I remember doing a tedious spreadsheet of goldies (explorers and...

I remember doing a tedious spreadsheet of goldies (explorers and junior minors or soon to be minors) at the beginning- mid of 2009 looking at grades, resource, cash balance, market cap, etc etc.

Out of about 90 companies
1: the best prospects at that time appeared to be: CRK, DRK, ERM, MCO, NGF, NGX, SAR, SLR, TRY.
2. Maybes: AAM, BCD, BDG, CGT, CQT, EVG, GMR, HEG, IGR, MUN, NQM, OGC,

Still hold SLR, DRK. Got out of AAM and HEG without getting too burnt, didn't hold ERM long enough, but made money. Didn't touch the rest but regret not looking at TRY a bit more, and a few others.
What have I learnt? That good, informative and honest management is everything. If you have a good crew running the ship ( SLR is a classic example) then shareholders should hang on but if there is any doubt, get out. The second lesson, is that it is still a bit of a lottery.

A bad board and or management can still rob shareholders despite great prospects. What seems remarkable is that when things seem like they are going to turn to custard, the eventual drop in SP is far more than you might ever imagine at the time. I remember buying into AXM (in a fit of optimistic stupidity and ignoring my own rules) at 27c then selling at 23c with some relief, but not expecting it to ever reach 0.6c