An extract from an article printed in The Australian last year. I'm not sure how many of you have seen this but thought it worthwhile to repeat...
How much of this article is relevant today and will the bold "10 bagger" claims come true? Anyway, it's on public record now so there is no hiding from what was said...
Mining club lunch served unusual course of action by: Barry FitzGerald From: The Australian August 01, 2012
Chinese backing juniors
JUNIOR explorers need all the help they can get at present because the taps for easy equity funding have been turned off.
Most will survive the squeeze as it's all happened before, and it will happen again. But there is a difference this time around: the number of Chinese prepared to fill the funding void.
They are making things just that little bit easier for those prepared to embrace them. They are resource savvy and have the proverbial deep pockets. It's pretty open stuff too because an underlying theme to it all is that the Chinese investors are more than happy to let locals run the show. And they don't necessarily have to have an absolute control position.
A little thing called Oroya Mining (ASX:ORO), first mentioned here back in March, is a case in point. Mind you, it has been encouraged to go down this path by the steady buying of Chinese property and mining businessman, Zhao Ping. His Soaraway Development has marched to 19.8 per cent of the company.
Hasn't cost a lot given Oroya at yesterday's close of 0.3c is valued at all of $6.9 million.
There have been board changes since, with Kevin Moriarty becoming non-executive chairman. A seasoned geologist, Moriarty was chairman of South Australian zinc producer Terramin up until May 2011.
He has a reputation, and preference, for working with advanced exploration/development projects, running them through the feasibility study phases before handing them over to others to operate. The chance of achieving that at the overlooked Oroya, on the strength of its copper exploration at Orbost in Victoria and its Roe Hills nickel-copper prospect in WA, is what attracted Moriarty to the tiny Oroya, as did a desire to see if the Chinese funded Australian operated exploration model can work in a meaningful way.
All very nice, but what got the interest of this column up was Moriarty's comment that he would not be at Oroya unless he thought its value could increase "10-fold relatively quickly".
Making Oroya a 10-bagger will depend on exploration success. There is not much of a wait on that front as Orbost gets a workover next month and Roe Hills continues to show some promise. Moriarty has been told by Oroya's Chinese backers not to worry about funds being available for drilling. Leave it to the Chinese. It's a nice position to be in in this market.
DKO Price at posting:
0.2¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Held