What lies beneath the Bundesplatz in Bern?

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

Comets, Asteroids and the Sow’s Ear

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

Zincfinger and return-free-risk

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

A Tale of Two Metal Deposits and a Volcano

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

Leveraging value form a rising zinc price

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

Multiple pledging of zinc stocks in China

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

Argentina – release the Dogs of Wall Street

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

Hola Andalucía

I will be away for the next couple of weeks in Andalucía.  I hope to wind my way up from the coast and get up to the pueblo blanco of Ronda again and to stroll in the shadow of Hemingway but this time not in the early afternoon heat when all sensible people are enjoying … Read more

Namibia and the patience of Job

It was good to finally see a private equity investment in a development zinc project announced this morning.  Greenstone Resources LP announced a $12 million dollar equity investment in North River Resources plc to reopen the old Namib Mine in Namibia.  It is a well structured investment but it is a drip feed of funds … Read more

China’s shifting taste for metals

In April the global economic report of the International Monetary Fund said that China’s hunger for commodities is far from being satisfied any time soon.  Most importantly it said that demand is likely to switch from and emphasis on iron ore and copper toward higher value commodities such as zinc.  Maybe this is because zinc … Read more