Charts of the day are....

...road traffic accident figures for 2009.

So yesterday there was a media splurge on the publication of The Andean Community (aka CAN, comprising of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia) and the amount of road traffic accidents they'd all had in 2009. Here's the chart that comes from the figures, (example report here) which also compares each country to its year 2000 stats the same way as nearly all the reports did:

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We see that in 2009 Bolivia had the most accidents, with 410 for every 100,000 population. Then comes Colombia (though we note the rate has dropped in the last 10 years), then Peru and finally Ecuador. Sure enough, the anti-Evo media in Bolivia started on their 'world's gonna end' stuff thanks to the numbers.

Then the raw numbers for deaths were also published in the reports, but without any population count context. So this author decided to do the pro rata calculations himself, getting population figures for each country from the CIA Factbook (the best thing them spooks ever did was launch that site...great stats homebase). So here's how road traffic deaths per 100,000 look for the four countries and also as superduper extra context, the stats for Argentina, the USA and the UK (the sources are mentioned there on the chart):

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So it seems that although there are more accidents per 100k in Bolivia, they tend not to be as life-threatening as in the other countries....more prangs, less speed. On the whole, the Andean region is basically on a par with the fatalities rate of The USA (more or less, Ecuador pushing the envelope a bit). This might not be so, however, if we look at the different metric of deaths per km driven. That number isn't calculated down here, it is up there and I'm guessing (though not sure) that the USA's average would drop if we went with it. Meanwhile, in The United Kingdom they obviously drive like whusses.

But Argentina is the real context here. Man, I know how they drive and it doesn't surprise me to see double the death rate of Bolivia; total dumbasses behind the wheel who all think they're Fangio.

If you're interested, here's the dataset:

2009 deaths		pop. (100k) (CIA Factbook)	deaths per 100k population
Argentina	7885	413.43201	19.07
Ecuador	1998	147.90608	13.51
Colombia	5634	442.05293	12.75
USA	33963	3102.328630	10.95
Peru	3243	299.070030	10.84
Bolivia	973	99.47418	9.78
UK	2222	612.84286	3.63

Colombia, bastion of human rights

To celebrate the Clintons' (both of 'em) arrival and hangout in Colombia, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC, the world's biggest union body) released its annual survey of world deaths due to trade union activity today. Here's how the numbers look in chart form.

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According to ITUC, when it comes to The Americas:

There has been no improvement in the plight of trade unionists on the American continent, undoubtedly owing to the impunity enjoyed by those responsible for trade union rights violations. This is, in substance, the main conclusion that can be drawn from the "Americas" section of the International Trade Union Confederation’s 2010 report on trade union rights violations around the world. It is not surprising that this continent continues to be the most deadly for trade unionists, especially in Colombia, where 48 were killed this year alone.

The American continent has long been the scene of anti-union murders, chiefly in Colombia, Guatemala (16) and Honduras (12), together with abductions, death threats, attacks and even raids on trade unionists’ homes.

Whilst Latin America may have shown greater resistance to the financial turmoil than other parts of the world, the global financial and economic crises have had a profound impact on the region’s real economy. The ITUC annual survey explains that many governments, such as that of Costa Rica, have used the crisis as a pretext for further weakening trade union rights, adopting measures, for example, to increase labour flexibility.

In Colombia, the world’s most dangerous country for trade unionists (Colombia accounts for 60% of all the murders committed around the world on the grounds of trade union activities), the endemic climate of anti-unionism would appear to have become even more deeply rooted. In addition to the many reported murders, there are the cases that have not been registered, as well as the attempted murders, disappearances and death threats. Violence against women is also on the rise: five of the 48 trade unionists assassinated were women. The facts established in the ITUC report point clearly to the fact that the impunity enjoyed by those responsible for these crimes erases any hope of eradicating the anti-union climate in Colombia continues here.

This must be why Mish Shedlock extols the virtues of Colombia. The full ITUC report or the regional sections thereof can be downloaded here.

Military Spending in Latin America, 2009

Peer-acknowledged world experts on military spending, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) think tank, this week released its survey of 2009 military spending around the world. When the focus is Latin America it makes for very interesting reading, especially when you consider the differences between verifiable facts and figures presented by SIPRI and the hyped out BS written in the English language about what goes on down this neck of the woods. The SIPRI figures that follow are taken from this EFE wire report.

