BUF.U on the Venture Exchange
I’ve changed the title to the recently posted piece: Buffalo Gold “A Home with Gold and Uranium Plays”. While it was certainly true, it just didn’t have that zing to it that I believe the company actually does have. In other words, the title was boring. The story is not! Buffalo does have a great gold play via the Mt. Kare Project. It does have some exciting Uranium plays in Australasia. But I’ve changed the title for my column to better reflect what I think is going to occur with this company due to the efforts of a young and energetic chairman of the board, Damien Reynolds.
The Stampede to which I refer is the action of the general public when they realize how truly talented this management team is and how superior are the projects.
There are solid reasons to consider this company: excellent projects, experienced management with a track record of recent successes, the ability to raise funds, a willingness to get the story out there, and a demonstration of integrity. These are all components of my own checklist for junior mining company success.
I’ve mentioned Buffalo Gold many times in the past because it entered into the joint venture agreement with Madison Minerals on the Mt. Kare (Gold and Silver) Project in Papua New Guinea. (Please see the article, Madison Minerals and the Monastery Monk-GoldSeek.com, my archives).
In my opinion, this is a big story—a very big story. There are many facets to this chronicle: several companies, different projects and new acquisitions, a diverse and talented management team, past successes, and a vision as to where the company is headed.
I like the vision idea as that speaks volumes about management. I personally know several people on that side of the company and I’m pleased to say I hold them in high regard. They have vision, experience, and integrity. I believe those attributes will serve the company and its investors well going forward.
It took me a while to get up to speed with the projects and operations but having done do, I believe that a bright future is directly in front of us. I also believe that Damien Reynolds, Buffalo Gold’s Chairman of the Board, has a following of accomplished investors because of his success with Tournigan Gold (TVC-V). There is no doubt he has made many of his investors quite happy and they are perfectly content to follow him to his next project. Nothing spells success like success.
I believe if you take time to review the chart of TVC you’ll realize that a smart, talented, CEO can work wonders with a company if the projects, people and vision are properly managed and communicated to the public. Review the chart of Buffalo Gold and you’ll see pleasant and quite impressive similarities between it and Tournigan Gold (www.tournigan.com).
Above all other things, remember that Damien Reynolds is the gentleman who brought Mt. Kare to the attention of Madison Minerals some eight years ago. As I’ve said many times before, the project has come full circle. Madison did an excellent job in laying out the groundwork, making the initial agreements with the government of PNG, making the discoveries, and moving the project forward. Now it’s time for Buffalo Gold to spin some additional magic. Remember also, that Buffalo’s success will bode well for Madison and Madison’s success will bode well for Buffalo. There are no divisions here—this is a true joint venture and if the JV contract is a guide, everyone will be a winner at the end of the day.
Discovering world class ore deposits takes a team effort and nothing goes in a straight line when engaged in these types of exercises. There are many contingencies, not the least of which is the price of the underlying commodities for which one is searching. When Madison Minerals first went into Papua New Guinea (PNG), the gold market was not a thing of beauty after having suffered through a 15 year bear market and the long term gold charts displayed as much.
My personal opinion and I repeat personal opinion is that Mt. Kare holds a significant multi-million, economically viable gold deposit. Yes, indeed a 1.8 million ounce gold resource has been delineated on the property and this current program being undertaken is to upgrade that discovery. There is also a corresponding 20 million ounce silver resource and in case you haven’t recently noticed, silver has been appreciating in price ever so nicely over the last several years.
We have to be patient and let these current company programs run their course but do take the time to review the last several press releases put out by Buffalo and Madison.
The talent has been in place on the Madison side with the likes of Chet Idziszek, David Mallo, Doug Turnbull, and Jerry McArthur—all exceptional geologists, giving their best efforts. Now it is time to pass the torch to the new team mentioned below. Don’t be short sighted; this project has every potential of working out to the advantage of investors. After all, 2 million ounces of gold and 20 million ounces of silver is nothing to sneeze at. Double or triple that and in my opinion we’ll all be kicking ourselves if we didn’t hold the line; i.e., maintain our position.
