New Colombia Resources Inc (OTCMKTS:NEWC) Is Finally Ready To Run

New Colombia Resources Inc (OTCMKTS:NEWC) is a company we have come back to on numerous occasions over the last twelve months. In our previous coverage, we outlined the company's potential, but highlighted a couple of key developments that needed to materialize before it could capitalize on said potential, and start rewarding shareholders for their exposure.This week, New Colombia has reported that one of these developments (the major one we focused on) has come to fruition, and the company is up a few percentage points on the news. We think this is very much a underreaction on the news, however, and that as a result, there might be an opportunity here to get into the company at a discount exposure to some near term gains.Here's a look at what we're watching, and why we think this disparity between sentiment and operational development exists.So, for those new to this company, New Colombia is a natural resource company with a bit of a twist. As its name suggests, it a mining company, with primary operations in Colombia. The company mines and crushes rock for the construction space, as well as coking coal, which is a key ingredient in the steel making process.However, and here's the twist, it also operates in the cannabis space. We don’t know too much about how its cannabis related operations are developing (the company is holding its cards pretty close to its chest) but from the information we have, it's trying to develop a cannabis rooted treatment to target one or orphan diseases (rare diseases) in the US. It teamed up with an entity called Advanced Imaging Projects LLC late last year as part of this operational push, but as yet, we aren’t clued in on the progress.Anyway, the major development we're looking at here relates to mining.It's had plans for some large scale mining operations in place for the last couple of years, relating to coking coal and rock mining. These sorts of operations require permits, of course, and the coal permit has been in place for a while. Before getting started on the coal mining, however, the company wanted to wait until its rock mining permits came in from the Colombian authorities.There's a $90 million coal contract in place that will see it supply coal to various entities in China throughout 2017, and this was essentially put on hold while the just mentioned rock permit neared issue.And therein lies the driver underpinning our near term bull theses – this permit has just been issued, and approved, and the company has it in-hand at time of writing. This means, then, that New Colombia can start to execute on a mining strategy that has been in place for the last twelve months, and importantly, can start to deliver on the $90 million Chinese coal contract that is going to drive revenues this year.So what's next?The company needs to sort out some transport links through which it can carry material and coal to and from the mine, and it's doing so through various local entities. This shouldn’t take long (we think weeks, as opposed to months) and once complete, the mining and shipping will start.As such, we see some key near term catalyst hitting press during the second quarter of this year. Mining commencement, shipping initiation, and revenue collection, all offer potential upside drivers as and when New Colombia management decides to issue releases detailing progress, and we think this positive news stream will serve to compound the current sentiment and provide plenty of run room throughout the second quarter and beyond.Cash shouldn’t be too much of an issue once the capital from the Chinese deal starts to flow, but we will likely see a near term issue to bridge the capital-gap.We will be updating our subscribers as soon as we know more. For the latest updates on NEWC, sign up below!Disclosure: We have no position in NEWC and have not been compensated for this article.