Market capitalization is the true value that the stock market has assigned to a stock company.

It is easy to calculate, especially when there is no debt, and means much much more than the price per share.

You just take the number of pieces into which the pie is sliced -- in this case 88.3 million shares of stock outstanding -- and multiply it times whatever the share price is. in this case it is two buckeroos.

88.3 x $2 = $176.6 million.

back when kxl was say 4 bucks, floating on high, the market cap would have been $353 million, making it a much pricier speculation.

gold drill plays are all "on sale" now, which is kind of ridiculous considering the price of gold and where it stands historically. i think a lot of the problem in here is the global credit crunch. miners that are not well-cashed up are not the place to be. in this case, with two years worth of heavy drilling money in the bank, kodiak is very well fixed to continue on as it is, which is a real bonus. that is why i looked at cash, which i am conservatively calling 40 million, as a part of overall market cap. it is just a mental exercise, but by substracting out the cash, i can better see what the property itself is valued at by the market.

I use market cap frequently to compare the relative values of mining stocks in various stages of development. i usually have to dig up what looks like the current share count on the company site. knowing how many shares are out is super important to me.

For example, and I am doing this off memory from last night, i think aurelian has 135 mm shares and is priced at 4.50, resulting in a current market cap, despite the fact that the govt has frozen their work along with all the other gold miners, of roughly $600 mm.

they do have a canadian-rule compliant reserve of 13.7 mm ounces propping up their stock, and that was just an initial calculation from last fall on their equivalent of Hercules, called Fruta del Norte.

If I am not careful i may talk myself into buying some aru. they did nothing wrong down there, just got caught in a general political mood of getting more from all the miners.

basically, the government is going to raise its royalty, the way i figure it.