In a meritocracy, the pure, rich cream floats to the top. It’s where people are selected competitively according to merit, talent, motivation and effort, based on the idea that positions of responsibility and prestige should be earned. Kootenay Gold and its team are an example of just that.
CEO and Director James McDonald, at 46, is one of the youngest men in a directorial role in Canadian mining and boasts a track record dating back twenty years. He started as a geologist in 1983 at Noranda. Then he went to work at Hemlo where he met Richard Hughes, the mining legend and brains behind the Hemlo discovery, one of the largest gold discoveries in Canadian history. This experience seems to be the impetus behind his formidable motivation. As McDonald put it in a presentation featured on Kootenay’s website, “I really got bitten by the gold bug at [Hemlo].”
In the late 1990s, working closely with Hughes, McDonald and Albert Matter formed National Gold, secured the Mulatos deposit in Mexico, and joint ventured with Alamos Minerals. McDonald merged the two companies to form Alamos Gold, which opened the Mulatos mine that is still in production today, producing over 100,000 ounces of gold annually.
McDonald had other successes at White Knight, and Genco Resources (currently producing 1,000,000 ounces per year of silver) where he served as President until 2006, when he stepped aside (he remains on board) to focus his efforts on building Kootenay Gold.
“Part of the reason for creating Kootenay Gold,” he said, “is an opportunity to put together a team of people that I had worked with mostly on a contract basis. In this industry it’s not really the properties, it’s the people that are valuable. If you put the good teams together, you’ll get the good properties and you’ll make the discoveries. You’ve got to have those people.”
With Hughes as a director on the board, and McDonald at the helm, they began to pull together key players in the industry and an exploration strategy. McDonald says about forming Kootenay Gold, “There’s a prospecting family that I’d worked with in various companies on various jobs. I was always looking for the opportunity to put them together in a company to form the core of a good exploration company.”
McDonald and his team carefully selected the west Kootenay region because they considered it to be highly prospective, but underexplored. The mineralized belt, on the American side of the border, has produced over 6 million ounces of high grade gold, but on the Canadian side was somewhat untouched. McDonald put the Kennedys – a family of highly skilled prospectors – to work in the Kootenays where they have considerable knowledge. Their findings allowed Kootenay to stake 45 mineralized claims in the area, every one of which is a new discovery.
So, while generating discoveries in BC, Kootenay’s strategy has been to joint venture with junior explorers to help fund and conduct exploration on the properties. The joint venture partners absorb some of the risk to Kootenay and pay Kootenay in cash and stock. The stock, in this resource market, becomes an appreciating asset. In other words, it’s a win-win situation for Kootenay.
The best development for Kootenay Gold in the Kootenay area so far has been the Jumping Josephine project, which is a joint venture with Astral Mining Corp. Astral has the right to earn a 60% interest in the property. Recent drilling on Jumping Josephine reported on July 12, 2007, returned 19 m of 7.01 g/t gold, including 5 m at 16.42 g/t gold. In an interview with Stanley Hunt on Smartstox Talk Show, McDonald explained the potential at Jumping Josephine. “It’s a high grade system…They’re on round two of the drilling now. Personally, I think they’re starting to drill off a resource now. This started out as a raw prospect. We’ve got an advanced project down in Mexico, which has been our lead project, but this is catching up.”
Northern Mexico has been Kootenay’s major focus. Using the philosophy that it is critical to select properties well and then commit time, work and money, McDonald and his team saw opportunity in Mexico. Their belief is that northern Mexico has potential similar to Nevada in the 1980s – a period that led to Nevada becoming the third largest gold producer in the world.
McDonald said authoritatively, “Mexico is already the number two silver producer in the world. It’ll retake its number one position probably in another year. It’s going to become a major gold producer and you can also expect to see a lot of base metals, copper, lead, zinc coming out of Mexico as well in new discoveries.”
He points out that in a 250 km stretch, through the area where Kootenay has staked 500,000+ hectares, there have been five new mines opened in the last six years, with another two currently under construction and two more in the feasibility stage. In that time, the area has boasted the discovery of 15 million ounces of gold and 480 million ounces of silver.
In Mexico, once again, Kootenay has found an edge. Several edges actually. Kootenay hired a Brit named Dr. Tony Starling and his company Telluris Consulting Ltd. to conduct satellite imagery and interpretation of the geological structures over a vast area of land. Starling has spent fourteen years in Mexico working with some of the biggest names in mining.
