TO for POS, page-187

All this talk of bubbles got me thinking last night... of the last time I worked in Kalgoorlie.

Of how when I got there in '95 all the front yards were red dirt. For a kid from Melbourne night clubs it was like walking on the moon - but never felt more Australian. And when I left in Dec '96 executive's homes had lush green lawn.

I was overseeing an RC Drilling budget of A$1M/month. Then I was pulled off the job - I was a contractor. The next week the RC Drilling contract was cancelled. And a week after that there were tumble weeds rolling down main street....

Fibro shacks with matresses on the floor went from renting for $200/wk to $2,000/wk and back to $200/wk - literally overnight each way...

I never went back again. I followed the .com boom to Canberra and been there since. Kids are born and bred Canberrans!

I learned then - if the mine's open - you're in a boom. If it's not - you're not. Mining is the very definition of a bubble...

Being in a bubble is just a necessary pre-conditon of BS re-opening...

There's no point showing a geo numbers. They are romantics at heart. They see 2 drill sections with mineralisation and connect the dots and like an old fisherman say the deposit is "This Big". Who knows - they may even be right... It doesn't much matter until later either way.

I saw the drilling results. I thought - well I'm in the industry already, may as well go all in!

Bought the shares with all my savings. Shares went to zip. 2 years later, at the time of the .com boom, there was a rumour the company had some fibre optic cable in their shed and the share rocketed! I got the same money back. Isn't it funny... Some scrap fibre optic cable was considered 20 times more valuable than a well drilled out resource.

That's mining...

So with a background like that is it any wonder that the romantic sees the LME stocks tanking, at an ever increasing pace, seeing that the Tsingshan China Gambit is so far off as to be a rouse at worse or very wishful thinking while placating mangement/competitors/politicians/investors at best - that a boom (aka bubble) (aka mine re-opening pre-condition) is imminent?!

I feel it in my bones I tells ya!

Never been more sure of anything in my life...

Though I will continue to read Zeb and RED with bated breath