Idaho Silver Valley

Jetzt haben sie endlich den Goldnugget den ein Miner vor 40 Jahren verloren hat rausgebohrt.

Hallo Edel Man!

Das ist ja ein Hammer, 68g/t, nicht schlecht!

Murray liegt nördlich von Wallace, das ist schon nicht mehr Teil des Silver Valley im engeren Sinn, wo meist Blei Kupfer Zink und Silber in ökonomischen Mengen vorkommen.

Das mit den Kursen ist manchmal kurios.

Im Moment sowieso.

Bis in den Weltbörsen irgendwann wieder etwas mehr Überblick herrscht, kann man Prognosen auf Einzelwerte fast vergessen.

Beispiel auch: USA.V mit ihren Drillings bis 2000g/t Silber.
Hat auch niemand bisher gross interessiert. ...
Mich schon (schon allein, weil dieses Drilling die ASLM recht ruppig wachgeküsst hat).

Ich wunder mich derzeit über gar nichts mehr.

Gruss,
gutso

PPS: hab heute ein paar Merger Mines rausgeklopft mit 100% + und in Gammon Gold gesteckt. Ich spekulier da auf noch 20 bis 30% Erholung kurzfristig.

Zitat

Original von gutso

(...)
PPS: hab heute ein paar Merger Mines rausgeklopft mit 100% + und in Gammon Gold gesteckt. Ich spekulier da auf noch 20 bis 30% Erholung kurzfristig.

Meine Gammon sind gestern nach 18% Gewinn am Ende des Handelstages rausgeflogen, heute habe ich mit dem Geld gleich meine Silver Buckle Mines Position aufgestockt, bei 0,29 US$.
Ist zwar nicht gerade mein "Traumpreis" für einen kauf der Shares dieser Mine, aber ich wollte mich dennoch jetzt mit einer stattlichen Anzahl Shares in dieser position verstärken, - und zwar strategisch gesehen, also langfristig!

Der Rest aus dem Gammon Verkauf kommt in physisches Edelmetall.

Damit ist die Wandelposition in meinem Depot wieder mehrheitlich im Valley gelandet, nach dem kurzen Mexiko-Trip.
Hat sich aber gelohnt ... .

Gruss,
gutso

PPS: @ newtechxl
Du spielst u.a. auf Deinen Favoriten Shoshone Silver Mining (SHSH.OB) an, nehme ich an.
Bisher habe ich noch nichts gehört, bin auch schon gespannt, was das angeht, glaube aber im Moment bei Silver Buckle Mines (SBUM.PK) besser aufgehoben um auf soliden, langfristigen Upswing zu setzen. ...

Zitat

Original von newtechxl
Aktuell ist ja das Silver Summit. Ist jemand dort vor Ort?
Sollte die Aktien aus dem Valley ein wenig Aufwind geben.

denen geht´s doch schon gut:

Zitat

Original von auratico

denen geht´s doch schon gut:

Hallo auratico, ja, der Ausblick ist sehr erfreulich!

Das, was jetzt wieder bei den Grossen im Valley losgetreten wird, wird, denke ich, bald auch wieder die Kleinen mit reissen.

Deshalb hab ich das mit SBUM auch heute durchziehen wollen, und wollte lieber mal nicht länger abwarten.
Sie liegen einfach zu nah an der Galena, als dass es sie nicht früher oder später in die Höhe zieht, wenn USA.V sich schrittweise weiter etabliert und weiter drillt etc ... .

Gruss,
gutso

Zitat

Original von gutso

Hallo auratico, ja, der Ausblick ist sehr erfreulich!

