> If a company doesn't do any business, then it shall not have a right to exist as it has no reason to exist, as the reason companies exist is to do business.

One typical use of shell companies in mineral exploration is to obfuscate regions of interest from the prying eyes of competitors.

If some wants to gather lease ownership of a large number of small leases in (say) a province of Canada then it's a matter of public record that mining|exploration leases change ownership in public records.

The end goal here is to publicly declare ownership after exploration results (geochimistry, prelim drilling, etc) have been assesed by third party technical reports and put a prospect on the stock market to attract investors. This gets a bit complex when someone else owns a band of rights dead centre through your ROI.

This is a use of shell companies that's distinct from hiding assets from taxation, it's obfuscation for the purpose of getting ducks lined up before going public.