Pescod Talks about...

VENTANA GOLD

(T-VEN)

$8.05 +0.43

GALWAY RES.

(V-GWY)

$1.44 -0.03

VICTORIA GOLD

(V-VIT)

$0.84 +0.07

There’s some interesting drilling results out from some

mining exploration companies today and some of the re-

sults have to be described as spectacular. Ventana Gold for

instance, announces results that are both of a step out na-

ture and infill drilling, but some of the holes such as 93

metres of 15.8 g/t and 72 metres of 9.7 g/t is the kind of

stuff you can only dream of finding. Which is the good

news of course.

In the meantime, Ventana is locked into this itty-bitty

problem with owners of the property that were quite con-

tent with what they were being paid before, but now that

things seem to be going so well, suddenly want a lot more.

Funny how that happens.

In the meantime, Galway Resources is drilling right beside

Ventana and is expected to announce some drilling results

on their project some time in the next ten days. Suddenly,

those look quite interesting.

Meanwhile, Victoria Gold came up with another good hole

as well. A huge one of 284 metres starting virtually right

from surface and averaging about 2 1/2 g/t. Which is the

good news. The bad news? Well, there is a ton of stock

out…

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PEREGRINE DIAMONDS

(T-PGD)

$2.36 +0.24

LITHIC RESOURCES

(V-LTH)

$0.49 +0.07

BRETT RESOURCES

(V-BBR)

$2.21 +0.19

Just the other day we were getting into some of the top

picks of John Kaiser and some of them are having quite a

day today, such as Brett Resources, his number one pick

in the gold sector.

Meanwhile, Amazon Mining should have results out on

its drilling in Brazil any time soon, but time for some up-

dates on some of his other top picks.

Peregrine Diamonds is a stock that just flew for him a cou-

ple of months ago, has settled back recently, but going into

the coming year it is one of his top selections when we

visited with him a week ago. He writes, “Peregrine Dia-

monds is gearing up for a $13.5 million two-stage explora-

tion program for its Chidliak diamond project on south Baf-

fin Island in 2010….Peregrine and its joint venture partner

BHP Billiton announced details about the program which

will see BHP vest for 51% after spending $22.3 million in

2009-2011. Assuming the entire budget is spent, Peregrine

will have to chip in (only) about $1 million for the 2010 sea-

son…”

“The program underlying the budget suggests that

BHP is eager to assess the scale of the Chidliak field be-

fore spending big dollars on bulk sampling…” Kaiser, in

his Bottom Fishing Report writes, “Drilling is expected to

start in April. During the March-June stage, they will fly a

large airborne geophysical survey and conduct extensive

ground geophysical surveys on potential drill targets….”

He continues, “Price target for 2010 is the $5-$10 range

as further evidence builds that a world class diamond field

comparable to Ekati/Diavik Is present on south Baffin Is-

land.”

Another of Kaiser’s favorites when we cornered him

over a week ago was what we would have called “a

cheapie with a chance” and it’s almost doubled in the past

week. So it might be a little late mentioning it, but that’s

Lithic Resources. Lithic has a lot to do with the theme Kai-

ser sees for a year down the road...and that’s that zinc,

which currently may be in slight over-supply is going to

face several of its significant mines being exhausted or

shutting down production and suddenly zinc, instead of

being an over-supply, will become quite scarce and he

thinks the metal will fare quite well.

Tiny Lithic is actually a cheap two-way play and the

stock that he was suggesting back at $0.10 has already

had a run, but the Crypto project also has significant in-

dium content and he suggests that rare earth may be

worth a chunk of change down the road as well.

Kaiser writes, “Accordingly, we are converting the bot-

tom-fish buy recommendation into a Spec Cycle

Hold...with a price range of $0.75-$1.00 as a reasonable

target for later this year if Lithic gets the financing for its

2010 program and zinc maintains a price above $1.00 per

lb.” Kaiser continues, “Bonus upside would come if

Crypto’s indium content starts to attract security of sup-

ply interest from indium end-users, or if the exploratory

drilling that will be part of the 2010 program reveals a sig-

nificant high grade silver system beneath the Utah work-

ings, deep drilling beneath the zinc skarm freshes out the

previously encountered high grade moly system, and,

perhaps most importantly for the mine development sce-

nario, the eastward extension of the zinc skarm minerali-

zation boosts the overall zinc-indium resource.”

Kaiser continues, “The big question will be whether or

not Lithic’s Crypto project achieves sufficient credibility

to justify taking the project through feasibility in 2011….”

Business confidence nearing record high Majority of executives expect growth, a need to hire, BoC survey finds

OTTAWA–Canadian businesses reported near record optimism about their future sales and say they are stepping up plans to hire more workers and invest, the Bank of Canada said Monday.

Seventy per cent of executives said sales growth will quicken over the next year, while another 21 per cent expect it to slow, the bank said in a quarterly Business Outlook Survey. The gap of 49 percentage points is close to 53 in the last survey, the biggest since the question was first asked in 1998.

Executives on balance said for the second quarter since mid-2007 that credit conditions had eased. Twenty-six per cent of executives said loans were easier to get, compared with 13 per cent who said they were harder. In the last report, the gap was four percentage points.

The survey indicated that terms have improved more for large companies, with some small firms still facing tighter lending terms.

Executives also predict slower inflation over the next two years, and on balance plan to buy equipment and hire workers.

On hiring intentions, 54 per cent of the 100 firms surveyed by the bank said they planned to add employees in the next year, as opposed to only 14 per cent that said they expected to reduce staff.

The balance of opinion on adding to payrolls in the next year was 40 percentage points, the highest since the first quarter of 2007. For investment in machinery and equipment, the balance of opinion was 17 percentage points, the highest since the third quarter of 2008.

In a news conference in St. Boniface, Man., Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said he was encouraged that both consumer and business confidence were improving but added that dangers remained.

"The economy is still recovering ... (but) has not recovered," he said.