Postcard from PDAC 2010, part three

Codename NRI (nondescript retail investor) has sent more goodies and here they are. As a quick aside, I reckon NRI and DRI has nailed Argentina in this one.

Otto, I wanna fill you in on a wonderful ‘stars n dogs’ story, which actually unfolded yesterday. Not long ago I stumbled onto Golden Predator Royalty & Development Corp (GPD.to) and after looking at their website and some filings, resolved to spend more time checking it out some day. William Sheriff, with some impressively heavy duty successes, is the CEO. Spotting the company booth I asked the young woman staffing it if Bill Sheriff would be giving a presentation, with the result that she gave me an invitation for a luncheon meeting. En route I met up with my buddy Distinguished Retail Investor (DRI) and invited him to come along. I should note that GPD.to has lots on the go, including some projects in the Yukon, which Bill Sheriff believes is a significant emerging district.

It turned out that the luncheon was an event hosted by the newly formed Yukon Gold Mining Alliance and the event was one where a number of member companies working in the Yukon would present – Alexco, Capstone, GPD.to,Western Copper, Northern Freegold, etc. Entering the room set up for dining, we immediately had access to beer or wine and seating of our choice. Serendipitously, Bill Sheriff took a seat beside us and we had his private audience. (Aside: I am even more interested in GPD.v and will consider further when I get home, but this tale is really not about GPD.v) Luncheon was served – salad , entrée and dessert - and it was truly exceptional. Then the speeches; the Alliance guy, the minister of mining and an economic development guy, all briefly pitched the mining friendly jurisdiction and the perks therein, financial and legislative (notably, one tier/no federal red tape, processing time lines, requiring gov’t to process within time limits, First Nations communities are all on side).

I gotta say that this was all new to me and I was as impressed with the set up as I was with the luncheon. Then the companies presented, about 5- 10 minutes each, and every company rep. enthused about the supportive government. My fave: Capstone encountered a glitch – some legal constraint – and prevailed upon whomever and the Yukon government passed remedial legistration within 10 DAYS so that Capstone carried on happily. DRI and I left the event agog and absolutely impressed.

Cut to Monday evening: While I was taste testing a pisco sour at Fortuna Silver’s reception DRI met up with me. He had just come from a formal reception hosted by Argentina government reps. He filled me in about the interminable government speeches which had been going on forever with no hospitality...on and on and on. He slipped out, returned and they were still going. DRI and I we split a gut laughing. His text to me later:

“...wherein attendees were packed into rows of chairs facing a dais, and subjected to one and a half hours of long-winded speeches from several levels of official and corporate spokesmen.. Bartenders were embargoed from offering drinks (at cocktail time) until the last speech was over. The (unintended?) message was: Formality and bureaucracy are alive and well down here. Major new projects have taken YEARS to permit, and negotiations over them never really end. But we promise that we are determined to increase the amount of investment we attract and exports of minerals from our country. We have no clue that we are a caricature of ourselves.”

A quick comment about today: I took in some very good presentations, one of which was by Jorge Ganoza for Fortuna Silver, another by the folks from AuEx Resources (XAU.to) and I visited some explorationists’ booths, including Firestone Ventures (FV.v), exploring for zinc in Guatemala. I dropped in at the McEwen Capital reception and surveying the huge and jam packed crowd, I immediately reclaimed my coat and called it a night…too tired to commingle. Last day tomorrow…