Deadly Lode (Trace Brandon Book 1) (15 page)

I could see a bit of disappointment in Jim
’
s eyes. Even fully diluted, International Uranium Corp
.
had no chance of obtaining control through a hostile takeover.

I
’
d reserved two rooms at the
W
in Winthrop before I left E-
B
urg. We stowed some of our gear, grabbed a quick lunch
,
and headed up to the Sullivan Mine.

Red and the day shift were coring on the fourth hole when we arrived.
Jim and I walked over to the rig.

“
Red,
”
I yelled
,
above the rig noise
,
“
t
his is Jim Lee with International Uranium Corp
.
,
down in Australia.
”

“
Nice to meet you,
”
Red shouted back.
“
You came a hell of a long way to look at some damned rocks.
”

“
Indeed I
have
,
”
Jim replied, glancing down at the neat rows of core.

I laid out some cross
-
sections and showed Jim where this hole had intersected the vein.

“
This is the first of two holes at this location. We
’
re at a forty
-
five degree angle on this one. We
’
ll drill at sixty degrees on the second hole.
”

Jim pick
ed
up a small section of very high
-
grade ore and inspected it with his ten
-
power hand lens.

“
Damn, Trace,
”
Jim said, turning the core over and over in his hand
,
“
i
t
’
s the best
-
looking uranium ore I
’
ve ever seen. And I
’
ve seen some damned good ore.
”

“
Yeah, it
’
s amazing. The old
-
timers here were after the gold and copper. The uranium was probabl
y
just a headache for them.
”

“
Yeah, likely in more ways than one. With this kind of grade, you wouldn
’
t want to be exposed underground for too long.
”

I showed Jim our claim layout and took him part way into the original adit.

“
We
’
ll have to dewater the second level
at some point,
”
I said as we came up to the area of the flooded winze.
“
I took a pretty cold dip
,
right about here.
”

“
A winze?
”

“
Yeah, connects with level two.
”

“
Jesus, you were lucky to get out.
”

I laughed
.
“
Yep, I looked just like
Indiana Jones
,
b
ut without the vine.
”

We spent the rest of the day watching the coring operation. I could tell Jim was more than just a little interested. Just before shift change, we headed back to the
W
.

“
Cold beer, Jim?
”

“
Grab us a table and order me a
,
what was it
?,
Tumble Down . . .
?
”

“
Tumbleweed Ale
.
”

“
Make it a
big one. I
’
ll be down in a second
. J
ust need to check in with my office. Should be business hours tomorrow
,
about now.
”

I was sipping on my
Ale
and perusing the menu when Jim came in and sat down.

“
So, this is the
Tumbleweed
, eh
?,
”
Jim
said, taking a frothy gulp.
“
Damn, mate, that
’
s good b
rew
. And we Aussies know a thing or two about beer.
”

“
I thought you
’
d like it. Besides the
A
le
, how
’
d you like the mine?
”

“
I won
’
t bullshit you, Trace. I think
the Sullivan Mine
could be
a
world
-
class
deposit
,
and we
’
d love to work out a deal to be Montana Creek Mining
’
s partner. This mine
’
s going to attract a lot of interest from other majors, Trace. But I think
,
if you
’
ll check around, you find all of our partners are glad they teamed with
International Uranium Corp.
”

“
I did a fair amount of research on your company
, a
nd
I
’
ve
got to admit I liked what I saw.
Let me throw this out to you. We
’
d prefer selling a minority interest in
Montana Creek Mining
,
rather than participating in a
joint venture
.
Along with purchasing a minority interest, we
’
d like you
r
technical help in bringing the project to production.

“
What kind of interest are we talking about?
”

“
No more than
twenty percent
, Jim
.
Also, as t
he additional shares would dilute
our control to less than fifty percent, I
would need a standstill agreement
, w
hereby I could vote
IUC
’
s
shares in the event of a hostile takeover attempt.

“
I see. What kind of
price per
share
have you got in mind
, Trace
?
”

“
It would have to be at a premium to the share price at the time of the sale. So, it
’
ll
likely
be north of two dollars per share.
”

“
I know w
e
’
d like a bigger piece, Trace
, b
ut
let me run it by my board
. I
’
ll let you know something in a week or so.
”

“
Agreed,
”
I said, clinking my
beer mug
with Jim
’
s.

The next
afternoon,
I dropped Jim
off at
the Spokane airport
and
headed back to my office
.
I
called Will and asked him to come over. When he arrived, we
called Wally
and put him on the speaker
-
phone.

I briefed them on my meeting with Jim Lee.

“
Okay, fellows, here are my thoughts on selling a minority interest in Montana Creek Mining to IUC. First
,
it further validates our discovery. Having a major company take a position
in Montana Creek Mining will increase the
appetite
of other big companies to participate in future offerings
,
or sale of the company.
”

“
Secondly, it will provide us with working capital to advance the project and enhance our share price. And lastly, the shares will be held by a major company rather than by short
-
term investors and promoters
,
in Vancouver.
”

“
If IUC comes back with an offer, as you
’
ve just outlined, I
’
m on board,
”
Wally said.

“
Ditto for me,
”
Will added.

“
We
’
re going to
have several
additional
suitors,
”
Wally said.
“
Canadian Uranium Group and
the French company,
MinUran
Co
,
have both contacted me. You
’
re going to have a lot of company over the winter.
”

“
Well, there
’
s nothing like a little comp
e
t
ition
to sweeten the pot,
”
I replied.

“
I
’
ve got some other news as well,
”
Wall
y
continued
.
“
My contact in the Caymans, Dominic Rinquet, was able to dig up some information on Carib International. You
’
ll never guess who owns it.
”

“
Cyrus
t
he Virus?
”
I replied.

“
How did you know?
”
Wally asked
, slightly stunned
.

“
Just a nagging hunch
,
I
’
ve had.
It
’
s all starting to fall into place, fellows. Ike Moffit tries to steal our core. Ike works for Thorn
ton
, who
’
s Cyrus
’
s
right
-
hand man. Twisp River takes down a big chunk of our private placement
,
and they
’
re owned by Carib
, and
Cyrus owns Carib.
It
’
s
classic
Cyrus
t
he Virus.
”

“
Well it could be trouble down the road,
”
Wally
noted
.

“
What
’
s on your mind, Wally?
”
I asked.

“
Just this, fellows. Right now our cash position is good. The warrants are getting exercised
,
giving us
another infusion of cash.
”

“
Seven hundred
-
fifty thousand,
”
Will
interjected
.

“
Exactly,
”
Wally replied
.
“
S
o in the short term we
’
re okay. But farther down the road we
’
re
going to have to raise additional capital. Which means additional dilution.
”

“
Which means
t
he Virus could accumulate even more of our shares
,
”
I
added
.

“
Exactly,
”
both
Wally and Will
replied
,
simultaneously.

“
Okay, what
a
re
our options?
”
I asked.