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Why savers should be saving gold and silver now!

2012-04-12T15:06:00.000-03:00

"Money printing works, until it doesn't work anymore"!!

I am not sure who the original quote is credited to, but it I know it is a favorite quote of Marc Faber, auther of the "Gloom Boom and Doom Report". You can view his latest interview at Capital Account. In that YouTube video, Marc refers to the "inflated ego of Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke" as the excessive money printing continues unabatted, on a sure course to financial ruin for many people. He fears there will be social upheavil in a number of western democracies and that wars will evolve from the hyper inflation to come. You may agree or disagree with his ideas, but I think you will agree that Faber is not a fool. His opinion is a learned one, and should be heeded along with others who try to make sense of a financial crisis that is not yet finished playing out.

In the 1970's there was one listed "Billionaire" in the Forbes list. By the mid 80's that had risen to 8. Today Forbes lists over 1200 billionaires in the world, and Faber believes the number is closer to 1500. Maybe that statistic is a "canary in the coal mine" of a hyper infliationery model which is being perpetrated by Banksters and Central Banks throughout the world at this writing. Now I know that none of those 1500 are reading this column, but I hope that many of those whose finances stand to be either greatly reduced or even wiped out, are.

Gold and Silver are not an investmen!. Let me repeat that. Gold and silver are not an investment! Gold and silver are (excuse the pun) the most "solid" form of money you can possess. Yes, these two precious metals are money! They have been money for about 4,000 years. Right up until 1964, silver was used in U.S. denominated coins. That is why in 1964 a U.S. quarter would buy you a gallon of gas. That is why today, the exact same U.S. Quarter (dated 1964 or before) will still buy you a gallon of gas. It is because of that silver content.

During the Roman Empire circa 2,000 years ago, an oz of gold would buy you approximately the same value of goods as it will buy you today. ( I know that "goods" are interpreted in different ways, but "food" and "Clothing" are goods and that comparison can be made) This is money that has kept it's value for thousands of years, and continues to keep it's value, even though, at least 2 or 3 times per year, there is a hue and cry from the so called investment community that gold has lost it's "sheen" and subsequently drops, only to return to it's steady climb in the month following. Usually only the "drop" in prices is reported by the headline seeking general media. They often don't report the steady rise as it usually takes the entire year to shake out higher, as it has for the past 11 years in a row. For instance, the price of silver rose 22% in just January and February of this year. Most people are not aware of that, because it rate a "one day" headline, but it is fact.

How do you pay down a 15 Trillion dollar debt? Well, you make the 15T worth a lot less, that is the only way. You "inflate" it away. You print money, and you print money and you print money. And it works, "until it doesn't work anymore"! Just ask the blue collar savers who have been squirilling cash away for a rainy day.
Against gold, they have lost over 500% in the past 10 years.

Yes I know, the famous Oracle of Omaha once said that "gold has no value". However it is now a certainty that, If Warren Buffett could have sold all of his shares in Birkshire 10 years ago, and just bought physical gold, he would be 500% richer today (give or take a percentage point). How is that for maintaining value?

There is now a race to devalue currency, by almost every major central bank in the world. The only "currency" they cannot devalue, is gold and silver, though they try and try, by using the fear factor. Don't fear owning gold my friends. Fear not owning gold and silver, especially if you are a saver.

Over the past 12 months, more than 61% of "all" U.S. Treasuries were actually bought by the Federal Reserve Bank. Yes, that is right. The United States of America is buying its own debt. That is because foreign banks are only buying less than 2% of that debt! Sound like a problem to you? Sure does to me. Sounds like money printing to me, on a massive scale!

Most people do not realize that, all of the gold mined over the past 4,000 years, if melted down, would only fill 2 olympic sized swimming pools. Does that sound like a shortage to you? Sure does to me. Now consider that the Silver/Gold ratio is historically 16:1 At todays gold rate, that places silver over $100 per oz. (trading today under $33) That is only if gold does not increase further in U.S. dollar value (some value eh!)

Now here is another fact to consider. As the money printing continues over the next decade, or as hyper inflation begins to rear itès ugly head from the money printing of the last 4 years, and we can draw any conclusions from the previous decade, then gold will reach (in U.S. dollar terms) Approx $8300 per oz by 2022 (or before).

Now, does today's gold purchase price of usd $1650 sound like a bargain to you? It certainly does to me!

Savers should be buying physical silver and gold right now if they haven't already been accumulating. Your savings depend on it.

Personally I have invested in both physical silver and gold and I am investing in mid tier gold miners that have been beaten down over the past year. Do your own homework, but look for mid tier miners (Ones that could be attractive to the senior miners, who can only increase production by scooping up smaller names) who have solid management, producing mines, increasing production, increasing reserves and whoès production costs does not exceed $800 per oz. (the lower the better).

You dont need good luck with your Savings. You only need good currency.

HP

Brigus Gold - 2012 should make investors very happy

2012-02-09T15:20:00.009-04:00

Brigus Gold Corp (TSX - BRD) (AMEX - BRD)

is a mid-tier gold producer operating in several jurisdiction including it's producing Black Fox Mine complex near the prolific gold region of Timmons, Ontario, Canada.

Unusual for such a company is that it's head office is in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Brigus has a very solid management team with many years of experience amoug them in in the field of gold mining. They are fucused on building shareholder value through the further development of the Black Fox mine and their Goldfields property near Uranium City Saskatchewan.

Brigus expects to produce 100,000 oz in 2012 and is planning to double production in the next few years to 200,000 oz. Proven and probable reserves now total over 2,000,000 oz and with new discoveries, this number will grow.

Current Market cap is 200m with 196m shares outstanding and the shares traded today at a low of $1.02 per share. Cost of production will average $700 per oz in 2012. Having regard to all of the numbers given by Brigus Gold in their January investor presentation, their resource base is only being valued by investors at $117 per oz. That, my friends, is such an extreme under-valuation of those resources that it borders on the ridiculus.

Brigus has recently made agreements to option off it's mine holdings in Mexico so as to free up cash (currently $19.1M) for development of it's core assets at Black Fox and Goldfields. Current debt is $50M

The price of gold has spiked in recent months and a number of expert analysts expect the price to go as high as $2200 this year. Over the past year, the share price of gold miners has not kept pace with the price of bullion. In fact, it has declined during that time. History tells us that this divergence between bullion prices and gold miners will correct itself and when it does, it will happen very quickly. Mid-tier miners such as Brigus and Sangold will lead this charge, in my humble opinion.

Large gold producers, with their eye on the bottom line, often increase their resource and production base by buying mid-tier miners such as Brigus Gold and San Gold (another one of our favourites) At these very low valuations, this makes Brigus a diamond in the rough so to speak.

Institutional investors: Sprott Asset Management, LLP; Van Eck Associates Corporation; Wellington Management Company, LP; Baker Steel Capital Managers, LLP; Oppenheimer Funds, LLC; Hale Capital Partners; RBC Precious Metals; BlackRock Financial Management; Earth Resources; and Waterton Resources

Recently Sprott upped their position by 5M shares to 20M shares or approx 10% of the company.

The Motley Fool has made Brigus one of their top three picks this year and give it 4 stars.

Analyst coverage:

Kerry Smith, Haywood Securities
Richard Gray, Cormark Securities
Steve Willis, Casimir Capital
Jeff Wright, Global Hunter Securities, LLC
Michael Starogiannis, Fraser Mackenzie

Quarter Annual

	Q4 2011	Q1 2012	Q2 2012	Q3 2012
Current Mean (as of 2/9/2012)	$0.02	$0.05	$0.08	$0.09
Standard Deviation (Current Mean)	0.02	0.01	0.01	0.02
Previous Mean	$0.03	$0.05	$0.08	$0.09
Low Estimate	$0.00	$0.04	$0.07	$0.07
High Estimate	$0.03	$0.06	$0.08	$0.10
Number of Brokers Estimating	2	2	2	2

As you can see, the EPS consensus expectation between Q4 2011 and Q3 2012 indicates a growth estimate of profits above 350%. These are very strong numbers.

Over the past week we have doubled down on our holdings of Brigus Gold. We expect to be well rewarded during 2012. They say patience is a virtue. If you are currently holding Brigus Gold shares, good for you. If you are not, maybe you should be.

Happy investing.
HP

Latest SEC filings

Talison Lithium to Present at the Merriman Capital Investor Summit 2012

2012-01-25T14:02:00.000-04:00

Perth, Western Australia, January 25, 2012 – Talison Lithium Limited (“Talison” or the “Company”) (TSX: TLH | US: TLTHF ) announced todaythat, Frank Wheatley, Executive Director Corporate Affairs and Strategy will be presenting at the Merriman Capital Investor Summit 2012. The conference will be held in New York City on February 1, 2012.

The Merriman Capital Investor Summit 2012 is dedicated to fast-growing companies in industry sectors such as clean-tech and clean energy, biotechnology, and resources including critical metals and rare earths. The conference features corporate presentations and individual meetings.

The presentation will be webcast, and a link to the webcast will be available on Talison’s website at www.talisonlithium.com.

For more information about the conference or to schedule a one-on-one meeting with Mr. Wheatley, please contact Talison’s investor relations representative listed below.

About Talison

Talison is a leading global producer of lithium. Talison mines and processes the lithium bearing mineral spodumene at the Greenbushes Lithium Operations in Western Australia. In addition, Talison explores for lithium at the Salares 7 lithium project made up of seven salars (brine lakes and surrounding concessions) located in Region III, Chile. Talison has an extensive, well established global customer network and a leading position in the growing Chinese market.

To view the entire press release please visit:
Talison Lithium Ltd. Press Release

Editors note:
Talison Lithium is the largest pure lithium producer in the worlde today, supplying over 300 customers, mostly in China, with Lithium. This year (2012) Talison negotiated a price increase for it's lithium production of 15%.

Gold nuggets of the digital world - Domain names and their value!

2012-01-03T10:31:00.003-04:00

Image via WikipediaWhen considering investments, most people don't even consider internet domain names. Most people see these internet addresses as just some digits, not unlike a phone number, in the mass of cyber space known as the world wide web. However, unlike a phone number, a proper, high end domain name is an address, a label and a powerful marketing tool that can draw in thousands and even millions of visitors.

Many domains derive their cachet and importance from the business world "prior" to the existance of the world wide web (circa 1996)

Examples include such obvious brands as NewYorkTimes.com, Time.com, Ford.com, IBM.com, etc. You get the picture. There are also companies who obtained "first mover" advantage in their industries in the early days of the web such as Yahoo.com, Ebay.com, Amazon.com and MSN.com Those companies thereby became household names as web search and usage grew expotentially. At the beginnings of the world wide web (www) in the 90's, Microsoft.com became a default website for millions looking for answers from the software giant, especially for it's windows operating systems.

Today social media domains like Facebook.com, Twitter.com,Youtube.com and gamers like Zynga.com have made their mark with great online businesses that have boosted those names from obscurity into the daily life of millions of web users. Other great business will no doubt follow, and will boost otherwise obscure domains into the limelight. However, because of the nature of domains and of search, it is the simple names and phrases used in domains that have the most value.

The world wide web has spawned many great opportunities and changed many ideas of business. In this case, it made the english language, simple words and simple phrases, into valuable property. It has even changed the english language in many ways. For instance the immergence of one previously obscure domain name based on the mathmatical "GooGol" changed the idea of "search" On the world wide web people now "Google" a word or a phrase to find what they are looking for. The term "Google it" is now part of the daily lexicon. Google.com is now the most visited domain on the web.

Those who saw the value of these "gold nuggets" of the digital world back in the mid 90's began to register as many powerful "word" domains as possible. The most valuable that come to mind are domains like: Business.com (sold for $200,000 then "flipped" on the secondary market for $7 million) Sex.com (porportedly sold for $12 million) Cars.com, etc. The ".com" domain extension has always been considered the most valuable with the .net and .org extensions initially labelled as poorer cousins which sold, on average, for about 10% of the .com leaders. However, Just last week, MY.net sold for $75,950 at Sedo.com Not a bad return on an investment (registration fee) of less than $30 eh! Even if you bought such a domain in the past few years on the secondary market for, say, $10,000 your return is still over 750%

For those just now getting into the domain game, there are many new opportunities, such as new extensions. Besides country codes like .ca (Canada) .De (Germany) .au (Australia) .it (italy) etc., there are now a number of new extensions and the new domainers are scooping up names like it is 1996 all over again with extensions like .co, .mobi, .travel, .asia etc. etc. Now Icann (the International Corporation for Assigned names and numbers) is considering more proposed extensions including ".family,"".tech,"".law," ".mp3,"".free," and ".xxx. For future domainers, these are opportune times indeed.

Recently, Microsoft published a research paper identifying a new bias in online searches they have labelled "Domain Bias". The paper clearly defines what many searchers already know by default. That online searchers clearly favor high end domain names with direct words or phrases, in their searches as opposed to vaguely named domains or those with dubious background. Here is an excerpt from that paper:

"In this paper, we uncover a new phenomenon in click activity
that we call domain bias—a user’s propensity to click
on a search result because it comes from a reputable domain,
as well as their disinclination to click on a result from a domain
of unknown or distrustful reputation. The propensity
constitutes a bias as it cannot be explained by relevance or
positioning of search results."

