Lean Supplier

Sequester - A general cut in government spending.

2013-03-02T12:30:00.000-08:00

$FB - Up 2.4% from last Friday. LinkedIn Replaces Facebook as Top Social Tool for Companies.

$ABX - New 52-week low 29.33. Gold Will Play A Key Role In Emerging Global Monetary Order Seeking Alpha

$NEM - New 52-week low 39.56. Goldberg promoted to CEO of Colorado-based Newmont Mining Corp. Denver Post Harbinger news Buenaventura Profit Misses Estimates on Lower Output Bloomberg

$FCX - Fitch rates Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold Rueters

$RIOM - Rio Alto to Produce 190,000-210,000 Ounces of Gold in 2013 Marketwire

$CAT - Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) Is Still Not a Buy Motley Fool

Markets:

30-Year US Treasury Bond - 3.065 down from 3.155 last week. U.S. 10-Year Yields Fall Most in 6 Months on Bernanke Assurances Bloomberg
US Dollar Index - 82.28 up from 81.46 last week. Euro Falls Below $1.30 as Economic Weakness May Spur ECB Moves Bloomberg
Gold - 1,576.8 up from 1,574.3 last week. Western Investors Eyeing Economic Recovery, Weighing on Gold: WGC Kitco News

Copper - 3.4815 down from 3.533 last week. DJ Comex Copper at Three-Month Low as China Factory Growth Slows Trading Charts
Oil - 91.02 down from 93.36 last week. Ruble Drops to Lowest This Year as Crude Oil Slides on China Bloomberg

Northern Peru Projects and Exploration:

Sulliden Gold - C$0.84 down from C$0.86 last week.

Tartisan Resources - C$0.10 down from C$0.13 last week.

Candente Gold - C$0.10 down from C$0.12 last week.

New Demensions Resources...Cenpa project on Equador border. See map
Sienna Gold - C$0.265 up from C$0.255 last week.
Lupaka Gold C$0.35 same as last week.
Igor Project and the Callanquitas Discovery

Privately held companies:

Comarsa... FACEBOOK/COMARSA $FB

Disclosure: I intend to focus on selected gold mines in Northern Peru. This week I have positions in Barrick and Facebook. I prepared this article myself, and linked it to third-party articles and information published on the internet. I am not receiving compensation for this article other than from Google Adsense, my website www.leansupplier.com and the sale of my book The Lean Supplier and Google maps. I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

US Dollar Rally Enters Fifth Week and Impacts Miners and Caterpillar

2013-02-24T11:17:00.002-08:00

$FB - Down 4.4% from last Friday! Facebook Inc (FB) CEO Can’t Wait For Google Glass Value Walk

$ABX - Down 3.4% this week. Less than Facebook. Less than other miners and Caterpillar. 52-week low of 30.14 set 2/22/2013. Ex-Div Reminder for Barrick Gold Corp Tuesday 2/26/2013 Forbes

$NEM - Down 6.6% this week. 52-week low of 40.44 set 2/21/2013. Newmont Mining Beats Estimates; Raises Dividend (NEM) Dividend.com "We return more cash per share and offer more leverage in our dividend policy than any company in the gold industry." Investor Relations Newmont

$FCX - Down 8.6% this week. A Perfect Storm Brewing For Copper Mining Stocks Seeking Alpha

$RIOM - Down 7.2% this week. Rio Alto Mining (RIOM) Shares Enter Oversold Territory Forbes

$CAT - Down 4.4% this week Caterpillar Sales Down 4% in 3 Months to End of January 4-Traders.com

Markets:

30-Year US Treasury Bond - 3.155 down from 3.179 last week. 2 Million Homeowners No Longer Underwater on Mortgage: Zillow
US Dollar Index - 81.46 up from last week. US Dollar Rally Enters Fifth Week - What Could Derail It? DailyFX
Gold - 1,581.5 down from 1,610 last week. METALS OUTLOOK: Gold Market To Eye Italian Elections, Bernanke, Data, Sequestration Kitco

Copper - 3.533 down from 3.73 last week. Focus: Copper open interest falling away. Kitco.
Oil - 93.36 down from 96.08 last week. Crude Oil Deluge to Hit U.S. Gulf Coast Motley Fool

Northern Peru Projects and Exploration:

Sulliden Gold C$0.86 down from C$0.88 last week.

Tartisan Resources C$0.13 same as last week.

Candente Gold C$0.12 up from C$0.10 last week.

New Demensions Resources...Cenpa project on Equador border. See map
Sienna Gold C$0.255 down from C$0.295 last week.
Lupaka Gold C$0.35
Igor Project and the Callanquitas Discovery

Privately held companies:

Comarsa... FACEBOOK/COMARSA $FB

Facebook winning over commodity shareholders?

2013-02-16T20:00:00.000-08:00

$FB - This Week’s 5 Smartest Stock Moves: Facebook Inc (FB) and More. The Motley Fool

$ABX - Pascua Lama Construction Progress Photos — January, 2013 "...the company has been working with Fluor to carry out a more comprehensive top-to-bottom review. This review will be complete by our 2012 year-end results release; however, work to date suggests capital costs will be closer to $8.0-$8.5 billion, with first production in the second half of 2014."

$NEM - Newmont Appoints Dr. Elaine Dorward-King as Executive Vice President of Sustainability & External Relations 4-Traders

$FCX - Is Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (FCX) Destined for Greatness? The Motley Fool

$RIOM - Rio Alto Mining and Emerging Stocks Drop as Apple Sales Hit Asian Suppliers Bloomberg

Markets:

30-Year US Treasury Bond - 3.179 up slightly from 3.167 last week.
US Dollar Index - 80.48 up from 80.21 last week.
Gold - 1,610 big drop from 1,667.2 last week. METALS OUTLOOK: Sentiment In Gold Changes; Watch Asian Activity" Debbie Carlson Kitco News

Copper - 3.73 down from 3.75 last week. Market Nuggets: Societe Generale: Copper Rises In Recent Weeks But So Do LME Inventories Allen Sykora of Kitco News

Oil - 96.08 up slightly from 95.76 last week. Report On Industrial Production: Crude Oil Output Reached A 20-Year High In January Mark J Perry Seeking Alpha

Northern Peru Projects and Exploration:

Sulliden Gold C$0.88 down from C$0.92 last week.

Tartisan Resources C$0.13 same as last week. Tartisan Resources Announces Completion of the Terms of "La Victoria" Option Earning 100% Unencumbered Interest Stockhouse

Candente Gold C$0.10 down from C$0.14.

New Demensions Resources...Cenpa project on Equador border. See map
Sienna Gold C$0.295 Igor is the company’s main exploration project and lies within the Northern Peru Cu-Au Porphyry Belt Location
Igor Project and the Callanquitas Discovery

Privately held companies:

Comarsa... FACEBOOK/COMARSA $FB

Disclosure: I intend to focus on selected gold mines in Northern Peru. I have one position in Apple. I prepared this article myself, and linked it to third-party articles and information published on the internet. I am not receiving compensation for this article other than from Google Adsense, my website www.leansupplier.com and the sale of my book The Lean Supplier and Google maps. I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Be my Valentine

2013-02-09T20:00:00.000-08:00

$ABX "Einhorn's other big bet is on gold" The Motly Fool. Yes, Barrick Gold. Mr. Einhorn did wonders for Apple $AAPL stock price last week. Mr. Einhorn, can you do your magic on Barrick as well? Pascua Lama Construction Progress Photos — December 2012 "...the company has been working with Fluor to carry out a more comprehensive top-to-bottom review. This review will be complete by our 2012 year-end results release; however, work to date suggests capital costs will be closer to $8.0-$8.5 billion, with first production in the second half of 2014." Barrick's 2012 year-end results release is Thursday, February 14, 2013, Valentine's Day.

