I don't know Liz, but I just don't see a new discovery having this kind of impact.In the current market most discoveries hardly get noticed at all. My gut feeling so far is that it's an old discovery, the Aginskoye. This appears to be as close to a mother lode as has been seen in a long time but was given little if any value due to the fact that it lies within the Bystrinsky Park, a world heritage site. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the U.S. government's Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) backed the development of KGC's Kubaka mine but in 1998 the OPIC bowed to pressure from environmental groups and refused to back Aginskoye due to it's location within the Park. Now that the Russian government has changed the boundary line so that the project is outside the Park financing and and permitting should be less difficult. Another plus is that KAMGOLD, 50% owner, is comprised of the local government, local natural resource agency and several private Russian mining companies.
According to the Oct. 11 edition at nowtoronto.com: "Anything goes in cash-starved Russia, where the government has reportedly decided to move the southern border of the Bystrinsky Park--a UNESCO-recognized heritage site--in order to allow Canuck outfit Kinross Gold to extend its mining operations."
Given that Asarco's project manager described the project as a "bonanza" that is comparable to strikes that launched the 1849 California gold rush, Kilborn's feasibilty study states an average grade of 29 g/t, KAMGOLD geologists say that some parts could contain grades as high as 900 g/t and official government documents estimate a total of 30 tons of gold but local government officials believe the amount could be twice that much,to me, this is the kind of stuff that prompts insider buying like was reported in Oct. outsider buying like we're seeing and shareholder rights plans.
How accurate this info is I honestly don't know. Much of it came from a 1997 article entitled Kamchatka at Risk: Gold and the Struggle for Sustainability by David Gordon, found at the Multinational Monitor. |
