What matters

One get caughts up in the ebb and the flow, the daily gossip and jabbering, the fight for a dollar. A manner of things that, when you're inside and focussed and fixated, seem to be all-important. And then, all of a moment, you open up another junior mining company press release, catch yourself in a mirror and see the absolute unimportance of it all. You do this because suddenly something happens to people you've never met, something devastating and heartbreaking. And you just happen to be two nights into a three night roadtrip and the meetings you've done and will do, the friends you've caught up with all pale beside the thought of your spouse and children at home. 

So do yourself and the people around you a large favour; do something about it right now. Put aside that everso everso important work you're working on right now. Go over to your husband right now, phone your wife right now, pick up your kids and give them a massive hug right now, pay a surprise visit to your parents  right now, text your best friends right now, e-mail your brother right now, knock on your sister's door right now. Tell them you love them, get things in focus, do it for them and for you. Carpe diem.

Your author's deep and sincere condolences extend to Andrew Swarthout. News release follows

BEAR CREEK EXPRESSES CONDOLENCES OVER THE LOSS OF KAREN SWARTHOUT

VANCOUVER, June 30, 2011 /CNW/ - Bear Creek Mining (TSX Venture: BCM / BVL: BCM) ("Bear Creek" or the "Company") is deeply saddened to learn of the accidental death of Karen Swarthout, the wife of  Chief Executive Officer Andrew Swarthout, in Tucson, Arizona. The Company would like to express its sincere sympathy on behalf of the entire team at Bear Creek Mining.

Catherine McLeod-Seltzer Bear Creek Mining Chairman stated, "We are sending Andy our heartfelt condolences during this difficult time. Karen was a remarkable woman in many ways. Knowing her personally as I did for many years, I am well aware of the difference she made in the lives of many people, both here in the Company, and in Andy's private life. She will be missed by all of us."

Ms. McLeod-Seltzer continued "We are confident in the strength and depth of both our senior management team and staff and all are stepping in during this difficult time to ensure normal continuity of the business. In addition, our very experienced Board of Directors have all made themselves available to assist  Bear Creek management and staff as well as to offer  Andy all the emotional support we can.  Bear Creek is a strong company with world class projects as well as extraordinary people of great depth.  Our hearts go out to Andy and their families."

Bear Creek Mining (BCM.v): Three o'clock thrill

At 3pm today Lima time Weds June 22nd (that's 4pm EST for people living in the hah-you-think-you're-developed world), Peru's Mining Minister Fernando Gala is due to make a decision on the future of Bear Creek Mining's (BCM.v) Santa Ana project.

I betcha he pulls the plug. More details here for those of you versed in the tongue of Cervantes. And I actually owned and played this record once upon a time, so it was a thrill in itself to find it just now on Youtube.

Why Bear Creek Mining (BCM.v) is rallying this morning and why Vena Resources (VEM.to) could rally soon, too

Bear Creek Mining (BCM.v) has been nastily beaten up these last few weeks but is enjoying a decent relief rally bounce this morning, probably due to the roadblock being lifted in the Carabaya region (where its world-class Corani project is located) yesterday evening (read more about that here).

The protests in Carabaya aren't really about mining and more about the plans to build a big hydro power station in the Inambari area of that region, a massive power plant that would drown a sensitive ecosystem's worth of valley. So this morning we have news on that aspect too and that's where the potential for a rally in Vena Resources (VEM.to) comes into play. Peru's national daily La Republica reports plans to scrap the Inambari power station and replace it with a nuclear power plant instead. Guess where the U would come from for that project, folks? Yup, just down the road (literally) at Macusani, the place where Cameco and Vena have their JV exploration program, already have a multi-million Lbs U resource under 43-101 compliance and look like adding substantially to said resource later this year when the new and good looking drill results are factored in.

DYODD, cos I'm long VEM.to (but more for its Azulcocha zinc mine, less for this U that's suddenly looking like a decent asset adding bonus prize again)

Bear Creek (BCM.v): The Santa Ana protest starts up again

As planned by the protesting locals around Bear Creek Mining's (BCM.v) Santa Ana project, the protest and roadblocks that were put on hold while the second round of the Presidential elections happened are now back in place as of eight hours ago. Also protests against mining projects in the Corani province, where BCM.v's big Corani project lies, are due to start today.

