn2yluj ht9 ht61 dr32
source: IKN calcs, TSX data

Winshear brought against Tanzania is very similar, with the same legal team and on the same
grounds and they claim virtually the same amount of money. The only differences are 1) the
Winshear sunk costs in Tanzania of around U$32m are less than the U$60m Indiana Resources
sunk into the country, so its award may be less as a result 2), its case is around 2 weeks behind
that of Indiana Resources on the ICSID legal timeline and 3) the judging panel is different.
WINS will have to pay a large win fee to its legal team, but the expectation now is that they will
be awarded and will eventually receive from Tanzania a multi-million dollar windfall. This would
be enough to fund both WINS and Palamina going forward and leave plenty in their respective
treasuries for new projects, hence the share price rise was saw last week.
Precipitate Gold (PRG.v): We haven’t mentioned this tinycap very much this year, mainly
because it’s done very little in the first two quarters. That shows in its 2q23 financials as filed to
SEDAR on Wednesday evening and to prove it, here’s a screenshot of the business end of its
balance sheet:
Currents have dropped by nigh on a million (C$) but there’s still C$5.8m left in treasury, or
around 4.4c/share. That’s due to the sale of part of its Pueblo Grande project land to neighbour
Barrick (owners of the Pueblo Viejo mine next door) for U$5m (C$6.48m) this time last year
and since then, PRG has been sitting on its nest egg of cash though as a look at the liabilities
shows, it does still owe C$1.65m in taxes on that deal.
A cursory look at the P+L shows that PRG has slowed its cash burn in the current financial year
and really slowed it in the last quarter, they’ve battened down the hatches and are preserving
capital, presumably for drill program on its Newfoundland project land at some point but maybe
simply because market conditions are poor and the company has gone into deep freeze mode.
It’s hardly the most inspiring look and I see no reason to buy shares until they do something,
but to be fair PRG is probably playing the long game and doing its best to keep that cash pile
intact while Barrick moves to develop Pueblo Grande (has to deliver a Pre-Feas by 2026). Thje
burn of just over C$300k for the last quarter is a good start on that.
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 are strictly neutral.
18

Regional politics
Peru: Mostly harmless
In the Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy, when Arhtur Dent is first introduced to the epymous
book by his friend Ford Prefect he’s keen to look up what the encyclopedia has to say about his
own home planet, Earth. He’s suitably disappointed when he scrolls through and finds just one
words next the entry for our world: Harmless.
“What? Harmless! Is that all it’s got to say? Harmless! One word!’ Ford shrugged.
‘Well, there are a hundred billion stars in the Galaxy, and only a limited amount of
space in the book’s microprocessors,’ he said, ‘and no one knew much about the
Earth, of course.’ ‘Well, for God’s sake I hope you managed to rectify that a bit.’ ‘Oh
yes, well I managed to transmit a new entry off to the editor. He had to trim it a bit, but
it’s still an improvement.’ ‘And what does it say now?’ asked Arthur. ‘Mostly harmless,”
admitted Ford with a slightly embarrassed cough.
Last weekend in our preview to Peru’s national level protests “Peru gears up for “The Third
Taking of Lima””, we said that we didn’t expect an event that would make the type of
international headlines that the widespread protests and violence we saw in December and
January at the time of the “auto-coup” by then-President Pedro Castillo and his subsequent
ouster. Also on our focus subject of… “…mining, the effects of these upcoming protests are
likely to be minimal.”
That’s basically how things turned out. The protest was noisy and brought the centre of Lima to
a standstill on the day and into the evening, we got some minor skirmishes with the forces of
order and the requisite photos of teargas canisters flying and police lines behind Perspex
shields. Further out in the provinces of Lima, there were plenty of protest marches and most of
them went off without drama, with just a few isolated incidents of violence or civil disorder.
Then Peru went back to normal the next day, again barring one or two isolated exceptions.
Ecuador: The political use of contentious projects
First the events, then some thoughts on what we’re seeing and what to expect by way of
mining issues during and after the current Presidential election. On the back of last week’s note
“Ecuador: Anti-mining protest turns violent” regarding the events in the communities next to
the Curipamba project owned by the Adventus Mining (ADZN.v) / Salazar Resources (SRL.v) JV,
this week the indigenous pressure group CONAIE along with the National Anti-Mining Front
(Frente Nacional Antiminero) held a joint press conference from the site of the disturbances in
the nearby toan of Las Naves (15)(16)(17). They explained that the violence broke out when
the national government tried to install an environmental consultancy desk in the town and that
the situation was a set-up, done to comply with the letter of an executive law recently passed
by outgoing President Guillermo Lasso, “Decree 754”, which they demand be closed down
immediately. Here’s a translation of the bit that matters from this EFE report (18):
In a press conference this Friday in Las Naves, located in the Andean province of
Bolívar, Luis Corral, representative of the National Anti-Mining Front said that the
population was facing State-sponsored violence in order to adhere to “an illegal,
unconstitutional, back-handed and militarized consultancy process.”
Corral accused the government of right wing President Guillermo Lasso of taking
advantage of the period in which he is allowed extraordinary legal powers via
government decrees to push forward permitting processes at various large-scale
mining projects.
“Due to this, we are in an emergency situation”, said the activist, whose group has
presented a constitutional legal action against Decree 754 that regulates this type of
consultancy, considered underhand and “Express”.
As well as the ADZN.v/SRL.v Curipamba/El Domo project in that locality, the press conference
also pointed media attention to the La Plata project being developed by Atico Mining (ATC.v),
where last week we saw the same type of attempt to stage an environmental workshop that
would comply with the letter of Decree 754 and allow Atico to obtain its permits (19). Again, to
the outsider looking in it has to be said that the local opposition has a point and the way in
which these sudden and rather superficial looking environmental workshop days have been set
19

