Fool’s gold

The IncaKolaNews (and, let me remind you once more… it’s absolutely required reading if you’re at all interested in Latin American business, or have investments related to Latin America) wrote on the widely reported story here in Mexico about the State of Veracruz rejecting permission for the installation and operation of the gold mines promoted by the Canadian company Goldgroup.  The State’s Departments of Environmental Protection, Social Development, Civil Protection, Health, and Economic Development all found enough problems with GoldGroup and their mining projects to reject the company’s operation plans.

My link to the story comes from a national magazine’s updated daily website, although IKN salted his post with several Veracruz-based media reports and one from the mining industry press.  All in Spanish.

Which it appears, the flacks at GoldGroup either can’t read, or assume their investors can’t read.  GoldGroup’s press release dated yesterday touts  the project’s on-going successes, and likely profitability, but overlooks the wee detail that it’s been shit-canned.

The wily Inca has a suggestion for would-be investors:

… if you don’t understand Spanish well enough to read [local media] you should really ask yourself exactly why you’re in this stock in the first place, because if you have to rely on the filtered and selective information that’s dripped to you by obviously biased sources you’re at a woeful disadvantage. If you don’t do your own [due diligence] you only have yourself to blame. … Until a company has proven itself to be a trustworthy source, its information should be considered just as bad as some asshole blogger spouting off on the interwebs.

Advice for anyone having anything to do with Latin America worth its weight in gold.