Silver Stock Report #1

Silver Stocks — Comparative Valuations

By: Jason Hommel,  September 22, 2003
 

For the past few months, I’ve been researching and acquiring silver stocks.  It has been a very profitable few months, especially since June, as I’ve picked some of the best upward movers.  It has been easy and rewarding work, and the upward potential of some of these stocks remains mind boggling.Just how did I put a value on silver companies?  I did not value current production, profits, or P/E ratios.  I did not buy the biggest names, with the experienced miners.  Personally, I believe we are entering a bull market in silver.  Thus, I think the most important thing is the number of ounces of silver in the ground that the company has title to and owns, and then dividing the market cap of the company by those ounces.  This way, you get a “cost per oz. in the ground” which tells you how much you are paying for what you get. Now, the CEO’s of the mines will mostly try to convince you that their ounces are better than the other guy’s ounces, for various reasons.  Some of these reasons are that they have ounces that are lower cost to mine, or that they come with the bonus of other minerals, or that they have existing infrastructure, or the backing of wealthy investors, or that their ounces can be open pit mined, and so on.  And some of those factors are certainly important and add to the value of the company.  But the most important questions to remember are:  “How many ounces does the company have?”, and, “What does it cost to acquire those ounces when buying the company stock?”I care little about current profits.  In fact, I have a negative bias for silver stocks that are selling silver right now since I consider silver to be undervalued.  I am also an investor in physical silver.  But a company that is selling silver right now, at a loss, is virtually giving away title to company assets, literally destroying shareholder value.  Aware shareholders should sell those companies and buy physical silver with the proceeds.  So, let’s start comparing silver companies.It’s very simple.  Cost per ounce in the ground.  How much do you get, and how much does it cost?  Cheaper is better.  Buy low, sell high.Disclaimers, Warnings, and Advice:  I have gathered the information below over the course of several months.  I believe it is accurate to the best of my ability.  I may have made mistakes.  I probably did.  I’m human.   I have collected the information from public sources such as company web sites and public information found at yahoo.com to get the stock prices.  This report in no way guarantees the accuracy of the information below, since the information may change at any time.  The number of outstanding shares can change as a company engages in new share issues to raise more capital through private placements, or if outstanding warrants (and options) are exercised and converted into shares, or if shares are bought back.  Shares can be consolidated, or split.  The number of ounces of silver in the ground can also change, as these are often only estimates.  The number can also change up or down, depending on drilling results.In order to get the latest information, call the company you are interested in.  They love to hear from interested prospective investors, and they have the time, since most are not actively engaged in mining or “running a mining business”.  Their main business right now mostly consists of drumming up investor interest so they can raise the capital to drill and explore their properties so that they can raise the really big capital to start up an active mine.This information is not intended as a solicitation for any company.All total estimates of “ounces in the ground” can vary widely.  There are “proven and probable reserves” which are the highest category of certainty which is obtained through many drill holes, and then at the least accurate, there are “inferred resources” which are hardest to estimate.  For the purposes of this report, I have added all those numbers together.  It is believed that all these “ounce in the ground” estimates can be profitably mined at $5-6 per ounce silver, or lower.  Thus, I believe that when silver trades for $15/oz. or above, that all of these ounces can be mined at a substantial profit.I may be wrong. Mining is a risky business.  You need to be willing to sustain a total loss of your investment for various unforeseen accidents. Mining stock companies can do stupid things to shareholders such as take on debt, issue more stock at too low prices which reduces the percentage of the company you may own.  They may sell YOUR silver too cheaply, hedge the price of YOUR silver by locking in a price which then proves to be too low if the dollar is destroyed.  Mining is a risky business as estimates of assets in the ground can change.  There is political risk and environmental risk.  They can’t franchise the business, are stuck in one location, are subject to government confiscation, or taxes, or union wage negotiations, and corporate looting.Do your own research.  Be responsible for your own investment decisions.  Again, please, before investing in a mining company, call up the company, and speak either with the CEO or the Investor Relations contact person.  That’s what they are there for, to answer your questions, and to speak about the opportunity of the company.  Don’t trust everything you read over the internet.  I am a biased source.  I own silver mining stocks.  And I’m not a broker, nor an investment advisor.  I’m just a private investor trying to make sense of this crazy world.I can’t tell you how you should invest your money, of course.  Reason being is that I don’t know how convinced you are of the silver bull market, nor do I know how soon you will be needing the money back, nor do I know how much liquidity you need.  Nor do I know the size of the money you have to invest.  It is very hard to invest large quantities of money in a small market cap stock.That being said, my investment strategy seems to be working for me, so far. And so, here is how I have valued the following silver companies. HL:
http://hecla-mining.com/
Phone: (208) 769-4100
109 mil shares  @ $6.82 share 
$748 mil MC
near zero debt, cash: $113 mil
(the La Camorra gold mine, 412,000 oz gold.) … (x 350/5 = 28 mil silver equivalent oz.)
