Rye Patch Gold (RPMGF.PK) is one junior mining company with a unique approach to developing its property. Not content with developing ore, it recently leased rights for geothermal development on its Wilco prospecting site. This has more than one implication. It can mean Rye Patch's management is sophisticated enough to take a portfolio approach to developing property. Alternatively, it can mean that Rye Patch has insufficient resources to explore the geology of a parcel it owns and needs a subsidy in the form of geothermal royalties for further exploration. Either way, licensing out some exploration in exchange for geological information is an innovation worth noting.
Fortunately, the Wilco property is situated in a part of Nevada that is ideally suited for geothermal exploration. There may be something to the portfolio approach after all. Miners would be well advised to consider their undeveloped properties' potential as energy producers. One caveat to geothermal activity is its propensity to trigger small earthquakes. It would be facetious to suggest that a little earth-shaking would make ore easier to extract.
Full disclosure: No position in RPMGF.PK.
