The BarkerLetter

A few weeks ago I suggested the biggest gains will accrue not to the strong, but to the weak who get strong to avoid perishing. Surprises can and will happen in this market, both to the upside and downside. I expect we’ll see spectacular failures and successes.

For one thing, everyone is going to work harder, and anyone who has held off drilling their best holes will bring them out of the closet as fast as they can. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a major discovery occur as the industry pulls out all the stops to right itself, and that would definitely help everyone. There is still speculative capital out there, floating around, looking for a place to land.
For another, companies are going to become more creative, especially when it comes to financing. Most will fail, but those who succeed will be here to stay.

I don’t think even those in a position to take advantage of the new pricing regime for mineral juniors are all that gleeful. Nobody in the mining business likes to see a good project clank because of some small technicality like money. Unfortunately that’s a very important technicality at the current time. As much as we’d all like to help, it’s every man for himself. We’re all struggling.

Tirex Resources Ltd. (TXX.TSX-V)

TXX is still pulling killer grades from drilling at Mirdita, its polymetallic project in Albania. Oddly enough, I like the fact that the project is in Albania, even though it’s the last undeveloped country in Eastern Europe. Why? Because it qualifies them for EU money. The European Union wants to industrialize the Albanians as quickly as possible and get them into the fold.

To that end, Tirex has just received the first tranche of C$9 million in funding from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) - woo hoo! They need to match the amount for tranche two and three from the commercial sector, thereby bringing the combined financing to a total of C$15 million. That’s far from a slam dunk but they’ve certainly got a good start. Meanwhile, TXX is reporting 7.10 metres of 5.9% copper, 3.4g/t gold and 37.5g/t silver from the second set of drill assays at the Gurthi South No.2 Zone on the Mirdita Project. Like I said, surprises will happen in this market! The stock trades in the $0.40 range.

Western GeoPower Corp. (WGP.TSX-V)

This Vancouver renewable energy company has just received a US$11 million secured loan, plus the first tranche of a C$25 million placement announced last summer, so they’re sitting pretty for now. To date the company has secured 50% of the steam required for a planned 35 MW plant at The Geysers Geothermal Field in California, and and they’re still drilling! The three wells to date have established a power capacity of 19.7 MW (gross) or 17.8 MW (net).

WGP tore up a previous power purchase agreement with utility giant PG/E and recently signed a new one with Northern California Power Agency valued at some $26 million per annum over 20 years. That totals about half a billion dollars in revenues over the life of the contract. The stock trades at C$0.16.
Kb