Peru: Latest poll has Ollanta Humala 4.2% ahead

Here's the link, here's the chart:

And for those of you into details and subcharts and Spanish language commentary, there's tons of that on pages 3, 4 and 5 of today's edition of La Republica which you can access right here.

Ernesto Sabato, QEPD

Ernesto Sabato, novelist, physicist and one of the key defenders of Human Rights in Argentina, died today aged 99 years and 10 months. To know more about the great man, La Nacion has excellent coverage of his life and work today.

Geometry Problem 599: Regular Hexagon, Square, Midpoint, Angle, Degrees

Geometry Problem
Click the figure below to see the complete problem 599.

Zoom

keynes vs hayek

This is great.


Watch it all. H/T Salmon

Geometry Problem 598: Trapezoid, Perpendicular, Equal Angles, Metric Relation

Geometry Problem
Click the figure below to see the complete problem 598.

Zoom

The Friday OT: Tammi Terrell & Marvin Gaye; Ain't no mountain high enough

Dedicated to my wife.


Have a good weekend.

IKN congratulates Casey Research on the superb job it does of keeping its readership up to date on changes in circumstances in its covered stocks

Truly top service, guys.

dyodd

Geometry Problem 597: Quadrilateral, Right Triangle, Isosceles, Congruence, Angle

Geometry Problem
Click the figure below to see the complete problem 597.

Zoom

Peru Prez Poll, Round Two

A new poll is out today Friday from pollster Datum and published by Peru 21. This might leave it open to accusations of bias (because Peru 21 is an anti-Humala newspaper), but along with a CPI poll from yesterday that had the gap at 3.8%, there's a clear catchup tendency going on that's favouring Keiko Fujimori. Recall that last Sunday the gap was 6% and as I said back then, this one is going to be very close.

I'd only add one other thing right now: Be careful what you wish for. The full Datum poll publication can be found right here.

UPDATE: Highly recommended on this subject for Spanish speakers is this new post from highly esteemed Peru Political Scientist Cynthia Sanborn, someone who has forgotten more about this subject than most of the so-called experts out there know. Unmissable.

Geometry Problem 596: Quadrilateral, Right Triangle, Isosceles, Midpoint

Geometry Problem
Click the figure below to see the complete problem 596.

Zoom

Cerro Casale: Capex increase, what capex increase?

News out of Barrick (ABX) this week was that the estimated capex needed to build the now infamous Cerro Casale gold mine in the uplands of Chile has moved up to a cool $5.25Bn (with a B). That's quite a move and it's hardly the first change of number seen at the project, either, as witnessed by this chart you humble scribe ahs cobbled togethe after doing about 10 minutes' worth of simple Googling:

Find sources for these numbers here, here, here etc. So anyway, it's now been fixed at $5.25Bn and it's hardly likely to change again from that number, is it? After all, they wouldn't underestimate and then revise upwards later on purpose now, would they?

A Flash update...

...went out to subscribers about half an hour before the open.

Chart of the day is....

...the gold:copper ratio.

This has really been behaving itself for close on two years. Also, unlike silver they're two metals you can take seriously.

Geometry Problem 595: Triangle, Equal Angles, Isogonal Conjugate, Similarity

Geometry Problem
Click the figure below to see the complete problem 595.

Zoom

futbol

Still travelling and not much time to post a lot, but this.....this.....


....this is for those that understand futbol. Sublime.

menampilkan kedudukan batuan pada peta geology

hai blogger mania....!!!
pada kesempatan kali ini, ane akan mmberi tutorial sederhana cara menampilkan kedudukan batuan, kebetulan ada teman ane yang request untuk pemetaan geology, mudah2an dapat sedikit membantu....!!! berikut ini tutorialnya....!!! selamat belajar.....!!!




Tutorial high resolution : DOWNLOAD

SaLam tambanG & saLam Gali_gali
TaMbanG_UnHas

Geologists in popular culture

I was sent this link and the excerpt by a geologist friend this morning. We definitely share this, as it's wonderfully wonderful. Enjoy.

While the media rarely represents geologists to the general population, (excluding sound bytes on Discovery Channel volcano specials), there was one recent attempt to integrate geologists into a television program. According to various blog sources, CBS was looking to produce a new reality tv show for 2008, after correctly predicting that the writers' strike would cut down on their ability to create blue-toned dramatic shows centering around corpses. One of their production managers happened to see a documentary on a volcanologist researching lava in Hawaii, and seeing the danger and excitement inherent in people smashing molten hot 'magma' with rock hammers, pitched the idea of a 'geologist survivor-type' show.

In December of 2007, CBS hired a production crew to pull the show together; the scenario was that nine geologists would be placed in the field, where they would vote each other off based on their willingness to do dangerous geologist type feats common to the field; like researching active volcanoes, trilobite wrangling, earthquake surfing, landslides catching, and landing in bush planes on glaciers. Geologists that weren't up to the task would be voted off, and the last remaining "Hard-core geologist" would win a prize.

