Expert: Steven Taylor - 5/29/2009

Question
We found stock certs. for "Normalloy Explorations Ltd." (1959) and "Rix-Athabasca Uranium Mines, Ltd." (1955) in our Father's safe following his death.  Worth anything?
Dallas Magee (NC)  

Answer
Dallas, from the information I have available, the Rix-Athabasca might have some value. The Normalloy shares had the charter cancelled in 1980, so it appears there is no value there.

The Rix, however, was acquired in 1970 by New York Oils on the basis of 1 share of New York Oils for every 4 shares of Rix. New York was acquired in 1989 by Sceptre Resources on the basis of 0.053548 of a share of Sceptre for every 1 New York Oils share. Sceptre was acquired by Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. on the basis of 0.38 of a Canadian Natural Share for every 1 Sceptre share. Canadian Natural trades on the TSX and NYSE for about C$64 a share.

Because of the acquisition ratios, your father would have had to own a lot of Rix-Athabasca to even have 1 share of Canadian Natural (if my math is right, roughly 250 or so shares of Rix equals 1 share of Canadian Natural). To get the shares reorganized, you need to contact Canadian Natural's transfer agent, Computershare, at www.computershare.com.