Accounting is backwards looking—as investors, we have to be forward looking. That said, past numbers are usually a good starting point for estimating future earnings. Numbers only tell you part of the story—the reason why the numbers are how they are, is often much more important than the actual numbers. Unless you can understand the moving pieces involved in the final numbers, you cannot ... Read More

Back in June, I wrote about Apex Minerals’ Wiluna mine (AXM: Australia). At the time, it was a struggling restart of an old underground mine. I felt that after a number of false starts, the company was taking the right steps to finally achieve profitability. The mill was working at half of capacity so the expensive stuff was paid for. The company just needed to get ... Read More

When I was in China this summer, I was a bit disturbed by the bathroom facilities in the rural areas—the communal poo rag had not yet been replaced by toilet paper. Even in tourist locations like the Great Wall, the restrooms had a rag attached to the wall to be used for wiping your ass. I had to ask our tour guide for confirmation ... Read More

It’s time for the year end position review. As you can see, it’s been a good year for the home team. My strategy of focusing on a small handful of companies has once again paid off with a lot of winners.  I would have liked to have made more investments, but you can only work with what the market gives you. Throughout the year, ... Read More

After the close on December 2nd, Energold (EGD: Canada) announced that it had entered into a “bought deal” financing with a syndicate of underwriters to raise CAD $15 million. The terms are a unit at $3.70 with a 2 year half warrant at $4.50 that is callable at $5.25. I had no idea that such a financing was imminent and was shocked to hear ... Read More

I apologize in advance that it will take some legwork to buy shares in BDSec. Some of this is a repeat for frequent readers of this site, but I want to put all the information in one place. I have finally found a way to get some exposure to Mongolia. Finally…. BDSec JSC (BDS MO Bloomberg Ticker) is the largest brokerage firm in Mongolia. It ... Read More

Three months ago, I bought shares of US Global Investors (GROW: Nasdaq). At the time, the shares were trading for little more than adjusted book value and about twelve times run rate earnings. If you striped out the adjusted book, the shares traded for a low single digit multiple on earnings. Clearly this was a cheap valuation. Furthermore, the company pays a two cent ... Read More

I spent the last week going over my positions and finding out what I’ve missed while on the road. Since I’ve gone over this exercise, I might as well share the results. You can see the full list at Positions Mentioned. The last position update was on June 23, 2010. AAG.v   Price At Mention   $0.56      Current Price $0.87     Change   +55.36% Since I first wrote about ... Read More

There are only two times when you can make large multiples on your money in mining (three if you want to roll the dice on exploration). The first of these is a situation where there was a failed production start-up and the company now trades for a good deal less than was spent to build it. The other time you can make large multiples on your ... Read More