The production was plagued from the beginning. They were successful in finding nine geologists, 6 males and three females, between 25 and 50 years of age, and they quickly set up the first challenge; researching an active volcano in the Phillipines. The geologists and camera crew set up camp near the bottom of the volcano. The camera crew filmed the nine geologists bonding. The geologists were supplied with alchohol (a common strategy to loosen up the cast on reality TV shows), but the camera crew was surprised to notice that even after drinking gallons of the liquid, the geologists did not change their behavior, and continued talking in an obscure jargonized language about 'bombs', 'hornitos', 'breccia,' and 'lahars,' none of which made for good reality TV.

This trend continued through the entire first challenge; the geologists were seemingly oblivious to the camera, and the only interpersonal drama occurred when the seismologist and structural geologist got into a yelling match over the best recipe for chili. When the camera-crew and geologists went up to do research on the volcano, instead of sticking together, the geologists scattered into the landscape, and the camera-crew found themselves unable to find more than two at a time. Also, after listening to the volcanologist eagerly predict just how soon the volcano would explode, the camera-crew became extremely nervous and returned to the camp.

The crew returned from the first shoot to Los Angeles with almost no footage. To further complicate matters, the editors were unable to make sense of what footage there was, because they had no idea what the hell the geologists were talking about. However, it did appear that initially a few of the scientists seemed to understand the concept of 'voting off' another member. After consulting a nearby university, the crew finally explained to the geologists were basically 'competing for funding from the National Science Foundation.' Unfortunately, the NSF grant analogy didn't go well either, as the geologists quickly pointed out that they didn't have enough time to write a successful research proposal. Finally, the geologists were simply told agree upon some arbitrary criteria that they could use to get rid of someone. After a series of seminars, the geologists decided that whoever had the worst aim with a rock hammer would be told to leave.

The second event, landing in a bush plane in northern Alaska, was a complete failure. None of the geologists were nervous at the idea, which destroyed the drama the crew was hoping for, and worse yet, no-one in the production crew was willing to accompany the geologists to the field site, out of sheer terror. As a result, small cameras were given to two of the geologists to film themselves. When the geologists returned with their cameras, the editors found tapes filled with footage and commentary about mountains and 'gbbxcvxlacial erratics'. Only ten percent of the footage featured humans, and most of that footage was simply the petrologist standing by outcrops for scale.

By the time the production reached Hawaii, most of the camera-crew had quit (because of the steady diet of chili and the dangerous situations) and only five of the geologists were left; not because they had been voted off, but because they had become over-excited by rock formations at various locations and had refused to leave. Moreover, paying for an almost-constant supply of beer, single malt scotch, and transportation for the geologists' luggage' (which contained mostly oversized rock samples padded with unmentionably dilapidated field clothing), had almost exhausted the budget. CBS finally pulled the plug on the project in January of 2008, despite their fear that they might be sued for withdrawing the promise of a prize; however, none of the geologists sued, as they were still under the impression that they needed to publish a research paper to receive the money.

On The Road

Posting will be light for the next couple of days, because as Jack once wrote, "Live, travel, adventure, bless, and don't be sorry."

Got something to hide, Marin?

Looks like Casey Research is into cyberburial of criticisms. Your list of instructions:

1. Check out the December 2010 IKN post "Marin Katusa's Modus Operandi and East West Petroleum (EW.v)" on the link.
2. Go to the photoshow at the bottom of the page.
3. Mouse over the links provided to the biographies of the scummy, self-serving threesome that make up KBH Capital, namely Marin Katusa, Marc Bustin and Joe Hung. You'll note as you mouse over (without clicking) if you look in the bottom left of your screen that the url's originally provided did indeed go to the correct places.
4. Now click through the three biog links provided. The links now go to completely separate places in the Casey Research website and feature people that don't even work for the shop any more. The internal links have clearly been swapped by Casey people to send people to the wrong places.

Isn't this fun? It's almost as if Marin and his pally pals have something to hide, isn't it?

Fortuna (FVI.to) quickmath

To work out the Mine Operating Income (MOI) in a ballpark way for the 1q11 quarter just announced in this NR, what you do is;

take the silver production number (and assume produced = sold 1:1)
work out the average London fix spot price for silver in the period (U$31.66/oz)
take the cash cost number and subtract it from the avg price (negative U$4.52, so in effect you're adding)
multiply the production with the revenue per ounce.

The answer is U$15.82m. Then you have other deductions, including smelter, G&A, tax etc. But you should get the picture from comparing that $15.82m number with previous quarters.

LatAm's richest people

America Economia has out today a new list of the 50 richest people in Latin America, including close-ups on the top ten. As for those ten, here's a little chart thrown together by IKN:

And here's the table of the rankings.

nationality	ranking	name	fortune (billions of U$)
Mexico	1	Carlos Slim Helú	63.141
Brazil	2	Eike Batista	31.824
Brazil	3	Jorge Paulo Lemann	19.906
Mexico	4	Germán Larrea Mota Velasco	15.769
Chile	5	Iris Fontbona	13.902
Brazil	6	Dorothea Steinbruch	12.042
Brazil	7	Joseph Safra	11.877
Mexico	8	Alberto Baillères	11.674
Chile	9	Eliodoro Matte	9.649
Colombia	10	Luis Sarmiento	8.925

Carlos Slim is also ranked as the world's richest person, of course. Anyway, lots of good info on all this at the America Economia feature.

Chart of the day is....

...the Peru IGBVL "general" index compared to Brazil's Bovespa (gold line) and Chile's IPSA (blue line), 2011 to date.

