Hi Folks! An update 'relay' from MMU president Boulay coming up, but first a comment by moi...
Marum is an honest, up front company making a respectable and honourable effort to offer shareholders long term value, and are currently abounding a progressive database from, and actively exploring in, a truly prospective region of Alberta. Any who say otherwise have their own agenda, unfortunately.
Fortunately, any such unfounded comments do not affect Marum's commited pursuits!
Tres bien!
Anyway, here are the comments graciously offered by Marum prez Rick Boulay, posted here with his acknowledgement:
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Thanks for your request to comment on some of the recent points raised by discussion thread participants and email questions. I really appreciate the opportunity to discuss our company with shareholders and observers of the Alberta Diamond play. The best questions are the specific, tough ones. Keep them coming.
As to the Chinchaga project, we are very busy laying out the structural analysis framework for the sampling program and we are waiting for things to dry up in the field. Lots of snow last winter combined with recent rains is slowing things down a bit. We could rush the program but that would be ineffective from a technical viewpoint and very costly. So, we are using the time to get prepared. Looks like another week or so. The structural analysis work performed to date suggests that we will be able to conduct a very focused sampling program. We will also be adding significantly to our geophysical database over the next two or three weeks and this will assist us considerably in identifying targets. We are very busy even though we are not currently making a lot of noise. BTW, the next batch of analyses should be arriving soon. As an aside, we are re-interpreting some of the vegetative anomalies in light of the recent work published by the Ontario Geological Survey and the Geologicial Survey of Canada on similar features in the carbonate covered terrains of Ontario and Quebec. Their publication of this work in March has initiated one staking rush in Ontario already and has turned up some interesting diamond geochemistry. Although not a primary part of our program, these things are visually interesting and do seem to have some geological significance. We'll see.
I keep getting questions about our intention, if any, to branch out into the internet business. The answer is, No. We are very qualified to do so due to our personal association with other established and profitable e-Commerce businesses and it is this very expertise that keeps us focused on mineral exploration. We are encouraged that other companies are switching horses because such an action is symptomatic of crowd behaviour near market tops and bottoms, probably signalling an end to the internet company mania and a resurgence of mineral exploration markets. Timing could not be better for Marum. Although we love the internet and e-commerce, its very risky right now to launch a development phase e-commerce concept. Amazon.com and other high flyers are spiralling down to their real market values, probably less than 5% of their current market prices, and this ongoing market adjustment will make the "switchers" less attractive to investors and will make it difficult for them to raise money for their ventures. This current internet stock market is eerily similar to the oil company stock market in 1981 and 1982, when many flagship companies lost 99% of their market value within 12 months. Its gonna be a tough sell in a technology market where the major players are being decimated. We may very well be wrong and we certainly wish all the switchers well, but it does not make sense for Marum to initiate a new business at this time.
There has been some comment about our recent private placement announcement. Here are some thoughts.
Junior exploration companies raise money when they can in an open market. One commentator noted that doing a placement at $0.10 was not very bullish. The implication is that management is not encouraged about the company's prospects. What is the alternative? To not raise money and let the exploration projects decay? To do nothing will certainly not help the stock price and besides we are an exploration company and our business is to pursue our exploration successes. Maybe we should announce a private placement at, say, $1.35. I wonder how many people we could convince to invest in view of the recent stock price at near $0.15? Obviously none. The market dictates the price. Its not that complicated.
A commentator suggested that maybe "insiders" loaded up at the last placement and blew out a lot of stock recently at prices over $0.20. The plain fact is that there is a one year hold on private placement stock so that has not happened. Besides, you buy into a $0.10 stock on the open market and flip it out at $0.20 for a quick double ,if you happen to be looking for a quick double. You don't go into a private placement with a one year hold for a measly double, but rather for a much larger multiple score.
Back to the private placement. We need money for exploration and overhead. We believe in giving the best possible stock and warrant price deal to investors who support the company when markets are depressed. Why not! They keep the company viable and have a one year hold on their investment. We also use the warrants to build in future financing in the case of continued bad markets. There is some equity dilution. Here our philosophy differs from other companies. Recognizing that our share capitalization is not particularly high, about 27 million outstanding and about 31 million fully diluted, compared to other companies, we prefer to minimize dilution in our land position. In Alberta, we manage an amount of land the size of the state of Connectticut. A large part of this holding is 100% controlled, a large part is 75% controlled and all of it is at least 50% controlled. This is critical to our longstanding strategy of keeping dominant land positions in northern Alberta where the amount of explorable and mineable land is very small due to glacial overburden. We prefer to finance exploration by reasonably diluting the company's capital stock rather than by gutting our hard won and valuable land position. This is not the usual management philosophy but we think its preferable to optioning off majority interests in the land position. If investors disagree, then they should not hold our stock. Its as simple as that. Our rationale is that the market is looking for a winner with a strong land position and does not care much if the capitalization is 5, 10, 30, 60 or 100 million shares. Our job now is to carry out diamond exploration in a very exciting play which will soon regain market attention as a result of the ongoing activities of the two or three main ADP players, including Marum. Stay tuned.
You can post this if you attribute it to me.
Regards, Rick Boulay
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As per usual, thanks a bunch for that Rick!
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S'long folks,
-j
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Marum Chinchaga project website: mmu.simplenet.com |
