Topic: How To Invest

Pat: What is your view on Exeter Resources? Thanks.

Article Excerpt

Exeter Resource Corp., $3.98, symbol XRC on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 86.8 million; Market cap: $334.7 million; www.exeterresource.com), is a Vancouver-based junior-exploration company that is focused on developing its 100%-owned Caspiche gold/copper project in northern Chile. Caspiche is halfway between the Cerro Casale gold/copper project, owned by Kinross Gold and Barrick Gold, and Kinross’s producing Refugio mine. (Barrick paid Kinross $805 million for a 51% interest in Cerro Casale in October 2007.) Exeter is now undertaking a prefeasibility study at Caspiche to determine the economics of building an open-pit mine. The deposit could hold as much as 26.4 million ounces of gold, 6.7 billion pounds of copper and 62.9 million ounces of silver. Exeter holds cash of $78.0 million, or $0.90 a share. It has no debt. The Caspiche project is close to producing mines, and the large size of the deposit gives Exeter speculative appeal. The company has the cash to keep developing the project, but building a profitable mine is…