I want you to recognize the idea that an opportunity is being presented. If you perform your own due diligence, you’ll be using this piece as a reference guide—as a “heads up” if you will. I request only that you to print it out, take notice of the current share price and book mark it. Then return in two or three months and review what I’ve written here. I do believe you’ll be impressed. Not only because the price of gold and silver will continue to appreciate, but also because this company is going to be on a fast track to success.
Properties and Acquisitions
We’re going to focus on the Flagship Property which is Mt. Kare in Papua, New Guinea, but from there we’ll be exploring some of the new acquisitions. Those acquisitions center on the Austral-Asia region and revolve around gold and uranium exploration. To date there has been…
…the Gold FX Acquisition which was just approved by the TSX:
“Buffalo Gold Ltd. has agreed to acquire all of the shares of GoldFX Ltd., a private Australian junior resource company. GoldFX owns gold exploration properties in the Drummond basin and Croydon Goldfields in Queensland and uranium exploration properties in the Georgetown area of Queensland and the Amadeus basin of Northern Territory.”
… and then there is Murphy Ridge:
“Buffalo Gold Ltd. has been granted an option by a private Australian company, Global Discovery Pty. Ltd., to acquire a 100-per-cent interest in the Murphy Ridge project located in northeast Northern Territory, Australia…. The Murphy Ridge project comprises two strategically placed exploration permits totaling approximately 2,300 square kilometers. The target is unconformity-style uranium with a setting analogous to the world-class Ranger and Jabiluka mines, also in the Northern Territory. This style of uranium deposits is the highest grade in the world, with Canadian examples that include Cigar Lake and McArthur River.”
… and then there is the Buffalo Gold Red property agreement; the Red Property being located in north-central British Columbia in Canada
The property consists of 103 claim units covering an area of 2,575 hectares in north-central British Columbia. The property is an exploration stage mineral resource property with the principally targeted resources being copper and gold.
Please refer to the Buffalo Website for further clarifications. These are significant, high-impact, “company-making” projects. Any one of them could be a home run. Uranium has been an esoteric commodity but that is about to change. Whether we agree with the concept or not, nuclear power for peaceful means is going to become one of the ways to generate sufficient power to support usage by the masses. Oil and the discovery of oil are on a downward trajectory. The negative impact that carbon based fuels are having on the environment, such as global warming, cannot be denied. I don’t like the scenario any better than you do, but alternative solutions are going to have to be found and found soon in order to prevent more wars and all the horrors therein.
So, regarding that company vision I referred to earlier, I believe we can accurately state that Buffalo Gold is going to focus much of their efforts on this particular region of the world with gold and uranium as being the major components of their exploration. Consider also that Australia and Papua New Guinea are geopolitically stable and have a history of successful mineral exploration.
As with all the companies that I bring to your attention, I would like you to visit their website, complete your own due diligence and become familiar with the various projects and players on this team. Since I’m not a professional market analyst, I try to gain a sense of the company, the market, and the people. I’m more of a reporter who specializes in junior mining companies. Over the years I’ve tried to acquire a “feel” for this sector and the companies of which it is comprised. As you all well know, the sector is a high risk-high reward arena. People, Projects, and Financing are the driving forces behind any successful exploration company and Buffalo Gold has a leg up on all three.
Housekeeping Chores
Buffalo is planning on having an OTC listing within several months. It could be a bit sooner or a bit later. However, I believe that once this symbol is in play it is going to be much easier for US investors to become involved with the company. Currently, the company has symbol BUF.U and many people have asked what does the “U” represent? Well, it simply represents a Canadian company that trades in US dollars. It’s that simple and nothing extraordinary needs to be read into it. I’m not certain what the new symbol will be but based on historical facts; BYBUF might be a good bet. I’ll let you know as soon as I know. But for now, regardless of the symbol, you can still call your broker, even your discount broker, if you’d like to become involved.
