January 27, 2008

Preface

I’ve been writing incarnations of this article for approximately four years now and it has always received a positive response from our readers. Please remember that I always like to hear from you and would like you to send me your email address and the state in which you reside. You’ll be the first to receive our recommendations, articles, and observations. This article happens to be one of my favorite endeavors because I believe I am doing some good by profiling writers, and analysts who I believe are very bright and are willing to tell us the truth.

I want to make it very clear as to why I write The Gift to the Gold Community. This is not about me, this is about you, about us, and more importantly it is about the collective good of America. Now that may sound very “highfalutin” but in actuality it is quite simple. The more people that really understand what is happening in the United States and the reasons for it, the more people who will be equipped to make more informed, intelligent decisions necessary to move our country forward over the next 10 years and beyond. It is my opinion that the last seven years have been an absolute disaster for America. It pains me to say this but we are at a juncture where we need to call a spade a spade and face reality. Politically, I am truly an independent with no party affiliation so partisan politics is not my thing. In fact, I think that our political system is in dire need of repair and according to the comments from many of our readers, I know it is a widely shared sentiment.

Ladies and Gentlemen; at some point it will be absolutely necessary to repair it because no House can stand divided, no family(or government) can endlessly spend more than it makes, and you cannot fool all of the people all of the time. There are certain unalterable rules to the universe. The entities who I am recommending to you have some ideas on the subject although they will speak to you in practical terms; not in political ones. Most importantly, they will speak to you in terms of common sense.

Please remember, that as we are engaged in this current political process, a President can only do so much. Perhaps he can positively exploit the “bully pulpit” but we need Congress to step up to the plate, protect and defend the US Constitution, while realizing that there is more to life than being re-elected, especially at the cost of sacrificing our country for their own particular agendas of power and more power. For instance, remember that only Congress has the power to wage war and so with that in mind I shall allow you to draw your own conclusions regarding Iraq and Afghanistan. So, please don’t get overly excited about the presidential race. You want to “make a difference”? (I must admit to not being fond of that particular saying!) You make a difference by realizing that all politics are local and that when you vote for your state senators and representatives, you are making a much larger impact on our political system than by voting in a presidential election. My personal opinion that is that the presidential campaigns may be glamorous, but it is “down in the trenches” on the state and local levels where the real work, the real good, and the real damage is done. Think of the entire political process in terms of your home town and Congress!

Time is precious and there is so much to try and resurrect regarding the goodness of America, its founding principles, and the decency of its citizens. The way we do it is via truth and the implantation of common sense. The people who I am recommending to you certainly believe in telling us the truth backed up by a large dose of common sense! Our country is currently in a legitimate crisis (financial and political) and very few people, relative to the total population, understand the nature of it. I think the best thing that we can do for each other and for the country is to share the message of what is really occurring so as not to continue frolicking down the path that is ultimately going to lead to our own destruction. Is that too dramatic? It is not meant to be nor is it meant to scare you or to be too much over the top. In actuality, it is simply the truth and we can’t bury our heads in the sand and if we continue on with the status quo, the Country will toast. If you can put the economic, political, and geopolitical puzzle together on your own, you will see common sense dictates the necessity for dramatic change against a backdrop of integrity and the moral high ground. The intensity of the current presidential campaign makes it abundantly clear the most Americans are hungry for change; subsequently each is hungry for the truth! In their heart of hearts, educated-caring Americans realize that this charade for the presidency is only the tip of the (problematic) iceberg. read more

Additional Value Added Through Their New Silveria Project in Peru

January 23, 2008

The primary reason I am revisiting Journey Resources at this point in time is to apprise you of a new project in which they will be involved. The project is called Silveria and it is located in Peru. In the interest of brevity, I will direct you to their website at www.journeyrecources.com for all the latest information regarding their participation in this acquisition. I do believe all the particulars can be found on their web site, in their latest Press Releases, and I would recommend making a visit in order to get up to speed.However, just for the record a quick word, as Silveria is no small potatoes. It encompasses approximately 50 square kilometers and it is a past producer of copious amounts of silver—somewhere in the range of 40 million ounces. It was shut down in 1990 because of political reasons; not for any reason having to do with the mine or its resource– in other words, not for any economic ones.

Most importantly, Silveria has the permits and the local /regional licenses to fire it up again as soon as the infrastructure is in place. However, most of the mining occurred at shallow depths so this will not be a huge challenge.Left, is a photo of the Silvera Lagoon–please take special note of the old mill and corresponding facilities in the lower left portion of the picture. Captions: Middle Photo: Silveria Valley and the bottom photo shows excellent mineralization to scale. Please see www.grenvillegold.com for addtional information and photos.

