I stopped reading at 'retired Gov't teacher'.Indexed Plan Jackpot winner. Got to love Institutional Education- we pay they we  ... never really actually work in the real world and participated in the daily grind of the Econo,;1st yr  3 months vac, pension ,dental, 'professional days', a big U - union , et al . Enjoy retirement big guy.Your a lucky man ! 
A word of advise though -  pension money should not be invested into venture mining stocks- in any economic environment(not anything over 2-3% anyway), too much  Beta for you brother!. Frought with problems. Yes, high potential returns , however the risk curve is off the map. You need the Div growers and diversification. Remember Macroeconomics or Business 101 ?, slow and steady wins the race. Mawer or Fidelity 'funds' may be ok for you at this point too , some are low MER's, however owning some Banks/defence b- chips are not a bad idea in the mix as well. Let us "working jacks" know how the South of France is in the spring. Update us!