up, all with army columns present to (attempt to) keep the peace, smack of a President trying
to ram through permits against the will of local communities. If you want to read the entire
communiqué from the press conference last week, find it here (20) and you’ll note that’s a very
left wing web and news site. It’s tough to find these things on normal Ecuador media channels
(that tend to be right wing and nearly always anti-CONAIE/indigenous).
To wrap up, some thoughts on the way mining is becoming a significant factor in this
presidential election campaign. First note that CONAIE’s leader, Leonidas Iza, last week
underscored that neither his group or its political arm, the Pachakutik party with its
congressional seats presence, is supporting any of the presidential candidates in official way.
This comment is because Pachakutik congress members are supporting the campaign of Yaku
Pérez in the election and that’s because of a split and a bit of a power struggle inside CONAIE.
We can go further on this subject if you want (mail me with questions if you like) but the
upshot is that Yaku Pérez isn’t going to get the type of support he was looking for, instead he’ll
get a patchwork of semi-official support from some of indigenous groups and political figures
inside CONAIE.
Second, please note the big difference in CONAIE’s position regarding projects such as
Curipamba/El Domo and Atico’s La Plata, compared to the lack of comments they aim toward
the SolGold Cascabel project even as SOLG is a awarded a high-profile stability agreement with
the national government last week. The reason is simple; Leonidas Iza isn’t stupid and he’s
going to go after the polemic and controversial projects during this election campaign period,
the ones with large-scale local opposition. Those include La Plata, Curipamba, Loma Larga
(Dundee) and to a lesser extent because it’s earlier stage, Warintza (Solaris). That we’re
hearing nothing about Cascabel is tribute to the good community relations that project enjoys
and the likelihood it has to move from project into real mine, that isn’t the case with the others
mentioned.
Thirdly and we mentioned part of this angle last weekend in IKN739, but expect mining to
become a lightning rod for indigenous support and it will stay up the agenda in the run-up to
August 20th, and most likely afterward as well. The issue may become a real hot button if Lasso
awards the requisite permits to La Plata, Curipamba and others on the back of these rather
dubious looking community consultancy processes now being held. It may also become
important if the legal actions against Lasso’s Decree 754 prosper and the executive decree
powers are annulled. But also, it could easily become a “If you make me President I will roll
back these illegal permits” campaign point for any of the candidates, in the first round or even
in the second (assuming it goes that far). This is where Leonidas Iza’s canny political moves
come back into the picture, as he knows that by refraining from backing any given candidate
today, it allows him and his CONAIE organization the power of Kingmaker in the run-off and if
he reaches an alliance agreement with any of the candidates (most likely current frontrunner
Luisa González) it will afford CONAIE the power to get their demands met. Those would include
a moratorium on any further mining development until free and fair local consultancies have
been held around any given mine project in the country.
Colombia: A minister down and a speech to Congress
Last week saw the still Minister of Energy & Mining, Irene Vélez, hand in her resignation. She’s
still technically in her post, as she doesn’t leave until President Gustavo Petro formally
acknowledges and accepts the resignation and indeed, Minister Vélez was performing official
protocol visits for he ministry on Friday. However, for all intents and purposes she’s gone and
will be replaced as soon as Petro decides on who takes over.
Vélez has been the centre of several controversial incidents since taking over as Minister of
Energy & Mining 11 months ago, including early in her tenure when statements during
interviews and presentations showed her to be sadly lacking in basic knowledge of the mining
and energy sectors, as well as obvious anti mining and even anti-business opinions and points
of view. However, she was eventually brought down by two separate scandals away from her
direct role. Firstly, she was found to have pressured a customs and immigration officer at
20

Bogotá airport to allow her underage son travel internationally without having the correct
papers in order (a case of what’s called “influence trafficking” in Spanish, a criminal offence).
Then at almost the same time, it was revealed that her husband, a filmmaker named Sjoerd
Van Grootheest, had been awarded a contract worth 128.77m Colombian Pesos (COP), or
around U$32,300, for 12 months’ work compiling footage for various social programs. It also
emerged he had been awarded six contracts of the same type at the university where his wife
worked as a professor during her time there, before she became a minister. These two semi-
scandals were enough to tip the balance and Petro asked her to resign, but once the job was
done he complained that her departure was due to “media pressure” and Petro’s daughter even
chimed in saying the way Vélez had been treated was misogynistic.
Petro also noted Vélez’s resignation in last week’s real main political event in Colombia, the
opening of the new parliamentary and Congressional year. As is custom, the President made
the inaugural speech (it’s Colombia’s version of an annual State of the Nation address) and as
part of his two hour long speech (!!) said in reference to Irene Vélez that the energy sector
reforms his government were trying to implement had “cost him a good minister” (21).
However, the meat of his speech is relevant to our publication, as President Petro laid out that
during this session of Congress his government was focused on policies to combat climate
change and pollution. To quote (translated) (22), “The way forward for Colombia is in its own
diversity, in its own natural and human vitality. The way forward that we propose at this
moment has two pillars that we propose to our Nation; environmental and social justice.” He
went on to explain that these guiding principles would guide public policy, executive decrees,
resolutions and law projects. He then got to the part that concerns these pages, when stating
his government would send the (somewhat delayed) mining law (Código Minero, literally
“mining code”) reform to Congress for debate and eventual passage into law.
He started the segment by saying that the current mining law, “Privileges multinationals, large-
scale mining, open pit mining and has completely forgotten about the small-scale miner.” He
continued:
“This, I believe, is the substance of the law change. Because of this we are going to
present to you (Congress) a law project during this Congress that will upset the mining
sector. And I hope that you give it the necessary attention, as you always do, to the
accompanying studies and you go on to establish an alliance between the small mining
sector and The State.”
There’s nothing new in the “we will help small miners” and “we will clamps down on
environmental regulations” message from the Petro government as regards mining, but it finally
looks as though the talk is about to turn into action. There’s no guarantee that Congress passes
the law project of course, but noise about mining legislation is going to get louder in the
country between now and the end of the job (23)(24)(25) (26). As for the contents of the law
project, we know that the government wants to put a stop to mining concessions in ecologically
sensitive areas and is looking for ways to roll back concessions already granted in these zones.
[EDIT: some details of the draft law were released today Sunday and confirm these initiatives]
Finally and to wrap up the Irene Vélez affair, we don’t yet know who is going to get her job but
there are plenty of whispers going around for one Fernando Vargas Mendoza. He’s the ex-
Mayor of Bucaramanga (the big city in the Santander region), he’s a close ally of Petro’s for
many years, he did a lot of campaigning for him in the election and they are ideologically
closely matched. He’s also the mayor that led the push against the development of large-scale
mining at the Páramo de Santander locality, home to the big MINESA/Aris Mining (ARIS.to) Soto
Norte gold project, on the grounds that development of the project might affect the water
supply to the region and specifically the city of Bucaramanga. Those out there thinking that
Colombia’s ambivalent attitude toward the mining sector under Petro might change with the
departure of Ms Vélez will not get much cheer if Fernando Vargas is indeed chosen, though we
need to stress that at the time of writing (Saturday evening) his name as next Minister is only
at the “strong rumour” level and nothing is official.
21

