My take on the financing issue is that the banks have plenty of money. Money is not what they are short of right now. Any amount can and will be printed and injected into the system until things start moving again. What we are short of is confidence. Banks consider that businesses are more likely to fail in these economic circumstances and will therefore not lend without solid collateral.

However, you look at gold mining business and it is obvious, even to a banker, that the underlying business is not impaired. Indeed the cost of the product continues to rise while costs fall. Financing a mine becomes less and less risky as time goes by. The funding will be there when we need it so long as Webb gets his ducks lined up.

The same can't said of a base metals mining operation where bankers might have a legitimate concern that demand will continue to be weak leading to low base metals prices imparing the viability of a potential mine. This is where I agree with Jim Rogers statement that no mines will be built in the near future. It applies for the base metals but not the monetary metals which are dancing to different tune.