A lot of people seem to think that producers and near term producers are wairitzat. I differ slightly. I have always thot that the slight risk is on the side of the serious groups who have a production capability and want to move fastest to that aim, no matter where they start out.
To that end you look at property quality, regime, geology, closeology, resource, metallurgy that is facing them. Then you look at management, money, metal, permitting environment, and markets. Not necessarily in that order. Just like one would play the blood running in the streets as a buy, so one buys acorns as the best risk reward ratio.
I still aver that acorns are as good as ripening plums to mix a metaphor. The fact that there are oak trees around tells us that.
Of course bad markets will hurt all.
The knee jerk reaction is to fly to what you can easily count when things are bad. However I wonder if this is the best way to play it. The ones that get hurt the least price percentage wise are the little guys who are as down as fur as they can go. They don't move significantly. The trick is to pick the stories that will stand out.
I have a feeling that juniors will rise again, like the southland. At least some will. There are flowers growing amidst the garbage dump.
One thing I don't like is sell out intent from the get go. Nothing we have, frinstance, benefits sell out right now. No major is going underground mining with a smallish gold or silver mine in this country. We will never get bought out. That is certain. Unless we hit 2 ounces down below or magically find a hugie open pit on our property. Wouldn't totally surprise me, but I am not holding my breath. I admit we will be small for a while. Maybe a JV with a medium-jr. with cash. But no buy out. And we don't want it. And if you look at Hammond Reef and Rainy River, two comparable large open pit low grade thingies in Ontario, or the staggeringly huge Platina in Greenland you don't see majors bellying up to the bar. Yet their resources are comparable in size and grade to the in production Porcupine JV. (61 million tons of 1.37 grams Au/tonne) A lot more of that stuff could be found.
Stake to sell eventually presumes you have something the majors want to buy. It is better to assume you are going to develop it. Make it a company builder. Hire the miners or JV with them. That will put max buck in your capitalization profile. Most of the "we will sell it" crowd are dreaming.
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