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Back on January 21, 2006 I was quite interested in Strathmore Minerals. They are the 16th largest uranium company in Canada right now. Here is their company description straight from their website:

"Strathmore Minerals Corporation is a Canadian based resource company specializing in the strategic acquisition, exploration and development of uranium properties. The Company acquires previously discovered but not yet mined uranium resources and positions itself in areas well known for uranium production. With one of the largest exploration land packages in the prolific Athabasca Basin along with additional holdings in the United States, Canada and Peru, Strathmore has established a solid portfolio of projects that offer investors high leverage to future rising uranium prices.

The increase in the price of uranium has enabled the Company to accelerate its development plans. A mine development office was opened in Santa Fe, New Mexico and a permitting initiative to advance the Company's Church Rock property towards production is now underway.

Strathmore's Board of Directors and Executive Advisory Board include geologists with over 200 years of uranium exploration and mining experience. In addition, the Company's Directors and managers have a proven track record for financing and building successful companies."

Around that time, there was a lot of talk by the company that they were so undervalued and they even hired National Bank if I remember correctly to analyze their position and how to boost their share price. So at that time, I phoned their Investor Relations to see what they could tell me:

Last week I phoned a bunch of IR departments to see what they can tell me about their companies.

Today I will outline what I got out of Strathmore IR. When comparing to other companies, the IR here was second best in quality to Nova.

The first thing I found out was that they have about $21 million in cash. Nothing I didn't know but sometimes it's nice to get confirmation.

Next, I asked who the largest shareholders are. I was very surprised to hear that the man told me that Sprott Asset Management owns 26% of the company right now.

The CEO, Davinder Randhawa, owns 2,545,910 shares according to Sedi but IR told me he owns closer to 3 million. Oddly, since Jan 12, he has sold over 150,000 shares in the open market. (In total, insiders own 6,462,781 shares/options or 9.4% of the company)

This is despite the fact that IR told me management strongly feels the shares are undervalued. This is why they have hired National Bank to look into way to increase the share price.

I think this is why we have seen their management on RobTV a few times lately.

IR also told me that some Maverick's Fund owns 747,000 shares.

I then asked what their goals for 2006 are. He said they want to get permits from the New Mexico regulatory board for a uranium mine (iirc).

They have the 2 properties in the Athabasca basin that they want to update drill status on.

They also want to get some drill stats on their Dieter Lake property in Quebec.

The last interesting note he made to me was that they are looking to sell their non-core assets to free up some cash.

Strathmore seems like an interesting company due to its huge land positions and it should do fine in 2006 but its relatively low insider ownership (9.4%) don't make me want to own it.

What has happened since then?  

At the time of the writing of my original comments, they were trading at $2.20/share. As of right now, they are at $2.65.

That is 20% higher but during that same time my favorite uranium pick, Nova, has moved up 27%. Not much more but look at the month right before that and Nova easily beats Strathmore.

Recently Strathmore has released some very promising news: such as received a 43-101 resource estimate for their Roca Honda Uranium property in New Mexico. This is very good news because the report raised the amount of Uranium on the property to 17.5 million lbs.

Upon reviewing the report, David Miller, Strathmore's President and COO, commented, "I am extremely pleased with the thoroughness of Mr. Fitch's NI 43-101 property update. Strathmore is excited about the upward revision in the resource estimate, which has increased the size of the Roca Honda uranium deposit." David Miller further noted that additional infill drilling is not planned at this time because a sufficient uranium resource has been identified to justify the development of the Roca Honda property.

The Roca Honda uranium property consists of 63 unpatented mining claims located on land owned by the Federal government and administered by the US Bureau of Land Management. In addition, the property includes one State of New Mexico Lease. The combined land package is 745 hectares (1,840 acres) in size.

Strathmore acquired the Roca Honda property from Rio Algom mining LLC, as successor to the Kerr McGee Corporation. Kerr McGee explored the property extensively during the 1970's and 1980's, which resulted in the discovery of significant sandstone-type uranium mineralization. During this period a mine plan was designed and a production shaft was constructed to the southwest of Strathmore's current property boundary. The sharp decline in uranium prices which accelerated during the late 1980's resulted in the project's cancellation.

Strathmore acquired the Roca Honda property and data base from Rio Algom in 2004. On March 6, 2005, Mr. Fitch completed an independent NI 43-101 technical report, which reported a historical resource of 11.48 million pounds of U3O8. On March 31, 2006, Mr. Fitch completed a NI 43-101 update, which included a new resource estimate of approximately 17.5 million pounds of U3O8.

Mr. Fitch writes:

"From a review of all the data, it is concluded that Kerr-McGee and Rio Algom collected reliable and accurate data in their performance of exploration drilling, log interpretation, map posting, and calculating the historical resources. It also concluded that there is very good potential for additional uranium mineralization."

Based on available drill hole information, Mr. Fitch's NI 43-101 update estimates a measured and indicated mineral resource of 17,512,000 lbs. U3O8 contained within 3,782,000 tons at an average grade of .23% U3O8 for the Roca Honda property. An additional 15,832,000 lbs. at an average grade of .17% U3O8 are estimated an inferred mineral resource. Further details on the quantity and grade for each mineral resource category are summarized in the following table.

Historically, uranium resources in the Grant's Mineral District have been recovered using conventional underground mining methods. The Roca Honda uranium deposit is found within sandstone units of the Westwater Canyon member of the Jurassic Morrison Formation, and may be amenable to recovery by in-situ-recovery (ISR) extraction (also known as in-situ leach or ISL mining), in addition to conventional mining methods. Because of the potentially world-class nature and extent of the Company's resource at Roca Honda, Strathmore has commenced preliminary technical, regulatory, and economic feasibility studies necessary to evaluate in-situ and conventional mining and milling recovery scenarios.

So then like 2-3 months ago, Strathmore still remains a company that is on my radar. They have very good land holdings and their management has a lot of experience. However, I feel they do in fact have a bit of a problem with the stock price being undervalued.

Whether that means it's a buy or not is up to you but I'm staying on the sidelines to wait longer how their interesting story unfolds.