I started this journey in the spring of 2020. I had completed some large projects and had a few thousand Canadian dollars ($4,000.00, to be exact) set aside to start investing in precious metals with junior miners in Canada on the Toronto Venture Exchange TSX-V now that I had some time to learn how to. It is something I’d always wanted to do. I grew up in North Bay, Ontario, and actually delivered engine parts to some of the mines when I worked for my dad at Champion Road Machinery. The mining industry and the people that work in it, especially the geologists, have always amazed me. I have been a subscriber to The Northern Miner for some time. It is a great source of mining news with a long tradition in the mining sector. Its modern website is easy to navigate and full of information just waiting, well, to be mined. (I couldn’t help myself there. It happens.) Initially, I was only looking for junior-miner stocks that were trading through regulated open-market exchanges, in particular, my favourite, the TSX-V.
My beautiful partner, Ms. Jan Larabie, actually worked for MPP Rene Picher when we were first married. She worked for him as an Executive Assistant and wrote all his parliamentary speeches while he was in the provincial government. He was the owner and publisher of The Northern Miner while he was a member of parliament for the Province of Ontario. He was appointed as the minister of natural resources while Jan worked for him. My mining connections run deep!
Now, before we go any further, my background is and has been in computer networks, information systems, and security for thirty years; although, I trained in college as a photojournalist. I then spent some time in the music industry managing a children’s artist and a jazz artist after studying recording engineering at Trebas in Toronto, Ontario. Then, I lucked out on computers in 1982 when I could not even change a car tire because I didn’t own one. The rest is history. I am not a professional investor. I can barely read a financial statement let alone hope to understand the details within a National Instrument 43-101 document produced by the mining company to help you assess their mineral asset grade and value. I wouldn’t have a clue, nor would I want to know-how. Nor do I think you need to, and nor do you in order to participate in Private Placements.
