Hi and welcome to CrimsonCarp’s GeoAlpha Substack,
What you have stumbled across is the product of a long romance with mineral deposits, exploration and investing. I am a geologist with a PhD and 10 plus years’ professional experience and just as many if not more as a private investor. Here mineral deposits are treated as the product of the unlikely confluence of benign earth process and ultimately a natural phenomenon of profound beauty. Mineral exploration is viewed as a beautiful, exciting pursuit akin to exploring the world in centuries past and its success as, an infrequent yet regular occurrence coveted for the investment alpha that it can provide.
Professionally, I have spanned the value chain, from exploration to metallurgical optimization, academia and services, as a lowly contract geologist to director.
As an investor I have made many mistakes (and continue to make them), I have been lied to, cheated, picked winners, carried dog’s and their crook MD’s, bought late, sold early, lured in, shaken out, regretted holding, selling and buying, been elated at wins, gutted I did not buy more, too much, or at all, participated in placements, bough on market and converted options. I have had the veil ripped from my eyes as an idealistic explorer, crushed by the liars, accountants and consultants and risen to discover ways in which to make money investing in the sector, while staying an optimist.
This substack exists to explore and attempt to answer fundamental questions in mineral exploration such as “Is it possible to predict a discovery?”, “Why do some companies fail and others succeed?” and “What investment strategies work?”.
The first part of the substacks name attempts to build on my history as a poster on HotCopper and the second to define its purpose, Alpha returns built on geological knowledge.
If you share an interest in these topics, I hope the published articles are of value to you. The substack is free and I may consider introducing paid features (such as deep dives on companies I or the readers are interested in, or moonlighting for investment professionals) or some other means of monetizing my time, along with highlighting businesses that I have an interest in. This will be spelled out if and when it happens and unlike the majority of what is written about individual companies out there…. this is not a paid promotion, nor is it investment advice.
Thanks for dropping by and hope to see you again.