San Sebastian silver mine, (proven & probably reserves) 8.7 mil  (produced 3 mil)
the Greens Creek silver mine (proven & probably reserves) 31 mil  (produced 3 mil)
the Lucky Friday mine  (proven & probably reserves) 14 mil.  (produced 2 mil)
Total silver = 53.7 mil
$748 mil MC / 53.7 mil = $13.9/oz.
(est. 2003 production 9 mil oz. silver) 
Plus 29 mil silver equiv (for the 412,000 oz gold)
$748 mil / 82 mil = $9.12/oz.Additional comments:  I don’t understand Hecla.  They seem way overvalued.  I called investor relations, and they could give me no estimates for “inferred resources.”  Given the numbers, selling 9 million ounces of silver per year, and a 40 million oz. reserve, it seems they will have no silver left in 4.4 years.  This is probably wrong.  They indicated they would not go out of business in 4.4 years.  Perhaps they continually add to reserves.  They could not say what their historical reserve picture looked like.  They could not say whether their reserves had been growing, staying the same, or shrinking.  I don’t know why anyone would pay such a high price for an ounce of silver in the ground.  It’s a truly shockingly high valuation.  They are only one company of two with a listing on the NYSE.  This may be their advantage, and also they have been around for over 100 years.  Also, they are a producer of silver.  I think that is a disadvantage, but others think differently. Personally, I think that either they are fools or I am.  I certainly will admit that I’m confused by Hecla.  Why hold 113 million dollars worth of cash at the beginning of a bull market in silver?  It makes no sense to me.  Cash is trash in inflation.  They should be buying physical silver, not selling.  They could buy 21 million ounces of silver at $5.25 with that cash.  That might be enough to break the back of the silver manipulation game over at the COMEX.  There are only 45 million ounces of silver in the “registered” category at the moment.  Hecla could also use that cash to buy other silver resources in the ground.  Why aren’t they? Maybe they are. I heard they have properties in Mexico and Venezuela that they are exploring.  But I found little info about that at their web site.I also think they should be issuing shares like crazy, given how pricey their stock is relative to the rest of the silver stocks below, as you will see.  But they didn’t ask me to run their company, and they got along just fine without me for over 100 years.  And what do I know, anyway?  But at the very least, they should have somebody over at investor relations who can answer an inquiry.  Maybe they don’t have assets to very much more silver in the ground, and maybe that’s why they had a hard time answering my question.  Good luck to owners of Hecla.  I think they will need it.  I don’t own any shares, and I see no reason to own it.Maybe part of the problem is the restrictive laws in the U.S. that virtually destroyed the U.S. mining industry.  Maybe U.S. companies cannot claim or talk about “indicated resources” which perhaps are a technical term of Canadian mining law.  I don’t know.  Do your own research.WHT:
http://www.wheatonriver.com/
421 mil shares @ $1.97
$849 mil MC 
zero debt, cash: $27 mil 
P & P reserves 4 mil gold equiv oz.
(x 70 = 280 mil silver equiv???)
annualized production of: 425,000 ounces of gold and six million ounces of silver
= depletion in 10 years.
= production oz. to dollars x 350 = $148 mil gold, x 5 = $30 mil silver
= earnings $.05/share??? so low!!!???
