High amounts of debt, market cap, and shares out are red flags for me, as are potentially problematic mining districts. I look for reasons to discard companies as potential investments. Quick back of the envelope analysis of the 10 companies mentioned in that article:
Kirkland Lake – debt 148M
Osisko – debt 337M
Lake Shore – debt 130M
B2Gold – no debt, but 646M shares out, 1.4B market cap fully valued?
Perseus Mining – no debt, 458M shares out, 591M market cap, but West Africa
Timmins – debt just 20M, 144M shares out, 327M market cap, Mexico, 100,000 Oz production in 2012, increasing to 130,000 Oz in 2013
Crocodile Gold – debt 75M
Rio Alto – debt only 3M, 176M shares out, 598M market cap, Peru, low cash cost due to copper, La Arena contains 3.9 million ounces gold and 2.0 billion pounds copper
Brigus – debt 99M
Alamos – no debt, but 1.4B market cap fully valued?
Looking further into Timmins and Rio Alto, discarding the 8 others - who to add to the list to look into? Anyone have any red flags for Timmins and Rio Alto?