Getting out of business is a process. The length of time required to complete the process is directly related to the complexity of the business, and the circumstances underlying the decision to get out. Planning how you exit your business is just as important as how you started it.

The exit process, timing of events; and tasks associated need to be tailored to the type and complexity of the business. Each case is individual because reasons for dissolution differ, and problems that arise are unique to each circumstance. The following checklist contains key elements that should be evaluated as early in the exit process as possible to eliminate pitfalls later on.

The process for exiting a business should include evaluation of the following points:

1. Engage Professionals & Consultants as Team Members.
2. Prepare a List of Assets & Perform a Physical Inventory.
3. Perform a Valuation of the Business.
4. Prepare Detailed Plan & Assign Responsibilities.
5. Release Announcements & Notices.
6. Conclude or Transfer Contract Obligations.
7. Dispose of & Transfer Assets.
8. Settle Accounts Payable & Debt Obligations.
9. Prepare Final Financial Statements & Tax Returns
10. File Articles of Dissolution.
11. Prepare & Issue Special Filings, Notices, Informational Returns, & Taxes.
12. Receive Tax Clearance Notice.
13. Close Bank Account.
14. Store Business Records

The process for successfully exiting a business requires the same amount if not even more planning as starting the business. While the process may be easier, it is likely to be less enjoyable and more stressful. The best advice for business owners is to incorporate potential exit strategies in the early stages of setting up their business. Vigilance and diligent managerial oversight is needed to ensure that complications and problems which could affect dissolution, and net value, do not develop into roadblocks. When the time comes to divest or sell the business, be sure to engage the relevant expertise needed, and prepare an action plan.

Keeping your surrounding clean and orderly is a necessity in one’s everyday living especially in your business operations. As most often is the case, it is very difficult to find the right cleaning crew who can do the job for you. Ease the burden of maintaining the tidiness of your home, school, or business establishment by selecting Max Total Care.

Nothing is comparable to a neat office space. A clean work area creates a positive vibe to visitors and employees alike. Obviously, employees are most likely to perform well when working in a clean environment. This is because a clean and organized environment makes it more conducive for people to move about an office that is free from filth and clutter. You can have that pristine atmosphere in your office by hiring professional and reliable cleaning services from Max Total Care.

Cleanliness is also vital for businesses engaged in the food industry. Germs can multiply exponentially in dirty areas. This can increase the threat of food poisoning and diseases not only causing physical ill effects to the customers but also causing serious detriment to the state of your business. Your customers expect a clean and positive atmosphere where they can wine and dine. It is imperative that you should keep your premises clean to make a great impression on patrons and expect repeat business from them.

Movie houses are also perfect examples of establishments requiring total cleanliness every time. Most moviegoers look for high standards of tidiness in theatres in order for them to maximize their viewing pleasure when watching their favorite movies on the big screen. Spilled soft drinks or popcorn on seats can be a huge turn off to your customers. The dirtier the surrounding, the less likely that they will come back. Efficient servicing from Max Total Care can most definitely help your cinemas be well kept and inviting all the time to fully satisfy your discerning and finicky audience.

Adding on to the list are medical establishments. Not including saving lives, nothing is more critical than cleanliness for medical establishments. It is essential that hospitals should be properly sanitized for the well being of patients, visitors, relatives and staff to avoid the spread of diseases in a volatile and sensitive environment where the notion of “sickness” is always literally in the air.

The distinct illustrations mentioned above are just a few fine examples on how a clean environment can affect your business. Keeping your working environment professionally spic and span is a key ingredient to the success of your business. Max Total Care can help you achieve that goal.

With Max Total Care, you can conveniently choose to employ their services on a regular basis or simply get them for a one time job. You can opt from a wide variety of cleaning services they offer from office system cleaning, kitchen and restroom cleaning, dusting and window washing, waste removal, daily carpet care, hard surface floor maintenance and cleaning, entrances and lobbies, sanitization programs, residential & commercial carpet cleaning, upholstery cleaning, yacht interior cleaning, floor cleaning and a lot more! In addition to that, Max Total Care also provide repair for water damage.

