Michael Kosowan

Founded in 1994 by Rick Rule, Global Resource Investments Ltd. (GRI) is a broker/dealer headquartered in Carlsbad, California. The firm is a full service brokerage firm that focuses on natural resource investments worldwide. They help high net-worth individuals, corporations and institutions to take advantage of global opportunities in the oil and gas, mining, alternative energy, agriculture, forestry, and water industries. GRI provides advisory and transactional services, including equity and debt trading capabilities on most international exchanges. A separate unit of the company raises equity capital for small corporations, primarily in the resource sector. They provide services to clients on both a domestic and international level. The firm also focuses on companies with a market capitalization below $250 million that does not attract research coverage from traditional brokerage firms. GRI employs fundamental analysis in their research efforts along with value-added in vesting, taking into consideration a company's existing net assets (assets less liabilities), along with their future cash flow potential.

Falconbridge Ltd. mines for copper and nickel. It also invests in zinc and aluminum. The company's products include copper, primary and fabricated aluminum, cobalt, lead, molybdenum, silver, gold and sulphuric acid. The company also processes and recycles metal-bearing materials. Falconbridge was founded in 1928 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.

Placer Dome, Inc. owns & explores gold mines. It produces copper, silver as a byproduct of its gold mining. It has interests in different mines in Australia, the Americas, Papua New Guinea, South Africa and Tanzania. Placer Dome was formed in 1987 and is located in Vancouver, Canada.

Inmet Mining Corp. explored and mined for copper, zinc and gold. The firm has three mining operations located around the world in Las Cruces, Pyhäsalmi and Cobre Panama. The company was founded on June 1, 1987 and was headquartered in Toronto, Canada.

Sprott Global Resource Investments Ltd. (Sprott Global) is a SEC-registered broker-dealer headquartered in Carlsbad, California. The firm was founded in 1993 and they are a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sprott, Inc. (TSE: SII) in Canada. Sprott Global offers full-service investment brokerage services including both secondary market and, for qualified investors, private placement products for retail and institutional investors. They focus on the natural resources sectors including precious metals, base metals, oil & gas, agriculture, water and alternative energy.