Markets:

30-Year US Treasury Bond - 3.167 down from 3.21 last week. "Have We Entered The Great Rotation?" Charles Schwab
US Dollar Index - 80.21 up from 79.21 last week. "US Dollar Index in highs around 80.31" Nasdac

Gold - 1,667.2 same as 1,667.6 last week. CME Group To Cut Margins For Gold, Silver, Copper, Platinum KitcoNews

Copper - 3.75 slightly down from 3.78 last week. "Shanghai copper price up on positive economic data" Metal Bulletina
Oil - 95.76 down from 97.61 last week. "Oil Exports Trim U.S. Deficit as Fuel Gap Shrinks" Bloomberg

Public traded stocks:

Barrick Gold $ABX - 32.72 "A Monumental Score for Silver Wheaton" The Motley Fool

Newmont Mining $NEM - 44.93 "The Difference Between Gold and Gold Stocks" Barrons
Rio Alto Mining $RIOM - 5.30 "Santa Barbara Signs Letter of Intent with Rio Alto Mining for Sancos Property in Peru and Announces Private Placement" Yahoo Finance

Freeport McMoran $FCX - 35.64. "Can Freeport-McMoRan Bounce Back?" The Motley Fool

Projects and Exploration:

Sulliden Gold C$0.92. "Sulliden Gold Corporation Ltd. Announces Executive Changes" Bloomberg Businessweek

Tartisan Resources C$0.13

Candente Gold... C$0.14. Map Alto Dorado... Candente Gold website

Candente Copper... C$0.57

New Demensions Resources...Cenpa project on Equador border. See map

Privately held companies:

Comarsa... FACEBOOK/COMARSA $FB

2013-02-02T20:00:00.001-08:00

$ABX - Barrick 32.20 down from 32.81 last week (-1.86%) - intraday 52-week low of 31 touched on Friday, February 01, then rallied to 32.2 with the upbeat market rally. Expect to revisit this 52-week low on February 15th if market is not receptive to Barrick's earnings report, progress of the Pasqua Lama Project, or a big write-off to earnings from the Equinox acquisition. Here are the link to write-ups:

1. Analyzing Barrick Gold's Debt And Risk Seeking Alpha
2. Dominican officials call for new deal on gold mine Yahoo Finance

3. "This quarter can be viewed as a culmination of headwinds for Barrick and a final flushing out of major negative news" Motley Fool

Markets:

30-Year US Treasury Bond - 3.21 up from 3.13 last week. - Job Market ‘Making Slow and Steady Progress Every Month’: Jack Ablin Yahoo Finance
US Dollar Index - 79.21 down from 79.74 last week. Gold prices followed the Dollar Index Friday!

Gold - 1,667.6 up from 1,659.30 last week. - METALS OUTLOOK: Gold Likely To Remain Range-Bound Next Week; Watching ECB Kitco News

Copper - 3.78 up from 3.636 last week. - Copper Set for Biggest Weekly Advance in Four on Chinese Revival Bloomberg
Oil - 97.61 up from 96.25 last week. Exxon Mobil Management Discusses Q4 2012 Results - Earnings Call Transcript Yahoo Finance/Seeking Alpha

Projects and Exploration:

Sulliden Gold - Shahuindo Project - Location Peru. Sulliden website

Tartisan Resources - Engages Ubika Corporation to Promote Investor Exposure... Newsfile

Candente Gold. - Projects - Map Alto Dorado... Candente Gold website

Candente Copper - Cañariaco Norte Copper Project located in northern Peru

New Demensions Resources...Cenpa project on Equador border. See map

Privately held companies:

Comarsa... FREE PROMOTIONAL CALENDAR on FACEBOOK/COMARSA $FB

Disclosure: I intend to focus on selected gold mines in Northern Peru. I have no positions in the securities mentioned above. I prepared this article myself, and linked it to third-party articles and information published on the internet. I am not receiving compensation for this article other than from Google Adsense, my website www.leansupplier.com and the sale of my book The Lean Supplier and Google maps. I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Facebook or Barrick Gold earnings report?

2013-01-26T18:00:00.000-08:00

$FB - 31.54 up from 29.66 last week (+6.3%)
"Watch Out Facebook, With Google+ at #2 and YouTube at #3, Google, Inc. Could Catch Up" Forbes. "6 Ways for Businesses to Do More (and Make More) With Facebook, Twitter, and Other Social Media" Minanyville

$FCX - 34.87 up from 33.64 last Friday (3.66%) - "Gold And Silver Are Popular But Do Not Forget About Copper" Seeking Alpha

$ABX - 32.81 down from 34.04 last week (-3.6%) - "Gold, Silver Prices Smashed - Set For Big Meltdown?" Investors.com. "Earnings announcement for ABX: Feb 14, 2013" nasdaq.com

Markets:

30-Year US Treasury Bond 3.13 up from 3.03 last week "...Entering Shift Not Seen Since 1946"Yahoo Finance

US Dollar Index - 79.74 down from 80.04 last week.

Gold - 1,659.30 down from 1,684.30 last week. - "Gold Survey: Opinions Are Divided On Gold's Price Direction For Next Week" Kitco

Copper - 3.636 same as 3.64 last week. - "Xstrata Keeps Las Bambas Cost at $5.2 Billion, Sees Output 2015 Bloomberg
Oil - 96.25 up from 95.25 last week and also up from 93.70 two weeks ago.

Disclosure: I intend to focus on selected gold mines in Northern Peru. I have no positions in the securites mentioned above. I prepared this article myself, and linked it to third-party articles and information published on the internet. I am not receiving compensation for this article other than from Google Adsense, my website www.leansupplier.com and the sale of my book The Lean Supplier and Google maps. I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Inauguration Day

2013-01-20T10:30:00.000-08:00

Four years ago I retired as Logistics Manager from Minera Barrick Misquichilca. Over my ten years with Barrick I had participated in the growth fueled by the very low cost Peruvian mines of Pierina and Lagunas Norte. As I watched President Obama being sworn in for his first term, I thought to myself, "when a new manager comes to Barrick for example, things change."

On the bottom of the TV screen was a market flash alert - DOW down 200 points. About 10 months before I had moved my IRA to cash and had subsequently missed the stock market crash of late 2008. Based on the "things change with a new manager" theory, I invested 30% of the IRA back in the same Fidelity Growth America fund I had contributed to monthly for almost ten years. Every two weeks I invested another 30% and by March I was 100% invested in $FDGRX. Only now I had three times as many shares as I had had just one year earlier. The rest is history.

