Where have all the cowboys gone?

“Hold on, don’t give up” is the advice from PwC for those junior explorers and miners who have the financial strength to survive the current downturn.

By Lawrence Williams
Mineweb’s General Manager and Editorial Director

Lawrence Williams

LONDON (MINEWEB) — 2012 has seen turmoil in the TSX-V junior mining market and for many North American juniors it’s now a “matter of life or death” according to the latest survey of the sector from PwC. The top 100 TSX-V juniors in 2012 have seen a 52% decrease in debt and equity financing compared with a year earlier, and their market capitalisation has declined 43%. It’s thus been a pretty torrid time for junior miners as their financing lifeblood dwindles away.

Investors too are deemed to be far more risk averse and wary of the volatile markets. They appear to be looking increasingly to get more out of their holdings with a bias towards dividend payers (virtually no juniors can provide this by their very nature — only one of the PwC Top 100 juniors pays a dividend) or to those who  are coming up with creative ways  to give increased exposure to high commodity prices.

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