Buffalo currently has less than 23,000,000 shares outstanding.
I will say this. Based upon the quality of the projects this company has acquired and the management directing them, we could see the share price significantly higher than where it is currently residing in the not too distant future. Yes, I’m very bullish on Buffalo and yes I’m doing work for the company and so I might be considered bias. But then again I’m biased on all the companies we cover or we wouldn’t be bringing them to your attention. But if you review the companies I’ve been recently bringing to your attention, and how well they’ve been doing, I don’t believe you’ll be disappointed. We’re quite careful as to the quality of the companies with which we become involved. That being said, we are also in this for the long haul. I believe we need to be patient and allow the management to proceed as they see fit. I guess what I’m saying is that day traders need not apply.
For the record, I’m also extremely bullish on gold, copper, silver, and uranium. Any company that is well managed and has exposure to any or all of these commodities should do well for investors.
The Flagship Property
Currently Buffalo Gold’s flagship property is the Mt. Kare Project in Papua New Guinea, which again, is in this Austral-Asia region. This is the project that is joint ventured with Madison-Minerals (MMR and MMRSF) and one that I’ve written about extensively. If you want to know about Mt. Kare, just review the piece titled Madison Minerals and the Monastery Monk and you’ll have an excellent idea of the potential of this play. However, for the record, I shall say that Mt. Kare is situated in the middle of an area where some of the richest gold mines on the planet are located. Madison has proven up a resource of 1.8 million ounces of gold and 20 million ounces of silver after spending approximately $30 million Canadian and eight years of work on the property. Buffalo Gold is now in a position to pick up the ball and move it towards the goal line. That means simply that Buffalo can benefit from Madison’s hard work over the years and advance the exploration to the point it becomes attractive to a major or is turned into a mine given the correct circumstances.
Attached are portions of the latest Press Released by Buffalo Gold and Madison Minerals. The language is very understandable even to us lay persons. A synopsis of the release would go something like this.
Buffalo is going back into Mt. Kare and re-initiating an exploration program focusing first on the areas where success has been previously encountered. This area is known as the Western Roscoelite Zone and based upon previous work, appears to be the higher grade portion of the overall Mt. Kare mineralization.
They are doing this, of course, to begin meeting the requirements of their joint venture agreement. They are going to try and take the positive results that Madison previously encountered and improve upon them. Hopefully, they will wrap up the first part of the program by the end of July after drilling between 5000 to 6000 meters of diamond drilling. This could amount to 50-60 holes.
I like the fact that Buffalo has put a team of people on this project that have worked together on similar types of projects since 1993. I also personally know that geologists from Madison are available to help answer questions and offer guidance if requested. This feels more like a total team effort to me than most of these transitional types of joint ventures. I like that. With any luck, the people involved realize that they are all in this together and that benefits the shareholders.
Here is a portion of the jointly released Madison Minerals and Buffalo Gold Press Release as of March 2, 2006:
Madison Minerals Inc. (TSX VENTURE:MMR)(OTCBB:MMRSF) is pleased to report that it has been advised by Buffalo Gold Ltd.
(”Buffalo”) that Buffalo has begun its 2006 drilling program on Madison’s Mt. Kare Property in Papua New Guinea. In a release issued
today, Buffalo reported:
“The drill program is part of the pre-feasibility study being carried out on the Western Roscoelite Zone (”WRZ”) which, from previous work by joint venture partner Madison Minerals, appears to be the higher-grade portion of the overall Mt. Kare mineralization.
In other words, the Western Roscoelite Zone, based upon historical results, is the place to re-initiate the program in order to advance this project quickly and efficiently.
