Haywood honcho Tognetti spends $2.4M on more Mirasol shares

Argentina-focused silver explorer Mirasol Resources (MRZ-V) has received a welcome show of support from its largest shareholder, John Tognetti, who bought $2.4-million worth of shares and warrants as part of a $13.2-million private placement in late December. The head of Haywood Securities acquired control over 736,800 shares at $3.30 each, bringing his total holdings to 7.54 million shares, or 17.8% of the company.

Tognetti has purchased 2.1 million shares over the past year, of which 1.3 million were bought in the open market at prices ranging between $2.81 and $7. Mirasol saw its share price fall from an all-time high of $7.94 in March 2011 to a 52-week low of $2.63 in October 2011. It traded for $3.44 a share at presstime on Jan. 6. 

Tognetti’s interest in the company can be traced back to at least 2007, when he participated in his first private placement at $1 a share. In December 2008, after breaching the 10% ownership threshold, he publicly disclosed holdings of 3 million shares, some of which were purchased at as low as 11.5¢ apiece in the throes of the market crash. Other notable purchases included 800,000 shares in December 2009 at $1.25, 750,000 shares in January 2010 at an average of $2 and 500,000 shares in February 2011 at $5.16. 

Mirasol is run by president and CEO Mary Little, a geologist with 15 years of experience in Latin America. The company has recently begun large drill programs at its two main silver properties in Argentina’s Santa Cruz province: Joaquin and Virginia-Santa Rita..

Joaquin, the more advanced of the two, is a joint venture being fully funded by silver miner Coeur d’Alene Mines (CDM-T, CDE-N). Coeur began a 12,000-metre, 90-hole diamond drilling program at Joaquin in October as part of its requirement to earn a 61% interest in the project by advancing it through a bankable feasibility study. 

Exploration Insights newsletter writer and geologist Brent Cook has a “buy” recommendation on Mirasol. He first recommended it in July 2009 at 19¢, and took partial profits in November 2010 at $4.59. “The fact that Coeur is moving ahead with the feasibility study suggests they feel the deposit stands a good chance of proving to be economic,” Cook writes in his newsletter. “Mirasol’s upside lies in the potential for additional discoveries and a positive feasibility from Coeur. It is a stock worth accumulating during market sell-offs.”

As for Virginia-Santa Rita property, Mirasol has so far discovered four individual silver deposits with potentially economic grades. 

Cook states that the “mineralization is open and there is a very strong possibility that new silver mineralization will be discovered during the upcoming drill season. Although Mirasol has not completed a resource estimate, our guesstimate [from July 2011] suggests somewhere in the order of twenty-four million ounces have been drilled out so far. Assuming decent metallurgy [initial test work is planned] Virginia appears to host a viable silver deposit.”

Mirasol has also signed a letter of intent with silver producer Pan American Silver (PAA-T) for Mirasol’s Espejo gold-silver project in Santa Cruz province. Pan American operates the Manantial Espejo silver-gold mine 7 km to the northwest.

Insider trading reports on the “SEDI” System for Electronic Disclosure by Insiders show Vancouver-based Tognetti holds a 10% or greater interest in five other public companies. They include Western Troy Capital Resources (WRY-V), Renaissance Gold (REN-V), Stream Oil & Gas (SKO-V), Planet Exploration (PXI-V) and Azimut Exploration (AZM-V).