Microsoft Research

2012 may well be another turning point in the domain market as new, more specific domain extensions are brought online and new entrepreneurs jump in to a thriving and growing market. Will you be one of them?

Naysayers and famous quotes from critics who just couldn't see possibility!

2011-12-29T17:40:00.001-04:00

Image via Wikipedia

NAYSAYERS PROVEN WRONG...

"Man will never reach the moon regardless of all future scientific advances."

-- Dr. Lee DeForest, "Father of Radio & Grandfather of Television."

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"The bomb will never go off. I speak as an expert in explosives."

- - Admiral William Leahy , US Atomic Bomb Project

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"There is no likelihood man can ever tap the power of the atom."

-- Robert Millikan, Nobel Prize in Physics, 1923

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"Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons."

-- Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949

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"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."

-- Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943

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"I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won't last out the year."

-- The editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957

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"But what is it good for?"

-- Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip.

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"640K ought to be enough for anybody."

-- Bill Gates, 1981

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This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us."

-- Western Union internal memo, 1876.

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"The Wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?"

-- David Sarnoff's associates in response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the 1920s.

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"The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a 'C', the idea must be feasible."

-- A Yale University management professor in response to Fred Smith's paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service. (Smith went on to found Federal Express Corp.)

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"I'm just glad it'll be Clark Gable who's falling on his face and not Gary Cooper."

-- Gary Cooper on his decision not to take the leading role in "Gone With The Wind."

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"A cookie store is a bad idea. Besides, the market research reports say America likes crispy cookies, not soft and chewy cookies like you make."

-- Response to Debbi Fields' idea of starting Mrs. Fields' Cookies.

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"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out,"

-- Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962.

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"Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible,"

-- Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895.

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"If I had thought about it, I wouldn't have done the experiment. The literature was full of examples that said you can't do this,"

- - Spencer Silver on the work that led to the unique adhesives for 3-M "Post-It" Notepads .

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"Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You're crazy,"

-- Drillers who Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to his project to drill for oil in 1859.

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"Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau."

-- Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University , 1929.

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"Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value."

-- Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre , France .

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"Everything that can be invented has been invented."

-- Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, US Office of Patents, 1899.

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"The super computer is technologically impossible. It would take all of the water that flows over Niagara Falls to cool the heat generated by the number of vacuum tubes required."

-- Professor of Electrical Engineering, New York University

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"I don't know what use any one could find for a machine that would make copies of documents. It certainly couldn't be a feasible business by itself."

-- the head of IBM, refusing to back the idea, forcing the inventor to found Xerox.

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"Louis Pasteur's theory of germs is ridiculous fiction."

-- Pierre Pachet, Professor of Physiology at Toulouse , 1872

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"The abdomen, the chest, and the brain will forever be shut from the intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon."

-- Sir John Eric Ericksen, British surgeon, appointed Surgeon-Extraordinary to Queen Victoria 1873.

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And last but not least

"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."

-- Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977

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Buying physical Gold and Silver may be the best course in 2012.

2011-12-28T11:18:00.000-04:00

Did Bankers Deliberately Crash MF Global to Crash Gold and Silver Prices?

December 27th, 2011

Did bankers use the MF Global bankruptcy to suppress gold and silver prices and create the panicked appearance of collapsing precious metals to give themselves additional precious time to delay the crash of the Euro and the US Dollar? As crazy as this sounds, a closer investigation of some key data seems to imply this possibility. Though bankers claim that they created futures markets to provide a mechanism for commodity producers to hedge against volatile market prices, I have never bought the kool-aid the bankers were selling in this explanation for the rationale behind their creation of futures markets. Given that today, futures and spot prices for gold and silver in the short-term are entirely set by banker manipulation of the supply and demand for paper derivatives that often have no backing of any physical metal, I believe that bankers created futures markets for the explicit intent of allowing themselves to manipulate the prices of commodities and to enrich themselves, and themselves only, through the process of alternately and artificially inflating and deflating prices as would not be allowed in any type of free market. In other words, bankers invented futures markets to allow themselves to siphon off and steal money from other parties that wanted to invest in commodities with a mechanism, risk-free to them, that required deception and zero honest work and zero integrity.

The futures markets in commodities is such a deceptive market that it is hard to know even where to begin to unravel its many mechanisms of deceit in all their glory. Futures contracts traded on the world’s largest commodity markets such as the COMEX in New York and the LBM in London allow bankers to commit reverse alchemy, turning real physical gold and real physical silver into nothing but false paper contracts and air. Secondly, through futures contracts traded in New York and London, bankers routinely defy the economic principles of supply and demand, and set short-term prices for gold and silver that literally have zero to do with the supply and demand dynamics of the physical gold and physical silver market. In the world of physics, such an illogical, comparable feat of deception would be the indefinite suspension of the law of gravity. Bankers invented paper derivative gold and silver markets to allow themselves to literally defy and suspend every single sound economic principle that exists.

This is important to understand because not only does understanding this concept make the bulk of what you learn in business school a lie and entirely useless, but also because bullion banks such as Deutsche Bank, Citibank, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs et al that serve as the puppet conduits for more powerful families that control Central Banks, routinely used to lease physical gold into the open market as their primary mechanism to suppress the price of gold and silver. However, as their mechanism of fractional reserve banking began to threaten the viability and utility of the most widely used fiat currencies in the world, the USD and the Euro, bankers understood that they needed to utilize and/or create another mechanism to suppress gold and silver prices that could replace selling physical PMs into the open market as they no longer wished to give up a solid asset with no third party counter-risk for what they knew they were turning into essentially worthless pieces of paper. Thus bankers increasingly turned to the paper futures markets to manipulate and control the price of gold and silver and also served up additional bogus derivative products to the public like the GLD and SLV ETFs. Bankers knew that there was no way they could possibly control the price of gold and silver if the supply and demand determinants of physical gold and physical silver had anything to do with the price, so they conspired to fool the world into believing that the fake paper price they set was set by the supply and demand of the physical markets.

Collapsing OI of Gold/Silver Futures Markets Directly Related to MF Global Collapse?
And here’s where MF Global enters the banking cartel gold and silver price suppression scheme. Today, short-term futures and spot prices of gold and silver have almost nothing to do with the physical supply and demand dynamics of gold and silver, as odd as that may sound. Bankers created the futures markets and paper derivatives in gold and silver to kill free markets and for the express purpose of suppressing gold and silver prices. Today we literally have no idea what the free market price of gold and silver should be or could be, besides the fact that both would be multiples higher than their current price, because of the fake paper market in gold and silver that the bankers created.

As well, bankers ensured that they armed a legion of worker bees in commercial investment firms all over the world that would represent these paper derivatives backed by very little physical gold and silver to their clients as the equivalent of investing in 99.999% pure physical gold and silver. In doing so, the worker bees thereby lured people all over the world into what will turn out to be the fatal mistake of not buying millions of troy ounces of physical gold and silver and instead buying their offering of fool’s gold and fool’s silver. When we receive a massive default of gold and silver futures contracts that stand for delivery on the COMEX or LBM, or if the SLV and GLD default, then, and only then, will the public start to see true price discovery of physical gold and physical silver in action. However, for clients of MF Global, unfortunately, they have already experienced the mistake of buying fool’s gold and fool’s silver from the bankers and have received air in exchange for gold and silver futures contracts they purchased that stood for delivery.

Bankers invented fake paper gold and silver contracts, because they knew that if they could not fulfill contractual obligations to deliver physical gold and physical silver because the contracts were a binding lie to begin with), that they could always renege on these contractual obligations and give the people the nothingness they truly owned in return. And thus, we have the story of MF Global.

Ratings agencies downgraded MF Global on Oct 25 and MF Global declared bankruptcy on Oct 31. If one scours the data that the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) releases via its aggregated Commitment of Trader (COT) reports during this time period, one may not notice any data that immediately stands. However, investigation of the disaggregated reports reveals far more interesting patterns that almost undoubtedly can be traced back to the collapse of MF Global. In a period just preceding the MF Global collapse, from late August to mid October, the open interest (OI) in longs in gold and silver futures within the Managed Money category collapsed by 33.75% in gold (202,430 to 136,103) and 44.74% in silver (29,849 to 16,494). During this exact same time period, shorts in the gold and silver futures in the Managed Money category increased by 19.3% and 83.82% respectively (see the chart below). Within the Managed Money category, between Sept 13th and 27th, in just a two-week period, the drop in OI in the longs in gold and silver futures was even more pronounced, with a 25.41% plunge and 34.3% plunge in silver. I imagine if someone could trace the connection of this plunge in OI in the Managed Money category in the gold and silver futures markets, one would discover that a good deal of the plunge was somehow directly tied to the impending MF Global bankruptcy and its freezing and/or liquidation of gold and silver futures accounts in its possession.

After Phase I of the collapse in OI in the gold and silver futures markets, Phase II followed. When the story about MF Global’s legalized client theft hit the presses, an enormous public distrust of the entire futures markets started to build. If clients lost millions of dollars in gold and silver futures accounts due to forced liquidation or freezing of contracts that they were holding for delivery, anyone that had considered using the futures markets to take delivery of real gold and real silver following the MF Global debacle obviously reconsidered their options. Thus, due to the massive fraud of the futures markets that was revealed by the MF Global collapse, another huge drop in the OI of gold and silver longs in the Managed Money category occurred during Phase II (as labeled in the above chart) that respectively amounted to an additional respective 11.79% and 7.48% plunge. In essence, it appears that the MF Global collapse served up the exact same price suppression effect as a CME issued initial or maintenance margin hike in gold and silver futures, which forces a tidal wave of unwanted and involuntary liquidation of gold and silver longs that consequently violate technical support lines and trigger technical sells.

Of course, we also have to factor in the temporary OI-increasing effect of the risk-on CME event when they lowered initial margins to a 1:1 ratio with maintenance margins at the onset of November. Still, given the figures presented in the chart above, it seems that bankers used the MF Global collapse to force liquidation of gold and silver longs in the futures market quite rapidly and drastically. Why is this important? This is important because typically strong hands ride out any temporary banker manipulations of gold and silver prices downward. In this case, strong hands, if they existed at MF Global, were not given this opportunity and were forced to liquidate or had their accounts frozen whether or not they desired such an outcome. Furthermore, if primarily strong hands were forced out of the futures market, this would leave the majority of volume in the gold and silver futures markets primarily in the hands of the criminal banking cartel. We’ve seen repeatedly, this past year in the US S&P 500 index, when low trading volume primarily controlled by the banking cartel has translated into curious and inexplicable market bounces of 2% in a single day. In other words, low trading volume allows bankers excessive and easy manipulation over markets. If this was indeed the scenario bankers deliberately created with the MF Global collapse, then the MF Global collapse and simultaneous collapse of open interest in gold and silvers futures certainly would have paved the way for the banking cartel to easily manipulate gold and silver prices.

There was also further circumstantial evidence that bankers used the MF Global collapse to collapse gold and silver futures markets at the end of 2011. For example, in an article posted on the SilverDoctors blog by Jim Willie in which he gathered data regarding the amount of physical gold and silver ounces represented by the longs at MF Global that were standing for delivery in the futures markets before these contracts imploded, he stated: “JP Morgan increased the amount of registered silver and gold by precisely the amount that was suppose to be delivered [by MF Global]…JP Morgan effectively averted both a Comex default and a European Sovereign Debt implosion.”

Silver Lining in the MF Global Debacle?
Can there be a silver lining in the MF Global debacle? I believe that in the long-term, this extremely unethical, negative event could transform into a positive game-changer in the way people buy large amounts of gold and silver. Obviously, the futures market is not a safe market for anyone seeking to take delivery of millions of dollars of physical gold and silver as many MF Global clients learned. The GLD and SLV ETFs, of course, are no safer than any gold or silver futures contract for the same reasons. So in the future, and I mean the immediate future starting now, I believe that large buyers of physical gold and silver will now opt to bypass the bullion bank’s middle men in the futures market and go directly to the gold and silver mining companies to buy large quantities of bullion. This should eventually help usher in the death of futures markets as a mechanism for buying physical gold and physical silver and be a step towards establishing a free market for gold and silver prices for the first time in our lives. Mark Cutifani, CEO of AngloGold Ashanti, recently echoed the same: “Major [asset management fund] buyers are finding it is hard to get physical gold. People are coming directly to us [for large gold purchases,] people who want tonnes of physical gold, people with serious financial muscle, because they are finding it is very difficult to secure the volume of gold they want. That is something we have noticed over the last 18 months, and it has been increasing in the last six months. People are finding it’s hard to get physical gold.”

People that want to own physical gold and physical silver never should have been buying the GLD, SLV, or gold and silver futures. Now, in light of the MF Global debacle, scores of people will stay away from these fraudulent vehicles for good.

About the author: JS Kim is the Chief Investment Strategist and founder of SmartKnowledgeU, a fiercely independent investment research and consulting firm with a mission to help re-establish the monetary freedom that bankers have stolen from us. Despite believing that gold and silver will remain highly volatile in 2012, JS believes that long-term holders of physical gold and silver will be richly rewarded as bogus paper gold and silver derivatives start collapsing and reach their intrinsic value in coming years. Follow JS on Twitter and Facebook.

