RE: IPT.V
stockhouse.ca
I just returned from visiting the Impact mine October 22-24, 2006. One of the first things I did was to add even more shares to my PF I was so impressed.
I do belive this company is on the verge of being "discovered".
- this region has some of the most beautiful country I have ever had the pleasure to view. The elevation is around 6,000' - rolling hills with neat homes widely scattered over the region. Quite a bit of small scale farming, agriculture, cattle, sheep etc. As we toured the property it was common to see families leading a burro down mountain paths to various destinations or granny with her loaded shopping bags coming back from a trip to town, hiking up and down these endless mountain trails that would daunt most of us here. On a little jut of land there was a school with basket ball court sitting on a precipice maybe 200' by 300' in dimentions. On 3 sides it was almost a sheer drop-off of a thousand feet or more to the valley below. Mind boggling.
- the townsite located a couple miles from the mine is pretty as a picture and the people very friendly, quite isolated
- the statue in the town square is a miner, these people have been miners for generations and Impact is the only operating mine in the region
- Impact controls the majority of the prospective land in the region,,, for all intents and purposes controls ALL the prospective land base here
- the group I was with included representitives from brokerage firms, a Director of an investment bank in Washington, an investment news writer, all of the senior Mexican mine management along with Fred and Darrell. This is the first "media tour" as Fred was waiting until he was satisfied that most of the operational wrinkles were ironed out before "showcasing" IPT.
- Our experience was over-the-top throughout the entire visit, from the clean accommodations, quality of meals to the beauty of the region and knowledge and hospitality of the Mexican senior management.
Fred and his people put on a first class presentation in every way, all surprises were to the upside.
People and Property
- The senior Mexican (bilingual) geologist seemed to know the property like the back of his hand. We drove over much of the property and on several mountain tops where you could see for miles he would point out a portal or adit and describe the vein(s) and give their history and grades, then he would trace the veins and discuss how they merged or split - again with the grades - down the mountain, across the valley and up the other mountain. This happened time after time from several different vantage points. There was no attempt to pump but it was obvious that his knowledge was impressive and he was extremely proud of their resources.
- A professional mining engineer with (according to Fred) exceptional credentials from Mexico City is on contract to IPT and spends 3-4 days a week on site. Part of his effort goes toward keeping everyone focused on the overall mining "growth plan", supervising senior staff in that they are properly coordinating their activities (quite complex in many ways), and a strong work ethic. This guy gets a lot of respect from everyone.
- Geologist & company Vice-President George Gorzynski spends most of his time on the property. It is obvious that he loves it there and is totally enamoured with the potential and actual value in-the-ground. I am sure he would like nothing better than to explore and drill and keep drilling to uncover what is an endless source of rich silver veins on this 125+ square miles of property. This will likely come in time but for now I believe his focus is more on a detailed study of veins that are the easiest to bring into production to get the mill up to 500tpd, currently around 200tpd. (more on that further down).
Property
It seemed obvious to all of us that there is so much silver here that they will be mining it for decades if not hundreds of more years. The only time this property has not been actively mined in its 400+ years of production is during times of war and revolution. This is because a valley that runs thru the property extends from Acapulco right to Mexico City and one of the mountains/hills is a strategic location during times of war. In our underground tours it was obvious that the rock is relatively easy to work with as there were hardly any rock-bolts needed to stablize workings creating a very safe working environment for the miners.
Production Plans
- if plans stay on course the mill should be up to 300tpd by January 2007, getting to 500tpd depends on various items including permitting and the time needed to drive adits into discovered veins etc. Contrary to what many believe (new to me also) there are some veins here that are exceptionally wide. Two veins we were shown that will be coming into production very soon (if not already) measure between 12 and 25 metres grading between 400-600gpt silver.
Growth Plans
- the company is studing portable mills as there has been many substantial improvements with them. The cost of a complete mill that will produce concentrate looks like it would cost between $200-$400,000.00 for a 100-200tpd mill. Extremely economical. Two reasons for adding portable mills would be:
1/ cheaper to truck a concentrate than raw ore, if oil prices continue to rise this would be add even more value to this
2/ Metallurgy. A different mix of metals would mean different chemicals in the processing procedure (some areas of the property have copper content). Rather than changing the process at their 500tpd operation it may make sense to add production with a portable mill. This could keep going as they explore further out. No time frame here.
Environmental
- no issues with any enviornmental situations I am aware of
Infrastructure Development
- they will be replacing some of the floatation cells over the next few months, will likely cost in the range of a couple hundred thousand dollars.
- the tailings damn capacity will have to be built up prior to getting up to 500tpd. This is quite straight forward and they are studying the engineering to decide the best approach.
Promotional
- The presentation folder/slide show by Fred was exceptional. They have spent quite a lot of effort in organizing their "story". This new presentation will likely form the base of their restructured website which hopefully will be completed in the next few weeks.
- They have been working hard at getting info together for the public. I expect a steady stream of news from the company over the next several months.
Club Med facilities
There are 12 - 15 residences on the mine site in a beautiful setting in great shape. There is a swimming pool, badminton court and a recreation hall (party room) with bar, all owned by Impact. Someone commented that these facilities alone are worth the market value of Impact shares. Many of these residences are used by the senior mine management as a benifit of employment. They have been a major asset in acquiring and keeping some of the best Mexical mining people. Fred commented that miners from Mexico and Peru are among the best in the world and his crew are right at the top.
That's all for now, Fred Davidson deserves a ton of congratulations for what is a success story now ready to be told to the investment world.
Impact's day in the sun has arrived in my opinion.
For disclosure my airfare and accommodations were paid for by the company but no other renumeration. I was not asked nor did I offer to write anything on the company in return for this.
Impact Silver has been my largest holding for almost 2 years.
Doug Beiers
TheSimpleInvestor |
