Day Trading 27 July Pre Market, page-23

You seem to have a very similar background to me (I'm a processing engineer, so not mining as such, but similar). I will tell you now, if you apply the common sense things you've learnt through your career to the fancy 'salesman' words put into mining stock announcements you'll probably do very well long term.

Number of stocks = amount of capital.. if you're investing <100k I'd say 10 max, if you're over 100k, I'd say 10k/stock. It also depends on your age and when you want to retire, if you go all capital in midcap or smaller stocks, you may retire in 5 years or in 50 years, gotta preserve capital to some extent.

Furthermore, treat every company announcement with scepticism. I know many here don't do this :P and that's their own choice.. but since I became a full time sceptic I've made good coin and lost a lot less. A good trader is one who wins often, a great trader is one who loses seldom ;)