Mid tier gold miner San Gold is on a tear heading into 2012

2011-12-21T14:02:00.002-04:00

"These results provide a detailed account of one of the richest gold deposits ever discovered in Manitoba. It's extremely impressive that a gold deposit that wasn't even known about two years ago will be contributing 50% of our mill feed well into the foreseeable future,"

George Pirie, San Gold's President and Chief Executive Officer. December 20th, 2011.

SanGold Corp. is a mid-tier Canadian producer of gold headquartered at Winnipeg, Manitoba. It currently owns the producing Rice Lake, Hinge and 007 mines and owns other gold mining interests in both Manitoba and Ontario, Canada.

Today's market cap is 606,000,000, up over 40% after yesterday's huge pop, with 312,677,000 shares outstanding. It has a 52 week trading range of $1.35 to $4.09 and is trading today under $1.90 Operating revenue is $75, 239,000, up 118% year over year. It has a three year return of 16.72%

8 Analysts have a buy recommendation on Sangold with a current consensus target price of $3.40 share. Of course, that price was set well before yesterday's big news. What was that big news? Well it is the reason that the CEO George Pirie, made the above noted quote in his release yesterday. Basically, SanGold has released results of this years 200 drill holes at 007 and the numbers are astounding. They represent the largest gold find in the history of Manitoba mining. Here are some of those numbers:

S922-11-036, intersecting 23.2 g/tonne over 11.5 metres at a depth of 362 metres
S922-11-013, intersecting 110.1 g/tonne over 2.1 metres at a depth of 330 metres
S922-11-049, intersecting 44.2 g/tonne over 4.3 metres at a depth of 348 metres
S922-11-089, intersecting 63.0 g/tonne over 2.8 metres at a depth of 362 metres
S922-11-091, intersecting 21.7 g/tonne over 7.4 metres at a depth of 362 metres
S915-11-003, intersecting 11.8 g/tonne over 12.3 metres at a depth of 396 metres
S915-11-024, intersecting 60.7 g/tonne over 3.0 metres at a depth of 275 metres
S915-11-045, intersecting 45.6 g/tonne over 4.3 metres at a depth of 291 metres
S915-11-084, intersecting 17.4 g/tonne over 9.4 metres at a depth of 269 metres
S915-11-106, intersecting 18.1 g/tonne over 3.2 metres at a depth of 358 metres

In an industry where 3 grams per ton is considered minable reserves, you can see from the results why 6 million shares traded hands yesterday and the stock jumped 40%. With recent M&A action in this hot area
(2011 examples include: Eldorado buying European goldfields for 2.4B, Gold Corp buying Gold Eagle, Agnico buying into Pheonix, Agnico-Eagle buying Grayd Resources, Hedge Fund Luxor Capital buying Crocodile Gold, IAM gold announcing it is on the lookout for acquisitions etc.) I have become even more bullish on SanGold than I was even last month.

big miners have chosen the express route to increasing reserves by purchasing the known assets of their rivals rather than the heartache and headache of drilling core samples and filling out permit applications. San Gold is a growing, mid tier producer of gold. Yearly revenue is now 10% of market cap, new discoveries have increased the resource base, production will hit 100,000 oz in 2012 and SanGold has an earnings per share growth of over 30% for the past five years.

2012 should bring a whirlwind of M&A activity in the gold sector, and I plan on being in on the ground floor. How about you?

Disclosure: long San Gold (SGR-TSX) and Brigus Gold (BRD).

Gold and Silver Mining Stocks Offer the Best Value of Any Sector in the Stock Market By a Wide Margin

2011-12-08T14:08:00.003-04:00

By J.S. Kim, Smart Knowledge University.

Today, gold and silver mining stocks offer the best value by far of any sector in any stock market anywhere in the world.

Due to the recent massive volatility that bankers have introduced into the PM stock sector, and the fact that commercial investment advisers worldwide have erroneously re-educated millions of people with the concept that volatility equals risk, the majority of people worldwide will miss a massive opportunity in gold and silver mining stocks over the next several years due to their misguided belief that gold and silver mining stocks cannot escape the throes of banker manipulation.

There has been much acceptance of the theory that Central Banks and bankers perpetually manipulate gold and silver spot prices through the gold/silver futures markets due to strong circumstantial, non free-market evidence such as gold/silver futures prices being significantly higher in Asian futures markets versus Western futures markets for long stretches of time as well as out-and-out flagrant behavior such as the irrational raising of initial and maintenance margins on silver futures five times in nine working days into falling prices instead of into rising prices. For those not aware of the multitude of schemes Central Banks execute to suppress gold and silver futures prices, please refer to this article, JS Kim Uncovers Four Parallel Markets for Gold, when during the Wall Street collapse of 2008, bullion banks (controlled by Central Banks) routinely knocked the gold futures price down by $10, $20, $30 and sometimes even $40 an ounce usually right at market open of the NY COMEX at a time when gold was trading at less than $900 an ounce and such movements reflected 2%+ to 3%+ waterfall movements downward in price (comparatively speaking today, such percent movements would consist of $40 to $50 an ounce movements downward.

Since then, bullion banks have executed this scheme over and over, pulling bids at the market open of the NY COMEX to cause a waterfall decline in gold futures prices in a matter of a few minutes. Throw in for good measure that you can check all US holidays when the COMEX is closed for the past five years and you can find nary a day when gold is not higher or at least about even, simply for the reason that the NY Comex is closed and the Western banking cartel is non-operational in the gold/silver markets on these days. If this circumstantial evidence, literally the tip of the iceberg in the mountain of circumstantial evidence of banker price suppression schemes against gold and silver futures, is insufficient to convince the most stubborn of skeptics, then consider former US Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan’s statement in 1966 that:
“An almost hysterical antagonism toward the gold standard is one issue which unites statists of all persuasions. They seem to sense – perhaps more clearly and subtly than many consistent defenders of laissez-faire – that gold and economic freedom are inseparable, that the gold standard is an instrument of laissez-faire and that each implies and requires the other.”

Would not statists that support the doctrine of seizing centralized control over economic planning and monetary policy, not covertly and actively suppress the price of gold, if the most famous Central Banker himself stated that they possess “an almost hysterical antagonism” towards gold? Today, nearly half a century later, banker propaganda and re-education campaigns regarding gold and silver have been so successful that Greenspan’s accusation that many defenders of the laissez-faire doctrine fail to recognize that gold and economic freedom are inseparable still stands true. I’ve read numerous essays by those that argue for less government interference in business and monetary affairs and for stronger free markets but yet vehemently deny that bankers ever interfere in gold and silvers futures markets through active price suppression schemes.

However, as I’ve written extensively about this topic for six years at my investment blog theUndergroundInvestor.com and will address this topic further in two books I will release by year’s end, I do not want to stray from the main topic of this essay: Gold and silver mining shares offer tremendous value and tremendous upside right now due to the fact that bankers have worked very diligently to suppress the price of gold and silver mining shares for the past 12 months.

I’ve always been surprised over the years by the lack of accusations from the CEOs of the mining world that one of the primary reasons, if not the primary reason, for the underperformance of their share prices in recent years are banker price suppression schemes enacted against the PM shares. I realize that many industry analysts refrain from making this accusation due to the fact that they are being afraid of labeled by their peers or superiors as “loony, conspiracy theorists” but who cares if someone at the CFTC or some top PM analyst at Goldman Sachs or Citigroup calls you a “loony”. Due to macro and micro-economic predictions that have the track record equivalency of Ben Bernanke, most of these guys have as much credibility as a talking dolphin, so to be discredited in an ad hominem attack by any of these guys should truly pose no worry. However, nearly all mainstream gold/silver analysts appear to still engage themselves in censoring the truth due to concerns of being ostracized by the mainstream financial industry. As far as I’m concerned, being ostracized by the criminal mainstream financial industry, in my opinion, should present one with the mark of credibility.

When I first started publicly speaking about the banker executed price suppression schemes against gold and silver futures prices six years ago, bankers tried to discredit and call me crazy back then, but now, six years later, such explanations for inexplicable movements downward in gold/silver futures markets when physical supply/demand fundamentals demand upward price movements are at times, even accepted by the mainstream media, or at a minimum, now reported by them instead of being ignored by them. These are huge steps forward in dispensing the red pill of truth to skeptics regarding the true reasons behind volatile price movements downward in the gold and silver markets. Furthermore, whenever I presented factual evidence of the manipulation in gold markets, most banking analysts that disagreed with me countered my arguments with simple ad hominem attacks that never once provided a solid refutation of, nor a credible argument against the evidence I presented, circumstantial and factual (in the form of Central Bank documents that specifically addressed their desire to suppress gold prices). I believe the same three stages of truth as described by German philosopher Shopenhauer, will also manifest itself in regard to PM mining shares just as they have manifested/are about to manifest with gold/silver prices: (1) First, truth is ridiculed; (2) Second, truth is violently opposed; and (3) Third, truth is accepted as self-evident. Finally, if people so widely accept now that bankers are interfering in suppressing much higher free-market prices from operating in gold and silver futures markets, is it really that much of a deductive leap to assume that they would also be interfering in suppressing free-market prices in gold and silver mining shares?

As is the case with the behavior of gold/silver futures markets, numerous illogical anomalies that manifest themselves with regularity in the gold/silver mining shares first made me suspect that bankers were routinely interfering with the prices of gold and silver mining shares. To illustrate my point, let’s look at the performance of a couple of flagship gold and silver mining shares versus the performance of some flagship retail and financial shares.

From the chart above, you can see that the mining shares either significantly outperformed or astoundingly outperformed non-mining industry companies with a similar market cap size in simple financial metrics except for share price appreciation in the last year, a category in which they astoundingly underperformed their competitors. I am not. In the case above, I have only provided a very basic example to illustrate how drastically undervalued share prices of producing gold and silver companies are right now. I fully realize that I am not comparing apples to oranges, but I merely wanted to illustrate how companies’ share prices with healthy earnings and revenues outside of the mining sector act, since bankers have targeted gold and silver mining shares as a sector for price suppression schemes. Thus, I had to look outside of the PM sector to provide examples of what should be happening with the PM mining share prices. And I only call the other company “competitors” of the mining stocks because the goal of commercial investment industry analysts is to prevent you from buying the most undervalued stocks in the entire market and to keep you invested in overvalued and overpriced stocks. After all, when gold and silver mining stocks finally get going in their next upleg, which may be very soon, investors will naturally want to also invest in physical gold and physical silver and thus dump the broad stock market index portfolios they may currently maintain. So in essence mining stocks are competitors of the retail and tech stocks though most would say they are not.

Furthermore, most would argue that substantially lower prices in the price component of PEG ratios are justified for the mining sector due to the typical volatility of mining shares, but this past year, this argument only serves to support my thesis regarding the fact that mining shares are the most undervalued sector and the most underappreciated sector in the market right now. Sectors that are viewed as volatile typically are expected to have lower share prices to compensate for the added risk of holding shares in that sector. However, this year, given that the broad stock market index of the S&P 500 has traveled an incredible 1,230+ points up and down since May 1st but has remained relatively unchanged in value, extra volatility of mining shares over components of broad stock market indexes does not justify lower share prices of the mining stocks. Furthermore, because banker attacks on gold and silver mining shares, whether achieved by indirect take downs of gold/silver futures prices and/or direct sell-offs of the shares during times of low volume trading, are responsible for the added volatility of PM shares, arguing that the volatility of the sector justifies lower PM share prices also loses credibility.

Even if we disregard this admittedly circumstantial argument, if we compare the trading ranges at which these four stocks traded at during most of the past 12 months, the volatility comparisons do not justify the huge differences in the PEG ratios of the past 12 months between the PM stocks and the stocks that trade on the broader stock market index. Chipotle traded between a range of $270 and $340, or a 25.93% spread for most of the year while Silver Wheaton traded in a range between $30 and $40 a share, or a spread of 33% most of the year, though both stocks traded both higher and lower than these ranges for short periods of time. Though this is but a comparison of two stocks out of hundreds of mining stocks and a couple thousand NYSE stocks, and though some may argue that Chipotle is overvalued at its current share price and PEG, many PM mining stocks across the board are flush with huge cash reserves, soaring revenues, double digit earnings growth for several consecutive quarters, but yet have experienced stagnant or even negative share price growth over the past 12 months. Again I am only comparing Chipotle to Silver Wheaton to highlight the massively manipulated state of flagship gold and silver mining companies over the past 12 months and not because I think a direct comparison is the most apropos one.