If you want an immaculately clean office or home, feel free to visit Max Total Care at 5422 W. Crenshaw St. Tampa Florida USA 33634 or conveniently call them at 888-340-0629. Get the help you need now from Max Total Care as no matter how cliché it is, nothing speaks the truth as how the old adage goes…Cleanliness is indeed next to godliness!

So you start the day full of enthusiasm. You’re excited about a new piece of creative work and itching to put your ideas into action. Firing up your computer, the familiar stream of e-mails pours into your inbox, burying the ones you didn’t get round to replying to yesterday. Scanning through the list, your heart sinks – two of them look as though they require urgent action. You hit ‘reply’ and start typing a response to one of them… 20 minutes later you ‘come round’ and realise you’ve got sucked into the e-mail zone and have been sidetracked by interesting links sent by friends, as well as writing replies about issues that aren’t a priority for you. You minimize the email window and get back to your project…

After 15 minutes you’re really enjoying yourself, getting into your creative flow – when the phone rings. Somebody wants something from you. Something to do with a meeting last week. You rummage through the papers on your desk, searching for your notes. You can’t find them. Suddenly your heart leaps as you lift up a folder and find an important letter you’d forgotten about – it needed an urgent response, several days ago. ‘Hang on, I’ll get back to you’ you tell the person on the phone, ‘I’ll ring you back when I’ve found it’. You put the phone down and pick up the letter – this needs sorting immediately, but you remember why you put it off – it involves several phone calls and hunting through your files for documents you’re not sure you even kept. By now, you’ve only got half an hour before your first meeting and you’ve promised to ring that person back. . Your design stares at you reproachfully. The e-mail inbox is pinging away as it fills up – already there are more messages than before you started answering them. Your enthusiasm has nosedived and the day has hardly begun. Creative work seems like a distant dream.

Download Ebook: Time Management For Creative People

Harvard University’s endowment decreased 22 percent, or $8 billion, in the first four months of fiscal 2009, putting the fund on course to have its worst performance in at least four decades.

The decline came in the four months through October, according to a letter dated yesterday by President Drew Faust and Executive Vice President Edward Forst. The endowment, the biggest U.S. education fund, had totaled $36.9 billion on June 30 after gaining 8.6 percent in fiscal 2008. The worst annual return that Harvard, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has recorded in at least 40 years was a loss of 12.2 percent in 1974.

The 22 percent decline, excluding adjustments for real estate and private equity, outperformed the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index of stocks, which fell 24 percent during the same period with dividends included. Faust said the school is making budget plans based on a possible 30 percent investment loss for the year ending June 30. Valuations for the fund’s real estate and private equity holdings have yet to be updated.

“The severe turmoil in the world’s financial markets has affected all major asset classes in which the endowment is invested,” Faust and Forst wrote in the letter. The university also plans to issue “a substantial amount” of taxable fixed- rate debt to help support research and financial aid “as we work to absorb the impact of anticipated losses in revenue,” according to the letter.

Colleges and universities across the U.S. are struggling. The University of Virginia at Charlottesville’s endowment declined about 20 percent, to $4.2 billion, in the four months through October.

Princeton Cuts

State university systems in Georgia, California, and New York are firing employees, postponing maintenance and cutting library subscriptions. Among private schools, Princeton University in New Jersey has said it will reduce its 10-year, $3.9 billion construction budget by $300 million.

The performance of Harvard’s endowment from July 1 through Oct. 31 falls “within the range” of the returns for similar institutions during the same period, said Dennis Gephardt, an analyst at Moody’s Investors Services in New York, in an interview. Most endowments are reporting investment losses of 20 percent to 30 percent, he said.

Harvard’s endowment provides funds for more than a third of the university’s operating expenses. That portion was $1.6 billion in fiscal 2008, according to Harvard Management Co., the school’s investment arm, based in Boston. Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, which relies on the endowment to cover more than half its expenses, announced a freeze last week on most staff hiring.