McDonald explains, “He’s developed a process, an analysis that allows him to identify mineral systems from the satellite imagery.” The technology works by measuring the various wavelengths of reflected light to identify mineral systems, McDonald explained. “If you’re doing it without a lot of skill and experience you get a lot of things that are not associated with minerals…You get a lot of red herrings.” Based on results to date, McDonald says, Starling has about a 90% accuracy rate. “And that makes things suddenly very efficient, rather than running around, looking at hundreds of targets, the vast majority of which have nothing to do with mineral systems. We’re now going in here and I would say it’s about a 90% success ratio.”
For Kootenay, the result is that they were able to identify more than 30 mineralized systems over approximately 180,000 square km area, which “allowed us to very quickly tie up a lot of prospective ground in Mexico.”
Leveraging another advantage – a relationship with the skilled and powerful in mining –Kootenay’s exploration efforts were funded by Richard Hughes through Klondike Silver. Klondike earned the right to choose six properties from Kootenay’s claim package. Ken Berry, President of Kootenay Gold, says “Richard Hughes has a tremendous confidence in Jim McDonald’s ability to identify mineral projects as well as grow a company. Because of that confidence level, Richard Hughes has been able to offer Kootenay joint venture support through Klondike Silver and Amador.”
So Kootenay has the people, the connections, the properties, the technology, the land positions, and the financial structure. SmartStox host Stanley Hunt prompted McDonald to point out the advantage Kootenay has in Mexico and McDonald obliged, “We’ve built up a big infrastructure in Mexico. We’ve got a regional office there. We’re way up on the learning curve. We know the ropes down there. For somebody to go in brand new into Mexico, it’s going to take them quite a few months and a lot of dollars to get established like we are. They’ll be there well over a year getting established, just to get going. We are optioning properties there. They can have a property and get going in a month by doing a deal with Kootenay Gold.”
Kootenay’s major project in Mexico right now is its flagship, advanced-stage, 100% owned, Promontorio silver project. Historic data on Promontorio show individual holes with 1 kg of silver over 5 m, 10 m, 15 m and an average silver grade of 367 g/t. Historic reports also cite widths of 20 m on average. McDonald is optimistic about the width, “you’re going to have a low cost if you’re able to find a deposit with that kind of width.” Hughes is similarly positive. In a recent presentation he stated unequivocally, “That Promontorio, by the way, is a potential company builder. And as Chad Buckland, who couldn’t be with us today, said – he’s a broker and a geological engineer – “That’s the kind of property that could really make a company. That gives a company the multi-dollar exposure… And so I think you’ve got a great project.”
Investors seem to agree. Kootenay stock has been climbing steadily over the last month from below a dollar to above the dollar and a quarter mark.
This article is intended for information purposes only, and is not a recommendation to buy or sell the equities of any company mentioned herein. It is based on sources believed to be reliable, but no warranty as to accuracy is expressed or implied. The opinions expressed in the article are those of the author except where statements are attributed to individuals other than the author, in which case the opinions are those of the individual to whom they are attributed.
Who would want to see their millions reduce to peanuts overnight? Which business leader would like to deliver bad results? Which IT professional would like to see his/her brainchild go down the drain? Not one, in our opinion. Yet that is exactly what countless people land up doing. So are we offering a quick fix solution, you ask? Not really, but if you follow our tips on IT portfolio management, you could save your millions and your reputation.
While an IT portfolio management exercise could take on different dimensions in different companies, it basically refers to making and managing an investment in an IT project or firm. Regardless of the size or composition of an IT portfolio, managing it well is of vital importance. Ask the bigwigs and they’ll tell you the same thing.
Is there a way to do it? Indeed. A lot of guidance is available at sites like. To make it easier, we propose some tried and tested portfolio management techniques customized to serve your needs in the booming IT industry.
Have an eye for detail: Well, you‘re gonna need it. To make your IT portfolio successful, you have to get all the data about all your projects neatly organized. By this we mean the estimated time, costs, sources, objectives of the projects including the expected returns and benefits. Nothing stays new in this industry for long, so keep updating and most importantly, keep an eye on the clock. This could seem like a steep climb uphill, but once there, the view will be breathtaking, we promise!
Decide business objectives: What are the strategic objectives of your business? Compare them with those of your projects. Remember, this is where you separate the gems from the stones, or even more difficult, choose between two precious stones. So take a good look at all your projects, selecting those that bring in the most value and discarding those that don’t.
