Hi Ross And ALL, First of all let me say that everyone who is upset should calm down. The post from Catherine McLeod that I posted yesterday afternoon stated that Barrick would be going back to drill at the end of the month. Her word is good enough for me for this reason:
She is not about to lie to us with a post that she knew would be seen by so many shareholders and also passed around from us to many more people who do not belong to this forum. I know my self that there are many people who phone me, that I know personally, to check out what is happening.
Just ask yourself what she would have to gain, and more importantly, what she would have to lose? If she were publicly caught in a lie she would destroy her credibility in the mining community and also in the brokerage community. Do you really think she would do this, after carefully building her reputation to the point where her name is sought on the board of directors of as many of the juniors who could entice her there?
Secondly if Barrick were going to pull out would they not have done it by the end of March, before it cost them $3,750,000 to pick up the option? They knew then, in my opinion, they had enough to consider
the feasibility of a mine. The last time I looked, I never seen any hint of Peter Munk becoming a philanthropist for junior mining companies.
The other factor to consider is that Barrick has yet to drill all the other targets on Los Diablillos, so why would they pull out after spending all that money and not even test these other targets? I'm sorry but it stretches the imagination too far. The Cerro Blanco, which we know Barrick has been very interested in, has not even completed their drilling, so that Barrick does not know what goodies lies under the ground there. If they left now they would never know what they had walked away from. Not their style I'm afraid.
The only house dumping today was Nesbitt, but what was more interesting was who was buying. Haywood, Scotia McLeod, Gundy, Salman (who by the way has been a buyer almost everyday this week)and Global. All the other houses were net buyers with the exception of Green Line which had a net sell of a whole 3600 shares and Dominion Securities who sold a net 2500. Now that does not look like a stampede to me.
Why Nesbitt had to dump these shares is up for speculation, some of Ross's suggestions are possibilities, as well as the fact if Nesbitt took a big hit on Bre-X, maybe their cash requirements that the house must maintain according to regulatory rules, had fallen below the acceptable limits, and they had to top it up. This happens, because apparently Yorkton had that happen to them after the Cartaway, Timbuctu episode last year. Rumour had it that they dumped Essex in a big way. I do not know if this was true, but the rumour mills certainly had it pegged that way. I also talked to my broker today and he had heard rumours "on the street" that Nesbitt had to dump 300,000 shares.
I am sure the traders were happy today also, because they don't make money unless a stock is moving up or down and of late PFG had been quite stagnant while waiting for more news. This (stagnancy) is also a common occurrence with all stocks, not just PFG, unless it is heavily promoted as was CTQ, GNU, and Delgratia. But then again look what happens when it is promoted like that.
You know PFG and some of us on the thread have been accused several times of promotion. All I have to say to that is, if that were so, then the stock wouldn't be sitting around $4.00 waiting for news now would it? Or is it that CMS doesn't know how to promote? To both questions I think the answer is clearly NO!
All of us at one time or another have wished they would do a little promotion. That is why it is so preposterous for me to hear someone say that PFG is hyped too much or it's over promoted. The answer for any rational thinking person is obvious.
I don't know about all threaders, but I am not going to be foolish and run off to a fire sale, although I am going to try and pull some more cash out of the hat and get some more stock.
To everyone please read and ponder what I have said, and if at the end of the pondering you feel good about it, then you will be a holder and for those who do not feel comfortable, and do not want to hold, then you also know what you have to do. Only you can decide what to do.
I hope this has helped to answer a few questions for some of you at least. I am sorry that I was not at my computer the rest of the afternoon and evening so I could have perhaps allayed some of your fears, but I do have another life and I had to take care of things in that other life today. I will try to post again later today if anyone has any questions or comments.
The big Swiftsure Race goes today, Saturday, in Victoria, and there are tourists and yachtsman from all over the world in town to take part and to watch. This is the premiere sailing event of the year on the Westcoast and I want to go and see the races. The only sad part is that David cannot accompany me. I feel very sorry about that, because he has been looking forward to it for quite awhile.
Ross, It's good to hear from you again. It's been a while and I wondered where you had wandered to. I will try to answer your e-mail tomorrow, but I have been having nothing but trouble with my e-mail server, so if you don't hear from me right away it won't be for lack of trying on my part. Hope you're well and that you will soon will be fat and sassy.
I bid you all a good night. Race starts at 8 A.M. Not much time for sleep!
Cheers
Shirley |
