Written by Janice Shell
June 2, 2014: The Stock Mister-Small Cap Universe promotion set for the last week of May was déjà vu all over again for its subject, Mining Minerals of Mexico Corp. (WIIM). Those touts had resumed responsibility for the sale of this particular brand of snake oil that has been hawked since April 1st. While the brand name has changed, the snake oil has not. A little less than three years ago, it was pumped vigorously and expensively within a different public company, by many several promoters, most of what were to become known as the Awesome Penny Stock affiliate sites. After a rousing start, the promotion continued sporadically for more than a month, but not surprisingly, failed to result in good outcomes for the majority of traders who played it.
At that time, the purported business that is now occupying WIIM inhabited a different shell, then known as Crowne Ventures, Inc. (CRWV). That shell became Grand Capital Ventures, Inc. (GRCV) in November 2012, the CRWV assets having by that time departed for WIIM.
The history of the company is complicated. In 1994, Mexico World Investments was formed in California by Dane Peterson. It seems to have been called World Investments of Mexico (WIM) as well, a company by that name was only incorporated by him in Nevada in early 2012. A native Californian, Peterson learned about mining from his father John. John was so passionate about the yellow metal that after he retired from teaching high school, he moved with his wife to wilderness land in the foothills of the Sierras in California gold country. For more than 20 years he and Dane spent holidays prospecting in Mexico, where John eventually obtained fifty year leases on some mining concessions in the state of Nayarit. When John died in 2010 at the age of 82, Dane inherited the concessions.
 | | The Gallo de Oro property in Nayarit, Mexico | It seems that at first, Peterson was undecided about what to do with them. In 2007, he put the biggest property, Gallo de Oro, and two others, Aztlan 8A and 8B, up for sale. The ad created by his Arizona real estate agent was still online in 2011, but has since been removed.
In a Crowne Ventures press release from 23 August 2011, Dane Peterson said, "The Gallo de Oro was my late father's dream for the perfect mining concession. His field analysis led to the acquisition. Both of us felt that this claim would develop into an outstanding gold producer, and recent events lead me to believe we have made a wise choice." That statement is not borne out by the available facts. The only professional exploration program conducted on the property was done by Stellar Metals Inc., a now-defunct Canadian company that traded in the U.S., in 1996. It was an SEC registrant, but made is last filing in 2000, before Edgar was comprehensive. As a result, its filings are not available online, but one researcher had access to the company's 20-F annual report for 1997, in which the terms and the results of the exploration program are described.
The Company entered into the WIM Agreement dated July 19, 1996 with WIM to acquire the Mexican Property. The Mexican Property consists of four mining claims comprising approximately 1500 hectares located in western Mexico known as the Dolorosa, La Laguna I and II, Monterrey and Aguilla de Oro and the four enhancements thereto known as Mi Hijo, Mi Hija, Dos Esposas and Tres Niños comprising approximately an additional 1300 hectares. The WIM Agreement calls for an immediate cash payment of US$30,000 and provides for a net profits interest of 10% to be shared between the underlying owners (2%) and WIM (8%).
There was an option to renew, but it was never exercised. Though a second drilling program was planned for 1997, Stellar decided not to proceed with it. As we shall see going forward, Stellar's findings did not come close to Peterson's later extravagant claims concerning the value of the properties.
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