What? You thought this problem would go away now that Humala's been elected? Oh dear, who've you been talking to?

Update: Yes indeed the protest has re-started around the border between Bolivia and Peru (same place as before) and the road is blocked. Also the protest in the Northern part of Puno next to the Corani project has started as well, with the brand new Interoceanic Highway that connects Brazil with Peru blocked at the town of Macusani. Details here.

Raymond James bullshits its clients re. Bear Creek Mining (BCM.v)

In its effusive pumphouse marketing note to clients on Bear Creek Mining (BCM.v) this morning, the crew at Raymond James decided that facts just don't matter. For example, its clients read this morning the following line about the protesters at Santa Ana:

"...they’re accusing BCM of looking to pollute Lake Titicaca, which is 50km away and uphill! Would need to invest millions in pumps to be able to do this"

Sorry guys, that's bullshit and you're either deliberately lying to your clients or you've been told bullshit by Bear Creek (BCM.v). The FACTS are that Santa Ana is 45km away from Lake Titicaca (a small point) and that Lake Titicaca sits at an elevation of 3812 metres above sea level, while the low point at Santa Ana is 4150masl (a big point that blows your sarcasm and exclamation marks out the water, dumbasses). The rest of the reasoning that tried to belittle the protests against Santa Ana was just as poor too.

Just another day of South American ignorance out of so-called professional brokerages in Canada, but don't worry guys, we're used to your stupidity by now. Anyway, here's a message for you from people who do actually check facts before opening mouths. Why don't you just do us all a favour one time and....

?

Bear Creek Mining (BCM.v) and protests in Puno: latest

The latest from Puno is that the strike/protest/roadblocks have been suspended by the local protesters in the region, in the words of this report out a couple of hours ago "at least until after the second round Presidential election vote", which is this Sunday June 5th.

The decision to suspend the protest activities was taken this morning, Monday May 30th, by the activists. Apparently there are a couple of roadblocks left in place, but those are expected to be lifted in the next few hours as well.

UPDATE: Interestingly, that report linked above seems to have been pulled by the website. Following the Google feed, there are now conflicting reports on whether the protests will go ahead or whether they'll be suspended today. But either way, BCM.v at Santa Ana isn't going to have a happy time of it. That was explained yesterday in IKN108.

Bear Creek (BCM.v): Compare and contrast

1) Bear Creek's CEO this morning:

"Bear Creek has received strong local community support on our Santa Ana project..."

2) A video of the 10,000 people in the regional capital, Puno, to protest the presence of BCM.v at Santa Ana yesterday.

You be the judge.

UPDATE: Question for Andrew Kaip of BMO and Brad Humphrey of Raymond James, both of whom came out with "hmmm, maybe a small problem but nothing to worry about" calls on BCM.v this morning (and between them probably caused that early morning spike to $7.60):

"Feeling stupid yet, dudes?"

Subscribers: Expect an update mail on BCM this evening.

UPDATE 2: I've been told to put the following up by a subscriber, so I will. We first featured this story in IKN105 for subscribers and told them to be careful about BCM.v, but the excerpt below is from the article on BCM.v in IKN106, dated May 15th, when the Weekly warned subscribers of trouble to came at BCM.v and we even set an entry point target of $6.50 for the stock...which turned out to be exactly 9c too high as BCM bounced off a $6.41 low. Just luck I guess....

"...considering the smaller size of Santa Ana (see reserve/resource table here below) and offsetting that with its (theoretical at least) shorter timeline to production (Santa Ana is due commissioned in 2012 according the official company literature at least), your author currently weights around 25% to 30% of BCM.v valuation in this project. It is in trouble and the recent share price discount reflects that, but the feeling is that the market hasn’t fully grasped the depth of the trouble for BCM due to this protest that is not going to go away and is on course to halt development either indefinitely or definitively. So although the company has seen some discount, if your author’s read on this story is correct and Santa Ana becomes a no-go project there’s good reason to expect further selling in BCM and therefore a potential entry point of $6.50 on bad news is around the place where I’d consider a value entry position, this based on a rough 15% discount to current prices. This isn’t some hard-and-fast target price, but more like a marker that will do just fine for the time being."

