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Module 1 of 13
Mining Basics
How does money actually move from a pit to a buyer, and where in that line do I stand?
1.1The Line from Ground to Payment
A mineral earns nothing in the ground. It earns when somebody who is allowed to buy it pays for it, and every step between those two points either adds value or takes a cut. Learn the line first, because every decision in this course is a decision about where on it you stand.
The line runs: ground, extraction, sorting, processing or concentration, grading and assay, transport, sale to a licensed buyer, export or local delivery, payment. A parcel of goldore from a working outside Kadoma and a container of chrome from the Great Dyke both travel that line. What changes is who does which step and who is paid for it.
Most people new to this assume the money is in the digging. It is not. Digging is the most dangerous, most capital-hungry and least profitable step on the line. The money concentrates where risk is converted into certainty: at grading, where a guess becomes a number, and at the sale, where a parcel in a yard becomes cash in an account.
That is why this school teaches the business. You can earn well on this line without ever lifting a pick, and the people who earn best usually do not.
1.2The Four Positions You Can Hold
There are only four positions on the line, and you need to know which one you are taking before you spend a thebe.
The holder owns or works the ground and produces the material. This is the heaviest position: licences, equipment, labour, safety, and a long wait before any money comes back. The holder carries the geological risk, which is the risk that the deposit is not what it looked like.
The aggregator buys or collects from several holders and assembles a parcel big enough to interest a serious buyer. This position needs almost no capital equipment and a great deal of trust. Its risk is counterparty risk: paying for material that does not arrive, or arriving with material a buyer then refuses.
The trader moves a parcel from where it is to where it is worth more, usually across a border, and takes the spread. This position lives on paperwork, logistics and timing. Its risk is that the spread closes while the parcel is in transit, or that a document is wrong at a border post.
The financier puts money behind any of the other three and takes a return without touching the material. Its risk is that the person they backed does not perform, which is why the financier cares more about the contract than the ore.
Nothing stops you holding two positions. A great many people in this region are aggregator and trader at once. But you must know which hat earns which part of the money, because when a deal goes wrong you will be paid, or not paid, according to the position you actually held.
1.3Why the Introducer Earns
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All thirteen modules, all twelve Majors, the Library of 55 minerals, the Dictionary, the Toolkit and the calculators - and it is the code that puts your Capstone in front of a reviewer.
1.4Formal, Informal and the Space Between
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This lesson is part of the locked school.
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All thirteen modules, all twelve Majors, the Library of 55 minerals, the Dictionary, the Toolkit and the calculators - and it is the code that puts your Capstone in front of a reviewer.
1.5Reading a Price Without Being Cheated
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This lesson is part of the locked school.
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All thirteen modules, all twelve Majors, the Library of 55 minerals, the Dictionary, the Toolkit and the calculators - and it is the code that puts your Capstone in front of a reviewer.
1.6What You Are Actually Selling
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This lesson is part of the locked school.
US$78 opens the whole school. Once, not a subscription. Lesson: What You Are Actually Selling.
All thirteen modules, all twelve Majors, the Library of 55 minerals, the Dictionary, the Toolkit and the calculators - and it is the code that puts your Capstone in front of a reviewer.
1.7Business Etiquette, and How to Deal with a Government Department
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This lesson is part of the locked school.
US$78 opens the whole school. Once, not a subscription. Lesson: Business Etiquette, and How to Deal with a Government Department.
All thirteen modules, all twelve Majors, the Library of 55 minerals, the Dictionary, the Toolkit and the calculators - and it is the code that puts your Capstone in front of a reviewer.
1.8The Three Mistakes That End Most First Deals
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This lesson is part of the locked school.
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All thirteen modules, all twelve Majors, the Library of 55 minerals, the Dictionary, the Toolkit and the calculators - and it is the code that puts your Capstone in front of a reviewer.