Today it is easy to look back four years ago, and see that it was a different situation back then. President Obama, his administration, and Ben Bernanke have done an incredible job restoring the economy and resolving terrorist threats. During President Obama's last two years I invested in Apple. Change happened and my IRA/401K has benefited greatly.

Which will be the most profitable investments at the start of President Obama's second term?

$FB - 29.66 "Facebook Unveils a New Search Tool" Bits

$FCX - 33.64 "Soon To Be An Energy Stock, Is Freeport-McMoRan A Good Value?" Seeking Alpha

$ABX - 34.04 "Pueblo Viejo Achieves Commercial Production" Barrick website

Markets:

30-Year US Treasury Bond 3.03 from 3.054 "...Entering Shift Not Seen Since 1946"Yahoo Finance

US Dollar Index - 80.04 up from 79.56 last week.

Gold - 1,684.30 up from 1,662.70 last week. "The Germans Want Their Gold Reserves Back in Germany" Forbes

Copper - 3.64 compared to 3.65 last week.

Oil - 95.25 up from 93.70 last week.

Public traded stocks:

Barrick Gold $ABX - 34.25 down from 34.60 last week. "...a Canadian resource giant that requires massive capital expenditures for years to exploit a find." Forbes

Newmont Mining $NEM - 45.89 same as 45.76 last week. "Peru State Water Works Seek to Deflect Newmont Protests" Bloomberg

Rio Alto Mining $RIOM - 5.53 up from 5.18. "...Eligible Investment for Peruvian Pension Funds" Marketwire

Freeport McMoran $FCX - 33.64 down from 35. "Bids Too Much in Buyouts, Investors Say in Suit" Bloomberg

Projects and Exploration:

Sulliden Gold C$1.08 up from C$1.03 last week. Shahuindo Project - Location Peru. Sulliden website

Tartisan Resources C$0.13 up from C$0.12 last week. Engages Ubika Corporation to Promote Investor Exposure... Newsfile

Candente Gold... C$0.15 down from C$0.16 last week. Projects - Map Alto Dorado... Candente Gold website

Candente Copper... C$0.445 Cañariaco Norte Copper Project located in northern Peru

New Demensions Resources...Cenpa project on Equador border. See map

Privately held companies:

Comarsa... FREE PROMOTIONAL CALENDAR on FACEBOOK/COMARSA $FB

Disclosure: I intend to focus on selected gold mines in Northern Peru. I have positions in Rio Alto mining and Barrick. I prepared this article myself, and linked it to third-party articles and information published on the internet. I am not receiving compensation for this article other than from Google Adsense, my website www.leansupplier.com and the sale of my book The Lean Supplier and Google maps. I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Facebook event or Freeport McMoran earnings?

2013-01-12T15:00:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday, January 15, 2013, Facebook $FB conducts a much anticipated event "Look what we are building." Also on Tuesday Freeport McMoran $FCX releases earnings. Which will have more market impact?

Markets:

30-Year US Treasury Bond - yield 3.054 from 3.111 due to Japan stimulus.

US Dollar Index - 79.56 down from 80.50 last week.

Gold - $1,662.70 slightly higher than $1,656.80 last week. Seeking Alpha
Copper - $3.65 compared to $3.68 last week. Stocktwits
Oil - $93.70 about the same as $93.13 last week. Stocktwits

Public traded stocks:

Barrick Gold - $34.25 down from $34.60 last week. "miserable year (2012) for investors" Seeking Alpha

Newmont Mining - $45.76 same as $45.94 last week. - "Sell Newmont...."Seeking Alpha

Rio Alto Mining - $5.18 down from $5.24 - produced 201,113 ounces of gold in 2012 Kitco news

Freeport McMoran - $35 down from $35.49 - "earnings report $0.77" Jan 15. Live Trading News

Projects and Exploration:

Sulliden Gold - C$1.03 up from C$0.94 last week Shahuindo Project - Location Peru. Sulliden website

Tartisan Resources ... C$0.12 - Engages Ubika Corporation to Promote Investor Exposure... Newsfile

Candente Gold... C$0.16 - Projects - Map Alto Dorado... Candente Gold website

Candente Copper... Cañariaco Norte Copper Project located in northern Peru

New Demensions Resources...Cenpa project on Equador border. See map
Privately held companies:

Comarsa... joins facebook.... Facebook/Comarsa

Disclosure: I intend to focus on selected gold mines in Northern Peru. I have one position in Rio Alto mining. I prepared this article myself, and linked it to third party articles and information published on the internet. I am not receiving compensation for this article other than from Google Adsense, my website www.leansupplier.com and the sale of my book The Lean Supplier. I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

My 2013 Trading Resolutions

2013-01-05T14:00:00.000-08:00

2012 Performance: 21.48% including all the big mistakes and embarrassments.

2013 Trading Resolutions:

1. How many times did I PANIC-SELL exactly at the bottom in 2012? Way too many!

2. Don't waste a 5% profit once made. DON'T be GREEDY!

3. SWING-TRADE only my well-researched DOW stocks, those that price homework is done daily and technical homework done weekly over a period of three months or more. Buy on 200 points DOWN days. SELL on 200 UP days, or at least enter a SELL STOP. Trade with the emotion of the MACHINES. Do not trade hyped-up IPO's or stocks promoted on TV. Listen daily to Bloomberg as well as MNBC. STAY WITH THE PLAN.

4. Look for five EPS GROWTH STOCKS per week, sixty growth opportunities/quarter 2013. Summarize research onto manual note cards and prioritize by growth rate. Swing-trade only the five highest growth stocks. Complete weekly technical data weekly on top fifteen stocks. Complete EPS growth rate on all sixty once every quarter.

5. Do LOSS CONTROL homework on position holdings daily. Protect capital even if I have to sell at the bottom. Remember the trading rule, "the first loss is the least lost". We all make mistakes, and I made some really embarrassing mistakes in 2012. Do LOSS CONTROL daily and make the decision!

6. Don't BUY on BIG UP days, UNLESS there is a significant change in the price of the corresponding commodity, the FED policy, or an international event impacting prices.

7. On big positions with a big trading profit, DON'T WAIT to SELL...only to lose alot! SIMPLY SELL when the trend changes. Then go play golf, go fishing, or take a long walk for several days or even months. If the LORD has favored me with a large profit don't forget to help my less fortunate family members with 10% of the profit.

8. 2012 has shown me that my health is the most important of all trading rules and regulations. STAY HEALTHY in 2013.

Markets:

30-Year US Treasury Bond - the yield increased to 3.111 from 2.87 percent.

US Dollar Index - 80.50 up from 79.67 last week.

