The BarkerLetter

January 16, 2008

Greetings investors.

Friends of this column know I’m partial to Canadian mineral exploration. 

While it’s true that Canada has a history of large mineral discoveries and a mining friendly government, there are other places in the world with extractable mineral value.

One that I think is overlooked is the Republic of Panama, the locale for the world famous canal. Three years ago I was pushing a $0.60 mineral junior there with a prospective copper/gold discovery, and was gratified to see it go to over $3 per share.

A more recent player in Panama is Bellhaven Copper and Gold Inc. (Trading symbol BHV on Canada’s TSX junior venture exchange), which has already signed up more than twice its market cap value in joint ventures. Its Cerro Chorcha copper-gold porphyry deposit hosts a resource of 1.4 billion pounds copper and 255,000 ounces of gold (Worth noting:  Bellhaven has obtained NI 43-101 certification for Cerro Chorcha, a precursor to the commission of a feasibility study).

I suspect the company will want to beef up its gold resource with more drilling before proceeding to feasibility, so we definitely have the results of that to look forward to in coming weeks. It also has US$15 million in the till from a financing last summer, which seems to suggest they’ll be making more acquisitions in 2008. 

The stock price is now about 20% below the financing price of US$1.10, so it looks to me as though things haven’t even gotten started yet. They have very good local representation on their board as well.

Another stock worth watching there is Cabo Drilling (CBE.TSX-V), trading at CAD$0.65 per share. Cabo is a former mineral exploration deal turned driller, with subsidiaries across Canada and Latin America and even Europe. It also has an office in Panama where it is reportedly drilling for Bellhaven. More intriguing than that however is the proposed US$5 billion expansion of the Panama Canal, which could benefit Cabo hugely if the right contracts come its way.

I’m told that some of the financial backers of Bellhaven, which has very good local representation (ding, ding) on its board. are also involved in Cabo.

If you buy one, buy the other too.  They’re cheap enough!

Careful out there.

Kb