IKN

Your author has recently received two mails from his far northern correspondent, “Nome Eye in the Sky”. Despite having every intention of sharing the first mail for some reason I forgot about it at the time, but what with developments yesterday and receiving a new mail from NEitS this morning, it’s time to make amends. This first one was received on September 30th, now two weeks ago, and paves the way for part two:

Otto,

The latest edition of The Nome Nugget (www.nomenugget.com) headlines state “Rock Creek up for sale” – “Novagold  says need to focus on larger projects spurs decision”.

This is no shock to the community, there has been speculation for months that this or the dismantling of the facilities was the most likely scenario.  So much for caring about their native partners!  The local joke about Novagold and Rock Creek is it’s hard to make money at $1,200 an ounce. But if they can’t make it in Nome at $1,300 an ounce, how in the hell are they going to make it at Galore Creek? I know, no drunk Nome miners!

But I see one Board Member and a Sr Exec did do some cashing  of stock before this is announce – as if it would affect their stock price.

There is an old saying in Nome that dates back to the original gold rush: money is made mining the miners or mining the people – or is it shareholders?

The Nome Eye in the Sky

So with that now set in place, here’s the mail received from ‘Nome Eye in the Sky’ this morning (and thanks go to NEitS from IKN) that comments on NG’s 3q10 earnings release yesterday:

Well, they made it public, Rock Creek is for sale.  According to their website the project was not the “Right fit for their business model”, which means after dumping how many millions of other peoples dollars in the project, we can’t figure it out, we can’t make money at $1,350 /oz..  A since deceased Nome local business icon would say a business models (or plan)  success is  based on three things – management, management, management.  Obviously something Rock Creek never had top down.  Be real interesting to see how their Nome native parters react, since they have always boasted their relationship with the native organizations as a key to their management success.
 
The Nome Eye in the Sky

It’s a good point being made here. We’re supposed to believe that a company like Nadagold, Rick! at the helm, is capable of moving forward a couple of the biggest gold projects in the world after noting their track record of disaster at Rock Creek. We’re also supposed to believe Nadagold will be able to keep solid relationships going with Galore and Donlin neighbourhoods when their social record is little short of abysmal. The Brooklyn Bridge is still for sale, I hear. Why Brooklyn? That’s because in the end NG is being mainly pitched at New York investors these days, not at anyone that actually understands something about mining. 

Final semi-OT: Rick Van Alphabet’s total compensation package came to $5.45m in 2009, including over $1m in cold, hard cash. Nice work if you can get it and probably a tad above average for a junior exploration stage miner 🙂

DYODD.