And then this is an excerpt from IKN107, last Sunday May 22nd:

"...as mentioned last week, I have a scratched out $6.50 price point as a potential for entry based on the larger and politically much less risky Corani project (which is still in the region of Puno but in a much safer location). If it takes two weeks or six months to reach that $6.50 level, there’s no particular problem here as I’m not long and have no rush to take up a position either. It remains to be seen how the market reacts to today’s news that they will be holding on to a dead money situation through a volatile election and into the next six months at least, something that also definitively scuppers company plans for the previously projected start of mining in 2012 at Santa Ana.
 
Final point: Why this ongoing coverage about BCM.v? Because there’s a chance of getting in cheap on the world-class Corani project here, that’s all."

Bear Creek Mining (BCM.v): There will be blood

The protest of locals against the presence of Bear Creek Mining (BCM.v) at its Santa Ana project  in Puno Peru is now two weeks old and according to news reports, all roads are shut down tight and some 500 trucks are stuck on the border of Peru and Bolivia because of the blockages. Add to that the so-called 'high level commission' that went to the Puno region to try and mediate and sort the mess out last week, only to bug out after one day because the commission members got spooked by the 5000 strong anti-mining crowd that came to gently greet them in the city of Puno

And so yesterday evening we had a new development. Stuck on the last page of this document of military executive decrees and signed into effect yesterday Sunday May 22nd is this little segment of loveliness:

And for those of you not versed in the tongue of Cervantes, that says:

Sunday May 22nd 2011
Executive Power
Defense
R.S Nº 191-2011-DE- Authorizes the intervention of the armed forces to aid the Peru National Police Force in the district, province and department of Puno

As this order was published yesterday, it came into effect today and lasts until June 11th and amongst other powers it gives the right of the military to fire live rounds at its own people. In other words, President Twobreakfasts just authorized the entry of troops to clear the roadblocks made by protesters and if anyone out there gets an immediate flashback memory to a town called Bagua a couple of years ago or a protest at Tia Maria this year, you'll know what's likely to happen next unless the locals don't back down.

And all it takes is a cursory glance at the newsflow to understand that they won't back down, so prepare for a very nasty case of bad publicity, BCM.v IR people. DYODD and don't mess with the Aymara.

Bear Creek Mining's (BCM.v) share price is holding up pretty well, considering....

...that they're just about to be kicked out of their Santa Ana project in the South of Peru.

I mean, did you know that the protest from locals against this project has caused the closure of the borders between Bolivia and Peru? Did you know that the national government is down there right now trying to negotiate a settlement with people that are insisting on one thing and one thing only, the immediate and definitive withdrawal of Bear Creek (BCM.v) from the project? Strange how the company has been so quiet in the English language news dissemination whilst emitting multiple communiqués in Spanish for the benefit of its Peruvian audience, innit? 

When the market realizes just how deep in the doo-doo BCM is with this project that's supposed to open in 2012 (though only in a parallel universe), this one is going under $7.

Disclosure: Unlike the bagholders at Casey Research, no position.

Worse than being in Peru, Bear Creek Mining (BCM.v) is in a part of Peru where locals don't like mining

The southern reaches of the Puno region is where Bear Creek Mining (BCM.v) wants to start its Santa Ana mine, but things aren't going so well for the company on a community relations level right now. Just last month there was a protest against the mine that paralyzed much of the region and left one protester dead after clashes with the police (she inhaled too much of the tear gas the police fired at the crowd and didn't make it through, sadly) and now the protests are about to start up again. As of next Monday May 9th locals are staging an indefinite strike to demand the total withdrawal of Bear Creek Mining from the Santa Ana project....put simply, they're not wanted round there.

Disclosure: No position in BCM.v, but I do like the stock for its larger Corani project and so one of these fine days I might go long if it gets cheap enough.