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…

************************************************************************

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.

TSX falls short as energy shares decline

Last Updated: Monday, January 11, 2010 | 06:16 PM EST

Financial Post

Story courtesy of

The Toronto Stock Exchange closed Monday’s session just short of flat as positive news out of China was offset by forecasts for milder weather in the U.S. in the coming weeks, the latter of which hurt the energy sector.

The S&P/TSX composite index was down 6.7 points, or 0.06%, to 11,947.13. The most positive sectors were materials, telecommunications and consumer discretionary, while the biggest sectors, energy and financials, kept things in the negative.

The biggest detriment to the TSX index was Talisman Energy Inc., which was down 3.55% to $19.85. The most positive factor to the benchmark was Toronto-Dominion Bank, which was up 0.71% to $64.18.

Just after Monday’s open, the TSX benchmark index surpassed the 12,000 threshold, a level not seen since September 2008 when markets were in a downward spiral that would see it going almost as low as 7,500 by March.

The TSX Venture composite index was up 3.42 points, or 0.21%, to 1,608.53.

A number of markets around the world gained strength after news that Chinese exports rose for the first time in more than a year, with the December figure up 17.7% compared with last December. Imports surged 55.9% for the year — the strongest increase since February 2004.

Closer to home, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. said December housing starts rose 5.9% to an annual rate of 174,500 units in December. That beat expectations for between 160,000 and 165,000.

Statistics Canada, however, said the value of building permits fell in November by 4.6% from the previous month to $5.9-billion.

North American investors will soon be weighing their portfolios against a slew of corporate results as the fourth-quarter earnings season gets underway. Alcoa Inc. reported results after the close on Monday that trailed analysts’ forecasts. Earnings from Intel Corp. are due Thursday and JPMorgan Chase & Co. is scheduled to report Friday. Most major Canadian companies will not start releasing earnings until the latter part of the month.

“Equities have been advancing ahead of earnings season, which suggests that there may be more optimism this time around, particularly since confession season has been eerily quiet with very few profit warnings,” Colin Cieszynski, an analyst with CMC Markets Canada, said in a note. “This suggests that either companies are fairly confident about meeting forecasts or we may be in for a few surprises.”

On the New York Mercantile Exchange Monday, crude oil was down 23 cents to US$82.52 a barrel, after being up earlier in the day. Natural gas took a beating on U.S. weather forecasts, falling 29.5 cents to US$5.454 per million BTUs. Gold was up $12.50 to US$1,151.40 an ounce.

The Canadian dollar was down 24 basis points to 96.76 cents US.

U.S. markets were mixed. At the close, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 45.8 points, or 0.43%, to 10,663.99, helped along by industrial stocks after the China data came forth. The Nasdaq composite index was down 4.76 points, or 0.21%, to 2,312.41, indicative of profit-taking after this measure hit a 16-month high on Friday.

Most of the main European and Asian markets were up Monday, except in France, where the CAC index was down 0.5%.

Goldcorp to buy Xstrata stake in El Morro project

UPDATE 3-Goldcorp to buy Xstrata stake in El Morro project

11:51 EST Thursday, January 07, 2010

* To acquire 70 pct stake through deal with New Gold

* New Gold shares up 6.5 pct in Toronto (Adds comments from Goldcorp CEO, Barrick spokesman; updates share price; in U.S. dollars unless noted)

By Euan Rocha

TORONTO, Jan 7 (Reuters) - Goldcorp Inc said on Thursday it will spend $513 million to buy mining giant Xstrata's 70 percent interest in the El Morro copper-gold project in Chile, foiling Barrick Gold's plans to acquire the stake.

Goldcorp will buy the stake through a creatively structured deal with fellow Canadian miner New Gold Inc , the minority stakeholder and Xstrata's partner in El Morro.

In October, Swiss-based Xstrata agreed to sell its interest in the project to Canada's Barrick, the world's No. 1 gold miner, for $465 million. But, New Gold had the right of first refusal on Barrick's purchase -- meaning it had the right to match the offer -- until January 2010.

New Gold, through a wholly owned subsidiary, will exercise that right and acquire the 70 percent interest.

Goldcorp will advance $463 million to New Gold to fund the deal. After the acquisition by the New Gold subsidiary, Goldcorp will acquire that subsidiary from New Gold.

Goldcorp will pay New Gold $50 million in cash upon closing the acquisition of the subsidiary. Goldcorp has also agreed to amend certain terms of the El Morro shareholders agreement, with respect to New Gold's capital funding obligations.

On closing, Goldcorp will hold 70 percent of El Morro and New Gold 30 percent.

El Morro is an advanced stage copper-gold project located in north-central Chile. It contains proven and probable reserves of 6.7 million ounces of gold and 5.7 billion pounds of copper.

Goldcorp looks for large, high quality assets that have low operating costs and a long mine life, Chief Executive Chuck Jeannes told Reuters.

"This ticks all of those boxes. Additionally, we look for large property positions that are relatively unexplored, so that we have the opportunity for continued organic growth -- this property also fits that bill," said Jeannes.

For Barrick, the property had the additional appeal of promising costs-savings, as it is located not far from its Veladero mine, and Pascua Lama and Cerro Casale projects.

Barrick spokesman Vince Borg said the company would review the agreement and then decide whether it might try to stay in the process.

"It would depend on the agreement that they struck (but) we haven't seen that yet," he said.

Borg played down the prospect of frosty relations between Barrick and Goldcorp, which are the world's top two gold miners by market size and partners on the Pueblo Viejo project in the Dominican Republic.

"We're partners, peers and competitors," he said.

The deal comes as Goldcorp is also entangled in a bidding war for Canplats Resources , which owns the Camino Rojo gold-silver deposit in Mexico that sits close to Goldcorp's Penasquito gold-silver mine. [ID:nN24183175]

Construction of the Penasquito mine is nearing completion and Goldcorp plans to use the expertise of the team that led the build of that mine, to help spearhead work on the El Morro project.

Goldcorp expects its first full-year of production from El Morro in 2015, said Jeannes.

New Gold shares were up 6.5 percent at C$4.28 midday on the Toronto Stock Exchange, while Goldcorp fell 8 Canadian cents to C$43.30.

($1=$1.03 Canadian) (Reporting by Euan Rocha and Cameron French; editing by Rob Wilson)