Das, was jetzt wieder bei den Grossen im Valley losgetreten wird, wird, denke ich, bald auch wieder die Kleinen mit reissen.
Gruss,
gutso

Hoffentlich für dich, aber du mußt das Pushen noch ein wenig lernen, so wie unser frommer Jason Hommel, der vor seinem Abflug ins Valley noch einige der dortigen Aktien empfohlen hat mit Matthäus 7.6:

"Matthew 7:6 Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you."

grüsse

auratico

Zitat

Original von auratico

Hoffentlich für dich, aber du mußt das Pushen noch ein wenig lernen, so wie unser frommer Jason Hommel, der vor seinem Abflug ins Valley noch einige der dortigen Aktien empfohlen hat mit Matthäus 7.6:

"Matthew 7:6 Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you."

grüsse

auratico

Alles anzeigen

Ich kanns bisher auch ohne Pushen, - hoffentlich.

Da ich meine gewünschte Anzahl an Shares bei SBUM nun beisammen habe, kann sie wegen mir laufen.

Aber ein Zitat kann ich auch liefern, nur nicht aus der Bibel, sondern von Ludwig Wittgenstein, von 1930:

Zitat

"Als ob der Blitz heute alltäglicher oder
weniger staunenswert wäre als vor 2000 Jahren.
Zum Staunen muß der Mensch — und
vielleicht Völker — aufwachen.
Die Wissenschaft ist ein Mittel um ihn
wieder einzuschläfern."

Grüsse,
gutso

Hallo gutso,
Schöner Bericht zu Hecla
Wenn die alte lucky noch solche resourcen hat,
dann schaut´s für die Sterling auch gut aus.

Was sich Hecla wohl alles krallen wird?
Mich interessiert da eher mexico.

Hecla has high hopes for Silver Valley Printer-Friendly Version
Two studies could result in doubling of Lucky Friday

By Paul Read

Two hard-rock miners use a drill inside the Lucky Friday mine, near Mullan, Idaho, where Hecla is studying an expansion. Photo courtesy of Hecla Mining Co. and Van Gundy Photography.
Two hard-rock miners use a drill inside the Lucky Friday mine, near Mullan, Idaho, where Hecla is studying an expansion. Photo courtesy of Hecla Mining Co. and Van Gundy Photography.

The resurgence of Hecla Mining Co.’s venerable Lucky Friday mine near Mullan, Idaho, might seem remarkable enough, given recent strong production gains, plummeting cash costs, and a surge in hiring there. That rebirth, however, would pale in comparison to the growth the silver, lead, and zinc mine would see if current studies of the property find what the Coeur d’Alene mining company’s executives hope is true.

“We could end up doubling employment there,” says Phillips S. Baker Jr., Hecla’s president and CEO.

Just six years ago, when Baker joined Hecla as chief financial officer, “There were voices in the company that wanted to shut down the Lucky Friday,” he says. That’s when silver prices were south of $5 a troy ounce and it cost Hecla more than that to produce it. Hecla decided that year to downsize the operation to 30 percent of full production, leaving it with about 60 employees.

Today, silver is selling for roughly $12 an ounce, and with prices for lead and zinc—the two secondary metals the Lucky Friday produces—at historical highs, the mine produced silver for a cash cost of negative 72 cents an ounce last quarter. Hecla has hired about 40 workers at the mine this year, and now employs 260 people there. The workers are well paid; hard-rock miners at the Lucky Friday will make between $80,000 and $100,000 each this year.

The Lucky Friday, which currently has an estimated 120 million ounces of silver resources and produced about 2.9 million ounces of silver last year, is conducting a feasibility study that could lead to construction of a new shaft that would enable miners to reach deeper into the mine. Baker says it’s too early to know how much the mind-shaft project would cost, but says it’s conceivable that it could cost about $35 million. The study is expected to be completed in mid-2008. Hecla also expects to complete by mid next year a pre-feasibility study to determine whether the company should embark on a full-scale expansion of the mine, Baker says.

Exploration in and around the Lucky Friday has suggested that the property might hold far more mineralization than currently is identified.

“We could add 70 million to 150 million ounces of silver resources there,” Baker says.

Hecla already is expanding its mill there, which it has several times before, and if a large mine expansion were done, the mill would have to be expanded again, or perhaps a new mill would have to be built, he says.

