I thought I'd bring back to life a SLR thread that is not...

I thought I'd bring back to life a SLR thread that is not basically an isladar whinge on repeat and look what I found!!: a thread frequented by a slighter younger, far more optimistic isladar! A classic case of before and after the bubble of hope bursts.

Anyway, onto the actual point of this post. (Hang in there, this is a bit long-winded but the ending is on point) Last night the Money of Mines lads and lass interviewed a bloke who for a number of years looked after some investment money for one of the world's richest men, Li Ka Shing (current net worth: US$38b, current age: 95 ... some people just keep winning) and now does a similar thing for some well-to-do Aussies: Twiggy was one that got a mention. The bloke's name is Warren Gilman, he's originally a Canuck, now lives in HK, only invests in tier one (by margin) commodity projects and buys only convertible notes (debt that can be converted into equity), At one point he was asked why he holds no convertible notes of any companies with projects in Australia. He responded (from the 32:00 minute mark - the link is below) that he would love to invest in Australian projects but the fact is that he can buy assets in Canada as good as if not better than gold projects in Australia for a third the price he'd pay in Australia and that generally Australian minerals assets are among the dearest in the world.

Now, that Newmont just bought a bunch of Australian assets by buying Newcrest seems to be at odds with Warren Gilman's view but the fact is Newmont bought Newcrest because it wanted to acquire gold copper assets, not necessarily Australian assets. Also just because there are some high quality gold assets in Canada which can be bought relatively cheaply that does not necessarily mean that the Sugar Zone project is one of those high quality Canadian gold assets or that Silver Lake got it cheap. However I appreciate the view of an outsider with some expertise and success in the mining investment caper and think Warren Gilman's comment is strongly supportive of the strategic decision by the Silver Lake team to have a full-on crack in Canada.

I am looking forward to see what the $28m exploration spend on Sugar Zone gets the company. I think it is a relatively small outlay for what could be a company changing outcome. And I much prefer Silver Lake forking out a couple of hundred million on such a radical move as acquiring a Canadian project with significant potential than Ramelius fart-arsing around at a similar cost on mediocre prospects such as it bought in the Rebecca and Lake Roe projects (admittedly Breaker was a good buy. but more for its cash than its ore body). I don't expect things will turn the corner for Silver Lake any time soon regarding the Sugar Zone project but with any sort of luck the purchase of and recommitment to the Sugar Zone project will in time be seen as a strategic master-stroke by its much maligned leadership.

https://www.you tube.com/watch?v=5ApPF55jj-w (remove the space between "you" and "tube" - for some reason I can no longer copy and paste youtube links to hc)