Gold - $1,656.80 vs $1,653.80 last week, slight increase despite... "Fed Considers End to Stimulus"
Copper - $3.68 up from $3.60 last week.
Oil - $93.13 up from $91.30 on December 28, 2012

Public traded stocks:

Barrick Gold - $34.60 up from $34.01 - "Returns will drive production..." Barrick PDF presentation

Newmont Mining - $45.94 up from $45.03 - "...And The Way Forward" Forbes

Rio Alto Mining - $5.24 up from $4.97 - "cost guidance in January 2013..." Seeking Alpha

Freeport McMoran - $35.49 up from $33.14 - "Freeport-McMoRan Has It Right" Insider Monkey

Projects and Exploration:

Sulliden Gold - C$0.94 up from C$0.86 - Shahuindo Project - Location in Peru. Sulliden website

Tartisan Resources ... C$0.12 - Engages Ubika Corporation to Promote Investor Exposure... Newsfile

Candente Gold... C$0.16 - Projects - Map Alto Dorado... Candente Gold website

Candente Copper... Cañariaco Norte Copper Project located in northern Peru

Privately held companies:

Comarsa... joins facebook.... Facebook/Comarsa

Disclosure: I intend to focus on selected gold mines in Northern Peru. I have no positions in the stocks mentioned above, however that might change if gold and copper prices increase this week. I prepared this article myself, and linked it to third party articles and information published on the internet. I am not receiving compensation for this article other than from Google Adsense, my website www.leansupplier.com and the sale of my book The Lean Supplier. I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Fiscal cliff impacts my gold stocks.

2012-12-29T13:00:00.000-08:00

Going over the fiscal cliff corrects the many budget imbalances created during the Bush/Greenspan years and exacerbated during the Obama/Bernanke years. It sounds like the prudent and conservative thing to do. BUT....

... would it really be wise to abandon the "Bernanke way"?

The budget imbalances, from my viewpoint, are showing up as a surplus in afew countries like China and Peru, and in many large corporations like Apple $AAPL, Google $GOOG, and Exxon $XOM. These fortunate instututions don't know what to do with their surplus so they lend it back to the US Treasury, ie purchase US Treasury Bonds. Interest on the US treasury bonds is historically low, and in fact paying more interest would only result in more accumulation of dollars in afew fortunate countries and large corporations. Best that interest rates remain low, or zero, for the forseeable future, or until employment picks-up.

Fortunately, the "Buck" does not stop at the US Treasury, the US government pays it out to the military complex, medicare, unemployment benefits, social security, ie. the circulation of money keeps going and the "Buck" is passed to the consumer. Stopping the flow of money would be the worst case for the US government. Most likely it would cause riots in the streets in addition to a collapse of the economy in general. There is already a lack of demand. We need more demand, not less!

Therefore, why abandon a fiscal strategy which appears to keep everything in place, a policy which keeps the flow of money intact and maintains a floor under consumer demand? That's my question.

As for my gold stocks, let's face it, Bernanke has changed course from supporting US Treasury bonds to supporting real estate mortgages and the real estate market. Gold stocks flourished during the first phase of Bernanke's strategy. Will they continue to flourish? Maybe so... as long as the gold companies invest their surplus dollars in the private sector and not US Treasury Bonds.

I hope we don't go over the fiscal cliff.

Bond Market:

30-Year US Treasury Bond - "the yield on the 30-Year Bond declined 5 basis points to 2.87 percent."

US Dollar Index - 79.67 - "Dollar Index Touches Two-Week High."

Gold - $1,653.80 - "...one might expect more modest increases in metal prices..."

Public traded stocks:

Barrick Gold - $34.01 - $ABX ... Returns will drive production... Barrick website

... Photos — Pasqua-Lama Project Overview November 2012... Barrick website

Newmont Mining - $45.03 - $NEM "...dividend yield... 3.2% and return on capital is 13%..." Barrons

Rio Alto Mining - $4.97 - $RIOM...production cost guidance in January 2013..." Seeking Alpha

Freeport McMoran - $33.14 - $FCX "...refuse to give up at Davy Jones 1..." Forbes

Projects and Exploration:

Sulliden Gold - C$0.86 - Shahuindo Project - Location in Peru. see Sulliden website

Tartisan Resources ... Engages Ubika Corporation to Promote Investor Exposure... Newsfile

Candente Gold... Projects - Map Alto Dorado... Candente Gold website

Privately held companies:

Comarsa... joins facebook.... Facebook/Comarsa

Disclosure: I intend to focus on selected gold mines in Northern Peru. I have one long positions in the stocks mentioned above. I prepared this article myself, and linked it to third party articles and information published on the internet. I am not receiving compensation for this article other than from Google Adsense, my website www.leansupplier.com and the sale of my book The Lean Supplier. I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Merry Christmas to All - Felice Navidad a Todos - 2

2012-12-22T18:00:00.000-08:00

Disclosure: I intend to focus on selected gold mines in Northern Peru. I have no long positions in the stocks mentioned below. I prepared this article myself, and linked it to third party articles and information published on the internet. I am not receiving compensation for this article other than from Google Adsense, my website www.leansupplier.com and the sale of my book The Lean Supplier. I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Merry Christmas to All - Felice Navidad a Todos

My Gold Mining Companies

Saturday, December 22, 2012

Public traded stocks:

Barrick Gold ... Returns will drive production... Barrick website
... Photos — Pasqua-Lama Project Overview November 2012... Barrick website

Newmont Mining.. Listening to the city of Cajamarca... Yanacocha website

Rio Alto Mining... trading on the NYSE under the ticker symbol "RIOM"... Yahoo Finance
... “Leading by Example” November 2012 corporate... Rio Alto website

Projects and Exploration:

Sulliden Gold - Shahuindo Project - Location in Peru. see Sulliden website

Tartisan Resources ... Engages Ubika Corporation to Promote Investor Exposure... Newsfile

Candente Gold... Projects - Map Alto Dorado... Candente Gold website
Privately held companies:
Comarsa... joins facebook.... Facebook/Comarsa
Bond Market:
30-Year US Treasury Bond - U.S. 30-year Treasury Yields Reach 3%

Merry Christmas - Felice Navidad - December, 2012

2012-12-15T07:08:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas to All - Felice Navidad a Todos

My Gold Mining Companies
Saturday, December 15, 2012

Public traded stocks :

Barrick Gold ... to inject $2 billion to Pascua-Lama in 2013. Mining.com News

Newmont Mining Social opposition to mining in Peru intensified in 2012. Business News Americas
Rio Alto Mining (RIO.TO) 2012 gold production guidance of 190,000 to 210,000 ounces. Yahoo

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold (NYSE:FCX) re-enters the oil and gas business (Seeking Alpha)
$4 billion mill expansion at the Cerro Verde copper operation in Peru next year. Mining.com News

Private owned company:

COMARSA The United States government has unblocked the U.S. bank account... Peruvian Times

Projects and Exploration:

Sulliden Gold - Shahuindo Project - Location in Peru. see Sulliden website

Tartisan Resources engages UBIKA Corporation to promote investor exposure. Minera Tartisan
Candente Copper (TSE:DNT) said workers driving to its Cañariaco Norte project, a large-scale open pit copper project in northern Peru, were stopped and detained on Tuesday. Mining.com News

Loss Control Saturday, December 1, 2012

2012-12-08T12:57:00.000-08:00

Weekly Report: Long positions in ABX and RIO.TO stocks disclosed in last week's blog were stopped-out during the week, and, as of today, I have no position in any of the stocks mentioned below. I initiated two positions last week based on a falling dollar index, however it remained relatively stable closing at 80.23 on Nov 30, 2012 compared to 80.30 one week prior, essentially no change. Gold price declined approximately $30 oz to $1715. ABX declined about $0.75 to $34.50 and RIO.TO declined $0.09 to $5.06 during the same period. I lost $79.85 on my RIO.TO position and $1,289.53 on my ABX position. Total loss equals -$1369.38

From my viewpoint: I see three possibilities the first being that Washington politicians fail to resolve their stalemate, and that results in the USA economy going over the fiscal cliff on January 1, 2013. This is my preference by the way. The dollar strengthens and gold declines to $1,450 oz as the budget becomes suddenly more balanced. If on the other hand, Washington politicians come to a compromise which shows promise of both tax increases and spending cutbacks, then the dollar index remains the same as now, at 80 or slightly above, and gold remains in a range of $1,650-$1,750 oz. The third possibility, and most probable based on past history, Washington politicians manage to kick-the-can down the road once again. Then the dollar weakens and gold climbs to $2,000 oz. Before that happens it would be to my benefit if ABX would decline to near $31 or lower, and RIO.TO declines to $4.65 or lower, price where I would consider initiating a new position in these two stocks. Possibilities #1 and #2? I believe it best to avoid gold and mining stocks as returns would be much better in other investments including real estate.

