At Aurum Exploration Services we get phone calls from prospective clients all the time. The lure of riches from the earth is strong and everyone wants to be a millionaire. In 2011 I got a call from a gentleman from England who had invested in a copper mine in Nigeria.
“Would you mind having a look at the project, and giving an opinion on it?”, he asked. “Naturally, Aurum Exploration Services would run the exploration programme”, he added.
I’m always game for these challenges, so asked him to send over all the information he had to justify his several tens of thousands of pounds investment in the venture. The entire data room consisted of a PDF of a licence and two assay sheets.
The first document to arrive was the licence, so I quickly plotted up the coordinates. The geology looked good – mafic volcanics, a couple of granites and a shear zone. Lots of environments to form copper mineralization. The next documents contained the assays for three samples. They were from a reputable UK laboratory, so that was also a good sign. Two samples contained 100% copper, which is highly unusual, since native copper typically contains some silver (they are in the same column in the periodic table). I quickly opened the second assay certificate… copper (70%), zinc (30%), and a trace of lead and tin. What?!? That ratio seemed oddly familiar.
I called the prospective client back. “I have good news and bad news. The good news is that the geology is favourable and the assays contained copper. The bad news is copper of this purity doesn’t occur in nature, and the other sample is made of pure brass, which definitely doesn’t occur in nature. I think someone has sold you some copper wire and ground-up brass doorknob or a handful of screws.”
There was a long pause at the other end of the phone. “I see”. Click. The line went dead. I never heard from the gentleman again.
The moral of the story is always do your DueDiligence, no matter how simple, before parting with your money. You don’t want to be brassed off in this industry.
April 27, 2026,
