DA KINE (A good one for THE HATT) ID#270227:
Copyright © 1998 DA KINE/Kitco Inc. All rights reserved
Please induge me but I thought you might be interested in some early research on
MIQ-M.....before they signed with Kinross:
Hi Bill, As I mentioned on the SI thread, here is my pick for a
Junior which I think will do outstanding with continued good
results and a sharp increase in the POG. The company is MIQ
( Mirandor Explorations ) on Montreal. First if you'll allow me to
tell you a brief story which will put into context the reason I
now hold a substantial position in this little company. Back in the
mid-80's I got into Barrick gold early and made a killing,
basically I was in when it was meare pennies. I swore if I was
ever to find another story like that of Barrick I would again hold
a substantial position in the company, but it had to have a similar
property. Over the years I have made some exceptional money
in the Junior golds, but it is MIQ that has me very excited about
what they may do in the months to come. My research into MIQ
lead me to Peter Munk's biography where I picked up the
following information along with my own investment horizon in
the mid-80's:
Presently MIQ's story is similar to that of Barrick Gold when it
first started it's project in the Carlin Trend ( in term's of location
and composition of the property ) . This is due to location of the
property in the Carlin and the location of a Carlin "GOLD
WINDOW" on the property. Anyhow, back in 1983 Barrick was an
oil exploration company. Barrick didn't even own their Goldstrike
property ( in the Carlin Trend ) in 1983, they were still looking for
oil under the name of Barrick Explorations. In fact, it wasn't until
1986 that Barrick got involved in negotiating for the rights to the
6900 acres of Goldstrike. At the time Newmont was sitting on
250,000 acres in eastern Nevada, much of it with promising gold
deposits. It had enough to keep it busy for many years to come,
so going after Goldstrike wouldn't make much of a difference, so
they thought at the time. They felt that the geophysical makeup
wouldn't allow for an economic find and at the time they knew
the area better than anyone else. At the time of negotiations,
Barrick, or rather Munk did not want part ownership of
Goldstrike. The two owners were Western States and Pan Cana
and he got both of them to sell their shares to him. The deal
actually closed on December 31, 1986. It was considered a small
gold mine at the time and difficult to unload overall. While in the
hands of it's pre-Barrick owners they did drill one hole down to
391 feet and found high-grade ore, indicating significant
reserves. However, the reserves were all refractory ore, which
was at the time extremely difficult to extract. In fact the funny
part is one of the owner's of Goldstrike, had to make a choice to
either sell a horse farm in southern Kentucky or the Goldstrike
mine ( can you say ooops ) .
When Barrick initially started looking at the property a guy by
the name of Smith, who was with Barrick, went down to Elko,
Nevada, to take a look at the property. They found that the
operators were not exploiting the orebody to maximum
advantage. Smith and his team were confident that by spending
a little money and using a variety of recover methods, they
could increase the recoverable reserves to 1.2 million ounces.
This is when they decided to buy it. This is where it gets
interesting, while they were checking the property after the
December 31, 1986 purchase of Goldstrike, when Smith and the
crew were up there, Brian Meikle had stood at the lip of the
open pit one day and said to his colleagues, "You know, we've
got Genesis a few miles to the south ( 3 million to 4 million
ounces of reserves owned by Newmont ) , we've got Bootstrap
and Dee a few more miles to the north-west, that's another 2
million ounces, and there's all these little small pits, scattered all
over the place. I wonder if all these pits represent a leakage
from something major, at depth." No one took it any further, but
they all knew it was a possibility.
The reason I say this is interesting is that it seem's the situation
on MIQ's Railroad project is similar to what happened at Barrick.
With gold having been proven all over the Railroad project,
including, Elliot High Ranch/LT
East/Darkstar/DikeSwarm/POD/Bunker Hill etc. It appears that
MIQ is doing the same thing. They are putting together strong
shallow results for an open pit mine leading to a a leakage which
could be something major, deeper down???? Just speculation on
my part, but I have inquired with my geologist contacts and
there is nothing else that would make sense otherwise.