‘Major Implications’

“The prospect of significant endowment losses therefore has major implications for our budgets and planning, especially since our other principal revenue streams also stand to be challenged by the economic crisis,” Faust and Forst said in the letter. “The implications will differ in degree from school to school and department to department.”

Harvard also plans to convert existing short-term tax- exempt debt into bonds with longer maturities to reduce exposure to swings in credit markets and provide greater predictability, Faust and Forst said.

Harvard is reconsidering “the scale and pace” of planned projects, such as the expansion of the Allston campus in Boston, and university officials are “taking a hard look at hiring, staffing levels and compensation to consider ways to cut spending,” Faust and Forst said.

Harvard has also had preliminary talks to sell about $1.5 billion of limited-partnership holdings and leveraged-buyout funds, including one run by Boston-based Bain Capital LLC, according to a report on Dec. 1 that cited a person briefed on the situation.

By Julie Ziegler
bloomberg.com

(Bloomberg - 3 dec) — The U.S. economy weakened across all regions since the middle of October as it became tougher to get loans and demand for credit shrank, the Federal Reserve said in its regional economic survey.

Retail sales, tourism spending and manufacturing declined in most places, housing markets were “weak” and commercial real estate “weakened broadly,” the Fed said today in its Beige Book release, published two weeks before officials meet in Washington to set interest rates.

The report underscores the picture of a downfall that spurred Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley analysts to forecast a contraction in the economy this quarter of about 5 percent. Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and his colleagues may cut interest rates further and consider adopting less conventional policies when they meet Dec. 15-16.

“We are looking at an economy that is not only in a recession, but a recession that is deepening rapidly,” former Fed Governor Lyle Gramley, now senior economic adviser at Stanford Group Co., said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. “It certainly is a gloomy report, but not I guess worse than what you would expect given the data coming in.”

The New York Fed said its regional economy “deteriorated substantially” since the last report in mid-October. The San Francisco Fed, which oversees the largest district, said business “weakened decidedly,” while the Chicago Fed said contacts “expressed concern over the potential length of this downturn.”

“Overall economic activity weakened across all Federal Reserve districts since the last report,” in mid-October, the Beige Book said.

Inflation pressures eased because of declining commodity prices, while wage pressures were “largely subdued,” today’s report showed.

Bright Spots

There were some bright spots: farms had a “relatively good harvest” and skilled labor was in demand in some places, the Fed said. Some businesses were able to profit from the weakness, with the Minneapolis and Dallas districts reporting “growing demand for bankruptcy services.”

Today’s report was prepared by the Minneapolis Fed, based on information collected on or before Nov. 24.

The U.S. economy officially entered a recession in December 2007, the panel that dates American business cycles declared Dec. 1. The National Bureau of Economic Research, a private, nonprofit group of economists based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, said the economy was last in a recession from March through November 2001.

“We are in the middle of the worst quarter,” St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said yesterday in a Bloomberg Television interview. “Right now, we are looking for a pretty sharp decline in the fourth quarter, a little less sharp decline in the first quarter and then hopefully things will improve after that.”

A private report today indicated U.S. companies eliminated 250,000 jobs in November, prompting some economists to boost their estimates for the losses in the Labor Department’s Dec. 5 employment report. New predictions include a 450,000 drop in payrolls from Wachovia Corp. analysts and 400,000 from Goldman Sachs economists.

15-Year High

The jobless rate probably increased to 6.8 percent, the highest level since 1993, the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey showed.

“Signs of labor market slowing were evident in several district reports,” the Fed said. San Francisco and Atlanta reported layoffs, and Dallas-district companies showed “particularly pronounced” job cuts in manufacturing.

Retailers were “widely discounting prices in anticipation of a slow holiday sales season” in some areas, the Fed said. Americans cut spending by 1 percent in October, the biggest drop since the last recession in 2001, the government said last week.

Prices for energy, fuel and “many raw materials and food products” were falling, the Beige Book said.

Consumer prices excluding food and fuel costs fell in October for the first time since 1982, according to government figures. The consumer price index plunged 1 percent in October, the most since records began in 1947, the Labor Department said.