Besides the totally illogical performance of Barrick Gold and Silver Wheaton above when considering their PEG ratios and their massively positive earnings growth over the last year, I have witnessed numerous anomalies over the past decade that convince me beyond a shadow of doubt that bankers manipulate the prices of gold and silver mining stocks downward on a persistent and consistent basis to prevent the masses from understanding that ownership of physical gold and physical silver will liberate them from our current morally bankrupt, illegitimate and unconstitutional monetary and banking system. For example, during dozens of options expiration days over the past five years in particular, I have witnessed uptrends in the price of numerous mining stocks stall and shed 3% to 4% from the previous day’s market close on literally no negative news other than the fact that it was OpEx day. And usually the prices of mining stocks, on days when this happens, gap down significantly on market open. Then, the following Monday after OpEx day is finished, the uptrend in mining shares will resume. Yes, one can call this behavior coincidental but anyone that does so would be dismissing the laws of probabilities and calling for a new mathematical paradigm to apply only on OpEx days. The percent chance that attributes such regular and repeated price action behavior that occurs only on OpEx days to the probabilities of “random noise” would likely come in at less than a fraction of 1%.
For the first time I can recall in recent times, the CEO of a major PM mining company finally spoke out about the ridiculous and likely intervention of the banking cartel in suppressing the price of not only PM futures but PM share prices. Keith Neumeyer, the CEO of First Majestic mining, recently voiced his opinions behind the downward price volatility not only of gold/silver futures but of gold/silver mining shares: “I don’t think supply and demand has anything to do with the price [of silver], unfortunately. The world we live in today is a paper environment where silver is priced by financial circumstances. Banks, traders and investors around the world move markets to where they want them to be. Governments and commercials—big banks like HSBC and JP Morgan—all have a piece of the action. They alternately work together or sometimes against each other. All these forces price the metal. That’s one reason we’re seeing the volatility that we’re seeing today.” Dramatic silver volatility “has to do with the financial instruments that we trade in and with the fact that silver trades a billion ounces per day on the COMEX alone when there are 26 to 30 million ounces of silver available for delivery. With that kind of leverage, you just don’t have a proper market… The governments, regulators and bullion banks have let the silver market get more and more leveraged. We’ve seen a lot of wealth destruction as a result of this leverage and we’re going to see a lot more until, finally, the governments decide to change the system.” With these scathing comments about the casino like nature of banker-rigged gold and silver markets, Neumeyer hit the nail squarely on its head.

Unfortunately, governments, because they are partners with the bankers in this system of cronyism, will never voluntarily change the system. Thus, here is the billion dollar question if one understands the tremendous illicit activity of bankers in rigging gold/silver PM shares much lower than their free market prices: Why would you want to buy into these shares even if they are remarkably undervalued right now given massive banker desire to control and suppress their share prices? After all, all of this banker rigging convinced a few gold/silver technical analysts just two weeks ago to predict imminent collapses in the silver price to $20 an ounce in light of how bankers were “painting the charts” in gold and silver to keep investors fearful of these sectors. In fact, a look at the BPGDM (Gold Miners Bullish Percent Index) right now shows that bullish sentiment towards gold/silver stocks is practically non-existent though we are at a crossroads when people should be buying PM shares because of their current tremendous upside. So other than the fact that gold and silver mining shares offer great value right now, is there a reason to realistically believe that gold and silver mining shares will win their battle against banker initiated share price take downs any time soon? To answer this question, let me tell recall a couple of stories that will frame our current situation of negative sentiment about gold/silver mining shares in the proper perspective.

(Dow since 2000 in dollars and in gold)

A couple of years ago, in April of 2009, I spoke in Asia to a group of investors at a time when bankers had knocked gold back down from the psychologically important $1,000 an ounce level for the fourth time in the about a period of 18 months. Back then, gold was trading at about $870 an ounce. The investors that attended my conference asked me back then why in the world they should buy gold at $870 if banker manipulation was one of the primary reasons responsible for the failure of gold to breach $1,000 an oz four consecutive times. Furthermore, they inquired, why couldn’t the bankers manipulate gold back down to $500 an oz if they could successfully prevent gold from breaching $1,000 on four consecutive occasions? I remember informing the investors that the banker manipulation schemes could only succeed short-term and that the bankers would fail long-term. Just as Central Banks’ endless rounds of QE will spectacularly fail long-term and only serve to kick the can of global economic failure down the road, the Central Banks’ price suppression schemes against gold and silver only kick the inevitable rises in gold and silver prices down the road as well. In addition, I informed my highly skeptical audience that the law of diminishing returns would apply to banker manipulation schemes that work against free market forces, and that each subsequent application of manipulation against free market forces would last a shorter time, as is evident in the chart above. Though there was a large gap of time between the second and third times that gold approached $1,000 an ounce after getting knocked backwards, the time in between the third and fourth time and the fourth and fifth time gold approached $1,000 an ounce was much more condensed. So those that remained skeptical and had more faith in banker amorality than in the belief they could defeat these banker manipulation schemes lost out on a 100% gain in the price of gold that has occurred between then and today.

If we look at the chart of the mining shares I presented above, the same pattern with the mining stocks that afflicted gold prices a couple of years ago is evident. The HUI Gold Bugs Amex has been turned back from the 600-610 level four consecutive times (with one false breakout in early September 2011) and each time bankers have rebuffed the index from this level, it has taken less and less time for the index to rebound to this level again as with the bankers’ attempt to defend the $1,000 an oz price level with gold. Though you may not recall, I remember many people being incredibly frustrated with the price action in gold from 2008 and 2009 and with some people selling all their gold as a result of the bankers’ intervention to control the price of gold, an action that ironically was the exact end goal of the bankers’ manipulation game. Today, despite the fact that we have history as a guide and the cliché that history always repeats itself, for some reason, I have seen many people become incredibly frustrated with the bankers’ rebuke of the attempts of gold and silver mining shares to climb higher and as I witnessed in 2009, I have seen people make the big mistake of dumping all of their gold and silver mining shares in the past couple of months due to frustration. In fact, after I scripted this article, Don’t Miss Out on One of the Best Investments of a Lifetime…Yet Again, on August 8, 2011 in which I advocated the HUI at 531.78 as a good low-risk, high-reward entry point to purchase some gold mining stocks, I received some comments that literally called me an “idiot” for writing this article after the HUI hit a low at market close of 502.92 in early October, even though this represented less than a 5.5% drop from the level I advocated buying mining stocks that past August.

As one can hardly legitimately call anyone an idiot for making a call that leads to a temporary 5% drop, I can easily guess the novice investor mistake that this irate person committed. Just as is the case today, as was the case on August 8, 2011, hardly any investors ever make a move when gold/silver assets are dirt-cheap. Instead they fall victim to the game of banker manipulation, and refuse to buy gold and silver assets when they present solid value as they fear a gold/silver crash. Consequently, they wait for significant rebounds before ever investing in gold/silver despite golden fundamentals at much lower prices that point to the strong possibility of much higher prices in the future. Even if much higher prices are followed by another round of manipulation and lower prices, interim volatility is irrelevant, as long as your decisions to enter gold/silver markets at the right time and prices are solid. I can only fathom that this person finally made the move to buy mining stocks after the HUI hit a short-term top of 635.04 one month after I advocated the buying of gold mining stocks. Thus, one month later, instead of being able to sit through a very manageable 5% drop, this investor likely panic-sold out of gold mining stocks after taking a 26% hit to his gold mining stock portfolio in little over a month. Though my call that PM stocks would be the best in class from that point forward to the end of this year has not yet come to fruition, I strongly believe that my end prediction will still prove correct, and that only the time frame of my prediction will be pushed out by several months. That is why I always provide timely guidance to my clients that distinguishes between the times we need to move into, or remain in cash, and the times we need to remain patient and fully committed. As I illustrated in my example above, timing can easily be the difference between easily waiting through a minor 5% correction or being stuck with a 26% loss after one month.

The short-term corrections of the HUI Gold Bugs index from the 600-610 level on four consecutive occasions has led to bullish sentiment being nearly non-existent for gold mining shares right now (and you could easily make the point that bullish sentiment in silver mining shares is even worse right now). Just as most investors committed the huge mistake of judging gold’s upside in 2009 as non-existent due to banker price suppression schemes, people are making the very same mistake in judging the upside of mining shares right now as non-existent. The banker price suppression scheme against gold and silver mining shares will fail, and I believe that the fifth approach of the HUI to the 600-610 level will be the time that the HUI breaks above this level for good and heads much higher.

Last time I saw an opportunity better than our current one in the mining shares, I informed my clients to double down on their positions in Silver Wheaton at $3.45 a share in November of 2008. Today with Silver Wheaton trading at $33.52 a share, those that acted during a time when sentiment regarding PM shares was at an all-time low, have been rewarded with a 872% gain in little more than three years. Though I don’t expect mining shares to gain 872% in 3 years again, no doubt there may be more than a handful that return several hundred percent in gains in the next three years.

We must not let our fear of bankers’ amorality and their desire to suppress our freedom scare us away from buying assets that will free us from their illegitimate and unconstitutional monetary system. If one remains too fearful to buy gold and silver mining shares due to banker introduced volatility into this sector, consider at a minimum, purchases of physical gold and physical silver to replace your fiat paper currencies and to replace your paper silver SLV and paper gold GLD ETFs. Also consider that the global broad stock market indexes have been no less volatile than mining shares this year with MUCH greater risk as banks have manipulated broad stock market indexes higher and mining share indexes lower. And what if I’m wrong about mining shares heading much higher from this point forward? The aforementioned Keith Neumeyer, CEO of First Majestic Silver, provides perhaps the best answer to have faith that history will repeat itself with the mining stocks share prices eventually moving higher into their free market, non downward-manipulated prices:
“If I’m wrong (about free market forces winning the battle in gold/silver markets in the future), the banks will run the world, even more so than they do today, 10 or 20 years from now. God forbid that we ever get there because that’s a one currency, one government world that would absolutely be a disaster for the human race. There would be no freedoms at all to move or to invest. It would be like having shackles on our ankles. There is a movement to go in that direction, unfortunately. There are a number of very wealthy people that want to see that. I hope that we can find the politicians to prevent that type of world from coming to pass.”

About the author: JS Kim is the Managing Director, Chief Investment Strategist & Founder of SmartKnowledgeU, a fiercely independent investment research and consulting firm that has been providing contrarian, independent investment guidance to clients in 33 different countries since 2006. Despite the struggles of PM mining shares in 2011, his Crisis Investment Opportunities newsletter, since inception in June, 2007 to the end of September 2011 has yielded a cumulative +162.40% gain versus the -36.20% loss of the ASX200 and the -25.70% loss of the S&P 500 over the same investment period. Follow us here on twitter.

Jeff Seigel of Energy and Capital, on the Electric Car!

2011-11-18T16:47:00.003-04:00

While reading Jeff Seigal's latest blurb I was struck by his comments on recent events in the Electric vehicles market.

Jeff was commenting on the over reaction of the main stream media on a recent electric car fire and mentioned that a Chev Volt was recently hit by a bus and all passengers walked away.

It was his mention of these recent developments that really caught my attention:

Quote:

Here's what the mainstream media has neglected to report:

Developer of electric car networks Better Place, Inc. just closed a $200 million Series C financing, putting the company's new valuation at $2.25 billion.
Nissan now expects cumulative sales of 1.5 million zero-emission vehicles in four years.
Honda will unveil three new electric vehicles at the 2011 Tokyo Motor Show.
Volkswagen has confirmed the 2013 production of the XL1 plug-in hybrid electric. This is the vehicle that boasts 170 miles-per-gallon.
A Citroen electric van has just set a range record of 621 miles on a single charge. This was not in a controlled environment or on some manicured track. The test was conducted on public roads with commercially available batteries (not prototype equipment).
Electrified vehicles are expected to grow at a CAGR of 19.5% between 2011 and 2017.
Nearly 8 million electric vehicle charging locations will be available across the globe in just about five years.
Fifteen electric car models will be available in the United States in just about two years. Today, there are three.

Yes, my friends, that Chevy Volt was on fire. And so is our portfolio, thanks to the rapid development of the electric car market.

The electric car: You can mock it, ignore it or profit from it.

More on electric cars from Jeff Seigal -Colin Powell's Electric Car

Update: Talison Lithium reports positive outlook for lithium price increases, and production.

2011-10-05T16:17:00.001-03:00

Talison Lithium - TSX-TLH

Earlier this week, I contacted Talison Lithium to ask about any recent events that might move the stock price. I wanted to know if their were any price increases in the offing for their product, any new customers over and above the 300 current customers (mostly in China) which have sustained their operations at Greenbushes Australia and how they were developing their Salares 7 brine project in South America.

Here is the reply from Talison investor relations:

Talison continues to produce and sell lithium concentrate at its maximum capacity. For the 2011 financial year (results of which were announced about 2 weeks ago) production and sales volumes increased 30% and 32% respectively year over year, and Talison generated revenue of A$109 million and EBITDA of A$24 million, increases of 29% and 35% compared to the previous year.

Talison has continued strong demand for all its lithium concentrates from customers around the world. And until completion of the expansion of the Greenbushes Lithium Operations (expected in second calendar quarter 2012) the Company expects production and sales volumes to be capacity constrained. Construction of the expansion is continuing on schedule and remains on time and on budget.

In the current quarter, Talison has secured price increases for two shipments and believes this, together with recent price increases from other lithium producers, are reflective of a tightening in global lithium supply. The tightening in global supply is expected to enhance Talison’s sales prices in the 2012 calendar year.

Talison acquired the Salares 7 Project about a year ago, and the first drilling program was completed earlier in 2011 with highly encouraging results. Since then (during the winter in Chile) Talison has been planning the next stage of exploration which will commence in the next Chilean summer. Talison will invest approximately A$5 million in the programme including further drilling, process test work and collection of environmental data. Drilling will be focused on Salar de la Isla to define a potential lithium mineral resource estimate, as well as initial drilling at Salar de Aguilar and Salar Grande.