Baker also is intrigued with the 40 square miles of land on which Hecla controls mining rights to the north of the Lucky Friday, where such historical mines as the Morning, Hecla, Star, Gold Hunter, and Hercules helped to give the Silver Valley its name. Since the late 1800s, more than two dozen mines on that land together have produced nearly 330 million ounces of silver and millions of tons of lead and zinc, Hecla says. Based on today’s metals prices, that overall production would be worth roughly $25 billion, it says.

The company currently is digitizing a century’s worth of geologic and mining information about that property and is creating 3-D computer-generated images that might help it determine how the various veins relate and where untapped resources might exist. Baker says Hecla is beginning the first significant exploration that’s been done on much of that property in 50 years.

Other operations

In addition to the Lucky Friday, Hecla currently has two other operating properties, one located near Juneau, Alaska, where it owns an about 30 percent stake in the Greens Creek silver mine, and the other in Venezuela, where its La Camorra Unit includes the Mina Isidora gold deposit.

Hecla is a partner in Greens Creek with Kennecott Juneau Mining Co., a subsidiary of London-based giant Rio Tinto plc. The underground mine produced about 2.6 million ounces of silver for Hecla’s account last year, plus about 17,700 tons of zinc, 6,200 tons of lead, and a small amount of gold. Due to rising prices of the byproduct metals, the mine’s cash cost to produce silver last year was a negative $3.47 an ounce.

Baker says Greens Creek is the fifth largest silver mine in the world, and has long-term reserves and an active exploration program. The mine, located on Admiralty Island, is operated by its joint-venture partner.

In eastern Venezuela, the La Camorra Unit includes the La Camorra and Mina Isidora deposits. In the past year, ore grades at the La Camorra deposit have diminished, and Hecla has shifted production there entirely to the Mina Isidora. Hecla also operates a mill there where, in addition to the ore mined at Mina Isidora, it processes ore it buys from smaller mining operations in the region.

Last year, the unit produced about 160,600 ounces of gold at an average cash cost of $345 an ounce. This year, production is expected to total about 120,000 ounces, due to lower ore grades in the waning days at the La Camorra deposit and to a community uprising that temporarily suspended operations at the Mina Isidora.

Baker says Hecla recognizes the risks of doing business in politically unstable Venezuela, but says the company has taken measures to minimize the impacts those risks could have on its bottom line, and weighs them against the potential gains the company can realize due to the area’s promising geology.

“If we can, and it doesn’t hurt our valuation, we want to stay there,” he says.

In addition to exploration work in and around its current operating mines, Hecla is exploring properties it controls in Mexico, both at its former San Sebastian silver mine near Durango, in central Mexico, and at its Rio Grande property, located about 30 miles to the south of there.

Overall, Hecla expects to spend $23 million this year on exploration, compared with $20 million last year.

Strong performance

The sun is shining these days on mining companies, and Hecla is making hay while the making is good. Sustained high metals prices helped fuel record net income of $68.6 million last year, the company’s first net income attributable to common shareholders since 1990. Hecla described its 2006 financial results as the best in the company’s 116-year history.

The company produced 5.5 million ounces of silver last year, down slightly from the year earlier, and about 180,000 ounces of gold, up markedly from 2005. Meanwhile, silver prices averaged $11.57 last year. Gold prices averaged $604 an ounce in 2006, the highest in history, Hecla says.

A big part of the financial picture for mining companies these days is the prices they get for the byproducts their mines produce—in Hecla’s case, lead and zinc. In 2006, prices for both of those metals hit record levels, enabling Hecla to post an average, companywide silver cash cost of just 24 cents an ounce.

Hecla’s metal sales have continued to climb this year, totaling $113.2 million as of June 30, compared with $96.7 million in the year-earlier period. Gross profit from silver operations shot up to nearly $40 million in the first half of this year, compared with about $22 million a year earlier, though gold operations posted a $5 million loss for the first half, due to the problems in Venezuela.

