The decline of Junior mining

Junior mining, the companies we love to gamble our hard earned money on and speculate which ones will find the next big mine. Realistically, 90% of the time finding a mine isn't what we're gambling on, we're playing the ups and downs, the pumps and dumps and putting our trust with the management of the company.

Junior mining companies aren't trustworthy, plain and simple. They are greedy, corrupt and shifty organizations that flip from one area to another and fleece the investor time and time again. The ones who actually do find mines or good properties are forced to become legit (or more so) and usually bring in a new board of directors or a new president to revamp its image. It can no longer contract all it's work to its buddies at ridiculously inflated prices or option ground from old friends they used to work with in the "rough times". When times are good, juniors will act like they are spending the investors money wisely, but they are passing it to their friends and families and doing everything they can to line their own pockets. They will do legitimate work, there is no doubt about that, but they will exaggerate in press releases and do everything they can to keep a story alive. Every ethical boundary is flirted with if not blatantly crossed, junior mining is an industry where snakes thrive, the good honest people are lost in the sea of deceitful money grubbers.

Yes, I'm a little bitter, but I also understand that they provide a great service to the mining industry, they get to do the dirty work for the majors and sometimes, they actually find a great deposit and become a mid-tier or major themselves. This economic crash, for all the bad that it has brought to the mining industry, is at least doing some good. It is going to trim the bloated junior mining industry into a slimmer, more competitive industry. The bad properties will be abandoned and the good management teams will survive. Good, honest people will lose their jobs, which is unfortunate, but at least we can hope to see a departure of the bad guys because frankly, mining doesn't need them, they brought us Bre-X, they brought us countless scams, they give a black eye to the mining industry every day. You know who they are, I know who they are, I shake hands with some of them regularly. We don't need them.

I urge everyone who invests in the TSX-V to read the book "Fleecing the Lamb" by David Cruise. It will make you a much better investor, I guarantee it.