Market Watching
Fortuna Silver (FSM) (FVI.to) redux
We’ve done two weeks on Fortuna Silver (FSM) (FVI.to) and as this chart shows, our timing on
turning the spotlight on the stock and the company has been good in the near-term. So today a
brief update on the price chart and to note how the company’s share price has received two
boosts, first from the 2q23 production NR (that we chewed over last weekend in IKN739 and
then this week, where FSM showed excellent positive divergence to the GDX (gold line) early
week and did what you want a leveraged PM play to do.
And yes, the flipside of that leverage showed its ugly face on Thursday and Friday, with FSM
dropping faster than GDX and taking away some of the recent gains but all the same, it’s been
a good July for FSM so far and has justified our original claim that the market has underpriced
the stock, what with its production upside now baked in and a 2024 that will see it move
toward becoming a 400,000oz per year gold producer that comes with minor silver credits, no
matter what its corporate title suggests to the contrary.
The moly market
This desk loses count of the reports and macro market analyses that get done for the major
traded metals. It was therefore both refreshing and interesting to read the Cochilco publication
last week on the state of the molybdenum (moly) market, as not only does moly trade under its
own LME contract these days but we’ve also seen a significant pop’n’drop price move in the
metal in 2023. Add in the fact that many copper mines derive useful by-product credits from
their moly production, including of course your author’s preferred way to play copper at the
moment, Amerigo Resources (ARG.to), and the result is this note covering the main findings in
the Cochilco report compiled with data added by Macquarie. Find the cover note to the report
here (27) and go here for your free download of the nine page PDF (28). It is written in the
Spanish language, but as always with technical/numerical reports the vocabulary is normally at
the easy end of the scale and the charts in
particular are easy to understand as well
as being very useful source material.
First here’s a reminder of the recent price
action in moly, with this 12-month chart
(source Trading Economics (29)) showing
how prices spiked in the first quarter and
brought some bonanza revenues to moly
producers, but prices have largely re-
traced since then and this week it’s
trading at just under U$24/lb.
The Cochilco report puts the blame for the
price spike on lower credit metal production (referred to as “secondary production”) in the
22

major mines in Chile and Peru, as well and higher demand expectations in China as its Covid
Zero policy was closed down. However and as in the case of many other metals (e.g. copper)
those expected tailwinds unwound in Q2 and moly lost its spike rapidly.
Despite the recent drop in prices, the report indicates longer-term fundies for moly are price
supportive, which is another reason this desk was keen on getting the word out. Here come
some charts and below left we see demand by region for the last five years, including estimates
for the current year 2023. Aside the “Covid Year” 2020 demand has seen steady growth and
the total demand seen in 2018 of 264,400 metric tonnes (mt) is expected to reach 298,500mt
this year. We also see a continued rise in demand from the main world customer China, for
97,500mt in 2018 to the estimate of 124,300mt this year. Or if you prefer, 2018 36.9% of moly
demand came from China, now that’s up to 41.6%. So a gradual climb in world market share
with the only anomalous year being 2020, when the Covid interruption saw Chinese demand up
to 43% of the world’s total as that country made a point of not slowing down while the rest of
the world went into lockdown.
000s MT Molybdenum demand by region, per annum Moly: World supply/demand balance, per annum
Europe USA 350
Japan China
300 other
250
200 150 97.5 100.2 106.6 111.6 120.7 124.3
100 50
0
2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023est
source: Cochilco/Macquarie
To the right of that chart comes the total demand mapped against supply, with a balance
column added for easier interpretation. Note that supply and demand were in approximate
balance in 2018 and 2019, then the Covid Year 2020 saw supply outstrip demand significantly
but then, that over-supply was worked out of the system in 2021 and 2022 which meant that
when forecasts for a sharp increase in demand were made early this
year, the market didn’t have any of the surplus or stockpile left to cover
it, certainly helping to stoke that sharp price rise.
Here right is an example of the charts you’ll find in the report, this one
showing demand for moly per sector, offered to show that even non-
Spanish speakers will get plenty from their copy. As long as you know
the word for “steel” is “acero”, it’s not too difficult to work out that 38%
of moly is used in steel for construction and 25% for stainless steel
production, those two being the big drivers of demand.
Finally, the balance is not as out of whack as for copper, for example,
but the report also notes that in 3q22 China became a net importer of
moly for the first time in recent history. The country has its own moly production that in
previous years has all-but covered domestic demand, but in 2021 its home production total
came to 95,300mt and in 2022 was 104,700mt, over 15,000mt short of overall Chinese
demand. As that trend is set to continue, the market now has another reason to expect price
support for moly.
A good webinar this coming week
Online webinars are a part of the mining world’s marketing infrastructure these days and they
come in all shapes and sizes. This desk gets through a lot of them and while I’m not affiliated
with any of the groups that do them, from time to time one comes up that’s good enough to
recommend to this audience. For example this coming week, when on Wednesday July 26th
23
4.462 9.952
5.4-
2.162 8.462
6.3
9.542 872
1.23
0.972 9.862
1.01-
4.982 7.862
7.02-
5.892 3.282
2.61-
000s MT
325 total demand total supply balance
300
275
250
225
200
175 150 125
100
75 50
25
0
-25
2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023est
source: Cochilco/Macquarie

