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Gold Production in SpainBob Moriarty I visited Spain over three years ago to visit an interesting gold project owned by Astur Gold (AST-V). Spain was your garden-variety economic disaster back then. It’s worse now with 57.7% unemployment in the 25 and younger age group. I could go on for a week about the stupidity of the “leadership” of the European Union. The EU is a failed concept and those blithering idiots fail to see it. It requires 60 pages of detailed instructions from the bureaucrats in Brussels to tell someone the regulations on the amount of water to use to flush a toilet. Greece is not much better, with 55% unemployment in the 25 and under crowd. This is the stuff that creates revolutions. The EU in general is a failure and the sooner governments realize it, the sooner we can return to supply and demand providing the laws for a society. The Chinese banking system just blew up. Like Thailand did in 1997, China may well be the straw that broke the financial camel’s back. Clearly there has been no economic recovery anywhere in the world. It’s all lies from every government. Astur Gold has been busy moving forward since I saw them in 2010. At that time they wanted to build a low cost open pit gold mine on top of what had been an important Roman gold mine 2000 years ago. Local opposition stopped the open pit idea and Astur needed to move the goal posts to a more friendly underground mine. Need I remind readers that underground mines cost a lot more money? So the wisdom of the local town fathers has cost Spain both jobs and tax revenue. Idiots. Astur, like so many of its brother junior resource companies, is absurdly underpriced. With 1.7 million ounces in M&I resources and an additional 338,000 ounces in inferred the company is getting about $6.50 an ounce in the ground. The company was worth 500% more two years ago. It will go back to a more reasonable market cap soon as investors realize we have had a major market bottom. In a PEA first released in 2011, using a gold price of $1100 an ounce, the NPV (Net Present Value) ranged from $357 million to $553 million. The IRR (Internal Rate of Return) ranged from a healthy 30% to 47%. Capex topped out at $183 million, very doable. Astur expects the revised EIA within 4 weeks. The production decision will be made in the March/April timeframe. Company President Cary Pinkowski tells me the Bankable Feasibility Study is 80% complete. Recent drill results announced in early January will be incorporated in a company underground resource anticipated within a few weeks. Astur is yet another of the many screaming opportunities. Cary has continued to move the company forward to production even as his share price has gotten hammered. 2014 will be a good year for Astur and the rest of the junior resource stocks. Astur is an advertiser and as such I have to be biased. I don’t own shares and as always, you are responsible for your own finances, not me. Do some due diligence. Astur Gold ### Bob Moriarty 321gold Ltd |
