Dear CIGAs,
Welcome to the introductory issue of MineSearch.net. This is a complimentary news digest and accompaniment to JsMineset.com, an online publication that is presently ranked among the leaders in its market segment. For the moment, Minesearch.net will only be available in PDF format. In the near future, it will be accessible as a fully-searchable web page with an active menu bar.

The mandate of Minesearch.net is to educate readers about the minerals industry, along with the market and economic factors that drive metal prices and the search for new production sources. We are not here to promote anything or anyone – especially listed entities. However, we will attempt to provide insights into metal-specific market trends and extraneous factors that impact commodity prices and your investment in a sector that will play a leading role in the industrialization of the developing world.

We invite questions from readers and will address ones of general interest in this column. However, we can not respond to individual questions by e-mail or any other means. Please e-mail your questions to: minesearcheditor@gmail.com

David K. Duval
Publisher/Editor

From Minesearch.net

Metal prices have a reputation for being volatile but the speed of the recent downturn for key industrial commodities such as copper, nickel, zinc and lead is simply unprecedented. Nonetheless, so has the downturn in global equities markets where trillions of dollars have been shaved off the market caps of some of the world’s biggest companies.

In the current maelstrom, gold has held up relatively well in the face of a stronger U.S. dollar. In fact, gold has risen to its highest level in years in Aussie and Canadian dollar terms along with the Euro. In the case of gold, however, the broader market sell-off has impacted share prices of producers and explorers alike, with the latter coming under increasing pressure as financing opportunities dry up and fixed project and related commitments deplete their corporate treasuries. For major companies and others with cash in the bank (or access to it) opportunities to acquire assets at fire sale prices have never been better.

In this particular market environment, emotion appears to be driving prices rather than fundamentals. And I would argue that this statement applies more to metal prices (which are usually driven by supply/demand fundamentals) than the equities market where the valuation methods that have driven stocks to such lofty levels make about as much sense as the complex structured products (derivatives) that got us into the current financial mess.

……Continued in Minesearch.net.