As I just wrote yesterday, I see a low in the metals and junior resource shares approaching. It's time to load up the truck. The metals have meandered up and down for almost two years building a base. I believe it is for a march going much higher soon. I have a number of companies I have been holding back on writing about waiting for a signal of a turn. It's coming and times are about to get interesting.
There are a bunch of factors an investor needs to consider when putting their hard earned money into a venture. Where is it? What metal are they looking for? What's the country risk? Do they have any money? Is it a project that has been drilled by every ne'er-do-well in Vancouver until it looks like Swiss cheese? Who is running it?
I've been to somewhere between 400 and 500 projects, been lied to a thousand times and heard most of the bullshit stories told. When I began doing these trips seventeen years ago I was totally ignorant and for certain knew less about mining and projects than anyone on the tour. But guys who know what they are doing are more than willing to share what they know if you are smart enough to know the right questions to ask. I still want to be the dumbest guy on a tour; when you are the smartest and most knowledgeable person on the trip, you can't learn anything.
Since I wasn't a spring chicken even then I was forced to come up with some shortcuts. Of all the information we were being handed, what was the most important thing to focus on? And since I had done a lot of things in different ventures, I knew that one of the most important things to know was the qualifications of the people behind the deal. Who is running the show and how qualified are they?
Someone contacted me a few weeks ago and wanted me to look at Westhaven Ventures Inc. (WHN:TSX.V). I did and they look interesting. The company wanted to advertise so I asked them to send me some tag lines for a banner. What they sent me knocked me over.
The CEO, Gren Thomas, has been inducted into the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame. That was pretty interesting to me. And he has been initiated into the Yukon Mining Hall of Fame. And been the PDAC Prospector of the Year. Crikie, this guy has some qualifications.
The more I delved into the company the better it looks. Management has major skin in the game owning over 40% of the shares. It's vital in any company that you consider buying that you know if your interests and management's interests overlap. When management has nothing but a bunch of options on the company that's a double negative. In the unlikely event that they ever actually move the stock much higher, they are going to be exercising the options and dumping the shares.
I want to know that if I go broke because I own a bunch of shares in an expired lottery ticket, at least the idiots running the company go on the dole with me.
Westhaven has a giant 30,000 square ha land position in the most unexplored gold belt in British Columbia. Thomas spent the dismal years between 2011 and 2015 putting the package of properties together. They are located about 70 miles northeast of Vancouver.
The Fraser River Gold rush of 1857 is credited with the foundation of what would become known as British Columbia. Other discoveries further north took the prospectors off where the gold was greener on the other side of the fence leaving behind a rich but basically unexplored gold region. CEO Gren Thomas literally made a career of picking the low hanging fruit that others overlooked. He's done this again and again.
Westhaven owns 100% of three main projects. The company began a 2,600-meter seven-hole diamond drill program in March on their Shovelnose Gold property. It was completed a few days ago. In early May the company released results from the first three holes. Hole SN18-03 showed nice results giving 28.7 meters of 2.6 g/t Au including 2.9 meters of 9.7 g/t gold.
On May 16th Westhaven announced the remaining assays from the last four holes would be released in about 3-4 weeks in a single batch. Once Westhaven has all the results back and can figure them out, they intend a follow-up 3,000-meter program at Shovelnose. Historic sampling shows float samples of up to 119 g/t gold and 273 g/t silver. Trench samples ran up to 66 g/t gold.
In the dismal days leading up to the major bottom in late 2015 when the CEOs of most juniors were whining into their beer mugs, Westhaven was out plucking the crop. Gren snapped up the Skoonka Gold property and the Prospect Valley Gold project for $140,000 in cash and 3 million shares.
Westhaven is targeting their high potential targets first. As the Phase 2 drill program begins at Shovelnose, the company also plans a 3,000-meter diamond core drill program at the Skoonka project starting in June.
Investing is not rocket science. If you understand the importance of being able to measure sentiment and the vital signals it sends, you can make money with the right companies. Westhaven has most of the major pieces you need to make a major discovery. Obviously raising money is always an issue, no money, no drilling, no drilling, no discovery. A tailwind from the price of gold will make a lot of money available for exploration.
At today's price, WHN has a market cap of $10 million USD. I think that's pretty cheap. There is a ton of blue sky for the company. It has experienced and visionary management and picked up three good projects for peanuts. While all junior resource companies are lottery tickets, Westhaven is a lottery ticket with a great payoff.
Westhaven is an advertiser so naturally I am biased. I own shares I bought in the open market. The company will probably need to do a financing in June and I intend to participate. Do your own due diligence.
Westhaven Ventures
WHN-V $0.19 (May 17, 2018)
WTHVF-OTCBB 64.9 million shares
Westhaven website
Bob and Barb Moriarty brought 321gold.com to the Internet almost 16 years ago. They later added 321energy.com to cover oil, natural gas, gasoline, coal, solar, wind and nuclear energy. Both sites feature articles, editorial opinions, pricing figures and updates on current events affecting both sectors. Previously, Moriarty was a Marine F-4B and O-1 pilot with more than 832 missions in Vietnam. He holds 14 international aviation records.
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