AGORACOM WIRE – WEEKEND UPDATE
$1.8 BILLION SMELTER FOR RING OF FIRE? Cliff’s Natural Resources Proposes $3B Investment To Mine Chromite FULL STORY
SPROTT BEARISH ON BASE METALS, BULLISH GOLD / OILÂ FULL STORY
SILVER SET TO SOAR AGAINST EVERYTHING?  FULL STORY
PLATINUM UPSIDE POTENTIAL AS GOLD ALTERNATIVEÂ FULL STORY
OUR SPONSORS SUPPORT SMART SMALL-CAP FORUMS … DISCOVER THEM TODAY!
AGORACOM SMALL CAP WIRE – JANUARY 19, 2012
1.5M TON PAST PRODUCER - Mistango’s Omega Gold Property Is Located In Ontario and Has A 43-101 Pending See Snapshot Profile
RIGHTS OFFERING “REWARDS SHAREHOLDERS”  Omagine Treats Current Shareholders Right “Rewarding Our Shareholders For Expectations Of A Gratifying Year”  Read More * CLIENT
GOLD RALLIES TO 1-MONTH HIGHÂ Â See Post
1 BILLION - Canadian Company Finds 1 Billion Pounds Of Copper In Montana Via TSX Venture Tweets
OUR SPONSORS SUPPORT OUR SURFING … DISCOVER THEM TODAY!
AGORACOM WIRE ~ January 18th, 2012
Oremex Silver (TSXV:OAG) Closed 21.85% Higher On  On 775,000 Shares Yesterday Go To HUB  *CLIENT
RIGHTS OFFERING “REWARDS SHAREHOLDERS”  Omagine Treats Current Shareholders Right “Rewarding Our Shareholders For Expectations Of A Gratifying Year”  Read More * CLIENT
6 YEAR LOW …. Kinross and complicit Aurelian Resources Executives fail to profit from their pillage of Aurelian Resources Read George’s Post
JUNIORS SET FOR TAKE OFF ? Canadian Junior Stock Insider Sentiment Hits 3-Year High AGORACOM Twitter
HOW IR SHOULD BE! UC Resources Completes 1st Online Q&A With Shareholders See Q&A or Video Update *CLIENT
Mistango River Resources (CNSX: MIST) AGORACOM Client Feature Read More * CLIENT
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Despite gold sitting at $1,650 + … our good friends at Kinross Gold are trading down 17% today … make that 19% (can’t keep up with this thing … see updated chart below), sending Kinross to lows not seen since 2006 if you don’t include the entire global free fall of 2009. Â In other words, on its own merits, Kinross is down to 2006 levels.
This couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of people, especially Kinross Chief something Tye Burt.  AGORACOM Members will never forget how Kinross pillaged Aurelian Resources in a “deal” that was preceded by the biggest online shareholder revolt by small-cap investors this century.
For those of you who still bare the battle scars, or for those of you who’s interest is now peaked, have a look at this string of stories marking triumph despite an official defeat.
We won’t forget.
Regards,
George
Post sponsored by:
Here is what small-cap investors are reading on AGORACOM this morning:
AGORACOM WIRE ~ January 17th, 2012
GREEN MORNING:Â Â World Index Up 1%; Shanghai 4.2%; S&P Futures 0.8%; Copper up whopping 3.3%; Gold $33; Silver 3+ %
JUNIORS SET FOR TAKE OFF ? Canadian Junior Stock Insider Sentiment Hits 3-Year High AGORACOM Twitter
JUST ONE OF THOSE DAYS …Â Multiple AGORACOM Clients Make The News ….
HOW IR SHOULD BE! UC Resources Completes 1st Online Q&A With Shareholders See Q&A *CLIENT
Oremex Silver (TSXV:OAG) Reports 5.5 Meters of 212.26 g/t Silver from Underground Drilling Read More *CLIENT
Donner Metals (TSXV:DON) Bracemac-McLeod Mine Development Continues To Track On Budget Read More * CLIENT
Pacific North West Capital (TSX:PFN) Announces Additional High Grade PGM of 2.11 gpt** Pd+Pt+Au*** over 33 metres at its River Valley Project Read More (from Jan. 10, 2012) * CLIENT
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Bond auctions in Italy and Spain went far better than most expected today and the markets are loving the news. Â On days like this, it pays to have a graph like the one below that sums up where the greatest action is going in one view. Â In this case, Copper, Gold and Silver are set to be big winners:
AGORACOM Clients That Stand To Benefit, In Order of Commodity Gains Above:
  Â
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As always, do your own due diligence!
Regards,
George
It was a boring day of trading for me … but happy that today’s moves were great for AGORACOM Clients:
  Â
Please be advised that AGORACOM will be offline on Saturday night for about 3 hours beginning at 9PM EST.
Pursuant to prior notifications over the past 2-3 weeks, we are migrating AGORACOM away from our current host Amazon (Yes, THE Amazon)Â due to unsatisfactory downtime issues we have experienced with Amazon over the last month.
As promised, we were either going to give Amazon a chance to fix these issues, or migrate to another web hosting provider. Unfortunately, Amazon was not able to provide us the comfort and assurances necessary to keep AGORACOM hosted with them, so we have decided to move to another provider.