Guess when the Peru presidential elections began to be a factor in stock valuations?

Geometry in Australia - Slideshow

Click the figure below to see the slideshow.

Zoom

Discuss

A nicely written note by Felix Salmon includes this chunk:

"...Wall Street does have a habit of boiling everything down to a right/wrong duality: if you say that a stock will go down, you’re right if it does, and wrong if it doesn’t. The intelligence of your analysis, or the idea that all these things are probabilistic rather than certain, rarely even gets lip service. This is why you see so much technical analysis on Wall Street: it makes no intellectual sense at all, but it works just as well as — or even better than — fundamentals-based analysis. (Which, admittedly, isn’t saying very much.) And that’s all that matters."

Please follow title line instruction.

Things that grow in Peru: GDP, exports and anaemia in children

Read in the context of the recent round one election results in Peru, this report out of CNR Peru today (and translated by your humble scribe) makes for interesting reading:

"The other side of growth" in Ica: Agro-export city versus a population with increasing cases of anaemia and TB

Ica, 25/04/2011 (CNR): The model region of Ica, with the highest accumulated GDP growth in all Peru over the last five years, has achieved its significant GDP growth by having a strong presence in the export market thanks to its good quality soils and hours of sunshine which achieves good production levels for its main activity, that of agriculture. Asparagus, grapes, artichokes, onions, mandarins and avocados amongst others make up the main regional agro-export products.

Recently, Finance Minister Ismael Benavides said, "Peru is aligning as an export economy of value-added products, to position itself as an important supplier of food to the world and of quality manufactured products that use natural resources in a sustainable way", adding that, "Ica exported more than U$3.208m (last year),, a growth rate of 118% compared to 2006, and its products are now sold in 80 world destinations."

However, this apparent economic growth is not reflected in the quality of life of the region's population. According to data provided by the Ica Regional Health Authority, Ica has the third largest number of cases in Peru of tuberculosis and has seen an increase in the number of cases in children under five years old, from 44.9% in 2009 to 53.8% in 2010, according to ENDES.

Added to these official data are other indications that generate a poor quality of life, such as the numbers of abandoned children and numbers of children of working mothers. Above all, a latent risk for regional development and economic growth and sustainability for the lifestyle of Ica residents is the scarcity of water.

Because of this, with the objective of generating discourse between the population and regional authorities about the real development situation and how much economic growth is adding to life quality for the population, regional watchdog Codehica is celebrating its 29th anniversary with a national and international campaign, "The other side of economic growth, a view from agro exports".

continues here

IKN apologizes to all those who think economic growth automatically benefits emerging market populations. Normal blinkered neoliberal philosophy will resume as soon as possible. ¡Viva Investment Grade!

A ten day comparative chart...

...that compares SLV to our oft-tracked "small silvers" (all producers bar BCM.v).

So apart from the 16% or so put on by SLV, the best (well, least worst really) performances are the 8% drops from FR.to, FVI.to and EDR.to. The worst is from IPT.v.

Funny old world, innit?

Sinkronisasi arcGIS 9.3 dan Google earth Pro

salam blogger mania...!!!

Untuk postingan kali ini ane membahas tentang trik sinkronisasi arcmap arcGIS 9.3 dgn Google earth, hal ini ane bahas karena berkaitan dengan praktikum GIS Pertambangan yang sedang dijalani ma yunior ane....!!! Script yang ane pakai ini merupakan script yang ane ambil dari situs Resmi ESRI yang dapat didownload secara Gratis...!!! untuk sinkronisasi ini, ane udah coba dan sempat membuat video tutorial trik sinkronisasinya...!!! salah satu fungsi dari adanya sinkronisasi ini, kita melakukan validasi data koordinat yang diambil, sesuai dengan kondisi aslinya atau tidak...!!! pengambilan data oleh yunior ane  menggunakan GPS dengan akurasi tertentu sehingga peluang bergesernya kordinat yang diambil cukup besar dan juga bergantung pada type dan kualitas GPS yang digunakan.oleh karena itu, kepada seluruh peserta GIS Pertambangan WAJIB melakukan Validasi data Koordinat yang telah diambil. di bawah ini merupakan tutorial sinkronisasinya....!!! silahkan download...!!!

untuk scriptnya silahkan Click link ini : DOWNLOAD
VIDEO TUTORIAL HIGH RESOLUTION + SCRIPT : DOWNLOAD

SaLaM_taMbang_&_SaLam GaLi_gaLi
TaMbang_UnHAs

Lots and lots of charts to watch, but...

...this is the one I'm watching closest of all this morning.

Disclosure: no position in MAI.to....yet.

UPDATE: Shhhhh...be vewy vewy qwiet...am huntin' wabbits

dyodd, dude.

Love rollercoaster

                    
                Isn't this fun?

No?

Oh c'mon, where's yer sense of humour gone?

On April 11th we used Wild Thing by the Troggs (when the move was U$42 to U$40...seems so long ago now, doesn't it?). Today's version shows the four buck move of the last couple of hours and gets to play an awesomely rockin' cover done by the Chilis way back then (in the Dave Navarro period).

Anthony says it well: You give me that funny feeling in my tummy.

Chart of the day is....

...Argentine inflation, 2007 to date.

