A Miner Problem, $2 Billion in Negative Working Capital [Chart]

A Miner Problem, $2 Billion in Negative Working Capital

The Chart of the Week is a weekly feature in Visual Capitalist on Fridays.

In a lengthy bear market for mining stocks, there have been repeated calls by pundits for the culling of hundreds of companies that have been unable to raise new money or generate shareholder value. This piece of the capitulation process, some say, is what is needed to put confidence back in the market so that the bull cycle can start again.

Tony Simon, President of Seguro Consulting, has put together a report that has rather concerning findings for those interested in the venture markets. The chief finding in his report is that there are 589 companies (roughly 40%) that should no longer be listed as they do not meet the continuous listing requirements required by the exchanges.

As per Policy 2.5 in TSX-V document:

Working Capital or Financial Resources of the greater of (i) $50,000 and (ii) an amount required in order to maintain operations and cover general and administrative expenses for a period of 6 months.

However, these nearly 600 companies still remain listed, which helps generate fees for a variety of service providers including legal companies, auditors, and listing fees for the exchange themselves.

For more reading on this subject, there have been several articles written by both The National Post and CEO.ca.

Extras: The full worksheet of 589 companies and Tony’s 44 comments