and Thursday July 27th Virtual Investor Conferences is running their “Battery & Precious Metals
Virtual Investor Conference”. Here’s the link to the cover NR (30) and here’s the link to go and
register (it’s free) at the dedicated Virtual Investor Conferences page (31).
The reason I like the look of this event is the line-up, as they are offered a lot of interesting
names and each one gets its own 30 minute slot. Here’s the agenda, with times (ET Americas)
and ticker symbol, with the US OTC symbol given preference as that’s the market Virtual
Investor Conferences mostly covers.
Time (ET) Presentation Tickers
Wednesday July 26th
10:00 a. m. Century Lithium Corp. OTCQX: CYDVF | TSXV: LCE
10:30 a. m. WallBridge Mining Company Ltd. OTCQX: WLBMF | TSX: WM
11:00 a. m. Karora Resources Inc. OTCQX: KRRGF | TSX: KRR
11:30 a. m. American Rare Earth Ltd. OTCQB: ARRNF | ASX: ARR
12:00 p. m. Guanajuato Silver Company Ltd. OTCQX: GSVRF | TSXV: GSVR
12:30 p. m. Canterra Minerals Corp. OTCQB: CTMCF | TSXV: CTM
1:00 p. m. Sabre Gold Mines Corp. OTCQB: SGLDF | TSX: SGLD
1:30 p. m. Outcrop Silver & Gold Corp. OTCQX: OCGSF | TSXV: OCG
2:00 p. m. First Tellurium Corp. OTCQB: FSTTF | CSE: FTEL
2:30 p. m. Clean Air Metals Inc. OTCQB: CLRMF | TSXV:AIR
3:00 p. m. Arizona Metals Corp. OTCQX: AZMCF | TSX: AMC
3:30 p. m. Silver Hammer Mining Corp. OTCQB: HAMRF | CSE: HAMR
Thursday July 27th
9:30 a. m. Pan African Resources PLC OTCQX: PAFRY | AIM: PAF
10:00 a. m. Galantas Gold Corp. OTCQX: GALKF | TSXV: GAL
11:00 a. m. Giga Metals Corp. OTCQX: HNCKF | TSXV: GIGA
11:30 a. m. Novo Resources Corp. OTCQX: NSRPF | TSX: NVO
12:00 p. m. Minera Alamos Inc. OTCQX: MAIFF | TSXV: MAI
12:30 p. m. G2 Goldfields Inc. OTCQX: GUYGF | TSXV: GTWO
1:00 p. m. Kodiak Copper Corp. OTCQB: KDKCF | TSXV: KDK
1:30 p. m. Archer Exploration Corp. OTCQB: RCHRF | CSE: RCHR
2:00 p. m. Chilean Cobalt Corp. Private
2:30 p. m. Fathom Nickel Inc. OTCQB: FNICF | CSE: FNI
Don’t take my own preferences as judgment and you may be interested in companies for other
reasons. For sure I have my eye on the Minera Alamos (MAI.v) slot , but Kodiak Copper (KDK.v)
is on my shortlist as well and I’m also interested in what Guanajuato Silver (GSVR.v) has to say
for itself after last week’s announcement of the dilutive placement. However, one of the other
attractions of this type of event is watching and hearing from companies you’d otherwise pass
over and there are often surprise packages that catch one’s eye and demand further DD.
Heliostar Metals (HSTR.v) and Director Holes
Last week brought a archetype example of what’s known in the trade as a “Director Hole” and
while most readers of The IKN Weekly have been around the block enough times and don’t
need their hands held on such matters, the example from last week includes the kind of timing
that allows an insta-teaching moment and insight into the thinking that goes on at C-suite level
to decide on such tactics.
By way of the most basic of background, Heliostar Metals (HSTR.v) is the junior that took two
troubled Mexico projects off the hands of Argonaut Gold (AR.to) last year, one of which being
the Ana Paula deposit in Guerrero State, South Mexico. Ana Paula has been around as a project
for almost two decades and drilled and developed by owners Goldcorp, then Newstrike Capital,
then Alio Gold and most recently in the hands of Argonaut, who didn’t do any drilling because
the previous owners put almost 130,000 metres of drilling into it via 290 holes and had already
generated several 43-101 compliant reports. This is the current resource, as re-interpreted by
HSTR and as you can see, it has almost 1.5m oz of gold with over a million of those ounces in
the proven & probable reserve categories, with a silver kicker to boot.
24