Let's start with overall spending in dollar terms per country:

Brazil was, far and away, the biggest spending country in 2009 with over $27Bn as the total budget. Next was Colombia spending over U$10Bn on all things warrior. Then comes Chile and Mexico and then down in 5th place comes the country painted as the big regional military spender by Hillary&Co, Venezuela.

But size of country matters too, so in this next chart we see the biggest spending countries in terms of total bill as a percentage of GDP.
So from this we see that Colombia spends the most on its military compared to the size of its economy. Then close behind comes Chile (its military is directly funded by state copper company Codelco) and then Ecuador (that has to look after its border with Colombia due to the FARC). Fourth place is Brazil (which suddenly looks pretty reasonable, but it'd be better if it were off the chart low as Mexico is) and then in fifth place again comes Venezuela, edging out that other obvious destabilizing threat to the world, the nasty belligerent bunch from.....errrr....Uruguay.

Then there's this chart, which is really quite bizarre. This shows the Year-over-Year (YoY) change in military spending, with the 2009 spending as a percentage to 2008 spending.
Uruguay boosted its spending on the military the most in 2009 compared to the previous year, but as the sector is quite small in absolute terms we're not that worried. Then comes Ecuador, Brazil, Colombia (up another 11%...natch) Mexico and then Peru, which is a special case in itself as it was Peru in 2009 that went around asking the other Latam countries to reduce spending on arms during the Unasur conferences....like wow, who in the world would have thought Twobreakfasts was capable of hypocrisy, eh? But then we have three countries that actually did do something about defence expenditures and cut their spending in 2009, namely Chile, Argentina and ....wait...what's this? Venezuela dropped military spending by how much??? Wow, you'd never guess that Chávezlandia spent 25% less in 2009 from the biased shit you've been reading, would you?

Finally, some context. It's always good to have some context.


So here's a message to Hillary. When it comes to the subject of Venezuelan defence spending, do us all a favour and....

UPDATE: Lots of extra crunchy LatAm military spending goodness available via this cool post over at Maladjusted.

The 2009 Small Silver Sweepstakes: The Results

Yes indeed, 2009 is all over and so the results are in on our tracking of best small silver mining company in 2009. Here's the chart:

click to enlarge

• And the winner is....ENDEAVOUR SILVER (EDR.to)! Congrat guys on a great achievement and a 230% gain in 2009.

• An excellent second place (silver medal...geddit?) goes to my personal favourite silver miner, Fortuna Silver (FVI.v). You guys should be proud of yourselves, too.

• The honour of third is won by Great Panther Resources (GPR.to). Maybe not my number one personal pick, but there's no knocking success. Well done indeed.

Oh....who's that bringing up the rear? In last of ten places and the only featured stock to have made a net loss in 2009 is ECU Silver (ECU.to)! This means that GATA membership is half price in 2010, people. Don't forget what Bill Murphy pledged to the world early in 2009:

If this stock (ECU.to) is not at $3 US, or CDN, by the end of the year, I will cut the Café’s subscription price in half for 2010, or $100 versus the now $199 … which means I will lose hundreds of thousands of dollars if this dog does not hunt … am putting my money and my mouth where my money is.

All I can say to that is "ROFL". So Bill, either you make that shiny new cut price $100 annual sub nice and easily available to your long suffering members or you can quite simply, once and for all

Latinobarometro 2009, out now

Get your copy of the 115 page report on this link right here.

By the way, it's an 8.5 mega PDF download, so be patient.

LatAm competitiveness

Felix Salmon has a post up about the Davos Global Competitiveness Report version 2009 that came out today (or was it yesterday?) and Salmon gets the analysis more or less right. He also links to the report itself, so check out the source material from there.

Now of course we don't give two hoots...

..about silly thirdworld places like "Switzerland" and "The Netherlands" and the others in the top 10. We also guffaw about the fact that the USA, ground zero to the world's financial and economic woes, still makes the top 100. All we love is LatAm, so here's how the important countries fared in the ranking this year.