$849 mil MC / 280 mil oz. = $3.03/oz.Additional comments:  Wheaton River is ramping up production.  Perhaps they are also growing the “ounce in the ground estimates”.  But given current estimates, they have the second highest cost per ounce around.  Very pricey.  Why buy it?  I don’t know.  It seems that over half their production comes from gold, and not silver.  They have the highest market cap of the “silver miners”.CDE:
www.coeur.com 
= 178 mil shares @ 3.55 
$634.2 mil MC
D/E = 1.17  (converting debt to shares)… (may add ~40-100 mil shares)
cash $38 mil
San Bartolome (Bolivia) reserves 146 mil silver
Silver Valley Silver reserves  32 mil silver
Rochester reserves 43 mil silver
Cerro Bayo reserves 3.7 mil silver
Total:  224.7 mil silver
(Produced 14.8 mil silver in 2002)
$634.2 mil MC / 224.7 mil oz = $2.82/oz.Additional comments:  Third most expensive silver company on this list.  They also have a NYSE listing.  Maybe that explains things.  Maybe some institutional money managers are limited to NYSE silver stocks.  Or maybe people think a NYSE listing means “credibility”.  I don’t.   CDE is also a significant silver producer, 14.8 million ounces.  And I think that is a negative.  Debt is another negative.FSR.TO
http://www.firstsilver.com/
37 mil shares @ price 1.41 (CAN) x .73 dollar/CAN =
indicated resourcs 30 mil oz.
$38 mil / 30 mil oz. = $1.26/oz.Additional comments:  Still pricey.  The stocks get cheaper.  Keep reading.  But pay attention to those prices at the end of each company valuation.  Remember, these valuations, if taken as an average, show the potential of the cheaper ones and may give you price targets for when to sell.  If the dollar starts dropping like crazy, remember that a dollar per oz in the ground today is about 1/5th an ounce of silver, which might help to guide you in the future.WTZ or WTC.TO
www.westernsilvercorp.com 
33.4 mil shares @ $5.26 share CAN (x.73 to convert to dollars)
$175.7 mil MC 
x .73 = $128.3
Indicated potential metal recoveries over the life of mine are 112,278,711 ounces of silver
not actively mining
The capital cost of the project is estimated to be US $148,628,400
$128.3mil MC / 112 mil oz. = $1.14/oz.Additional comments:  Note the capital cost to get the mining started.  $148 million dollars.  That’s huge.  Remember that number.  I think it’s the highest I’ve seen.  Apex silver might be a higher cost to get started, but I forget because I don’t care much about SIL anymore.SIL:
http://www.apexsilver.com/  
36.6 mil shares @ $15.20 
$556 mil MC
San Cristobal (Bolivia) (proven & probably reserves) 454 mil silver
(forecast capital costs for construction to total approximately $435 million)
(Produced zero silver in 2002)
$556 mil MC / 454 mil oz = $1.22/oz.Additional comments:  Still way too expensive.  This one has a lot of zinc.  That’s an added bonus that is not factored in.  Several writers have been saying zinc prices will be heading up soon, so that’s an added bonus.  And, they are not mining now, but are waiting for higher silver prices.  That’s also a plus.  The management also seems to understand that silver will move upwards a lot.  Another plus.  Finally, George Soros, Billionaire, owns a bit of this one, just under 10% I read recently.  Another plus.I once advocated buying SIL.  At the time, I thought there were only 5 real silver companies to choose from, and this was in the top 3, in the group of SSRI, PAAS and SIL, and excluding HL and CDE.  I was wrong.  There are many silver opportunities, not just five, and this is one of the most expensive, even with the zinc bonus.  So, I sold SIL for better opportunities, and it has paid off well for me.EXN.V:
http://www.excellonresources.com (does not work in netscape?)
2002 annual report:  
48 mil shares outstanding @ .175 CZN x .72 = 
$5.67 mil MC
gross value of mineralization is $31.4 million.  / $5.2 = 6 mil oz. silver equiv?
