Adventus Mining

Adventus is a high-grade (for open-pit mining) copper-gold play in Ecuador. I bought because I wanted some copper in my portfolio at the time and I liked the gold lining. Ecuador seemed to be a jurisdiction on the mend at the time, having elected a pro-business president. Unfortunately, the country grew unstable again, and popular sentiment has turned very anti-mining. The company has advanced the project almost to the point of construction (and I love pre-production sweet spot stories), but risks just kept piling on, so I exited. As luck would have it, a takeover offer from Silvercorp has finally rescued this underperforming stock—after I sold—but I'm not bitter about it. There was no way to predict that outcome. And Ecuador looks more alarming, not less. I took some large lumps on this one, but I don't mind being out of potential harm's way.