Dear Shareholders and Friends,
David Mason, executive chairman and founder of Augen Capital Corp., highlighted New Nadina Explorations in a recent interview with Streetwise Reports. In the interview, Mr. Mason discusses market fears, a weakening U.S. dollar and "the most important factor" that will drive gold ahead of the commodities pack in 1Q09.
Mix one part mining analysis with one part corporate finance, then add 25 years of investing experience and get David's thoughts on why he is bullish in '09. In its first 10 years, Mason's merchant bank completed 250 investments and financings and emerged as an industry leader in tax-advantaged flow-through investments in Canada's resource sectors.
I thought you would be interested in reading his comments on New Nadina Explorations. These are provided below.
Regards,
Ellen Clement
Director, President, & CEO
Mr. Mason's Comments:
TGR: What can you tell me about New Nadina Explorations?
DM: It's a very interesting play. Diamonds, as you know, are very high risk. Either you've got a winner or it's a turkey and there are millions of kimberlite pipes across the globe. The thing that attracted us to New Nadina was the fact that two of the best minds in the Diamond business are actually putting up their own money, and I had the opportunity to go up and pick the brains of both those individuals. I'd known them professionally for a number of years, but there is a big difference between talking to the people casually and working on the same project. I'm quite convinced that they're going to come up with a find here; they've got all the right ingredients.
Almost all of the kimberlite pipes in that part of the world around Lac de Gras, you can pick up from topography. The round lakes are a dead giveaway. Then, if the indicator minerals, largely the garnet grains, look like you've got some of the right mineral ingredients in the pipe, plus a strong magnetic anomaly (actually, in some cases, you can have a reverse, a negative magnetic anomaly with a kimberlite), you've got a pretty good bet there. Some of the targets they have on the Monument Property are known to run in diamonds, so with all those things you've reduced your risk by a huge amount. I think it's a good shot.
TGR: And their assets are primarily where again? In British Columbia?
DM: No, in the Lac de Gras area of Northwest Territories, and that's where our whole Diamond business got started. It was interesting, for years geologists knew there was a good potential for diamonds in Canada but we couldn't get any of the major players interested. There's the odd discovery of diamonds here and there, but the big players, De Beers and BHP and so on, just weren't interested. It really took people like Chuck Fipke, who had an absolutely unrelenting desire to find diamonds, and finding the Ekati deposits was a major coup. After that, the majors couldn't ignore Canada and now I think we're going to rival almost any other country in the world. Our Diamond business is growing by leaps and bounds.
To see the entire interview click here: www.TheAuReport.com/cs/user/print/na/2093