Originally Posted on LinkedIn July 8, 2015
The Liberty Star Facility S. Kolb Road at I-10
A shareholder sent the following comment to us recently that I would like to share. He writes: “I calculate a dilution of nearly 2,500,000 shares each month for the $3645 rent fee. Could you elaborate on what is in the warehouse and justify the continued dilution. Ten Million shares just for the last five months is a steep price for rocks, weeds and shovels.”
My Reply:
We don’t store weed(s) – maybe you are in the wrong investment game here. Weed is generally located in Colorado now days and we don’t get involved in that, sorry.
We spent a lot of time in searching Tucson for a logistically well located, inexpensive field headquarters that could be accessed quickly from any Greater Tucson location (that means spread across the entire Tucson Basin – mountain to mountain and Santa Cruz river valley – a very large area) and had the proper room for both our heavy work gear, and delicate and costly scientific equipment and adequate office facility for scientific test work and computer lab and secure storage for our mobile equipment, and easy access to the I-10 freeway to be exact –less than 0.2 mile and two minutes north on the Kolb road exit off the freeway. This location is the best and most secure in Tucson and is close to the burgeoning University of Arizona Science Research Park to our east just across Kolb road and connected by a double four lane road and just to our north the Port of Tucson– Multi Modal shipping facility. That connects double tracked rail with full train siding allowing trans-loading. This rail-heavy truck connection allows access to the Port of LA, Port of Guaymas, Sonora, Mexico, and the Port of Houston, Texas and the East Coast, and interchanges for heavy trucking north to and from Canada by road and south to and from Mexico by road or rail. Ocean shipping containers using very large fork lifts can be transferred to and from, rail cars to trucks. Large warehouses are part of this facility. This is where copper concentrate shipments from local mines, will be loaded into shipping containers for transport to smelters in Europe, Asia and other areas of the world with excess smelting capacity. Metallic copper is also shipped from this facility. The area where the Liberty Star warehouse is located (you can see all these facilities on Google Earth images or the like) was once part of the Anaconda Copper Company research facility campus. The warehouse we are occupying was once used for about the same purpose we are using it for by the Anaconda Company. We are only occupying a small part of the Anaconda Research Park and there is currently room for expansion should we ever need it. This is a prime location for us and others and it value will increase in the future. The current landlord is a retired Anaconda executive- engineer who admires the way we treat his property, and is impressed with what we are doing, and is happy to have us there though he has other offers for the space.
There is far more than rocks, and shovels in the warehouse. Exploration and mining is a technical scientific engineering endeavor and requires a large array of expensive scientific tools from in field scanners to large scale digital scanners and printers, cameras, gamma ray spectrometers – both large crystal back pack carry (if you are strong enough), or affixed to either of our ATVs, or small crystal hand held; large magnetometer, very sensitive and man carried (if you are strong)- GPS positioning (this is how we discovered the specific target along with geochemistry at East Silver Bell), magnetic/electrical susceptibility meters for surface mapping and core logging, high resolution digital single lens cameras used for high resolution core photography and attendant LED lighting, hand held digital logging computer and attendant custom designed software by our Technical Advisory Board member Michael Schaefer x-ray fluorescence hand portable assayers, binocular microscopes for rock and mineral examination, stereoscopes for 3D air photo or space photo interpretation and mapping, and numerous smaller less expensive pieces of other mostly scientific items all vital to our exploration mission. Also trucks, ATVs, claim posts and work facilities. I might mention that digital scanning and computer imaging of historical maps from our library collection (see Library Trailer) have led to interpretation and location of the Hay mountain project and digitizing on maps resultant from geochemistry and geophysics. This is where all of our land work and preparation of those property computer maps is done. This is where our as needed computer specialists work. Without this facility we would have to rent a more expensive less desirable facility that would not meet our real needs current and future. We have access to fork lifts and other bulk shipping facilities which we use on an as needed basis; at no added cost to us I might add – thanks to our very generous landlord. In the warehouse lab portion we have rock saws for splitting core, shipping containers, etc. etc. There is also an adjacent safe, fenced and lighted storage parking area for our Library Trailer housing 744 feet of bookshelf of extensive technical geologic reports covering the SW USA and many other places in the world, plus 12 thousand maps again of the SW USA, all of which is invaluable to us and our investors and probably worth millions of dollars, as it is part of the key to current and future projects. As there is time available we are scanning paper documents via our 36 inch wide HP scanner- printer- plotter into our computer data bank. So far we have scanned in 800, 36 inch wide by X inch long paper maps into digital records. One of these contained magnetic survey data, from a forgotten aero mag map that turned out to be critical to our Tombstone project. Digitizing continues when necessary or on a time available basis. Additionally in our trailer fleet are two field ready 55 foot trailers containing drill camp associated tools and supplies, and a Mobile Living Quarters (MLQ) on a 48 foot tractor trailer with 7 pop out rooms with toilet & bathing facilities plus a commercial stainless steel kitchen, suitable for housing up to 13 people (or 26 if hot bunked – like a submarine for 2/12 hour shifts, in the desert/arctic insulated facility with independent onboard generator and heating and cooling, ready to go when drilling starts. The warehouse also acts as a meeting facility and is conveniently located next to I-10, (resulting in a 15 minute drive to Tucson International Airport for those visitors arriving by air) so that the drive out to Hay Mountain is even shorter, as well as highway connections to other project areas in the SW USA and elsewhere.
Industry leaders who visit our carefully preserved, innocuous appearing warehouse (so it does not attract attention of thieves) are amazed at the organization and efficiency, thriftiness and scientifically advanced content of the facilities. This is our only fixed facility. Otherwise we operate as a virtual company with other personnel and directors and consultants operating from various locations throughout North America, many of whom are mobile, connected by high speed internet, instantaneous GoToMeeting video conferencing facilities connecting worldwide on an as needs basis, via computer, smart phone and iPad or similar devices.
You and any other investors who provide us with sufficient notice (we are frequently in the field or traveling) are always welcome to visit us and take a tour of the Warehouse, though a confidentiality agreement may be required. Quite a few have and are always surprised to amazed and complementary.
We have gone to great extent to cut our overhead to the bone, but use cutting edge virtual company parameters so that we are where the action is, in the field doing exploration, on the road or doing business on an international basis with international Directors, consultants, accountants and lawyers not in a static office, waiting by the phone – the phones are with each of us. We are available 24/7 when that is necessary as many of our stock holders and business associates can attest to. We now have contacts on most of the continents so frequently the challenge is to figure a time that doesn’t include getting up or staying up into the middle of the night for one party or the other unless absolutely necessary.
I don’t know about your calculations, since the share price may go up or down over the next few days, weeks, months. Now critical, once we commence heavy duty field work and drilling, the Warehouse will be irreplaceable for our work.