Three weeks ago, I posted a Mercenary Musing detailing the risks and rewards of exploration in emerging environments. I explained the qualifying criteria a company must use to make sound investment decisions in emerging market countries, and the advantages of exploring in frontier geological settings.
This is the second of a series of musings on select companies operating in emerging countries. The first was posted three months ago on Lydian International Ltd (LYD.T) and discussed its exploration success in Armenia and how quickly that success occurred (Mercenary Musing, February 23, 2009). Not all companies will get that lucky that fast, but you know the old saying about making your own luck. Lydian positioned itself as the first mover in a previously unexplored geological environment and was rewarded.
A favorite old saying of mine is the early bird gets the worm. Once again that has proven true, and I now give you another junior explorer who was “first in”. They have the best available ground in one of the world’s most recent emerging markets.
The company is Eurasian Minerals Inc. (EMX.V) and it is led by my friend and colleague Dave Cole. Dave is a geologist who worked briefly with me as a young pup some 21 years ago. I was consulting to Newmont Exploration out of Elko, Nevada and Dave was a Newmont junior geologist fresh out of college with a degree in geology and a minor in skiing. It didn’t take me very long to realize that he was smart, energetic, and enthusiastic and someday would make his mark in the exploration and mining business.
It was simply a matter of when and where.
After a recent field visit, I’m convinced that the “where” is Haiti. Only time will tell about the “when” part of this emerging environment equation.
Eurasian Minerals has been on my watch list for over a year and a half after I saw some gaudy copper-silver samples at its trade show booth. Since then, Dave Cole and I have reviewed the company’s progress every few months. This spring EMX developed their Haiti prospects to the point where they were ready for an initial analyst tour.
We scheduled a field trip in early May, and I flew out of Albuquerque for a long Sunday of travel thru Dallas and Miami with a final destination of Providenciales, Turks and Caicos. I was to meet the EMX crew and a couple of other analysts there on Sunday night.
Unfortunately, my plane was an hour late out of DFW and the connection to T and C was scheduled 40 minutes after an on-time arrival. My best option was then a mid-morning Monday flight from Miami to Port-au-Prince. I booked that flight with American Airlines, got a whopping $15 voucher for dinner and breakfast, and waited nearly an hour for the hotel pickup. Jeez the hotel couldn’t even give me a tube of toothpaste until the next morning, and then sent the airport shuttle off five minutes early without me. Despite this, I made my flight on time and things were looking better.
But the EMX crew was now in Cap Haitien. Arrangements had been made for someone to meet me upon arrival in the Haitian capital. But there were problems at the airport: I was delayed at customs because no one told me where we were staying in Cap Haitien. Worse yet, I was there but my bags weren’t. By the time I made it thru customs, baggage carousel, lost baggage service, and immigration, the guy waiting to meet me was long gone.
I also was informed before leaving Miami that morning there would be a helicopter to meet me at the domestic airport and fly me to Cap Haitien. So I hired a taxi driver with rudimentary English and we went on a lark from the international airport to the domestic airport to the UN military base and back to the domestic airport with no sign of a helicopter anywhere and no report of anyone seeing one. Finally the driver grew tired of this wild goose chase, and dumped me off with only briefcase in hand.
Another snafu: My cell phone didn’t work in Haiti. And I could tell by whimsical looks from the locals when I picked up a couple of pay phones that they never worked either so me, myself, and I had a serious debate amongst ourselves as to what to do next.
Since I knew the crew was basing out of Cap Haitien, I bought a one-way ticket in a small plane to that town on the north-central coast. While doing this, I spied a friendly-looking fellow with a British passport, a Chicago accent, and an ability to speak French doing the same thing so I struck up a conversation. Pretty soon Dan Phillips and I were pals and he graciously lent me his Haitian-based cell phone to call the travel agent in Denver. I was hoping she knew where the crew was staying in Cap Haitien. But she didn’t have a clue either.
The next step in my journey was the flight to Cap Haitien, a check in my new found friend’s Lonely Planet Guidebook, and a compromise with Dan to stay in the second best hotel in town. We not-so-easily negotiated a taxi and the driver got lost twice, but we eventually found the place. By this time, I was on my third call to the aforementioned travel agent and I finally convinced her to call Russell, Dave Cole’s extremely efficient assistant in EMX’s Littleton office. I was confident that Russell would solve my dilemma. After 30 hours of travel, I checked in and immediately jumped into a meager shower that was interrupted by a welcome phone call. It was from Dave Cole, he had spoken to Russell, the group was back early from the heli tour because of high winds, and I was found.
Within an hour, Dave was there to pick me up and take me to the Mont Joli, the best hotel in town, complete with cold beers at the swimming pool and a gorgeous view of the sea. All that was lost was half of the project tour, my bags, and a few hundred dollars in expenses for an unscheduled plane flight, a couple of taxis, three meals, and an extra hotel room for that night.
Even at the time, it seemed a small price for the self-satisfaction of once again proving that I can find my way to where I’m supposed to be despite the curves that are thrown in the third world.
I’m glad you’ve indulged my storytelling. But you aren’t reading this to learn about travel logistics and difficulties. To this end, let’s briefly review the history, geographical, and environmental settings of the country of Haiti:
Columbus landed on the island of Hispaniola in present day Haiti in 1492. The Spanish exploited the country for gold and the native population was decimated by rebellion, slavery, and disease by the early 1500s. They began importing African slaves and French pirates settled the western part of the island in the 16th century. In the 1660’s, Spain conquered the French. However, French farmers continued to settle in the west and established tobacco, sugar, and indigo plantations. After years of conflict, the Spanish an...