Thanks Luke, you were quite correct and thanks for the edit (green NOT brown). I was savoring a tall glass of Guiness at the time and was probably fixated on the glass, which was at least half full. I am an eternal optimist, and am simply waiting and watching for the right time to load up.

As an indication of how close we might potentially be to the tide coming back in, note that market prices for all the major miners have escalated significantly and steadily over the last six months or so. A big part of that is because many Asians/funds now see these stocks as a better inflation hedge than owning commodity contracts, which are now more of a short term manipulative device used by Western funds.

That is significant, because once the big miners see a newly sustained equity pricing level that is more reflective of long term value, they will begin to see value in greenfield expansion. We will suddenly "be there", and the NOTs will get grabbed up. CLF for example has seen this as inevitable, and has taken effective strategic stakes in a number of small outfits at bargain basement prices. I pointed out in a prior post the wisdom of NOT management avoiding the engagement ring effect, and I believe it is more a matter of time, allbeit a drawn out and frustrating wait.