Asia Now Ramps Up Drilling Next Door to Large Producing Gold Mine

Asia Now (TSX-V: NOW)
Basic Shares: 65.5 million
Fully Diluted: 68.3 million
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The key to this announcement is the drilling program at its Beiya property in southern China, which is targeting areas immediately adjacent to the largest gold mine in Yunnan Province. This neighbouring mine is expected to produce 200,000 ounces of gold this year. The two drill programs have been planned around encouraging results from the company’s 2009 exploration programs.

Here are the highlights from the release on the two drill programs.

Beiya
• 17,400 metres in two phases.
• Infill drilling on a grid 80 meters by 80 meters is being carried out to define the extent of the main, thick gold-silver zone confirmed by drilling at 160 metres by 160 metres in 2009.
• Four drilling rigs are operating on Asia Now’s Beiya project and additional rigs will be moved in.
• There are plans to contract an independent consultant to provide a NI 43-101 Standard resource estimate in Beiya North.

Habo
• Asia Now has confirmed a large porphyry copper-molybdenum-gold mineralization system that covers an area of 2,300 metres by 1,300 metres at Habo South, and two tunneling programs continue to define the extent of high-grade molybdenum and copper zones.
• Regional comprehensive geological and geophysical programs will focus on testing other geochemical anomalies to discover more high-grade porphyry mineralization systems.
• Habo is located at the under-explored, southeast part of the productive Tethyan belt that contains some of the world's largest porphyry copper-gold-molybdenum ore deposits such as Sar Cheshmeh in Iran, and Reko Diq (owned by Barrick Gold, etc.) in Pakistan.

The company will be following up with more information detailing the timing and cost of the drill programs.

To view the full release, please click here.

Cobalt Coal Scores Attention From The Northern Miner Publication

Cobalt Coal Corp. (TSX:V CBT)
Basic Shares: 50.4 million
Fully Diluted: 57.6 million

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Recently The Northern Miner released an article in the Daily News section of its online magazine, titled, “Canadian coal juniors gearing up in the U.S.” The article talks about five Canadian coal juniors that have either acquired coal properties in the U.S. or are ramping up to development. One the five companies listed was Cobalt Coal Corp.

The highlights on Cobalt from the article include the following:

- Cobalt Coal is focusing on developing a base of assets in the Appalachia area where coal assets "can be acquired and brought into production relatively quickly."
- Cobalt Coal acquired the Westchester mine in February 2008 and started commercial production in December 2008. But the mine was put on care and maintenance in April 2009 when Cobalt lost its coal sales contract because of the recession.
- It is now moving major pieces of underground equipment to the site and expects to start coal production in mid-May.
- The Westchester mine and lease area covers coal-bearing strata of the Sewell Seam near the town of Welch, West Virginia;
- Mining and development of the coal seams in the New River Formation, including the Sewell Seam, started shortly after the Civil War, around 1885. (The Sewell Seam is

About The Northern Miner

The Northern Miner is the world's leading mining publication. Receive insightful weekly news and detailed articles about the worldwide exploration activities of global mining companies.

The Northern Miner's journalists visit mining sites regularly and report their unbiased findings to the paper's readers on a weekly basis. They provide concise and expert findings of exploration and mining developments in the industry. Coverage also includes regulatory issues, stock markets, political climates and more!
What makes the Northern Miner different from other mining publications: On-site reporting

Our experienced mining journalists routinely visit mine sites and exploration projects in North America and abroad. We give readers a first-hand look at gold mining and base metals mining projects among others, along with profiles of mining companies and mining executives, plus geological, political and infrastructure factors affecting a mine's development.

The Northern Miner is a paid subscription service, click here to view the full article.

Cobalt Close To Production

Cobalt Coal Corp. (TSX:V CBT)
Basic Shares: 50.4 million
Fully Diluted: 57.6 million

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Cobalt Coal has moved a very imporant step closer to going into production with the announcement that it has closed its $1 million bridge loan.

