“Blast you Excel!!” While Kenneth Rogoff took his lumps last year due to an enormously inexcusable excel error, this former Chief Economist for the IMF and co-author of This Time Its Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly is still a voice to be reckoned with.  As part of Project Syndicate’s cleverly-titled-no-pun-intended “Submerging Markets” series, Rogoff… Continue Reading

Which way is the beach? If you’re having flashbacks of Elton John singing “Candle in the Wind” or Leo helping Kate fly, don’t be alarmed. It’s not actually 1997. It sure does feel like it though. Concern over China’s inevitable potential crash and Fed tapering have sent emerging markets spinning. In response, Turkey (+5.5%), South… Continue Reading

We appear to be approaching a unique global currency mess. Yesterday evening’s Turkish rate hike reeked of desperation and triggered a powerful pop in thin futures markets: The rally was short lived as we have seen nothing but a deluge of selling in equity futures this morning. Meanwhile, there is a flight to ‘quality’ in… Continue Reading

Pilot Gold (PLG:TSX) has released their maiden resource for the KCD deposit on the TV Tower project.  The resource estimate focused on the Kucukdag gold-silver-copper deposit which is the first of several targets on the TV Tower property (40% Pilot Gold/60% Teck Resources).  The estimate was divided into a lower gold zone and an overlying silver… Continue Reading

Pilot Gold (PLG:TSX) has made a significant breakthrough in Turkey, by finding a major new discovery of supergene copper underlying the oxide gold zones at the company’s K2 project, part of the TV Tower project (40% Pilot Gold/60% Teck).   According to the Pilot Gold, drilling and surface work suggest that at least two copper-gold porphyry systems… Continue Reading

Today is the one year anniversary of making this video with my brother. I thought it would be a great opportunity to share some of my favourite mining and energy quotes, starting with one from Mr. Lowell, of course: “If there’s anything my career says about me, it’s that I’m very good at being wrong.”… Continue Reading

[audio:https://c03c06.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Mark-ODea-Podcast-Nov-15-2013.mp3] Track record is everything in junior mining. Mark O’Dea took Fronteer Gold from a $1 million shell in 2001 to a diversified mine developer that sold for $2.3 billion to Newmont in 2011. The Vancouver-based, 45-year-old Newfoundland-born geologist also created Aurora Energy in 2006, and sold its Labrador uranium assets for $260 million to… Continue Reading

Highlights: Jewellery: The sector delivered another quarter of solid year-on-year growth as consumers across the globe, encouraged by lower average prices, showed an increasing demand for higher carat pieces. Investment: Demand for bars and coins grew 6% to 304.2 tonnes, with growth mainly coming from Asia and the Middle East, including Turkey. Outflows from ETFs… Continue Reading

Pilot Gold (PLG:TSX) released further assay results from their TV Tower project in Turkey.  This round of drilling focused on near-surface silver-only mineralized zone near the KCD target.  Step-out drilling highlights include hole KCD-151R which hit 91.5m of 90.2g/t silver including 34.5m of 176g/t silver.  Hole KCD-149R intersected 61.5m of 43.6g/t silver.  The company also… Continue Reading

By Mich Massaad, Beating The Index I still remember quite well the oil shock we witnessed in 2008; oil hit a record of $147 per barrel and quickly tumbled back down as the economy collapsed. The way events are moving these days, chances are we are about to witness a larger oil shock thanks to… Continue Reading

Pilot Gold (PLG:TSX) is increasing its land position near its TV Tower project in Turkey.  The joint venture company, Orta Truva (60% Teck, 40% Pilot, which Pilot is earning into 60%) is acquiring 100% of the 20 square kilometer Karaayi project from Chesser Resources (CHZ:ASX).  Pilot is issuing 1.25 million PLG shares and paying US$300,000… Continue Reading

By James Kwantes, World of Mining Rebalancing, Part 2: Signs of life (click here for part 1) In my last post, I detailed the positions that I’ve sold (Amerigo Resources, Sandstorm Gold/Metals & Energy) or dramatically reduced (Lumina Copper) in the past couple of months. This post takes a closer look at stocks I’ve purchased… Continue Reading

Alamos Gold (AGI:TSX) announced that it has received final signatures from the Turkish Ministry of the Environment and Urbanization for its Kirazli gold project located in Turkey.  The EIA on the Agi Dagi project has been progressing as well and is now at the final stages for approval.  With no debt and approximately $475 million… Continue Reading

Exploration Insights is a web-based subscription service that serves an international family of investors and speculators (approximately 40% US and 40% Canadian, with the remainder based in ~20 countries scattered across the globe). In addition to communications with our clientele, my research necessitates that I routinely email, Skype, and phone Canada, Serbia, Turkey, Indonesia, Australia,… Continue Reading

There’s a lot going on in the world right now, more than usual. In all seriousness, today’s equity market losses were modest relative to what could go wrong in the various simmering global hot spots. The NSA story is nothing short of HUGE, Turkey is indicative of a much larger feeling of uneasiness coursing throughout the… Continue Reading