As reported in Buffalo’s news release of February 13, 2006, the drill program will consist of between 5,000 and 6,000 metres diamond drilling in 50 to 60 drill holes, of which a minimum of 3,000 metres should be completed by the end of July. The basic aim behind the program is to reduce the spacing of the drill intersections on the ore horizon to 30 metres both along strike and down dip. This will
address two main objectives:
- To increase the confidence level in the historical resource.
- To gain a better understanding of the structural controls on the higher grade portions of the ore zone.
Buffalo is well equipped to carry out this task with a highly experienced group of geoscientists, headed by President John Tully.
Vice President Exploration Greg Moseley, Field Manager John Keenan and Senior Geologist Agnes Keenan have worked together as a team since 1993 and have extensive experience in evaluating structurally complex, variable grade gold deposits in various terrains including epithermal deposits such as Mt. Kare. They have been involved in the discovery and evaluation of several producing mines. This experienced group is further assisted by two Papua New Guinean geologists.
The same team will concurrently be initiating the evaluation of several thus far unexplored targets previously known to exist on the
property and several newly identified targets. These include:
- Previously known targets:
- Lubu Creek - alluvial miming area some 4.5 kilometres southwest of the Mount Kare mineralised zones where rock samples have assayed as high as 520 g/t gold.
- Lower Maratane Zone - area defined by soil and alluvial geochemical sampling and trench and bedrock samples which indicate similar mineralization to the WRZ. With float samples grading up to 8.9 g/t. This is potentially an extension of the WRZ.
What we are going to see is that this group of people, who have worked successfully together in the past, will be identifying new targets while redefining the old ones at Mt Kare.
I posted Lubu Creek numbers above to give you some idea of what kind of assays have been returned on rock samples. After having watched the progress on this project for such an extended period of time, I can’t help but feel the best is yet to come.
Conclusion
Past success is never an indicator of future success and we always have to keep that in mind. However, PNG in general and the Mt Kare project in particular have always held enormous promise. We have a management group advancing the project that has just enjoyed some very demonstrable success on other projects. Damien Reynolds believes that Buffalo Gold is going to be a huge success and has made significant strides in order to accomplish this, just as he made those same strides in the Tournigan Gold Projects. Both Buffalo Gold and Tournigan Gold are just getting underway in terms of development. I personally believe they will move in sync with the gold and underlying commodity prices. Mr. Reynolds has put together an exceptionally talented team of people.
Damien Reynolds and this team have a vision that the Austral-Asia region is the place to be in terms of gold and uranium exploration. I agree with them and in many ways feel they are way ahead of the curve.
I first became interested in Mt. Kare because I knew that the project was surrounded by some of the richest and most profitable gold mines in the world. I never thought of it as specifically being in the Austral-Asia region. I simply considered it to be in Papua New Guinea. Now with the help of Buffalo Gold and the management team involved, I’m beginning to see a larger picture; one that I hope I’ve passed on to you.
I knew that Madison had completed a tremendous amount of work on the Mt. Kare property and has invested blood, sweat, and tears into it. Buffalo has been watching every step of the way and they are an ideal joint venture partner because of that familiarity. Add to that the “crossover” factor of having geologists in both companies on excellent working terms and you begin to see the possibilities; it is the best of transitions just at a time when the underlying commodities are beginning to move upward.
Buffalo has an experienced and dare I say an aggressive management team that doesn’t believe in allowing any grass to grow under their feet. That has been proven with their success in Tournigan Gold and to some degree has already been manifested in their progress with Buffalo Gold. If you have access to Stockwatch or any service that allows you to review the press releases put out by Buffalo over the past year, might I suggest you taking a look at what they’ve been up to during that period of time? The list of accomplishments is quite impressive!
Finally, even though Americans are not that familiar with the Austral-Asia part of the world and the high level of gold and uranium projects situated there, Mr. Reynolds and company, who have spent many years in the region, are fully aware of the potential. It might not be a bad idea to follow their lead.
Until next time,
D. Stewart Armstrong
Posted by D.Stewart Armstrong in Articles