Another factor that makes Ana Paula interesting is its well-defined high grade zone, as seen in
this HSTR visual from its website (32) (33) (right). That High Grade Panel that HSTR itself
highlights contains a little less than half the total gold
ounces of the project but, at an average grade of
around 5.5 g/t gold. That’s much higher and more
economically interesting grade than the entire deposit
(e.g. the P+P total comes in at 2.38 g/t Au). Up to
now, Ana Paula has been designed as an open pit
mining operation and was permitted as such.
However, HSTR has told the world it wants to take a
different approach and build an underground
operation. Unsurprisingly, its plans revolve around the
sweet spot high grade panel mineralization and so far
at least, its development efforts are concentrated
there. But it’s also a zone that’s very well understood
and to the level of Proven and Probable, so it’s
debatable as to how much “new information they can
get out of it with their own first pass holes, what with
so many metres in the project already.
So with background context in place, we turn to last week’s news and the drill assay they
announced last Tuesday, July 17th (34):
Heliostar Intersects 242m Grading 9.06 g/t Gold - The Longest and Highest-
Grade Drill Hole in the History of the Ana Paula project in Mexico
As splashy headlines go, that’s a 300lb linebacker doing a bellyflop from the high board. The
type of headline that jumps out at any casual sector observer and unsurprisingly, it got all the
media and online attention that morning and intro to the NR keeps up the pace, stating that
“Hole AP-23-297 is the longest, highest grade interval drilled in the history of the Ana Paula
project” and “These holes exceed the resource model’s predicted high grades, and extends high
grade mineralization
up plunge.” Fair
enough. However,
once you get into
the details of the NR
things are not quite
as impressive as
they look in the
header. Here right,
for example, is one
of the drill maps
included.
25

Take a look at our previous visual showing the High Grade Panel and now take another look at
that hole. It doesn’t take long to realize that what HSTR has done is drill “straight down the
pipe” (as they say) of the high grade zone that was already well explored and understood
geologically. The fact is, that hole isn’t set to add meaningfully to a resource that has been
largely defined and though the company argued that the objective was to potentially fill in some
blank areas in the resource shape and also check for unknown faulting, the style and substance
of that headline is the real reason HSTR did what it did. They wanted to make a splash.
The question is, therefore, “why” and for that, it’s fair to say that the company was looking for
a liquidity moment. For one thing, HSTR has just closed a placement priced at 37c (share + ½
warrant at 50c strike) to raise $7m in working capital and those in that placement can’t have
been very happy to see trading push the price under 30c recently. A good old-fashioned splashy
headline props the stock price and keeps backers happy. However, there’s more to the story
than the most recent placement and the real reason behind HSTR’’s Director Hole and its
decision to announce what it did when it did almost certainly stems from its earlier round of
financing. As a matter of fact, on March 17th the company closed a non-brokered private
placement that sold exactly 92,727,272 units at a price of 22c, with each unit containing a
share and a half warrant priced at 30c. As per standard Canadian financing rules, those
placement shares were held under escrow (lock-up) for 121 days which meant, those shares
and warrants went free trading on Saturday July 15th, i.e. last weekend. That effectively means
last Monday 16th but, as the standard three day liquidation period for trades also comes into
play, in real terms as from Thursday July 13th the placement shares could be sold into the open
market. And indeed that’s what we see in the price action of HSTR in the last ten days:
Right on time on Thursday July 13th [1 in above chart] HSTR started coming under price
pressure and dropped from the level it had held while its 37c placement had been running. That
selling continued on Friday 14th [2] and the price drop reached its low on the Monday, [3]
trading as low as 27.5c and closing at 28c. Clearly the market had done its sums and knew
there were holders of 22c paper who’d be happy to take any price above that to liquidate their
shares and clip the warrants, so the bids didn’t appear and the world let the sellers sell.
It was into this market dynamic that HSTR added its blowout drill assay headline. The casual
observers were impressed, the paid pump army sponsored by HSTR got to work on social
media and in their urgent updates to newsletter clients and sure enough, on Tuesday the stock
popped hard [4] and traded around 35c on a big jump in volume. And it’s that volume [5],
which continued in solid style through Wednesday, that sellers of that 22c paper were looking
for. HSTR had done their placement backers the favour they were looking for and allowed them
to liquidate positions at a profit, transferring the risk to unsuspecting retail followers who could
only see an impressive headline and didn’t realize they were being used as a way out for the
money that had been in there since before the company started trading.
However, I know that many of you in the readership of The IKN Weekly are not quite as cynical
as its author and may want to give HSTR the benefit of the doubt, so let’s take a step back and
consider the price action in HSTR since its quasi-IPO in late March, when it came out of an
26

extended deep freeze once the acquisitions from Argonaut and the funding placement were
closed, and we see the same sort of strategy.
This chart shows the evolution of its share price: HSTR fiddled around at 30c and 35c through
April, then the promo began in early May (paid content) and on May 23rd, the first splashy drill
assay was released (35), headlining two holes grading 53.2 m of 11.0 g/t Au and 44.5 m of
11.0 g/t Au respectively. As noted above, finding a high grade intersection in the well defined
high grade panel at Ana Paula was never going to tax the company but the issues it faces are
more social than anything (though there are some question marks about metallurgy and
recoveries in some of the mineralization envelope, that for another day). And sure enough, that
NR got the paid promotion brigade out and recommending the stock to their readership but
despite that, the price began to slide on relatively low volume as the July escrow date drew
closer. However and to consider the case from the other side, if it weren’t for that 1) early May
promo effort to get retail players into HSTR and then 2) the first splashy drill assey NR at the
end of May, the company would not have been able to raise $7m at 37c in June and the share
price would have had great difficulty in remaining significantly higher than the 22c placement
price at which it funded in March.
There’s good money in these promotions, people. It’s why there are so many influencers, great
and small, all willing to promote a company to you and do it at the same time as others do.
However, the real moral of the story is to underscore one of the basic tenets of the junior
mining world, particularly that of the exploration-stage mining company. When all is said and
done, a company with no top line income and reliant on outside sponsorship to grow,
development move their project forward only has one thing to sell; a story. The story may be
good, bad or indifferent, but it also relies on the honesty and integrity of the people telling the
story. At Heliostar (HSTR.v), we have a company that deliberately drilled and announced a
classic Director Hole with the deliberate intention of providing volume and liquidity for sellers of
the stock and hid their true intentions behind a front of splashy headlines and weak justification
stories. If you want to continue to trust the story of a management team such as that in the
future when they roll out their narrative of grand underground development plans and “great
community relations”, you’ll be doing so without me. End of ranty Market Watching piece.
Conclusion
IKN740 is done, we end as usual with some bullet points:
 A lot of different subjects in this week’s edition, it was a fun one to write, too.
 We’re in the summer Doldrums now and it shows, both in price moves and volume
traded. We’re bound to get the occasional event and market moving newsflow, but in
general terms it’s time to plan rather than to execute.
 In non-mining news, but something that may well affect The IKN Weekly come the end
of the year, my better half mentioned to me this week that I haven’t had a week off in
27

