Geometry in Toronto, Ontario - Slideshow

Click the figure below to see the slideshow.

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McArthur River Uranium Mine, Saskatchewan, Canada, Map and News

McArthur River is the world's largest high-grade uranium mine.

Click the figure below to see the geometry of McArthur River Uranium Mine, interactive satellite map and news.

Zoom at: McArthur River Uranium Mine.

Canada's toothless regulators

Yes you, OSC

Yes you, BCSC

Yes you, ASC

David Baines does his normal wonderful job of work in this report, entitled "Where have all the regulatory lions gone?" looking at the toothless regulatory bodies that are supposed to keep the Canadian mining scamsters in check but, as ever, are found to come up woefully short. Please read the whole article because every word counts, but here at IKN we'll just extract the last line of Baines' report because it resounds on so many levels. The "lions" he refers to are the regulatory boards and its staff. In Texan English, it would translate as 'All hat no cattle'.

"My goodness, where have all the lions gone? Underneath the roar, there really isn't much bite."

DYODD, dude.

Suncor Energy Inc. Interactive Mind Map and News

Suncor Energy Inc. is a Canadian integrated energy company in Calgary, Alberta. It specializes in production of synthetic crude from oil sands. Suncor ranks number 159 in the Forbes Global 2000 list.

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

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Panama and Canada (from IKN54)

IKN54 out yesterday had 12,170 words (and some of them were correctly spelled, too). Here as a sample are 290 of them that talked about last week's Free Trade Agreement signed between Panama and Canada and the possible trade that miners will be doing there soon.

Panama’s Free Trade Agreement with Canada

Last week a ceremony that went largely unnoticed by the wider business community took place when host nation Canada and the visiting Panamanian delegation signed a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) to open up business channels between the two nations (10). The FTA is not yet active law, as it requires approval by the parliaments of both countries before it is enacted. But assuming this happens, tax and levies on trade between Canada and Panama will be reduced by 90% in most cases, including that of mining and mine equipment. After the signing ceremony at a meeting put on by the Canadian business community, Panama’s Minister of Commerce said (translated quote) that the arrival “...of Canadian investment in Panama will grow in an explosive manner” because “....(Panama) has also decided to develop a serious mining policy and Canada is the world’s miner.” He went on to say, “I believe that Canada will also benefit from the enormous amount of public sector investment we have, and with this FTA will have investment advantages. We are talking about $13.6Bn without taking into account the canal expansion program.”

The ministers present said that they expected their respective parliaments to ratify the FTA before the end of the year. Members of the Canadian delegation also noted that in difference to the FTA negotiated between Canada and Colombia that hasn’t managed to be ratified in Canada’s parliament due to human rights issues in Colombia, Panama has a relatively clean record and this will not be an issue to hold up passage. So yet again, the world business community surprises us by noting that unlawfully killing people can in fact cause problems to national governments..there’s hope left in capitalism after all :-).

My one and only post on Canadian bank gold stocks

Following swiftly on from the high-pitched shilling regarding some silver trader whistleblower called Maguire (as mentioned previously, we're not going there again), we now have a lot of high-pitchedness about Scotia Mocatta and how its vaults are empty of gold when they're supposed to be full of gold. We are told this as an absolute fact because somebody's brother saw the empty room. So let's just clear this one up as well.

1) Gimme a freakin' break and stop mailing me the tinfoilhat bullshit written by GATA, or Jim dumbass Willie, or the Ron Paul "War Room" (oh my) or the waste of bandwidth known as zero hedge or any other place this silliness crops up.

2) As I wrote to A. Person just yesterday (and don't want to repeat the mail exchange umpteen times, so let's just do it here), doubting the amount of reserves that any given country says it has is missing the point, be that Fort Knox for the USA, some vault in Canada, the dollars supposedly held by Argentina in its central bank or whatever other example. What all these countries have is a papertrail that can be used to convince that what they say is true. In the end it's just a very small and rather inconsequential corner of the much larger confidence trick we know as money. But that's nothing new! The Italian goldsmiths and bankers worked out how to fraction money in the 17th century. We were born into this system and we'll all die out of it and it won't change, so you'd be better off fighting another battle than doing a Quijote vs Windmill on this.