Anyway back to the story, a couple of months into 1987 and
Brian Meikle called Smith telling him the core from their first
exploratory drill hole was showing 0.36 ounces per ton for a
depth of 330 feet. At first they actually thought someone had
salted the core, that it was too good to be true. They
immediately drilled a hole 10 feet away. They didn't even tell
Munk. Meikle did the drilling and got even better results. Other
holes were ordered drilled further and further away and
gradually it dawned on them that the orebody was just what
Meikle had speculated it might be...a massive gold-bearing
deposit deep underground that spread its tentacles all around
the area. Jackpot! Basically, that's the story of Barrick's find in
the Carlin Trend. After adjusting for stock splits , Barrick's shares
rose from $1.90 at the end of 1986 to $5.20 a year later, then
$10.87 three years later, and $15.50 two years after that, in
December 1992. Then in 1993, it almost doubled to $28.50 ( note:
Barrick split 2 for 1 three times in 1987, 1989 and 1992 ) and the
rest is history. Anyway thought you might like to here some
facts of Barrick's find, since it has been mentioned with RELATION
TO MIQ. Note the first drill hole, .36 opt at 330 feet.
Well Bill, that was a nice story and I wish they could all turn out
like that. However, it appear's to me that MIQ is the closest to
mirroring this Barrick story and here's why. Keeping in mind the
above events for Barrick Gold, the following points now relate to
MIQ.
1 ) MIQ's Railroad Project is about 30 miles southeast of
Goldstrike. MIQ has the second largest gold window in the Carlin
Trend located on it's property. The largest is Barrick's Goldstrike
property with 26 million+ ounces and the third largest it
Newmont's propety with 10 million+ ounces. A gold window is an
anomoly where platlettes have been pushed up within the earth
and mineralization is evident at shallower depths.
2 ) MIQ has already hit gold reading in 6 zones POD/Bunker Hill/LT
East/EHR/Darkstar, plus there are still a number of wildcat
deposits. The results are fantastic, you can see them at their
website www.mirandor.com. It appears as if there are tentacles
spreading all over the property. The strongest results are from
the POD zone and the newly encountered Bunker Hill zone, with
continued drilling to come from both of these this year.
3 ) During the depths of the gold market in Nov/Dec of 1997.,
Kinross Gold agressively sought out MIQ and signed a JV deal
with MIQ. Providing a minimum of $17 million US over the next 4
years, to develop the property. MIQ had 6 other interested
parties, but decided to go with Kinross since they would not
shelve the project and results are now beginning to come out
for this years drilling.
4 ) Their primary targets are POD and Bunker Hill, both sit on the
Carlin Trend Axis ( where there are numerous gold deposits
throughout ) . In addition, these two zones are intersected North-
South by the Pinon-Anticlie axis which also has great gold
deposits throughout. As a mining professional friend of mine
said,"mother nature doesn't put gold in just one spot and goes
away. The fact that they are locating many zone with stunning
grades, makes for some potential fireworks to come."
5 ) MIQ outbid numerous major's for the property and paid
approximetly $2 million for it.
6 ) The Railroad project is I believe historically knows as the
"Circle of Death"., essentially because there have been a lot of
players interested in it, but no one has been able to put the
project together. According to my sources and rock hounds,
Kinross is ecstatic over the project and in particular the POD and
Bunker Hill zones.
7 ) No need for much further dillution of shares since they won't
need money for drilling and are drilling now while other's are
sitting on the shelf. The only other dillution will be for operational
and promotional stuff when necessary. Management is
competent, with the President being Jim Speros at the helm and
essentially he was the one responsible for the deal with Kinross
when the Gold market was in the toilet. He's great to talk to,
give him a call if you wish. I'm looking forward to seeing his
selling ability in a good gold market, instead of the bear trap
we've been in to date.
Anyhow Bill, thanks for indulging my rambling. I hope this is
some payback with all the valuable information you have
provided.
Remember check out their web site for results
( www.mirandor.com ) |
