It was bottom’s up at a market bottom — hopefully — for the latest version of “At The Bar” featuring lively conversation and commentary on mining as it relates to investing. The popular feature saw mining personalities belly up after the Vancouver Resource Investment Conference in January. Brent Cook and Mickey Fulp brought the grizzled… Continue Reading

Thursday night the TSX Venture held a town-hall meeting to gather feedback on how best to revitalize the exchange amidst a gruelling bear market for juniors. The topic trended on chat.ceo.ca as a number of our regulars chimed in on the raucous event. In case you missed it, we tagged it#tsxvtownhall on chat.ceo.ca. You’ll find most of the… Continue Reading

There was a sheet ice storm in Portland, Oregon the other day and I did not make it to the office. There was one inch of sheet ice on both my car and the roads, and then it warmed up slightly, producing water on top of the ice. With the ice storm, the decision to… Continue Reading

Four ways to fix the ‘broken’ TSX Venture Exchange The TSX Venture Exchange has real problems. TSX Venture Exchange by the numbers in 2015 -34% drop in total equity capital raised by Venture issuers $3.1 billion amount of equity capital raised $677 million amount raised in public offerings -9% decline in total listings to 1,806… Continue Reading

The struggling Canadian resource industry was dealt another blow with the announcement that Vancouver-based independent brokerage house Salman Partners would be closing its doors in 2016. Founder Terry Salman, the company’s president and CEO, made the announcement in a short news release issued late Tuesday afternoon. “It is with regret that Salman Partners Inc. announces that… Continue Reading

During some parts of the market cycle you have to adjust your expectations and ask why you are in the junior mining space. At market bottom is the best time to ask that question, and clearly we are in such a period. So why are you still here? You believe in gold: It is a… Continue Reading

The TSX Venture Exchange has been hammered by a resource bear market and low-cost competition in recent years. Plummeting commodity prices, risk-averse investors and restrictive financing rules have made it virtually impossible for all but the highest-calibre Venture-listed junior miners to raise money. Meanwhile, companies looking to save a dollar wherever they can are opting for… Continue Reading

The junior mining industry and those who invest in it have a friend in Ralph Sultan, the MLA for West Vancouver-Capilano. The British Columbia Liberal politician recently sounded the alarm in the provincial Legislative Assembly about the state of the junior exploration industry and the impediments to mine financing. Citing recent examples (Pretium’s Brucejack, Oyu… Continue Reading

“We’d all sit there and stare at the screen and I’d have my finger over the Enter button. I’d count out loud to five…. ‘One… ‘Two…..See, nothing’s happened. ‘Three…..Others are still there at forty-eight… ‘Four…Still no movement. ‘Five.’ Then I’d hit the Enter button and — boom! — all hell would break loose. The offerings… Continue Reading

In the midst of a gruelling bear market, companies that provide services to publicly traded resource ventures have been hit almost as hard as those operating in the space. However, advising and consulting to junior miners also provides an intimate view into the company, a perspective many individuals are not granted. This, in turn, offers… Continue Reading

Students often study one subject at university, but end up shifting gears and graduating in a different field. It’s how Copper North president and CEO Harlan Meade accidentally discovered mineral exploration while studying chemistry. In Meade’s case, the twist of fate involved a summer job accident that left the young man with a fractured wrist,… Continue Reading

Via Energy and Gold.com: The TSX-Venture has spent the last 6 months putting in a bottoming pattern (ascending triangle) and running into resistance just above the 700 level. However, a breakout could be close at hand…   The series of higher lows remains intact and the pullbacks have become shallower. The current pullback is testing… Continue Reading

Via Energy and Gold.com: A couple of noteworthy charts from the RBC technical analysis team: (click to enlarge) Dow theory non-confirmation: Despite the S&P 500 essentially sitting at all-time highs and the TSX Composite resting just below all-time highs  we are seeing a lot of sector weakness and a distinct lack of participation from the… Continue Reading

Via Energy and Gold.com: Howard Marks, the legendary founder of Oaktree Capital Management, is out with his latest quarterly memo and it is titled “Liquidity”. Marks offers us a treatise on liquidity in capital markets as he delves into the illusion of liquidity that many investors assign to mutual funds and ETFs. He also reviews the… Continue Reading

44 comments for TMX Group, directors, auditors, and regulators These 44 comments on TSX- and TSXV-listed natural resource companies, and the accompanying schedules, have been prepared with the objective of identifying some of the contributors to the many problems faced by junior exploration companies and their investors, and hopefully convincing those responsible that there is… Continue Reading