Disclosure: I have no plans to initiate positions in the stocks mentioned below within the next 72 hours. I prepared this article myself, and linked it to third party articles and information published on the internet. I am not receiving compensation for this article. I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article. I cannot confirm the accuracy of the linked internet articles. I intend to focus on gold mines in Northern Peru only.

Alto Chicama Gold District, Northern Peru

Public traded stocks with operating mines:

Barrick: Look Beyond Pascua-Lama

NEM - Yanacocha Mine
Rio Alto Advances Precious Metal Projects

Private owned company:

COMARSA - Santa Rosa Mine

Projects:

Sulliden Gold - Shahuindo property.

Tartisan Resources

Articles and Information published by third parties on the Internet:

Gold - ABN Amro sees lower gold prices in 2013 and 2014

Dollar Index

ABX I believe that Barrick's Pascua Lama project cost-overrun weighs heavily in the market.

COMARSA - US unblocks COMARSA bank account.

NEM - Zacks upgrade to nuetral.

Peru - good article on financial situation.

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Loss Control Saturday, December 8, 2012

2012-12-08T10:13:00.001-08:00

Fed Finale: The End of Operation Twist, or the Start of QE4? - Read and ponder a quote from the article: "With Operation Twist ending, that means they've run out of short-dated securities to sell in order to purchase more [longer-term securities], so what they've got to move to now is buying up pure $40 billion per month of mortgage-backed securities [QE3]," says Andrew Wilkinson, chief economic strategist at Miller Tabak. "They probably have to compensate for that loss of $40 [billion] to $45 billion per month."

What this means to me is that the Fed needs a new, creative program, not just another QE4. Here's the problem: The Fed buys up mortgages from big banks like Wells Fargo and Bank of America and in return these banks get dollars in their accounts. What can the banks do with these new dollars?

1. They could lend them out for new mortgages, yes, a great idea but... lending requirements are stiff for new mortgages and inventory of available houses is low... so this plan is not going to work too well in the short term for the Fed. No one is going to sell a house, or a mortgage for that matter.

2. Maybe the banks could invest the money in US Treasuries for the short term just like everyone has been doing for the last several years (especially big Companies, big Banks, wealthy retirees and the Chinese government)... oops! as mentioned in the article above the Fed has "... run out of short-dated securities to sell ..." and the Fed has bought up the longer term securities in previous operation twist. Rates are so low now that no one wants to invest to preserve capital... only to purchase higher priced investments at a future date (2015)? Not convincing to me either.

3. So what will the banks do with the Fed money in the short-term? I guess purchase corporate bonds and stocks yeilding 2.5% which will result in yeilds declining to the level of US Treasuries, or 0.5% above. Of course this just moves the dollars from one bank account to the next. Does this really accomplish anything other than lowering corporate bond and stock yields, ie retirement income?

4. What else could corporations with large cash balances and positive cash flow do now? Read this week's article Freeport Snaps Up Plains, McMoRan decision to invest in the US Plains energy company. Could this be a harbinger of 2013-2015 corporate finance/economics based on current Fed monetary strategies. Avoid investments in risk assets like gold, silver and copper. Get rid of devaluating dollars and US Treasuries. Move to energy investments with long term demand growth potential with production in the US. Could this strategy also work for my stock portfolio? Maybe... and this has been the investment strategy of Wall Street for at least the last year now.

5. But the fundamental question still remains, how can the Fed "compensate for that loss of $40 [billion] to $45 billion per month?" I guess they just have to sell something else. What could they sell? No one wants worthless mortgages, or do they? Maybe investors do want worthless and problematic mortgages, especially if the mortgages correspond to foreclosed homes, land, and commercial properties. A Fed backed program of returning foreclosed properties back to the private economy might actually promote the "Fed's dual mandate to promote maximum employment and price stability". I like this strategy best because it is focused on US investments and employment, not investments in mining projects overseas. It stimulates at a low level in the US economy, directly provides opportunity for thousands, if not millions of small and medium investors in houses and commercial properties and provide a boost for US employment.

6. Here is a link to my website www.leansupplier.com

Loss Control Saturday, November 24, 2012

2012-11-25T09:36:00.000-08:00

Disclosure: I have long positions in ABX and RIO.TO stocks mentioned below, and I initiated these two positions last week based on the falling dollar index. I have no plans to modify my positions within the next 72 hours. I prepared this article myself, and linked it to third party articles and information published on the internet. I am not receiving compensation for it. I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article. I cannot confirm the accuracy of the linked internet articles. I intend to focus on gold mines in Northern Peru only.

Alto Chicama Gold District, Peru
Saturday, November 24, 2012

Public traded stocks with operating mines:

ABX - Lagunas Norte Mine

NEM - Yanacocha Mine

Rio Alto Gold Mine - Rio Alto Advances Precious Metal Projects

Private owned company:

COMARSA - Santa Rosa Mine

Projects:

Sulliden Gold - Shahuindo property.

Tartisan Resources

Articles and Information published by third parties on the Internet:

Au - $1,751.90 - up from $1715.3 last Friday, November 16, 2012. Strengthening of the Euro.

Dollar Index - 80.19 today down from 81.20 one week ago. Ben Bernanke indicated that Washington politicians must resolve the Fiscal Cliff as the FED has used up its tools to strengthen the economy. European politicians continue to communicate that bailout resources are available to Greece and other countries.

ABX - $35.54 up from $33.72 one week ago. Euro strengthened against the dollar. I believe that Barrick's Pascua Lama project cost-overrun weighs heavily in the market.

COMARSA - US unblocks COMARSA bank account.

Rio Alto - Forward production guidance.

NEM - Zacks upgrade to nuetral.

Peru - good article on financial situation.
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Amazon.com Widgets

Becoming a group member

2012-03-10T09:17:00.001-08:00

PC Volunteer Michael Merry (Peru 68)

How did the Peace Corps select twenty volunteers from a group of forty candidates?

Every Saturday morning, the candidates were given a test I refer to as “Ranking of Your Peers.” The test was handed out by Bob and Ed, the psychoanalyst specialists contracted by the Peace Corps to weed out the men that could not survive the harsh community and social environment of Peru. (I don’t remember the last names of Bob and Ed anymore.) Each candidate listed, in ten minutes, the names of his best friends in the group. Bob and Ed consolidated all the lists into one list with the name of the most-mentioned person on top. If your name was not mentioned, you returned to your hometown.

