Expert: Steven Taylor - 8/30/2011

Question
My 84 year old father lives in Manitoba and has a bunch of Royal Oak stocks.  I have told him the place went bankrupt but he seems to think they are going to reopen those gold mines and his stock will be worth millions.  Is Royal Oaks done and basically are his stocks any good now or can they become good in the future or should he just line his bird cage with them ?   
Thanks

Answer
Gale, unfortunately for your father, Royal Oak Mines is no more. They did go into receivership and lost all interest in the mines. After over 10 years of work, Royal Oak has reorganized in Royal Oak Ventures and is now a commercial real estate lender. They have no interest in gold mining whatsoever. The common shares were consolidated on the basis of 1 new share for every 100 old Royal Oak shares. The stock is not currently trading, but it was announced a few days ago that the cease-trade orders from 1999 have now been revoked, and the company hopes to begin trading again soon.

Although the company is no longer a gold miner, and your father now has only 1/100th of the shares he had before, it isn't a bird cage situation. Hopefully the stock will resume trading soon and although it is very unlikely to make your father a millionaire, he will hopefully be able to salvage a little out of the shares.

I believe the current transfer agent is Computershare (www.computershare.com). You will need to contact them to have the old Royal Oak shares reorganized into the new Royal Oak Ventures shares.