Benjamin Disraeli once said "seeing much, suffering much and studying much, are the three pillars of learning". This will no doubt ring true with the management of many a small cap explorer. Identifying exciting projects (before so meone else pegs them!) requires vision. And in the traditional world of resource exploration, this can be as much an art as a science. But having great projects, or even outstanding ones, is never going to be enough. Developing those projects and driving them towards their ultimate potential also requires capital. And when internal capital constraints are emphasised by the kind of economic collapse we saw in 2008, then all efforts will immediately shift from development to survival.
Seeing much and suffering much seems to be an appropriate way to describe Regency Mines' journey through 2005 to 2009. But, through careful management and diligent application of limited capital, the company has emerged from the crisis with an incredibly strong portfolio of assets which now firmly underpins its current market cap.
And having survived the downdraft, the company looks well set up to embark upon the next stage of its journey along the road in developing those assets to their full potential.
But it's only when one starts to study these assets that one really begins to appreciate just how remarkable that potential could be. And for the patient focused investor, 'who can keep their head, when all around are losing theirs', they could well see their investment, in time, transform from a proverbial molehill into a rather significant proverbial mountain!
Can such stoicism pay off? Well Regency Mines' Chairman Andrew Bell has already overseen one major value transformational event with associate Red Rock Resources (LON:RRR).
For the best part of 2010 Red Rock's share price languished just below the 2p level (much to the chagrin of investors at the time). Yet even then, the true value was already baked in the cake and staring us right in the face. The catalyst finally struck in September '10 and the share price jolted to life and then suddenly took off….
And now, as we look at Regency, we are getting a distinct feeling of Déjà Vu. Those same tell-tale signs are all there and we would ask, perhaps boldly, don't you just get the feeling with Regency it's a question of when, and not if??
So…
