A rising tide may lift all boats, but rising gold and silver prices will not lift all precious-metals miners. In an October 17 Gold Report interview, Brent Cook, editor of Exploration Insights, and Quinton “Gold Whisperer” Hennigh, geologist and EI contributor, contribute a useful list of “red flags” in mining-company press releases.

Hennigh provides three. “Let’s say…a news release…mentions a killer hole—a long interval for a potentially good grade. But the company doesn’t list a cross section, making it very difficult to interpret. That’s always a little suspect… Grade smearing…is where a company takes a high-grade interval or two and transposes that into a much longer interval of lower grades in order to make it look like a bulk intercept. Then there is drilling where there was a previous campaign. Maybe a major had a property and did some drilling. It got some results. Now a junior is coming back in and drilling basically on top of that and reporting results as if it’s a new discovery.”

And here’s a fourth. “True width is the width of an intersection or a vein that gives us one of the three dimensions we need to determine the tons of a deposit or a system. We need true width versus apparent width or drill width, which can give us an exaggerated width.”

And now to cases. Hennigh has kind words for Gold Standard Ventures V.GSV, Pilot Gold T.PLG, Miranda Gold V.MAD and NuLegacy Gold V.NUG. Cook is keen on the prospect-generator model and cites Almaden Minerals T.AMM in this regard.

The companies with which Hennigh is professionally associated are Gold Canyon Resources V.GCU (Director, Technical Advisor), Nova Resources CNSX:NVO (President/CEO), Euromax Resources V.EOX (Chief Geologist), Prosperity Goldfields V.PPG (Director, Technical Advisor) and Evolving Gold T.EVG (Technical Advisor).

Reuters reports October 18 that National Bank Financial has raised the target price of AuRico Gold T.AUQ from US$8 to US$8.50 (currently C$8), October 17 that CIBC has lowered Keegan Resources T.KGN from $6 to $5 (currently $3.93) and lowered North American Palladium T.PDL from $2.50 to $2.40 (currently $1.61), October 15 that RBC has lowered Keegan T.KGN from $5 to $4.40 (again currently $3.93) and October 12 that NBF has lowered Volta Resources T.VTR from $4 to $2.25 (currently $0.54).

On October 16, Canaccord maintained its price target for Argonaut Gold T.AR at $15.50 (currently $9.87), noting its “record Q3/12 production results that were materially ahead of guidance and our estimates” and arguing that its “growth profile [is] enhanced with [its] proposed acquisition of Prodigy Gold” V.PDG;

***on October 15, it raised the price target of Primero Mining T.P from US$6.25 to US$13 (currently C$7.12), citing “a positive advance tax ruling from the Mexican tax authorities”

and set a price target for Belo Sun T.BSX at $2.50 (currently $1.36), citing “high grades, exploration upside potential, potentially robust economics and location in a politically stable jurisdiction” (Brazil); and on October 12, it maintained Capstone Mining T.CS at $3.40 (currently $2.53), citing its “attractive relative valuation, strong balance sheet and the long-term growth profile offered by the Santo Domingo project.”

Bloomberg reports October 16 that Michael Siperco of Macquarie Group has set a price target for Argonaut Gold T.AR at $12 (again, currently $9.87).

At the Financial Post October 11, Jonathan Ratner reports that NewGen Asset Management is “shying away from large-cap gold miners since emerging producers and developers have the assets big names want to acquire.” They like Lydian International T.LYD (“The company’s Amulsar gold project in Armenia fits the…criteria of being a low-operating cost and low-capital-intensity asset”), Rio Alto Mining T.RIO (“[its] successful development project at its La Arena gold-copper mine in Peru”), Lumina Copper V.LCC (“Lumina, whose massive Taca Taca copper[-gold-moly] deposit in Argentina is a high-quality asset with adequate access to water, power and rail transport, is currently in the process of pursuing a sale”). They don’t like NovaGold T.NG (“[Its] Donlin Creek gold project in Alaska… will take at least eight to 10 years…to get started”).

And in the Globe October 16, Darcy Keith reports that Alex Terentiew of Raymond James has lowered his price target for North American Palladium T.PDL from $3.25 to $2.75 (again, currently $1.16), citing “renewed concern about its future balance-sheet strength.”

Finally, the Canadian Press reports October 18 on Project Vapour, a supposed attempt by Ontario’s Liberal government “to hide the cost of cancelling a generating station in Oakville from the public.” This is not the true purpose of Project Vapour. As Auguries can reveal exclusively, it is instead an effort by the League of Guardians, a legendary and sempiternal gathering of grandees sworn to uphold Ontario’s honour, to erase the memory of Dalton McGuinty, that dim and ferret-faced man, from the provincial consciousness. Their ultimate goal is to transmute him into myth, so that in the future, parents will threaten their children with Premier Dud, whose ghostly spectre shall haunt their dreams lest they fail to behave as all good little boys and girls should.

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