$5.67 / 6 = $.94/oz.Additional comments:   After writing my last article on silver, in January 2003, several people brought this one to my attention.  It’s still expensive.SVL.V:
http://www.silvercrestmines.com/
17.8 mil shares @ 1.44 share
$25.6 mil MC
Indicated resources of silver 30 mil oz.  (SOZ.)
17.8 mil shares x .84 CZN x .72dollar/can = $10.8 mil MC
$25.6 mil MC / 30 mil oz. = $.85 /oz. in the ground.Additional comments:  Well, well, well.  Finally we are under a dollar for that “ounce in the ground”.  But it’s still expensive. MFL.TO:
MFN
http://www.minefinders.com/index.html
28 mil shares  @ $11.00
$308 mil MC
measured & indicated  2.3 mil oz gold, 116 mil oz.silver  
+ inferred  1.1 mil oz. gold,  40 mil oz. silver
Totals:  3.4 mil oz. gold, 156 mil oz. silver.  
~ silver conversion = 3.4 x 70 = 283 mil??? + 156 mil oz. silver = 394 mil oz. silver 
(only 40% is silver, the rest gold)
$308 mil MC / 400 mil oz. = $.77/oz.Additional comments:  In case you have not realized it by now, this list is organized from most expensive on top, cheapest at the bottom.  Read on.PAAS:
http://panamericansilver.com/
52 mil shares  @ $11.17
$582.3 mil MC
D/E .08 cash: $12 mil.
10 silver properties (3 in production)
produced 7 mil oz. silver in 2001:
February 2003 presentation reported total reserves including peru stockpiles of 874.3 million ounces
earnings -$.77/share???!!!
$582.3 mil MC / 874.3 mil oz. = $.66/oz.Additional Comments:  PAAS is one of the few silver producers on this list.  Thus, they are a “silver miner” as their investor relations person will painstakingly point out.  The other companies who do not mine silver, but merely own silver properties and drill them, are not “silver miners,” nor are they “silver mining companies”.  They are “silver properties,” or “silver opportunities,” or “silver speculations,” I guess.  Ok, but that still does not justify selling silver at firesale prices, in my book.PAAS recently went into debt in order to ramp up production.  I am strongly biased against debt.  But it’s a convertible debenture, so the debt can be converted into stock.   They know and believe higher silver prices are coming, and their strategy is to be in solid production mode when the higher price hits.  In the meantime, though, the extra production will delay the inevitable silver boom, and they are destroying shareholder value.  I also advocated buying PAAS.  I made about a 40% profit.  And I recently sold.  I sold because I think there are better opportunities out there.SSRI:
http://www.silver-standard.com/
39.4 mil shares @ $7.94
$312 mil MC
debt free, cash: $10 mil
not mining or producing
15 properties
measured and indicated resources totaling 300.4 million ounces of silver
plus inferred resources totaling 366 million ounces of silver
=666 mil oz.
+ 2.2 mil oz. gold.  Silver equiv = 154 mil oz. silver. (154+666=820.  154/820 = 19% gold)
= 743 mil oz.
