New and Newsworthy on InfoMine

Check out http://miningandmoney.mining.com. At first glance, Mining and Money is an odd name for a website (or blog, or zine) about greener investing in the resource sector. It’s no accident; we have indeed thought it through.

It used to be that the world fell into two pretty evenly divided camps on most subjects: Either you were an environmentalist or you didn’t really give a rat’s ass. You voted left or right. You had your cake, or you ate it. You took your pick, but seldom got both.

Well, times have changed, the lines have blurred and more and more people are waking to the new paradigm that most of the time, things aren’t quite as simple as they initially seem.

Mining and energy are clear examples of subjects so complex that they often polarize viewpoints to extremes that seem irreconcilable. On one side there is cheap and dirty: coal, tar sands and oil, infamous for their high CO2 emissions that are major contributors to global warming. For over a century we have greedily gorged ourselves at the tap of hydrocarbon energy. Hydrocarbons remain the world’s most vital sources of heat and energy. And each is, in the traditional sense of the word, mined in the same sense that metals are mined.

On the other side, you find the so-called “green” alternatives, wind, geothermal, ethanol, solar, etc. The argument that these are necessarily green, while the others are necessarily brown, is, of course, nonsense. Scientists are finding new, greener ways to use coal and other hydrocarbons.

And there are myths about alternative energies, too: The viability of ethanol is hotly contested. Geothermal causes carbon emissions. Even wind farms are taking some flack for number of birds they down, the eyesore some see them as, and the amount of land they occupy.

Providing ourselves with resources is a tricky, costly business.

We owe a debt to mining: Our ability to harness the power and value held within hydrocarbons and ore have provided us the canvass and paint with which we create our great works. The rest is simply creativity and culture. Our advancements in mining and technology define us and our time: An era of sophisticated thought and communication, of vast growth and increasing wealth.

We owe a debt to mining, but we also continue to struggle with the destruction that we have wrought through poor mining practices, unhindered greed and shortsightedness.

Someone once observed: “If it’s not grown, it’s mined.” It’s a poignant truth, and one that highlights the magnitude of the industry we’re involved in. Resources are an enormous part of our daily lives. Every toothbrush, trash bin and Tonka truck we six billion plus humans enjoy comes from the earth beneath our feet. The same is true for most of the Megawatts we use to power our televisions.

We are now witness to a time calling for great responsibility in harnessing the world’s riches and energy. Our direction is shifting from brute force to thoughtful persuasion, and the latter method is the only way we can continue without irreparably damaging our habitat.

This is also a time of great potential for investors. At Mining and Money we refer to our investments as “greener” and not necessarily “green”. This is a reflection of our observation that a sea change in the attitude toward resources is just beginning.The dollars are moving toward green, in spite of the fact that no one has clearly defined what “green” is.

This is an important distinction because – particularly in the energy sector – the jury is still out on which technologies and resources will come out ahead. Will wind power offset some coal use, thereby outmaneuvering growth in the geothermal sector? Will ethanol catch on or crash and burn? Hopes are high for coal-bed methane, while many argue that power would be better created by incinerating waste.

That change is afoot is obvious: The capacity of the world’s wind energy farms has been growing by as much as 30% annually for several years. In 2005, the world capacity for wind electricity was 59,091 MW. By 2007, capacity had jumped by a whopping 59% to 93,849 MW.

Perhaps more important to investors is that the potential for growth is vast and all but certain. Wind power presently comprises just 1% of total electricity while many governments have set the stage for rapid increases in wind farm capacity with tax incentives and power-buying programs.

Geothermal provides another example: A 2006 report by MIT concluded that it would be possible to generate 100 GW or more by 2050 in the United States alone. In 2005, the US had a capacity of just 2.82 GW online.

So growth is going green. And green is good news for investors. Green means companies that incorporate the environment into their business model, but green also means growth and profit.

Mining and Money is aimed at investors who want to make a commitment to specific “greener” companies. The green bus is leaving the station. It’s a hybrid, or a hydrogen or a biodiesel bus, take your pick. We’re onboard and there are a lot of smart investors here with us.

Frank Holmes, CEO of U.S. Global Investors, is blogging for us, http://frankholmes.mining.com.
Mr. Frank Holmes is Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer of U.S. Global Investors, Inc. U.S. Global, a registered investment adviser, manages approximately $4.5 billion for U.S. Global Investors and U.S. Global Accolade funds, a mutual fund family of 13 no-load mutual funds.

Prior to purchasing controlling interest of U. S. Global in October 1989, Mr. Holmes had investment banking experience in the international capital markets and the gold mining industry and had management experience in companies regulated by Canadian securities commissions. For over a decade, Mr. Holmes worked for a Canadian investment corporation where he was a research analyst and portfolio manager specializing in emerging growth companies and was ultimately named Vice President, Corporate Finance.

Born and raised in Toronto, Canada, Mr. Holmes attended the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, where he received a B.A. in Economics and Natural Science from Huron College. Mr. Holmes has also successfully completed many Canadian securities examinations, including the Fellow of the Canadian Securities Industry and the Partners/Directors/Officers Qualifying Examination and has received the designated licenses associated with those exams.

He was formerly President and Chairman of the Toronto Society of the Investment Dealers Association and a member of the Toronto Stock Exchange’s Listing Committee as well as a member seatholder of the stock exchanges in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Alberta.

Mr. Holmes has been a keynote speaker at countless national and international investment conferences as well as a guest commentator on the financial television networks CNBC, CNNfn and Bloomberg TV. Mr. Holmes has also been quoted and profiled in many financial publications such as The Wall Street Journal and the Wall Street Journal Europe.