‘Obscures’ Shake Cloak Of Invisibility

Colombia | Ghana | Mexico | Nevada

TCRs,

Collective Mining | Newcore Gold | Avino Silver & Gold Mines | Integra Gold

The gold-explorers tagged below are worth a look; we own them at different amounts here at home.

Obscure, pulverized small miners are staging what I believe will be a rebound that runs two or more years. Richer metals prices are the spark.

‘Obscures’ are likely to join the repeat the rapid, fierce rise we are seeing from Collective Mining‘s CNL ramp-up at Colombia’s Guayabales, a breccia site I visited 16 years ago. [Here is my first visit to the site, in 2009 — next to historic, rich and wild El Marmato, the ravaged yet ever-gold-yielding mountain in Caldas, Colombia.]

Exactly six month ago, CNL’s NYSE shares were $3.50 USD; today they are just below $9, a $660 million market worth.

(See also CNL attachment to Agnico-Eagle. Release here.)

Ari Sussman and David Reading and team are proving out a copper-gold, silver-tungsten Guayabales designed for an open pit — next to once-maligned, now divine El Marmato. I have been writing about CNL for four years.

David Reading, Collective Mining chief geologist, and CEO Ari Sussman at right — Zürich [Thom C. photo]

Still overlooked? Investors Monday sent CNL up 3% in the wake of the expected Agnico-Eagle AEM investment of $63.5 million CAD, including warrant-exercise, and just announced. Here.

Colombia needs (wants?) mining deals that resemble that one. Here is what I wrote in 2010:

“Colombia concessions and prospects called Quinchia, Guayabales, Echandia, Cisneros, Gomez de Plata, California, Vetas, Chisperos, Cerro de Cobre … and far too many others to name here … are increasing the odds that investors in that gorgeous nation’s metals (and oil fields) will need to navigate their way through hyperbole, obscenely expensive banking fees, a shortage of drill rigs, avaricious property owners and dare we say it, just plain criminals who create entities that charge public companies enormous fees for services that subtract and not add value.” See: The Calandra Report

You can add: l-o-o-o-n-g waits for mining permits; heightened guerilla activities; emboldened illegal and-or generational miners; and a bipolar national government and citizens regarding mining.

An ocean removed, Ghana is also overlooked — even with its status as Africa‘s longest standing democracy and one of its greatest gold producers.

— This is Luke Alexander, after I thanked him and the geo-architect behind Ghana explorer Newcore Gold NCAU:

“I’m glad you bought back into Newcore over the last few months and are riding the momentum higher. The recent performance is just the beginning in my view, given we have a very strong treasury to complete our PFS and unlock some of the distric–scale exploration potential that exists at our project. We will be news flow heavy in 2025, which will keep the market engaged and hopefully reward our shareholders with a much higher share price.” Luke is Newcore NCAU’s CEO.

Financier Doug Forster in west Vancouver is one of the few who backed Newcore many years ago.

“Ghana, as the largest gold producer in Africa, is an excellent jurisdiction for gold mining and mine development,” Featherstone Capital‘s Doug Forster says Monday.

Doug’s track record includes successful Calibre Mining CXB (Nicaragua, Nevada, Newfoundland, Labrador, etc). Speaking of hefty private investments using shares or, in Calibre’s case, interest-bearing convertible notes, Doug and team last week closed $75 million USD for the now merged Calibre-Equinox.

Doug is a geologist and 9 years ago saw his Aussie edition, Newmarket Gold, bought by Kirkland Lake Gold for $1 billion. The way NCAU shares are behaving, I have to hope Enchi attracts a major interest from a producing gold-co, an interest that’s four times the current $100 million CAD market worth.

Would I be TC at The Calandra Report if a Ghana tag went without an Xtra-Gold Resources XTG update?

I love being in Ghana; it owns one of the finest Africa personalities for its citizens’ generosity, their honesty and their productivity — (aside, that is, from the shabby Accra airport and cracked gravel highways that lack all integrity.)

Latest from entirely self-financed and Kibi Gold Belt developer Xtra-Gold: share shrinkage continues for an umpteenth year thanks to systematic, quarterly gold sales from XTG’s concessions in Ghana:

“Xtra-Gold has renewed our (March 2025-March 2026) normal–course issuer bid because it believes the current share trading price of $1.42 USD is significantly below net–asset value per share. At $2,500 physical gold price, fair–value NAV (even by skeptics: my note) is $3.69 per share. All shares canceled at the current trading level will be extremely accretive to our shareholders.” Release here — includes results of 2024-2025 bid.

Look for a China transaction, first an initial investment and then, perhaps, a bid for the entire Kibi-kaboodle at the Kibi deposit, which is turning heads in west Africa and boosting XTG’s share price to its richest in 12 years.

Mining ‘OBSCURES’ that are twice as visible to investors this week vs. even, say, a week ago?

— Avino Silver & Gold ASM, a Mexico producer getting a gold boost from its Durango-area mine(s). Shares on NYSE approaching $2 for the first time since July 2016. I bought back my ASM (sold more than a year ago) a week ago — phew.

— Integra Gold ITRG, a Nevada producer and Idaho developer, has NYSE shares up 30% in just shy of two weeks. I think investors are starting to show their interest for a small gold producer willing to use its cash flow to sidestep any fresh financings — this as it turns Idaho’s DeLemar into another gold mine. Building ’em from scratch is obscenely expensive, as we know.

— Thom Calandra

Thom Calandra is a writer and an investor. Research and material are meant as editorial opinion. He is not a professional investment adviser. Please do not consider his reporting as a recommendation to buy or sell securities. The Calandra Report, in its 13th year, offers a one-price, $139 yearly fee for all newcomers. Earlier subscribers keep their original cost. Sob stories listened to. No refunds after three weeks of service. Exceptions:groceries, mistaken ambitions.