Country	Ranking
Chile	30
Costa Rica	55
Brazil	56
Mexico	60
Uruguay	65
Colombia	69
Peru	78
Argentina	85
Ecuador	105
Venezuela	113
Bolivia	120
Paraguay	124

Yeah, Chile...Chile, Chile, Chile. Always Chile, isn't it? Costa Rica we love you.. Brazil is TheNewRespectable™, Uruguay has jumped 9 places to 65 this year. And big surprise, the freemarketeers hate TheAxisOfEvo™. Or in other words, waddya expect?

Word quiz of the day

This chart shows the GDP growth of Peru compared to that of Bolivia in the first six months of 2009. And I'm not making these numbers up either, they're the official figures.

So, take a wild guess as to why Peru is lauded as the region's economic miracle and Bolivia's growth is ignored? And while you're at it, remember that at the beginning of 2009 the IMF forecast full year growth for Peru at 5% and Bolivia at 2%.

And now today's quiz: Rearrange the following words into a correct sentence:

tend to be, journalists, South America, analysts, and, financial, hypocritical, English language, lying bastards, a bunch of, reporting on

UPDATE: Otto yet again notes from the contents of his inbox that Peruvians really, really don't like the idea of playing second fiddle to Bolivians. Well dudes, you're gonna have to live with it.

Chart of the day is....

....Hugo Chávez's presidential approval ratings, monthly in 2009.

There are many surveys done in Venezuela on this subject, but with yesterday's Datanalisis survey results for July published it give us a chance to track one single (and reputedly reliable) survey company's results using the same question and same demographics every time.

We see that in the period January to March, Chávez won support through the constitutional amendment period (when there was no poll taken). No poll taken for April. Then his support dropped back down to what the boss of Datanalisis calls his "traditional support" of between 50% and 54%. This month it's moved back up to 57.3%. The negative views towards Chávez dropped from 41% in June to 38.8% in July. Presumably the other 13.9% are neutral towards him or offered no opinion.

Thus, if media channels were to reflect the true state of opinion in Venezuela, on average 573 out of every thousand news reports or articles should be supportive of Chávez, 388 should criticize him and 139 should take a neutral stance. Anybody note a slight discrepancy with reality there?

The LatAm GDP beauty contest

Know your history, dudes...

And the winner is..........

MEXICO, with a drop of 10.3% in its GDP in 2q09.

Second prize goes to...

CHILE, with a 4.5% drop in its GDP in 2q09.

And third prize is awarded to....

VENEZUELA, its GDP dropping 2.4% in the same second quarter period.

The message was brought to you by IKN, bringing context to Venezuelan figures you'll see bandied about on their own for the rest of 2009.

Chile's car sales

July's figures for new auto sales were just released by the Chilean car honchos ANAC, so it's a good moment to catch up on what's been happening to that sector in the country. In places where consumer stimuli on auto sales hasn't been used to any great extent (Brazil has been running a successful campaign on that score all year, way before 'cash for clunkers' was invented by Obama&Co), new auto sales are a good way to get a thumbrule idea of the way the consumer is acting in any given country. In the case of Chile, there's good news and bad. First the good, and new auto sales have been picking up as the year progresses.

ANAC originally put its estimates for 2009 at 130,000 units, but they've bumped that up to 140,000 on recent numbers (Chile's sales tend to increase month after month during the year, peaking in November)

But the bad news is the longer view. The 140,000 units forecast for 2009 sit like this compared to previous years.

And that's quite a drop, dudettes and dudes. Chile isn't rotating its new cars this year, with plenty of consumers driving their present car another few thousand miles instead of trading in. It's called a recession, something that Chile hasn't denied suffering for the last year. Evidence above.

Bolivia leads South America

Scrawny, mouthy, opinionated people like your humble correspondent have been saying it for a while, but now the people that really matter are daring to say the unsayable:

Bolivia is the fastest growing country in the region.

Bolivia has a strong economy and low inflation

Bolivia is riding out the financial crisis better than any other regional state.

Yesterday the Bolivian Central Bank (BCB) published its half-year report. You can go look for yourself right here, but what you'll find is an economy that will grow by 4% this year (the first half of 2009 saw 2.1% growth acording to head honcho at the BCB, Gabriel Loza, mainly due to the productive sectors). Loza sez:

"The perspective is that growth in the Bolivian economy will continue, we are talking of rates around 4% and therefore Bolivia will not suffer a recession as in other regional countries."