And by the way, I know that by taking this viewpoint in public, the 'more reactionary' (ahem) readership will start thinking that if this humble scribe doesn't want to be part of the solution he must be part of the problem, with the result of being labelled an illuminati spokesperson in about two weeks' time (or whatevs). So if you fancy going down that line of thought, let's just pre-empt by shouting "DUMBASS" in your face right now.

Special delivery for reader MM

click to enlarge

Great news, Canada!

You might have been stuffed by the Yanks at hockey, but congrats on the ice dance gold medal. Buy that Scott Moir a Molson with a whiskey chaser!

Blackfire translated: Canada's corrupt miners explained in real English

The Mex Files has taken up the cause of the scumbag miner that was up until recently operating in the Chiapas region of Mexico (until it decided that political assassinations were a smart hearts'n'minds operation, that is) and provides a useful translation of what they said compared to what it actually means. Here's the link.

Message to Canadian viewers

The previous post (also linked here) was not meant to make you feel good. It was not an attempt at humour either, unless you think murder is funny. It was written to point out, very clearly, that Canadian mining companies are responsible for assassinations in Latin America and it's your problem if you can't live with that fact, not mine. Thanks for all the mails and anonymous messages and feel free to stop reading this blog. Any offended, bleeding hearts that can't face the truth about some of your fellow countrymen will not be missed.

UPDATE: I really don't want any more mails on this, not even from people who agree with me. Try living outside your comfort zone for once. Try mailing Blackfire instead. Or your parliament representative, perhaps.

UPDATE 2: Newswires now picking up on the story. It only took five days for them to care....

MEXICO CITY — The killing of an anti-mining activist by a motorcycle gunman has led investigators to question staff at a Canadian owned mine in southern Mexico, a spokesman for the company said CONTINUES HERE

Canadian Mining: physician, heal thyself

A private member's bill is up for debate in Canada's parliament next week that seeks to regulate Canadian mining companies when doing business abroad. It has absolutely no chance of getting anywhere (due to the powerful mining lobby) but all the same may throw a little light on the subject. Here's the story and here below is a little phun phactz and phigures list culled from the page. Enjoy.

CANADA'S MINING INDUSTRY

• 1,373: Number of mining companies listed on the TSX (2007)

• 79 billion (valued at $482 billion): Number of mining shares traded on the TSX (2007)

• 43%: Percentage of total world mining exploration attributed to Canadian mining companies

• 60%: Percentage of world's mining companies registered in Canada

• $21 billion (U.S.): Total value of Canadian mining companies' assets in Africa

• 20%: Percentage of the total Canadian-owned African mining assets located in the war-ravaged Democratic Republic of the Congo.

• 193: Number of registered mining lobbyists in Canada as of Nov. 3, 2009

• 30: Number of countries where Canadian mining companies have allegedly violated human rights

• 0: Number of Canadian laws that regulate mining companies abroad

Report here

Quest (QUC.v): Cash In on Rare Earths!

Let's say straight and up front that I don't blame this Peter guy and the other insiders at Quest Uranium (QUC.v) for selling a few shares inside these last few days. After a run-up like this.....

....and after holding what must have been a dire amount of boring, cheap shares for gawdknows how long, if fate smiles upon Strange Lake rare earths asset and plops a big win in your lap it's fair game to take a slice and buy your loved ones something nice.

But with a last name like "Cashin" and selling right at the top of the run (and just before a $7m placement is announced) it's impossible to resist! Cashing in? Bwahahahahaah!! Here's the juice:

Quest Uranium Corporation (QUC)						As of October 11th, 2009
Filing Date	Transaction Date	Insider Name	Ownership Type	Securities	Nature of transaction	# or value acquired or disposed of	Unit Price
Oct 10/09	Sep 30/09	Cashin, Peter John	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-15,000	$3.500
Oct 06/09	Oct 05/09	Watson, Mackenzie Iles	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-10,000	$3.660
Oct 06/09	Sep 29/09	Watson, Mackenzie Iles	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-10,000	$3.250
Oct 06/09	Oct 01/09	Kay, Ronald	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-100	$3.930
Oct 06/09	Oct 01/09	Kay, Ronald	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-9,900	$3.920
Oct 06/09	Sep 30/09	Kay, Ronald	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-10,000	$3.580
Sep 25/09	Sep 18/09	Watson, Mackenzie Iles	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-10,000	$2.800
Sep 25/09	Sep 16/09	Watson, Mackenzie Iles	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-10,000	$2.600
Sep 24/09	Sep 16/09	Kay, Ronald	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-3,000	$2.610
Sep 24/09	Sep 16/09	Kay, Ronald	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-16,900	$2.600

John Stuart Mill and Bill O'Reilly

How did I miss this one? Thank you reader RB for the send-in.

According to Bill O'Reilly (who I hear gets people agreeing with him up North all the time) the higher life expectancy in Canada is to be expected, because there are 10 times as many US citizens as there are Canadians. I mean, where do you start with this?

John Stuart Mill said it best.

"I never meant to say that the Conservatives are generally stupid. I meant to say that stupid people are generally Conservative. I believe that is so obviously and universally admitted a principle that I hardly think any gentleman will deny it."

Copper currencies

This chart just about sums up what's been playing on my mind this morning.

The loonie has been strong recently. The thing it has in common with Chile and Peru is the exposure to metals in general and our glorious leader Dr. Copper, of course.

My new hero nation: Canada

Canada is my new hero country....wild no?

My stereotype-ingrained-pigeonholed opinion about Canada being a quiet, relaxed, unassuming, uncontroversial, agreeable...and plain boring country has been blown out the water by those sneaky conniving Canuck types and their Machiavellian political plotting. YAY!

"So what they gone done, Otto?" I hear you cry. Well, remember back to this photo-op on November 21st?

That Harper dude stood next to Alvaro Uribe of Colombia and watched the lackeys sign the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the two countries. Old Alvaro was pleased as punch, of course, and called upon the USA to get on and sign their own FTA with his country and stop moaning and whining about petty things like gov't sponsored paramilitary death squads, phone tappings, kidnappings, extrajudical murders carried out with the approval of ministers...y'know, trifles like that.

But then on April 28th Canada's parliament debated and decided on a few other things. Then yesterday via a press conference in Colombia, Canada delivered a very, but VERY large portion of egg to the face of Uribe when it emerged via a pro-Uribe senator that "a few extra details" must be taken into consideration before the FTA could be ratified. Including:

• A joint body to study environmental impact in Colombia (big deal)

• Compliance with labour laws (natch)

• More work done to combat crime (dunno how they'll measure that one)

• A study of the number of people made homeless by the ongoing civil conflict (oh...now we're getting warmed up)

• The government of President Alvaro Uribe must demonstrate a friendlier and more constructive relationship with Human Rights organizations in the country. ZING!!!!!!!!!

Oh how I ROFLed when I read that one. Y'see Prez Uribe classes Human Rights dudes in Colombia as the mouthpieces of terrorists, refuses even the most recognized organizations their permits, chases their personnel out of the country and drowns out their reports of institutionalized killings (there are 22,000 people being investigated in as disappeared in Colombia right now....and no that's not a typo.....twenty-two thousand) by unending ad-hom attacks on the people delivering the message.

And now Canada says "Dude...you don't get your FTA if you don't STFU"...wonderful. What a bunch of subversive bastards you are, frosties. Ah loves you all.

Eat my shorts, Canada

The top Canadian short positions as at April 30th. Thank you reader BF for the headsup.

