“There’s gotta be a better way to do this.”
That’s a refrain James Atherton heard frequently as the Vancouver-based securities lawyer led junior resource firms through private placements. Industry consensus held it to be a laborious ordeal that diverts time and money from enterprise while shutting out smaller investors. But with inspiration borne of frustration, Atherton teamed up with Corebox creator Jonathan Longe to “revamp, streamline and automate” the process, bringing these financings into the 21st century with Capiche.io.

Probably the most facile way to dismiss a conspiracy theorist is to label the person “a conspiracy theorist.” Conventional thinking gives the term negative connotations, even though history and current events have an inconvenient tendency to reveal conspiracies in action. Ed Steer’s interest in bullion manipulation started with the Hunt brothers’ 1970s silver conspiracy. Having spent decades watching the machinations of others, the newsletter writer and Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee board member adamantly declares that “there are no markets, just interventions.”

With fresh financing and a rig en route, Margaret Lake Diamonds TSXV:DIA has drilling about to begin on its namesake project in the Northwest Territories. As with any outfit in similar circumstances, the company’s optimism has been buoyed by the performance of an illustrious neighbour, in this case Kennady Diamonds. But more objective encouragement comes from the extensive geophysics that determined the targets for Margaret Lake’s maiden drill program. Additionally, the project operator will be the same group that helped deliver success to Kennady.

There are contrarians and there are contrarians. But maybe Jayant Bhandari would be better called a controversian. As a prolific writer/commentator and an adviser to institutional investors, his comments reflect a mind unsatisfied with received wisdom. Now a resident of Singapore, his travels have taken him to 80 countries, seven of which he’s lived in. That background has influenced his perspective on a number of topics including the emerging markets—or emerging market singular. China’s the only one, he insists.

It’s a testament to lithium market expectations that companies will compete with each other to do business in Bolivia. When news broke that the country wanted help to develop its fabled Salar de Uyuni, several firms showed willingness to overlook a history of investment confiscation. So has one of the world’s worst mining jurisdictions become serious about opening what just might be the world’s largest lithium resources?

Not just inadequate reserves but dubious origins threaten security of supply for strategic commodities. A prime example is niobium, a largely single-source product from CBMM in Brazil that gives one company and one country enormous potential power. Tantalum raises further concerns as it passes through shadowy supply lines that could obscure conflict sources. Both metals appear on the recent U.S. draft list of 35 critical minerals. And both appear in substantial quantities in one east-central British Columbia deposit.

Niall Ferguson likely appreciates the irony of Mark Zuckerberg’s appearance before U.S. Congress. Although some observers describe his social network as the ultimate democratic movement, the fantastically wealthy Facebook co-founder actually controls an enormously powerful top-down organization. Ferguson examines the way networks and hierarchies play out in history with his latest book, The Square and the Tower: Networks and Power, from the Freemasons to Facebook. That leads him to a rather surprising call for a new world order of government oversight which, to egalitarians, might sound heretically hierarchical.

A rare earths supply chain outside China? It exists in the United States and Alex King has proof on his desk in the form of neodymium-iron-boron magnets, an all-American achievement from mine to finished product. But the Critical Materials Institute director says it’s up to manufacturers to take this pilot project to an industry-wide scale. Meanwhile the CMI looks back on its first five years of successful research while preparing future projects to help supply the stuff of modern life.

As if providing an outer defence, a solid line of retail jewellers blocks two broad avenues from Antwerp’s famed diamond district. Access comes mainly through a side street with a police-controlled traffic barrier. More cops and soldiers (the latter attesting to Belgium’s ongoing terror alert) patrol the narrow streets inside. The only vehicles seem to be armoured vans customized for the diamond trade or the occasional bicycle carrying an Orthodox Jew with long coat and side curls flowing in the wind but magnificent hat solidly perched.

Two years of escalating prices and several years of historic work have Emerita Resources TSXV:EMO in an exceptionally sanguine mood. Following December’s oversubscribed $4.24-million cash infusion and last month’s TSXV approval to close the Brazilian acquisition, the company announced a breathtakingly ambitious timeline for its Salobro zinc project. Should all go to a very optimistic plan, the company would advance from updating an historic resource to completing pre-feas and mine permitting within two to three years.