The money was used to purchase equipment needed to get the Westchester Metallurgical Coal Mine in West Virginia into production including a new ventilation system underground. Soon to follow will be installation of a continuous mining machine, roof bolter and shuttle cars.

A new power system has also been installed and the company expects to begin coal production towards the middle of May. The first couple of months will see production ramping up with the target being to reach a minimum of 8 thousand clean tonnes sometime in July.

Cobalt President Dave Lewis said the preparations for the resumption of production at the Westchester Coal Mine are now complete and that operations staff are readying the property in a safe and timely manner.

See full news release here......................

Stormy Financial Skies in '09, Better Forecast 2010

AeroMechanical Services Ltd.
(TSX:V-AMA)
Basic Shares: 103.1 million
Fully Diluted: 117.6 million

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Two issues that have fixated AeroMechanical (AMA) investors for many years are what is going on in China after AMA announced a deal to equip over 500 aircraft there several years ago and getting AMA’s technology installed on the factory floor.

Please click on the image to enlarge

Small but revealing statements were made in the Management Discussion and Analysis discussion that accompanied AMA’s annual report.

In reference to China, it was stated that an employee is still spending “95%” of his time in that vast and booming country to move business along.

And there was this statement about enticing an aircraft manufacturer to install blue boxes while aircraft are under construction:

“Efforts are being made to have OEMs install afirs in the factory and we hope to see movement in this regard in 2010.”

Bare bone statements that signify management is not shrinking from the two business fronts despite past frustrations.

And speaking of frustrations, much was said of 2009 - the financial equivalent of a poke in the eye for the airline industry - including AeroMechanical (AMA).

Thankfully a sharp stick wasn’t the weapon of choice, a still painful but less damaging fat finger was.
So while sales failed to meet the hoped-for mark, AMA's top line revenue still grew to $5.1 million from $3.1 million in 2008.

One thing that’s clear is the company learned how to be leaner and meaner while enjoying the benefits of forging alliances with critical business partners and enjoying the eyeball-catching financial power of a recurring revenue model.

As AMA Chairman & CEO, Bill Tempany, put it in his letter to shareholders:

“It (2009) was one of those years for the record books but in the face of many obstacles, we were able to make some headway.”
Headway, indeed.

During the year, partnership agreements were struck with:

1. L-3 Communications (NYSE:LLL) – the largest provider of aircraft black boxes in the world which teamed up with AMA in order to automatically transmit back to earth in real time all the operational data going into a black box recorder when an aircraft malfunction occurs.

2. GuestLogix Inc. (TSE: GXI) – a fast-growing Canadian company that provides passenger credit card transaction technology for airlines, ships and railroads. GXI wanted to use AMA’s technology so it could verfiy a credit card’s validity in real time before an on board transaction took place, whether that be from an aircraft, cruise ship or railway car.

3. And Sierra Nevada Corporation – a private, U.S.-based that provides high-tech electronic equipment to the U.S. military and other militaries around the world.

Given that the high profile search for the missing black box aboard the Air France aircraft that disappeared into the Atlantic Ocean last summer is still going on, the deal with L-3 has taken on the greatest prominence.

That deal has been, as Mr. Tempany wrote, “a real feather in our cap” while meeting new potential customers along with L-3 executives or other customers AeroMechanical approaches on its own who have an interest in all the other capabilities of AMA’s technology.

None of these deals were expected to produce instant results when they were signed throughout 2009.

But AMA is ideally positioned to take advantage of all three of them in the improved markets of this year. Some facts to note while thumbing through the 2009 annual report:

As we noted above, revenues grew 60%. That’s the beauty of recurring revenues and increased sales from additional technological services. In real terms, “afirs Up Time” revenue rang in at $4.28 million versus just over $2 million the previous year.

On the recurring revenue model, the gross margin between costs of sales and recurring money coming in the office door was 52.6% in 2009, compared to 16% in 2008. The margin is growing every year due to two factors - revenues keep rising due to increasing installations against a relatively fixed cost and revenues also increase from adding additional capabilities to the on board AMA technology – such as fuel savings monitoring capabilities.

Importantly, expenses were cut by $2 million to approximately $7.4 million from $9.5 million in 2008.