Bolivia also has an economy with inflation reeled in to just 2.1% (again, thanks largely to wise economic policy) and international currency reserves at all-time highs. Not only that, but Bolivia's exchange rate has, in the words of Loza:

"...has avoided unnecessary exchange volatility. Our exchange rate, which is not fixed but a regimen of administered exchange, has shown a moderated, stable and non-volatile behaviour."

Yet again, this is why you never hear about the Bolivian economy in English language media. It's going far too well, y'see. And all this stability and strength has its roots in one, single policy decision from the government of Evo Morales: Nationalize hydrocarbons. And another smart thing that Evo has done is to leave the financial experts to run the finances and not stick his nose in, as the guy knows what he's good at and what he's not good at.

I'm evermore convinced that Evo scares the hell out of the blue-eyed whiteys more than Hugo could ever manage. He's not changing the rules but doing something far, far more dangerous and subversive: He's beating them at their own game.

Quiztime at IKN: The Answer

Yesterday we asked;

Which South American country is forecast
to have the highest GDP growth for 2009?

The correct answer is Bolivia. The Bolivian Central Bank currently expects the country to grow "in excess of 4%" in 2009, beating out all comers quite easily.

The first correct answer came from reader MM. Tell me where you want the chocolate sent, luckydude.

Peru's metal mining industry: An overview of the year so far

To take my mind off the gawdawfulness of the Argentine soccer team last night I started playing with some Peru ministry figures for the country's mining sector (yes, I know I'm sad...no need to write in on that score). Those numbers became charts and although there is not great insight or revelation here, I think they're pretty useful as a snapshot of the country's industry right now so here we go. All numbers used are either from the Peru Central Bank or its Ministry of Energy and Mines.

First, here's Peru's total exports for the period in question, January 2009 to April 2009. As we can see, metals make up the majority of everything exported by Peru.

Here are some quick stats on the above:

• Total exports Jan-Apr 2009: U$7.09Bn
• Percentage metals in exports: 59.5%
• Percentage gold in exports*: 28.1%

Yep that's right; due to the sinking of copper compared to last year and the value held onto by gold in the period, Au is now Peru's biggest export by far. Also, did you know that nearly all of Peru's production is shipped to Switzerland? I did.

On to the next chart that compares 2008 to 2009. Yep, that's over $2.2Bn in lost exports you're looking at there. but of course, Peru's GDP is growing...............


Next is the breakdown of metals exported in the four months of 2009 and you can see that for all the talk about Peru being the world's biggest silver producer, the third biggest zinc producer and its polymetallic production nature, there are only two metals that really matter; gold and copper. As far as the country's economy goes, the rest are just noise.


Finally, this chart shows just how much metals values have dropped since 2008. The recovery in March/April 2009 compared to January/February is directly related to the recovery in spot copper, of course.

Now we move away from dollar values and look at volumes. The following charts show just how much of each metal has been mined in Peru per month since January 2008. Firstly gold, benefitting from recent production hikes at Yanacocha and Alto Chicama (the two big gold mines in the country):

Now that Cerro Verde is running at full tilt, copper production has been pretty steady.

Zinc production has dropped, probably due to the layoffs and mothballing of smaller mines:

Silver has stayed fairly steady. Buenaventura (BVN), PAAS and other large dedicated silver miners give Ag more stability, even though it's often a by-product more than a product.

Pb production has dropped for the same reasons as zinc; closures and layoffs, with 10,000 miners having been laid off in 2009 (which doesn't affect GDP growth either...oh no)

Tin numbers drooped a little but have remained largely steady:

In iron ore, nearly all the ballgame is Shougang at Marcona in South coastal Peru, so whatever happens there is the country results.

Moly has been hit very hard. Roasting circuits have been turned off and value of Moly sold has dropped by 88% YoY.

So all in all, if it weren't for Switzerland Peru would be in the doo-doo right now. Actually that's a little cynical, because if you're going to be a metals nation and export the stuff to progress and grow, then you couldn't really choose better than to have copper and gold as your big products. Gold has supported the drop in copper all this time, and if the Hoped™ for recovery does indeed happen quickly and world financial winds turn against gold and its safe haven reputation, copper is likely to take up the slack for Peru.