Manufacturing Debacle

A report earlier this week showed manufacturing in the U.S. contracted in November at the fastest pace in 26 years. The Institute for Supply Management’s factory index dropped to 36.2; a reading of 50 is the dividing line between expansion and contraction.

The Fed said manufacturing “declined noticeably since the last report,” though the aerospace and food-processing industries had increased demand in some districts.

New-home sales in the U.S. fell in October to the lowest level in 17 years, the Commerce Department said last week, as the credit crunch deprived potential buyers of needed financing. Sales of new homes were down 40 percent from a year ago.

Residential real estate was running at a “slow pace” across the country, the Fed said, with sales down in most districts.

“Credit standards rose across the nation, with several districts noting increases in loan delinquencies and defaults, especially in the real estate sector,” the Fed said. “Credit conditions remained tight.”

The Dallas Fed, discussing the government’s $700 billion financial-rescue program, reported that capital injections “have led larger institutions to feel less constrained in their lending. At the same time, some smaller banks reported “scrutiny from regulators was making new deals more difficult to forge.”

The Beige Book’s regional anecdotes are gathered through hundreds of telephone calls, news clippings and personal contact by the staff of the 12 Fed banks, whose districts cover all 50 U.S. states. The anecdotes are designed to supplement quantitative forecasts of the Board of Governors staff.

NEW YORK, Dec 3 (Reuters) - U.S. private employers cut 250,000 jobs in November, an unexpectedly large number and the biggest in seven years, while the service sector, which powers most of the economy, posted its worst slump on record.

Wednesday’s reports were the latest signs that the slide in the U.S. job market is nowhere near bottom and suggested Friday’s government payrolls report could exceed current expectations for 320,000 job losses in November.

The Institute for Supply Management said its index of non-manufacturing businesses dropped to the lowest in the survey’s 11-year history, while a record low in its employment gauge raised worries about the payrolls report.

“This is consistent with payrolls falling by about 500,000; let’s hope it is very wrong,” said Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics in Valhalla, New York.

ADP Employer Services, a major payroll servicer for the private sector, said private companies cut jobs for a fourth straight month in November.

The Federal Reserve reported economic activity had weakened across the United States since early October, while price pressures eased with declines in retail and energy prices.

The Fed’s Beige Book summary portrayed grim conditions in most areas of economic activity and noted that labor markets weakened as firms in many districts reported accelerating layoffs. Wage pressures were largely subdued, the Fed added.

The ISM non-manufacturing index came in at 37.3, below October’s already weak 44.4 and well below the 50 level that separates expansion from contraction. It was also much worse than the median forecast of 42.0 expected in a Reuters poll.

This was consistent with global trends, with the euro zone’s services economy falling deeper into recession last month than initially thought. That will add pressure on the European Central Bank to cut interest rates on Thursday by more than the 50 basis points expected.

Every major category in the ISM survey hit a record low, particularly bad news for the United States, where 80 percent of economic activity is driven by the service sector, including businesses such as banks, airlines, hotels and restaurants.

The data reflected the heavy constraints on the economy as the U.S. recession enters its second year, the worst financial crisis in a generation.

“The severe damage to the service industry is another indication of the extraordinary force of this recession,” said Pierre Ellis, senior economist at Decision Economics in New York.

U.S. stocks were higher, recovering from earlier losses in the wake of the surprisingly weak ISM. U.S. Treasury debt prices were mixed, while the dollar slipped against the yen.

NOT A RAY OF LIGHT
The ADP data was the first reading of the job market since the U.S. economy was formally declared on Monday to have entered recession.

The 250,000 jobs reported by ADP to have been lost last month significantly exceeded the 200,000 median forecast of 24 economists polled by Reuters.

As in the ISM data, there was little in the ADP report, jointly developed with Macroeconomic Advisers LLC, to spur optimism.

“It’s impossible to find any ray of light here,” said Joel Prakken, chairman of Macroeconomic Advisers in St. Louis.