Bob introduced us to the term “culture shock.” It was the negative impact that struck you when attempting to live in Peru. It was a feeling of despair and anxiety, of wanting to go home. It sounded like “becoming homesick.” After consolidating their list every Saturday afternoon, Bob and Ed interviewed each man to disqualify certain candidates.

“Good afternoon, Mike. How did you do last week? Not too well according to your peers. Do you have any comments for me? Are you homesick? What about your girlfriend, do you miss her?” Bob created a depressing atmosphere at the beginning of every interview. A couple volunteers became so homesick that they begged to go home before Bob finished his speech.

Bob said to me, “Mike, with your type of personality, you most probably will not be able to survive the community life in Peru.” Bob went over my weaknesses, one by one, as he interpreted them, seemingly waiting for my nervous breakdown.

Every Saturday morning, I ranked my peers. After five weeks, I could remember more than twelve names, then fifteen. By the end of the ten weeks, I knew twenty names. That is what Bob and Ed wanted from every one of the forty candidates. I learned how to convince the government psychoanalysts that my years on a farm provided me with both the flexibility and hands-on attitude I needed to cope with “culture shock.”

Apparently Bob and Ed agreed with me. Our Saturday afternoon meetings became friendlier, more meaningful and the conversation evolved to other topics... If you wish to learn more about my career at mining companies, click ad icon below.

Karaoke party

2012-03-07T07:51:00.002-08:00

On August 22, 1990, we were invited to a company party celebrating a special event. The directors of Bukit Asam sat at the head table in front of all the invited guests. It was one of the few company events where the wives were invited to sit quietly to the right of their husbands. The men were formally dressed in the traditional batik shirt. The women wore traditional dresses that covered all but their face. Groups sat at tables covered with white tablecloths. My wife and I sat with Bill, the Bechtel World Bank consultant, who wore his blue batik guayavera.

A bottle of Johnny Walker scotch sat on the table. Drinking alcohol is prohibited in the Islam religion and having the bottle in front of all the guests brought comments and whispers at the tables.

Pak Kuntoro called his managers and supervisors to the front of the room, one at time. Each person was required to entertain the guests by singing, telling a joke, or doing a pantomime. At the end of the individual’s performance, Pak Kuntoro offered a shot of scotch from the bottle. Most performers turned down the drink. It is possible that only Christians accepted the drink, and perhaps Pak Kuntoro was checking names on a list. Maybe he was reconfirming the religious conviction of each guest. No more than three performers accepted the drink!

It was my turn to come to the front. Pak Kantor invited me and my wife to the front of the room and announced that today was a special day for my wife and me. We were celebrating our twentieth wedding anniversary. The guests politely applauded.

Pak Kuntoro said, “Mike, tell us what can you do for the guests.”

I saw a big karaoke screen and decided to sing my favorite song. “Pak Kuntoro, distinguished Directors of Bukit Asam, ladies and gentlemen, I will sing The Great Pretender by The Four Platters.” It was the only song for which I knew some of the words, but did this song fit the occasion of our twentieth anniversary? I realized that I could have picked a more suitable song like Love Me Tender by Elvis Presley. Why didn’t I ask my wife before talking?

The party facilitator handed me the microphone. The karaoke was advanced to the song The Great Pretender. The little ball started on the first word of the first two lines of the song: “Yes I’m the great pretender, pretending to be what I am not you see, pretending …” The karaoke ball stopped on the word “pretending”, everyone was waiting for the words to exit my lips, but only my eyes were moving and following the karaoke ball on the screen.

I had stage fright. I was frozen! I was pretending that I could sing!

Luckily, my wife saved the situation as she took the microphone and sang the song. I managed to get in a word or two and to turn a red face of embarrassment to the audience. The guests all laughed and applauded my wife as she finished. My performance of The Great Pretender turned out to be great entertainment!

Figure 16 - The author and his wife sing together in front of the Bukit Asam guests on their 20th wedding anniversary.

It was the only party I ever attended where a bottle of Scotch was half full at the end of the party. The Muslim guests surely declined the drink offered to them, and like I mentioned earlier, only two Christian and one Buddhist guests accepted the drink. My wife and I were not offered a drink—I did not perform very well and a Muslim man could hardly offer another man’s wife alcohol. The bottle remained half full for another celebration.

It’s hard to believe that twenty years have passed since that embarrassing attempt at singing. I am thankful that my wife has stood beside me on our twentieth anniversary and all the years full of crisis and stress. Being a miner’s wife is difficult and many marriages do not survive the stress. It was a reconfirmation of the importance of having your wife standing by your side, of the importance of her support when the husband pretends what he is not, you see.

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New Year’s Eve at the gas station

2012-03-05T14:43:00.001-08:00

Jerry was the reason I was losing money at the gas station business, and it was driving my wife and me to despair. We put the gas station up for sale in The Miami Herald. We called Armando and asked him to send any potential buyers our way. About a week later, a man named Dave called and asked to see the gas station. My wife told me to be positive. “Don’t show any negativity in the meeting.” That was sound advice.

You can imagine how nervous I was, thinking about unloading the gas station and the terrible situation that we’d just gone through just two weeks earlier. This is what happened on New Year’s Eve, the biggest sales days of the year. Everyone was in a party mood buying beer, wine, and cigarettes. I instructed the cashiers in a firm voice, “Everyone stays inside the bullet-proof cage. No cashier is to venture outside the cage without first closing the two doors electronically and checking the isles via video screen. Make sure no thief is hiding there. Do you understand me?”

Three cashiers were working that New Years Eve: Joe, Colin, and Phyllis. Colin and Phyllis were from the local community. Joe was an older man and the most responsible cashier ever. He kept the station clean, the shelves stocked, the paperwork accurate, and he finished all tasks promptly. On New Year’s Eve, his responsible behavior was exactly what the thieves were counting on.

About 10:00 p.m., a customer went to the beer cooler. As he took out a six-pack, it dropped to the floor; two bottles broke, and beer spilled on the floor. Other customers stepped into the beer and tracked it all over the floor. What a sticky mess!

Joe decided that the broken bottles needed to be picked up and the spilled beer had to be mopped up. He left the cashiers cage, and the remaining cashiers were careful to lock the door after Joe exited. Joe got the mop and was cleaning up the broken glass and spilt beer when three thieves, dressed in black and with stocking masks over their faces, burst into the station. Guns were pointed at the two cashiers. The third thief rushed right over to Joe and struck him with his pistol. Joe fell to the floor still holding the mop. The thief pressed Joe’s face to the floor with his boot, while pointing a gun at his head. The two cashiers looked on from the glass cage in horror, too terrified to make a move.

“Open the door, you sons-a-bitches!” shouted the leader. “Open the door, or I will shoot your friend! Open the door!” The thief pressed his boot deeper into Joe’s face. He pulled the trigger, and a deafening shot rang out. The cashiers screamed, but Joe remained calm his face pressed firmly to the floor. The thief had fired into the cooler glass window, and several beer cans were ruptured. Beer was now draining from the cooler onto the floor next to Joe’s face.