Baker says he sees no near-term softening in today’s strong metals prices, based on increased world demand that’s being fueled by the fast-growing economies of countries such as China and India. Still, he says, metals prices tend to be a cyclical thing, and adds, “I know it won’t last forever.”

With metals prices high, the biggest challenge Hecla and other mining companies face right now is labor.

“There is a dearth of skilled mining engineers, geologists, and financial people who know the industry,” Baker says.

He says that because metals prices are high across the board and the oil and gas industry is strong, the labor market for highly qualified people in those natural resource industries is tight, including for hard-rock miners. It didn’t help, he says, that some people left the industry when it contracted last decade, and that mining schools are producing fewer graduates. Hecla currently employs about 930 people.

Looking for acquisitions

With cash and short-term investments totaling about $180.6 million as of June 30, and no debt, Hecla is positioned to expand its operations and seek new assets, either operating mines or exploration properties, Baker says.

The company improved its cash position this spring, when it completed the sale of its share of the Hollister Development Block gold project in Nevada to its partner there, Great Basin Gold Inc., for $45 million in cash and $15 million in Great Basin stock.

Baker says the company has three primary strategies for growth in its holdings.

One focus is geographic. Hecla is looking for new discoveries or acquisitions specifically in either North Idaho or Mexico. Another is to acquire gold properties, specifically underground mines in North America and Australia. Baker believes Hecla has a competitive advantage in its expertise in smaller underground mines.

The third focus is to acquire silver properties anywhere in the world that have at least 100 million ounces of silver reserves.

Contact Paul Read at (509) 344-1262 or via e-mail at paulr@spokanejournal.com.

Hallo Lucky,
hab ich mir gemerkt...

Es hummelt schon wieder: wenigstens interessant.
Der disclaimer ist am schönsten.
Er verdient sich dumm und deppat.

The Bunker Hill Lead/Zinc Mine
Silver Stock Report
by Jason Hommel, October 12, 2007

Lead prices are up 900% in just a few years, and guess who owns an option on one of the most productive lead mines in Idaho, the Bunker Hill?

Azteca Gold Corp (AGZ.V, AZGFF.PK) (Symbols work at Yahoo! Finance)
http://miningpedia.com/?s=azteca
Shares: 98,574,802
Warrants & Options: 40,025,906
Stock Price: C0.85/share
Fully Diluted Market Cap (USD): $114,627,908

Azteca recently acquired an option on the Bunker Hill mine.
http://biz.yahoo.com/iw/070830/0296840.html

Azteca needs to raise $46 million to exercise the option on the Bunker Hill. I thought they would wait a year, but I learned this evening that they are discussing financing right now. They are trying to decide whether to raise the full amount by issuing shares, or by spinning off the Bunker Hill project as a separate company. I told management that I'd prefer they spin it off, to avoid excessively diluting the shares of the company, and that's what management is leaning towards doing, but they are currently asking for shareholder input.

The financiers are probably eager to conclude a deal soon, because Azteca is hitting great results on their other properties in Mexico, and drill results from those should be out soon, and the major financiers probably don't want to have to pay much more for Azteca shares after those come out.

I do know that Strategic Nevada Resources was also bidding for the Bunker Hill mine a while back. Interestingly, I found this quote referencing the huge size of the Bunker Hill mine in one of their press releases here:

Strategic Nevada Resources, Welcomes Thomas F. Fudge Former VP of Operations for Hecla Mining and Former President of Hecla's Venezuelan Subsidiaries to the Board of Directors
http://biz.yahoo.com/iw/061220/0197253.html

Mr. Thomas Fudge was quoted as saying:

"I know from personal experience that the Crescent Mine sits right in the middle of elephant country, with the Sunshine Mine on one side and the Bunker Hill on the other side."

So, I know that the Bunker Hill mine is a huge former lead/zinc/silver mine, but little more.

