Deadly Lode (Trace Brandon Book 1) (14 page)

“
Holy
moly
, Red,
”
I yelled, looking at the high
-
grade ore
,
“
i
t
’
s the mother lode.
”

“
And a deadly lode at that,
”
Red
replied, looking
down
at the pitchblende
ore.

I looked up at Red and nodded.
“
All in all
,
we cut fifty
-
one feet of mineralized vein
, n
early ten feet thicker than the first
core
s
.
Of course
,
that
’
s apparent thickness
.
I
’
ll have to calculate the true thickness, but it
’
s still damn good.
”

I
pulled out my pocket calculator and ran some numbers.
Length times width, times
thickness
, times tons per cubic yard, times
8
percent uranium. It was going to be a
very,
very
,
big number.

C
hapter
8

T
he
assay results from core hole number three were published
on our website
, and t
he price
of
our shares
rose
to a dollar
and a
half
.

At
9:00
a.m.
,
Tuesday morning, I was back in my office in E-Burg
,
working on
ore reserve
‘
what-if
’
s
’
when the phone rang.

“
Montana Creek Mining, Trace speaking.
”

“
Trace, this is
James Lee with International Uranium Corp
.,
in Sydney, Australia.
”

“
Damn, must be awfully late at night down under,
sir
.
”

“
You
’
re right, mate. But I am in Los Angeles for meetings. So, no worries.
”

“
Okay, glad to hear it,
”
I said
,
with a chuckle.
“
What can I do for you,
sir
?
”

“
Well, Trace, we
’
re hearing a lot about your uranium discovery in
N
orth
C
entral Washington. I
’
d like to come up, meet you
,
and, if possible, have a look at the operation. And of course, the core
s
.
”

“
Your timing is perfect. No snow yet
,
and we
’
re drilling away.
”

“
Good, I hate snow,
”
James said
,
with a laugh.

“
Okay, book a flight into Spokane,
let me know when you
’
ll
arrive and
I
’
ll pick you up
. It
’
s
about a three
-
hour run to the mine.
”

“
Bl
o
ody good, mate. I look forward to meeting up. How
’
s the beer up your way?
”

“
We have a
very good
local
micro
-
brewery
. They brew a
beer
I think you
’
ll like
. I
t
’
s
called
Tumbleweed Ale
.
”

Cyrus and Thorny met
at the
Mallard
Lounge in the historic
Ponderosa
Hotel in downtown Spokane. They sat at the bar under
an
inlaid
glass
ceiling
that
depict
ed
a flock of Mallard
s
,
and ordered cocktails.

“
Cyrus, they
’
re using Mineral Valley
L
abs over in Co
e
ur d
’
Alene
for their assays
. I had an
old
PI
buddy
do some checking
,
and I think we found the perfect insider.
”

“
Go on,
”
Cyrus replied, taking a healthy pull on his
C
rown and water.

“
Her name is Mary Johnson, a single mom. Husband
’
s whereabouts unknown. She has an eleven
-
year
-
old daughter with brain cancer. It takes every dime she can earn, plus her insurance to keep the kid in treatment.
”

“
Perfect. We get to help a kid with cancer
,
and we
’
ll
get the info we need. Kind of a win
-
win, I
’
d
say,
”
Cyrus
declared
,
with a
grin.

“
Yes,
sir
.
”

“
Have you approached her?
”

“
Yes. I had my PI friend make the contact. He told
her all he
needed
were
copies of the assay results
,
as soon as they were available
. He
told her one of his
client
s
owned shares in Montana Creek Mining
,
a
nd just wanted to be sure the assays
published by Montana Creek Mining
matched the
actual
lab assays.
”

“
Nice touch
.
”

“
Yeah, m
akes it seem quite harmless
. Simply an investor trying to protect his investment from all the crooks out there.
”

Cyrus laughed
.
“
H
ell, I love it.
And?
”

“
And
,
for
ten grand
,
she
’
s on
board.
”

“
Excellent.
Each time
Brandon
gets
core
assays, it
’
ll take him a
couple of days
to prepare a news release for the Vancouver Stock Exchange. We
, on the other hand,
only need a couple
of
minutes
to
evaluate the
results.
By the time the assays are public, w
e
’
ll
have already bought or sold
short
.
”

“
It
’
s all about information, isn
’
t it,
sir
?
”

“
Information and timing, Thorny.
”

I dr
ove
over to the Spokane airport to meet with James Lee. I knew of his company
,
but did some online research to get fully up to speed.

I spotted him easily as I entered the airport lobby.
He was wearing
k
hakis
,
with a
hand lens around his neck and a backpack. The universal geological garb.

“
Mr. Lee
, I presume?
”
I said, extending my hand.
“
I
’
m
Trace Brandon, Montana Creek Mining
.
”

“
Hi, Trace
,
”
Lee replied, shaking my hand with a firm grip.
“
Good to meet you
,
and thanks for picking me up.
”

International Uranium Corp
oration
’
s
website listed Lee
’
s age at fifty
-
two, but he didn
’
t look it. He was about my height, around six feet, and I guessed about
180
pounds. Lee wore his salt
-
and
-
pepper hair short and was well tanned from the Australian sun.

“
So, Trace, I see you
’
ve just released the assays from
your third
core hole
?
”

“
Yes,
sir
, a
nd they
’
re
the best to date.
”

“
Please call me
,
Jim.
”

“
Okay, Jim.
Thanks
.
”

“
Best so far, eh?
”

“
Yep. About the same grades
,
but the vein appears to be thickening up at depth.
”

“
Calculated any tonnages yet?
”

“
With just the three holes
, i
t
’
s pretty early. But if the vein and grades continue
for
,
say
,
half
a mile
, we
’
re well into the millions
of tons of ore.
”

“
And at eight or
so
percent uranium per ton, you could be upwards of
half
a billion pounds of uranium,
”
Jim said
,
with a whistle.

“
Yeah, it could be a whopper. And don
’
t forget the gold and copper values. The uranium
’
s going to be the cream.
”

“
So, Trace, what
a
re your plans to finance this beast?
”

“
Well, we
’
ll probably do another private placement when the stock price gets a
round two dollars
.
And
r
aise enough capital to
keep us drilling out reserves.
”

“
Any thoughts toward a possible joint venture
?
”

“
Right now, we
’
re more inclined to keep drilling in-house.
”

“
That
’
s a bit risky, isn
’
t it? What if the vein pinches out or the grade drops. You
’
ll be risking one hundred percent of your capital. Might be wiser to share the risk and the return
.
”

“
True enough
. B
ut from what we
’
ve seen so far, it appear
s
to be worth the risk.
”

“
What
’
s your control position at the moment, Trace?
”

“
I own three and a
half
million shares
.
Will Coffee, my attorney and a director, owns
half
a million shares
,
and our other director,
Walter
Wilkins
,
owns
half
a million shares.
”

“
So, out of seven million
,
issued shares, your group controls four and a
half
million shares.
”

“
Correct. Fully diluted
,
the directors will have about fifty
-
six percent control.
”

Jim
crunch
ed
the numbers on his pocket calculator.

“
Exactly right.
”

“
And,
”
I added,
“
with the additional seven hundred and fifty thousand cash from the warrants, we
’
ll be able to keep
the
drill
s turning to the right.
”