“Brutal”, “challenging” and “anaemic”. These were just three of the words used to describe the funding climate for the mining industry at this year’s Mines and Money conference in Islington. One private investor reckoned “this is the end”. The sector is in disgrace. It has failed to deliver on so many promises that it can no longer expect to find support from the investment community. As one attendee I spoke with put it, the conference should be called: “mines... but not money”.

This is not just sour grapes. One presenter had some numbers to back it up. After studying the records of the quoted mining sector, he found that when companies promise that their mines will be in production within 12 months, the actual time interval has proved to be 20 months.

And when he analysed the percentage of mining projects that had been completed on time and on budget, he found that the number was zero. It is a damning indictment, and even allowing for the fact that projects are complicated, it suggests that mining bosses have deliberately pulled the wool over the eyes of financiers. No wonder the latter are digging in their heels.

Full Article (Though, I don't think there's anything worthwhile to keep reading about): http://www.moneyweek.com/investment-advice/penny-shares/penny-sleuth-should-you-be-buying-miners-right-now-61913?utm_source=PSLemail&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=PSLemail

But it does put things in perspective about the mining sector as a whole, and how good they've been with promises and timelines. We're going with the norm, more or less. Hopefully we're one of the first ones to buck the trend.