At the Silver Summit, I asked around to see what people's opinions were about the famous Bunker Hill mine, which is one of the most prolific and productive of all the mines in the Silver Valley, next to the Sunshine mine.

One knowledgeable man in the industry gave a wild guess that it could take somewhere around $50 million to put it back into production. Another man noted that the former railroad infrastructure is no longer in place, and wondered about the potential replacement cost. Another man said that the entire deal is such a flip of a coin, depending entirely on EPA whims. Another industry fellow guessed that Azteca stock should soar to about $6/share based on this acquisition, and although I greatly respect that man's knoweldge of the Bunker Hill mine, I don't know how much he knows about stock prices.

David Bond wrote up Bob Hopper, the Bunker Hill, and Azteca, a few months back, here:
http://www.silverminers.com/pu…ions/showpub.aspx?id=5409

The Bunker Hill is primarily a lead/zinc mine. In the latest geologists report by Azteca:

http://www.azteca-au.com/Image…hill/BunkerHill_43101.pdf

I could find no information on historic annual production levels, which is unfortunate.

The Reserves seem low, at only about 59 million pounds of lead. But other, informal second hand rumors suggest that there could be 30 billion pounds of lead in that mountain. Whether that can be extracted profitably, and at what rate, remains to be seen.

Azteca plans to use their own expertise to do some drilling and work on a feasibility study to determine the potential profitability and mining plan over the next 18 months to 2 years!

Lead prices are up 900% in 3 years!

What I do know is that lead prices are hitting all time highs, up about 900% from just a few years ago. Lead prices bottomed out at about $.18/pound in 2003, while hitting $1.80/lb. just this week.

Lead prices are now more expensive than zinc, which is now more expensive than aluminum, and it all used to be the other way around, with aluminum being the most expensive, and lead being the cheapest!

What seems to be driving lead prices? China's economic development, and the U.S. war. It seems it's about Batteries and Bullets.

Iraq war affecting ammo supplies
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/239884/3/

Ammo used to take about a month to arrive. Now, it takes from 9 months to a year! I'd say that's a shortage!

The U.S. is spending about a billion bullets per year in the war.

China "e" bikes silently drive lead demand
October 10, 2007
http://www.sciam.com/article.c…anId=sa003&modsrc=reuters

"a 48-volt bike battery uses just under 10 kilograms of lead, similar to that used by a medium-sized car like a Toyota Camry. They last for about a year, compared with over three years for a typical car battery."

"China produced 19 million battery driven bikes in 2006"

(China's e-bikes use up car-sized batteries, 3 times as fast as cars!)

I own 1,481,600 shares of Azteca Gold, purchased with my own money, with a current market value of $1,297,239.

(I will admit that I sold about 200,000 shares of Azteca Gold this week to lock in profits from my purchase of 2 million shares at $.15/share in January, 2007, and to do so prior to writing up the stock, so as to avoid being accused of "pump and dump". I have now sold enough shares to receive back my original capital, and a small profit. And I will not sell any Azteca shares next week.)

Al Korelin recently gave me an opportunity to clear my name against numerous "pump and dump" and "frontrunning" accusations. Thank you Al. Listen to this radio report here:
http://kereport.com/DailyRadio/Daily092807.mp3

I own 50,000 shares of SNS Silver, purchased with my own money, with a current market value of $61,804.

Neither company has paid me to produce this report.

Hallo Tschonko!

Danke, hab das noch nicht gesehen. Hat ers auch schon gemerkt, der Hommel, wow, sie wollen drillen!
Warum nur!

Bin ernstlich gespannt ob sich bei ein paar der Kleinen die mit CA:AZG zu tun haben, was bewegt.

Bisher schläft alles noch.

Aber das heisst nichts.

Ausserdem wollen die CA:SNS - & die SRLM über CA:AUU - auch drillen, in der Gegend.

Fazit: Eigentlich brauchen sie ja überhaupt gar nicht drillen, grillen täts auch.

