Malcolm Bucholtz B.Sc, MBA Analyst

Trading Note

Turkey – Taking its Place on the World Stage of Mining and Exploration

Mention mining and mineral exploration and Turkey is probably one of the last places that comes to mind. But, Turkey has quite a long history of mining and investors should now be starting to pay closer attention.

To give you an idea of this long history, the Bronze Age actually began in Turkey and the first Iron may also have been refined in Turkey. For decades now, Turkey has provided the world with a host of industrial type metals and minerals. To cite one example, Turkey is the world's largest producer of Boron- an alloy additive to steel to enhance its strength. So, why is Turkey not better recognized? Well, it would appear that Turkish politicians may not have kept pace with other nations in adapting policy to encourage expansion and development of its mineral industry. But that is all changing – and quickly. The Turkish economy is now stable and Government is now solid. There is a strong likelihood that Turkey will join the E.U. in the near future. Mining laws were revamped in 2004 and royalty rates are very attractive. Corporate tax rates are similar to what one would find in other jurisdictions around the world. There are several major gold mining firms active in Turkey and a growing list of smaller up and coming players. One of these players is Aldridge Minerals. Aldridge trades in Canada under the ticker symbol TSXv:AGM and in Frankfurt under the ticker A0CAPB.

Yenipazar

Aldridge's flagship project is the Yenipazar VMS Project in western Turkey. Aldridge can earn a 100% interest in the property from Anatolia Minerals by (1) spending US$6 million over 6 years on exploration (2) paying US$1 million to Anatolia. When a production scenario comes to fruition, Anatolia will earn 6% of net proceeds until revenues of $165 million are realized and 10% thereafter. To date, $4.5 million has been spent on exploration.

Resource estimates that have been calculated so far indicate that Yenipazar contains 7.45 million tonnes of resource containing 129,000 ounces gold, 4 million ounces silver, 28 million pounds copper, 105 million pounds lead and 125 million pounds zinc all in the indicated category. In the inferred category there is a further 136,000 ounces gold, 4.3 million ounces silver, 28 million pounds copper, 99.8 million pounds lead and 117 million pounds zinc.

The Yenipazar deposit is potentially open pit extractable. The mineralization is up to 70 m thick and is contained at depths of 35 to 190 meters below surface.

A preliminary economic assessment is currently in the works and should be released this summer sometime. This assessment will put some clearer economics and metallurgical processing details on the story and allow some valuation calculations to be done.

Turkey – Nickel Potential Too

The geological landscape of Turkey features zones of lateritic nickel mineralization. European Nickel Plc is now developing a 33 million tonne deposit of lateritic nickel in western Turkey. Aldridge is of the opinion that there must be other such deposits around and to date has acquired 17 exploration licenses. As work starts on these properties, watch for some interesting news flow.

Aldridge – Solid Management

The President of Aldridge is Dr. Hikmet Akin. Dr. Akin has 34 years experience in project evaluation and mining development. From 1995 to 1998 he was President and CEO of uranium miner Uranerz and oversaw its worldwide operations. Aldridge's exploration manager is Dr. Martin Oczlon. Dr. Oczlon spent a number of years with mining giant BHP before going on to successfully develop a copper project in Romania. Dr. Oczlon has been with Aldridge since 2003.

Aldridge – Tight Structure

Aldridge currently has only 20.63 million basic shares outstanding. There are a further 3.94 million warrants to give a fully diluted share structure of 24.57 million shares. Tight structures like this are very attractive indeed. At current prices, Aldridge has a market cap of just under $74 million. Right at this time, Aldridge is working on a private placement in the European market to raise $7 million at C$3.10 a share. With the resource identified to date, I feel the current market cap is a reasonable one. I shall be watching closely for the release of the preliminary economic assessment which will help with assigning some proper valuation to the story.

Take a Serious Look at Aldridge Minerals

At The Market Traders, we are intrigued with what Aldridge has accomplished in Turkey and we shall be watching the Aldridge story very closely going forward. Technical indictors on the following chart are suggesting an oversold condition. Use this current weakness in the markets to start building a position in the stock. As further developments are marked, we shall be issuing another Trading Note to summarize these advances.

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