What happened in Vegas is not limited to Vegas
By By Ellis Martin
Last week Troy Duran and I
attended the Las Vegas Hard Assets Conference at the Mandalay Bay resort. In fact, most us connected with the
program were in attendance. That
would include account executive, Theresa Padilla, producer Anthony Khalil
and WCMS Newsletter writer
and Opportunity Show co-host Victor Goncalves. We also met Victor’s much better-looking associate Robyn
Lynn who was representing Victor at his WCMS booth at the show. She’s quite a bit taller than him
and blonde, which there’s really no need for me to mention other than I
harassed her quite a bit just for the heck of it. Hopefully the two of them won’t hold that against me. Robyn rented a Maserati Spider
convertible for Victor in honor of his birthday (what about mine?). Victor
offered me a ride in that vehicle after we all had dinner. After Karim Gangji received his spin
around a few Las Vegas blocks, it was my turn. Victor broke the sound barrier with me. Never in my multiple decades long
existence have I been in an automobile traveling at such speeds. Never. Years ago while driving through Death Valley in an Infiniti
I30 that I used to own, I hit 135.
But that was with me behind the wheel and I knew what the car could
do. Let’s just say that I’ve been
a good bit faster and recently somewhere outside of California…and I was not
driving. They should put wings or
fins on the back of those little cars to keep them from attempting to lift at
certain speeds. I realize this has
zero to do with mining or stocks or perhaps The Opportunity Show, but two of
the principal pieces of the program, me and that newsletter guy, might have
perished and then Troy would be on his own, without an executive producer and
without his paid co-host. Victor
is young, but I can’t blame it on youth. Any of us with such an automobile may
have attempted flight that evening. Perhaps.
I spoke about Karim Gangji, the Director
of Corporate Development for Orko Silver (OK.V) briefly above. Karim and I are friends. At least we have been for several
months. I met him through
another buddy who has to remain nameless for a variety of reasons. But if you hang around Karim or me long
enough, you’ll eventually run into this buddy. He’s a large man in stature, but not necessarily girth. We often toast to him while dining at
the variety of places we eat across North America. It has been said by yet another pal, that this buddy of ours
has more money than the Beatles.
This may or may not be true, but on every trip to one of these
conferences, he collects all the free pens, key chains and other knick knacks
that these mining companies give away.
To be fair though he says that’s he’s giving them to his nieces and
nephews. I’m going to call our
buddy St. Nicknack, because his name reminds me of Chris Cringle as well as his
propensity to pick up free stuff.
St. Nick is everywhere we are at these conferences and it’s a very good
thing. He’s a lot of fun, or he at
least knows where the fun is.
But I digress. Getting back
to Mr. Karim Gangji. Almost every article of clothing that Karim owns has a
Nike checkmark logo on it. Karim
loves Nike. You’ll see Karim on
the golf course in Nike gear.
You’ll see him at the pool in Nike gear. You’ll probably see him at Niketowns anywhere they exist
where he is. Karim loves
Nike. Karim loves Orko
Silver Orko Silver is not a
client of The Opportunity Show. I have tried and tried to get them on the air
in a manner that would be effective over the past year, but it has not
happened. So, I have given
up….and then I became a shareholder of Orko Silver. So there is that though. I purchased the shares. No one gave them to me. No promises were made to me or on my
behalf and I made none as well. I
simply got excited by all of the attention that Orko has garnered lately and I
wanted to profit from both that and the good work that they have been
doing. But I told Karim poolside
in Vegas after a swim that “he had
no juice”. He has to get some
juice. Maybe Nike will start
selling juice. Karim needs
juice. Karim has learned a
few things about me. They are:
- I’m extremely modest and don’t want the
limelight, any undue attention drawn to myself, or any thanks for any
deeds I may have done.
- I know a few people that are interested in
potentially fantastic companies like Orko who have the ability to gather
additional interest in such a mining endeavor. But I wouldn’t mention that in any public forum or brag
about it here.
- It’s not so much about people needing to meet me
in person that seals a relationship. It’s the wake that follows me after
one of my excursions to these conferences. Face time is so overrated in some instances, yet in
others, it’s everything. A
quandary indeed. Karim has
always been in the right place, at the right time and that should be
enough.
- I’m extremely modest and don’t want the
limelight, any undue attention drawn to myself, or any thanks for any
deeds I may have done. I think.
Having rambled on and on
about Karim, let me say some things about him that you may or may not
know. The are:
- Personally, he is very generous.
- Karim is a real gentleman, the likes of which
are rare, but not uncommon in Vancouver.
- He’ll go to bat for anyone he genuinely likes or
believes in.
- Karim is a ladies man. He’ got the touch while always the gentleman.
- His new hairstyle favors him better than the
last one. Less Eddie Munster
and more Paul McCartney.
- I enjoy my time with Karim and with St.
Nicknack.
Karim and perhaps a few
others from Orko Silver will be attending The Silver Summit in Couer D’Alene,
Idaho at the end of this week. I
look forward to more fun times and exciting with my friend Karim. Joining me in Idaho will be my
old radio friend and new producer for The Opportunity Show, Bill Blanck. Bill and I go way back, way back to the
days of yesteryear in Albuquerque, New Mexico where in between radio gigs we’d
round up used tires and sell them to tire companies for use as retreads. I regret doing that. I knew Bill when he was let’s
say…Victor Goncalves’ age. I have
few regrets about that time period and I plan on reliving some of those days
shortly. I think.
But getting back to Karim
and the conferences. Top-notch
individual, working for a great company, Orko Silver, trading on the Canadian
Venture Exchange under the symbol, OK.V.
I’ve yapped about Karim
without spending time on our fantastic show host, Mr. Troy Duran. Troy doesn’t come out to all of these
conferences, but he came to the last one and we had a great time. Troy interviewed a few of our clients,
both past and present and several other companies that are not clients. Those interviews can be found on both
of our websites, www.theopportunityshow.com
and www.investdeep.com in podcast
form. They are quite
compelling. Troy interviewed
Stuart Rogers with our client company Max Resource (MXR.V), Gary Freeman with
past client Pediment Exploration (PEZ.V), Robert Carriere with Carriere
Consulting as well as Jon George and Dr. Luca Riccio with Georgia Ventures,
GVI.V. These are fantastic
interviews and if you are reading this far into the article, I recommend that
you listen to them. Troy is truly
the best at what he does, interviewing principals of public companies who are
surely the best at what they do.
Troy and I don’t see each other quite that often in person, although we
talk all the time. It’s often many
months before Troy actually gets to put the face to the name with our client
companies and he got a chance to do just that this past week in Las Vegas.
We’ve got a plethora of new
clients joining The Opportunity Show, as well as new people. We’ll be announcing those clients
within the next few weeks, some of them returning to the program, some coming
along for the first time. All of them with what we think are exciting
stories. I want to talk
about them, but I won’t until the deals are done. But it is very exciting. Much of it stemmed from this last trip to Las Vegas,
speaking of which. A personal
note: I don’t appreciate the
swimming pools closing early at these Vegas resorts simply to get people to return
to the casinos to gamble.
They should stay open for a few hours into the evening. But that will never happen. Nor will
there be hot water type coffee makers for those of us who bring along our tea
bags for our own taste preferences each morning. The hotels and casinos want you to hand over all the money
you can to them, and we do. We do.
