Postcard from PDAC 2010, part two

NRI is back with a second postcard from this year's PDAC bunfight, so without further ado I'll hand you over.

Otto,

Man oh man hard to decide what to write about, but leaning towards Vena Resources (VEM.to), whose reception I enjoyed Monday evening. Last year I wrote about meeting CEO Juan Vegarra and how much he impressed me, so meeting him tonight (that smart guy had put two’n’ two together) he asked me whether I intended to write him up again. I responded ‘gawd man, I raved about you; how could you object?’ He asked if I had ever had a pisco sour. ‘No’, said I; and wanting one (a great chaser to the two Corona beer I’d had), he fetched me one. Zowee! Disclosure: I do own shares…projects in Peru…this small cap company has jv’s with Cameco, Glencore and Gold Fields; but truth be told VEM.to is working capital challenged.

Arriving at the reception, I first encountered a knot of Cameco badged persons, a couple of geologists and others, and communicated my appreciation for their affirmation of my stock picking. Later, I was chatting with Juan Vegarra and these two guys approached; a tall guy with an Amerigo Resources (arg.to) name tag and another guy, with name tag flipped, who greeted JV with what I thought might be a German accent. He said something like ‘are you still surviving?’. I interjected. Pointing at his flipped name tag I asked, ‘What’s your name?’ He revealed it and I said, ‘Ah yes, I was going to ask if your name was Klaus. Let me ask you; are YOU surviving?’

Here’s the scoop readers. We'd been joined by Klaus Zeitler, Pres. of ARG.to, the share price of which got absolutely decimated during the copper price crash. ARG.to also had dire working capital challenges and was, imo, saved thanks to the very dilutive financial equivalent of mouth to mouth resuscitation by Ross Beaty. I know this because I own shares of ARG.to and I was avidly spectating the massacre. Anyway, the happily unfolding aftermath is that ARG.to is recovering nicely (the business, not so much the share price) and really looks to me to be back on track. ARG.to has investment shareholdings also of Candente Copper and Los Andes Copper which are juicing the financials with their respective share price recoveries.

Back to Klaus. Forgiving him for his unwarranted jibe from his glass house when ARG.to itself was survival challenged, I believe him to be a pretty smart guy. And, in the course of our gabbing he told me that he too is a shareholder of VEM.to. Ah…affirmation again of my stock pick. Smart guy Klaus is also a shareholder of VEM.to.

I moved along to the Fortuna Silver, Radius Gold, etc. reception. I would have lingered for a presentation but this was a party set up with great food, booze, music, dance floor and hostesses. So with energy waning, I ‘bucked up’ to imbibe another pisco sour (Juan Vegarra’s was better) and trundled off home to revive for day three.

So many stories, so little time…