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

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

The Herd

I am due to go to Guinea next week but my colleagues in Conakry have told me that the Ebola virus which has killed about 150 people so far and half of that number since the end of April is still not yet under control.  I have been advised not to travel.  It is a … Read more