A weird news release from Colossus Minerals (CSI.to)

Returning to the desk, your humble scribe notes this news release from Colossus Minerals (CSI.to) that says:

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Feb. 26, 2010) - Colossus Minerals Inc. ("Colossus" or the "Company") (TSX:CSI - News) Colossus is issuing this press release to respond to rumours circulated earlier today regarding the status of the environmental approvals for the Company's Serra Pelada project.

Earlier today the Brazilian environmental agency Para State, COEMA (Conselho Estadual de Meio Ambiente), responsible for evaluating and approving or denying environmental impact studies met to consider the environmental application of Colossus and Coomigasp for the Serra Pelada project.

While Colossus anticipates a decision will be made shortly, no such decision has yet been rendered or made public.

Rumours my ass! Why the company says that is beyond me. As noted at 2:40pm on this corner of cyberspace (i.e. 55 mins before the stock was halted) the vote happened and Serra Pelada's enviro permit was approved. Just to make sure, here's the local Pará newspaper with the same news. The vote was eight in favour, two against. Permit granted, end of story. Here's an excerpt (original language)

Aprovada licença para mecanização de Serra Pelada

Em votação, nesta sexta-feira (26) os membros do Conselho Estadual de Meio Ambiente (Coema), aprovaram por oito votos contra dois, a Licença Prévia (LP) para o Projeto de Extração de Minérios Metálicos de Serra Pelada, de responsabilidade da Companhia de Desenvolvimento Mineral (CDI), instalada no município de Curionópolis, no sudeste paraense, a 536 km da capital, Belém.

Maybe Ari just wants a quiet weekend without the phone ringing every five minutes.....

Colossus Minerals (CSI.to) denied permit by Brazil government (info now updated; see note)

Note: Colossus (CSI.to) has had its applicaton for the EIA approved by majority vote. please see latest post here


Thanks due to reader 'NK' who alerted IKN to the original Public Ministry article

According to this report just out, Colossus Minerals (CSI.to) has been denied a key environmental permit for its Serra Pelada project due to "grave omissions" in its application. IKN will get a decent translation of the Portuguese language story asap. Watch this space.

UPDATE: My Portuguese is not as good as my Spanish so please bear in mind that this may not be 100% accurate...but I'm pretty sure it gets the main gist of the situation correctly. I have a call in with a Portuguese expert and if I get a better translation from him later I'll put in a second update, then you can compare the two translations yourself. Mine was done with no recourse to auto-translators, so you might want to run the original note through one of those online things as well. Here's my translation:

Belém: Public Ministry opposes the Installation of Serra Pelada Project

The State Public Ministry, via the two magistrates Nilton Gurjão das Chagas and Raimundo de Jesus Coelho de Moraesc, today manifested itself against the environmental licence application of the Serra Pelada project, in the municipality of Curionópolis, South-East Pará, operated by Serra Pelada Companhia de Desenvolvimento Mineral (SPCDM), whose objective is extraction and sale of gold, palladium and platinum.

According to The Public Ministry, the Environmental Impact Study/Environmental Impact Report (EIA/RIMA) presented contains graves omissions, such as the lack of provision and analysis of environmental impact caused by mining activity. Also, the study makes no mention of the demands of public policies during the construction and extraction phases of the project.

The distribution of profits from Serra Pelada with Cooperativa de Mineração dos Garimpeiros de Serra Pelada (Coomigasp) was another point questioned. According to the EIA/RIMA, the garimperos participate in just 25% of the company as well as a payment for kilo of mineral sold. The Public Ministry wants a more equitable participation for Coomigasp in the company.

According to the magistrates, there is also "non-compliance and non-procedure of the Environmental Laws of Pará as regards the participation of the community in the elaboration of the terms of reference of the environmental study as presented".

The public ministry is part of the State Council for the Environment (COEMA).

UPDATE 2, about half an hour later: I've been trying to find out what's going on. Apparently COEMA is a thirteen person committee and the Public Ministry (PM) people have two of the thirteen votes. The PM were given until today to pronounce opinion on the Serra Pelada permit and were expected to approve the licence. Their decision was unexpected, but it should be understood that they are just two of the thirteen votes.

The current strong PPS action in CSI points to positives for CSi and not negatives. Let's see how this one is announced by the company. Disclosure: no position in CSI.to.

Colossus Minerals (CSI.to): Just lucky I guess......

click to enlarge

It has to be luck.
I can't think of a single other reason.
Can you?