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Short positions outstanding at Apr. 30/09 (with changes from Apr. 15/09).
Largest Short Positions
Security	Ticker	Total Short	Change
Teck Resources	TCK.B	30907028	-1130592
New Gold	NGD	18332450	2929019
Eldorado Gold	ELD	17111120	30392
Ivanhoe Mines	IVN	15783677	615801
Kinross Gold	K	14581462	-1976018
Red Back Mining	RBI	13137941	-383640
Lundin Mining	LUN	12971093	-2821133
Thompson Creek Metals	TCM	12107626	1716210
Mercator Minerals	ML	8114369	6441664
Sherritt International	S	7948535	-2632410
Osisko Mining	OSK	7791480	-655745
Uranium One	UUU	7763558	-518240
FNX Mining	FNX	5792100	-636781
Agnico-Eagle Mines	AEM	5420162	177736
Silver Wheaton	SLW	4514178	241178
Largest Increase in Short Position
Security	Ticker	Total Short	Change
Mercator Minerals	ML	8114369	6441664
New Gold	NGD	18332450	2929019
Anvil Mining	AVM	2885600	2705347
Capstone Mining	CS	2522166	2359757
Thompson Creek Metals	TCM	12107626	1716210
Largest Decrease in Short Position
Security	Ticker	Total Short	Change
Equinox Minerals	EQN	1973347	-5704853
Lundin Mining	LUN	12971093	-2821133
Sherritt International	S	7948535	-2632410
Central Fund Of Canada	CEF.A	12437	-2222596
Quadra Mining	QUA	835170	-2118314
TSX Venture Short Positions
Short positions outstanding at Apr. 30/09 (with changes from Apr. 15/09).
Largest Short Positions
Security	Ticker	Total Short	Change
Romarco Minerals	R	1550000	48500
San Gold	SGR	1328400	453800
Alturas Minerals	ALT	733333	0
Verena Minerals	VML	536500	536500
Iberian Minerals	IZN	535500	535500
Andean American Mining	AAG	467686	467686
Alix Resources	AIX	350000	350000
Azteca Gold	AZG	300000	290000
New Guinea Gold	NGG	225000	25000
Whitemud Resources	WMK	215932	-620
Forum Uranium	FDC	192000	192000
Columbus Gold	CGT	186500	186500
Evolving Gold	EVG	184500	184500
Constellation Copper	CCU.H	170000	0
Metanor Resources	MTO	160641	-222
Largest Increase in Short Position
Security	Ticker	Total Short	Change
Verena Minerals	VML	536500	536500
Iberian Minerals	IZN	535500	535500
Andean American Mining	AAG	467686	467686
San Gold	SGR	1328400	453800
Alix Resources	AIX	350000	350000
Largest Decrease in Short Position
Security	Ticker	Total Short	Change
Hawthorne Gold	HGC	91900	-609000
Full Metal Minerals	FMM	66000	-497500
African Gold Group	AGG	0	-473814
Gold Wheaton Gold Corp.	GLW.WT	0	-430000
NWT Uranium	NWT	1000	-242000

Swine Flu Update

Mexico City yesterday

For your average Joe such as I, with recourse to wiki pages to get a layman's grip on all things H(number)N(number), history of the 1918 pandemic, the 1976 Prez Ford (probable) overkill etc etc, it seems there's no reason to panic but there's every reason for world health authorities and governments to move their contingency plans into operation. So this morning we have:

• 68 confirmed deaths from swine flu in Mexico City

• No deaths in Mexico City in the last day (the recent toll was one or two per day)

• Confirmed outbreaks in Texas and California, USA

• Confirmed case in Canada (who recently visited Mexico)

• Mexico has cancelled all public meetings of all types for the next ten days

• Countries such as Nicaragua, Colombia and Peru (amongst others) issuing health warnings and tightening health screens for incomings, especially from Mexico and the USA

UPDATE: Check out The Mex Files' take on all this. After all, the dude is on site and knows what he's talking about.

Capella Resources (KPS.v) and a Trip Down the Investor Relations Rabbit Hole

Our scamsters over at Capella Resources (KPS.v) came out with news last night. They've hired a firm of investor relations to help promote their rip-off by the name of Senergy Communications. Based in Vancouver (just across from the Hotel Vancouver in fact), Senergy provides (ahem..clear my throat):

"strategic investor relations, public relations, and (sic comma) marketing solutions that are customized to the needs of your organization".

Senergy also boast of having a 30,000 name database of North American investors.