In anticipation of this move on Saturday night, we suggest the following:
1. It is Saturday night, so go out and have some fun!
2. If you are going to post any long and intensive material after 6PM Saturday night, save a copy. We don’t expect to lose any data from the last 2-3 hours but
better to be safe than sorry
3. We expect the migration to be very smooth but please let us know if you have any issues on Sunday.
4. Our blog (which you are reading right now)  and Twitter account  will be unaffected during the downtime, so feel free to contact us at either if you have any issues and can’t reach us through the site. Best thing to do is to post comments below.
We trust the above to be satisfactory as we strive to continually provide you with a great AGORACOM experience.
Thanks,
George and the AGORACOM Team
So This Is What Graphite Looks Like 🙂
One great thing about running AGORACOM is the necessity/ability to keep a 30,000 foot view on what is happening and trending in the small-cap space. Â Getting the best view often requires cutting through the canned promotions and really noticing the under currents that are building on their own. Â Over the last 2-3 months, I’ve noticed an under current really growing in small-cap graphite companies … enough so that I am now taking a very close look at them and the space.
GRAPHITE MARKET OVERVIEW
I gleaned the following great overview from a Lomiko Metals press releasethis morning, announcing it had signed an agreement to acquire a 100-per-cent interest in the Quatre Milles Graphite Property located in southwestern Quebec:
Global consumption of natural graphite has increased from approximately 600,000 tonnes in 2000 to roughly 1.2 million tonnes in 2011. Demand for graphite has been increasing by approximately 5 per cent per year since 2000 due to the continuing modernization of China, India and other emerging economies, resulting in strong demand from traditional end uses such as the steel and automotive industries. Graphite also has many important new applications such as lithium-ion batteries, fuel cells, and nuclear and solar power that have the potential to create significant incremental demand growth. There is roughly 10-20 times more graphite in a lithium-ion battery than there is lithium. Demand for graphite is expected to rise as electric vehicles and lithium battery technology are adopted.
Natural graphite comes in several forms: flake, amorphous and lump. Of the 1.2 million tonnes of graphite produced annually, approximately 40 per cent is of the most desirable flake type. China, which produces about 70 per cent of the world’s graphite, is seeing production and export growth leveling, and export taxes and a licensing system have been instituted. A recent European Commission study regarding the criticality of 41 different materials to the European economy included graphite among the 14 materials high in both economic importance and supply risk (Critical Raw Materials for the EU, July 2010).
Graphite prices have been increasing in recent months and over the last couple of years prices for large flake, high purity graphite (+80 mesh, 94-97%C) have more than doubled. Other public companies developing graphite projects in Canada include Northern Graphite Corp. with its Bissett Creek project in Ontario and Focus Metals Inc. with its Lac Knife project in Quebec. High-growth, high-value graphite applications require large-flake and high-purity graphite which is the prime exploration and development target at the Quatre Milles Property.
Paul Gill, CEO of Lomiko Metals, was also nice enough to share this infographic with me this morning:
SMALL-CAP GRAPHITE PLAYERS
Ryan Fletcher, Director OFÂ Zimtu Capital Corp., sent me the following overview of market players this morning as part of a press release announcing Orocan Resources commenced drilling on 3 graphite properties in Southern Ontario (I added in the Lomiko information at the end myself to give a complete list of companies I know. Â If you know more, make sure to let me know via comments below)
1. Â Focus Metals Inc. (FMS.V)
Shares Outstanding: 83,641,175
Price: $0.82
Market Cap: $68 Million
Last Financing: $20 Million bought at C$1.00 (Cormark)
2. Â Northern Graphite (NGC.V)
Shares Outstanding: 37,415,167
Price: $0.86
Market Cap: $32 Million
Last Financing: $4 Million IPO at C$0.50
3.  Tasex Capital Corp. – CPC Undergoing QT (TAX.P)
Shares Outstanding (Post IPO): 35,100,000
IPO Price: $0.50
Post Raise Market Cap: $17.5 Million
Current Financing: $5.2 Million IPO at C$0.50
4. Â Orocan Resources (OR.V)
Shares Outstanding: 15,614,625
Current Price: $0.315
Market Cap: $4.9 Million
5.  Lomiko Metals  (LMR.V)
Shares Outstanding: 55,518,445
Current Price: $0.04
Market Cap: $2.2 Million
NEXT STEPS
It goes without saying that none of the information above is intended to be any kind of recommendation or endorsement.  I’m starting my hard DD right now and, if you have any interest in this space, I recommend you do your own due diligence on these companies, as well as the entire graphite space.
Regards,
George
As many of you know, I sold many of my TSXV holdings into November and aggressively called for a short-term bear market into tax-loss selling season (TLS), primarily based on the effect of Euro debt on the markets. Â Putting my money where my mouth is, I sold Evolving Gold and Donnybrook Energy at losses but at much higher prices, giving me the tax-loss and allowing me to re-enter at lower prices in December.
Below is a snapshot of my tax-loss selling candidates performance on Day 1 of 2012. Â I didn’t list these in advance but I tweeted and posted many of them throughout December.
Some notes:
