A Comment -- General Comments From an Expert (A Commentary)

Being taken over by Highpine Oil & Gas.

(A Top Pick Mar 23/05. Down 12%.) Missed their numbers in Q1 and it is being taken over by Cyries Energy (CYS-T) and shareholders will have a quarter of Cyries shares plus a piece of the new exploratory company. Cotinue to Hold.

Now producing 7,090 BOE's a day. Had a deep oil discovery, on a 2 week test basis, producing 1,500 BOE's a day and will come on at 500. Feels they will exit the year north of 7,500 BOE's a day.

Converting into a trust. They're into a great market and have had a great run for the last few years. Should still have a bit of a run. Be wary of any pullback in housing.

From an earnings growth standpoint and from a multiples standpoint it has some attractions. One of his favourites in the metals, but would rather buy it around $20

The combined entity Noranda (NRD-T) and Falconbridge (FL-T) will give a lot of exposure to copper and nickel which are at their cyclical peaks right now. Management didn't do that well in the last up cycle.

Was doing about 70% gas and 30% oil, but have made a number of acquisitions and had an oil discovery that tested 800 barrels and producing it at 500 barrels a day. Will probably be 50/50 on oil & gas by the end of the year. Expects cash flow by the end of the year of $2.75.

Doesn't have the combined balance sheet of Noranda/Falconbridge (FL-T), but does own Noranda. Has a model price is $28.39 on Noranda, so it's a 35% differential.

Doing a very complicated deal that will see it merge with a number of juniors and a couple of exploration companies will be spun out. The market didn't like the deal very much as it was complex, hard to understand, hard to figure what the value is. All the pieces put together are worth something like $10 a share. Good buy at this price. Hold for only a few months.

Looking at copper 2/3 years out, he is bullish and just initiated a position in Aur Resources (AUR-T) and are looking at both Constellation Copper (CCU-T) and Noranda (NRD.LV-T).

Conversion into an income trust, coalbed methane company and an exploration comapny is very interesting. In a worse case scenerio, if the trust has to yield 15%, that puts a $6 value on it and if the coalbed methane and exploreco sell at 1 X net asset value, you get to $7.54 which means it's fully priced. A more realistic scenario is the trust has a $6.67 value and 2 X for the other 2 would get you to $9. Interesting speculation. Looking at it very carefully.

Sold interest to Epcor (EPE.PR.A-T) which should be very beneficial to them. Well managed. Has a lot of accretive growth. High level of net income to distributions. Very conservative.

You won't have a better time to buy. Likes that Falconbridge is a part of this.

Will be unexciting for the next little while because of confusion of the merger with Falcoinbridge (FL-T). There are other base metals that offer better upside such as Inco (N-T), Teck Cominco (TEK.SV.B-T) or Inmet Mining (IMN-T).

All the mid/upper tier majors have gone through some correction. There are other companies he would choose first. If you are buying put in your price and wait for it to be reached. Could be a 20% correction.