VANCOUVER — Marlin Gold Mining (TSXV: MLN; US-OTC: MLNGF) just built a gold mine in Mexico’s Sinaloa state for US$23 million. That is intriguing, but on closer inspection, the intrigue deepens.

Consider these points. Marlin is a publicly traded company but a Connecticut-based fund called Wexford Capital owns 80% of its outstanding shares, of which there are 680 million.

Most of the shares stem from two rights offerings backstopped by Wexford that raised the capital to build the La Trinidad open-pit, heap-leach mine 42 km southeast of the town of Rosario, something the fund had to do after it failed to take Marlin private.

Now, with La Trinidad in opera­tion, Marlin has set up a subsidiary company called Sailfish and given it the right to buy a quarter of the mine’s gold at below the spot price. In contrast with most streaming deals, Sailfish paid nothing for the stream… Read Full Article