*thanks for the typo pickup, anon

Beauty Queen Poker: I'll see your Miss California and raise you a Miss Panama

Sorry guys, you lose....we be holding nuts.

This 25 second youtube (seen by 350,000 people so far) is best appreciated by Spanish speakers and has Giosue Cozzarelli, a candidate for Miss Panama 2009, answering her question about the venerable Confucius. Apparently he was a "Chinese Japanese" person and "one of the people that invented confusion".

I am not making this up

UPDATE: In the comments section, reader Jimmy left this link to a youtube version with English subtitles. Kind of you Jimmy, thank you.

The Summit of the Americas: A primer

"The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about."

Oscar Wilde

Thanks to The Economist, IKN no longer feels obliged to writing a long preview of next week's Summit of the Americas that happens in Trinidad and Tobago on April 17th to 19th. Here's the link to the Economist article, recommended as a nice'n'concise way to get the issues clear before the bunfest starts (top of agenda will be Cuba, Cuba, Cuba and sadassed Miami residents' rabid reaction to Cuba) and also gives a neat background to the fiasco (The Economist's word, not mine) of the last SotA in Argentina, 2005.

Finally, while checking out the script make sure you note something about the illustration that accompanies. As well as the attention to detail (Lula's missing finger) the Canadian dude is so unknown outside his borders that the cartoonist feels obliged to slap a red&white maple leaf on his tie. Sad, innit?

Latin America = Safe Haven

Pachakuti! Whatever happened to you guys up there with your triple A local ratings and your surly attitudes and your "you gotta do this way you gotta do that way" way of talking to Latin America?

Today Eurekahedge reports that the only positive returns made by world hedge funds in Febraury 2009 and in 2009 to date were in...roll those drums....yes you've guessed it already...LATIN AMERICA! The future is ours, folks. Here's the paydirt section of today's Eurekahedge PR (click over there for the whole story):

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".....Latin American funds were the only ones to finish the month with decent gains (0.7%), as managers in the region were afforded opportunities with the weakening of most regional currencies against the US dollar, among other things during the month.

Index	Feb 09 Est¹	2009 Return	2008 Return
Eurekahedge North American Hedge Fund Index	-0.92	0.28	-10.44
Eurekahedge European Hedge Fund Index	-0.69	-1.67	-22.65
Eurekahedge Eastern Europe & Russia Hedge Fund Index	-1.07	-7.80	-54.22
Eurekahedge Japan Hedge Fund Index	-2.08	-3.95	-11.43
Eurekahedge Emerging Markets Hedge Fund Index	0.15	-0.38	-23.67
Eurekahedge Asian Hedge Fund Index	-0.72	-2.06	-21.01
Eurekahedge Latin American Hedge Fund Index	0.66	2.12	-3.30

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Enjoy today's bear market rally, then once you've taken some profits send them down to a safer place altogether, gringos :-).

Postcard from PDAC: An addition to yesterday

NRI must have had a good night's sleep, as our superspy just remembered something else that went on over at the Petaquilla stand and wanted to add to yesterday's missive. Looks like Goldex is looking to sell its El Pato property in Guatemala and is not being very subtle about it, either. Here's NRI:

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Darn it, Otto, there's something important I meant to include in my report of my interrogation of Pet.rep, the CFO of Petaquilla Minerals...allow me:

Our discussion did not have a natural conclusion with our parting being preceded by a courteous adieu and a handshake. What happened was this guy in a suit with an exhibitor's name tag which said GOLDEX rushed up, butted in on my tete a tete with Pet.rep. and said to Pet.rep. : Want to buy a gold project in Guatemala? And Pet.rep. responded: Yes. We'll talk.

Otto, my point is not to draw attention to what a rude little prick the guy in a suit with a GOLDEX name tag was but to tell you how it shocked and amazed me that this Master of the Universe should be so indiscreet and careless about letting me in on his wheeling and dealing. I mean we are not talking about their dealing baseball cards or dope. Imagine if I were chatting with Yamana's Peter Marrone. What do you think the chances are that Tye Burt might rush up, interrupt, and say: Hey Peter. Wanna buy a gold project in Russia? Only a Kupolla million...

