where has all the money gone?

The most recent capital raising of $17.2 m, has prompted me to wonder where all the money GWR has raised over the last 5 years has gone?

So i did a little research and looked in to how much GWR has raised and spent on exploration from yearly reports from 2005 to 2009.

Year $ Raised $ Exploration expenditure
2005 4,996,478 3,157,956
2006 3,039,075 1,323,398
2007 17,105,433 8,032,935
2008 38,593,959 13,573,735
2009 29,600,000 23,704,748

Total 93,334,945 49,792,772

From 2005 to 2009 $93 m was raised and $49 m spent on exploration. GWRs latest resource update stands at 147.7 mt, for 5 years of exploration only 1.2 mt of this is measured; a measured resource is the highest level of a resource meaning the resource has a highest level of confidence.
Remember however that no part of this 147.7 mt is a reserve which is actually the economically mineable part of a measured mineral resource.

I'm not going to waste my time discussing the fact that only 53% of money raised by GWR actually goes to exploration and that after 5 years it still has no mineable reserve. I'm just going to give a few examples of other companies.

Flinders Mines (FMS)
In May 2007 it was decided to investigate the iron ore potential of E47/882.
A maiden Inferred Resource of 476Mt at 55.4% Fe was announced on 1 April 2009.

Money Spent on exploration 2008 and 2009 $16,376,528

Sundance Resources (SDL)
21st July 2008

"Sundance Resources Limited announces initial JORC compliant inferred mineral resource of 1.2 billion tonnes.

"The inferred resource is based on drilling over an area of 3 km x 3 km.... this includes 106 reverse circulation drill holes and 19 diamond drill holes for a total of ~24,000 m."

In GWRs 2009 yearly report during the 2008-2009 year was 63,000 m was drilled...

I could spend days researching other companies but what each comparison points too is that every other iron ore exploration company you look at will have spent significantly less and in a much shorter period proved up alot more than GWR.

Companies which started exploring for iron ore at the same time as GWR have started mining and companies which have started exploring for iron ore years after GWR, have proved up much more already. Do people realise that proving up a resource is just the beginning? Once a resource has been proven only then can the 3 or 4 levels of feasibility studies can begin, as with no resource there is no mine. These studies normally take years, and these studies are required to find funding for projects.

I have been hearing rumors the merger is back on with Fairstar. I'm sure this isn't true. I'm sure GWRs poor performance compared to its peers has nothing to do with holding back GWR so it can merge with with Fairstar......

So i ask the question again, where has all the money gone?

Please do your own research