Responding to growing global demand for an additional secure supply of lithium carbonate, particularly from electric vehicle battery manufacturers, Talison is also aggressively pursuing its proposed plant to convert lithium minerals into lithium carbonate. Preliminary engineering studies for the proposed plant have commenced with a target of commissioning in financial year 2015.

Happy Investing.
HP

UPDATE!!! OCTOBER 11TH
SINCE THIS POST, TALISON IS UP 88% IN 5 DAYS!!!

Domain Name sales are still flying high, even this year!

2011-10-03T19:04:00.002-03:00

Investments can come in many forms. Stocks, Bonds, ETFs, real estate, Gold, Silver, other resources etc. In this extremely bearish environment, there is one fairly new form of investment that has being doing, shall we say, SPECTACTULAR this year. I am talking about investing in the internet domain name market.

Every time you visit a website, you are going to a "domain name" address. It is the real estate of the internet and since 1996, there have been some spectacular gains made buying and selling internet domains. For example, I have attached a list of "year to date" sales as listed at the Domain Name Journal ( DNjournal.com) so that you can see the top end of sales.

Keep in mind, as you read the list, that for every 6 and seven figure domain sold, there are thousands sold in the 4 and 5 figure range. Heck, even if you registered a good name and sold it for only $100, you esentially just turned what is known on Wall Street as a 10 bagger. That would be upside of 1,000% because it only costs, on average, $10 to register such names.

Granted, most of the best names have already been registered, however many names are now bought and sold on the "after market" at sites like SEDO and MONIKER to name just two. So lets say you pay $250 for one of these domains and you sell it for $500. You just made 100% profit on the sale.

Many "domainers" as they are called, are average people who registered a dozen or so names with the hope of making a quick profit. There are, however, several top end companies that are valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars now because they registered thousands of names, early in the chase, or bought out original holders. I have bought and sold a few domains myself over the years and made a good profit.

Here is the list from the DNJournal site. These are actual sales this year to date, and the year is not over.
Make no mistake, domain names are a valued commodity in the internet age.If you are considering such investments I hope you find this useful.

I am currently selling Retirefund.com and Retirefunds.com - part of my reasoning for bringing you this list.

Happy investing.
HP

Domain	Sold For	Where Sold	Date*
1.	Social.com	$2,600,000	Moniker/NameQuiver	7/7/11
2.	DomainName.com	$1,000,000	Boxcar/ DomainConsultant	5/18/11
3.	Aktien.de ("stocks" in German)	€500,000 = $725,000	Sedo	7/27/11
4.	RunningShoes.com	$700,000	Pvt Sale	4/27/11
5. tie	Puzzle.com	$500,000	AfternicDLS	5/11/11
5. tie	GamesForGirls.com	$500,000	Sedo	2/23/11
7.	AutoInsurance.org	$440,000	MediaOptions	4/6/11
8.	33.com	$358,000	DomainAdvisors	5/25/11
9.	DataCenter.com	$352,500	Sedo	6/22/11
10.	Cupidon.com ("cupid" in French)	£175,000 = $285,250	Pvt Sale	5/25/11

11.	Grid.com	$275,000	Sedo	8/3/11
12.	Action.com	$270,000	Sedo	2/9/11
13.	UcakBileti.com ("flight ticket" in Turkish)	$250,000	NoktaDomains	7/7/11
14.	DownloadMusic.com	$242,500	Pvt Sale	8/3/11
15.	Driven.com	$225,000	Castello Brothers	3/30/11
16.	Consolidation.com	$220,000	Sedo	5/4/11
17.	Billionaire.com	$215,000	Sedo	6/22/11
18. tie	Republic.com	$200,000	Sedo	9/28/11
18. tie	Adventure.com	$200,000	MediaOptions	6/15/11
20.	Shield.com	$190,000	Sedo	3/30/11
21.	TS.com	$186,000	Sedo	2/9/11
22.	Stockbrokers.com	$185,000	Pvt Sale	2/9/11
23.	Mind.com	€120,000 = $171,600	Sedo	4/6/11
24.	Cars.net	$170,000	UpMarketDNs	6/22/11
25.	Favorites.com	$165,000	DomainMarket	8/24/11
26. tie	eSignature.com	$150,000	DomainGuardians	8/11/11
26. tie	BlueJeans.com	$150,000	Pvt Sale	3/30/11
28.	CreditCard.net	$138,000	Pvt Sale	9/28/11
29.	Beds.co.uk	£80,000 = $130,400	Pvt Sale	8/31/11
30.	Mariage.com	€92,000 = $129,720	Sedo	3/30/11
31.	InvestmentProperty.com.au	AUD 125,001 = $127,501	NetFleet.com.au	9/21/11
32.	HX.com	$125,000	MediaOptions	4/13/11
33. tie	Swag.com	$120,000	Latona's Secret Newsletter	9/14/11
33. tie	OnlineDegree.com	$120,000	Sedo	7/27/11
35.	MAI.com	€80,000 = $119,200	Sedo	5/4/11
36. tie	Minus.com	$115,000	Pvt Sale	7/13/11
36. tie	Won.com	$115,000	Moniker/SnapNames	3/2/11
38.	ZY.com	$105,999	Sedo	8/24/11
39. tie	SilverCoins.com	$100,000	Sedo	9/28/11
39. tie	SiteWeb.com	$100,000	Sedo	9/28/11
39. tie	Xueqiu.com	$100,000	Sedo	9/21/11
39. tie	Ocean.com	$100,000	Boxcar/ DomainConsultant	5/18/11
39. tie	Deals.com.au	$100,000	Pvt Sale	4/27/11
39. tie	Navidad.com	$100,000	Sedo	4/20/11
39. tie	Soulmate.com	$100,000	AfternicDLS	1/12/11
39. tie	XXXBook.com	$100,000	Sedo	3/23/11
47.	EJU.com	$96,000	AfternicDLS	5/11/11
48. tie	NBB.com	$95,000	Sedo	8/31/11
48. tie	Juegostonic.com	$95,000	Sedo	3/30/11
50.	06.com	$91,888	Sedo	1/26/11
51.	Outreach.org	$90,400	NameJet	4/27/11
52. tie	JuegosDeCocina.com	$90,000	Sedo	5/18/11
52. tie	CEN.com	$90,000	Moniker/SnapNames	4/27/11
52. tie	Defiance.com	$90,000	Sedo	4/13/11
55. tie	XQ.com	$85,000	Toby Clements Newsletter/ PremierPortolfio.com	5/25/11
55. tie	ESE.com	$85,000	Sedo	5/18/11
55. tie	DoorHardware.com	$85,000	Sedo	3/9/11
58.	Stradivarius.com	€60,000 = $84,600	Sedo	3/30/11
59.	Gold.net	£50,000 = $81,500	Sedo	3/23/11
60. tie	Bigcock.com	$80,000	HuntingMoon	8/31/11
60. tie	Phrases.com	$80,000	UpMarketDNS	6/15/11
60. tie	Business.co	$80,000	Sedo	5/25/11
60. tie	TZ.com	$80,000	Sedo	2/23/11
64. tie	MoneyLender.com	$75,000	Pvt Sale	9/14/11
64. tie	POW.com	$75,000	Sedo	5/11/11
64. tie	Melrose.com	$75,000	Sedo	5/4/11
64. tie	LoanQuotes.com	$75,000	Moniker/SnapNames	2/23/11
68.	Jewel.com	$74,333	Sedo	7/7/11
69.	Instyler.com	€50,000 = $73,500	Sedo	4/27/11
70.	Sadara.com	$71,000	Sedo	7/20/11
71. tie	AskYourDoctor.com	$70,000	AfternicDLS	9/28/11
71. tie	Bills.org	$70,000	Sedo	5/25/11
71. tie	Fiver.com	$70,000	Sedo	4/27/11
74.	FatBurners.com	$66,000	Sedo	6/2/11
75. tie	ConsumerBrands.com	$65,000	Optimo.com	4/13/11
75. tie	Violet.com	$65,000	Sedo	3/30/11
75. tie	Inheritance.com	$65,000	Sedo	2/9/11
75. tie	Coyote.com	$65,000	Sedo	1/26/11
79. tie	Kari.com	$63,000	AfternicDLS	9/28/11
79. tie	MAAC.com	$63,000	AfternicDLS	1/19/11
81.	Serbia.com	$62,000	Sedo	1/26/11
82.	All.biz	$61,750	Sedo	3/16/11
83.	ADSS.com	$61,600	AfternicDLS	1/12/11
84.	SocialMusic.com	$60,558	Moniker/SnapNames	3/2/11
85.	SaveBig.com	$60,279	Moniker/SnapNames	2/9/11
86. tie	AdNet.com	$60,000	Pvt Sale	6/15/11
86. tie	Chop.com	$60,000	AfternicDLS/ Moniker/SnapNames	6/15/11
86. tie	T.ag	$60,000	Sedo	5/11/11
86. tie	Approvals.com	$60,000	Sedo	4/20/11
86. tie	ParkCityRealEstate.com	$60,000	Pvt Sale	1/12/11
91.	SelfEmployed.com	$58,000	Sedo	8/17/11
92.	FamilyInsurance.com	$57,000	Sedo	1/12/11
93.	Award.com	$56,005	Sedo	2/16/11
94.	Xout.com	$55,000	Sedo	5/4/11
95. tie	Business.me	€40,000 = $54,800	Sedo	9/21/11
95. tie	GAZ.com	€40,000 = $54,800	Sedo	9/21/11
97.	Lean.com	$52,500	Boxcar/ DomainConsultant	5/18/11
98.	ePayments.com	$52,000	Sedo	6/22/11
99.	MyShow.com	€37,500 = $51,375	Sedo	2/23/11
100.	FindInsurance.com	$50,500	Sedo	9/14/11
Date column (month/day/year) shows date the sale was published in DN Journal*.

6 reasons to own Rodinia Lithium stock.

2011-09-27T13:22:00.014-03:00

Rodinia Lithium (TSX RM)
Today .18c

Last November I discussed Rodinia Lithium and my belief that it is the next prize in the second leg of the lithium boom. Insider trade reports supplied by TD Ameritrade, indicate that, with one small exception, all insider transactions for 2011 are "buys"! There are "NO" sell trades.

This is a clear indication that the people who actually know what is occuring in the company, on a day to day basis, and those overseeing the company's development, are very poositive about their prospects, that they have only bought more of the stock, and not sold "any" of their holdings. This information alone, tells us something of value is growing at Rodinia.

1. Insiders are buying this stock.

2. Rodinia owns three of the top 25 lithium properties in the world.

3. Shan Shan Corp., one of the largest lithium battery suppliers in China, purchased their entire bought deal in Nov 2010, above the asking price, to ensure they are flush with cash to advance their properties.

4. Rodinia's top three properties are all brine properties, with low development costs, in two of the best mining districts in the world, Clayton Valley, Nevada and Salta Argentina. They are also listed in the top 25 lithium properties in the world today.

5. Byron Capital Markets Dr. Jon Hykaway, rates it a strong buy with a target of $2.25
(considered one of the foremost lithium investment experts today)

6. On April 12, 2011 Ubika Research has issued a valuation report with a Price of $1.12 for Rodinia Lithium. (We think that is a very low assessment)

Rodinia was trading today at .18 cents. RM.v or in the U.S. as RDNAF.PK

It's market cap today is listed at $11.79M with 65.5M shares outstanding.

With $10 Million in cash on hand for development, this values the company at only $1.79 million.

That is a ridiculously low valuation for Rodinia's lithium properties!

Further more, it does'nt even address the large potash concentrations which will be a secondary product for this small company.
Clayton Valley
Besides the Argentinian properties, Rodinia also has its lithium brine project in Clayton Valley, Nevada which is ajacent to the only lithium brine operation in the continental United States.

For these reasons, I have been buying more Rodinia stock this month. I believe this stock will triple by Christmas, however, I am looking for a 10 bagger and I expect to get it sometime next year.

Maybe you should consider adding Rodinia Lithium to your speculative value portfolio.

Wishing you great success with your Retirefund.

HP

Expert Analysis from The Energy Report

Technical report on Clayton Valley, Nevada lithium property

Ray Goldie, Salman Partners (8/22/11) "We expect Rodinia Lithium Inc. to be able to surf on the strong, stable pricing structure of lithium that has been established and maintained by existing producers—beginning in 2016, Rodinia could be producing from Argentina about 2,000 tpa lithium (about 6% of the world’s supply), with by-product potash. . .because both the revenues and costs in the lithium industry are not readily available, and because our evaluation of the company is based on educated guesswork rather than on sober engineering studies, we initiate coverage of Rodinia Lithium with a Speculative Buy recommendation rather than an outright Buy."

The Energy Report Interview with David Talbot (7/21/11) "Our top pick in the lithium sector is Rodinia Lithium, despite its $30M market cap. We've got a buy with a CAD$1 target price on this stock. RM continues to be one of the most undervalued stocks on our lithium coverage list. Rodinia is developing a brine project at its flagship Salar de Diablillos site in the Province of Salta, Argentina, about 11 km. from the world's second-largest producer, FMC's Salar del Hombre Muerto. It just reported a couple of pit samples that were about three times the average lithium grade of the deposit. Rodinia also has its Clayton Valley Project in Nevada adjacent to Chemetall's Silver Peak brine operation and the only U.S. producer of lithium. Given the company's significant resource in Argentina, good brine chemistry, lack of competition on the Salar and its three aquifers, we think now is a good entry point for investors looking to share in Rodinia's growth. Our target price suggests a triple from here."

