 Multitudes
Mob Mogambo
David Bond
Archives
Editor, Silver Valley
Mining Journal
posted Sep 27, 2004 19:01 WUT
[click on the small images
to see the bigger photos]
[Editor's note:
Dave Bond forgot to mention that 47 gallons (yes, gallons) of
coffee were drunk on Friday at the show]
 Wallace, Idaho - Five hundred caffeine-crazed
silver psychos descended upon the normally bucolic tourist trap
of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho and the more like-spirited "party-at-the-drop-of-a-ball"
Wallace, Idaho this weekend, led by a ranting Mogambo Guru from
the depths of the silver mines to a dedication of the "Probalistic"
Center of the Universe at the corner of Wallace's Bank and Sixth
streets.
Delegates to Silver Summit
2004, concluded Sunday morning after a four-day run, came to
Idaho's silver fields from such nations as Belgium, England,
Sweden, Australia, Ecuador, France, Bangladesh, Uzbekistan, Germany,
Canada and the tiny island kingdom of Colemania - together with
a septuagenarian black labrador and a caramel shih tzu. Their
mantra: Silver is Money, and the only way to get any is to mine
it, 'cuz the Comex is bust and the U.S. dollar's circling the
drain - from a worth of $1 in 1913 to 2 cents today.
 Their cheerleaders numbered internet celebrity
Richard Daughty of Pinellas Park, Florida, author of the Mogambo
Guru newsletter and the self-described "angriest guy in
economics" who likened Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan to a
"retarded chicken" for debasing the U.S. dollar to
its lowest point in history with masses of debt, and world-renown
silver analyst David Morgan, author of Silver-Investor.com, who
clearly shared Daughty's disdain for the dollar.
Silver Summit 2004's sponsors
and presenters included Hecla Mining Co., Coeur d'Alene Mines,
Pan American Silver, Silver Standard Resources, Inc., Bunker
Hill, Sterling Mining Co., Canadian Zinc, New Jersey Mining Co.,
Timberline Resources, Mag Silver, Esperanza Silver, Macmin Silver,
Tumi Resources, Minera Andes, and two dozen others - these companies
altogether controlling an incredible 2 billion ounces of silver
reserves and resources.
 Bunker Hill, Lucky Friday, New Jersey and Galena
crews graciously showed 60 conferees below-ground to their respective
mines on Thursday's day-shift. Following lunch at the Snakepit,
they were joined by nearly 430 others at a Coeur d'Alene convention
center later that day and the next for seminars, presentations
and general hob-nobbing with the CEOs.
First-timer Ross J. Beaty,
chair and CEO of Pan American, summed up his impressions of Silver
Summit 2004 thus: "This is the best silver mining convention
in the world," he said. "We will be back, again and
again."
 What makes Silver Summit work is that
investors get a chance to stray from the lobbies and convention
halls of a sterile hotel to real elephant country - the Coeur
d'Alene Mining District, source already of 1.2 billion ounces
of silver, and the very likely source of another billion or two
ounces should current prices prevail.
No moose pasture this, this
stalwart camp that has out-lived and out-produced the Comstock
and Potosi lodes combined in its brief 120 years and now the
target of new exploration ventures totaling $30 million over
the next few years. The first surface diamond drill rig the district
has seen in 16 years is now poking 2,400 feet of holes in the
back of Sunshine's ground and it was damned tough to get - diamond
drill rigs are busy this year; Hecla and Coeur are expanding
their underground headings; New Jersey has struck gold at the
Golden Chest, and a Pine Creek miner, Idaho-General, recently
came under new management and got itself registered.
