On October 13th & 14th I attended the Chicago Natural...

On October 13th & 14th I attended the Chicago Natural Resources Conference. If you have not been to a mining/minerals or natural resources conference you owe it to yourself to do so. I had the pleasure of sitting on two Q&A panels along with Bob Moriarty of 321gold. com, Clyde Harrison of Brookshire Raw Materials Group, Jason Hommel of Silver Stock Report, Michael Berry of Investing Success, Dave Skarica of the Skarica Letter, Peter Grandich of the Grandich Letter, and several other prominent speakers. I was certainly the junior member of that group. Many of the speakers on the panel did not need to be there by any means, but they graciously donated their time and knowledge. Where else can you go and fire off questions to well respected industry experts like Bob Moriarty or Clyde Harrison for free? The room should have been full but there were some empty seats. Does anyone remember the summer of 2005? People were camping out overnight in Florida and drawing lottery tickets as well just for the privilege of buying condos at absurd prices. Others were paying upwards of $500 to listen to Donald Trump talk for 30 minutes at seminars instructing people how to accumulate wealth by flipping houses. Meanwhile a real chance at building wealth by accumulating assets when they are cheap goes largely unheeded. At one point in the conference, Rich Radez, the organizer of the event said something to the effect of “When people are paying $500 to attend natural resources conferences and the room is 5 times this size, please remind me to sell”.That analogy might tell you just how much closer we are to the beginning of this move than the end of it. Instead of learning about building wealth in what is likely to be a very long bull market in resources fueled by demand from China, India, and other emerging markets, the masses were in a deadly embrace, chasing the end of a housing bubble that has now burst. Everyone in attendance was captivated by the “Market Views” discussion given by Bob Moriarty and Rich Radez, as well as the lunch discussion of Clyde Harrison on “The Big Picture” otherwise known as China. There were over 20 resource companies giving slideshow presentations and many additional exhibitors. Attendees had the chance to talk to CEOs of various junior mining and exploration companies of all kinds (not just precious metals), pick up free literature, and hobnob with industry experts willing to share their knowledge. The presentations that most caught my eye were given by Douglas Lake Minerals, Houston Lake Mining, and Hard Creek Nickel. I am now making plans to tour all three operations and have a tentative schedule to visit Douglas Lake Minerals early next year. Douglas Lake MineralsDouglas Lake Mineral's (DLKM) properties are in Tanzania, a very poor but politically stable, mineral rich country in Africa. Gus Sangha and Byron Hampton made the presentation. They talked about the country, its people and the mine. Drilling is currently in progress. The first core sample, 200 meters in length, hit pay dirt revealing visible gold. Click on the following image to see enhanced resolution. Obviously these images represent a hand picked sample that is certainly NOT representative of the entire core length by any stretch of the imagination. Still, visible specs of gold in core samples are rather uncommon, and chunks of gold are extremely rare. Byron Hampton, VP of Investor Relations, mentioned that 3 more core samples are currently planned and/or underway, 60 meters out from the strike, 140 meters out from the strike, and 240 meters out from the strike. Those are unusually large distances which shows the confidence Douglas Lake has in the size of the strike zone. Results of those drillings are expected to be announced by the end of November, possibly sooner. Email Byron Hampton if you wish to request additional information. Hopefully the above example shows how conferences like these are a good way to find out about exciting happenings in the world of junior miners and explorers. I would not have found out about any of these other companies had I not attended. There were many good presentations. I simply do not have time to write them all up in a single blog. Those wishing additional information can click on the following links. Conference Presenters (in order of appearance)