$700 Billion Approved - Gold Slips, MAI High Recovery Copper %, Confused Market, WaMu desperate for Capital (WM), Coal JUMPS Gold Source (GXS)

Huge News of the day certainly goes out to the unprecedented bailout - essentially approved by Congress.

$700 billion. Wow.

Lawmakers reach deal on rescue-plan principles

The deal includes limits on executive compensation and oversight of the $700 billion plan to bail out strapped markets and kick-start the flow of credit.

The $700 billion to buy up troubled assets from financial firms would be paid out in installments, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The Journal reported that $250 billion in bailout funds would be available immediately.

Several lawmakers predicted that the unprecedented plan would be approved by Congress, but they remained tight-lipped on specifics, which would have to go back to congressional leadership and the White House for ultimate approval. Congressional leaders are meeting with President Bush at 4 p.m. Eastern to discuss the plan. The meeting will also include presidential hopefuls John McCain and Barack Obama.

Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, said "a fundamental agreement on a set of principles" had been reached.

"I now expect we will indeed have a plan that will pass the House, pass the Senate, be signed by the president and bring a sense of certainty to this crisis that is still roiling in the markets," said Sen. Robert Bennett, Republican of Utah, following an hours-long meeting on Capitol Hill with Dodd and others.

While specifics and details have not been worked out, the initial approval is enough to send a shockwave to the Dow / S&P which remained in the black/green for the first time in number of days.

The implication here is enormous - and the usual gold rebound on additional national debt is not seen today. In fact gold and most juniors are down even more, possibly from more institutional selling on further financial companies drop...banks like Washington Mutual (WM) seems to have reached its last legs, with potential buyers passing up the WaMu logo one after another...

How bad is it getting? Try Cash Deposit rates of 5% (locked GIC) as advertised on WAMU websites today and 4% Saving Account interest rates, both of which are nearly double any other FI in North America today...

Just an evidence of the madness that drives the market, rumors has it permits are starting to pick up again for the Sask Coal area plays... which National Post reported took a huge hit (led by the one that started it all, Gold Source GXS) few months back:

Goldsource Mines Inc. and the rest of the Sasktachewan coal play gang are in freefall Monday after Goldsource said that results of its first drill hole following its discovery of coal earlier this year, uncovered less coal than hoped for.

Goldsource shares are down a whopping 50% to $6.45 in morning trading. The price is a far cry from the stock's $19.60 record high on June 25, but on the bright side, it still represents a huge premium on the company's 30¢ share value before the initial discovery was made in April.

So far today it is up 45% on no new. The rumors are working quite well it seems and the adage goes... "buy on the rumors, sell on the news!"

Onto Copper as we wrapped up the other day on expected copper shortages, Minera Andes came out with an excellent news release keeping shareholders updated on the developments at Los Azueles.

Minera recovers up to 93% Cu in Los Azules testing

2008-09-25 13:38 ET - News Release

Mr. Art Johnson reports

MINERA ANDES ANNOUNCES EXCELLENT METALLURGICAL TESTING RESULTS FOR LOS AZULES

Minera Andes Inc. has received excellent results from the metallurgical testing program completed as part of the Los Azules project National Instrument 43-101 preliminary assessment (scoping study) planned for completion by year-end. The test results show that the Los Azules ore material is amenable to conventional flotation recovery methods and that the overall metal recoveries and the copper concentrate grades are high.

The table shows the metal recoveries and the amount of metal recovered into concentrate in the locked-cycle flotation tests for all three composite samples.

                                               Metal in
                                               copper
Sample      Ore type            Head grade   concentrate    Metal recovery

Composite                    Cu     Au    Ag  Cu    Au    Ag  Cu  Au  Ag
                            (%)  (g/t) (g/t) (%) (g/t) (g/t) (%) (%) (%)
1         Strong enriched
         sulphide          0.85  0.094  2.7   34  2.7   101  92  56  70

2         Weak enriched
         sulphide          0.55  0.087  1.7   30  3.9    80  93  66  62

3         High-grade
         primary sulphide  1.55  0.125  4.0   33  2.4    84  93  74  84

Allen Ambrose, president of Minera Andes, said: "The positive metallurgical testing program shows that standard reagents and flotation methods can be used at Los Azules to produce a high-quality saleable concentrate. Copper recoveries over 92 per cent and copper concentrate grades over 30 per cent copper indicate that flotation concentration would be the preferred process for all ore types, which are of medium hardness for grinding. Gold and silver grades are also sufficient to contribute payable precious metals to the concentrate."

The metallurgical tests were conducted on three composite samples collected from recent drilling campaigns at Los Azules, including core from the latest 2007-2008 season. The three composites were identified as strong enriched sulphide ore, weak enriched sulphide ore and high-grade primary sulphide ore. The strong enriched sulphide composite showed potential for recovery of 75 per cent of the copper by acid leach. Concentrate arsenic content was 0.22 per cent or below for all ore types. Concentrate from the strong enriched sulphide composite contained 2.4 per cent zinc compared with less than 1 per cent for the other ore types. Other metals in the concentrates were below penalty limits.

The metallurgical testwork was carried out by laboratory C.H. Plenge & Cia in Lima, Peru, under the direction of Samuel Engineering. The program was designed to determine the crushing, grinding and flotation characteristics of the primary and secondary (enriched) sulphide ore types found at Los Azules that are representative of the current National Instrument 43-101-compliant resource estimate. The test data will be used by Samuel Engineering to develop a process flow sheet, to identify further testing requirements, and to develop capital and operating costs for the scoping study that is scheduled to be completed in December of this year.

Mr. Ambrose, president of Minera Andes, an appropriately qualified person as defined by NI 43-101, for the Los Azules project, has reviewed and approved the content of this press release.

Minera Andes is advancing the Los Azules project under an option agreement (see news in Stockwatch dated Nov. 14, 2007), with Xstrata Copper, one of the commodity business units within Xstrata PLC (London Stock Exchange: XTA.L and Zurich Stock Exchange: XTRZn.S). The scope and size potential of the project increased dramatically in 2006 when the Minera Andes drilling discovered a near-surface high-grade area of copper mineralization, when AZ-06-19 encountered 221 metres of mineralization averaging 1.62 per cent copper that was 200 metres from hole AZ-06-20 containing 173 metres of 1 per cent copper.

Of course, MAI is flat so far today, TNR is climbing back nicely to $0.22, as I advised earlier look into TNR at the low $0.20's. Great stable company with portfolio of properties with huge potentials.