The other day in this post, “Mining’s money grab”, this humble corner of cyberspace noted the sudden urge that mining companies had to siphon away the new cash appearing on the horizon from share price upsides and get it tucked neatly into their treasury chest instead. Today Kip Keen over at Mineweb picks up the baton and runs with it, a decent little op-ed that finishes like this:
“While, clearly, people are more willing now to buy (and companies sell) more shares of junior gold companies than through much of the multi-year downturn in mining equities, the money coming is flowing to fulfill relatively-speaking more conservative needs: The more advanced mine-builds ore expansions (with moderate pricetags, permitted, strong IRR) and to repair balance sheets.”
Yup that’s right, boring old beaten up balance sheets that need to be repaired. IKN has broadstroke agreement with the details of his piece, too. Go and read it yourself by clicking on this click, it’s better than the average guff written about mining (because Keen’s better than the average mining writer).