Exploration can be very lucritive too as it involves aquesition of mineral properties, proving them up and then employing a company to either buy it and mine it or make a deal to mine it. For example, One I am watching right now is Source gold (SRGL). Broke .04 in the last month up from .005 and has slide to .033 or so. Looks to be a dip at present. Huge exploration and mining potential at ground floor with only 50 million shares outstanding. I admit my heart kinda fluttered at that...lol...

SIRG is right on the brink as a production company to do very well in the long term especially with the offering of shares with the pay cheques to employee's. By gambling with 1 billion shares out standing, Sirg is looking at the long term potential of much higher share price with added potential of buying back shares from open market when its in production...