over three and a half years and wouldn’t it be good idea to take some sort of holiday or
vacation. Which means she wants to go on vacation. To that effect and as the
Christmas period is always a slow one for news and events, it’s highly likely that we
take a couple of weeks off in December and publication of the Weekly becomes
sporadic during month. So now you know as well. For those of you who know their
Rumpole, SWMBO.
I thank you in advance for any feedback. Our Top Pick stock is Minera Alamos (MAI.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.calculatedriskblog.com/2023/07/fomc-preview-likely-25bp-rate-hike.html
(2) https://www.provenancegold.com/20230718-provenance-hits-further-high-grade-gold-at-its-eldorado-project-of-32-
meters-containing-4-gt-gold-within-137-meters-of-1.65-gt-gold
(3) https://www.provenancegold.com/20230706--provenance-gold-hits-high-grade-intercept-at-eldorado-gold-project-of-
4.59-gt-gold-over-23-meters-as-drilling-continues
(4) https://www.mining-technology.com/projects/grassy-mountain-gold-project-oregon-2/
(5) https://www.provenancegold.com/20230510-provenance-gold-commences-its-maiden-drill-program-at-eldorado-to-
substantiate-historical-results-and-begin-to-expand-the-gold-mineralization
(6) https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230721496286/en/Contango-ORE-Announces-Underwritten-Public-
Offering-of-Common-Stock
(7) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Jpym0GcU6E
(8) https://www.accesswire.com/769178/SolGold-PLC-Announces-Exploitation-Agreement-with-Government-of-Ecuador
(9) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7vSBs8qahI
(10) https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/ecuador-solgold-seal-deal-launch-nearly-5-bln-mining-project-2023-
07-20/
(11) https://www.marketscreener.com/quote/stock/OUTCROP-SILVER-GOLD-COR-54658376/news/Outcrop-Silver-
Appoints-Ian-Harris-CEO-44377982/
(12) https://www.semana.com/mejor-colombia/articulo/esta-preparada-mocoa-para-la-explotacion-minera-de-cobre-a-
gran-escala-esto-dice-su-alcalde/202331/
(13) https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/funds-dont-buy-into-doctor-coppers-green-credentials-2023-07-18/?s=09
(14) https://www.newmont.com/investors/news-release/news-details/2023/Newmont-Reports-Second-Quarter-2023-
Results-Remains-on-Track-to-Achieve-Full-Year-Guidance-Declares-0.40-Second-Quarter-Dividend/default.aspx
(15) https://web.facebook.com/conaie.org/videos/624638056110027/?extid=CL-UNK-UNK-UNK-AN_GK0T-
GK1C&mibextid=pFSxpt
(16) https://twitter.com/CONAIE_Ecuador/status/1682089351918788619
(17) https://twitter.com/hashtag/decreto754?src=hashtag_click
(18) https://www.swissinfo.ch/spa/ecuador-miner%C3%ADa_antimineros-de-ecuador-denuncian--militarizaci%C3%B3n-
-para-consultar-a-poblaci%C3%B3n-sobre-mina/48680534
28