Isn't there some rule about a level playing field? Well, I intend to watch the share price action of PTQ.to and Goldex Resources - GDX.v - and if it develops that I could have made a profitable trade on this inside information to which I, but not all members of the public, was privy, I will send a postcard to the OSC as well.

Gotta go. No time here to tell you about my meeting Vena's Juan Vegarra the other night...just as well...my heart's still pounding.

later,

NRI

What Desjardins thought of PDAC this year

Desjardins published its review of PDAC 2009 today. They diplomatically label it a "less wild party" (you saw the photos sent in yesterday by people that don't have to wear suits and speak prettily, yeah?) and bulletpoint the first page with:

• Industry sees a ‘difficult year ahead’ with a lack of available financing and no new major base metal discoveries
• Review of 4Q08 results released so far; most companies in ‘reasonable’ financial condition at the end of 2008, but metal prices have fallen further so far this year
• Rate of production cutbacks continues to outstrip rise in inventories

Finally, let me point out that I have no idea where you might be able to get a copy of this client-only report and read it yourself, but if you're lucky enough to find one it's a worthwhile good read.

Postcard from PDAC: Low lies and high fives

Superspy "Codename NRI" is back with a second missive, direct from the heaving bosom of PDAC. If you missed the first, here it is. So here we go with the second NRI view of things. Enjoy (because I did...in fact it's a hoot).

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NRI here, with a few tales to tell...

I thought I should act on the suggestions of Otto, the incisive analyst, and locate a few of his interesting miners. I spotted the Petaquilla Minerals booth; and got straight to the point:

NRI: Aren't you the guys that have an unpaid fine?

Pet. rep: No. We don't owe a fine.
NRI: What do you mean?

Pet.rep. (defensively): They don''t have the authority to impose a fine.

NRI: Who?
Pet.rep.: The environment group. Only the Ministry. Nothing is being enforced against us.

NRI: Are you saying that the Ministry hasn't imposed a fine?
Pet.rep. : Not that I'm aware of.

NRI: Who are you?
Pet.rep.: Bassam Moubarak, the CFO.

NRI: The CFO...so, if a fine were imposed, you would know.
Pet.rep. : I'm not aware of any fine. A misconception in the media.

NRI: Which media?

Pet rep. responded but I didn't catch the reference. It sounded like a Panamanian newspaper.

This ended our exchange and I hurried off to a bench to sit and make a transcript of the questions and answers, while the exact words (as I recalled them) were fresh in my mind.

Now, Otto, if you find out that my interview might be of any help to Panamanian authorities I am responsive to providing evidence and would be delighted to have an expense paid trip to Panama for that purpose.

Digressing, I paid a visit to the booth of Eastmain Resources - ER.to - explorationists with some great projects in the James Bay area of Quebec, Canada, one of which is a JV with Goldcorp, which is developing the Roberto Mine on an adjacent property. ER is one of my favourites (I have shares) and I like their people a lot. I talked to one of the geologists, Cathy B, and she told me this PDAC has been very busy for them. I asked Cathy whether she and husband Don (ER's CEO) exhibited at the show in Phoenix last week. Cathy told me they had and, though they expected that it might be quiet, it was very very busy. Cathy told me that a coin dealer was set up right behind them; and he sold out his entire inventory - $173,000 in coins - in the first three hours of the show.

Returning to Otto's crib sheet, I really wanted to find Rob McEwen. Well my buddy, JG, informed me that the

McEwen companies - Rubicon Minerals, U.S.Gold, Lexam, Mineras Andes - were hosting a reception Tues eve at 1King St - a tony location in the power vortex of Toronto. Off I went - to this, my fourth reception so far, with the first three having been in suites in the Fairmont Royal York and the Intercontinental Hotel. Digressing again, the other night at the Royal York, a staff person told me that the PDAC is their biggest and busiest engagement of the year - and the one during which the most booze is served. Many many receptions are hosted simultaneously in each of several hotels. The McEwen reception was not in a suite - but in a ballroom! - and it was packed. I was given 2 bar tickets upon entry. Waitstaff circulated with platters of hors d'ouvres; rep's from each of the McEwen companies had stations to receive and respond to questions; and a photographer had a station to take one's photo as one held a 400oz. gold bar.

