Fortescue,Copper Co or Gondwana and every other company that...

Fortescue,Copper Co or Gondwana and every other company that wants to become a producer has to raise funds by either a capital raising or debt. In the current world financial climate, I don't know too many advisors who would be recommending debt to advance an exploration program.
From this evenings news from Flinders Mining ( I thought I'd get in early with the new name since I have been suggesting the change for a while so it is good news that it is now happening!), it is evident that whether Flinders is sniffing around for diamonds at $200k each airborne geo survey or proving up an iron-ore resource on tenement 882, Kev Wills and his team have to show confidence and leadership to raise sufficient funds at appropriate intervals and follow the courage of Andrew Forrest from Fortescue, to take Flinders form a small explorer to a small producer, which saw him do capital raisings through various avenues to fund the cloud break mine and new rail line which has seen him become Australia's richest person because he raised capital, secured tenements and developed a resource and marketed it.

What's the alternative? Is it not to raise funds and just spend a couple of hundred grand each quarter depleting cash reserves to maintain a basic level of staff and overheads and do a small token effort to explore?

Anybody doing anything with debt at the moment will suffer substantial problems in raising it. Kev is to be congratulated for the placement and at least a small allocation to fdl shareholders (100k instead of 20,000 to small shareholders would have been better)
cheers fatstocks

the extract from tonight's announcement...............

"On 31 December 2007 the Company had available funds of $4.72 million. Exploration expenditure by the
Company during the December half was $767,000 and forecast expenditure for the June half of 2008 is about
$4.6 million. The reason for higher than normal forecast expenditure is the predicted expenditure of .about
$400,000 on two airborne geophysical surveys in the Flinders Ranges, and the anticipated costs of about $3.1
million on commencement of the iron ore exploration program in Western Australia."