Deeds, not words

So the President of Colossus Minerals (CSI.to) thinks the best thing to do with CSI.to shares is to sell them.

Colossus Minerals Inc. (CSI)						As of January 6th, 2010
Filing Date	Transaction Date	Insider Name	Ownership Type	Securities	Nature of transaction	# or value acquired or disposed of	Unit Price
Jan 06/10	Jan 04/10	Wall, Vic	Indirect Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-27,200	$5.800
Jan 06/10	Jan 04/10	Wall, Vic	Indirect Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-2,200	$5.820
Jan 06/10	Jan 04/10	Wall, Vic	Indirect Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-600	$5.880
Jan 06/10	Jan 04/10	Wall, Vic	Indirect Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-10,000	$5.900
Jan 05/10	Dec 30/09	Wall, Vic	Indirect Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-30,000	$5.910
Jan 05/10	Dec 30/09	Wall, Vic	Indirect Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-10,000	$5.890
Jan 05/10	Dec 30/09	Wall, Vic	Indirect Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-10,000	$5.910
Jan 05/10	Dec 30/09	Wall, Vic	Indirect Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-28,200	$5.800
Jan 05/10	Dec 30/09	Wall, Vic	Indirect Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-20,000	$5.840

So be it. A mote in your eye, a beam in mine and over $800,000 in Vic Wall's back pocket. Here endeth the lesson.

UPDATE: CSI.to down another 5% today at the bell. What say you, owly?

Colossus (CSI.to): COOMIGASP mathematics

So, Colossus (CSI.to) has to amend its original agreement with COOMIGASP to keep the locals from revolting. The main hush money is a U$206,000 monthly payment to its JV partner that get repaid as from year two of production... so let's see how that math works:

• Monthly payment to COOMIGASP: U$206,000
• Estimated membership of COOMIGASP (according to Brazil gov't): 45,000
• Monthly amount paid to COOMIGASP per member: U$4.58

Thus CSI "gets to utilize the majority of its $90m treasury" while it hands out enough to make one feijoada a month to the thousands of locals around them. Oh yes.....that will keep everybody happy there for sure. Whatever makes you think there will be more amendments to the deal in the pipeline, Otto....?

Said it before and will say it again: Don't buy it, don't sell it, just avoid CSI.to.

Colossus (CSI.to): Canaccord burns its clients' cash again

From IKN's department of shareholders-if-they-can't-take-a-joke-f***-em, Colossus Minerals is making great strides this morning because some analyst who works at the can of corn that really, REALLY should learn some Portuguese before opening his mouth reco'd the stock to his flock. Here's how Canaccord's Morning Coffee publication broke the shameless BS pum.......SORRY!!, the considered analytical opinion to its flock this morning.

"Given the considerable M&A activity in the mining sector and a growing consensus that the price of gold may still track upwards, it appears investors may have some interesting opportunities. Canaccord Adams Mining Analyst Nicholas Campbell believes that Colossus Minerals is a likely acquisition target and sees the potential for the project to be advanced to production by late-2011 to early-2012."

.
Truly I say unto you, great grades or not there's more chance of Hugo Chávez having gay sex with Andrés Oppenheimer than any major paying serious multimillions for this asset. Not only are there serious geological issues and a lot of geols scratching their heads and saying "with host rock like that, how the devil are we going to get it out the ground?" but the volatile political risk tinderbox that is Serra Pelada makes Honduras look calm and stable. Canaccord's analysts are just leading their sheep up the garden path...again.
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Dumbass analysis on Latin American mining issues never ends, even from those who get paid to analyse LatAm mining. Production late 2011? Gimme a break! I laugh at the lemmings, sneer contemptuously at the uninformed analysts leading them astray and avoid this stock like the plague.

Par for the course from the sophists at Colossus Mineral (CSI.to)

When a exploration-stage junior gold mining company plays its shareholders for suckers again and again, doesn't it ring a tiny, weeny alarm bell chez vous, too? Here's the PR from yesterday and here's the chart and here's the M.O.

1. Ask Ari to strategically time his press release for just before the closing bell.

2. Scream "WOW!! WOW!! LOOK!!" at the sheep that can't see further than core grades.

3. Sell into the headless chicken buying frenzy.

4. Wait for people to realize that there's nothing significantly new in the press release.

5. Watch patiently the next day for the drop back to pre-announcement levels then buy back position and keep the 10% cash.