(19) https://www.educaoaxaca.org/en-ecuador-gobierno-utiliza-al-ejercito-para-que-minera-canadiense-pueda-explotar-
oro/
(20) https://radiozapatista.org/?p=45806
(21) https://www.elpais.com.co/colombia/tras-la-inminente-salida-de-irene-velez-del-ministerio-de-minas-ya-hay-un-
candidato-para-el-cargo-1804.html
(22) https://www.pulzo.com/nacion/gustavo-petro-habla-irene-velez-congreso-tras-salir-ministerio-minas-PP2920226A
(23) https://boyaca7dias.com.co/2023/07/21/en-su-discurso-en-el-congreso-petro-anuncio-que-pondra-a-consideracion-
del-legislativo-un-proyecto-de-ley-sobre-mineria/
(24) https://www.eltiempo.com/politica/congreso/presidente-petro-anuncia-proyecto-de-ley-que-versa-sobre-la-mineria-
788339
(25) https://www.pulzo.com/economia/gobierno-petro-presentara-proyecto-reformar-mineria-PP2920185A
(26) https://zonacero.com/politica/gobierno-presentara-proyecto-para-reformar-la-mineria-petro
(27) https://www.cochilco.cl/Paginas/Sala-de-Prensa/Noticias.aspx?ID=641
(28) https://www.cochilco.cl/Mercado%20de%20Metales/Informe%20mercado%20del%20molibdeno%2011.07.2023.pdf
(29) https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/molybden
(30) https://investingnews.com/battery-precious-metals-virtual-investor-conference-agenda-announced-for-july-26th-
and-27th/
(31) https://www.virtualinvestorconferences.com/events/event-details/metals-mining-virtual-investor-conference-
8?utm_source=agenda&utm_medium=press+release&utm_campaign=0723metalsVIC&utm_id=0723metalsVIC
(32) https://www.heliostarmetals.com/news-articles/heliostar-intersects-242m-grading-9-06-g-t-gold-the-longest-and-
highest-grade-drill-hole-in-the-history-of-the-ana-paula-project-in-mexico
(33) https://www.heliostarmetals.com/projects/ana-paula
(34) https://www.heliostarmetals.com/news-articles/heliostar-intersects-242m-grading-9-06-g-t-gold-the-longest-and-
highest-grade-drill-hole-in-the-history-of-the-ana-paula-project-in-mexico
(35) https://www.heliostarmetals.com/news-articles/heliostar-drills-53-2-m-grading-11-0-g-t-gold-and-44-5-m-grading-11-
0-g-t-gold
Stocks To Follow Closed Positions 2022
Closed in 2022 date 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
Trilogy Metals TMQ Mar'22 U$1.84 15-Sep-19 U$1.04 -41.3% killed by US permit reversal
McEwen Mining MUX Apr'22 U$0.89 2-Jan-22 U$0.82 -7.9% No 2022 turnaround, cut loss
Abrasilver Res. ABRA.v May'22 C$0.42 24-Apr-22 C$0.33 -21.4% sold to reduce Ag exposure
Strategic Metals SMD.v May'22 C$0.42 31-Jan-21 C$0.30 -28.6% trade flatlined 1.5 years
Discovery Silver DSV.v Jun'22 C$1.77 24-Oct-21 C$1.39 -21.5% Cutting Ag exp.& raising cash
Element 29 ECU.v Jul'22 C$0.58 6-Mar-22 C$0.30 -48.3% sold to cut Cu exposure
Superior Gold SGI.v Oct'22 C$0.95 3-Apr-22 C$0.24 -74.7% Q3 prod fail was last straw
Goldshore Res GSHR.v Nov'22 C$0.18 23-Oct-22 C$0.34 88.9% Quick profit taken
Palamina Corp PA.v Dec'22 C$0.295 21-Nov-21 C$0.08 -72.9% Clear-out of underperformer
Pure Gold PGM.h Dec'22 C$0.14 26-Sep-22 C$0.015 -89.3% tiny trade on vh risk, went Ch11
29

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-Apr-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
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-Aug-18 C$0.05 -33.3% tiny trade, made room for new
B2Gold BTO.to feb'19 C$2.11 12-Sep-14 C$4.05 91.9% Took 1/2 profits, reduce size
Western Copper WRN.to mar'19 C$0.80 20-Jan-19 C$0.81 1.3% Spec trade that didn't work
30

B2Gold BTO.to mar'19 C$2.11 12-Sep-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-Jan-19 U$4.15 -8.1% Short that didn't work, sm loss
Zinc One Z.v jun'19 C$0.47 14-Sep-17 C$0.025 -94.7% clearing out dead trade
Amarillo Gold AGC.v jun'19 C$0.24 22-Aug-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-Apr-18 C$0.47 -67.8% Failed sm spec on Au. Moved on
Amerigo Res ARG.to nov'19 C$0.91 23-Sep-18 C$0.50 -45.1% worst trade of year, hefty loss
Guyana Goldfields GUY.to dec'19 C$0.94 14-Apr-19 C$0.56 -40.4% taking the loss, financials weak
Tethyan Res TETH.v dec'19 C$0.30 8-Sep-19 C$0.16 -46.7% tiny trade, word of probs in co
Stocks To Follow Closed Positions 2018
Closed in 2018 closed close price
Amarillo Gold AGC.v jan'18 C$0.38 24-Mar-17 C$0.31 -18.4% Cut away losing trade
Riverside Res RRI.v jan'18 C$0.39 27-Jun-16 C$0.31 -20.5% Cut away losing trade
Eros Res ERC.v jan'18 C$0.175 1-Mar-17 C$0.16 -8.6% CEO sudden exit, not good
Excellon Res EXN.to jan'18 C$1.54 9-Oct-16 C$1.66 7.8% 4q17 poor, one too many bad qtrs
Wesdome Gold WDO.to jan'18 C$1.68 15-Dec-17 C$2.06 22.6% Near-term trade block, took profit
Sabina G&S SBB.to apr'18 C$2.06 17-Dec-17 C$1.77 -14.1% Near-term trade, bad timing, small
B2Gold BTO.to May'18 C$2.11 12-Sep-14 C$3.67 73.9% sold 25% to reduce exposure
Lara Expl. LRA.v May'18 C$0.65 11-Feb-18 C$0.58 -13.8% Spec on Brazil didn't work
Solitario XPL June'18 U$0.72 19-Mar-17 U$0.41 -43.1% Failed trade, may return in 4q18
SolGold plc SOLG.to July'18 C$0.475 19-Nov-17 C$0.415 -12.6% cut, trade didn't perform
Pan American PAAS July'18 U$17.90 1-Jun-18 U$16.30 8.9% modest win on short position
NGEx Res NGQ.to Sep'18 C$1.01 22-Oct-17 C$1.00 -1.0% Closed to reduce Argentina exp
Sandstorm Gold SAND Oct'18 U$3.73 17-Apr-16 U$4.13 10.7% partial sale to raise cash for GTT
Aldebaran Res ALDE.v Nov'18 n/a n/a n/a n/a liquidate spin out of REG
Stocks To Follow Closed Positions 2017
Closed in 2017 closed close price
Continental Gold CNL.to Jan'17 C$2.68 22-May-16 C$4.17 55.6% trade closed, profit taken
Focus Ventures FCV.v Jan'17 C$0.23 1-Jul-12 C$0.05 -78.3% Give up, a disaster trade
Wesdome Gold WDO.to Feb'17 C$1.72 28-Aug-16 C$3.00 74.4% Target hit, sold, good trade
Belo Sun BSX.to Mar'17 C$0.90 30-Jan-17 C$0.90 0.0% failed near-term flip trade
Lara Expl. LRA.v Mar'17 C$1.15 8-Apr-12 C$1.05 -8.7% cut to make room for new trade
Rye Patch Gold RPM.v Apr'17 C$0.31 2-Sep-16 C$0.32 3.2% cut for doubts & new stock
Cordoba Min. CDB.v Jun'17 C$0.75 15-Sep-16 C$0.63 -16.0% closed
Constantine Metal CEM.v Aug'17 C$0.135 9-Apr-17 C$0.28 107.4% spec trade closed, good win
Red Eagle Min. R.to Sep'17 C$0.67 13-Dec-16 C$0.27 -59.7% IKN's biggest failure in years
Starcore Intl SAM.to Sep'17 C$0.61 10-Jan-15 C$0.31 -49.2% Patience ran out
B2Gold BTO.to Dec'17 C$2.11 12-Sep-14 C$3.39 60.7% sold small portion for liquidity
31