Classify and grade: It’s quite natural to have vastly different projects; the key is to categorize them accordingly. Many successful firms do this in terms of the financial commitment demanded by each project: large, medium or small. Ernie Nielson of the Brigham Young University has designed a model to scientifically grade IT portfolios, which is summarized here. The first thing to do is to zero in on a couple of appropriate strategies, for example minimizing risk or improving efficiency. Next, decide on key deliverables that will help in the evaluation of these strategies. Studying other firms that employed similar strategies can prove to be of immense value. Also analyze the strategy from a feasibility point of view. A key to succeed in this business is to give everything a quick second thought. Is it possible to continue with the project going by the criteria that you employed for evaluation or does it seem a lot more demanding? Finally, grade your projects accordingly. You could score it on a scale of 1 to 5 or grade it ‘A’ through ‘Z, it’s your call.
Monitor: Do what you what you would otherwise do right at the end, at least ten times in between. Keep an eye out for your projects, meet regularly, discuss if the execution is as desired or needs any course correction. If you need to shelve a project that’s not working for you, the earlier you do it, the less you lose.
Done right, IT Portfolio Management could help change your outlook as a firm. Look closely at all that we have taken you through. Like any other initiative, this too requires a sincere attempt, which means keeping an open mind and being ready to mingle (We mean teamwork of course). Give it a shot and enjoy the results!
Corporate Speed Reading: OverviewThe written word is everywhere. In today’s fast-paced, get-it-done-yesterday world, being able to speed read—and remember what you read—is nearly a matter of professional life or death. If your reading speed is more tortoise than hare, perhaps it’s time to look into a new way of reading.Learning to speed read actually involves teaching your brain to read in a new way.”But wait!” you say. “It took years to learn how to read before. I just don’t have that kind of time.”Never fear! With our Speed Read Complete Corporate edition, you will be able to double your reading speed in only an hour in the privacy of your own home or office! This time-tested method of teaching your brain to speed read has been taught in live seminars for decades all around the US and the e-books have been translated into five languages.Are you still unsure about signing up for an online speed reading course? Have you handed over hundreds of dollars before, only to read a few words a minute faster? With our Speed Read Complete course—including three e-books as well as supplementary MP3 audio files which you can take anywhere—we guarantee you will be reading noticeably faster and comprehending more or every penny of your money back.Start our Speed Read Complete Corporate course (a minimum of a sixth grade reading level is necessary) with the book Speed Reading in Only One Hour. Move on to our Complete Speed Reading Program: Corporate Version. In our course you will learn not only how to speed read, but also how to learn to control sub-vocalization, vary your reading speed, batch process, and important techniques for positive thinking. Not only will you double your reading speed in just one hour, using our time-tested Speed Read Complete course, you’ll be able to increase your memory, recall, concentration, note taking, and more. In less than three weeks, you could even see a promotion at work due to your new-found love of learning.The Speed Read Complete was written based on a 3-day lecture course by Dr. Jay Polmar, an accomplished author and university and community college professor who has written more than 100 books. Dr. Polmar has helped hundreds of thousands all around the world read faster and get ahead. Let him help you improve your life!Benefits to Business with Speed Reading: Words are everywhere. No matter where you go, you cannot get away from the written word. Being able to read and comprehend faster will help you not only when you want to read for pleasure, but it will help you in business even more.The ability to speed read—reading more than 600 words in a minute with at least a 80% comprehension rate—will help you immensely in the corporate world. Read over corporate reports—yours and your competitors’—in half the time, giving yourself time to work on other projects. Read other books more quickly to increase your knowledge on other subjects you can use to get ahead in business. Keep the peace at home by reading that book your husband or wife has been nagging you about in only an hour or two!With our Speed Read Complete Corporate course, improve your reading speed, memory, reading comprehension and recall, concentration, and note taking. You will be climbing the corporate ladder in no time.In less than one hour a day for a month, we guarantee you’ll be reading significantly faster. After the one-hour beginner’s course, follow it up with our second book, the Business Speed Reading Success, a course specifically designed for business people and MBA professionals. With our book: How To Get Things Accomplished In Less Time, you will learn over 100 tips to manage your time wisely. Include with that the daily exercises and learning to read in a new way, and you’ll be reading more in less time than you ever thought possible. Supplement your study with our audio add-ons, to ensure rapid success. These MP3s, which can be downloaded to your favorite device, follow the books and include subjects such as memory enhancement and speed reading comprehension. We have also included audio courses on relaxation techniques and stress relief, developing self confidence, and eliminating the negative inner dialogue. Written by Dr. Jay Polmar, a former