Friday, November 25, 2011

Excalibur receives permit to go into production!

Excalibur unit Minera Catanava receives plant licences 2011-11-25 06:29 ET - News Release Mr. Tim Gallagher reports EXCALIBUR RESOURCES LTD.: MINERA CATANAVA PROJECT RECEIVES SEMARNAT PERMIT APPROVAL Excalibur Resources Ltd.'s 49-per-cent subsidiary, Minera Catanava SA de CV, has received all the necessary permits required to build the plant and to go into production. The EIS application to the Semarnat in Zacatecas was submitted in June, was reviewed in July, followed by a site inspection in August, which lead to a request for a number of items, including a soil analysis report on the tailings area and the completion of the water permit from the National Water Commission (CNA). Tim Gallagher, chairman of Excalibur, commented: "We are extremely pleased to have achieved this major milestone. Receiving the Semarnat approval is the official Mexican government green light that allows Minera Catanava to proceed to the start-up stage of development. This has been a tremendous amount of work and we congratulate the team in Mexico. We also expect the explosive permit shortly, but given the amount of material already on surface in the San Gil area, it is not required to start production." Recent work at the site has been focused on the completion of the foundation in order to install the ball mill, crushers, conveyors and the recently delivered concentrators which have been sourced from the Actionmining website. Minera Catanava The Catanava project is in the historic Pinos gold district, in the state of Zacetecas, Mexico, which was discovered by the Spanish in 1546 and mined until the revolution in 1810, by Cornish miners from 1870 to 1911, and most recently by an individual miner from 1935 to 1941. Recent exploration work was undertaken through a Penoles/Bethlehem Steel joint venture from 1975 to 1983, All-North Resources from 1993 to 1994, Hecla Mining Company from 1995 to 1997, and by Romarco Minerals from 2006 to 2007. Minera Catanava SA de CV is 51 per cent held by Minera Apolo SA de CV which owns and is providing the land, mineral and mining rights and management of the project, and 49 per cent is held by Excalibur which is providing the financing.

1 comment:

Worldly Trader said...

There is an interesting development that relates to the hedging position of Starcore International Mines Ltd. (SAM). Iberian Minerals Corp. has a hedge on its metals production. According to the company's Management Discussion and Analysis report on September 30, 2011, the company had a record income of $123.59 million in the 2011 fiscal year but it was reduced by $52.42 million by their forward sales contracts. These forward sales contracts will gradually come off this year and also in 2012. The profitability of the company will increase over the coming year.

IZN has received a $497.8 million takeover offer from Trafigura Baheer B.V., the world's third largest independent trading company on November 17, 2011. The takeover bid is a 39% premium to the IZN stock price on November 15, 2011, and is for $1.10/share. The news report on the Iberian Minerals takeover is here:

http://www.canadianbusiness.com/article/57604--iberian-minerals-recommends-497-8-million-takeover-offer-from-trafigura

Starcore International Mines Ltd also has forward sales contracts on its metals production. According to the company's Management Discussion and Analysis report for July 31, 2011, these contracts will expire on January 2013. This past fiscal year the forward sales contracts have incurred a loss of $12,541,00.00 on the company's gross revenues of $39,465,00.00

I think this this situation makes SAM look very interesting from a value perspective. As the hedges on company's metals production expire we will see the company gain greater revenue from its operations. A $12 million boost in annual revenue may increase the market cap of SAM by 50%. As the company's balance sheet improves it might also be an acquistion target for a larger company.

The company financial statements can be found at their website here:

http://www.starcore.com/s/FinancialStatements.asp

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