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Questions To Ask A Miner


frizzers

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If you had five or ten minutes to talk to a miner and hear their story, what would you want to know about them?

 

What they mine. .

Where they operate.

How much resource do they have - proven, indicated and unproven.

Who the management are (and their background)

What their aims are and how they'll achieve them

What their stockprice is. Their high for the year and their low. If it's low/high now, why?

 

Thier business techniques, their PR techniques, their mining techniques.

 

How much are they worth. How much do they think they're worth.

How many shares outstanding. What's their market cap.

 

can anyone think of any others?

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Hi Fizzers

 

I think the most important thing is to do a background check on directors...and im not talking about simply checking out their 'profile blurbs'. I like to get my hands dirty...ie ask around, ring their former companies and ask their opinion, hell ask for a detailed resume even!...its almost like being a recruitment firm and trying to establish the adequacy of a candidate, except in this case your hiring the people looking after oyur investment.

 

As for questions to ask the company, problem here is that most directors are very good at 'answering the question'...so need to make sure your questions are very carefully worded.

 

Personally Im not big on asking miners questions (unless i know the directors well)...but i suppose i am in the enviable position of having built myself a decent list of contacts with knowhow in mining who pretty much can deal with any questions I have. I also have an excellent West Australian broker who deals specifically in jnr aussie miners and has close relationships with them all so he does alot of the dirty work for me in terms of getting 'blood out of a stone'.

 

Of course if you trust the directors, you would go hell for leather with the questions!

 

One thing I do sometimes ask , where possible, is where there is a company trying to do a project that has similiarties to another project which failed miserably...so along the lines of 'Oh I noticed you are doing this project and it has this type of geology and this grade...company Y tried a similar project but never got going, how is your project different.' More often than not, you'll end up crossing this company off your list, but sometimes you might just find a pearler like this where they adequately address concerns.

 

Another thing i try and ask is who are the 'other' staff, ie no point the whole company being made up for geos all with 40 years experience. The ideal board depends on stage of the company...and a good company is one that changes its board as it changes its stages...eg Jabiru an Aussie company which had a geo board while it was exploring but then introduced an engineer as it moved into production.

 

Another critical question for me is to aks how the company will keep its capital structure tight...generally this is either by introducing JV partners to projects, and/or focus on early cashflow to fund exploration. If they cant answer this question adequately, then next thing you know you will likely have a junior miner with a billion peieces of paper out there.

 

The above is taken from a junior miner focus by the way...

 

cheers

 

BuffetJr

 

 

 

 

 

If you had five or ten minutes to talk to a miner and hear their story, what would you want to know about them?

 

What they mine. .

Where they operate.

How much resource do they have - proven, indicated and unproven.

Who the management are (and their background)

What their aims are and how they'll achieve them

What their stockprice is. Their high for the year and their low. If it's low/high now, why?

 

Thier business techniques, their PR techniques, their mining techniques.

 

How much are they worth. How much do they think they're worth.

How many shares outstanding. What's their market cap.

 

can anyone think of any others?

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Talking to Mining, or Exploration companies, I like to ask:

 

1/ What is the market cap ?

2/ What percentage does management own, and what was their average cost?#

3/ Who are the otehr major shareholders?

4/ what was the price, size and timing of the most recent financing?

 

(The above will give you a good idea of the strength and motivation of the management and controlling interest.)

 

5/ What are the major projects? (history, work done, work planned)

6/ What is the valuation?

 

(Establishing valuation will typically mean, learning about the size of their respources and reserves.

For example, if it is gold: How many ounces? What is the grade? What is the metallurgy?

If not yet in production, will it be an open-pit or underground mine? What is the cash cost,

and, if in development, likely cost of building the mine.

 

This will help to an idea of how to slant a calculation like: Market Cap per ounce. It is usually not a

good idea to invest in a company that has a Market Cap of more than $10 million, and no resource.)

 

7/ What are the plans to develop the projects, and what will it cost?

8/ What is the timing of future news?

9/ What are the company's promotional plans?

 

10/ The background and track record of management and the directors is very important obviously.

The answers to the above questions, will help give you an idea of how to probe further.

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((PERHAPS a real life example might be worthwhile-

My broker has asked me to take a look at Condor Resources- CN.v-

and I shall record my notes and some reactions here... editing this post))

 

Company: Condor Resources : Link to CN.v's page on Stockhouse

"Early stage exploration in Chile on Gold and Copper projects- listed March 2006"

 

There, I see: v.CN's chart : Last : C$0.570

sgc2000aspp1vlq6.gif

 

MarketCap: C$6,582,899 /on 11,548,946 shares OS

 

(There's not a huge weight of marketcap to move, if they have good drill results)

 

The company is currently looking to raise $1.5 million thru:

"up to 3,000,000 Units at a price of $0.50 per Unit, with each Unit consisting of one common share and one transferable common share purchase warrant (a "Warrant"). Each Warrant will entitle the holder to purchase one additional common share of Condor at a price of $0.70 for a period of 18 months."

 

(which is why my broker called, suggesting that I have a look)

 

Next Step, look at the Corporate Website: www.condorresources.com

there, I see:

 

+ Issued and Outstanding 11,548,946 / Fully Diluted Shares 13,135,196 (at Aug.31, 2006)

 

+ Presentation : http://www.condorresources.com/investor/condor.pdf

+ IPO-ed in March 2006 at $0.40

+ Flagship properties (Escudo and Corona) were acquired thru staking in 2003

 

(I like the fact that the company generates its own projects, and acquired them cheaply, thru staking)

 

PROJECTS:

Escudo Copper: identifed anomolies in good structures

Corona IOCG : gold project, with historical workings

Cristal project: covers a classic porphyry copper target in northern Chile near the border with Peru and 70 km northwest of the port city of Arica. JV-ed with Peregrin Metals (doing IP survey)

 

Patrick J. Burns, President

– Member of the discovery team and first project manager at Escondida,

Escondida Norte and Zaldivar porphyry copper deposits

– Discovered the San Cristobal gold deposit

– 25 years of experience in

Latin America (17 in Chile)

– Extensive South American contact base

 

Checking: on Google

 

INSIDER transactions: Minor selling by Pat Burns (at higher levels) back in April-May

 

May 05/06 May 04/06 Burns, Patrick James 10 - Disposition in the public market Common Shares -1,500 $1.120

May 05/06 Apr 25/06 Burns, Patrick James 10 - Disposition in the public market Common Shares -2,000 $1.100

May 05/06 Apr 25/06 Burns, Patrick James 10 - Disposition in the public market Common Shares -3,000 $1.050

May 05/06 Apr 24/06 Burns, Patrick James 10 - Disposition in the public market Common Shares -3,000 $1.080

May 05/06 Apr 21/06 Burns, Patrick James 10 - Disposition in the public market Common Shares -10,000 $0.900

 

 

...more...

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I put my hand up for a piece of the pp...

let's see if I got any?

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