Thoughts About Mining

Permits and Real Due Diligence

One of the biggest traps of investing is the refrain "do your own due diligence" (DYODD). Frankly at its worst this can be a hollow and dangerous encouragement for inexperienced investors to take a cursory peak at the company's own propaganda -- news releases and investor presentations -- before plopping down good money on a bad speculation. Even worse is the false assurance that people can get by hearing it directly from the horse's mouth (talking to company management or its investor relations department). Actual, real due diligence starts by reading the company's financial statements and other regulatory disclosures (insider trading reports, technical reports, etc.). This can be hard and time-consuming. It requires you to know how to interpret financial and technical information. Sometimes though real due diligence is easy enough that just about anybody can do it, if they simply knew how. Since I'm a provocateur but also because I want to see markets be...

Video Analysis of Vale Dam Collapse at Brumadinho

Below you will find annotated video analysis of the Vale Córrego do Feijão Dam I collapse at the iron ore mine near Brumadinho in Brazil. This is being done in an attempt to learn early lessons and identify takeaways. Close up in slow motion (0.50x and 0.25x speed) reveals initial slide movement, failure sequence and possible trigger. Movement is seen initially at a seepage point in the toe of the dam near a "groin" area (where a starter dyke reinforcement extends outward at the center of the dam .... left side in the video). The movement is possibly a gush of water being ejected at the seepage point due to a change in pore pressure indicating that mobilized shear stress had overcome shear resisting force and initiated sliding along a critical slip surface. Based on this and other indications, the collapse of the dam is possibly yet another case of static liquefaction triggered by progressive deformation and increase in pore pressure, not (necessarily) seismic activity o...

Permits and Due Diligence -- Part 2

A few months ago I posted about a situation in Arizona USA where a junior exploration company apparently expected to receive drill permits in short order (a few months). Unfortunately for them and their shareholders, the project is located on unpatented mining claims in the Coronado National Forest managed by the U.S. Forest Service. I have already hinted where people could do research ("real due diligence") on the U.S. Forest Service review process, and I suspect many readers were able to figure out for themselves that the company in question is Barksdale Capital Corp. (TSX-V: BRO , OTCQB: BR KCF ). Now at long last I will follow up on a few of the issues contemplated in my initial post. There is of course much more to this and perhaps I'll find time in the future to post further thoughts. But first a quick comment about Barksdale Capital itself. I actually like both their key projects (Sunnyside and the adjacent San Antonio claim package they picked up recently) in te...

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