OODH is so small and insignificant, that Az doesn'
Post# of 1033
gitreal Member Level Monday, 05/19/14 01:20:21 AM
Re: None
Post # of 2494
Today's Arizona Republic story on junior miners in Arizona. This is a followup to a story they ran 3 years ago, and updates us on the status of some of these companies. Some legit, some a bit dubious, and some flatout scams. Here's the lead-in, but they have more details on each company if you follow the link:
http://www.azcentral.com/story/money/2014/05/...s/2232436/
In the shadow of major Arizona copper-mining companies are dozens of thinly financed exploration firms hoping to find riches buried beneath the hardscrabble desert.
Exploration mining companies face challenges from finding precious metals in the first place to raising enough money to dig for them once they are located.
Even proceeding that far isn't a guarantee of success for startup miners, because if things don't go as planned, they don't have multinational mining operations to fall back on like the major companies do.
The Arizona Republic checked in on several of the state's junior mining companies three years ago, and since then, several of the companies have given up on their Arizona projects or been acquired by new firms.
Of 14 companies recently surveyed, five made at least minor advances in exploration or even mining in the past three years, while nine have folded or stalled while waiting for funding. One project advanced from exploration to mining but has been put on hold to work on efficiency.
Several of the exploration companies have run afoul of the Securities and Exchange Commission, drawing concerns that they are promising investors more potential from their gold, silver, copper or other minerals than they can prove is in the ground.
Although some companies eventually open mines, it appears some spend most of their funds on marketing and salaries, with little spent on exploration.
One company, Hondo Minerals Corp., has never produced an ounce of metal, yet paid its CEO nearly $900,000 a year, even as it was being admonished by the SEC for advertising its mining prospects inappropriately. The SEC said the company used references to mining samples that it couldn't reproduce for regulators.
However, every now and again, one of the junior companies is able to make the transition from a company exploring for precious metals to one actually digging for them.