When Argentina suddenly becomes the fashion place for risk capital......

....you just know it's going to all end in tears.

But no matter in the very short term, as today's news about Andean Resources (AND.to) (AND.ax) and Goldcorp (GG) has set off a mini-bullrun in juniors exposed to the land of the Kirchners. For example the Argy silver play Mirasol (MRZ.v)....

...and much to my pleasant surprise (cos I didn't sell 'em yesterday) Minera Andes (MAI.to):

Meanwhile, wiser souls are indeed looking a little further afield for the next big gold deposit to get sold. Example Ventana Gold (VEN.to):

Others too. DYODD

Andean Resources (AND.to) (AND.ax)

Back in July we dedicated more than one IKN space to Andean Resources (AND.to) (AND.ax) and its excellent round of drill results (here's an example, with links to coverage reports) so yesterday's unsolicited bid by Eldorado (EGO) swiftly followed by friendly bid from Goldcorp catches this humble scribe's eye.

The bit that really grabs the attention, however, is the price being paid. Now for sure there's a whole lot of underexplored ground on the AND.to plot down there in Argentina (there's 215 km sq in total), but if we go on just the current outlined resources so far, it's still a hefty price tag being paid. What we have is:

• 2.54m oz gold indicated
• 523,000m oz gold inferred
• 23.56m oz silver indicated
• 3.12m oz silver inferred.

If we use a 65:1 ratio for the Ag/Au that brings us to a total of 3.996m oz Gold Eq (the lion's share pure gold). And yes, it's high grade, and yes it's near surface and yes there may be a lot left to add to that resource count yet, but still, we are talking about

EIGHT HUNDRED AND FIFTY-SIX US DOLLARS PER OUNCE

And that's a price tag to make you sit back and think about things. Things like, "That'd still be a hefty price tag if the gold count doubles" or things like "Wow, Ventana Gold (VEN.to) is dirt cheap here".

Disclosure: No position AND.to, long VEN.to.

Andean (AND.to) (AND.ax): Seize the day (and the cash)

Well believe it or not but this humble scribe was looking at the action in Andean Resources (AND.to) (AND.ax) today and thinking, "Funny....kinda non-reaction to the excellent drill news first on Monday...then big bounce Tuesday on volume and brokerage pumpation....now an early doors sell-off......I wonder if they're about to run a financing?". And waddya know, Joe, right after the bell we get to find out about a very hefty CAD$234.5m bought deal, led up by BMO and RBC with all their pals in tow. Here are a few details, so you don't have to click thru:

TYPE OF ISSUE: Bought Deal

LEAD: BMO Capital Markets (24.0%), RBC Capital Markets (24.0%)

OTHER UNDERWRITERS: CIBC (20.0%), Paradigm Capital Inc. (8.0%), UBS Securities Canada Inc. (8.0%), Dundee Securities Corporation (4.0%), TD Securities Inc. (4.0%), Credit Suisse Securities (Canada), Inc. (2.0%), Euroz Limited (2.0%), Haywood Securities Inc. (2.0%), Patersons Securities Limited (2.0%)

Size: 70,000,000 common shares C$234,500,000

Price: $3.35 per Share

Sales Commission: $0.08 per Share

Settlement: August 11, 2010

Use of Proceeds: The net proceeds will be used to advance the exploration and development of the Cerro Negro project in Argentina and for general working capital purposes.

Then there's a bunch of other details, if you care enough. This is a big bot deal going on in the supposed summer doldrum period, folks, and adds to the $76m AND.to reported at bank in its last balance sheet. Meanwhile, the Houses get to suck up the 70m X 8c/share commish, which works out as.....errr.....a very lot.

Mo´Andean Resoures (AND.to) (AND.ax)

So yesterday's Trading Post made mention of the kickass news release from Andean Resources (AND.to) (AND.ax) that hit the wires yesterday and, unsurprisingly, it's not just this humble scribe that was impressed. For example CIBC's Barry Cooper, along with sidekick Khaled Sultan, called yesterday's NR "a game changer" and have raised their target on the stock to $5 as per a note this morning

Want to read the CIBC analysis for yourself? Yeah sure, a direct download of the PDF is right here (bows gracefully).

UPDATE: Here's Dundee on the AND results. Words like "excellent" abound...rightly so.

Disclosure: No position in AND.to