When a company chooses a business model and then excels at that business model, it has the potential to become an even better investment for new and existing shareholders. By focusing on best practices and streamlining its processes, the company can often do more than its competitors, faster, and at a lower cost.


Keith Laskowski, President and CEO of Estrella Gold Corp

Estrella Gold Corp (TSX-V: EST) is a great example of a company that is mastering one particular business model – the prospect generator model – and using that mastery to its full advantage. Recently, we spoke to Keith Laskowski, President and CEO of Estrella Gold Corp to hear about the company and about their prospect generator business model. He briefly described this business model as: "Prospect Generator companies contain seasoned, successful exploration teams that acquire prospective properties and then advance them to the point where the property can be joint ventured, usually with a senior mining company as a partner.  This type of joint venture agreement then allows the senior mining company an opportunity to acquire a majority position in the property, in exchange for doing the heavy lifting and the high cost exploration and development.  The ultimate goal is for the senior partner to put the property into production leaving the Prospect Generator with a sizeable piece of the deposit and mine, which ultimately provides shareholders with a very significant return."

But first, we started by finding out more about him and his background, since our readers always want to know more about the management team that is guiding a company. You'll see in a moment how his background vastly informs the prospect generator model at Estrella Gold Corp.

"I'm a geologist and I've been in the gold business almost my entire career," Mr. Laskowski told us. "I got into the gold business when gold first starting taking off in about 1980… I started with Newmont Mining Corporation and spent about 17 years with them. I worked my way up the ranks from a prospecting project geologist to regional exploration manager and then on to resource assessment geologist.  I also worked on the global targeting team where I looked at selecting regions of the world to explore for gold." Mr. Laskowski has been working in gold and prospect generation since the start of his career.

He left Newmont in 1997 but continued his focus in prospect generation: "In 1997, I went to work for a private investor who hired me to go around the world and look for new deposits anywhere in the world that I wanted. I did that for seven years. We made some early stage discoveries in Peru. After we sold that company, I worked with several juniors and I was able to successfully identify new discoveries in the Caribbean for Eurasian Minerals. I (briefly) worked in the Uranium patch during the uranium boom and put together a resource-based company that was called Northern Canadian Uranium which was acquired by Bayswater Uranium."  Whether gold or uranium, Mr. Laskowski has always been focused on prospect generation.

After that, he joined Estrella (which at the time was called Canadian Shield). He told us: "I joined the company at a time when they had a need for management. They had a very nice share structure and a huge portfolio of properties. I joined in 2009 and then we reorganized the company and renamed it – because we are really focused in Latin America and wanted a Latin American name to reflect our assets."

So, with such a rich background in prospect generation, it's not a surprise that Estrella has continued (and excelled) in that direction. Mr. Laskowski explained it this way: "We've seized upon a model known as the prospect generator model… We're pretty experienced at this. We know what to look for. We know what senior mining companies are looking for. Right now we're pretty successful with that model."

Then, Mr. Laskowski briefly described some of Estrella's projects. "We have about 150,000 ounces of gold at the Colpayoc property (in Peru) and we just completed a 10-hole drilling program. Those results are very encouraging. We're recalculating our resource so we're going to see a substantial increase in the size of that resource. Our goal is to bring this project to market and to find a partner that will optimize our value and take it forward to development." The company also has several other projects, as well, which have been part of the core of projects at Estrella since Mr. Laskowski joined the company.

Estrella's ability to find great projects has been recognized by Cliff's Natural Resources, and that is proving beneficial to Estrella, as Mr. Laskowski explained: "Cliff's Natural Resources is a huge company and they are very aggressive. We have a joint venture with them on our Pampa Poroma project where they are earning into ownership, but they are also funding us to do regional exploration on terms that will allow us to do the exploration, present it to them, and they have an option to select it as another acquisition property. We've acquired a total of 32 new properties in that alliance with Cliff's who are funding the exploration."

Lastly, we talked about Estrella Gold Corp as an investment and how their mastery of the prospect generator model made them an ideal investment. Mr. Laskowski told us: "This is my fourth company and I've learned over time how to maximize shareholder value." Then he listed three significant ways that Estrella is maximizing shareholder value as a prospect generator: "First, we have a tight share structure; there are only 24 million shares issued and trading so it's possible that if we put in a significant gold deposit, shareholders should see a measurable increase in share value."

"Second, we're in the right place. We're working in Peru, which is one of the most endowed regions in the world for gold, copper, zinc, and silver." This is important for prospect generators, of course. "And third," he continued, "we've got a very successful and experienced team working on the company."

Estrella's business model mastery helps to differentiate this company as one that investors will want to take a closer look at if they are looking for a prospect generator to add to their portfolio.

Endorsements

Bottom-Fish Comment - January 5, 2011: “Recommendation Strategy for Estrella Gold Corp

Estrella Gold Corp is recommended as a top priority bottom-fish buy in the $0.76-$1.00 range based on the leadership of Keith Laskowski with a good technical support team, a prospect-generator farm-out approach to Peru that has resulted in a large portfolio of gold-silver prospects in Peru, a strategic alliance with Cliffs to explore for IOCG deposits in Peru, possession of a proprietary database covering Peru.”

Mickey Fulp, Mercenary Geologist states that Estrella Gold Corp meets all my criteria for speculation: Share structure, people, projects, and undervalue with respect to its prospector generator peers. Assuming commodity markets and global economics remain strong,

Inca Kola News:

REFERENCES

http://www.estrellagold.com

Estrella Gold Corp.

325 Howe Street, Suite 410

Vancouver BC V6C 1Z7

 1.604.687.3520

http://www.estrellagold.com/