I’ve spoken with Jack Bal about this and he is quite excited, believing that this project could indeed be a “company maker”. Jack believes that they have “lucked” into the right project at the right time and after reviewing the project and its corresponding material, I would have to agree with him. Journey has been one of those twixt and between companies and I suppose the best way to describe them is that they could break out at any time. They certainly have the projects which would allow them to enjoy that kind of success.

They now have a 100% lease interest in the Musgrove project in Idaho which is primarily a gold deposit; they have another project in Guerrero, Mexico called the Vianey Mine in which they have a 50% equity interest with lead and zinc mineralization; and they still have the Empire project which is a former copper/gold/silver producer near Mackey, Idaho. Now they have the Silveria property located near Lima in the Huarochiri province of Peru—perhaps the most promising of them all.

My sensing is that they will be diligently working on Silveria in order to advance the development of that property as quickly as possible.This is the project that could take them to positive cash flow within 12-14 months.. Currently, a refurbished 500 ton per day mill is being relocated from Nevada to Peru. It should arrive at some point in the fall of 2008. Again, and this is most important, once this mill is set up and running, it will turn journey into a positive cash flow producer which is something they been trying to accomplish for several years now. There is over 100,000 tons of material already waiting to be mined as soon as the mill is operational.There is one final point I’d like to make and this too is of utmost importance. There has been very limited exploration occurring at Silveria; even though there as been significant amounts of actual mining. Beginning in February of 2008, there will be exploration programs commencing on the property. These will run the gamut from mapping to drilling and should open up an already past-proven and prolific mine to further development. En toto, we are looking at some excellent potential.

Background Information-Several Past Write-ups

I have written up Journey Resources (JNYRF.OTC or JNY.CA) at least three times over the past several years. For background information, might I suggest that you post a search on our site for those articles. I believe that this story regarding Journey has only gotten better even though the share price might be down a bit. On balance however, I don’t believe investors have lost significant portions of their positions and that is a good thing. Journey has been “sparring” with the markets and JNY.CA has held its own.

I think we all have to marvel at the stealth bull market in the precious metals that has witnessed $900.00 Gold, a devaluation of the US dollar, an appreciation of the Canadian Dollar, significant elevations in inflation and a junior mining sector that for the most part, has gone nowhere. But, lest we forget, most of the companies that we have represented have held their own and our investors have not lost sizeable amounts of their capital. I would consider this to be quite amazing especially considering that we are investing in the speculative end of the markets.

So often with these juniors, the share price is not the end all be all (although we certainly want to see the share price appreciating over time). This is because it is difficult to gauge the value of the projects at any given time and there are confluences of influences that need to be added into the equation to acquire a real sense of the value of any particular company at any particular time. Drill projects, financing, promotion, and how the major markets are acting all play into this equation. Patience is one of the perquisites for investing in this sector but then again patience is required for most investments. We always have to ask ourselves if we’re in the “right” sector at the right time. In the case of the precious metals the answer is yes and yes. But we also have to remember that so many other elements affect the behavior of these junior mining companies and frequently they do not receive the credit they deserve in spite of all the work that has been put into the company. I think Journey is a prime candidate for this kind of scenario.

Reasons for the Recent Market Conditions

We certainly have to look across the landscape of the junior mining companies specializing in gold and silver over the past 12 months to understand how volatile and unpredictable the sector has become. I believe there are three main reasons for this:

One is that investors are not really certain about the nature of gold and silver and the commodity bull market in general. Investors are constantly as to whether or not these juniors are worthy of investment. Wall Street is constantly “dissing” gold and all things tangible. This is because they live for “paper” and one is always going to protect their own areas of investment.

Secondly, the major indices play a role in the evolvement of these mining companies (junior and senior) as does the vitality of the overall economy. If the Dow is rolling over and the S & P is close behind, it will take a while for separation to occur. Separation is the ability of the precious metals and their corresponding stocks to stand on their own regardless of how the major markets are behaving. Separation entails the idea that gold and silver are insurance and hedges against the unrelenting pressures that most financial institutions and governments constantly put forth; frequently against any tangible item that might compete with their fiat currencies.

Essentially, this has been GATA’s argument for the last eight years (www.gata.org or www.lemetropolecafe.com) Essentially, GATA has been correct in their arguments. We also must consider that Gold is once again at $900 and ounce US and has rebounded from below $875 US in a matter of days and against general markets that have been anything but robust. Fear is ruling the Street and yet now for the first time we are witnessing the separation to which we refer.

