Santo Mining Corp. (OTC:SANP) Fails to Inspire Confidence

Yesterday was probably not a good day for Alain French who lost about $6.4 million on paper. This would be the result of Santo Mining Corp. (OTC:SANP, SANP message board) dropping 19.42%.

For those new to SANP, Mr. French is the CEO and President of the company. The above number is based on the 32,2 million shares paid by SANP to another company owned by the talented Mr. French, for several claims with no proven reserves.

In a press release yesterday, SANP informed the public that it had filed a 2 for 1 forward split with FINRA. SANP had stated it had intentions to go for the split earlier this month. Yesterday's press release didn't provide a date at which the split would take effect.

According to Mr. French, the company is aiming at a more diverse shareholder base, and the reduced share price would help that goal. One can't help but notice that the price has gone steeply down in the past two sessions, even without a split.

Another point made by Mr. French is that he has seen SANP grow. Perhaps that is a reference to the claims acquired recently by SANP. The same claims that were bought from Mr. French's other company Gexplo, SRL for 32 million shares; the same claims that haven't been explored, and may not have any commercially viable reserves.

It's up to investors to judge just how significant these developments are. That's an important question when you take into account that SANP hadn't been actively traded befor pump campaigns started at the end of September.

The pump campaigns make SANP more than suspicious. One of the emails shows that someone had set aside $3.8 million to pump the stock. One of the pumper newsletters which touted SANP has also been involved in the pumps of E-Waste Systems, Inc. (PINK:EWSI) and Andes Gold Corp. (PINK:AGCZ).

While there is no guarantee SANP will share the fate of the aforementioned companies, there are enough facts to give investors an idea where this stock is headed.