Kaizen_Discovery

A new mineral exploration company to watch, Kaizen Discovery, will commence trading in Toronto tomorrow under the symbol KZD.

Kaizen was born out of an amalgamation with HPX TechCo (50% owned by Robert Friedland) and Concordia Resource Corp. Kaizen will be 85% owned by HPX TechCo (Private) and 15% by Concordia shareholders.

The company will have the right to use HPX TechCo's proprietary geophysical surveying technology to look for minerals up to five times deeper than that of traditional geophysical surveys. We are told the technology helped to locate the massive Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold-silver mine in Mongolia.

Leading Kaizen will be B. Matthew Hornor, a California born lawyer fluent in Japanese who now resides in Vancouver. Mr. Hornor, also a managing director with Friedland's Ivanhoe Capital Corporation, was instrumental in securing a $300 million investment into Ivanhoe Mines (TSX:IVN) Platreef project in South Africa from a Japanese consortium. Sources close to Ivanhoe tell us Mr. Hornor is an important protégé of the legendary financier Friedland.

Geologist Zach Flood in the DRC

Geologist Zach Flood in the DRC (the white guy)

Peter Meredith, a director of Ivanhoe Mines and former deputy chairman of Turquoise Hill Resources, will join Kaizen as Chairman. Additionally, exploration geologist Zach Flood is coming on board from Concordia [Ed. note, I shared a boarding house with Mr. Flood in high school. He was then and is now, brilliant].

Kaizen has a portfolio of early stage mineral exploration projects in the DRC, Burkina Faso, and Australia. Back in October Mr. Hornor told us Kaizen will look at other opportunities.

The company will commence trading with $10 million in cash and access to a $5 million facility.

In a press release Mr. Hornor stated, "Kaizen's competitive edge is both technical and financial. Kaizen will be drawing on the expertise of HPX TechCo's technical team and the application of the company's new, state-of-the-art geophysical technologies to gain a competitive advantage in its exploration initiatives on selected opportunities in some of the world's most prospective mineral belts. Once these opportunities have been selected, Kaizen will leverage its strong relationships with financing partners throughout Asia and invite their participation to the benefit of all parties."

Friedland's Japanese connection obviously sees big opportunity for financial backing from the island nation of 127 million.

Kaizen (改善) means "Good change" in Japanese. The junior mining world could use some.

Press Release: Kaizen Discovery Announces the Completion of the Concordia Resource Corporate Reorganization. Kaizen to begin trading under symbol KZD on TSX Venture Exchange

Related: Concordia's failed promise might bring future hope