Tipping points or inflection points are curious phenomena to those inhabiting a linear world. The familiar anecdote of the frog in cold water is part of this linear world where he gets boiled alive if you very gently heat the water so that the rise in temperature is so gradual that the little amphibian does … Read more
The Bridge Builder An old man going a lone highway Came in the evening, cold and gray, To a chasm vast, both deep and wide. The old man crossed in the twilight dim; The swollen stream was as naught to him; But he stopped when safe on the farther side And built a bridge … Read more
I mentioned in my last blog before Christmas that the US has just over 8,000 tonnes of gold representing 26 tonnes for every one million Americans and the Chinese have just over 1.000 tonnes of gold in reserves representing just one tonne of gold per every one million of its population. I was intrigued therefore … Read more
Would you give something very precious to someone else to mind? Maybe if you did not feel secure and you did not have a safe place for it or you had borrowed on the strength of its value. After World War II West Germany’s “economic miracle” during the 1950s was built on hard work and … Read more
Venture capitalists and entrepreneurs not only want to make lots of money but they want to change the world and some even believe they can. Bryan Johnson has committed a substantial portion of his wealth, $100 million, to what he calls “crazy” projects. One initiative is to capture an asteroid and mine it. Mr Johnson … Read more
Nelson Bunker Hunt died last month in his 88th year. Some of you will be old enough and interested enough to remember that for some reason he thought that he could corner the global silver market with the wealth he had made from Libyan oil. It was a delusion which led to his bankruptcy when … Read more
It was the best of times – for bottom fishing and acquiring distressed mineral assets. It was the worst of times –to finance exploration as distinct from rediscovering what was already found. It was the age of wisdom – the sudden realisation that grade is king scale alone can never make a project work. It … Read more
Maybe you can buy zinc like any other commodity in the hope that someone will buy it off you for a higher price in the future. But for the ordinary investor there is really no option for physical zinc exposure but exchange traded funds or ETFs such as ZINC:LN that are backed by zinc. More … Read more
As credit tightened in China over the last while it became popular to use metal inventories in the warehouses of Chinese ports as collateral for loans. The problem occurs when dishonest people get involved in pledging the same stock of metal as security for multiple loans from several banks. Apparently there could be as much as … Read more
Elliott Management owns 27.7 per cent of AIM-listed gold miner Avocet Mining PLC. Avocet also owes Elliott US$15.8 million dollars. The loan was due for repayment on the 31st of December last year. Avocet which owns the Inata gold mine in Burkina Faso and the permitted Tri-K gold project in Ebola-struck Guinea has a market … Read more