in the past few months, natural resource companies have raised $42 billion, and it came from outside the banking industry:

While bank lending is at a virtual standstill, mining companies of all sizes have found ways to get financing outside of traditional credit markets.

The point of all of this is that deals are still getting done – even while people are spending less and saving more, and even though many investors are afraid to invest. But for the most-attractive deals, cash is finding its way out of pocketbooks, and into a few select coffers.

That money, quite interestingly, is overwhelmingly accessible to one sector: Mining.

Investors are courageously committing capital, especially in return for unsecured common shares, clearly expecting healthy returns in the coming years.

What we can gather from their actions is that the natural-resources sector is viewed as a huge opportunity, meaning it will be the focus of tremendous activity in the next few years, and can most likely count on support from healthy players and savvy individual investors.

Perhaps it’s a sense that the nasty thorn called inflation may be making its way into our sides sooner rather than later.

And informed investors know that hard assets, and tangible natural resources, have always provided the best protection against the ravages of the U.S. Treasury’s printing press.

Investors would be wise to follow their lead.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/1284...