My buddy JG arrived and we connected. He told me that McEwen must be economizing, because last year, the bar was open - no 2 drink limitation - and there was a lot more food. I hadn't sighted Rob McEwen in the packed ballroom but JG had and pointed him out. I approached Mr. McEwen and waited for the couple who were chatting with him to finish; and then, responded to his greeting by thanking him for hosting this reception. I told him I had been following the Minera Andes story and was really glad that he had jammed Hochschild. Mr. McEwen responded that they deserved to be jammed. I asked whether he had heard about Inca Kola News; He had not. I told him this guy Otto had this blog and encouraged anyone spotting McEwen to highfive. Gawd love him, Mr McEwen immediately responded with the highfive. Anybody reading this: he is such an accessible guy. I have had an opportunity to speak with him before and my buddy JG told me that he once called one of the McEwen companies; and Rob McEwen answered the phone and was absolutely responsive to the questions which JG posited.

Wearing down here, I wanted to report on my meeting the charismatic and very impressive Juan Vegarra, the CEO of Vena Resources, and the question I didn't get to ask him; but I must sign off.

more later...
NRI

Related Post
Postcard from PDAC: Where have all the people (and freebies) gone?

Postcard from PDAC: Where have all the people (and freebies) gone?

Codename NRI is the brand new IncaKolaNews Canada correspondent (ok ok...it's a friend at the show). Anyway, NRI sent this dispatch with some impressions of PDAC day one (Sunday). Hope you enjoy:

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Nondescript Retail Investor (NRI) corresponding from the PDAC (Prospectors & Developers Assoc of Canada) conference in Toronto, Ontario...

General impressions from yesterday, Sunday, the first day: Compared to last year which was like a moshpit, the turn out Sunday was noticeably sparser. So, the setting is a big convention centre next to the Rogers Centre (home of the Toronto Blue Jays) and a longer walk than many attendees would venture from the downtown hotels at which they're staying. Hence, there are free shuttles every 10 minutes during peak times from 4 or 5 of the major hotels. Riding in from the Sheraton Four Seasons Hotel at about noon yesterday (not a peak time - a half hour's worth of ride), there were only 5 of us on this big bus; riding away at about 5pm (peak time) to the Delta Chelsea there were, I believe, 8 of us on the big bus. One guy, an exhibitor, told me that exhibitor registrations were down 25% from last year; another guy told me that that there were also many registrants who didn't show up.

The convention floor for the Investors' Exchange - my territory - is maybe the size of a football field; as an NRI I have free access to this territory as I have been issued a large blue bordered name tag which distinguishes me from an Exhibitor or a Trade Show participant. Adjacent to the Investors' Exchange is another large area - maybe another football field size area? - which is the site of the Trade Show - government types and professional services to the mining business people and equipment vendors , etc - to which I do not have access, as the special name tag facilitating admission to that space costs more hundreds of dollars than I wish to spend and also I have no interest in buying a man portable drill or speaking with a representative of the Ministry of Mines in, say, Sierra Leone. Last year, I did manage to sneak past a guard - who, by prior arrangement, was looking the other way - to get into the Trade space in order to speak with a geologist with the Mexican government; so, I do have a sense about what's on the other side.

Anyway, back to the turnout - and the Investors' Exchange - no exaggeration...I believe the Exhibitors and their entourage easily outnumbered the Exhibitees with their blue bordered name tags and black cloth satchels for stashing promo material, etc. And, predominantly, the Exhibitors were clustered together chatting with each other with no captive Exhibitees to whom to promote.

And many booths were unmanned/unwomanned. For example, I passed the Dia Bras Exploration booth; but was unable to posit Otto's suggested question about whether they had financing as there was no one there. And I went to another exhibitor, the CEO of which I wished to speak with, three times; and no one was ever there.

Another observation: No freebies. Last year, everybody had complimentary pens and notepads and drink holders and raffle tickets and gold foil covered chocolates and stacks of Interra maps and encyclopedic compendiums of analysts reports and satchels and water bottles and on and on...this year, I was hard pressed to get a free pen. And no kidding, I believe there is even a dearth of paper promotional material of the companies themselves - so all these white clothed display tables are considerably more barren. As I talked to an IR person of one explorer company I reached to pick an foldered investor's package; and the IR guy intervened and offered to email it to me.