To: mark silvers who wrote (9049 ) 2/12/1998 2:37:00 PM From: Henry Volquardsen Read Replies (1) | Respond to
Mark,It certaintly is true that ULTIMATELY commercial applicability is THE question. However, most mines(or mines to be) begin to get valued BEFORE that stage. It starts to happen as the amount and grades of the reserves start to come into focus. I don't see why Naxos should be any exception. Most mines are dealing with standard recovery technologies that are already prove. When a mine reports a placer or hard rock deposit that grades at x.xx opt, the market is already familiar with the recovery technology and the costs and is able to start estimating the value of the reserves. For Naxos currently the question, I believe, is that the grades may be exceptional but we don't know yet if the process scales up for commercial viability and if it does what the costs of production will be. Without this part of the equation it is very difficult to value the deposit. In fact, until this question is answered reporting of lots of numbers may just cause information overload.Anyone who is going to consider buying a jr mining stock is going to take the time to do a minimum amount of research. If anything I am continually appalled at the casual way many people handle their investments. In his book "One Up On Wall Street" Peter Lynch comments about how many people will go to extraordinary lengths investigating an comparing products for consumer purchases (his example related to Consumer Reports and purchasing a toaster) yet will blithely invest thousands of dollars based on something they may have over heard on the elevator. They are also looking for someone else to tell them what to do. FWIW I have a reputation among co-workers and friends for being a good investor. It amazed me about four years ago when someone in personnel told me she kept a file of names of people who had left standing instructions to have their 401k choices changed to mirror mine whenever I change my allocations. Most people are intimidated by managing their money and don't believe they can do their own research. They want someone else to tell them what to do. I strongly believe the average investor will not invest in this equity on what they will learn in the market place unless they happened to be in contact with a true believer (you, me, Jerard, Tom etc.) Since we don't have a large enough voice to convey the message to enough people we will need a 'name' for advertising purposes.