Hmn ... hab aber fast die Vermutung, dass da deshalb gar nicht die Bunker Hill Region gemeint sein könnte, sondern die Region um Royal Silver Apex nördlich von Osburn ... da wären echte Drillings schon etwas Besonderes, denn sollte sich dort eine positive Überraschung auftun ... dann müssten einige Geologen an der Akademie anfangen zu grübeln, wie sie das im Nachhinein "erklären". ...

Gruss,
gutso

PPS: Das ist zuviel:

"Neither company has paid me to produce this report."

Mhuahaahha!

Bunker Hill (insb. Superfund) steht doch für eine ziemliche Verseuchung der Umwelt / Menschen mit Blei.

Die Umweltbehörde hat hier in den letzten Jahren große Anstrengungen unternommen, um das Gelände wieder einigermaßen wiederherzustellen. Ich gehe davon aus, dass die Umweltbehörde höhere Anforderungen stellen wird (wenn sie es überhaupt genehmigen).

http://yosemite.epa.gov/r10/np…6594007105c0?OpenDocument

Silbertaler,
werden sie wohl gleich behandeln wie sterling und SNS. Oder?

gutso,
mir hat das am besten gefallen.

(I will admit that I sold about 200,000 shares of Azteca Gold this week to lock in profits from my purchase of 2 million shares at $.15/share in January, 2007, and to do so prior to writing up the stock, so as to avoid being accused of "pump and dump". I have now sold enough shares to receive back my original capital, and a small profit. And I will not sell any Azteca shares next week.)

Und das glaub ich ihm sogar.

Und über JAN 07 und kurz davor muss er ja nichts schreiben.....

Grüße
Tschonko

Zitat

Original von Tschonko
Silbertaler,
werden sie wohl gleich behandeln wie sterling und SNS. Oder?

gutso,
mir hat das am besten gefallen.

(I will admit that I sold about 200,000 shares of Azteca Gold this week to lock in profits from my purchase of 2 million shares at $.15/share in January, 2007, and to do so prior to writing up the stock, so as to avoid being accused of "pump and dump". I have now sold enough shares to receive back my original capital, and a small profit. And I will not sell any Azteca shares next week.)

Und das glaub ich ihm sogar.

Und über JAN 07 und kurz davor muss er ja nichts schreiben.....

Grüße
Tschonko

Alles anzeigen

Hallo Tschonko!

Der Hommel! - Ach Gottchen.

Ich überlege auch seit ein paar Tagen oder Wochen davon was los zu werden, weil der Cashburn irgendwann anfängt und die Finanzierungen.

Aber was der Hommel mit denen macht, ist bei einer Aktie wie dieser egal - weil ihr Überleben von der Story abhängt und nicht von Hommel.
Bei Moriarty hätte ich da mehr Sorge (weil er ein grösserer Multiplikator ist) .. aber der hat ja nun mal die CA:SNS daneben - gottseidank!

Grüsse ins Gebirge!
gutso

Ein aktuelles, wohl für US-Einsteiger gedachtes Write Up der Silver Valley-Werte. Der Autor betont den Einfluß von ausländischem Kapital in der Gegend und schließt seinen Bericht mit einem "German Proverb", das ich allerdings noch nie gehört habe: “ Fear makes the wolf bigger than he is. ”
Hingegen noch in Erinnerung: " Es ist besser, als ein Wolf zu sterben, denn als Hund zu leben."
- Herbert Wehner

"Foreign capital flooding into Northwest mining and more action in the Silver Valley than we’ve seen in a generation. To top it off, a plunging dollar, a credit crisis and wild market volatility.

Your editor looked up from the piles of bureaucratic paperwork on which he has labored for these many months and observed all this with the surprise of a man waking suddenly from a deep sleep in a strange city. He had no idea.

With apologies for tardiness, here is an update on a few of the new developments here in our neck of the woods. "

http://www.penntrade.com/cgi-bin/news.cgi

grüsse

auratico