Molson Served. The End

Welcome to Colossus Minerals and the world of shiny beads and mirrors

Congratulations to Colossus Minerals (CSI.to) that has finally managed to return an amazing three drill cores results totalling a mouthwatering 900m or so after having a measly three rigs operating at the Serra Pelada site for close on three months*. Here's the PR.

So here are a few thoughts to chew on:

• Before you start drooling and salivating about the high gold and PGM returns (and for sure those numbers look sexy, don't they?) think about just how much of the goodstuff is concentrated in one thin band.And what do you know about the host rock? You think it'll be easy underground mining? Think again, and bigtime.
  

• If you don't know what "excludes intervals of no core recovery" means you shouldn't even be looking at the stock, let alone justifying your expensive an erroneous purchase to yourself, and even less evangelizing it to other suckers.

• Why aren't the drillhole location maps available today, as is normal protocol? Why does the company want us all to stare at numbers like 27m @ 35g/t Au (which we always knew existed) without showing us the positionings? Why will the maps only be on site "shortly"?

• Why didn't they bother setting out a table for hole SPD-022? Guys, you're allowed to drill dusters, it's part of the game. It's only when you're doing a smoke'n'mirrors show for retail suckers that you start feeling threatened by non-returning holes.

Remember, this is the kind of outfit that believes The Albatross is an asset to the company. That can only mean KY Jelly somewhere along the line for the little guys cos people like Paddy don't give a damn and will do you over eventually. Process begins today.

Bottom line: don't buy the bullshit, don't believe the hype. Don't go long CSI.to. Don't go short CSI.to. Just avoid. Like the plague.

UPDATE: nuff said

*yes, it's sarcastic

Colossus (CSI.to): What does Augusto Kishida know that we don't?

Here we go again with insider sales at Colossus Minerals (CSI.to).

Colossus Minerals Inc. (CSI)						As of May 9th, 2009
Filing Date	Transaction Date	Insider Name	Ownership Type	Securities	Nature of transaction	# or value acquired or disposed of	Unit Price
May 09/09	Apr 30/09	Kishida, Augusto	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-500	$2.970
May 09/09	Apr 30/09	Kishida, Augusto	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-200	$2.960
May 09/09	Apr 30/09	Kishida, Augusto	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-5,200	$2.950
May 09/09	Apr 30/09	Kishida, Augusto	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-14,100	$2.900
Apr 24/09	Apr 16/09	Kishida, Augusto	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-20,000	$2.300
Apr 24/09	Apr 16/09	Kishida, Augusto	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-10,000	$2.280
Apr 09/09	Mar 31/09	Kishida, Augusto	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-100	$2.160
Apr 09/09	Mar 31/09	Kishida, Augusto	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-9,900	$2.150
Apr 09/09	Mar 31/09	Kishida, Augusto	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-15,000	$2.100
Apr 09/09	Mar 26/09	Kishida, Augusto	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-5,000	$2.100

Now if the Kishida dude (62 years old, so knows the world well) were some suit or seeder there might be less to worry about. But the guy is VP Exploration! Here's his biog, as per the FT:

Mr. Augusto Kishida serves as Vice President, Exploration of the Colossus Minerals Inc since December 2006; prior to which he was an independent consultant since June 2003; Vice President, Exploration for Black Swan Resources between May 1993 and June 2003. He is Engineer, CREA 1967 M.Sc.U. Federal Bahia, 1979 Ph. D. University of Western Ontario, 1984.

So why is he so, but so keen to cash out on Colossus in 20k blocks of his stock? This guy, after all, is the guy on the ground over there in Brazil (and if he isn't he's not doing justice to the job title). If I were holding CSI.to (which I most definitely am not) I'd be concerned. You concerned?

Oh, by the way, did you notice the name of Kishida's previous company? 'Black Swan Resources'. I presume by now that you understand the concept of Taleb's Black Swan. Kind of a weird coincidence, n'est-ce pas?

Can'o'corn is getting pneumatic on Colossus (CSI.to)

Can'o'corn is moving that slick and polished operation into full flow with Colossus Minerals (CSI.to). For the second time in the last few days CSI.to has made it into the Canaccord Morning Coffee publication, promising newsflow on drilling, hinting at further high grade interceptions and all that jazz.

