market folly

Eric Sprott’s Canadian based firm Sprott Asset Management have opened a new position in UK gold miner Orsu Metals (LON: OSU). Sprott purchased 11,400,000 shares which represents 7.2% of the outstanding shares. It looks as though Eric Sprott's firm obtained their stake via Orsu’s offering on April 16th, 2010 where they were also granted 5,700,000 warrants with a strike price of C$0.5, exercisable on or before the 16th of April 2012. Orsu appears to be a bit of a recovery play as its share price has been decimated over the last few years and now trades at pennies on the dollar. Keep in mind that Sprott Asset Management's principal, Eric Sprott, will be presenting investment ideas at the upcoming Value Investing Congress along with many other hedge fund managers.

Sprott has also invested in other positions across the pond and we've detailed some of their UK holdings here. In particular, Sprott also has stakes in various other London listed gold mining stocks. They own 17.6% of Vatukoula Gold Mines (LON: VGM) as of January 19th, 2010. Additionally, they own 12.6% of Norseman Gold (LON: NGL) as of the 19th of January 2010. Needless to say, Sprott is very bullish on precious metals and has even started their own physical gold trust.

Taken from Google Finance, "Orsu Metals Corporation (Orsu) is a mineral exploration and development company holding interests in mineral projects in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. It is a precious and base metals exploration and development company exploring gold and copper deposits in the Tien Shan gold belt in the Kyrgyz Republic and Rudny Altai belt in the Republic of Kazakhstan. In addition, it operated the Varvarinskoye Project in the Urals belt in northern Kazakhstan. The Company's property in northwest Kyrgyzstan comprises four licence areas within the Tien Shan gold belt of north western Kyrgyzstan, including the Taldybulak, Barkol, Korgontash and Kentash licences (the Talas Project). The Company's other material exploration project is the property comprising a 47.3 square kilometers licence area in eastern Kazakhstan (the Karchiga Project), which is part of the Rudny Altai polymetallic belt. On October 30, 2009, the Company completed the disposition of its Varvarinskoye Project to to JSC Polymetal."

You can view more of our coverage of Eric Sprott's firm here. And you can also check out his latest investment ideas at the upcoming Value Investing Congress which we highly recommend attending.