Not the offficial inflation rate bullshit from the government of liars, however. The above charts the figures given by the website inflacion verdadera, which tracks the real prices of things down that way. Thanks due to reader MR for the link.

The IKN Weekly, out now

For those who know their Spanish brandies 

(and sadly you have to count me in)

IKN103 has just been sent to subscribers. If you didn't get it, please send me a mail and we'll sort out the glitch. This week we make a couple of changes to the port and also start looking at a couple of new names.

Something you should do today

Sign up for Mickey Fulp's 'Mercenary Geologist' newsletter. Here are your instructions.

1) Click right here.

2) Fill in the very quick and simple form that awaits you (and privacy rights are fully respected by Fulp and his team, so no worries there and no spam in your mailbox afterwards).

3) That's all.

Fulp's newsletter is about the best deal you can get out there in mining world, because you get the opinions and tips of a seasoned and highly experienced professional economic geologist for free, gratis and no cost. It really doesn't come simpler than this, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain (as his stock recos have been on fire recently too), so go now. Here's the link again, just in case.

Tatuk GIS Coordinate Calculator 2_2_0_480

Bagi peserta GIS pertambangan, silahkan download software Tatuk GIS yang merupakan software konversi koordinat....!!! cara kerja software ini sangat mudah, tinggal di input koordinat yang ingin dikonversi berikut dipilih system koordinat dan (bagian kiri) dan tujuan konversi pada bagian kanan...!!!

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Salam tambang dan salam Gali-gali
TaMBanG_UnHaS

Peru Presidential Polls, the second round

Fresh out the oven is the first serious poll on the second round run-off for Prez of Peru between Ollanta Humala and Keiko Fujimori. Here's the chart:

This one is going to be tight. Find the whole survey, with nitty gritty details and vote splits that kinda suggest Keiko has a good shot at closing the gap, right here.

The 75 Best iPad Apps, Interactive Mind Map

Graphic organizers are visual representations of knowledge, concepts or ideas.
Click the figure below to see the Interactive Mind Map.

Zoom

Peru Presidential circus update

Here's the take of the wonderful Carlin in Peru's La Republica today:

And here's your humble scribe's translated version.

Yes, Keiko Fujimori really did say that she "swears to God" that she wouldn't pardon her father if elected President. Hey, maybe she's already done a deal with Twobreakfasts and he'll do it before leaving office. Nothing would surprise me in the next couple of months of Banana Republic politics that Peru has in store.

Anyway, things start heating up tomorrow, as IPSOS/Apoyo is due to release its first opinion poll results for the second round run-off. It's actually difficult to believe that whoever is President of Peru next will be worse than the present mediocre incumbent, but that's the sad truth.

Good Friday art

Christ of St. John of the Cross, painted by Salvador Dali in 1951.

 click to enlarge (gets very big)

We'll leave the comments to Dali himself, along with a chunk out of the wiki page on the painting.

The painting is known as the "Christ of Saint John of the Cross," because its design is based on a drawing by the 16th century Spanish friar Saint John of the Cross. The composition of Christ is also based on a triangle and circle (the triangle is formed by Christ's arms; the circle is formed by Christ's head). The triangle, since it has three sides, can be seen as a reference to the Trinity, and the circle may be an allusion to Platonic thought. On the bottom of his studies for the painting, Dalí explained its inspiration: "In the first place, in 1950, I had a 'cosmic dream' in which I saw this image in colour and which in my dream represented the 'nucleus of the atom.' This nucleus later took on a metaphysical sense; I considered it 'the very unity of the universe,' the Christ!"

For what it's worth, your humble scribe has visited the museum where this painting hangs on many occasions. Mainly to see this work, really. I don't know where they hang it these days, but back then it used to be at the end of a very long corridor on the first floor and the best way of reaching it was to walk the corridor from one end to the other, watching the painting get bigger and bigger in front of your eyes. It's awe-inspiring.

The Friday OT: Andres Calamaro; Sexy y Barrigon

Goodbye to all that.

Andres rocks and rare that you find someone in the English speaking world that even knows his name, let alone his music. Meanwhile, ask anyone South of Rio Grande and you'll get a wiser response.

ECU Silver (ECU.to): Checking in on Wistar Holt's market prowess

Hey dudettes and dudes, anyone remember back in November 2010 when your author got mails from Wistar Holt, the scumball scamster that shows GATA for what it really is? Well if you don't recall, let's just remind you of a couple of the phrases used by Wistar in his missives:

I swear to God that if I ever come across you in person, I will rip you apart.

Got it? 

But of course, you won't ever show up, cause you are a coward!

Isn't this guy just the cutest ever? Anyway, the subject was, of course, his non-stop pumping of ECU Silver (ECU.to) and the way ECU.to had just made spurt in the market. Poor little lost boy Wistar couldn't contain his excitement and just had to blurt out how wonderful he was at the time. So let's see how ECU.to has done since your humble scribe's exchange with Wister Holt:

Hmm...and let's remind people of the wider context of ECU.to and Wistar, too:

 

And by some bizarre coincidence, since the continued demise of ECU.to, even in the face of the amazing run in silver, Wistar Holt seems to have ....

DYODD

ZBrush 4: Digital Sculpting Tool, 3D/2.5D Modeling, Texturing and Painting - Video

ZBrush is used as a digital sculpting tool to create high-resolution models (up to ten million polygons).
Click the figure below to see the video.