Prakken said Wednesday’s ADP data was consistent with a drop of 300,000 or more jobs in the November payrolls report and added that employment declines of 300,000 to 500,000 were possible in the coming months.

ADP revised October’s private job cuts upward to 179,000 from the originally reported loss of 157,000.
The National Bureau of Economic Research, the official arbiter of economic cycles, said on Monday that the contraction began in December 2007.

The only positive news in Wednesday’s slew of data was that interest rates on U.S. mortgage loans fell to an average 5.47 percent last week, the lowest in more than three years, and mortgage applications surged by a record amount.

The jump in mortgage activity was an indication that a new program by the Fed — the U.S. central bank — to buy $500 billion of mortgage-backed securities from home-financing facilitators Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae was helping bring down home loan costs.

Costs had stayed stubbornly high, impeding a recovery in the slumping U.S. housing market.
However, in another signal that U.S. employers were making do with fewer workers, non-farm productivity was slightly stronger than initially forecast in the third quarter. Still the pace of growth remained the slowest this year as output declined the most in seven years, the Labor Department said. (Additional reporting by Lucia Mutikani in Washington and Julie Haviv, Vivianne Rodrigues and Ellen Freilich in New York; Editing by James Dalgleish)

* US private employers cut 250,000 jobs in Nov, 7-yr high

* US service sector posts worst slump on record

* Fed’s Beige Book summary portrays grim conditions

* Mortgage rates at 3-yr low, applications in record jump (Adds Beige Book paragraph 6-7, updates markets paragraph 14)

I for one, suspect it doesnt and whilst I am not suggesting you should bury your head in the marketing sand and assume everything is rosy and perfect in the world, I am suggesting that if you approach 2008 and beyond with the right attitude and mindset your chances of success will increase. And so with it will the chances of you and your customers being more successful.

The truth is many of your competitors and your customers are worried about what the New Year and the future holds for their businesses and livelihoods. There is nothing wrong with being concerned about a possible worldwide recession, falling house prices and rising interest rates to name a few things but likewise there will also be great opportunities for companies to flourish even in the hardest of times. In fact, I would argue that it is in the times of hardship that companies with the skills to out market their competitors will really see the greatest benefits.

You see, marketing when times are good is a lot easier as companies have more money to spend on marketing, advertising and on promoting their business. And customers (and potential customers) have more disposal income and are therefore more likely to buy products and services.

However, when times are tough every cent or penny is accounted for and counts more than ever so companies who can differentiate their products and services better than their competition have a much better chance of being successful. And whilst money and cash flow might be at the forefront of most companies minds I certainly would not encourage a total shift in your marketing strategy to focus on the cheapest is best route. People and businesses ultimately want value for money from the products and services they buy and this applies equally in times of hardship as it does when times are good.

2008 for the global economy and for you and I might be tough. It might be a struggle but if you dwell on the negatives that are constantly thrown at you I guarantee this will have an adverse effect on your business.

The New Year for many people is a time for change and new opportunities. From wanting to lose weight and give up tobacco on a personal level to wanting to increase your profits and grow your business on a professional one.

For smart marketers 2008 holds amazing opportunities so my tips for success this year are:

Tip 1 for Success in 2008

Focus on the positives and dont get drawn into all the negative hype that is thrown at you from the media or politicians

Tip 2 for Success in 2008

Surround yourself with likeminded positive people

Tip 3 for Success in 2008

Become truly great at marketing your product or service (or find someone to do it for you)

Tip 4 for Success in 2008

Remember that YOU are ultimately what will make the difference between the next 12 months and beyond being successful or not.

Author: Mark Burdett
articlesbase.com

Albert Einstein said, “Great spirits encounter violent opposition from mediocre people.” Do you see yourself as a great spirit? How motivated are you to make your dreams come true? Thomas Edison said, “I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward.” Conformists and cowards are always ready to quit. They turn tail at the first sign of discomfort. In addition, they always blame someone else. They flit from one fad to another and never achieve anything of significance in their lives.