David Talbot, Dundee Securities (7/13/11) "Rodinia released pit results from a sampling program at its flagship Salar de Diablillos project in Argentina. Results show grades that were, on average, substantially higher than previous estimates for the shallow aquifer number one. This is especially encouraging because two of the samples were taken from an area where close spaced auger sampling was not possible, and opens up a much larger area that might exhibit potentially higher grade lithium and potassium brine, and this has positive implications for resource growth and production potential. . .Rodinia's peer discount is unjustified. . .conservative lithium brine operation is compelling. . .it has an experienced management team, large brine resource, multiple projects in good jurisdictions and our valuation ignores potash or boron production upside potential."

David Talbot, Dundee Securities (6/9/11) "Rodinia Lithium is an emerging brine developer flying under the radar—it has several features going for it: its main project, Salar de Diablillos in Argentina, hosts one of the largest lithium-potash brine resources in the world, and it lies in close proximity to the third-largest brine producer in the world (FMC Lithium); its second project is underexplored and adjacent to the only lithium producer in the U.S. (Chemetall); it also has strategic investment from one of China's largest lithium-ion battery materials provider. . .our modest CAD$1 target price for RM suggests a triple—it is showing more upside potential than the more well-known brine developers."

The Energy Report Interview with Jonathan Lee (4/19/11) "Rodinia Lithium also has a brine deposit at its Salar de Diablillos project in Argentina. We have a Speculative Buy rating on it with a $2.25 target price. It's another example of fairly good chemistry and good, effective porosity levels. And the project is another that, potentially, could be a low-cost producer. It has a decent level of lithium grade, reasonable magnesium:lithium ratio and very attractive sulfate levels—that's another key. It has a lot of positive qualities. Rodinia has a strategic investor in Shanshan Resources, a wholly owned subsidiary of the largest battery manufacturer in China— Ningbo Shanshan. Some of Shanshan's partners have extensive experience doing brine chemistry in the Tibetan salars. Shanshan is a value-add for that company."

More Articles:

Lithium Junior the most promising
The resource of the 21st century
Rodinia looks like the next prize

Rodinia CEO interview

Links:

The Grandich Letter - Rodinia Lithium

Gold and Equities VS the U.S. Dollar - US Treasuries are not a safe place to be!

2011-09-23T15:56:00.004-03:00

Image by Getty Images via @daylifeI know that, when everyone starts to panic, most investors see the U.S. dollar as a safe haven. This week investors are piling into U.S. Treasuries as they have in the past during past times of fear and uncertainty. The problems in Europe have shaken confidence and the market plumeted yesterday on those fears. It would appear that, what the market has not done, is price in any hopeful sign that the European Union might actually come up with a plan similiar to the U.S. T.A.R.P. plan, which, in hindsight, was very positive for U.S. stocks, and which did not lose any money for taxpayers in the long run. If the E.U. comes up with such a plan in the near term, there could be a dramatic pop in markets that are currently ruled by fear. There seems to be no pricing in of any good news that may eminate from Europe in the coming week(s).

In the mean time, the best "safe haven" of recent years, gold bullion, and by proxy, gold miners, have taken a beating this week. They have taken a beating only if you consider the price of gold over the course of the past month where bullion prices spiked as high as $1900. Compared to the rest of 2011, gold is still up a healthy 20% or more. It is only back to mid July prices. That, my friends, is a healthy pullback, not This is not 2008 all over again. The fear is overblown. It may well be 2009 all over again as equities test those "generational lows" once again. I know this may be a contrary view, when compared with many market followers, but if I am right, this is the time to take the advice of Warren Buffett who famously said "buy when all others are fearful".

I am a buyer right now. A buyer of select equities in tech and pharma. A buyer of gold miners. A buyer of top Lithium miners. A buyer of select Canadian banks. If things go lower, I will buy more. Today I doubled down on small and mid tier gold miners like San Gold, and Brigus Gold. I even bought speculative stocks like TNR Gold and Nautilus Minerals. I bought more Talison Lithium. I bought more Rodinia Lithium.

I like Cenovus Energy and Suncor in the oil sector, TD Bank, RBC and BMO in banking.
I even like Manulife Financial as they are trading at an all time low this week. I like solid Techs like Intel, Microsoft, Apple and Google. I am watching HP since they announced thier new CEO today, Meg Whitman. I think there are great buys out there, and I am taking advantage of the irrational fear as everyone runs to the not so safe haven of the U.S. dollar.

I do not like the prospects for the American dollar, the Euro or, for that matter, most fiat currencies. Gold is bought and sold by central banks around the world, and it would not surprise me to hear in the coming weeks that countries like Italy have sold some of their gold stocks to pay down debt. Certainly that would account for the current weakness in bullion prices, which will rebound as fiat currencies, including the USD once again, lose favor with investors.

No one has a crystal ball, least of all this writer. However, it is those investors who seize the moment, who most often come out ahead of the herd. I hope you are one of those.

Happy investing.HP

They are mining "pure money" from the "money pits"!

2011-09-06T17:23:00.002-03:00

Nautilus Minerals may hold the world's largest deposits of gold, silver, copper and cobalt - Beneath the Ocean!

2011-09-01T16:23:00.004-03:00

Nautilus Minerals Inc.
NautilusMinerals.com

Nautilus Minerals (NUS - Toronto and London) is the first company to commercially explore the ocean floor for polymetallic seafloor massive sulphide deposits and is currently developing its first project at Solwara 1, in the territorial waters of Papua New Guinea where massive deposits of gold, silver, copper and cobalt have been discovered.

In 2008, the highly respected "Golder Associates" completed a National Instrument 43-101 Technical Report of Nautilus's "Solwara 1 project", a vast deposit of gold, silver, copper, and cobalt, which protude from massive hydrothermal sulphine vents (Massive seafloor sulphides known as chimneys) which pockmark the geography of the seabed over a very large area. This technical report was requested after Nautilus, in conjunction with scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) did a joint exploration of the area in 2006 and discovered massive gold and silver deposits 1500 ft below the Bismark Sea.The estimates for gold and silver deposits alone (let alone the massive deposits of copper, cobalt, lead and zinc) are staggering.

Underwater Gold Fountains

The massive seafloor sulfides come from small underwater vents that go deep inside the Earth’s core where the planet’s crusts are loaded with valuable metals.

As pressure builds up inside the vents, they eventually release much like a geyser.

But instead of shooting water out, the vents blast gold, silver, copper, and zinc out all over the ocean floor.

They’ve been doing this for millions of years. And now the floor is literally covered with the densest clusters of precious metals on Earth.

According to the International Seabed Authority, “a single deposit could weigh 100-million tons.”

Nautilus is listed on the TSX and AIM stock exchanges, and has among its largest shareholders two of the world's leading international resource companies Anglo American (11.1%) and Teck Resources (6.8%), as well as Metalloinvest, one of the largest and fastest growing mining and metallurgical holding companies in Russia, which beneficially owns 21% of the Company's issued shares through Gazmetall Holding (Cyprus) Limited.

Recently Nautilus released their first half highlights for 2011

An exclusive 20 year licence!

In January, the PNG Government (Papua, New Guinea) granted Nautilus a Mining Lease to enable production at the company's first development project at Solwara 1, in the Bismarck Sea.
The lease provides Nautilus with an exclusive, 20 year license to mine an area of approximately 59 km2 surrounding Solwara 1, 50 km north of Rabaul, where Nautilus intends to mine high-grade copper and gold deposits on the seafloor, at depths of approximately 1600 metres. (For the full release see Links section below)

In March, the PNG Government confirmed its intention to take a 30% stake in the Solwara 1 project as a joint venture partner. The Government will contribute funds to the project in proportion to its interest, including its share of the exploration and development costs incurred to date. The initial contribution to be made by the Government's nominee, Petromin PNG Holdings Limited, will be approximately US$24 million. The audit of the final amount has recently been completed with payment to be made in accordance with detailed project agreements being finalised by the parties.
In April, the company announced an agreement to form a joint venture with German shipping company Harren & Partner, to own and operate a production support vessel which will serve as the operational base for Nautilus at Solwara 1. Under the terms of the strategic partnership, Harren will design and construct the vessel at a cost of approximately EUR127 million, with delivery scheduled for the first half of 2013.
And in May, the company completed a major exploration drilling campaign in the Bismarck Sea, which has delivered an enhanced understanding of the Solwara 1 deposit and identified potential subsequent development sites.

Since the end of the first half, the company has also announced two major advances in exploration.

Nautilus Minerals' Tongan subsidiary, Tonga Offshore Mining Ltd. (TOML), became one of the first private sector organisations to be granted exploration licences in the highly prospective Clarion Clipperton Zone (CCZ) of the Eastern Pacific in July. Sponsored by the Tongan Government, TOML was granted approximately 75,000 km2 of prime exploration territory in the CCZ, which lies in international waters between Hawaii and Mexico. As a result of exploration conducted in the 1980s, the CCZ is known to host hundreds of millions of tonnes of polymetallic nodules, rich in copper, nickel, manganese and cobalt, lying on the seafloor in water depths starting at 4500 metres.
The Fijian government this month granted Nautilus 14 special prospecting licences in its territorial waters, covering a total of approximately 60,000 km2 of highly prospective territory. Nautilus is the first private sector organisation to be granted offshore exploration permits in Fiji.

Following the continued extensive investment in the development phase of the Solwara 1 project during the six months to June, the company today announced a first half loss of US$7.98 million, which was significantly reduced from US$18.75 million in the six months to June 2010.

The reduction in losses was largely a result of the company capitalising exploration and evaluation expenditure at Solwara 1 following receipt of the Mining Lease in January.

The net cash position remained strong at US$112 million at the end of the period, following additional investment of US$42 million in plant & equipment and mineral properties during the six months.

"Nautilus made excellent progress in the first half of 2011, achieving a number of important milestones," said CEO Steve Rogers.

"Our financial position remains healthy and strong global commodity prices continue to enhance the business proposition. Significant value has been added over recent months as our exploration programs have yielded encouraging results, and we have gained additional highly prospective exploration territory in Fiji and International waters.

"We look forward to the delivery of components for our seafloor production equipment and the announcement of a resource update in the second half of the year," he said.

Links

Nautilus Granted Mining Lease
http://www.nautilusminerals.com/s/Media-NewsReleases.asp?ReportID=437932

The Financial Statements and Management's Discussion and Analysis have been filed on www.sedar.com and are also available on the Company's website
www.nautilusminerals.com/s/Investors-Financials.asp.

For more information you can go to www.nautilusminerals.com or contact:

Investor Relations
Nautilus Minerals Inc.
Email: investor@nautilusminerals.com
Tel: +1 (416) 551 1100

Joe Dowling
Vice President Investor Relations and Communications
Tel: +61 (7) 3318 5544
Cell: +61 431 365 741
Email: jjd@nautilusminerals.com

Numis Securities Limited
Nominated adviser: John Harrison
Corporate broking: James Black
Tel: + 44(0) 20 7260 1000

United States, An unintended global empire!

2011-08-29T11:38:00.000-03:00

The latest effort by Stratfor Gobal Intelligence details how the United States became an unintended global power, mostly through it's important geography as is laid out in this vlsual from Stratfors latest effort.

Over the space of a few hundred years, the United States of America became a global powerhouse of business and politics, with the most powerful military the world has ever seen.

Although I have made many comments over the past few years regarding the demise of the U.S. dollar due to it's massive debts, Keynsian monetary policy and stalemated congress, I have also said many times that I never bet against the U.S. Yes, I have bet against the U.S. dollar, but not the U.S. economy. To bet against such a powerhouse country of pure business, is a fools game.

Will the world's power structures in 20 years look the same as they do today? Probably not. Emerging markets like China, India and Brazil are on the rise, and Russia is still a powerhouse in energy production. Germany will continue to power the Euro zone in one form or another, and second tier countries like Indonesia, Mexico, Canada, Australia and several eastern European countries are chugging along just fine.

However the USA is, and will be for the forseeable future, the first engine of global industry. This chart of per capita growth is a prime example of the power the USA has on global growth.

In your portfolio don't ever count out the good ole USA. As I said, that is a fools game. Count out individual companies, and maybe even certain sectors, but never count out this massive business powerhouse.

As I pointed out in a previous post, I do not work for Stratfor, nor do I benefit in any monetary way in suggesting they are one more valuable resource when considering macro events for your portfolio over time.

You can acess their latest efforts at Stratfor.com.

Happy investing.
HP

The Global Physical Gold & Silver Reserves Race is the New Nuclear Arms Race

2011-07-23T01:46:00.001-03:00

Image via Wikipedia

Why it’s Still Buying Season for Gold and Silver Mining Stocks

July 21st, 2011

The old Cold War USA-USSR nuclear arms race has been replaced by the East-West Central Bank battle to accumulate physical gold and physical silver reserves. While Western Central Banks and their puppet bullion banks have distracted and goaded private citizens with the invention of fraudulent bogus paper gold and paper silver derivative products, including ETFs more recently, and paper futures contracts for a much longer period of time, they themselves have been making sure to avoid the very fraudulent paper products they have invented and have been diving headfirst into real physical precious metals.