Zoom

Importing ZBrush 4 Geometry into Autodesk Maya by Pixologic - Video

Maya is 3D computer graphics software for animation, modeling, simulation, visual effects, rendering, matchmoving, and compositing on a highly extensible production platform.
Click the figure below to see the video.

Zoom

the right reasons to be long silver

I'm really warming to Kid Dynamite's blog and reasons include this post today on being long silver. I suppose that in the end it doesn't really matter if you're long silver because of the impending collapse of the dollar or the impending rapture or a bad translation of a Mayan prophecy or whatever other madcap balderdash you want to believe, because as long as you're long PMs (which really means gold, but the pseudo-PM silver is getting all the headlines) you get to enjoy the same ride (and continue in your fantasy worlds and think you're right about the world's end or the lack of physical silver out there). But what KD does is point out the sensible, well-adjusted, non-fearmongering reasons why long silver (including its most liquid form, SLV) has been, is and will continue to be the right side of the trade.

Go read his post now, it's linked here.

I'd add one thing to it, though. He's right on that the world isn't coming to an end and this is why I'm happy to sit through a rather dreary period for PM juniors and watch them underperform to silver and even gold bullion, because the current risk-off mode for the PM juniors will come to an end and they'll make for the most magnificent gains once the market decides to stop being so chickenshit. You can sum it all up with a phrase that's close to the centre of value investment, a phrase which found its way into The IKN Weekly edition 102 last Sunday.

In the end, price governs risk.

That's all. Have a nice day. And go read Kid Dynamite's thingy today, because reading smart people is smart.

another day's mailbag

You guys keep me amused via my mailbox, and for that I thank you. Here's an example from "regular reader" this morning:

Just in case you are tempted to partake in a bit of self-flagellation on this Easter weekend, I recommend you listen to this instead.

http://www.financialsense.com/financial-sense-newshour/guest-expert/2011/04/21/marin-katusa/americas-looming-energy-disaster

It should do the trick...

Thanks for that, RR (you know who you are).

Meanwhile, we note that Marin's dead horse energy play Ram Power (RPG.to) got flogged today:

Inquiring minds wonder if there two occurrences are related? And said minds also wonder if CBM Asia (TCF.v) got its own pumperooney from the morally bereft p&d scamster? Doubt that, cos it's just sooooo 2010, innit Marin?

UPDATE: Stunningly good feedback from reader TK:

I got a chuckle when I tried to open the Katusa link RR sent you in RealPlayer, and this message popped up (I’m not kidding!): “This clip cannot be played. It contains unexpected data and may be corrupt.”

 

Even RealPlayer has figured Katusa out…?

Canaccord keeps dancing

The Can of Corn today applies the "keep dancing til the music stops" principle of markets and raises its targets for gold bullion, silver bullion and therefore shouts "gotta buy em" about the miners, too. You can download the 500Kb, 23 page first quarter review of precious metals and their picks right here and below you get the front page synopsis to give you an idea of the contents.

Happy reading.

  We are raising our peak gold/silver scenario to $1,600/$47.50 (from $1,500/$30) for equity target price setting. For earnings purposes, we are also raising our 2011 price deck to $1,525/$42.00 (from $1,450/$29.75). See Figure 1 for the revised profile.
*   We continue to believe that macroeconomic conditions continue to favour higher gold and silver prices, including record global liquidity, inflation prospects and low real interest rates, currency debasement on sovereign debt woes and political unrest in the Middle East & North Africa. The Standard and Poor's cut in the US credit outlook to negative and higher inflation readings have been the catalysts to move gold through our previous peak of $1,500/oz.
*   Our average implied return for the group is 36%, based on a target P/NAV multiple of 1.20x (revised down from 1.30x but higher than current 1.05x). Ratings revisions include: Agnico-Eagle, Hecla and Silver Wheaton upgraded to BUY from Hold, and Alamos Gold upgraded to SPECULATIVE BUY from Hold. 2011 Focus list picks include Goldcorp, Allied Nevada and Primero Mining.
*   We expect Q1/11 results to highlight year-over-year increases in earnings but some sequential declines due to production levels and cost pressures with only a modestly higher gold price. Our Q1/11 EPS estimates are notably above consensus for ABX, and sequentially higher for GAM, MFL, SLW and PAAS. Our estimates are below consensus for AEM, ANV, YRI and ELD, and we expect sequential declines for CG, ANV, GG and P.

And now Scotia's chart of the day

This came along with Scotia's morning mailer letter today and it's worth passing on, methinks. Note that of all the equities covered, only Minefinders (MFN) (MFL.to) has outperformed the wildman called silver over the last three months.

Chart of the day is....

..the US Dollar (USD) index, 2002 to date.

Whither goest thou, Greenback?