university instructor and author with over 40 titles to his name, Speed Read Complete Corporate has been used by professionals in all areas from government to education to the corporate world. Used by corporations, teachers, and government officials in over 25 countries, Speed Read Complete has been translated into five other languages to help people learn to speed read in their native language.Who Can Learn Speed Reading: The corporate world is dominated by life-long learners—people who take the time to learn everything they can about their chosen field and everything they can about corresponding subjects. But when you have a family and a life outside of work, carving out the time to read all those books can be difficult. New books on every subject are being published every day. How is one supposed to keep up at work, and keep up at home at the same time?You know that learning to speed read is the answer. Cutting your reading time in half or even more would give you the ability to simply devour the books you always wanted to read, the books you know you should read, and the ones you need to read to get ahead.You may have looked into 1-day or multiple day speed reading seminars or “home courses” before, only to be turned off by the price. One-day live speed reading seminars can set you back anywhere from $200 to $700, and their results are far from guaranteed.So what is a lower-level manager with aspirations of advancement to do?With Speedread.org’s course for the corporate man or woman, you can double your reading speed starting with our best-selling Speed Read in Only One Hour, which offers techniques to help you break poor habits learned when you were first learning to read. With our supplements for business professionals—Business Speed Reading Success, which focuses on Business and MBA professionals, and How To Get Things Accomplished In Less Time, which teaches smart time management—you will learn not only how to fly over the pages of corporate reports, you will also learn new techniques for note taking, concentration, recall and, with our Think Right course, you will also learn positive thinking exercises and stress relief to increase your reading speed even more.The corporate edition of our Speed Read Complete course also includes add-ons useful for generating sales, and includes one of the first-ever courses written on the Law of Attraction. Our proven audio courses teach the busy professional how to sit back and relax. Aimed at adults, corporate and business employees and MBA professionals, Speed Read Complete Corporate Edition offers not only the ability to speed read. Included in the Corporate Edition is also a time management course and a course to help you achieve your life goals by using the material from our Online Download Library of speed reading and self power improving publications.The best part is that not only will you be able to double your reading speed after the first one-hour lesson, but we have also had mid-level managers receive promotions as little as three weeks after starting our course!Written by Dr. Jay Polmar, an expert in the fields of speed reading, self-improvement, continuing education and self-growth, Speed Read Complete boasts a success rate unheard of in its industry and offers a full money back guarantee that you will be reading significantly faster in only 21 days. How Much Does Speed Reading Cost:Everyone is trying to save money these days. Finding bargains is quickly turning into the Western world’s favorite pastime. A close second is doing whatever one can to make oneself invaluable to his or her employer.What would you pay for that next promotion? What would you pay to practically guarantee a raise? In today’s global financial market, what would you pay for simple job security?Self-improvement classes of all types start anywhere from $200 to $2,000 and offer mixed results and mixed promises. There is one company, however, which offers worldwide results and guaranteed outcomes.Speedread.org, Inc. has condensed their 3-day live speed reading course into a compact, at-your-own-increasing-pace ebook course to help you—the busy business professional—not only make yourself invaluable to your employer, but to also improve your chances of getting that all-too-important promotion or surviving the latest round of job cuts.This course has been taught to everyone in the corporate world from busy executives to the administrative assistant answering the phones in more than 20 countries around the world in more than five languages, all with amazing results. Many mid-level managers see promotions in less than three weeks. Everyone who takes the course doubles their reading speed in just the first hour—some even triple or quadruple their reading speed!How much would you pay for the opportunity to get more done in less time, leaving more time for family, friends, or hobbies? What would you pay to practically ensure job security and a promotion? With our do-it-yourself speed reading course for the business person, you can not only increase your chance of thriving in these economic times, you can also choose the price you will need to pay!Starting at just $79.95 USD, you can be reading twice as fast in the very first hour! Our Speed Read Complete Corporate pack includes everything you need in a single electronic download! Our $99.99 USD CD Pack allows you to keep (or share with friends or your family members) a hard copy in the form of CDs. Or, if you would like hard copies to go along with the CDs, it’s only $159.99 USD for over a dozen books with their corresponding CDs and other audio files.The Speed Read Complete Corporate course is specifically designed for the busy professional and is guaranteed to help everyone in the corporation from the newly-hired administrative assistant to the CEO. For a very affordable price, you can make an investment in yourself that will touch every aspect of your life.
