A pillar of the Toronto mining community, Ed Thompson kicked off the new year by resigning from his many directorships in junior mining companies. As he tells The Northern Miner, part of the reason for doing so all at once was that he is "trying to make a statement to regulators and government bodies that drastic corrective actions are necessary, or a thousand juniors are going to die or be dormant. Probably won’t help but you gotta try." The following are his thoughts on the state of the junior sector:
2014 will be a very slow year for mineral exploration as both the senior and junior mineral exploration companies face a plethora of problems. It is not just one or two problems facing the industry but a multitude as the industry comes off its highs of 2003-08.
For the seniors, they have all faced cost overruns on their projects due to a combination of permitting delays, environmental and social costs and delays, and poor engineering supervision in their attempt to develop projects in remote areas of the world. Virtually no major mining project in the world performed to specs and the financial markets have downgraded these companies. This negative publicity has rubbed off on the junior markets. If the majors can’t perform, why should we risk our money with the juniors.
Continue reading this story at: NorthernMiner.com
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