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CANADIAN STOCK EXHANGES – FEBRUARY – 2009 E. A. SCHILLER
HEY BUDDY, CAN YOU SPARE ME A DIME OR MAYBE A NICKEL

We survived the latter part of 08 (barely) and 09 is with us. What are we going to do to recover our losses? I am sure we all did some tax loss selling in 08 out of fear of the tax man or filling the larder before more economic downturn in 09. Several financings’ by juniors took place in recent weeks and many of them were at single digit values. I mean under a dime and a few just over 10 cents. Stocks that traded between 50 cents and a dollar a year ago were issuing paper by the bushel at a nickel. Let’s look at some of these transactions and try to appraise how these dollars will translate into enhance values of these companies.

Forum Uranium Corp (FDC-TSX-V) completed a $560,000.00 non-brokered private placement financing at five cents with a one-half share purchase warrant, each whole warrant entitling the holder to purchase one additional common share at a price of 10 cents within two years of the date of closing. The company will issue 3,530,000 million shares with 1,765,000 warrants. Proceeds will be used to finance the company’s Athabasca and Thelon basins’ uranium projects, and for general working capital. The company has advanced uranium exploration programs along the eastern edge of the Athabasca basin, where considerable successes have been achieved by Hathorne Exploration Ltd (HAT-TSX-V) and others. FDC had a high of 56 cents and a low of 2.5 cents in the past year and in mid-January traded around five cents.

The company is well managed and staffed with uranium experts and needs to be watched in the coming year. The uranium business is no longer fraught with distaste and fear. It is a legitimate energy source and greenhouse green. Companies like Forum, UEX and Pitchstone and others active in Saskatchewan have struggled with financings but have successfully raised funds recently to continue active exploration on prime uranium targets. One or more of them are going to be successful and benefits bestowed to shareholders.
Shear Minerals Ltd (SRM-TSX-V) run by one of the most talented geologist, Pam Strand completed a 24,117,857 flow-through common share unit financing at seven cents. The unit included a one-half non-transferable share purchase warrant with the right to purchase an additional share at a price of 20 cents at any time within 24 months of issuance. Monies will be spent primarily on the company’s Churchill diamond project in Nunavut. The company has a diverse assemblage of diamond and potash projects in North America. Shear traded in the 6-7 cent range in late January.

Stornoway Diamond Corp. (SWY- TSX-V) is a classic case of a junior working on a very promising developing diamond project in Quebec but receiving little recognition to this worthwhile endeavour. In addition the company has the advanced Aviat diamond exploration project on the Melville Peninsula, eastern Nunavut. The Foxtrot Quebec property includes the Renard kimerlite pipes and the Lynx-Hibou kimberlite dyke system. A 43-101 compliant indicated resource is estimated at Foxtrot of 7.0 million carats based on a 11.6 million tonne deposit averaging 60 carats per hundred tonnes, and 4.5 million carats of inferred resources grading 7.2 million tonnes grading 63 carats cpht. An additional nine to 21 million carats classified as potential resources are estimated in 14 to 32 million tonnes grading from 31 to 164 carats per hundred tonnes. On January 14 the company released some impressive diamond recoveries from surface samples from the Hibou dyke at Foxtrot. The new results represents the highest diamond content yet observed at Hibou. In total, 741.41 carats of diamonds were recovered from 543.86 tonnes (dry weight) of kimberlite, representing an overall diamond recovery of 144 carats per hundred tonnes (cpht) for stones retained on a plus-one DTC screen. The largest intact diamond recovered was a 3.14 carat brown rounded octahedron and due to some breakage could have been originally a stone in the 4 to 5 carat range.

The entire sample was contaminated with 3 to 7 percent of non-kimberlite material (i.e. silt) and therefore due to this dilution a actual grade of possibly 148-154 cpht can be implied. Stornoway has less advanced diamond projects in Quebec and the Northwest Territories. A recent financing of 20,667,333 of flow-thru shares at 15 cents per share netted the company $3,928,250. Stornoway stock traded in the 12-13 cent range in January up from under a dime in late 2008.

Azetca Gold Corp (AZG-TSX-V) did a five cent financing thru the sale of 33,407,911 shares at five cents that includes a 25 cent one-half warrant exercisable to buy one full share at 25 cents until January 10, 2011. Azetca is drilling their Two Mile property in the Silver Valley Mining District, Shoshone County, Idaho three kms north of the former high grade zinc/lead/silver Galena mine all within the famous Coeur d’alene silver district. Hole 05a intersected 85.5 feet of 9.2% zinc, 2.0% lead, and 33.0 grams/tonne silver from 7883.0 to 7968.5 feet and including a 15.4 foot intersection from 7937.6 to 7953.0 that assayed 40.03% zinc, 7.4% lead and 140.7 grams/tonne silver. A wedged hole 05b that kicks off from hole 05a is in progress. A second hole is drilling in search of strike extensions of the mineralized bodies. The company has precious metal properties in Mexico and precious and base metal properties in the U.S. In late-January the stock traded up to 19-19 cents, up from under a nickel.