“Now will you open the door?” screamed the thief. Everyone could see that he was crazy with adrenalin. He pointed the gun straight at Joe. “Open the door, or I will shoot this mother fucker!”

The cashiers opened the glass cage door. The two thieves rushed in, knocking the cashiers to the floor. The cash register was opened in the wink of an eye and about $1,000 in cash scooped up by the thieves. Then it was silent. The thieves ran away into the night.

The first to recover was Joe who got up from the floor and steadied himself on the cooler with the bullet hole. The other cashiers couldn’t move and were frozen with fear. Joe shut down the gas pumps and closed the station, called the police, and then called me. It was Joe who mustered the courage to go on that night. I got in my car and rushed to the station. The police had not arrived even though Joe had called two more times. Obviously there were other robberies and shootings going on. I was on my own with Joe and two petrified cashiers.

There was no way of keeping the station open, as the cashiers were too scared to go on. All three asked permission to close the station for the night and agreed to come to work at 7:00 a.m. the next morning. I was relieved to learn that the cashiers were staying with me in this dreadful business. I walked back to the beer cooler and examined the bullet hole. Because the glass had a protective plastic coating, it had not shattered. The bullet hole was visible only if you looked really hard.

Two weeks later, as Dave and I walked slowly around the convenience store, we stopped by the beer coolers. He looked directly at the cooler with the bullet hole. “What’s this hole in the door?” Dave asked.

My heart raced! What could I tell him? “Oh, that,” I said calmly. “I was sweeping the floor, and the broom handle hit the window.” I explained that delivery and installation of the new door was scheduled tomorrow.

Dave seemed to accept the explanation and went on to other questions. “I noticed from the sales records that beer sales are very high, more than 150 cases of Heineken a week. That’s a lot of beer!”

“Yeah,” I said, “that’s about the normal beer sales every week.” This was a piece of information that even I had failed to notice.

A week later, I had a signed contract from Dave for the gas station franchise and the inventory of the C-Store. I ended up losing 50% from the price I had paid for the business only three months earlier. My wife and I signed the contract, and the transaction was almost finished. The beer cooler door arrived, and we quickly installed it. The terrifying New Years Eve was almost history.

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Fear of snakes

2012-02-28T15:20:00.000-08:00

Snakes were common in the warehouse lay-down area. The high grass and closeness to the jungle just beyond the warehouse perimeter fence provided them with a great habitat. The African workers respected the snakes, as did I. We ventured into the lay-down yard very carefully, step by step. Snakes were also common inside the warehouse, in the corners of the building, in the bins and racks, and in the office area. Escape from the heavy rains and relative cold temperature after the rain, especially at night, made the warehouse building a dry habitat for snakes. One morning, a fifteen-foot snake stretched out along the bottom wall of my office. We spent a half an hour getting him out and most of the morning talking about his size. There were lots of cobras, called spitting cobras because by standing up three to four feet in the air, looking their prey in the eye, and spitting venom from a distance of ten to twenty feet, the victim was paralyzed quickly. At least that was how cobras were explained to me by the local people.

Insects and other scavengers were common, but the most common was the household fly. It was the worst of the scavengers. With man came man’s garbage. Garbage provided a feast for many forms of jungle life, especially the flies. I saw a particularly impressive display of jungle life when I inspected an open-top container of soft drinks that had been off-loaded at the port and transported to the mine warehouse. This container had not been received promptly by the warehouse crew. It was left out in the hot sun and high humidity for more than a week. After about ten days exposed to the heat and the humidity, the aluminum soda cans began bursting and were being consumed by “jungle life.” The acidity of coca cola corroded more cans causing them to burst and leak. The sugar in the drinks attracted all types of jungle life. Maggots seemed to thrive on Coke!

It was hard to get the workers to change their black-tire sandals for safety boots. The heat and humidity made safety shoes very uncomfortable to wear even for a short period of time. The workers preferred sandals cut from old tires with leather straps added. The black-tire sandals were actually very comfortable. Everyone wore a hardhat at Sierra Rutile. It provided great protection against the hot sun and shaded the eyes from the sun’s glare. Safety hats were an easy “sell” to the workers.

There was very little management support—it seemed that I was on my own. Reporting to work every day seemed to be 80 percent of the job responsibility, and safety may have been the other 20 percent.

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Safety at the gas pump

2012-02-20T08:16:00.000-08:00

An Amoco pumper might have a thousand or more customers per day. That’s a lot of traffic at the fuel islands, cars coming and going, customers pumping gas, and visits from the Amoco manager or the state fuel inspectors. It’s a busy place! There were no fatalities at our gas station, but we did experience some serious safety related incidents.

It was a busy Friday afternoon, and all the islands were pumping continually. Cars were lined up to get gas. A customer in a hurry pumped gas at the Number 2 Island. He left the hose in the tank of his car and took off in a hurry, thus ripping the hose from the dispenser. It fell away from the car into the driveway of the station.

The next customer reported the incident, and I quickly covered the pump controls with a plastic bag and a sign that said PUMP OUT OF ORDER. Then I went to get a padlock to lock the pump. Before I returned a second customer pulled into the Number 2 Island. A well-dressed man got out of his car and pressed the Premium gas selector button. The pump opened up, spraying gasoline all over the platform. Where was the safety cutoff valve to stop the flow of fuel if the hose was not attached to the dispenser? To this day I don’t know. Gas gushed from the dispenser, landed around the fuel island, and completely soaked the customer. We ran to help him, turned off the pump, removed his suit coat, and took him to the restroom where we helped him to wash himself as best possible. We gave him a set of Amoco overalls that we kept in the office, and Oscar rushed him to a hospital. I closed off the area and washed it down with water. It was a minor spill, and fortunately no one lit a cigarette or threw a match into the spilled gasoline. The potential for serious harm was high.

We had liability insurance for safety incidents and accidents. The customer sued us for negligence, for not having locked down the pump with a padlock at the time of the incident. The case went to insurance court. Oscar and I sympathized with the customer, as it appeared that we were negligent, but the insurance company was defending us in court and a judge with twelve jurors would make a decision about the claim.

A second safety incident occurred on a Sunday morning, a time when there were few customers in the station, a woman in a tight dress and high heels came screaming into the station, as well as limping. She started shouting at the cashier, “My back! My back! Help me!” She explained that she had gotten out of her car to pump gas and had slipped on an oil slick in front of the pump. The cashier examined the spot where the accident supposedly occurred, but there was no visible evidence of an oil slick or a slip mark in the concrete from the lady’s heel. Nothing! The lady sued us for negligence. The insurance company took the case to court, and Oscar and I thought that the incident was an example of insurance fraud.

About twelve months later, when the insurance company reported the verdicts of these two trials, we couldn’t believe what we heard. The gas-soaked customer lost his case, but the lady won her case! We never did find out how the juries made their determinations.
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Following mine safety procedures

2012-02-16T08:08:00.000-08:00

My friend Klaus Keller, a young German mine mechanic, was a big man who liked to drink beer. I never tried to keep up with Klaus but enjoyed listening to his drinking stories. He was always checking his requisitions for shovel spare parts, and he did excellent follow-up and planning for his shovel repair and overhauls. Klaus was your typical German professional, exacting in every detail, a professional maintenance man.

