Major Miners Continue Their Push Into Ecuador!

Don’t doubt me on this – resource speculators will start jumping on the Ecuador bandwagon.

You, the savvy speculator armed with a BullMarketRun.com subscription shouldn’t be waiting until everyone’s on the bandwagon.  If you haven’t allocated some dough into top notch Ecuadorian exploration stocks like Salazar (SRL, TSX-V) and Luminex (LR, TSX-V) yet, what are you waiting for?

Take a life lesson from Van Halen, one of America’s great rock bands, and do it “Right Now”.

I’d suggest placing your bids and/or making your offers.  Do whatever you’ve got to do to make sure you’ve secured a seat on the bandwagon because SRL and LR are going to start rolling out.  At these prices there’s lots of money sitting on the table, right here and right now – don’t be afraid to take it.

Last Tuesday Luminex announced it signed an $82 million non-binding LOI for an earn-in and joint venture agreement with a wholly-owned subsidiary of BHP Group (BHP, NYSE), a $192 billion behemoth.

Luminex is now in the fortunate position of having 3 world class venture partners in BHP, Anglo American, and First Quantum on separate exploration projects within its portfolio.

In addition to the extensive exploration and drill campaigns, Luminex should be participating in, year after year, the company’s Condor Project (90%-owned, Ecuador’s armed forces pension fund owns 10%) hosts a resource of nearly 4 million ounces Gold and 300 million pounds of Copper.

LR leaped 33% on the news, from 60 to 80 cents, and held most of that increase to close the week at 75 cents.  Even after that move, Luminex has a market cap of just $31 million. Ross Beaty owns approximately 15%.

Frankly, I’m starting to regret not buying some LR over the past few months.  SRL has been my main Ecuadorian exploration horse thus far, but it’s never a bad idea to have 2 horses in the race.

Any week now I think Salazar will have a new JV exploration agreement to announce.  And if I had to take a guess, from the 5 wholly-owned projects remaining in their portfolio, the deal will be for Ruminahui.

Many giant porphyry deposits have yet to be discovered in Ecuador, and as you can see Ruminahui is right in the thick of it.

Ruminahui must be on the potential deals to make list of several junior and major miners.  Now, I’d guess it’s merely a matter of terms.

Thinking strategically, I’d prefer Salazar poke a few holes into Ruminahui on its own before farming it out to someone else (with $5 million in the bank they can afford to take a few shots).

Also, keep in mind that Luminex’s Pegasus A&B properties basically surround Salazar’s Curipamba Project on the northern and eastern boundaries.  So if Anglo American was to have some luck at either property some of it could rub off on Salazar (who used to own Pegasus A&B).

Amazing to think Q1 of 2019 is almost behind us already.  News flow wise it’s been a bit slow for Salazar, but the pace should start picking up in April with the publication of a PEA and possibly an updated resource estimate.  Even before that there’s a chance of some news coming out relating to Salazar and Adventus’ (ADZN, TSX-V) interpretation of first-ever geophysical surveys on Curipamba, Pijili, and Santiago.  Following what could be a little flurry of news the focus will shift back to drilling.

Between their Exploration Alliance with Adventus and wholly-owned projects, Salazar should offer exposure to at least 4 drill programs this year (maybe 5).

It hasn’t happened yet, and many of us have been patiently waiting for a while, but I still foresee SRL making a big-big run.  The chart has “explosive upside potential” written all over it!  Multi-year consolidation pattern within a multi-year bullish trend.  It’s only a matter of when, not if, in my view.  One of these weeks SRL is going to break through its long-term resistance at around 17 cents.  When it does technical traders who screen for long-term breakouts will be all over this stock.