As Central Banks continue to significantly devalue all major global currencies through excessive creation of new supply out of thin air in a digital world where “new money” is never even printed into paper/cotton form but only is created as digital bytes that are sent across international borders, the private families that are the majority shareholders in the world’s most powerful Central Banks have engaged in heavy buying of physical gold in particular, and to a lesser degree, physical silver. In 2010, Central Banks as a group, became net buyers of physical gold after two decades as net sellers. EU Central Bankers became net buyers of physical gold for the first time during the 1st Quarter 2011 since their introduction of the heavily flawed Euro into circulation in January of 2002.

As of April 2011, China was, according to “officially reported” statistics, the sixth-largest official holder of gold, with 1,054.1 tonness, according to World Gold Council estimates. The U.S. was still reported to possess the largest gold reserves at 8,133.5 tonnes. However, all of you know by now that I believe all “officially reported” statistics, whether the statistic is GDP, unemployment, inflation, or gold reserves, to be a charade and mockery of the truth. To this day I am highly skeptical of the US reported reserves of 8,133.5 tonnes, especially since these reserves have neither been independently audited nor independently tested to ensure that they meet good-for-delivery bar status since Dwight D. Eisenhower was the US President in the 1950s. As for China’s “officially reported” holdings of only 1,054.1 tonnes, anyone that takes these reported stats at face value as the truth is a fool for any number of logical reasons. One, China reported that its “official” gold holdings were a constant 600 tonnes from 2003 to 2009 and then reported that it had increased its holdings to more than 1,000 tonnes overnight in 2009. Since China lied about its gold reserve holdings for more than 6 years, one cannot and should not assume that their “officially” announced 1,054.1 tonne level was truthful. Since China made that announcement in 2009, their “official” gold reserve level has not increased at all.

Anyone that believes that China has not accumulated more gold, and lots of it, since that time, does not understand the Chinese government and Chinese bankers. Chinese bankers have been studying the best ways to invest in gold and silver for many years now in preparation for this global monetary war and they realize that one of the best ways to invest in PMs is to own the real thing. Furthermore, there are multiple mechanisms by which China could be secretly increasing their gold reserves out of the scrutiny of the public eye. In 2008, China replaced South Africa as the largest gold producer in the world, but nobody really knows exactly how much gold China produces or how many proven/ probable reserves or how much measured/indicated resources they own. Thus, China could be increasing gold reserves significantly on in-house production alone. Certainly we know that China is increasing its silver reserves through a policy of decreasing its domestic silver exports and increasing its foreign silver imports.

For example, last month, China’s General Administration of Customs reported that its net imports of silver nearly quadrupled year-over-year in 2010 to more than 3,500 metric tons. Also of important note is the fact that in 2010, China exported 1,575 metric tons of silver, 58% less than in 2009, and imported 5,159 metric tons of the metal, 15% more than in 2009. This is a huge change if one realizes that from 2005 to 2010 China transitioned from a net exporter of 2,900 metric tonnes of silver to a net importer of 3,500 metric tonnes.

From 2005 to 2010, China increased its gold holdings in its State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) more than tenfold from a very small starting point of USD $4.2 billion to USD $48.1 billion. However, China could be increasing gold (and silver) reserves significantly through purchases in its Sovereign Wealth Fund – purchases that are not made available for public inspection or consumption. For China to publicly announce their buildup of gold and silver reserves that would drive up the price of the very commodity they wished to accumulate more of would be akin to then-Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown’s foolish decision to pre-announce in 1999 that the UK would be selling half of its gold reserves.

Also of important note are the following facts. China only recently deregulated gold in 2003 to allow gold prices in China to mirror international prices. The Shanghai Gold Exchange only opened in October of 2002. In late 2009, the Chinese started making gold and silver bullion easily accessible to its citizens through introducing physical sales of multiple size bars at its banks and China finally legalized ownership of 99.999% pure silver bullion. The Chinese typically have a tendency to buy PHYSICAL gold and PHYSICAL silver, not the fraudulent paper gold and paper silver derivatives invented by bankers to suppress the price of gold and silver. For the first time ever, Chinese citizens will be able to buy silver futures in Hong Kong this week and later in Shanghai; however, since the Chinese are fond of owning Physical metals, perhaps even the majority of Chinese may settle these futures contracts with physical delivery. Furthermore, even when the option to buy gold and silver ETFs in China becomes a reality, the average Chinese citizen may shy away from these products due to his or her propensity for owning real gold and real silver.

For Asians in general, gold and silver have always been money. In Thailand, the word for money “ngen” is also the word for silver. In China, the word for bank combines the characters for “silver” and “movement”. In China not only is private demand strong AND relatively young, but even in India, private ownership of gold bullion bars was not legalized until 1990. Thus, the war between East and West over gold and silver will intensify in coming months and coming years. The objective of the East will be to release the gold and silver price from the clutches of Western price suppression schemes while the objective of the West will be to hoard gold in an attempt to prevent citizens of Western nations from owning the asset that will protect them the most from their currency devaluation schemes.

The current talk in the mainstream financial media about gold being a bubble at $1,600 an ounce and of silver having already reached its top of its long-term peak at $50 an ounce is simply rubbish. A bubble is never defined by high prices, the perception of high prices or even a decade long rise in prices. What defines a bubble is a meteoric rise in price that is not supported by fundamental reasons. For example, the US NASDAQ dot.com stock market was a bubble because dot.com stocks that had zero earnings were trading at impossible valuations and sometimes double and triple digit dollar values per share. However, the fundamental reasons that have driven gold from $250 to $1,600 and silver from $4 to its current $39 – $40 range are even stronger today than they were at the beginning of this precious metals bull. Therefore, it is impossible for a bubble in gold and silver to exist at their current prices and at this current time.
And for this reason, this is precisely why the global nuclear arms race has been replaced by a global physical gold race. Welcome to the new global war in precious metals.

About the author: JS Kim is the Managing Director of SmartKnowledgeU. SmartKnowledgeU now offers monthly subscriptions to our premium investment newsletter, the Crisis Investment Opportunities newsletter, an investment newsletter that has returned well over a cumulative 200% (on all opened and closed positions) since its launch in June 2007 to present day.

Gold Miners are in the drivers seat, during these economic head winds.

2011-07-11T17:44:00.016-03:00

Image via WikipediaI like gold miners this summer!!!

I especially like gold miners that do not have any of their production hedged.

I like gold miners that are producing lots of gold right now!

I like gold miners whose production is increasing at this writing.

I like gold miners who have more than one producing mine!

I like gold miners whose infrastructure and operations are sound, with no forseeable production problems!

I like gold miners that operate in safe mining jurisdictions, with no political overtones!

I like gold miners that are well lead by smart management who show their smarts in an ongoing basis, with great execution of clear business plans!

I lke gold miners that make money, and that will continue to make money, no matter what the market does.

I LIKE GOLD MINERS!!!!!

For those of you who have read past articles, you know I am invested in physical gold and silver. Make no mistake, I view these as great investments in this environment. However, this year, it is the gold miners, especially those miners meeting the above criteria, that will out perform the markets this fall, and beyond.

The U.S. dollar is shrinking, and will continue to shrink in the long run. Over the past six months, the U.S. dollar has lost 10% against the Euro! THE EURO!, where countries are lining up from the smallest (Greece) to some of the largest (Spain, and now Italy) at the European credit window.

The European union could, on paper, save Greece and maybe even Ireland and Portugal. But Spain and Italy are both way too big to save. There is now no doubt that the Euro is in crisis and may not even survive, at least in its current form.

The macro picture grows dimmer with each passing month. The debt ceiling crisis in the USA, and the muddying of those waters by both political parties, is becoming the 800 lb gorilla. The Tea Party will have none of it. Their patrons in the Republican party, at the insistance of the TP, are playing brinkmanship with the U.S. economy at this writing. They do not want to extend the ceiling and will not approve ANY kind of tax increase, even though every expert in the field feels tax increases absolutely have to be part of the overall solution to U.S. debt. Democrats are once again, sitting on their hands. The unemployment rate is printed at just over 9%, but if you believe that, I have a bridge to sell you. Fully 14.5% of America is now on food stamps! (That's right, 1/7th of the pupulation)

In comparison, the debt problems of Greece is barely a 40 lb monkey in the mechanics of global markets. Even if the U.S. debt ceiling gets raised in the medium term, where does that leave the USD, especially as QE2 ends, and there are not enough buyers of U.S. treasuries to keep up the charade.

The new Gorilla stumbling into the zoo of international finance is the debt problems of Italy, whose economy, over 1 $Trillion and about 25% of the Eurozone, might be considered a 700 lb Gorilla. Greece, Ireland, and Portugal , are one thing, but Spain and Italy are in a different financial league, and if they go, so goes the Euro. Spain has 20% unemployment right now and Italy is more in debt that any of the others.

The golden elephant in the room is, India, which now buys more gold than any other country. China, viewing gold as an alternate currency, however, is catching up. They now allow their citizens, for the first time, to hold physical gold. The Chinese government has actually been quietly encouraging its citizens to do exactly that. Other countries increasing their purchasing of gold include Brazil, Germany, Russia, Indonesia etc. European banks, and by proxy, U.S. banks are no place to invest right now. Get out while you still can.

These problems are not new. The tipping point was circa 2008, and the storm was sidetracked by the biggest financial experiment in history. Yes, there will always be "some" good stocks to buy, but for now:

I want to own gold, and gold miners, of the best quality. I am buying them now!

My current picks:

1. SanGold
2. Barrick
3. Kinross
4. Brigus Gold

In that order.

Happy investing

HP

PS: If you want to speculate with the big boys....

Nautilus Minerals (Seabed mining)

If you want to speculate on the cheap....
Visit: TNR Gold projects, Alaska

News: Undersea Gold Company Nautilus mining for a lot more!

Is there an American financial Apocolypse in the making. Martin Weiss of Weiss Research certainly thinks so.

2011-06-27T17:51:00.001-03:00

Image via WikipediaToday there are so many financial pitches in video, on the web, you need a score card to tell just who the Charlatans are and who are trully legitimate financial advisors with good intentions for their clients and prospective clients.

I have posted here the thoughts of other writers with regard to the massive printing machine that is the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank, and it's enormous influence on world markets, not to mention the United States dollar.

For almost 300 years, the U.S. buck has been the international reserve currency. That is to say, many world prices of goods and commodities are set in U.S. dollar values, forcing the governments of the world to buy those U.S. dollars to just be able to purchase on the world markets.

That huge advantage for the U.S. economy may now be in jeopardy.

Here is a video presentation by Martin Weiss of Weiss Research Inc (40 years in business) which should scare every investor reading and listening to it, into action.

I make no further comment except to say I have no association with Mr. Weiss, nor do I benefit in any way from his company. The video presentation is in fact a lead up to joining his firms news letter. I do not encourage you either way, except to say read, listen and make your own decisions.

The link: http://finance.moneyandmarkets.com/reports/SMR/4349/vsp-smr.php?s=BFPUB&e=4483104

Stay alert

HP

Is there slight of hand in the silver futures market? Should you own physical silver?

2011-06-16T10:54:00.002-03:00

Image via WikipediaGold/Silver Futures Manipulation

by J.S. Kim, SmartknowledgeU.com newsletter

Earlier this month, I discussed gold/silver futures manipulation on the Max Keiser Report in the interview below:

JS Kim on the Max Keiser Report, Part I

JS Kim on the Max Keiser Report, Part II

In this interview, I discussed the explosion of gold and silver futures transactions in EFP (Exchange of Futures for Physical) and EFS (Exchange of Futures for Swaps) transactions. These two transactions comprised 98% of 99% of all daily transactions in the gold and silver futures market in New York during the month of May. Certain changes in commodities law in February and March of 2005 allowed for paper ETFs and even financial derivative or paper products that tracked the returns of gold and silver to be substituted for the "physical" part of this transaction. This means of course that the commodity regulators in the US, in an effort to keep the US dollar stable, had started to allow fraudulent paper contracts to be substituted for real physical gold and real physical silver in these transactions.

When GATA first uncovered this potential and likely fraud occuring in the futures markets, banker shills responded in online forums by saying that since EFP and EFS transactions were irrelevant because they constituted a very small percent of the total daily transactions in the futures markets. Thus, they concluded, it wouldn't even matter if gold and silver futures contracts were being exchanged for paper airplanes because in essence the volume of EFP and EFS transactions were much too small to impact liquidity and price discovery in the gold/silver futures markets in any kind of meaningful manner.

On Max Keiser's show, when I pointed out the fact that EFP and EFS transactions now comprised nearly 100% of all daily gold/silver futures transactions, I was attacked for making these statements from anonymous (i.e. cowardly) posters that stated that again, these transactions were irrelevant because they were not true settlements as only true settlements in the futures markets occurred in cash or physical.