One evening Klaus had already drank a six pack of Aguila beer when he was called out by the maintenance supervisor about a mining shovel. The supervisor wanted him to take a look at the shovel that was having hydraulic problems. He drove to the site where the shovel was digging and parked his pickup with the lights on to the side of the working shovel, exactly as the safety procedures instructed for parking light duty vehicles near operating mine shovels and haul trucks. Nature intervened and Klaus had to urinate. He walked behind the shovel off to the side, in the dark, and took a piss where no one saw him.

The safety report read that the shovel operator swung the loaded bucket around right over Klaus and dumped about fifty tons of overburden on him. No one knew where Klaus had gone, and he was not found until the next morning.

How many fatal accidents are caused by overconfidence when working around heavy equipment? How many times have supervisors reminded the workers of overconfidence? How many supervisors themselves have been killed on the job due to overconfidence? These questions remain unanswered by mine safety supervisors as well as the workers.

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Transportation Safety in the Guajira

2012-02-14T15:43:00.001-08:00

In 1981, the Colombia Guajira desert was a lawless territory where bandits, drug runners, arms traffickers, the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) (Revolutionary Armed Forces), and descendents from the English and Spanish pirates of the Caribbean ruled east of the Magdalena River to the Venezuelan border. INTERCOR understood these security risks and made the first priority to secure the forty thousand-hectare mining concession with an eight-foot chain-link fence and with the Colombian army troops camped inside the fence. The first INTERCOR employees, a group of seventeen superintendents, included me. The area outside the perimeter fence was off limits to all including the army troops.

We flew in on two Twin Otter planes landing on the newly constructed gravel air strip. I gazed out of the Twin Otter window and saw no mine, only Guajira desert brush. In the distance, a CAT D10 tractor was clearing brush. The dust was so thick that at times the D10 tractor was not visible. And the heat! It was so hot that my clothes were quickly soaked in sweat, even standing in the shade. The rustic campsite had a loud air conditioner unit stuck in the window of my bedroom. It rumbled constantly but never got the temperature much below ninety degrees. Of course, that was much cooler than one hundred and forty degrees in the hot Guajira sun.

Gordon Peters, INTERCOR mine operations manager, greeted us at the camp cafeteria. “Mike, your objective is to establish a small warehouse at the mine site, call it a base of operations for your area of material control.” This was my first assignment at the mine. (Gordon passed away on August 16, 2011, in Jupiter, Florida. Gordon was remembered in his retirement years as a regional judge for an orchid grower’s society. Gordon was a great leader for the Cerrejon Coal Mining Project during the Early Start phase.)

That seemed a simple task at the time, but as soon as we started looking for a contractor, we discovered that most did not want to take the risk of traveling to the Guajira, a territory controlled by bandits, drug runners and the FARC. At last we found a contractor willing to do the job; clear and level an area of 100 yards by two hundred yards, and erect a chain-link fence around the area. The price was $25,000, equivalent in today’s dollars of about $100,000. This tidy sum for less than one week’s worth of work. It was the first operations warehouse at Cerrejon, and over the next four years, we moved from an old warehouse to a new bigger warehouse eight times.

Trucks carrying supplies and spare parts began to travel regularly from Barranquilla to the mine warehouse. Danger on the lawless Guajira roads lurked everywhere. Trucks traveled in caravans. Security men with 12-gauge pump Remington shotguns accompanied every driver. The caravan started moving from Barranquilla at 8:00 a.m., and by 4:00 p.m., the caravan had to be off the road for the night. There was no travel at night or travel without a security guard. The safety rules for transportation in the Guajira were “One shot over their head, the second shot at them!”

Transportation in the Guajira was difficult for suppliers. A local community vendor tried to make a delivery direct to the mine warehouse. He made it to the mine security gate with his small delivery truck, but he had a flat tire and no spare. He parked his truck on the side of the road near the security gate and returned to his town, about 10 miles away, to find a spare tire. When he returned that afternoon with a spare tire, he was shocked to discover that his truck was sitting on the ground, tireless and without rims. The mine security guards a few yards away had seen nothing. Furious, he returned to his town a second time to get four tires and rims. The next morning when he returned, the truck was stripped; the engine and cargo were gone. A week later, when I drove past the mine security gate, I noticed the frame of the truck lying in the ditch, abandoned beside the road. All that had any value had been stolen, and the truck frame was a reminder of theft in the Guajira.

Transportation security was extremely important to the Cerrejon mine. Theft on the highway was carried out by Guajira bandits who were even more dangerous than the revolutionary FARC militiamen. Moving materials, equipment, and consumables to the mine site and traveling through FARC and bandit territory was dangerous business!
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Cleanliness

2012-02-12T13:44:00.000-08:00

Selling milk to housewives in the mining community of Toquepala, Peru, we were reminded on several occations that milk had to be fresh and certainly less than twelve hours old. Sometimes farmers diluted the milk by adding water from the irrigation canal. Milk spoils quickly. The consequences were angry housewives shouting insults, returning spoiled milk to the truck and practically threw it in our faces. The fresh milk had to be kept in clean cans, the milk had to be kept cool until the truck picked it up early in the morning, and the milk cans had to be washed immediately after emptied. Cleanliness was so important.

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Worker Overconfidence

2012-02-06T15:44:00.000-08:00

Copper concentrate exited the dryers on a conveyor belt and emptied into rail cars twenty-four hours a day. A worker positioned the rail cars for loading, and when the rail car was loaded, he moved it to a rail siding. An electric cable winch was used to start the car rolling and, after a small tug, the loaded car moved by inertia to link or couple with the previous loaded car. Loaded cars, all coupled together, were positioned on a rail siding a short distance from the concentrate driers. Loaded cars were picked up once a day by the locomotives and transported to the port of Ilo.

This worker had more than fifteen years of experience at moving cars into position by using the electrical cable winch to give the newly loaded car the inertia to couple to the previous car. This day, doing the job he had done every day for so long, he stepped between two loaded rail cars that were slowly moving toward each other to be coupled. The worker darted between the moving rail cars confident that he could perform this dangerous act. He was caught between the two cars, and as the male and female connectors coupled, the worker was severed in half at the waist. He died minutes later.

In 1975, mine fatalities were considered inevitable. Today, the goal of zero fatal accidents shows a significant change in mine safety attitude.

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Haul truck tire rim safety

2012-01-30T15:02:00.000-08:00

A tire shop worker was inflating a haul truck tire. For those of you not familiar with tires, haul truck tire pressure is extremely high. The tire must be mounted perfectly onto the rim, and care must be taken not to overinflate the tire. On smaller-size tires, the inflation process is controlled by placing the tire and rim first in a tire inflation cage. If there is an explosion due to improper mounting procedure, defect in the tire, or over inflation, the explosion is maintained within the safety cage. No one gets hurt from flying debris. On large-sized haul trucks, tire inflation process is done after the tire is mounted on the rim and on the truck. There is no safety cage to protect the tire shop worker.

On this day, as the tire was inflated on an improperly fitted rim, it exploded, blowing pieces a hundred feet in the air and in all directions, instantly killing the tire shop worker. I heard the explosion from my mill site office, and the BOOM of a tire exploding haunts me to this day. Tire rim safety must be a top priority of anyone involved with mine safety.

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