$312 MC / 824 mil oz. = $.38/oz.Additional comments:  Finally, we are getting down to a good price.  I also advocated buying SSRI, and I recently sold for about a 70% profit.  Not because SSRI is necessarily bad, but merely because I wanted to buy what I felt were cheaper “ounces in the ground”.Let’s pause for a moment here.  Consider the market capitalization of all these companies so far.HL: $748 mil MC
WHT: $849 mil MC
CDE: $634.2 mil MC
WTC.TO:  $128.3mil MC
FSR.TO  $38 mil MC
SIL: $556 mil MC
EXN.V $5.7 mil MC
SVL.V $25.6 mil MC
MFL.TO $308 mil MC
PAAS: $582.3 mil MC
SSRI: $312 mil MCThat’s a lot of value.  I think the stock-holders of these companies should re-evaluate their holdings.  They should really consider buying physical silver which is “money in the hand” and not “in the granite”.  Mining is risky. Many of these companies are very highly valued.  The point of silver investing is to “buy low,” not “buy high”.The combined market cap of these “silver companies” is about $4,186 million, or about $4.2 Billion.  And yet, there are only 45 million ounces of registered silver available at the COMEX.  That seems odd don’t you agree?  The “market cap” of that remaining available physical silver at $5.25/oz. is $236 million.   I think some of the shareholders of the companies above should wise up and realize they should buy some physical silver which is cheap, and sell the companies which are relatively expensive.I recently read “Silver Bonanza” by Blanchard.  I got a used copy for under $5 from Amazon.com. The book is out of print, was printed in 1993 and at the time sold for up to $70 per copy.  He recommended three silver stocks in that book.  CDE, FSR.V, and SSO.V, now SSRI.  He recommended CDE because it was big.  Quote on p. 179:  “If you are interested in playing the silver bull market through silver shares, you have to own CDE”.  Big mistake! In 1993, the price of CDE was between $10-$20 share.  Today, it’s $3.55 with a 52 week low of $1.10.  Bigger is not better.  The bigger they are, the harder they fall.  Buy low and SELL high.Now, most of the better-valued silver companies that I will present below have much smaller market caps than the average market caps of the ones above.  The owners of the above silver companies quite simply cannot all sell high and buy low.  The smaller companies simply do not have the capacity to absorb that much buying power.  Only a few can buy low and sell high.  The masses, unfortunately, cannot do so.  But physical silver can absorb the buying power, or at least, it should.  And if it cannot, then the exploding price of the physical silver market should continue to light a fire under all these silver stocks.  CZN: 
http://www.canadianzinc.com/
44 mil shares (fully diluted) @ .41 CAN x .73 dollar/CZN
$13 mil MC
not mining ($20 mil needed to finish & start the mine) ($100 mil worth of mining infrastructure in place!)
96 mil oz. silver reserves ???  67 mil oz.???  (IN ZONE 3 only!!  of 12 zones!)
$13 mil MC / 70 mil oz. = $.18/oz.
$13 mil MC / 100+ mil oz. = $.13/oz. or less.Additional comments:  CZN exploded in price this week, moving up about 100% from $.22 CAN to a high of $.50 CAN/share on Thursday.  There was a press release.
http://biz.yahoo.com/ccn/030916/b286e2eed11e145bccb2f4bc6c1ad4ad_1.htmlI note several very, very positive things about this company. 1. This was the mining operation set up by the Hunt brothers, the major silver investors in the silver spike to $50/oz. in 1980 who were destroyed by their own debts and margin calls as a result of the COMEX rule changes and silver short sale manipulation.  The Hunts spent $50 million building infrastructure to get the mine running.  They were 90% complete when bankruptcy hit.  The value of those buildings is now $100 million, and the mine only needs about $20 million to get the mine up and running.  That’s much cheaper than other cost estimates of other operations.
2. The 70 million oz. of silver estimate is for zone 3 only.  But there are 12 zones on the property.  The zone 3 estimate is for a 10 year mine plan that involves mining zone 3 at current metals prices.  The company can mine, at a profit, at current silver and zinc prices.
3. The company is named “Canadian Zinc” because at current prices, three times as much money is in the zinc.  Therefore, a price per oz. of silver just does not do the price justice.  The company can raise $20 million capital to start the mine, and mine at a profit today.  Raising the $20 million, will be much easier as the investment markets for metals continues to improve.  And remember, at $15/oz. for silver, half the money will come from silver.  At $30/oz silver, 2/3rds will come from silver.I own a substantial share of CZN.  I started buying at the very low in June, at 9 cents CAN. My average buy price was 14 cents CAN.  I did not sell into the rally.  I’ve done very well on this one. CDU.V:
28.3 million shares fully diluted (assuming all the options and warrants are exercised, which are NOT all “in the money”) 
x  1.66 CAN (x .73 US/CAN) = 1.21
$34 mil MC
Proven & Probable: NONE! (explorer).
Speculated reserves ~ 100 – 250 or more mil?
$33 mil MC / 250 mil oz. = $.13/oz. (*** this one is tough to value) Additional comments:  *** I wrote an article on Cardero in January, 2003. 
