Drake are spending their own money in Mauritania, and they...

Drake are spending their own money in Mauritania, and they certainly are in pole position there, and drilling this month.

Cleverly though, they have other companies: PAN and GMR, spending the $millions for them in Norway, Finland and Sweden.

These nordic projects are actually very good. The base metal sulphide (copper, lead, zinc) projects in Finland and Norway are particularly good, and if you want to see good gold projects just look at Dragon Mining's extensive high grade gold mining and exploration operations in similar areas of Sweden and Finland to those held byh Drake.

All three countries are orderly, civilised and corruption free and have very long mining histories. Geologically they have more in common with the better mineralised parts of Africa and Australia than with the rest of Europe.

And it is no coincidence that Atlas Copco, one of the biggest mining equipment manufacturers in the world, is Swedish.