Columbia Metals

(TSX:COL) - Shares Outstanding: 92,956,427

Material from Open Pit Added to Leach Pad - Freshly-crushed material on the leach pad currently amounts to approximately 70,000 tonnes, 25,000 tonnes from the Open Pit, 8,000 from the El Pozo prospect, and 37,000 tonnes from the heap proper. Ore continues to be added to the heap from El Pozo. No further tonnage is planned to be trucked from the Open Pit at this time.

Crusher Operations - A large rock fell from the crusher feed hopper on May 23, and landed on one of the travel wheels, breaking the leaf springs on both sides and necessitating the detachment of the entire wheel assembly. Down time was minimal, the spring package will be replaced shortly.

Accessing More Mineable Material - About 15,000 mineable tonnes is estimated to remain at El Pozo to be transported to the crusher. There are about 2,000 tonnes uncrushed on the ground at the crusher. A second lot of samples was delivered to Jacobs' Assay Lab in Tucson on Monday morning, June 2. Read more »

The Wall Street Journal reporting on the current currency crisis in Vietnam seems very similar to what is going on here in the U.S.

"The government said this week the inflation rate in May was 25.2% on an annual basis, up from 21.4% in April and 14.1% in January. A slow government response was in large part to blame. When oil and food prices began to rise late last year, the State Bank of Vietnam, hoping to sustain growth, was slow to rein in inflationary pressure by raising rates or clamping down effectively on irresponsible lending. Efforts to control inflation proved ineffective -- such as a loosening of the currency's dollar peg, which backfired largely because of lending practices." Read more »

Malcolm Bucholtz B.Sc, MBA Analyst

Trading Note

Lluvia de Oro - Lives Again

Let’s face it. The landscape of the current junior resource market is scattered with lower grade Copper-Gold deposits. Many of these stories have been looked at, mulled over, kicked about and unceremoniously cast aside. Among the hubris is a company called Columbia Metals. I recently ran into Columbia’s CEO Chris Berlet at the Hard Assets Show in New York. As Chris started to tell me his story, my mind shifted into “metallurgy mode” and I quickly realized that Columbia Metals was an under-appreciated, mis-understood story. In fact, Columbia Metals is a gem and those investors acquiring it right now at 15 cents a share are setting themselves up for some very good times ahead.

A quick visit to the company website will probably leave you wondering just what that guy at The Market Traders is talking about. How can a 15 cent stock get him so excited? A visit to the Columbia Metals website will probably not help you much either as it does not adequately tell the story. So I shall attempt to convey the story in this brief Trading Note. Read more »