Corporate Success / Goal Planning:Everyone creates them, knowingly and unknowingly—goals. Some goals are lofty and well-thought-out—such goals in business (get a raise by the end of the year), goals in relationships (be married by age 30), and goals in life (watch the Northern Lights in Alaska) are easy to quantify, to write down, to dream and to imagine. Other goals are implied and subconscious; such goals in business (commute to work without incident), goals in relationships (find someone to spend New Year’s Eve with), and goals in life (leave this world a better place) may be harder to express. Speedread.org knows that you are more than just the business person dressing for success every morning. You are a complete person who does not spend every waking moment working—or if you do, you don’t want to spend your life like that. Who you and what you do touches every single aspect of your life—your business life touches your social life; your social life touches your home life; your home life has a great impact on your spiritual life (whatever it may be); and your spiritual life determines how you perform in the business arena.For us to consider ourselves successful in life, our goals must be achieved. Consciously or not, we determine our own success—in small things (getting to work safely) and large things (being promoted to upper management)—by meeting our stated or unstated goals. We also measure others’ successes or failures against our own goals. Because goal planning is mandatory for success, we have included many sections in our speed reading books. Our SpeedRead Complete Corporate course not only teaches how to read two to three—or even more—times faster than you can now, we also give you the tools to plan your goals to align with your purpose in life. To determine your personal goals, you simply need to look at what success means to you in your career, lifestyle, home life, spiritually, in a word: in everything. In our SpeedRead Complete Corporate course, we spend quite a bit of time on goal planning and the keys to success—not just in increasing the number of words read in a certain time frame, but in life. Reading is essential to life in today’s world, but if you simply learn to speed read without a goal as to how to use your new knowledge, you will lose it.We know you are more than your business persona, and “success” in business may not necessarily mean success in life. At Speedread.org, we are determined to help you become not only a more successful business person, but a more successful human being. Lifelong Effects of Speed Reading:How would you like to remember 90% of what you read from anything—the newspaper, your favorite novel, business reports, your child’s MySpace blog? How would you like to be able to read faster—maybe even four or five times faster—and still remember almost everything you read? How would you like this to happen in just one single hour? Impossible? Not hardly! With Speedread.org’s Speed Complete Speed Reading Program, hundreds of thousands of people have done just that! But what can one do with the ability to read over 600 words per minute with a 90% retention rate?The lifelong effects of speed reading are numerous. First, you will finally be able to get to all those books on your list you have never had the time to read before. Suddenly, an hour’s commute to work on public transportation won’t mean simply a chapter or two… it will mean an entire book checked off your list! You won’t even get that sense of disappointment when you finish a book just to finish it. With the Complete Speed Reading Program, and the new ability to retain nearly everything you read, you’ll be able to discuss the book in next month’s—or even next year’s—book club! If you are in a profession that requires a lot of reading and just as much retention such as scholars, physicians, writers, doctors, attorneys, and countless other fields, being able to read even twice as fast can end up saving hours—even up to days or weeks—on an intense project.If you are a lifelong student—or just one who loves to learn and is always taking a course or two to help expand horizons—being able to read faster and comprehend more will, undoubtedly, be of a great boon to not only your ease of study, but also your GPA. Studies have also shown that the new way of reading taught to those who want to speed read may also assist the brain in learning a new language. Speed reading also has lifelong physical effects as well. The less time you spend reading, the less eye strain and eye and muscle fatigue you will experience. Because the Complete Speed Reading Program literally re-teaches your brain how to read, you learn how to remember more at the same time. Simply being able to remember what you have read can be just what you need to set yourself apart from the pack vying for that next promotion.Passing Along Your Knowledge:Nothing is worse for an avid reader and a lover of books than having a child who hates to read. Parents today know that reading to a child early in life will help them foster a love of reading and prepare them to read themselves, but sometimes not even that can be enough to foster a love of the written word. Reading parents know that aversion to reading will haunt their child for the rest of his life, making school harder… making life harder. But, as any parent knows, you cannot simply say to a 10-year-old who hates reading, “You’re going to read and you’re going to like it.” You have to understand why reading is so difficult.Reading, today, is taught in an inefficient manner. “Average” readers today (of any language) read anywhere