 A caravan of two full SRO tour buses and a dozen
cars ventured forth Saturday from Coeur d'Alene tourist trap
torture to the Silver Valley on Saturday to see those mines -
to come to the silver well, as it were. Bunker Hill's Bob Hopper
- who'd emceed the previous day's 9-hour conference - announced
formation of the Jonathan Swift Mining Co., which has laid claim
to the huge mineral reserves the EPA and the Coeur d'Alene Indian
tribe allege reside in the lakebed of Coeur d'Alene Lake. (MTK
on this, dear readers.) Following surface tours at Bunker, New
Jersey and Sunshine, Summiteers made their way to the Mining
Heritage Exhibition where former Day Mines CEO Bill Calhoun explained
the complex evolution of mining methods from the early days of
hand-held drills, double-jacks, mule hoists and stamp mills to
today's mechanized, more efficient and infinitely safer means.
Meals, more tours and libations
ensued. As sun set Saturday, Sambuka filled shot glasses and
a hospitable Wallace welcomed the foreigners for a solemn dedication
of the new Center of the Universe at Bank and Sixth. [Editor's note, a photo
of the ceremony will be posted as soon as I can get my hands
on one.] Mayor Ron Garitone,
citing peer review from a shadowy crew of Italian relatives,
issued the following proclamation beneath a wall of search-lights:
"I, Ron Garitone, Mayor
of Wallace, Idaho, and all of its subjects, and being of sound
body and mind, do hereby solemnly declare and proclaim Wallace
to be the Center of the Universe.
"Thanks to the newly discovered
science of "Probalism" - specifically Probalistic modeling,
pioneered by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department
of Health and Welfare, and peer-reviewed by La Cosa Nostra and
the Flat Earth Society - we were further able to pinpoint the
exact center within the Center of the Universe; to wit: a sewer
access cover slightly off-center from the intersection of Bank
and Sixth Streets.
 "Upon
discovering this desecration of the Center of the Universe, we
proceeded forthwith to remove said manhole cover and replace
it with this fine Monument, directing all who come upon it to
the Four Corners of the Universe, these being the Bunker Hill,
the Sunshine, the Lucky Friday and the Galena Mines. Let the
courses of all who foray upon these vectors into the known and
unknown be forever illuminated by the brilliant, shimmering gleamings
of silver, lead and zinc to their destinations, wherever they
may be.
"The science of Probalism
has its roots in the 2002 EPA Coeur d'Alene Basin Record of Decision,
and as a syllogism expresses itself thusly: If a thing cannot
be disproven, it is thereby proven. Thus if the communities of
the Silver Valley cannot absolutely prove themselves to the EPA's
satisfaction to be good and healthy places to live, then this
is proof that they require the EPA's continued meddling in their
affairs.
"Similarly, after a search
of the literature, our government-contracted scientists in Moscow,
Boise and Seattle have, after years of diligence, been unable
to unearth one scintilla of proof that Wallace is NOT the Center
of the Universe. In the absence of such proof, we are compelled
to conclude that Wallace must therefore BE the Center of the
Universe.
"And it is hereby so ordered
and declared, this year 2004, this date, September 25th, this
hour, 9 p.m., Wallace Universal Time (WUT)."
WUT, indeed. Here's WUT: The
doomsday clocks at the Comex and the Fed are ticking and the
Paper Potentates know it. Silver Summit, Pan American and Mogambo
will be back next year with the real thing and another 500 of
their closest friends. The Silver Revolution, a revolution as
profound as any the last millennium is under way: The wresting
of our wealth away from those who have stolen it, who have rendered
our honest labors meaningless with their fiat money. Phil Lindstrom
was right: We mine money. We will chain up these usurpers, these
thieves, these usurers, these vipers, with links of silver, and
reclaim our stolen wealth and dignity.
To the Revolution!
Sep 27, 2004
David Bond
Archives
Editor: Silver Valley
Mining Journal
 David Bond covers gold
and silver mining equities for a number of national and international
publishers, including Platts Metals Week, a division of McGraw-Hill.
He lives in Wallace, Idaho, heart of the planet's richest silver
fields, the Coeur d'Alene Mining District. He is former editor
of the Wallace Miner, and holds regional and national firsts
in investigative journalism from the Atlantic City Press Club
(National Headliner) and from the Society of Professional Journalists
(SDX/SPJ) and has edited or written for newspapers on both coasts,
Canada and Alaska.
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321gold Inc
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