Well fine. Ain't dat grand? But until the company has the balls to do a bit of step-out drilling at Serra Pelada all we're going to hear about are drills that intercept a resource everyone knows is there anyway, thus all pipes and whistles will be strictly for retail (as a sharp reader wrote in last week, "Aaaah, retail! The crop that never fails"). Meanwhile, insiders are again selling at these current prices. Wow, what a surprise. Betcha they continually forget to mention that detail to you.

Colossus Minerals Inc. (CSI)

Apr 09/09	Mar 31/09	Kishida, Augusto	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-100	$2.160
Apr 09/09	Mar 31/09	Kishida, Augusto	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-9,900	$2.150
Apr 09/09	Mar 31/09	Kishida, Augusto	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-15,000	$2.100
Apr 09/09	Mar 26/09	Kishida, Augusto	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-5,000	$2.100

Here below is the can'o'corn pump job from this morning. Expect "The Zees" (or 'Zeds' as you canucky types would say) to pronounce any time soon and an upcoming "Interview With Ari" by Pescod's Late Edition........heh?

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Colossus Minerals* (CSI : TSX : $2.18), Net Change: 0.06, % Change: 2.83%, Volume: 425,907 Getting ready for a colossal move? Colossus Minerals announced Thursday that it has accelerated its development plans for the Serra Pelada gold-platinum-palladium project in Brazil. Colossus now has three diamond rigs on the property operating on its Phase II drill-out program. Phase II drilling, which is anticipated to continue through the end of 2009, is focused on 500 metres of strike length of the Central Mineralised Zone as well as testing new targets to both the east and west of this Zone. To date, five holes of diamond coring have been completed with three more holes presently in progress. Colossus management stated that all completed holes appear to have intersected mineralisation and have been logged and sampled for assaying. CEO and Chairman Ari Sussman said, ”Facilitated by the company’s recent financing, Colossus is positioned and is putting additional systems in place to advance the Serra Pelada project to Final Exploration Report stage before end 2009, ahead of schedule.” Going forward, Sussman expects to see another set of assay results in the next couple of weeks. Campbell notes that one potential explanation for the recent run-up and outperformance of Colossus’ share price relative to other small-cap precious metal equities is the recent increase in the price of platinum and palladium. Colossus is weighted mainly to gold (we estimate ~70%), but still has significant exposure to PGMs (~30%). Campbell states that we should see regular drilling news flow from May-forward and the drill results will likely be the main driver for the shares in 2009.

Colossus Minerals (CSI.to): My final word

I just received a mail from A.N Other (presumably somebody with skin in CSI.to) accusing me of this, that and the other. The prose of the mail was polite enough but the insinuations behind it were butt-ugly. Among other things I'm accused of being a poster on stockhouse that has been bashing CSI.to, accused of being short the stock, accused of being irrationally impartial etc etc.

So I just wrote the mail below by way of reply. The idea of putting my reply up on the blog isn't to start a dialogue but to end one. If you don't like somebody taking a contrary view to yours on a stock, tough. Live with it. Or better still find out for yourself WHY somebody that knows Latin America better than the vast majority of his readers can reject a company that is returning such excellent drill grades and rails against a management team that doesn't even mention the problems to its shareholders.

DYODD, dudettes and dudes. I really mean it.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

(Dear XXXXXXXXXX)

For the record I am not Hammerbit on Stockhouse. I only found out that a poster called hammerbit existed yesterday when some moron linked through from his link and decided to try and sabotage my blog. I do not post on Stockhouse (enough to do with my time as it is without providing content for the likes of Robert Fung). In fact I rarely visit the site.

Also, I have no idea who s/he is. Frankly I'd much rather s/he didn't link to my blog in this way if it attracts the kind of spiteful pondscum that came over yesterday.

As for impartial on CSI, I'm nothing of the sort. Anyone who reads my blog knows that, so don't try and set up your own personal straw man. Let me be crystal clear: Anyone that believes the stock promotion behind this stock without doing their own investigation and finding out the deep political problems that exist at Serra Pelada is likely to have their own irrational bias, one that is likely to cost them dearly in the future.

Returning to your straw man, I'm not on some "one man war", I'm trying to get people to question the company and ask THEIR OWN questions. Do you know who Josimar Barbosa was? I haven't told you because i'm not trying to ram some kind of basher's creed down anyone's throat. I'd love it that you bother to find out the reason why he's so important to anyone thinking of investing in CSI. DYODD, dude. I say the same every day. I'm not my brother's keeper and I'm not here to spoonfeed a bunch of greenhorns.