In other words, they're a bucketshop pumphouse that are about to phone 30,000 houses in the next couple of weeks to see if they can dig out a patsy or two. However, by their fruits shall ye know them (Matthew 7:16 dude on a hill talking to a crowd 2,000 years ago) so let's see how Senergy clients have been getting on recently.

Let's kick off with Troymet Exploration (TYE.v) who hired Senergy in August last year to tell the world just how wonderful they really are. Let's check the chart, and.........
....hmmmm. I've seen better, has to be said.

Never mind, how about Senergy's previous client, Petro Vista Energy (PTV.v). When Senergy got the job of relaying to the world the stuff that PTV.v was made of the stock stood at $0.75.

Now it's at 20 cents. Time for a quick joke! Q: How do you make a small fortune in penny stocks? A: Start with a large fortune and believe what they tell you.

Then there's "True North Energy" (T8E.f), another client of Senergy's...
.......but you should be getting the picture by now.

However my fave story is that of Fox Petroleum (FXPT.ob) that hired Senergy to promote the company back in June 2007 (not July like wot I writted on the chart). Before getting fired by FXPT in September 2008, Senergy had overseen the stock price as it moved from $5.15 to $1.85.

Fox is now a $0.35 company. Death spiralz iz wot death spiralz duz and Fox were not happy bunnies with the service provided by Senergy. The telling phrase come in FXPT's filing on the matter that states;

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

On September 1, 2008, we terminated an investor relations agreement with Senergy Communications Inc. whereby Senergy Communications Inc. provided investor relations services to us for US$10,000 per month

We terminated the agreement with Senergy Communications Inc. to improve the investor relations facility for new and old investors.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

You just can't the staff these days, can you? And those four were the only companies still in existence that have been mad enough to hire Senergy for IR work, according to my Google skills anyway (feel free to correct me if you know of any other suckers). So this is the cruddy IR firm just hired by the even cruddier Capella Resources to pump its BS to a bunch of greenhorns in the days to come. Just don't say I didn't try to warn you.

Another Free Trend&Value Letter (but it's your last chance)

The response for this free copy of Lucas's Trend&Value Letter has been very good, with over 100 downloads of the letter already made. So I've managed to bully Lucas into offering another copy of his report, but this one is the last freebie, folks. The whole idea is to allow you to see the high quality of analysis on offer and get you to give his service a trial month. It really is a bargain, as you get a letter every weekday at just U$28 per month (or less than a buck fifty per letter). I'm happy to say that Lucas has reported a few new signups this week, so don't be slow in joining the fun. For more details, go over to Lucas's blog (linked here) to find out how to sign up.

Meanwhile, click right here for your complimentary copy of the latest Trend And Value Letter, dated April 11th 2009. As well as a rundown on currencies there's a focus on Canada (stocks, currency and macro indicators). As usual, sharp insight on offer. Please be clear that I don't get any commission and any sort of kickback for driving clients or potential clients his way; all I get from this is the reflected glory of pointing out to a great service to investors. Thank you for your attention.

Oh Noes! Canada isn't the centre of the world!

• Maybe it's because people don't like the loonie

• Maybe it's because people are fed up to the back teeth with Da Boyz

• Maybe it's because people are sick to death of wanting in to a small miner and are offered 24 on the bid and 29 on the ask by corrupt pigs in suits and ties.

• Maybe it's because of the regulatory body, the OSC, that has managed to bring just two people to rights this decade (not joking, that's the number of convictions since 2000) and obviously doesn't give a damn about the impunity under their very noses.

But whatever it is, people are voting with their feet. The junior mining companies wise enough to spread their traded stock around other markets are now feeling the benefit of this move. Case in point is one of IKN's favoured microdots, Vena Resources (VEM.to), that traded just 1,000 shares in Toronto yesterday, but 63,000 in Frankfurt this morning and over 126,000 shares on the Lima, Peru BVL exchange yesterday (with closing bell bid at 21 and the ask at 22...that's how you run an investor-friendly exchange). Another one is Candente Resources (DNT.to), doing nearly half a million shares in volume in Lima yesterday. Plenty more examples to choose from, too.

Wouldn't it be funny if one day they rang the bell on the TSE and nobody came to play?