that miners/explorers ARE the unofficial banks these days: the reality just hasn't sunk into the average joe on the street these days.
If you read Jim Sinclair's commentary this weekend, it's awfully severe in it's message, but he is not a lone voice in the wilderness, there are many others, Peter Grandich, Jim Willie, etc saying the same thing over and over again. Of course, these commentaries are mostly aimed at the US audience, so we Canadians are only left guessing at how we will fare.
It is beyond my powers to help the U.S. out of the mess they're in, but it will have a definite bearing on the miners in Canada. Flight to safety/quality has already begun, and when it begins in earnest,( i.e. retail wakes up) I betcha all of a sudden Windfall is going to be a whole lot more "viable".
Back to my original thought: even the banks in the US who know their days are numbered have already gutted them from the inside, and are looking to put their money somewhere, to invest in something tangible. This wouldn't have been a last-minute effort either; they would have been researching for some time as well. Even one of the BMK gang, I forget who now, I believe it was Lassonde, had already decided a few years back that the US was not the place to be. He got out of all his US operations, I believe.
Finds like this at the RoF come around but once in a lifetime: when we are told this is a "world-class deposit" and "the grand-daddy of them all" I believe this might not only be a significant find, but THE most significant find since the deposit at Norilsk. In a day and age of declining reserves, and everyone talking about "peak gold" and "peak oil" to find something like this is worth fighting over. In a world of diminishing returns, a find like this is most unexpected. And many greedy eyes are watching, laying in wait.
As much as I fret over the carnage to come in the US, many Canadian resource companies are poised for explosive gains in the coming months, IMO.
And as usual, I'm posting something only to be away from the computer for most of the rest of the day...so I'll check back later to see if anyone finds my ideas absurd.
Hope everyone is enjoying their long weekend!
Quack