See http://www.gold-eagle.com/editorials_03/hommel020803.html 
The 250 mil oz. number is not from any reliable source.  It’s my own personal number.  It’s the number I use to determine relative value verses other silver companies.  I’m not a geologist.Their first drilling results came back less than expected, and the stock took over a 50% drop.  Part of the problem was the type of drilling.  The geologist said the water from the drill was washing away too much of the silver in the sample.  And so, the stock has climbed back substantially with better drilling results since then.  I still hold what I bought before Jan. 2003.  I almost added on the pullback, but I didn’t.  I regret not having bought on the dip. Cardero is in Argentina.  Their property was an active mine, but only a few tons/day.  They are trying to prove up the property to see if they can make a huge open pit operation out of it.  And they have lots of property in the area, and the area may have several large silver deposits that need proving up. CFTN.PK
http://www.cliftonmining.com/
http://www.cliftonmining.com/wsreview.htm
50 mil shares fully diluted @ .29/share
$14.5 mil MC
100 mil oz. silver
+500,000 oz. gold x 70 = 35 mil oz. silver equiv.
$14.5 mil MC / 100 mil oz. = $.145/oz.
$14.5 mil MC / 135 mil oz. = $.107/oz.Additional comments:  I don’t own any.  Not because of any negative bias, (I know little else about the company) I just bought others that were cheaper at the time.  This one has not moved up as of late.  I don’t know why it has not participated in the silver bull.   But what do I know?  Maybe no press?SRLM.PK
http://www.sterlingmining.com/
4.9 mil shares x $3.95/share =
$19.35 mil MC
~160 mil oz. resource, Sunshine alone
~100 mil oz. other properties (rough guess)
$19.4 mil MC / 260 mil oz. = $.075/oz.
$19.4 mil MC / 400 mil oz. (an anonymous source says they have 400 mil oz., but will not commit to saying so on paper) = $.049/oz.Additional comments:  Sterling Mining acquired the Sunshine mine.  Sunshine was one of the big three: Hecla, Couer, & Sunshine.  Sunshine went bankrupt.  Sterling got the property a few months ago cheap, because they were quick & willing to pay cash.  Other buyers wanted to do a full study before making an offer.  This company’s share price went ballistic as a result.  But the company is still way undervalued.  Just do the math, people.  I own a substantial share of SRLM.PK  There were a few great articles written lately for SRLM.  See the company web site, above.  The best factors, I feel, are as follows:1. The Sunshine mine is an existing mine that was mining at a profit.  The company went bankrupt, not the mine.  So there will be no great capital costs for start up, only minimal costs.  
2. The Sunshine sits on 1/2 sq. mile, and was never fully explored.  Sterling Mining owns 10 square miles of property surrounding the Sunshine, right in the heart of silver country, Cour, the location of CDE and HL, the other two big companies at the top of this list.  
