metal in the ground Metal in the ground is worth.... zero. If you don't have the capital to actually extract it, then it's hard to assign any kind of value. I recognize this is not exactly true in terms of valuation of the stock. However, basically the market is looking at the company and saying this company is going to have to come up with a great deal of cash to build this mine and in order to that it is going to have to sell shares or sell a portion of the asset. Also don't confuse the value of an asset of a company with the value of the company.