from 100 words per minute (usually for memorization purposes) to 700 words per minute (”skimming”, looking only for specific key words). Statistics also show that as the words per minute go up, the reading comprehension goes down, and this is borne out in school test scores. With the pressure on slower readers of having to finish the reading section and the comprehension questions within a set period of time, most finally turn to skimming—looking only at key words in the question. This “cheater” method is only reinforced when the test comes back with a good grade (since they were only looking for specific words). What would you, as a parent, pay to not only teach your child a better, faster, and easier way of reading—but also one that jumps their reading comprehension up to over 90%?How about nothing! When you purchase Speedread.org’s Complete Speed Reading Program, you have Speedread.org’s permission—even its blessing—to pass the course on to your friends and family members who love to read and would like to read more or who are struggling to read and are on the fence about reading in general.Imagine your child reading every word on the standardized test page in under ten seconds… and remembering it! How would your child feel being the first done with the test instead of one of the last? Homework and studying time would be cut in half or more, giving all of you more family time. Studies and anecdotal reports from previous customers of Speedread.org have shown that less than a month after beginning the Complete Speed Reading Program, students’ grades have only raised—in some instances raising from a C average to an A in only 21 days!Dr. Jay Polmar, author of over 40 books, spent years developing the Complete Speed Reading Program, and originally taught it to university students around the United States. Now, he brings his vast knowledge into the corporate world and into your child’s bedroom. Bring a love of lifelong learning home to everyone in the family starting at under $80!Get More Accomplished in Less Time What would you do if you found yourself with an extra hour a day at work? Would you get a jump on the next day’s work? Would you use it to surf the Internet and just “put in your time” until it was time to go home? Or would you use that extra hour to ensure you would have an extra hour every day to make yourself invaluable to your employer?Whether you are the receptionist or a CEO, chances are if you are part of today’s corporate environment, you are—at least at certain times during the year—required to do extensive reading for your job. Quarterly reports can range from two pages to two hundred, and that can take some time to read—especially when you are supposed to be keeping up on what the competitors are doing. If you were able to read—and even more importantly recall—three quarterly reports in the time it took others to read just one, what would your job look like after four quarterly reports? With the Complete Speed Reading Program, Corporate Edition, you will be reading at twice the speed you were before in just the first hour! What would you do with an extra hour or two a day you never had before? Get more sleep? Spend time with your family? Take a class? Go out with friends? Finally do all those things you’d always said you wanted to do but never had time—like volunteering at a local charity?Dr. Jay Polmar, author of over 40 books, spent years developing the Complete Speed Reading Program, and originally taught it to university students around the United States. Now, he brings his vast knowledge into the corporate world and into your child’s bedroom. Our Guarantee Corporate Speed Reading Overview:What started as a classroom course has evolved into an affordable do-it-yourself course designed to make business people—from administrative assistants to MBAs to CEOs—more valuable to their company in the form of The Complete Speed Reading Program. The Complete Speed Reading Program for the busy executive contains four books (available both as a PDF download and—if desired—in print): Speed Read in Only One Hour teaches the basic techniques and has multiple reinforcement exercises. Business Speed Reading Success is specifically designed for business people and MBAs. The book teaches techniques and vocabulary—as well as going more in-depth into the science behind speed reading and motivation.How To Get Things Accomplished In Less Time is essential for any busy corporate employee. With over 100 tips to boost your time, this book teaches some simple, easy-to-follow steps to better manage the extra time you have after learning to speed read.Think Right is a book not on speed reading, but—as Speedread.org takes a holistic approach to everything we do—helps one develop one’s self-power and provides an ethical viewpoint on technology. Think Right focuses on learning to set your thoughts on what you want and then accomplishing it. In addition to the books, the Complete Speed Reading Program includes a dozen audio files designed to be listened to at any time—during a commute, during “down time”, at work, or even during sleep—to buttress not only the speed reading, but the other topics covered in the books. Some of the audio files supplement the speed reading program while others cover reading comprehension, accelerated learning skills, memory enhancement and intuitive development. Others take the more relaxing bent, offering conditioning for relaxation and stress relief, developing self confidence and self power, and eliminating the inner dialogue.Our books and courses have been sold all over the world, having been translated into the six major world languages. Developed by Dr. Jay Polmar, an expert in the fields of self-improvement, continuing education and self-growth, The Complete Speed Read Program for Business boasts a success rate unheard of in its industry and offers a full money back guarantee that you will be reading significantly faster in only 21 days. Our Guarantee:Many businesses offer guarantees; most of them are hardly worth the paper they are printed on. Speed reading is no exception. Many of the speed reading seminars or do-it-yourself courses out there offer guarantees, but their products often fall short, or require intense, ongoing, and stressful learning techniques.Speedread.org GUARANTEES that you will be reading faster, stress-free, after just one hour or every penny of your money back. How can we offer this guarantee? We have 30 years of speed reading results! After offering this course—both in live classes and the do-it-yourself ebooks—for more than 30 years, we know it works, and works all over the world. Utilizing both ancient and modern methods to teach the brain a new way of thinking, and a new way of reading, we have over 100,000 copies in print, and even more in ebook format. In 30 years of live courses, and more than a decade of online courses and the “do-it-yourself” offered at http://www.speedreadcomplete.com/, Speedread.org has only had to refund less than 1/10 of 1 % of sales due to customer dissatisfaction! With a record like that, they can make—and back up—their money back guarantee.The course has been used by educators, government officers, and managers of corporations in more than 20 countries around the world and has been printed in the world’s six major languages.While subsequent results are not guaranteed, Speedread.org continually receives word from satisfied customers that, in as little as three weeks after starting the course, they have received business promotions directly attributable to their new skills. Students, after taking the course, have raised grade point averages from the average “C” to the excellent “A”.Developed by Dr. Jay Polmar, an expert in the ever-changing field of self-improvement, The Complete Speed Reading Program Corporate course, especially, has extra programs to help one succeed more. Speedread.org also believes the information provided is so essential, the company encourages its customers to pass their information on to spouses, children, and friends to help increase reading speed, productivity, free time, and goal achievement.
Long focused on copper in Ecuador, Ascendant Copper (TSX: ACX), announced on October 21 that it had signed a letter of intent to acquire all outstanding common shares in St. Genevieve Resources (CNQ: SGVL), another copper company with properties in Arizona.
The main attraction at St. Genevieve is its two near-term copper properties, the Zonia and Emerald Isle. Sixty percent of US copper production comes from Arizona; the US is the world’s second largest producer of the key metal.
What will most excite Ascendant’s shareholders about this transaction is the predicted lead time to bring the Emerald Isle property back into production – within 12 months of its initial acquisition, or by late 2008.
If you’ve been watching the newswires, then you’ll know that the direction of the price of copper has been forecast again and again to climb. Some say that by the time Ascendant is producing at Emerald Isle, the price of copper will have reached US $4.08/pound.
At Mining Journal’s 20:20 Copper Day in London, Bloomsbury Metals Exchange expert Chris Welch outlined a prediction that the price of copper would hit $9,000/tonne or $4.08/pound by 2009. Welch’s prediction is founded on the opinion that production estimates are too high because they haven’t accounted for closures and halted projects.
A second presenter at the event, Justin Longley of International Copper Resources, agreed and added that supply “figures also do not take into account the amount of copper or concentrate which is, at any given time, tied up in working stocks, in transit, and being processed.”
Building the case for a new copper high of US $9,000/tonne in 2009, Longley also sounded on demand estimates. StockHouse.com commentator Lawrence Williams explained the dynamic like this: Copper demand is growing rapidly in developing countries like South Korea and Taiwan that are building copper-intensive infrastructures. Williams writes, “In the real growth economies like China and India, this growth pattern has hardly started yet, and should this rise to Korean or Taiwanese levels, then the effect on the supply/demand pattern could be enormous with price development which could make $9,000 copper itself a huge underestimate!”
The primary St. Genevieve asset, the Zonia property, is a past producing mine. Between 1966 and 1975, Zonia produced 33 million pounds of copper. A NI 43-101 report on the property completed in October 2006 estimates an inferred resource of 460 million pounds of copper from 63 million tonnes of ore grading 0.37% copper on average. This estimate did not include certain information from those drill holes where the assay data was not deemed to be 43-101 compliant due to possible difficulties with quality assurance and control.
Numerous pulps from these earlier assays have been found and should allow confirmation of assays for inclusion of this data in an updated 43-101 without the need for significant re-drilling. The company anticipates that these re-assays will both shorten the time and lower the expense of upgrading the classification of the Zonia copper resource. Analysis of these pulps is ongoing.