The net loss also improved dramatically falling to $4.5 million in 2009 from $8.5 million in 2008.
A cash cushion is always a positive and so it is with AMA from two financings in 2009 that left it with $7 million in cash at year end.

To read the full report, please click here.

Smartcool’s Technology Grabs Headlines In The Phillipines

Smartcool Systems Inc.
(SSC: TSX-V)
Basic Shares 44.3 million
Fully Diluted 50.7 million
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A recently published article on Smartcool Systems, titled “Saving energy, the environment and the bottom line” has hit the web edition from the Manila Bulletin Publishing Corporation with the item discussing the electricity challenges facing the Philippines and how Smartcool is helping to address those issues. Here are some highlights from the article:

• Environmental concerns in the last year have also led more and more companies to re-examine the way they operate and to become more proactive in terms of sustainable development.

• “When you look at a facility, whether a mall, a call center or a convenience store, the cost of electricity can be anywhere between seven to eight percent of the operating cost—and 50 to 70 percent of the electrical bill is cooling,” says David Verlee, Smartcool’s CEO for the Asian region. “So if you can have an impact on cooling, you actually have a huge impact on electricity reduction. Here in this country, in the next two years we’re going to see brownouts again because we don’t have the capacity. We don’t have enough power plants, and with the demand increasing and there’s no more supply, what’s gonna happen? The only way you can help the problem is really by reducing the amount of kilowatt needed.”

• Ayala Land’s Greenbelt, in particular, recently received the 2009 Don Emilio Abello Energy Efficiency Award given by the Department of Energy. Smartcool’s ESM was installed in Greenbelt’s eight chillers and this saved the company 31% of the energy required for its cooling systems. Upon seeing how effective Smartcool’s technologies were, more companies have since followed suit.

• With the country’s warm climate and expensive kilowatt prices, there’s clearly a huge market for Smartcool to saturate. “We may have hit two percent of the market—it’s a big market, especially with big chillers,” said Verlee. “There’s a lot of companies that we can go in and talk to, but our business plan is to actually not to go to too many new clients. We would rather target the top companies in each sector that the industry looks up to—we do all the Ayala, 7/11, Globe Telecom, Jollibee and David’s Salon accounts. These are our clients and we had to work extra hard to gain credibility with them.”

• It took a couple of years for companies to begin accepting the technology but through a “no-risk, no-cost” program, Smartcool has earned its stripes and has clearly gained traction in the region.

About Manila Bulletin Publishing Corporation

Manila Bulletin Publishing Corporation (MB) was founded as the Daily Bulletin on February 2, 1900 for the purpose of engaging in the publishing business. It was incorporated on June 12, 1912 as Bulletin Publishing Company and re- incorporated in 1959 as Bulletin Publishing Corporation. On June 22, 1989, the corporate name was amended to Manila Bulletin publishing Corporation.

MB has been transformed into a comprehensive newspaper and is published seven days a week with weekly magazines, the Philippine Panorama Magazine on Sunday, Style Weekend Magazine on Friday and Travel Magazine on the second and fourth Thursday of the month. The Company publishes the daily tabloids, Tempo in the English language and Balita in Filipino. Also published are five magazines in full color of special interests, catering to various sectors of the reading public.

To read the full article, please click here......

Carfinco Analyst Increases Target Of Unit Price

Carfinco Income Fund (TSX: CFN.UN)
Units issued: 23.9 million
Units fully diluted: 24 million
Current monthly distribution: $0.02
Q1/2010 special distribution: $0.04

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Industrial Alliance initiated coverage on Carfinco back in February of this year initially giving it a Strong Buy rating and $3.50 targeted unit price.

Please click on the chart to enlarge

Since then Carfinco has far exceeded initial expectations with solid performance and growth while the market has shown its appreciation taking the unit price to over $4.00.

April 15th's latest report from analyst Fred Westra labeled Carfinco with a new targeted unit price of $4.50. Carfinco attended extensive institutional meetings over three days in Toronto and Montreal with Industrial Alliance in early April giving Fred further time to delve into Carfinco's business. He since increased his estimated earnings per share (EPS) for 2010 to $0.46 from $0.40 as well.

