Everyday any number of junior mining companies will post news releases and project updates packed with geological descriptions and terminology. While investors or potential investors will often use this public information in order to determine a mining company’s worth and progress on a particular project, few actually understand what they are reading. Regardless, many of us make financial decisions based on these obscure bits of data and scientific (or not so scientific) reports.
It is our hope to educate, at least when it comes to exploration and mine geology, and the geoscientific data that accompanies so many company reports.
How We Choose Projects to Review
We should probably state upfront that we don’t get compensated for our project reviews or for selecting specific content or companies to talk about. We generally choose releases at random from the projects or areas making the news, however that choice can also be based on whether we have something interesting to say about that news. We don’t talk about private placement announcements or changes in management, but we do pick news that has something to do with geology. We try to keep our coverage geographically diverse and topically varied.
Our Research Process
Regarding articles discussing specific company projects
While we sometimes have the opportunity to speak to a company geologist or have some other knowledge of a project through previous research, we may not have have ever researched a company or project before. We may not have even heard of them! (In our defense, there are literally 1000’s of junior mining companies out there, each with multiple projects.) Typically what we do is review publicly released data on the project and dig into the geological reports. The goal is to leverage the wealth of information in our knowledge base of geology articles.
Our hope is that you find our knowledge base useful when performing your own research. In fact, you can and should be researching your potential mining company investments much more thoroughly than we do. Think of our write-ups as examples of how to begin doing your own research.
Regarding the Knowledge Base
We we run across a topic in our mining project discussions that we haven’t discussed before, we add to the list of topics for a more in-depth article. We’ll also add write-ups on mineral deposits or topics where our contributors may have special experience or expertise.
We also take requests! If there is a mining or geology related topic that you’d like us to discuss, or a specific project that you interested in please let us know.
News Coverage is Not an Endorsement!
While we might express some opinions about what we’re reading and occasionally even get excited about some aspect of a company’s news, we are most definitely not endorsing any company. Why? First and foremost we are not investment professionals and are not qualified to give such advice. Second, even the best mining or exploration projects may fall apart regardless of good geology: Poor management, low commodity prices, skittish capital markets, politics, environmental liabilities and accidents are but a few of the risks that junior mining companies and their investors may face. Please read our Terms of Service.
Projects We Like
We try to select articles that have interesting geological stories behind them. Sometimes we’ll choose news based on some non-geological aspect of the bigger picture, like an interesting commodity outlook, company acquisition story or unique mainstream news connection.
Projects We Avoid
If company news on a mining project is blatant garbage we try to avoid covering it altogether. On the other side, if news is very good (that doesn’t happen very often) we also try to avoid stating the obvious. Lastly, we try to avoid projects that are political hot potatoes or located in areas where local issues overwhelm the merits of the project.
We Try Very Hard to be Objective
The key word here is try. It’s not easy being objective. We would rather bring something to your attention and let you decide, rather than tell you what we think. We don’t want to be cheerleaders. Nor do we want to rip apart everything we read. If you think we’re missing the mark, let us know.
We Welcome Input
Occasionally companies will contact us to clarify an item in our reviews or let us know if we’ve got something wrong. More often than not they won’t contact us, but they’ll forward the article on to their network. We love that and we welcome it. We also welcome your comments and questions. If we can’t answer something we’ll try to put you in to touch with someone who can.
All Hail the Knowledge Base!
Our knowledge base is a collection of articles on general geology, mineral deposits, exploration methods and other technical topics related to mining companies. It is the heart of Geology for Investors. Topics that come up frequently in our news release discussions are often prioritized for a future knowledge base article. The knowledge base articles are written with the non-professional and casual resource investor in mind. That can be a fine line to walk – somewhere between “eyes glaze over” and “I already knew that!”. As a result, our content may seem too complex for some and too basic for others.
We Welcome New Contributors
We welcome article contributions from experienced geologists and mining industry professionals. Please see our Contribute Page.
