The story of Donner needs to be used as a "poster-child" for all that is wrong with the TSX venture exchange. Perhaps that was the intent, to quash all remaining hope that we the little retail investor would be able to just once, get ahead . If a higher- than- average- grade deposit, on a land package with huge potential, surrounded by infrastructure that most juniors can only imagine, and having one of the largest mining companies in the world as a partner, cannot make a go of it, then what of the others? To me it was one of the most de-risked stories - the furthest from gambling, which many would proclaim to be the domain of the entire TSX-V.

It should be used as a case study to exemplify the fatal error that the company made- assuming that our majority partner would look out for anything but its own interest. Donner should have made a stipulation that it would be exempt from contributing to additional exploration costs , until it had accrued "X" amount of dollars in its coffers, or that in good faith, it would be provided a low interest loan from Xstrata if need be, to facilitate its share of ongoing exploration costs. Another example of likely windfall profits, borne on the backs of retail investors, who will only share in the losses...another instance of the transfer of wealth that is occuring everywhere in the financial world

Here we were all afraid of a shark coming in with a low-ball offer and stealing our company. Instead, it was essentially taken by the "enemy within". It would be interesting to ascertain as to whether Donner management was in anyway complicit in the eventual demise of the project; or whether it was simply a matter of their fiscal ineptitude.
It would be good if we could corral a Financial author to write Donner's story as a Cautionary Tale, something to counter (and/or actually include excerpts from the following article originally posted early June (Junior Mining – A Shining Example:http://agoracom.com/ir/Donner/forums/discussion/topics/576825-junior-mining-%E2%80%93-a-shining-example/messages/1810264#message)

Geez, I coulda had some real nice vacations with the $30,000 that I lost on this investement...

Cheers, Luker