We’ve said it before and no doubt we will say it again. The golden rule is to invest in mining companies that are either already producing or nearing production.

Why are we only just hearing about Ecuador? Isabel and I think it must be down to that age-old maxim that good news doesn’t sell newspapers. A really shocking thing has just happened to miners in Ecuador and suddenly there’s information all over! The government has revoked mining concessions!

Walk less than a mile from my mother’s home in South Africa’s lush Eastern province of Kwa-Zulu Natal and the smell of curry will never be far away. There are more than a million Indians in South Africa. Many South African Indians are descendants of labourers. Most came in the mid-19th century to work the sugar farms…and of course the coal mines!