Apologies

Please accept my apologies in advance, as there's not much in the way of pretty charts to look at, though the reading will provide you with an entire weekend of interesting information. Sit down, have a cup of tea and take it all with a grain of salt.

There is a substantial amount of research and technical information available here.

A Fascinating Dillettantism

One thing that you find never misses about Canadians is their fascination with dillettantism. People are fully willing to overlook any egregious error in their gobsmacked envy. They are awestruck with this ability to profit from seemingly nothing.

No stopping the gushing announcer from thoroughly creaming his pants over this one. Nobody seems to realize that this kind of short sighted sale to the lowest bidder at the first opportunity has resulted in Underworld shares being sold to Kinross at a 60% discount. Would you even wish to be seen in public on a televised interview after losing $80m. for your shareholders?

In some ways, this fellow might have escaped a long drawn-out drama with cash on hand to invest in other gold companies already in production. (Oh! don't tell me you put your money into short-of-gold DERIVATIVES!!! FOR YOUR RETIREMENT!!!)

No doubt the navel gazing crew involved in a beard-growing competition over at the La Ronge Gold Project are frustrated and bitter. They're edjumacated, see, and can tell anybody what's what. But the 'Old Firemen' can't seem to make a go of a gold mining property handed to them on a silver platter in a major bull market.

I can't think of a better way to destroy an historical window of opportunity. Its like Jim Cramer says, gold miners are experts at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

Interview with Shawn Ryan

BNN.ca

Quotable Quotes

"For the average person to get into this sector and get overweight in this sector is like giving a six-year-old a chainsaw - it's very dangerous." (Obviously the retail investor is to blame for the foibles in the market, not land-flippers and fly-by night speculators, or legerdemain in the banking sector, or conflict of interest in Government.)

Doug Casey, MineWeb interview

Golden Band, Son Of SMDC

The big player in the La Ronge Gold Belt was SMDC, the predecessor company to Cameco. They are the ones who literally spent tens of millions exploring and documenting the belt. Every last prospect that GBN.V works on now was actually thoroughly documented by the Province of Saskatchewan and drilled off by SMDC, the Saskatchewan Mining And Development Corporation. The head of SMDC was Roy Lloyd. Roy Lloyd was also formerly the president of Golden Band Resources (GBN.V.)

Not one company was able to take advantage of the gold bull market in the La Ronge Gold Belt of the 1970's, because of their inability to establish that there was a gold bull market, and the fact that nobody believed it. Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

Despite being doted with exceptional properties and mining opportunities, a downturn of the gold price always guaranteed the shutdown of the mine and the closure of mining prospects. Claude Resources(CRJ.TO) managed to produce through the bear market in gold prices from 1991 to present with a prospect that yielded only ~7g/t. They are the standout example of how to do things properly. They were locked out of the best opportunities in the gold belt.

By comparison, the management of Golden Band resources, despite their obvious qualifications, are bunch of fibbing fly-by-night opportunists. This might change with a higher gold price, or maybe they're waiting for a sign from god.

Sinclair Stevens Casts A Bitter Pall

No gold belt is without its crooked players, the name Sinclair Stevens comes to mind. I would surmise that it could be the conflict of interest that Sinclair Stevens was involved in that did a great deal of damage to gold mining in Saskatchewan.

Using CDIC public funds to develop a gold project in La Ronge is no different than the provincially owned SDMC spending millions of taxpayer dollars to catalogue the La Ronge Gold belt with an interest in development. But Sinclair Stevens was forced to resign. The CDIC was not involved in development, just a bid using a public office for personal gain.

"Busby said Goldsil controlled an interest in approximately 240000 acres in what he said is becoming the hottest high grade gold mining region in North America."

Ottawa Citizen

N.B. Golden Band Resources (gbn.v) is the 100% owner of these properties, with the addition of Golden Heart, Roy Lloyd, Star Lake and Komis. Some of these are by far and away some of the best gold mining prospects in Canada. And yet, they're totally ignored.

Regina Leader-Post Is Captured Media

The Star Lake mine has a strike length of only 80m, but the newspaper reported that the prospect had a length of 3km. Its a total lie:

"Of course, SMDC itself plans to ad to its known reserves by exploring other portions of the property. Specifically, SMDC geologists are looking for “repeats” of the 21 Zone which is estimated to be 3,000 metres (9,840 feet) long, Murphy said."

Regina Leader-Post(second to last paragraph)

What's Up With Star Lake

Don't be discouraged, because Fork Lake/Star Lake is an excellent mining prospect, just waiting for a good mining developer. No mention anywhere of a 3km anomaly. Just ONE prospect like Fork Lake/Star Lake is a company-maker. (by comparison Roy Lloyd is much larger - and in production)

Fork Lake

Star Lake

Breaking The Information Lockout

There is some information that the company definitely does not want to disclose and feels no responsibility to disclose to the shareholder. But no matter, the internet will defeat any information lockout. No technical report? Fine, the information is all here. All the juice you can handle.

You will be fascinated to read about the Mill Zone. The Mill Zone is indisputably the jewel in the crown. There is a reason WHY the Jolu mill is located where it is.

"Geochemistry, proton-magnetic surveys and backhoe trenching have extended the length of the Rod Main to 3000 ft (914 m) while diamond drilling has confirmed 1485 ft (453 m); it is currently open ended (News Release, 11 September 1985)."

Government Of Saskatchewan Ministry Of Energy And Resources file no. 1877a

Government Of Saskatchewan Ministry Of Energy And Resources file no. 1877b

Government Of Saskatchewan Ministry Of Energy And Resources file no. 0901

Pickle Crow Lake Mine

During the depression era, the Pickle Crow Lake mine provided their shareholders a return on their investment for some 30 years. Just read the annual report provided by PCGold on their website. The ironies are just too much here.

They had a float of 3 million shares. By contrast Golden Band Resources has a fully diluted float of over 300 million sharers. Their all in cost for mining and development was $8.07 per ounce of gold. By contrast, Golden Band Resources' assumed all-in-cost is ~$825/oz. U.S. The Canadian dollar is overpar lately, so this might make up the difference. A subtle irony is that the Canadian dollar probably has roughly 1/100th of its purchasing power as it had during the depression era.

Now, they paid out everything in the form of dividends over and above the all in cost with free cash flow. That means with the gold price eventually fixed @$35/oz. U.S., they paid out something like 40¢/share in dividends for a stock that was priced @$1.

All things being equal, if the development costs for GBN.V stay in this framework, then they might actually be paying out a dividend of 40¢ per share!!

The Albany Vein (Pickle Crow Lake Mine)

supersize: http://www.flickr.com/photos/11747277@N07/5519820623/sizes/l/in/photostream/

source: http://www.pcgold.ca/en/History_28.html

N.B. The Albany vein is dwarfed by the Roy Lloyd mine. The Roy Lloyd mine is dwarfed by the Mill Zone.