Read full report by clicking here........

Smartcool - 104% Increase In Revenues For 2009

Smartcool Systems Inc.
SSC: TSX-V
Basic Shares 44.3 million
Fully Diluted 50.7 million
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In spite of tough economic conditions, Smartcool notched financial gains as it today reported that 2009 revenue grew 104% to $2.4 million over 2008 numbers.

George Burnes, President and CEO of Smartcool said that he expected growth to continue at this rate throughout 2010. Importantly, Mr. Burnes noted in the release that. "our objective is...to reach a cash flow positive position on an annualized basis within the final half of the year."

The company saw improvements in other areas as well such as a decrease in cost of sales as a percentage of revenues now at 30% versus 36% in 2008 and a decrease in G&A by about 10% over 2008.

Some of the highlights for 2009 include:

• Smartcool achieves record revenue growth in second, third and fourth quarter of 2009 with revenues reaching $1 million in the final quarter of the year.

• Smartcool launched its new ECO3™ product selling 2350 single controllers and 350 dual to customers such as 7 Eleven in Philippines, ABC Stores in Hawaii, National Australian Bank, and California Utility through its expanded distribution network. The sale of the ECO3™ represents 24% of product revenue.

• Smartcool signed exclusive distribution agreements for sale of the ESMTM in South Africa, Greece, Malta, Cypress, Switzerland and non exclusive agreements for sale of the ECO3™ with agents in Australia, Mexico, Brazil, Thailand, India and numerous states in USA.

• US Chillers evaluated the Smartcool Liquid chiller control technology (IIM) at Palm district Cooling Company in Dubai UAE and recorded impressive results.

• Smartcool obtained critical Australian Green star Certification.

• The U.S. Government awarded Smartcool with General Services Administration contract.

• Smartcool successfully completed the first installation with Dell International in Bangalore, India.

• TSX Venture Exchange recognizes Smartcool as a recipient of the 2010 TSX Venture 50 Spotlight, more specifically in the Top 10 companies in the Clean Tech sector.

See full news release here.....

Anglo Swiss Hires Consultant To Assess Airborne Results

Anglo Swiss Resources Inc.
(TSX-V: ASW) (OTCBB: ASWRF) (BERLIN: AMO)
Basic Shares 138.2 million
Fully Diluted 168 million

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Anglo Swiss announced today that it has retained the services of St. Pierre GeoConsultant Inc. to oversee the results of a second thorough airborne mineral survey over Anglo’s recently expanded lands now called the Nelson Mining Camp.

This latest airborne survey will collect over 2,600 line kilometers of data and provide complete coverage of the entire 150 square kilometer site. St. Pierre ‘s expertise is interpreting data such as this and will be looking to define anomalies that will be targeted for scheduled drilling this year.

As a result of the first analysis, Anglo has targeted two large anomalies that are awaiting the drill bit to prove potential value.

See full news release here.................................

Anglo Swiss Adds Team Of Geologists To Its Arsenal

Anglo Swiss Resources Inc.
(TSX-V: ASW) (OTCBB: ASWRF) (BERLIN: AMO)
Basic Shares 138.2 million
Fully Diluted 168 million
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Anglo Swiss announced today that it has hired Vancouver based Equity Exploration Consultants to help plan Anglo's 2010 exploration program with the main targets being two large anomalies on its gold property over-looking Nelson, British Columbia.

The two anomalies were identified in a last fall's initial airborne survey. The team will also consult on information acquired from a new, larger airborne survey that is slated to start this month over the entire 15 thousand hectare or 150 square kilometer property.

The property sits on the prolific Silver King Shear which is host to numerous historical gold, silver and poly-metallic mines including the company's Kenville Gold Mine.

Equity Exploration Consultants has a full time team of 11 geologists and has consulted globally since 1987 to dozens of small and large exploration companies.

See full news release here..................................

If you want to read more on Equity Exploration Consultants Ltd, please click here for the website.......