Finally, I am not poised to profit from CSI.to. I have stated clearly that the best policy is to avoid it. Not long, not short, just avoid. That's exactly where i stand with CSI personally, too. Take it or leave it.

Colossus Minerals press release today

Here's the link to the PR. Go read it yourself. As for a few comments, let's start with the quote included in the PR by Vic Wall, President of Colossus (CSI.to)

"The Au-PGE assay results would be extraordinary anywhere other than Serra Pelada. Colossus' work continues to add value to the Serra Pelada treasure chest, demonstrating that PGE's will contribute significantly to the worth of this remarkable deposit."

That's very fair comment, as anyone who has checked out the background of Serra Pelada knows what kind of story the site has already. Now let's just zoom in on one line of those drill results, the rich band that's the third line of the FD-072 drill result. Just for fun, here's the ounce value of each main metal reported, then multiplied by the latest spot price to give its over-the-ground final market value.

Intersect: 1.87m
Gold: 46 oz/t X $920 = $42,320
Platinum: 8 oz/t X $1,050 = $8,400
Palladium: 10.3 oz/t X$211 = $2,173.30
Rhodium: 0.2 oz/t X $1,000 = $200
Iridium: 0.135 oz/t X $425 = $57.4

Or in other words, that 1.87m thickness of rock is "worth" $53,170.70 per metric tonne. I'm not totally sure, but that might be an all-time world record. I don't think even the Athabasca Basin can beat that valuation.

All very impressive, and the truth machine was always going to bring back big numbers. However (and however much the stock jumps in the next few days on the hype and market noise) there's no way I can recommend Colossus Minerals. The reason is the politics there. Put simply, if you can't get the rock out the ground it's worth nothing. DYODD, dude. I'll very happily let this story pass me by, now and in the future. When something seems too good to be true, it is.

What Colossus Mineral (CSI.to) forgets to mention about Serra Pelada

Colossus Mineral Inc (CSI.to) is the albatross-laden junior gold miner exploring the Serra Pelada gold mining zone in central Brazil. For decades Serra Pelada has been mined by 'garimpeiro' artisan miners, with a TV documentary on the intensive mining in the 1980's and 1990's available at the company website.

This video is NOT that documentary. Instead, it's a May 2008 report about the violence and infighting between the local miners still on site and tells the story of the death of one of the main union (or maybe just 'gang' would be more apt) leaders.

Here's the link to the page from which i enbedded the video.

I was sent this by a smart investor who knows the area well.. I'd heard about the existence of this video previously but had never got around to digging it out. I'm glad I've finally seen it, as recently I mentioned that it might be time to do some DD on this company. In the exchange that followed, my correspondent hit the nail on the head when he said that the rivalry and rancour left over from the documented confrontation will surface again. It's not a case of "if", it's a case of "when". His scenario of "who wants to write the PR about a JV partner being assassinated on a site visit?" may sound dramatic at first, but it's well within the realms of possibility.

What is telling is the roaring silence out of CSI.to about the obvious bad blood and poor social situation at Serra Pelada right now. On the Christman eggnog circuit, company reps were talking about how they'd found common ground with locals and how all was fine "down there". Being fine with one gang is all well and good, but that just means they've taken sides with the mob that has the upper hand...for the moment.

Political risk in LatAm isn't just confined to Presidents, administrations and governmental politics. Watch the video.

Chart of the day is............

......Colossus Minerals (CSI.to) since Patrick Anderson joined on September 8th 2008.

(click to enlarge)

Colossus Minerals (CSI.to) and "The Anderson Effect": An Update

"There is an ancient mariner
and he stoppeth one in three (projects in their tracks)"

It hasn't taken shareholders in Colossus Minerals (CSI.to) long to find out about Patrick 'Albatross' Anderson's uncanny knack of relieving them of shareholder value in short spaces of time. Here's the updated share price chart of CSI.to with Anderson's arrival date marked nice and clearly;

This despite the words of CEO Sussman who said at the time, "Patrick's wealth of experience in the mining industry will add tremendous value to our Company......". Maybe I'm a bit confused, but isn't a 47.7% drop in share price the opposite to what you had in mind, Ari?

Don't say that Aurelian shareholders didn't try to warn you CSI guys. At least you have the consolation of assuming that any options agreement Albatross struck must be way out the money now. So as tribute to Anderson's finely tuned powers, here's a short Monty Python sketch to send you into the weekend. Enjoy.

Related Post (Sept 8th)
breaking news: sell Colossus Minerals (CSI.to)