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-aug-15 C$0.25 38.9% okay trade, sold on pol risk
McEwen Mining MUX jan16 U$1.09 25-jan-15 U$1.20 10.1% sold due to lack of value
Lake Shore Gold LSG.to feb-16 C$1.10 07-apr-15 C$1.69 53.6% bot out, sold early in process
Atacama Pacific ATM.v feb-16 C$0.19 26-apr-15 C$0.40 110.5% sold for a double on big pop
New Gold NGD feb-16 U$2.06 24-jan-16 U$2.96 43.7% closed good near-term trade
Sandspring Res SSP.v mar-16 C$0.195 18-oct-15 C$0.32 64.1% Hit tgt, took profit
Teranga Gold TGZ.to mar-16 C$0.54 15-feb-15 C$0.60 11.1% disappointing trade
B2Gold BTG mar-16 U$0.85 13-jan-16 U$1.30 52.9% Separate trade on B2, hit tgt
Dalradian Res DNA.to mar-16 C$0.67 27-oct-13 C$1.00 49.3% Hit target, sold, good win
HudBay Min. HBM may-16 U$4.10 03-apr-16 U$4.36 -6.3% Short trade, poor timing
Nevada Sunrise NEV.v may-16 C$0.185 28-feb-16 C$0.23 24.3% V. small, no big deal either way
Richmont RIC jun-16 U$7.60 01-may-16 U$9.30 22.4% near-term trade, profit taken
INV Metals INV.to jul-16 C$0.25 03-apr-16 C$0.95 280.0% Trade closed on time
HudBay Min. HBM aug16 U$4.98 09-jun-16 U$4.80 3.6% short trade covered, no big deal
Miranda Gold MAD.v oct-16 C$0.125 03-jul-16 C$0.10 -20.0% tiny spec trade, didn't work
Avino G & S ASM nov-16 U$2.00 21-oct-16 U$1.40 -30.0% Abandon trade on bad bot deal
Stocks To Follow Closed Positions 2015
Closed in 2015 closed close price
Argonaut Gold AR.to jan'15 C$1.47 14-dec-14 C$2.53 72.1% Big gain small time, profit taken
Amerigo Res ARG.to jan'15 C$0.405 20-jul-14 C$0.285 -29.6% Given up on weak Cu prices
Reservoir Min. RMC.v jan'15 C$6.05 18-jun-14 C$4.12 -31.9% sold on Cu downturn
Coro Mining COP.to jan'15 C$0.075 26-jan-14 C$0.035 -53.3% sm, sold on Cu downturn
Fortuna Silver FSM mar'15 U$4.12 10-nov-14 U$3.75 9.0% Short used as hedge
GoldQuest Min. GQC.v mar'15 C$0.26 27-oct-13 C$0.085 -67.3% given up ghost
Rio Alto Mining RIO.to apr'15 C$2.30 07-apr-11 C$3.57 55.2% Top pick, bot out, big win
Timmins Gold TGD jun'15 U$0.60 19-apr-15 U$0.62 3.3% near-term trade, out of time
First Majestic AG jul'15 U$10.51 10-aug-14 U$4.55 56.7% horrible failed trade
NovaCopper NCQ.to jul'15 C$1.05 09-apr-14 C$0.50 -52.4% no more Cu exposure, sm sell
McEwen Mining MUX aug'15 U$0.695 21-jul-15 U$0.92 32.4% Closed nearterm flip for win
Midas Gold MAX.to sep'15 C$0.39 21-sep-15 C$0.35 -10.3% Sm. trade idea that didn't work
New Gold NGD oct'15 U$2.18 23-aug-15 U$3.05 39.9% trade closed, profit taken
Legend Gold LGN.v nov'15 C$0.085 01-mar-15 C$0.035 -58.8% tiny "land grab" idea, failed
Timmins Gold TGD nov'15 U$0.245 20-sep-15 U$0.15 -38.8% small near-term loser
Please note that due to space considerations closed positions 2009 to 2014 are now
available on request, or were published in any edition to IKN553 (end 2019).
Important Disclosure
The information and opinions contained within this report reflect the personal views of the author and therefore all
material within should not be construed as accurate or reliable or be utilized as advice for investment or business
purposes. Independent due diligence and discussions with ones own investment and business advisor is strongly
recommended. Accordingly, nothing in this report should be construed as offering a guarantee of the accuracy or
completeness of the information contained herein, as an offer or solicitation with respect to the purchase or sale of any
security or as an endorsement of any product or service. All opinions and estimates included in this report are subject to
change without notice. It is prohibited to copy or redistribute this report to any type of third party without the express
permission of the author.
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