Smart money is moving into gold and the precious metals. There is a second chance; actually this is probably to the fourth or fifth chance to get aboard this train. There are still a good many junior mining companies that are finessing their way into better and higher quality projects. This simply means that it is still possible to purchase quality junior mining company for $.30 and ride it to three dollars.

Finally, I would have to say that many smaller investors are being whipsawed by the gyrations they are witnessing in the global economies and the financial markets at large. It is difficult to get a handle on anything in which the powers that be either ignore, disparage, or both.

Journey has simply been caught in the ebb and flow of this volatility. Nevertheless this company, headed by Jack Bal, has been adding value through project acquisitions, development of existing projects, and seeking the addition of exceptionally talented and qualified board members. read more

Welcome all, and Best wishes for a very successful 2008

I realize it’s been quite a while since I’ve been in touch with y’all but it has been a crazy beginning to the year 2008. In the first week of January we had a huge storm hit central California and we were without electricity for close to a week, without our DSL for close to 10 days, and without phone service for almost 2 weeks. I do believe that the DSL was the most severe loss. “Locals” will tell you that the storm was the worst they’ve seen here in over a hundred years. Can’t you just visualize the old miner going on in his craggy voice as he relates the story about the worst storm since ‘ought 3’—that would be 1903?

Yet through it all we managed to persevere– having generators, cell phones certainly did not hurt. Ultimately we purchased the wireless Internet service for the computers and then of course the very next day the service comes back on. Se la vie! We might be better prepared for the next storm but honestly I hope it doesn’t hit us as bad as this one did. As an example, we had over 10 trees down on our property alone and these are large trees; some 80 feet tall. Overall the local news networks stated there were hundreds and hundreds of trees down on the Monterey Peninsula. But clean up is well under way and so is the year; so we had best get to it.

Connecting with You

The most important thing that were going to be doing this year is to build and manage our database and with that in mind I would invite all of you to be certain to send us your e-mail address. Why? It is because as we send out our recommendations, you will be among the first to know what we are thinking. The early bird gets the worm—need I say more?

As usual, any other information you choose to send along would be greatly appreciated. I know people are very concerned about their privacy, and about not giving out too much information. I am one of those people so I certainly can appreciate anyone who has those concerns. We are extraordinarily careful with all of our information and we do not sell it to any other party. However, if you would include your state and perhaps your area is of investing interest, it would help us to better serve you.

I would also like to know what junior mining companies of which you hold an interest and perhaps some of the companies that you’re maintaining in your portfolios. If I discover a trend, there is a likelihood I may write up those one or two companies whose names keep popping up.

The Gift to the Gold Community

In the immediate future, I will be finishing up The 2008 Gift to the Gold Community. This is a reincarnation of an article that I’ve written for the last four or five years. It has always received a good deal of attention. I think this one is the best I’ve ever written primarily because of the quality of writers that are all in the top 10 list for 2008. Again if you have a favorite writer, by all means let me know and I’ll try and get in touch with their organization and add them next year or even perhaps some time during the current year.

The idea behind the gift is simply that there are some absolutely erudite and talented individuals whose material should be read and understood. Besides giving us excellent insights into what is occurring in the markets, they will also help us understand what is going on in the world at large; the geopolitical environment

I think we need to understand, and I’ve stated this repeatedly, that the information that we’re receiving from the mainstream press is severely compromised in terms of its accuracy. It seems to me that if you want to get to the bottom of the story, the real story, you need to be following people who have made it their life’s work to understand how these geopolitical pieces fit together.

It will come as no surprise that many of the same people have been on the list for three or four years and some of them have been on the list since its very beginning. Bill Murphy of Le Metropole Café charges for his service but he also is front and center on the Gold anti-trust action committee; or GATA. I bring up his name because recently he stated that he has gone from the outhouse to the penthouse. If you’ve ever had an inclination for the truth about gold, Bill has never led you down the wrong path and besides, it is a great value as he writes almost daily and I know of no one with perhaps the exception of James Turk who has his finger on the pulse of gold as well as Bill does. We have been GATA supporters for many years. if I’m not mistaken, I believe we have been on board almost since their inception. If you want to know the real deal about gold, look no further. I will also be reviewing folks such as the aforementioned James Turk, Jim Sinclair, Roger Wiegand, J. Taylor, Richard Russell, and of course, one of my favorites is Bill Buckler from The Privateer. Look for that article to be published relatively soon and I shall try and pick up the pace in terms of the companies and the players. read more