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Gold/Mining/Energy : Precious and Base Metal Investing -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Elizabeth Andrews who wrote (26486)	1/7/2004 1:40:06 AM
From: croesus1111	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 39344

Talked to the CAU president in the afternoon. Dick DeVoto says that Canyon has $5 million in cash on hand to run the company, finance the takings lawsuits, and run the campaign to reverse the initiative that banned cyanide heap leach mining in Montana. Although the Briggs mine is winding down and mining will be finished by about April, they will continue to produce gold there for the next year and a half or so, he says. He says they expect to get another 50k ounces of gold out of that mine. He says that the company will have drill results for the exploration in Oaxaca, Mexico soon. He did not seem excited about the prospects for that exploration. He did say that plans are being made to utilize the equipment that is currently being used at the Briggs mine, to create an income stream once the mining is done at Briggs. CAU has hired a team with an excellent track record, Dick says, to run the potential recall campaign against I-137. Preliminary polling indicates that 65% are in favor of recall, he says. I asked whether the clean-up of their old Montana mine would be completed before the campaign heats up, because I am concerned that the ongoing clean-up controversy will be used by the opposition. Unfortunately they will not be able to finish the clean-up by that time, as there are water quality issues that cannot be solved only by moving dirt, and will require time for the contaminants to leach out. I asked about the takings law suit. There is a suit pending before the Montana Supreme Court. Normally a decision would be expected by about June, but there is no requirement for the court to act by then. (Editorial note: If I were in the justices' shoes, I would consider waiting until after the initiative petition was voted on, in an effort to avoid dealing with this hot potato. Which would screw up my personal trading strategy, where I have recently taken some profits [bought at $1.90, sold half at $3.98], assuming that CAU would lose the court case and the stock would plunge, allowing me to rebuy at a good price. That could still happen, but it might not.) If the Montana court case loses, the company will appeal in federal court where Dick says they feel they have a better chance. The company would prefer to go the electoral route rather than the judicial route. It's important to note that when I-137 passed, there was a law on the books that prohibited Canyon from participating in the election; the law was later declared unconstitutional, but too late for that election. There is another issue, which is that Canyon may have lost or be in the process of losing its permit to mine the MacDonald deposit. CAU contends that this is an illegal outcome and a breach of contract, but that too may have to be adjudicated. So even if I-137 is reversed, there is a potential for another legal obstacle to the mine. Please be aware that I did not take notes on this conversation, so what I've written here is my recollection of a conversation that took place this afternoon.

To: Elizabeth Andrews who wrote (26486)	1/7/2004 11:27:14 AM
From: Rocket Red	Respond to of 39344

bought your SML for some promo

To: Elizabeth Andrews who wrote (26486)	1/7/2004 12:53:29 PM
From: Rocket Red	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 39344

Sunday, January 4 2004 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- VOLUME 115 SML.V Stealth Minerals Limited (TSX Venture: SML) $0.59 Investors who have been patient, more than doubled their investment if they bought Stealth Minerals at $0.26 when we initiated coverage on April 21, 2003. Currently, we believe that recent developments offer the opportunity for similar gains in the intermediate future. The Company is carrying out an extensive exploration program on its 710 square kilometer (300 square mile) Toodoggone Project. This large, very prospective property adjoins Northgate Exploration's (TSX: NGX) Kemess gold/copper 50,000 tonne per day open pit mine in north central British Columbia. The Toodoggone region, especially the eastern margin of the basin, is under-explored. With the exception of Stealth’s Pine gold-copper porphyry, none of the other prospects has had a systematic exploration program. All prospects to be included in this year’s exploration program have outstanding potential to produce stand alone economic deposits. The Toodoggone island arc is generally a volcanic and granite terrane that is densely mineralized. SML controls the dominant land position in the Toodoggone on which 60 mineralized showings have been identified to date. Of these, 15 deposit-scale targets have been identified. The 2004 exploration program has a budget of $6.0 million, a significant increase over 2003, and will focus on the high-grade gold and silver discovery called Sickle Creek. This was one of two key discoveries made last year. It was based on geological data accumulated over the past few years that inferred the possibility of a significant alteration trend from the Northwest Breccia, which is approximately in the middle of the property and runs up to a prior known property called the Kevin. Then, in mid-August, discovery was made of an outcrop of very high-grade gold and silver in an area called Sickle Creek. Sickle Creek appears to be the location of a significant concentration of gold, silver and base metals. Directly to the west is the Eskay Creek facility, which is owned by Barrick and is the second most profitable mine in Canada. This mine is 40 percent silver and 60% gold. Eskay does have base metals as well but they are not a significant component of the NSR due to metallurgical issues. It is still too early to compare the deposit types, but they both are polymetallic epithermal styles of mineralization. The SML’s other major discovery is an epithermal style vein with high-grade gold-silver with significant base metal mineralization. It is called the August, because the discovery was made in August of 2003. Early in the 2004 field season, SML plans to start a comprehensive development program leading up to a drill program. The structure and mineralization is traced on surface for about 3,000 meters and it is open to the northwest. In terms of epithermal systems, a 3,000-meter zone is an order of magnitude larger than most epithermal systems. This is a significant regional discovery. However, it could turn out to be much more significant as it could be part of a 16 kilometer mineralized system that would have enormous potential. SML believes the system has potential for a large gold and silver resource and the area is very under explored. Another important point to consider is that SML has a number of confidentiality agreements with some of the majors. They should all be very interested in what SML is doing, because the discoveries based on surface grades published so far appear to have economic potential, particularly Sickle Creek. Good gold grades always attract the attention of a major, especially when the system is large, and Sickle Creek appears to be part of an unusually long epithermal system. The reason for the interest is that major companies such as Newmont, Placer, and Barrick, each year have to find 3 to 5 million ounces of gold just to maintain their production profile. Any exploration property that has a resource potential in excess of a million ounces of gold is attention getting. Because of the potential of the overall project and the apparent interest of the majors, we believe SML offers an excellent opportunity for the junior mining investor. Additionally, the continuing rising prices of gold, silver and copper should create a strong tail wind as further developments occur throughout 2004. We would like to wish all of our readers a Happy New Year. Please send all suggestions or investment ideas to news@ceocast.com.