3. The management of Sunshine understands the silver story.  They are on a mission to acquire distressed silver properties at today’s cheap prices.  The CEO said he knows of a silver property that he feels he could buy for a million dollars that has perhaps 100 million more ounces of silver.  That’s 1 cent per ounce!  Maybe after this article comes out, and reaches the attention of the other owner, the other owner will realize the value of his property.  But maybe not.  It’s a free market and a free world, and all people do not have access to the best information.  Hint:  Efficient market theory is bunk, but the free market is still the best way to price things.MNMM.OB:
7.5 mil shares  x $2.55 =
$19.12 mil MC
261 mil oz. silver resources
$19.12 mil MC / 261 mil = $.073/oz.Additional comments:  Mines Management owned 10% of the rights to their property in Montana.  The other 90% owner simply gave up on the property and walked away from their mining claim due to “perpetually” low silver prices and environmental concerns.  So, the MNMM group got 90% of the rest of the property FOR FREE!–the value of which, and the nature of this transaction has just barely begun to be understood by the market, given the low relative price.  Their property also has about 1/2 the value (at current prices) in copper, 2 Billion pounds of copper, and 261 mil oz. of silver.  Do the math, people.  261 mil oz. silver x $5.25/oz. = $1.3 Billion.  2 Billion lbs copper x .85/lb. = $1.7 Billion.  Amazing assets in the ground for such a small market cap.  I own a substantial share of MNMM.OBECU.V
77.1M shares @ .085 CAN (x.73 US/CAN = .062)
$4.78 mil MC
Reserves and Resources: 41 mil oz. silver
Gold equivalents 712,000
712,000 x 70 (from the 70:1 silver/gold ratio) = 49.8 mil silver equiv… so you see, more than 1/2 is from gold.Now, the tricky part about counting gold as silver… it does not work.  Silver at 70:1 can move up to gold, up to 16:1, 10:1, 5:1, or even 1:1 if you really think a shortage and silver panic will hit, and you take into account there is less refined physical silver in the world than gold.  That’s why we are silver investors.  So, it’s misleading to use a 70:1 silver:gold ratio to count gold ounces, which are not equivalent, and do not have the same upside potential that silver has.  But I’ll do it anyway, because other numbers would be arbitrary.$4.78 mil MC / 41 + (49.8 silver equiv gold ounces) = 
$4.78 mil MC / 90 mil oz. = $.053/oz.Additional comments:  This is among the cheapest.  They were also featured in lemetropolecafe.com  But note!  Half those ounces are from gold, not silver.  So if your intention is to add silver exposure to the portfolio, this is not your best pick.  And the market cap is very tiny.  Seems the best opportunities are available for the small investors.  I own none of ECU.Reports such as this usually cost an annual subscription such as $300 or more, and usually, the information you get is outdated by the time you get it in the mail.  This information is believed to be accurate as of Friday, September 19, 2003.  You have all weekend to do your own due diligence.  Articles like this one, that present opportunities as good as these, can tend to move the markets in these stocks.  So, be careful on Monday morning.  Don’t place any market orders for any of these small stocks.  You might end up buying at prices that are 30-100% higher than you intended.   Markets can especially be moved given the wide readership of gold-eagle.com.  I’ve seen markets moved even by private newsletters such as lemetropolecafe.com and silver-investor.com, which reach much smaller numbers of people than gold-eagle.com.  Some of these stocks can move up 15%, 30% 50% or even over 100% in a single day.  Thus, valuations can change very, very quickly.  So, be careful. The biggest days recently for CZN saw 5 million shares traded, but at .30 cents U.S./share.  The biggest days for SRLM was 500,000 shares at about $2.50/share.  Thus, the volume was just over a million dollars, and those days saw huge run ups in the price.One more cautionary note.  This is NOT an exhaustive list of all the silver company opportunities in the world.  There are others.  I’m lazy.  I have not scoured the earth for everything available.  I know this list is incomplete.  And this brings me to why I’m sharing this information with all of you for free.So, why am I writing up this information for free, and not trying to charge money for this information?  As I said, I own some of the best of these stocks.  If people buy them, and the stocks go up, I will profit.  I have been itching to write up these companies for the past 8 months, but I have held off because it was hard enough for me to buy in to these.  At the time, I did not want these companies getting any press.  Part of the problem in buying in for me was the lack of confidence in my own family in the reality of the bull market in silver. Part of the other problem was the sometimes illiquid market and small market caps of these stocks.The final and main reason why I’m writing this is that I expect that if people know of better silver property opportunities, they will contact me, as they did after my last article, which is how I learned of Mines Management, and Canadian Zinc.  So if you know of silver properties that are cheaper, please contact me.
Jason Hommel
Jasonhommel@yahoo.comThe Silver Stock ReportDisclosure: I (nor GoldSeek.com) have not received any compensation from any company for writing up my  report on “silver stocks — compartive valuations,” neither cash, nor  shares, nor options, nor any other sort of compensation. Within the report, I declared my ownership of each company that I own. To repeat, I own shares of the following: MNMM.OB, SRLM.PK, CZN.TO, CDU.V. I am not short any companies, and I hold no short positions. GoldSeek.com does not hodl any positions in the above securities at the time of publication.