Re: What is Tradewinds doing?
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Welcome to the Crystallex HUB on AGORACOM
Crystallex International Corporation is a Canadian-based gold company with a successful record of developing and operating gold mines in Venezuela and elsewhere in South America
Message: Re: What is Tradewinds doing?
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http://www.nuveen.com/tradewinds/tra... Is it really necessary to meet the management of the companies in which we invest? No, not always; but I do find site visits quite useful in the mining/natural resources sector. |
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| Mark Twain once called a mine "a hole in the ground with a liar standing next to it." Bearing this in mind, nothing compares to seeing with your own eyes that a developer has actually put the claimed investment into action. |
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| In 2005, I spent two of the longest hours of my life on a commuter flight from La Paz to a remote Bolivian mine site, my stomach roiling after a lunch of the local specialty, chupe de camarones (shrimp stew). |
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| The site lay at 14,000-feet, atop a desolate plateau: nothing but brown, dried-up cactus and scrub as far as the eye could see. |
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| The site I visited that day was operated by Apex Mines, a Denver-based firm with projects in Mexico and Bolivia. Knowing that Apex was the operator, coupled with seeing the actual site and meeting the qualified veteran staff deployed there, gave us confidence in our investment. It was interesting to see the way that Apex functioned on the ground. In addition to their foreign expatriates, they hired many local staff. What’s more, they built a hospital and installed electricity at the site. They even moved a jeopardized historic church to a safe location. |
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| A few nights later, back in La Paz, with digestive tract considerably mollified, I enjoyed an excellent meal attended by both the US and UK ambassadors to Bolivia. Talk inevitably turned to politics, as people bantered about the prospect of Evo Morales—a leftist comrade of Hugo Chavez—winning the presidential election. A foreign businessman raised the subject of whether Bolivians are entitled to partake in the wealth generated from their natural resources. |
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| Now, Bolivia has an extremely poor population living atop some of the best supplies of natural gas, silver, and zinc in the hemisphere. It seems reasonable that foreign firms stand to benefit from giving back to their host communities. If, like Apex, they make a practice of hiring local staff and creating infrastructure improvements such as schools, hospitals, power grids, it is less likely that governments will choose to expropriate their projects. (This is a very real risk we pay close attention to as investors.) Governments and NGOs monitor the treatment of the environment as well. Firms that bring a track record of socially responsible behavior when bidding on new projects in other countries find themselves in a strong position. In short, doing the right thing can directly translate to new projects, revenues, and profits. Good corporate citizenry is good for business in the long run. |
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