However, this twisting of the facts I had presented was 100% wrong and disingenuous. Here's why. If the economic equivalent of the silver ETF, SLV, shares were exchanged in an EFP transaction for 50 long silver futures contracts, the owner of the SLV shares opens up 50 new long silver futures contracts, but the holder of the 50 long silver futures contracts, in ADDITION to receiving the SLV shares, also opens up 50 short silver futures contracts to offset his long position and effectively close out his long futures position. So the NET effect is that 50 NEW short silver futures contracts are opened with possibly nary a single ounce of REAL PHYSICAL SILVER exchanging hands. Ultimately, this exerts downward pressure on the silver futures prices, AND the silver futures market is robbed of a REAL transaction in REAL PHYSICAL SILVER that would have contributed to price discovery of a silver futures contract.

To think about this another way, imagine that you could trade two shares of Netflix stock for every one share of Google stock instead of selling Netflix stock and receiving a cash payment. And imagine if 99% of all sales of Netflix stock consisted of Netflix for Google stock swaps. Now imagine that Google stock starts sinking and Netlflix launches a new product in the REAL WORLD that leads to a 50% boost in sales, but 99% of all transactions in Netflix still involve Netflix for Google swaps. Ultimately, the value of Netflix stock is going to be suppressed because these paper for paper swaps lead to no true price discovery of the value of Netflix stock and disregard information that is happening the real world regarding Netflix sales.

While not a perfect analogy, it is a relevant analogy in that EFP and EFS transactions rob the silver and gold futures markets of real price discovery of how much one troy ounce of PHYSICAL gold should trade for and how much one troy ounce of PHYSICAL silver should also trade for. Furthermore, these EFP and EFS swaps allow the banksters to set prices for gold and silver in the futures markets that ABSOLUTELY DISREGARD the real time supply and demand for PHYSICAL GOLD and PHYSICAL SILVER that happens in the REAL WORLD. When you realize this, would you then consider the futures market to be a real market or a fraudulent market? And that is precisely why nearly 100% of daily gold/silver futures transactions now consist of these privately negotiated transactions that contribute nothing to true price discovery. If bankers wanted to wield these paper for paper transactions as a weapon to prevent true price discovery of gold and silver, it certainly could be used for this purpose, and this is precisely my point.

According to the latest June COMEX physical inventory report, JP Morgan, though it owns eligible physical silver (NOT available to settle silver futures contracts), owns NOT ONE TROY OUNCE OF registered physical silver in the COMEX vaults that can be used to settle its short futures silver contracts. As far as I understand the purpose of the futures market, the regulators tell us that the purpose of the futures market is not to allow speculators to create gross distortions in the commodities market for their own personal windfall at the expense of the public, but to allow producers to hedge against rising and falling commodity prices in the free market. Since JP Morgan isn't a silver miner the last time I checked and they hold zero ounces of registered physical silver in the COMEX vaults, why are they even allowed to participate in the silver futures markets? Also realize that total COMEX silver dipped below 100M oz for the first time ever this week. The fact that the inventory of physical silver that can be used to deliver against silver futures contracts in COMEX vaults is plummeting like a stone in the ocean should serve as a warning to anyone that owns paper gold and paper silver to IMMEDIATELY convert these paper contracts into REAL PHYSICAL GOLD AND SILVER before it is too late.

Lastly, I discuss the similarities of the bankster games when they took down silver from $50 a troy ounce to $33 a troy ounce to the bankster games that they inflicted upon the silver futures markets in 1980 when the Hunt Brothers tried to corner the silver market. Trust me, the price of silver in the REAL physical market, specifically in silver coins, never approached the $33 an ounce that banksters were setting in the futures markets. If you listen to my above interview, you will discover that the banksters used virtually the same blueprint they used to destroy the Hunt Brothers to inflict the same damage to PAPER silver prices this year as well.

By understanding these bankster games, we at SmartKnowledgeU have been able to consistently outperform the gold/silver sector every year by a very significant margin. That's not to see that are immune to volatility because if you invest in the gold & silver sector, you WILL be subject to considerable volatility at times. However, knowing when to sell versus knowing when to be patient will be the difference between large gains at the end of the year or possibly large losses even if you are invested in the right assets. Since the launch of our Crisis Investment Opportunities newsletter in June, 2007, thus far, we have yielded positive returns every single year, and significant returns every year except in 2008, a year in which we ended up just very slightly positive. Still, from January 2008 to May 2011, our CIO newsletter has returned a cumulative yield of +136.84%, nearly doubling the +69.53% performance of #1 globally ranked John Paulson's Advantage Fund during the same investment period. Right now, we are entering a period will gold and silver mining stocks will be bottoming and when great gains will be made in future years. Buying mining stocks at the right time WILL be the key to earning large profits in future years.

Good investing,

JS Kim

Managing Director

SmartKnowledgeU Pte. Limited

PS: You can follow Mr. Kim on Facebook and Twitter.

Ballard Power Systems gains strong partner in Daimler as Germans look to Fuel Cell technology!

2011-06-10T15:13:00.001-03:00

Daimler announced this week a partnership in the development of fuel cell technology which includes the grandaddy of that industry, Ballard Power Systems of Burnaby, British Columbia. Ballard (BLD-T)(BLDP-OTC) has, since the 1980s, been quietly developing its PEM fuel cell technology.

Several years ago, (2009) I posted an article entitled, the future of energy, where I laid out the probability of Fuel Cell stacks such as Ballards stacking technology, being developed to the point where they will easily power buses, fork lifts, ships, trains, small towns, and eventually big cities. In the beginning, many pundits speculated on the development of pure hydrogen fuel cell cars. Eventually those same people began to discount what they called the hydrogen economy, saying that fuel cell cars probably would not ever replace the internal combustion engine.

Since then, there have been inumerable articles and arguments both con and pro, fuel cell investments. Ballard, (and a number of other fuel cell companies nicknamed baby Ballards, such as Plug Power) saw their share prices subsequently wane as investors grew weary of the argument. Ballard, having partnered earlier with auto makers such as Ford and Chrysler, basically sold off their auto technology to those entities. They concentrated on larger vehicles such as buses, and most recently, the fork lift industry.

Where I believe Ballard really shines is in their fuel cell stacking technology which last year, allowed them to supply a small town in Ohio with a fuel cell power plant as a factory size test of such technology. (see: Worlds largest fuel cell power generations system being tested in Ohio)

Think of towns and cities of the future being powered entirely by hydrogen fel cells, with absolutely no pollution as the only byproduct of the technology is pure water (H2O). How about cruise ships, tankers, industries and buildings being powered in the same way. Ballard recently contracted with India to supply over 10,000 smaller stacking units for their growing wireless industry in that country.

Ballard now has fuel cell buses being tested in London, California, Vancouver and Amsterdam. They are now building fuel cell fork lifts and plan on supplying that market, anywhere in the world where clean energy is a must. Now, Daimler has announced that it will power its fuel cell fleet with Ballard technology.

This technology, especially its use in stacking up to power plants capable of powering entire populations, just makes sense. Couple hydrogen fuel cell plant power with the emergence of the electric vehicle industry (our investments in lithium production) and, I believe, you will have a big winner, especially in places like China and India. Here in North America natural gas is very abundant with new fracking technologies allowing for an untapped bonanza of natural gas energy capable of powering us for 200 years.

As it turns out, natural gas is a great feed source for hydrogen. In other words, Fuel cells can easily run on natural gas!

Happy investing.

HP

Economies of U..S.A. and Canada on divergent paths!

2011-06-02T17:00:00.000-03:00

According to the U.S. National Bureau of Economic Research, U.S. and Canadian job markets have struck a divergent path since December of 2007 when the recession in the USA began. This chart explains how divergent those paths have been in graphic terms.

At this writing, Canada has reproduced all of it's recession job losses and, in fact, has increased that number by 2%.

When the Canadian dollar was trading at .77 cents I wrote an article that basically told you to "hold on to your loonies". I reiteratted that sentiment over a year later when the loonie was trading at .97 cents to the usd again telling you to hold on to your loonies. Now, even with the Cannuck buck trading at over $1.04 usd I am reiterrating that same sentiment. Hold on to your loonies!

In the 1950's the Cannuck buck traded around $1.08 to $1.10 to the usd. I believe those levels will be reached again and will hold true for the forseeable future. There are many reasons for this opinion, not the least of which is the massive debt load of the U.S. and a number of it's states. The U.S. bond market is in for a financial tsunami at some point beyond when quantitative easing ends, and maybe before that time.

The U.S. has been, for the past year, buying up to two thirds (2/3) of all of it's own debt on the bond market. As that giant Kenseyian experiment ends, listen carefully for the underwater earthquake that could eventually spawn a Tsunami called hyper inflation.

Markets usually like inflation. Commodities like inflation. Even housing likes inflation and remember, the U.S. Federal Reserve always errs on the side of inflation. The problem is, once this Genie is out of the bottle, no one really knows where it will go, but it does not bode well for the usd.

Since commodities love inflation, and Canada is a country rich in almost every single commoditiy from water, to wheat, grains, cattle, oil, gas, gold, silver, lithium, diamonds, gypsum, lumber, seafood, coal, etc. etc look for the cad to strengthen, even from these levels. As two billion more people from China to India, Brazil, Russia and Indonesia join the middle class, the demand for all commodities will climb, and climb and climb.

Anyone who thinks the commodities bull market is over will miss out on huge upside. This lull is a buying opportunity and when everyone gets extremely negative over the next month or so, it will be even a better buying opportunity.

Look for Canadian interest rates to remain above U.S. rates, to rise slowly and strengthen the Cannuck buck.

Now remember, "hold on to your loonies"!

Happy investing.

HP

Chinese economy is unsustainable according to Stratfor Global Intelligence.

2011-05-25T19:30:00.002-03:00

IN "China, Power and Perils" the latest report from Stratfor Global Intelligence, a case is laid out for unsustainable growth in the CommuCapitalist country.

Stratfor builds a case for the unsustainability of an 8% growth minumum, which China says it needs to placate the growing millions who have entered and are entering the job market at a staggering 16 million this year alone.

Stratfor says there are "structural elements that render 8% annual growth impossible" and compares the current Chinese economy to a giant ponzi scheme!

So, how are ponzi schemès maintained? Well, if Bernie Madoff and his ilk are an indication, it is done with lies, lies and more lies! The lies have to convince some smart people of their legimacy, after which those lies are then spread by otherwise legitimate people and businesses.It is only after the lies have been uncovered that the typical ponzi scheme begins to unravel. As I have pointed out in prior posts, if you cannot believe some of the economic reports coming out of some Wallstreet firms, then how can you count on the word of a cloistered, communist elite, that has absolutely no interest in your (or your moneys) wellbeing. Their only interest is how they will hold on to power in the coming years.

Stratfor brings up some familiar old ghosts, from our own recent past as they point out:

" China's economy (according to China) needs 8% annual growth, just to keep the roughly 16 million new people entering the work force from rising in jobless protest—and to keep up with climbing wages and to sustain a growing retired population. A combination of exports, loose lending practices, super low margins, and government spending help keep up the growth. Sound healthy to you? "

For several years now I have enjoyed reading the informative, and sometimes contraversal reports from Stratfor Global Intelligence. For the purposes of disclosure, I have no interest or investment, nor do I benefit from Stratfor, except for sometimes using their valuable intelligence.

This week, if you join Stratfor, at a cost of $129 for one year, they will send you this extensive report as well as the book, "The next 10 years" written by Stratfor founder, George Friedman.

If you do not wish to join at this time, you can sample some of their in depth reports for free simply by giving them your email address.

Stratfor is one more valuable resource, in the world of investing, politics and world events.

Visit them at Stratfor.com for more information.

Happy investing.
HP

Peak Oil was reached in 2006 according to the IEA

2011-05-02T13:19:00.004-03:00

Image via WikipediaPeak oil! We've debated that term since the 1970's oil shocks. Back then some experts were predicting peak oil by the turn of the 21st century. Some said 2010, others as far out as 2030. However, according to the IEA, we passed the date for peak oil almost 5 years ago, in 2006. According to other distinguished scientists, who peer reviewed the IEA data, in Stockhold Sweden, even the IEA data is somewhat skewed toward the positive, indicating a dirth of oil is already upon us, and forshadowing prices that will make 2011 look like the good old days of cheap oil.

Review the video for yourself and make your own conclusions!

Then, invest accordingly.

Solid oil plays in the medium to long term.( We like Suncor SU and Cenovus CVE)

Alternatives like wind, solar, nuclear, fuel cells (we like Ballard BLD)

And lithium, (we like Talison TLH, Rodinia RM and TNRGold TNR) in the long term!

Here's the video.

Learn more about green stocks at GreenChipStocks.com

Taking profit: Sell in May and go away may be good advice this year!

2011-04-28T13:46:00.002-03:00

As I have said before, it is never wrong to take profit. While no one can time the market (and I certainly am not attempting to do that here) however, taking profit when you are doing well is simply good common sense, especially at a time when macro events may tip the scales against your investment strategy,

As you already know, I like commodities! I like hard assets and hold gold, silver, lithium, copper etc. I believe that, in the long run, these are great investments. I am concerned at this time, about the strong head winds which seem to be rising at this time in equity markets, and so, today, I took some good profits off the table and sold off shares.

I have done this for the past two weeks in fact, taking profit in the following companies:Read more »

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