A project review performed by Gustavson Associates of Boulder, Colorado in August of 2007 indicated that the project would be both economic and expandable. According to Gustavson, the apparent potential to expand upon these inferred resources at depth and along strike and within presently viable stripping limits represents an additional 40 to 50% over the presently defined resource. Gustavson analyzed the permitting, land rights, water availability, infrastructure, drill logs, cores, previous technical reports and resource estimates among other items, and indicated that the Zonia mine and property is economic.
Based on the results from previous metallurgical studies, the resource is responsive to recovery of copper via heap leaching. The Gustavson study supported the conclusion of an existing feasibility study which, although not fully compliant with today’s 43-101 requirements, suggests starting with a SX/EW plant to produce 60,000 pounds of copper a day, over a life of 17 years, with the possibility of increasing either future plant capacity or overall project life.
Gustavson is also confident that final permits, plant construction and mine preparations for production will be achieved in less time than the current projection of 3 years. Therefore, sometime in 2010 Ascendant Copper could be on its way to producing 20 million pounds plus per year of cathode grade copper.
The advanced-stage Emerald Isle property also hosts a past producing mine, at which Ascendant expects to produce 5 million pounds of copper annually. A March 2006 NI 43-101 technical report verifies an indicated resource of 27.5 million pounds of copper from 2.2 million tonnes at an average grade of 0.62% copper. The study also outlined a final estimate of 22 million pounds of copper to be produced over four years and an estimated total net income over the life of the mine of US $22.7 million. One of the real benefits of this acquisition is that Emerald Isle will begin generating cash flow for Ascendant Copper toward the end of 2008.
The takeover agreement between Ascendant and St. Genevieve stipulates that Ascendant will pay St. Genevieve up to 30 million ACX shares for all of the outstanding shares of SGVL. Additionally, Ascendant will extend credit to St. Genevieve and said Ascendant, “intends to extend two secured credit facilities of a combined aggregate amount of up to C$400,000 to SGV in order to provide SGV with the funds required to consummate the Transaction.” These funds will be deducted against the shares issued to SGV and are secured with an option that allows Ascendant to acquire St. Genevieve’s Emerald Isle property for US $1,250,000 cash should the acquisition not be finalized.
Ascendant is adding the Arizona assets to a pair of properties located in Ecuador. Leading the Ecuadorian portfolio is the 3,000 hectare, flagship Chaucha copper-molybdenum property in southern Ecuador. Ascendant is nearing completion of exploration drilling on Chaucha and hopes to move to pre-feasibility in early 2008. There is a non-43-101 compliant, historical resource estimate on the property of a huge 2.2 billion pounds of copper and 122 million pounds of molybdenum from 216 million tonnes of ore. An NI 43-101 complaint resource calculation should be released in early 2008 increasing the historical estimates.
Also, Ascendant’s second Ecuadorian property, the 23,475 acre Junin property, has an NI 43-101 compliant inferred resource estimate of 982 million tonnes of ore for 9.2 billion pounds of copper and 864 million pounds of molybdenum at an average grade of 0.4% copper, for another enormous resource in Ecuador.
Unique to Ascendant’s position in Ecuador is an affiliation with Rio Tinto and its expertise in Ecuador. In October of 2006, Ascendant Copper purchased from Rio Tinto exclusive use, for five years, of a document that could potentially unlock mineral exploration in Ecuador. Before 1997, when Rio Tinto withdrew from Ecuador, the company had completed extensive and detailed exploration of the South American country. Qualified person John King described the geological work detailed in the package as, “analyses of nearly 16,000 stream sediment samples, over 5,000 rock chip samples, numerous detailed topographic and geologic maps, hundreds of both internal and external reports, miles of site-specific geophysics (IP), and assays and logs of over 10,000 meters of drilling on very site-specific properties.”
As Ascendant President Gary Davis stated, “no other company, large or small, has committed anywhere near the time and effort to exploration in Ecuador as has Rio Tinto.”
So with the advantage of Rio Tinto’s data and two properties with potentially enormous copper and copper-molybdenum resources in Ecuador, Ascendant’s new acquisition of St. Genevieve could prove up the cash flow necessary for its South American projects – and substantial shareholder growth. Regardless of what transpires, it’s clear that Ascendant is on the rise.
This article is intended for information purposes only, and is not a recommendation to buy or sell the equities of any company mentioned herein. It is based on sources believed to be reliable, but no warranty as to accuracy is expressed or implied. The opinions expressed in the article are those of the author except where statements are attributed to individuals other than the author, in which case the opinions are those of the individual to whom they are attributed.