Hi guys,There is a saying, watch what the directors are doing if...

Hi guys,

There is a saying, watch what the directors are doing if they are buying in there own company then watch out, they must be on a good thing.

And thats exactly what the directors where doing they where buying up and not just a little but they put some real big money on their own company and bought shares on market.

And we are not talking about a few thousand dollars here but a combined amount of more then $1 million.

Not only where the directores buying shares but there where glowing reports from various broking houses who covered TMR and it was a BUY and certainly undervalued.

Hugh knew how to turn companies around he had a good track record and had assembled a team of professionals around him.

So nothing could go wrong we had the righ people we had a good track record, we had plenty of broking houses having a buy on TMR, and we all started to invest in this company.

Some of us came later, like myself who had invested in IBR as that company looked like sitting on a REAL GOLD MINE with few shares on issue, high grades , very small capital costs to get it in production left behind by the russians after there communist empire crumbled.

I never thought about investing in TMR and did not think much of the company in the beginning, but after I started to do my research in TMR and those who where in charge of the company I started to take a liking to what I was reading.

The various broker reports that came out later made me even more excited in staying with TMR and investing even more money in them.

And the share price went up, all was looking fine and I felt extremely comfortable with my holding and was spreading the good news.

We all know what happened after, and that is the fact that the management basically had overlooked one thing only, and that was the most important thing of all.

Do we have a good resource on our hands, both in Chili as wel in Armenia.

By the looks of it neither was good, it looked good from the surface but not enough drilling was done to be sure and to just walk in and take over the company.

I should have known this myself from IBR, the story just looked too good, few shares on issue, a very high grade resource with all the infrastructure in place and little capital costs to get it into a producing gold mine.

Nothing comes cheap in this world and the Iberian story underlines this ones again.

And then I go s ucked into an high costs copper mine with low grade and not big enough to make it work in an environment of lower copper prices like we now experience.

Due dilligence and knowledge about the recource was not up to scratch with both resources and the directors themselves where not even aware of this hence the huge amount of their own money the used to buy shares on the market.

With the basic knowledge we had from all sources available to us it was hard imho to know better, but to believe that we had a good investment.
Only when the Armenian goldmine was set aside because it needed more drilling to get to know the resource better I started to get worried.

I sold most of my TMR holdings when others where adding with the latest raising as I did not trust the company any longer.

I was rediculed by certain holders for doing so but I wanted to save what I could from my extensive holdings and did.
Lucky I have only a few shares left now but have friends with extensive holdings and feel very sorry for them.

It has to be a lesson for all of us , never totally trust managment or broker reports and try to read in between the lines.

And now we should move further and the good thing is there are plenty of opportunities in the current market.

Do not get me wrong I do not believe that the market is out of the woods left but one lesson we should learn from our investment of TMR and that is, always invest in companies with high grade and or low production cost whatever commodity we are dealing with.

TMR would have survived if the copper price would have stayed high, it was only there high production costs that did them in since they had taken on debt and needed to service it.

If you want to have another look at copper mines, one of the best opportunities out there would probably EQN, one of the lowest would be producers and also a Uranium producer by next year.
And not only that but EQN will have a live of mine of at least 37 years with heaps of exploration potential.

It will be the biggest coppermine in Africa and is situated in Zambia which has a good history of copper mining.
And again it will be a low cost producer with production costs of under the US$1/lb during the live of the mine.

PLA a platinum /palladium/rhodium/gold mine is another good example of a low cost producer.
It has just gone in production like EQN and has a cost of around US$350/oz including smelter, refining and production cost when the big Platinum miner have a cost of around the US$1000/oz

So even at todays depressed prices these companies are going to make a fortune and the best thing is there prices have been pushed down with the general market sentiment.

If you like to stay at home in OZ because of the added politcal risk have a close look at WSA, a nickel miner with the lowest production costs in the world and a excellent growt and exploration potential. Imho its the best Ni miner around.

Again this company keeps making money now when all other Ni miners are closing because they can not make money because of the current depressed prices, just like TMR.

WSA will still make heaps with there production costs around the US$2.50 and only US$1.50 for there new spotted Quoll Nickel mine.

What I try to point out here, because of our lesson with TMR is that we have to focuse now on companies with low production costs but with a good resource that has been drilled out and basically is proven to be up to scratch.

The above companies have these credentials imho and I would like you to have a look at them as the current depressed prices make a perfect timing to buy into them imho.

I wish everone good luck and hope you will move on in the market as there are always new opportunies to make money , and to make your money back when one of your investments have gone wrong.

Good luck to all , and yes I know how you feel

jojo