Frederick Douglass said, “If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without ploughing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning.” When your goals are worthwhile, important and valuable, your passion is high and your commitment will blow away any hindrances along the way. When you’re looking at the sun, you hardly notice the shadows.

On my bathroom mirror, I have large yellow sticker that says, “UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS”, and when I look at my pretty face, I see this just above my head. My self-image is that of a warrior. I was drafted into the army at seventeen but I have always had some military involvement and interest, ever since I can remember. I watch the Military Channel. Recently in Hawaii, there was a military parade one day. I took more photos of the parade and the military aircraft and vehicles than anything else! True warriors do not retreat. They do not desert. Warriors are focused and courageous.

Sam Walton understood winning. He said, “High expectations are the key to everything.” The bigger your goals, the easier it is to overcome difficulties. To a warrior, the enemy is a mere distraction to be destroyed and overcome on the way to victory. Losers worship obstacles – that is their excuse to be mediocre. They build statues to honor army deserters. Who is your enemy? Anyone who gets between you and your goals. Do not fraternize with the enemy. Chose your soldiers in arms carefully.

Finally, Ted Turner said, “Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell and advertise.” Whatever you focus on will increase. The only attention your enemy should get is whatever it takes to take him out of the picture – then get back to work. Be not discouraged. Be an Eagle. Fly high. Insist on winning. Set higher goals.

Author: Robin J. Elliott
www.articlesbase.com

Bob Harrison teaches us that “Birds of the feather flock together, and that flock is going someplace.” Whom are you flocking with, and where is your flock headed? He says that if you want big fleas, you have to hang with the bog dogs. Are you hanging with big dogs – big thinkers, or with losers? Your circle of friends and associates will largely determine your future level of success. Therefore, you have to be very careful whom you mix with. You can’t judge a book by its cover; you have to read it in order to judge it accurately. The people you bump into in a McDonald’s are different from those you meet at the Hyatt. Where do you spend your time?

At a meeting of the DollarMakers Joint Venture Forum, I introduced two people and I was paid a commission of 25,000 shares in a company. Those people don’t spend a lot of time in MacDonald’s. Successful people don’t think in terms of shortage, scarcity and doubt; they believe in abundance and winning. They are optimistic. They take risks. They spend money. They don’t make weak excuses. We earn within 10% of the income of the people we spend the most time with. If someone tells you he is a top business consultant and you find out that he works part-time in a government job, guess what? He’s a loser. He’s a liar. He’s a liability. Dump him, bump him, and move on. We know that if we change our thoughts, we can change our world. Your thinking is determined largely by the people you socialize with.

Back to Bob Harrison. He says like attracts like. Georges hang around with Georges (a one-dollar bill) and Bens hang around with Bens ($100 bill) and buy Mercedes Benz’s! Whom are you spending time with and working with? Who belongs to your club? Abraham ($5) is a good guy, and Andrew ($20) is also a good guy, but if you’re serious about success, hang with Ben Franklin. Now George might impress you, but when you take him to the bank, he is only worth a dollar. Spending time with Ben Franklin time is worth a hundred times more than spending time with George Washington! Classify your friends and decide if you want to share their future or create you own.

Finally, a good way to find out that people really are is to find out what books they read. When you read a book by Churchill, you are reading his words in your mind. In reality, you are thinking his thoughts! If you think the thoughts of Winston Churchill, you will get the same kind of results that he got! Isn’t that exciting? When you know what books people read, you know a lot about them. You cannot change people, so don’t try; move on to winners. When you want apples, make sure you’re climbing a ladder that is leaning on an apple tree. Join the winners of the DollarMakers Joint Venture Forum: www.jvwisdom.com

Author: Robin J. Elliott
articlesbase.com

It seems the world now faces some of the most difficult economic conditions since the dotcom meltdown, a reality echoed by everyone from Alan Greenspan, who believes the likelihood of a US recession is 50/50, and that a global recession is at some point “inevitable.”

In early January, the Financial Times of London surveyed the opinions of 55 top economists from around the globe. “Nearly nine in 10 think public finances are not in good order,” the authors stated.

