- The Next Big Rush
- Posts
- ⛏ A Mining Horror Story
⛏ A Mining Horror Story
Greetings Contrarian,
This is The Next Big Rush, your daily drop of mining / energy news. Where we come together and build our own black list of management teams to avoid.
Alright, since today is Saturday and The Editor is only half sober sitting by a pool in Cancun, we feel it's time to introduce a special edition of TNBR:
The Horror Stories
This is a monthly/fortnightly special issue that will tell the dark stories of this market.
We don't want to generalize, but rather educate YOU so you can achieve all your wildest financial dreams without losing your shirt, suit and tie to less-than-honest characters.
Today we will recount the tale of a secret company, with names and identities changed (to protect The Editor's pretty butt legally). Some details may be off, but we will leave a few clues so that you can make up your mind and investigate yourself.
Once upon a time, in a land not so far away, there was a junior mining company that held different properties in different jurisdictions. This stalwart of a company decided that one of its projects, a lithium property in Brazil, would no longer be of any use, even though they had spent time, money and effort to acquire it. Oh yes, they would now focus on their Iberian assets. So they basically just let it go for nothing. Zero shareholder value created.
Not long after this fact, there pops up a NEW company, with much of the same management team, and a beautiful little project that should have been called: the project we let go in the previous company for zero cash. This second company goes on to be bigger than the first one, but with a hot commodity and hand-picked cap table, without any of the pesky retail holders of the old company. Zero shareholder value created.
Turns out that the project had been "let go" to a friendly face in a corporate shell. This person is now on the management team. The old company has seen share price deteriorate by about 75% while the new company is sitting pretty at over C$200m.
Up since IPO, up this year, up this week.
The lessons of this debacle we will leave to you, genius reader, who understands that some people cannot be trusted and that shareholder value is not at the forefront of these clowns' minds.
Watch for signs of management "fake" dropping projects, only to profit personally from their reappearing.
Be careful out there, it's a jungle!
The Editor,
P.S. If you like this story, please send it to a friend, and let them know they can sign up here:
DISCLAIMER: None of this is financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational/entertainment and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research.
Reply