Having invested in mining companies for quite a few years now; one of the first lessons I learned was to never touch the large-cap miners. However, before I explain my own reasoning, I want to quote a Bloomberg article from this morning which attempted to cover the same subject:

New Gold Inc. (HGD) Executive Chairman Randall Oliphaunt, who helped build Barrick Gold Corp. into the world’s largest producer of the precious metal, says he prefers running a smaller gold miner than a big one.

Companies that produce fewer than 2 million ounces annually have more opportunities to increase output, said Oliphaunt, who was chief executive officer of Toronto-based Barrick from 1999 to 2003 and joined Vancouver-based New Gold six years later. It’s “very challenging” to expand a large, established gold company, he said…

The problem with this Bloomberg article is that while it goes to great lengths to document the fact that large-cap gold miners are gross under-achievers while the junior and mid-cap gold miners have  provided very attractive rates of return, it never explains why.

Why do smaller gold miners “have more opportunities to increase output”? Why is it “very challenging” for the senior gold miners to grow? It’s very simple: because large-cap gold miners (and large mining companies, in general) have the world’s most-idiotic business model.

All large-cap mining companies have a very simple “rule” they live by: they only want to develop/produce large mining projects. Let’s assume that it is not purely the egos of the suit-stuffers who run these companies which prevents them from getting involved in smaller projects. Why are most large-cap mining companies not interested in developing smaller mining projects – no matter how high the profit margins will be?...

Read the rest:

Mining Companies: Why Smaller Is Better