An altogether bad week

What a bad week.  The Libyan resistance isn't getting any meaningful support (does this ring bells of Taiwan's 228 tragedgy?) and there was a massive Richter 8.9 quake in north eastern Japan.  Subduction type earthquakes are the largest ever recorded and this one was over 100x more powerful than the transform fault type quake that hit Christchurch, New Zealand last month.


Japan (and Taiwan) is an island arc - the end result of a subduction zone

On the markets, the TSX sunk from record highs and despite strong gold prices, the mining stocks collapsed.  My bet on Northern Dynasty Minerals is looking pretty grim, but I dumped my Kinross for a $900 loss and traded it in for more NDM.  It's been said many times that NDM is for sale.  Looking at the ownership structure, I wouldn't be surprised if Rio Tinto bought out management and the other shares outstanding.  That would put their share at about 89%.  They would then be half owners of the Pebble Project (Anglo American owns the other half).  So, I'm hoping for that day to come in 2011 so I can cash in on the Pebble Deposit.

I've also decided that I have to set aside about $1000 to make frequent trades on penny stocks like FDC-V, MIN-V, VAE-V, and RG-V so I can keep my active trader status.

St David's Day - betting on the giant Alaska Cu/Au/Mo Pebble Deposit

It's St David's day today - the national day of Wales. I read about this in National Geographic during the winter break - Bristol Bay Copper/Gold/Molybdenum deposit in Alaska.  Today, I unloaded most of my position in AVR-T and bought NDM-T.  They own half this deposit and the major shareholders are Anglo American (50%), Rio Tinto (20%), management (12%).  Another 11% used to be owned by Mitsubishi, but they sold their stake last week.  Now, TD Newcrest upped their target price to $44 and says their takeover price would be $128.  Who knows.  This could be a big hit and I like that the big boys have already bought in.  Downside is of course, it could destroy the rich salmon and steelhead fishery in Alaska.  I often buy Alaska rainbow trout from Bev's Fish and Seafod (Prince Albert).  It's amazingly tasty fish.  There is a website that's all about trying to stop the mining and saving this beautiful place from development.  I guess given the rich copper deposits in Chile (an active subduction zone), it would not be surprising that Alaska (also a subduction zone) has rich copper deposits.  This is similar to the offshore oil exploration near Guyana as a result of the oil wells now producing offshore Ghana on the other side of the Atlantic.  I figure it's about time I started using my geophysics background to make money.

And, my Heifetz complete collection came in from England today.  Had to pay about $19 brokerage and GST though.   I got it for $240 and now it's listing for $480!