Mining PRs and the Ottotrans™, Part 39

Today's Miner-NR-Into-Normal-English falls to Sinchao Metals (SMZ.v):

This is what they said:

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - April 20, 2011) - The Board of Directors of Sinchao Metals Corp. ("Sinchao" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE:SMZ) reports that, further to the announcement made on February 7, 2011, regarding the ownership status of four of the property claims comprising the Sinchao Project, it has determined that title to the claims were not properly transferred to a subsidiary of Andean American Gold Corp. ("Andean"), the party that purported to transfer the claims to Sinchao. As a result neither Andean nor Sinchao holds any proprietary interest in the claims, which claims contain approximately 40% of the inferred resource previously disclosed by the Company. The Company has been striving to reach an agreement with the parties that Andean originally dealt with in order to remedy the deficiencies in title however it has been unable to reach such an agreement. The Company is therefore not optimistic that it will be able to remedy the deficiencies in title, and will make the necessary adjustments to its financial statements to reflect the write down of these four properties.

And this is what it means:

We're screwed.

ddx
UP

 UPDATE: SMZ just opened after being halted all day:

The SMZ mothership, AAG.v, having a bit of a drop too.

No nationalizations in Bolivian mines

Bolivia Weekly has the English language scoop on it, which includes:

"Last week, Coeur d’Alene announced that the Morales administration had assured it that it wouldn’t be nationalized; now it appears that the Pan American Silver’s San Vincente and Swiss-owned Sinchi Wayra’s mines will not be affected."

The reason? It seems that the unions at the mines don't want them to be "recovered" (i.e. nationalized) by the State. Meanwhile the deputy mining minister said, "A recovery of the mines that were owned by the State mining company Comibol and had been passed over to private mining companies for their administration and exploitation had been considered; but the condition was that the unions working in each of the mines were to agree to this (recovery). All the unions are against (this move), it's not going to happen."

Read more at Bolivia Weekly here.

How Casey Research fakes its track record

One of the ways it does it like this:

1) Recommend hundreds of stocks
2) Never sell the losers
3) Boast about the amazing track record of closed trades.

Here's an example: Remember last year when we looked at Marin Katusa's bullshit about CBM Asia (TCF.v), the stock he pumped no end before it started sinking in classic Katusa Krush style*? Well at the time he decided to give up on the stock he put a "sell at 30c" call on it, thus avoiding the embarrassment of selling at half that price when his initial recommend was up there at 80c. He justified his bullshit sell-that-isn't-a-sell call by saying that "..[i]t may take some time to sell our stock, but with patience, the merits of the property should allow us an opportunity to exit the stock at or above C$0.30."

So let's see if patience has paid off since those words of Katusa's back in late July 2010:

Hmmm...more of that patience medicine needed, yeah Marin?

This is the Casey Research modus operandi and how it manages to fool so many people into believing its totally unaudited propaganda about unbeatable returns. What's more the above is one example of the many because this happens all the time. So, dear reader, why not start your own unaudited research house yourself? Remember, all you need to do is:

1) Pick a boatload of stocks

2) Take profits on the winners

3) Ignore the losers and never sell them by putting stupid "sell at" calls on them

4) Boast about closed trades.

You'll get 'em flocking to your door, too. Then with the money you make you can leverage yourself into the private placement world and scam them both sides....just like our hero Marin.

*by the way, the similarity between the TCF.v chart and that of EW.v is remarkable. I wonder why? And the RPG.to chart, come to think of it. Anyone else spot a common denominator between those three?

Is anyone out there still betting on the deflation trade?

Just askin'

dyodd

Minera Andes (MAI.to) and its mediocre quarter

One of the problems with producing miners is that they have a reputation to live up to every quarter. An explorer can go through a quiet achievement period and get forgiven, as long as it comes up with a cool hole or aneconomically robust PFS after a while, but a producer is judged every quarter on what it does.

With that preamble done, here are a couple of charts for Minera Andes' (MAI.to) and production at its 49% owned San José mine in Argentina, including the 1q11 numbers that hit the wires just a few minutes ago:

Silver production per quarter

Gold production per quarter

Mineral throughput per quarter

Put simply, gold and silver grades were good but the whole shebang has been let down by crappy production numbers at the mine. MAI.to and HOC.L at MSC: Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory since 2009. Leguis served, the end.

UPDATE: Ok ok if you insist here's a disclosure, but for Pete's sake this is a blog, not something worth trusting, so stop being so freakin' anal all the time. Your humble scribe holds no position in MAI.to but might think about buying a bit if it drops far enough. Subscribers should understand why cos we went into the numbers in more depth back in IKN101 a couple of weeks ago. Happy now? Jeesh...

Chart of the day is....

...gold pornography, aka the hourly chart from today.

Yep we got U$1500/oz booked now, but frankly I'm beginning to care a lot more about gold in Loonies than in Greenbacks. Gold's only CAD$1437/oz today in the North American currency that actually has something to back up its value (apart from a shitload of nuclear weapons, that is).

Oxymoron of the day: Argentine political culture

Post written with Mexfiles in mind.

The recent Nobel Literature prizewinner Mario Vargas Llosa is on something akin to a tour of South America right now and has just landed in Argentina. To mark the occasion Argentine politicos have been on full "oh yeah I just love them there book things" toady alert, with the usual hilarious consequences including:

1) José Adrián Pérez, idiot member of Argentina's national congress said that he was "a good author", but when pushed by a reporter said that he'd done "a lot of valuable things, for example 'One Hundred Years of Solitude'."

2) Diana Conti, another idiot member of congress (and ex-Senator to boot), noted Vargas Llosa as "a man true to his principles" but also the dude that wrote 'The Open Veins of Latin America'.

I'm pretty sure Galeano would have a good chuckle about it all, but it'd be fun to know what García Márquez thinks. Thus ends another day in the paradise that is South America, ladies and gentlemen.

Madre de Dios: A new academic paper on the region's destruction

We've covered the ecological disaster area called Madre de Dios on many occasions here on the blog and it since we started the issue of the destruction of the Amazon rain forest due to the search for gold has started to get picked up by real media services that reach a wider audience. But I'm happy to say that the world of academia is also starting to care more, with a new paper out today headed by Jennifer Swenson of Duke University putting the spotlight on MDD and its enviro trainwreck that nobody in Peru with any power cares about (they just want the freakin' money).

Here's the link to the paper and here's the abstract to get you in the mood. We applaud Swenson and company for the good job done.

Many factors such as poverty, ineffective institutions and environmental regulations may prevent developing countries from managing how natural resources are extracted to meet a strong market demand. Extraction for some resources has reached such proportions that evidence is measurable from space. We present recent evidence of the global demand for a single commodity and the ecosystem destruction resulting from commodity extraction, recorded by satellites for one of the most biodiverse areas of the world. We find that since 2003, recent mining deforestation in Madre de Dios, Peru is increasing nonlinearly alongside a constant annual rate of increase in international gold price (~18%/yr). We detect that the new pattern of mining deforestation (1915 ha/year, 2006–2009) is outpacing that of nearby settlement deforestation. We show that gold price is linked with exponential increases in Peruvian national mercury imports over time (R² = 0.93, p = 0.04, 2003–2009). Given the past rates of increase we predict that mercury imports may more than double for 2011 (~500 t/year). Virtually all of Peru's mercury imports are used in artisanal gold mining. Much of the mining increase is unregulated/artisanal in nature, lacking environmental impact analysis or miner education. As a result, large quantities of mercury are being released into the atmosphere, sediments and waterways. Other developing countries endowed with gold deposits are likely experiencing similar environmental destruction in response to recent record high gold prices. The increasing availability of satellite imagery ought to evoke further studies linking economic variables with land use and cover changes on the ground.

continues here

There's been a decent media reaction to the Swenson & Co paper too, which you can also check out on this link.

Tuesday Tune

To celebrate receiving my first ever Passover greetings card yesterday (thanks..you know who you are) and to liven up a boring blog on a boring day (gold hits $1.5k/oz, world yawns) here's a once-removed tribute to the Jewish celebrations this week. It's also a tippy top version of the song.

And before you ask, we bought Bosch.

Take the rest of the day off, people

I'm off to buy a fridge with the wife. Have fun

Chart of the day is....

...the Greenback (USD) vs Loonie (CAD) forex rate, last 5 days as an example of Murphy's Law.

Reason for Murphy's Law: All this time I've been holding out on adjusting price models and targets due to the ever-strengthening Loonie, but last Sunday in IKN102 (as subscribers will witness) I bowed to the inevitable and adjusted targets to the CAD0.96/USD1 rate instead of using 1:1. Sure enough, the very next day the Loonie starts fading. Yet another top called inadvertantly.

Anyway, enough of my griping. Have a nice day and put a 15 handle on that gold price for me, willyaz?

Mining PRs and the Ottotrans™, Part 38

Today's example of junior mining speak translated into something we can understand comes from Redhill Resources (RHR.v), the scumbag company that used to be the scumbag company called ATW Gold and is still run by the same scumbags.

This is what they wrote:

Redhill Clarifies and Restates Disclosure on Properties

Press Release Source: Redhill Resources Corp. On Monday April 18, 2011, 6:06 pm

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - April 18, 2011) - Redhill Resources Corp. (TSX VENTURE:RHR - News) -
"As a result of a review by the British Columbia Securities Commission, we are issuing the following news release to clarify our disclosure."
On its website, investor relations material, and corporate presentation, Redhill discloses a mineral resource for the Gullewa Gold Project that

On its website, investor relations material, corporate presentation, news releases, and MD&A, the Company discloses:

On its website, investor relations material, corporate presentation, news releases, and MD&A, the Company fails to identify and disclose the relationship to the Company of the qualified person who approved, prepared or supervised the preparation of the technical information it is disclosing, contrary to section 3.1.
On the company's website, redhill-resources.com under the Guellewa project, the Company's NI 43-101 was incompletely reported as:
"Redhill purchased the Gullewa Gold Mine in 2008, and completed a NI 43-101 Technical Report on the project for a Measured and Indicated Resource centered at the main open pit area at Deflector of 1.7 million tonnes at 6.74 g/t gold equivalent for 369,000 ounces, and an Inferred Resource of 1.6 million tonnes at 7.71 g/t gold equivalent for 400,000 ounces. Other areas have an Inferred Resource of 72,700 ounces of gold."
This is non compliant to section 2.2(d) and 3.4(b), which states that the grade of each contained metal used to obtain the gold equivalent is to be included in the mineral resource reported.
The company website and future presentations will now indicate the following:
Redhill purchas

ed the Gullewa Gold Mine in 2008, and completed a NI 43-101 Technical Report on the project reporting Measured and Indicated Resource centered at the main open pit area at Deflector of 1.7 million tonnes at 4.18 g/t gold, 6.87 g/t silver and 1.03 percent copper for a gold equivalent grade of 6.75 g/t gold equivalent. Also reported in 2008 are Inferred Resource of 1.6 million tonnes at 6.50 g/t gold, 3.41 g/t silver and 0.48 percent copper with a gold equivalent grade of 7.71 g/t gold equivalent.
The following resource estimation was filed on June 13, 2008 in a report titled; "Technical Report Gullewa Gold-Copper Project, Yalgoo Mineral Field, South Murchison District, Western Australia", by Stephen J. Godden, and was an independent Qualified Person as defined under NI 43-101. The resource estimation section, dated August 2006, was prepared by J. Graindorge, who at the time was the Senior Resource Geologist for Snowden Resources, and was an independent Qualified Person as defined under NI 43-101. The resources were prepared according to JORC 2004, and as such they may be reasonably be construed to be NI 43-101 compliant, as defined by CIMM 2005 (i.e the codes that applied at the time the Mineral Resources were compiled).

As such any resource numbers that Redhill has quoted in the above table cannot be relied on as they were not prepared for Redhill and therefore are not considered 43-101 compliant.
In March 2011, the Company prepared an investor presentation titled "Corporate Presentation", which was also posted on the company's website. The presentation and the company's website, news release, and management discussion and analysis contained the following information on page 7, Gullewa Gold Mine-Western Australia:
"The project area contains substantial existing resources of 650,000 oz gold (Au) and 25,000 tonnes of copper (Cu) 43-101".
This is non compliant to section 2.2(b) which requires each category of mineral resource and reserve to be stated separately and section 2.2(c) which does not allow inferred mineral resources to be added to other categories of mineral resources.
Future presentations will now indicate the following:
Redhill purchased the Gullewa Gold Mine in 2008, and completed a NI 43-101 Technical Report on the project reporting Measured and Indicated Resource centered at the main open pit area at Deflector of 1.7 million tonnes at 4.18 g/t gold, 6.87 g/t silver and 1.03 percent copper for a gold equivalent grade of 6.75 g/t gold equivalent. Also reported in 2008 are Inferred Resource of 1.6 million tonnes at 6.50 g/t gold, 3.41 g/t silver and 0.48 percent copper with a gold equivalent grade of 7.71 g/t gold equivalent.
The Company's Management Discussion and Analysis ("MD & A"), the most recent being January 31, 2011 for the third quarter ended November 30, 2010, does indicate the above correct 2006 Mineral Resource Estimate, however Table 2-Other Mineral Resources, Gullewa Project Area has been retracted.
The Company's Press Release dated, November 9, 2010, titled "Gullewa Drill Program Complete" indicated the above 2006 Mineral Resource Estimate, but incorrectly combined Measured and Indicated Resources, with Inferred Category, which is non-compliant with 43-101, section 2.2 (c), and should not be referred to.
The Company's Press Releases dated January 18, 2011, titled "Deflector Deposit Resource Upgrade and Recommencement of Drilling at Defector", and February 2, 2011, titled "Extension Drilling Underway at Gullewa", refer to Measured, Indicated and Inferred Resources announced by the Company's partner, Mutiny Gold Ltd. While these resources are believed to be compliant with JOREC, the Company has not completed a review of the data or resources with respect to compliance with 43-101, and should not be relied upon.
Content of the presentation, MD &A and the website failed to clearly indicate that the disclosure was approved by a qualified person as defined by NI 43-101. Going forward, all website content and materials distributed to the public will be under the supervision of Brent Butler, B.Sc. In Geology; Member SEG, AusIMM whom is the Company's Qualified Person as defined under NI 43-101.
The Company retracts the prior investor presentation, and will provide an updated and revised new presentation, to replace the prior presentation, which will be available on the company's website.
In addition to the removal of the retracted language, the following updated cautionary language, among others, has been added to the home page of the company's website.
Cautionary note regarding mineral resources and mineral reserves:
Readers should refer to the Company's current technical reports and other continuous disclosure documents filed by the company available on SEDAR for further information the mineral resource estimates of the company's projects, which are subject to the qualifications and notes set forth therein, as well as for additional information relating to the company more generally. Mineral resources which are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. Inferred mineral resources have insufficient confidence to allow the meaningful application of technical and economic parameters or to enable an evaluation of economic viability suitable for public disclosure. Neither the company nor readers can assume that all or any part of an inferred mineral resource will be upgraded to indicated or measured mineral resources. Most projects at the inferred mineral resource stage do not ever achieve successful commercial production. Each stage of a project is contingent on the positive results of the previous stage, and there is a significant risk that the results may not support or justify moving to the next stage.
In those instances where the company has retracted, revised, clarified or updated previous disclosure, the company advises readers not to rely on such statements as they may continue to be found in the public domain.
This news release has been reviewed by Brent Butler, a Qualified Person as that term is defined in NI 43-101.
REDHILL RESOURCES CORP.
Graham Harris, Chairman
This news release may contain forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements address future events and conditions and therefore involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements.
The TSX Venture Exchange does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Contact:

Investor Relations
Redhill Resources Corp.
604-662-8184 or Toll Free: 1-877-662-8184
604-602-1606 (FAX)
investor@redhill-resources.com
www.redhill-resources.com

And this is what it means:

Redhill Clarifies And Restates That It Is Still Run By Scumbags

We are still scumbags. The end.