All this may sound like bad news – and to policymakers it may well be – but resource investors know that the effect of this trend on the gold price is only good news.

In fact, the gold price as measured against the world’s five most important currencies – including the US and Canadian dollar, the Euro, Yen, and British Pound Sterling – has gained an, had gained a whopping 150% in the past seven years – until the beginning of January – according to gold analyst Adrian Ash, from the Bullion Vault. Since then gold has gained another $100 per ounce, which is both staggering and unprecedented.

Junior Resource companies closely aligned with the price of gold – such as Astral Mining (TSX.V:AST) – are basking in the glow of this new reality: A long-term gold price well above the previous long-term average of about $350 per ounce.

President and CEO of Astral, Manfred Kurschner recently told me, “Although most junior exploration company’s share prices are not reflecting the current buoyant gold price, it is only a matter of time before those companies with potential discoveries will get noticed. We are not yet in the phase of the gold cycle where any company with exploration or gold in their name is going to have it’s share price soar. That I believe is some time away. But if you do your homework there will definitely be money made on the right juniors in the next while. The majors are finally having some recognition and the mid-size companies are starting to move, so usually the juniors are next.”

Last year, the Northern Miner wrote ran a story outlining the effect that positive assays had on the company’s share price: “Wide, high-grade gold values from a second-phase trenching program on the Jumping Josephine (JJ) project in southeastern B.C.’s Rossland-Republic trend gave Astral Mining (AST-V, ASMGF-O) a boost in the market recently,” the author stated. “Infill trenching on the Main zone returned up to 7 metres of 31.2 grams gold per tonne in trench 2A, including a 1-metre interval of 133.9 grams gold.”

That program was an infill program, conducted at 10-metre intervals, and followed initial trenching completed in 2006 done at 50-metre spacings across the structure. Fifteen trenches completed on the Main zone traced the gold-mineralized quartz stockwork over 270 metres of strike, which remains open to the southwest and northeast.

Now, with a Phase II drill program complete and more assays confirming solid grades, Astral Mining appears to be set for a renewed share price assessment.

“The thing to remember with this high-grade gold discovery is that it is located on the surface, several kilometers away from a paved highway, in a mining district with mills, smelters and power in close proximity, Kurschner said. “That makes a 500,000 to one million-ounce gold discovery much less risky than a 5 million-ounce low-grade discovery high in the Andes or in northern BC, where infrastructure costs can quickly make a project uneconomical even with the current high gold price.”

In 2007, Astral and JV Kootenay Gold (TSX.V: KTN) amassed an impressive database of assays from JJ. In November, the reported assays including 15.18 g/t gold over 4 m (incl. 1 m at 56.4 g/t gold); 7.74 g/t over 5 m (incl. 15.99 g/t over 2 m); 13.83 g/t over 3 m (incl. 35.6 g/t over 1 m); 8.28 g/t over 6 m, and 12.44 g/t gold over 8 m from hole 48 (incl. 26.9 g/t gold over 3 m). Similar or better results were achieved throughout the year.
Gold mineralization at JJ is hosted by structurally controlled quartz stockwork veining at the Main Zone, which has been intersected along 15 section lines over a strike length of 700 metres and to vertical depths of up to 225 metres below surface. The company is presently designing an aggressive exploration program for 2008, including additional drilling, a 3-D IP geophysical survey, and additional trenching and soil grids.
An updated NI 43-101 Resource Estimate is expected after the 2008 Phase 3 drilling results are completed and compiled. This will add value to a share price that is set to push beyond its present price ceiling.

Astral Mining has only 27 million shares(FD) outstanding and controls a 60% interest in the Jumping Josephine project.

This article is intended for information purposes only, and is not a recommendation to buy or sell the equities of any company mentioned herein. It is based on sources believed to be reliable, but no warranty as to accuracy is expressed or implied. The opinions expressed in the article are those of the author except where statements are attributed to individuals other than the author, in which case the opinions are those of the individual to whom they are attributed.

Author: Doug Hadfield
articlesbase.com