Why Now the Time for You to Consider Investing in Precious Metals

Hey, it's Mark Podolski, the land geek with your favorite niche real estate website, thelandgeek.com and on this week's podcast, Scott Todd's taking the time off. The fellas and Teria are off, so it's just me and my guest. And you're going to love our guest, Jonathan Moore. Now if you're not familiar with Jonathan, he has over 25 years of experience in North American and European capital markets focused on the natural resource industry. He has a history of achievement creating from his years with Canaccord Capital. In August 2008, he retired from Canaccord Capital as an investment advisor to apply his experience in contacts to the public company sector. He has successfully assembled multiple world class companies strengthened by strong management teams and multiple discoveries. We're going to learn all about precious metals with a precious guest, Jonathan Moore. Welcome.

Hi Mark, thanks for having me. It's great to be here.

I'm so glad you're here. And let's just rewind the tape and you know who wakes up and thinks themselves. Why I want to learn about mining and precious metals. How does that happen?

Good question. Because geologists aren't generally the most fun out of people. I mean you can always see what a geologist looks like in the room when you just point at them. But no, but you know, listen, my background, I was born and raised in Canada and the Canadian marketplace, when you get into the public markets, that is, and being involved with the stock market, that's the definition of public market is, let's just call it the stock market. That's the place where a lot of these mining companies that we've seen, that's where they are incubated. This is where they start, this is where they go for their venture capital. It's the Silicon Valley of mining. And Vancouver is being the kind of the junior born, you know, that's kind of the, I hate to say it, but there's a lot of shady stuff comes out of Vancouver. And I'm going to say this with caution because when I'm talking mining and mining startup companies and the mining space, you got to be very careful of what you're going to invest in and what you're going to come across. Vancouver historically has been a very, it's been a town that has had a lot of scandals and they've had some obviously big companies as well. But I have a famous saying and in New York it's Wall street, in Toronto it's Bay street. And in Vancouver there's a street called Howe street, which is the center of business. Well, Howe street is the only street in the world that's shady on both sides, so just remember that. And what I've learned to do over the years is basically identifying very good projects from geologists that I trust and rely on. I'm a financial person, so I look more at the financial side. I take them public on the markets. And if you could have a really good geologist that's giving you a good product and good deal flow all the time, well, those are the things that you take to market and it increases your probabilities of having those big successes. And really that's what we rely on. So it's a team effort. And over the 25, 30 years that I've been in the business, I've been able to assemble a very, very good team of exactly that.

Wow. Well, that's really good to know about Vancouver.

So not to, not to slag it, trust me, but it's, it's a, it's a, it's, it's a, it's a bit of a Las Vegas casino up there at times. And be very careful. It's all, I caution, you know, these, these viewers.

So when you, when you're doing your due diligence and you're looking for a project or geologist, what are you looking for? How can we learn to be a better mining or precious metal investor ourselves?

Well, so really you've got to rely on groups like me. So what I do is we first of all choose the commodity. Like, what do we see working here? What's our bandwidth here for the next 10 years? That's our kind of horizon. We don't look and see what's hot right now. And by the time you fund it and take it to market, it's going to take you half a year anyway. So really we're looking forward, looking, and we see an opportunity right now in the resource space. When I use gold as my kind of temperature gauge for the whole market, I'll put gold and silver in the same category. These are metals that in times of uncertainty and inflation, like we were discussing, these are the assets that you want to own. There's no more. The first gold bar that was put onto the planet how many years ago is still here today. So it's a store of wealth. We also look at other aspects. Everybody's familiar with electric vehicles and the whole battery boom right now. Well, things like that. I mean, you're looking at lithium and copper and things like that, which are also. Obviously there's a huge Demand for right now and very little supply. So depending on what you're looking for, is what you're going to put to market. So we've, we've assembled a number in the spaces that I've just said, from, from gold to silver to. To copper to zinc to lithium. And really what it comes down to is, is just having the right geologist at the right time. When a geologist looks at a project and he shows you something, it's great. But when a geologist looks at something and is so excited, he's spitting and believe me, geologists never get excited over anything when they're actually at that stage. That's something that then we look at and then we deploy our own capital. Our, you know, my personal money. I'll put it together and then I'll formulate a team behind it. I then finance it, take it to the market, and then we run the companies and I'll go on as CEO, chairman, whatever it might be. And that's what you should be looking for. Companies that have done the proper due diligence of getting these projects to market, they have the, you know, the big money behind them. You know, we've raised in excess of 500 million over the last 10, 15 years on our project. So, you know, you want to get into situations where you have a chance and that have, you know, budgets behind them. They're drilling, they're actually trying to build out a resource if it's what they're trying to find. When we very rarely touch grassroots, by the way. We like to find something that's already there and we like to build it and build it through, you know, through to development and into. Actually, you know, we're never going to get into production on our deals. We don't like that. We like to put it on a silver platter and then have a major come in and liquidate you. That's our, that's our business model.

Okay, so if I understand this correctly, then you're looking for the geologist who gets excited about the resource. And then you put in the money, the team, you bring it to market and then you then exit to a larger company, let's say an Exxon. Well, I mean, it's the work of the drilling.

So this is. Yeah, sorry. So I just want to just add here that this is something that people have to really pay attention to, because the way I've always worked in my markets and the way I've made my money has always been in you stick to what you're good at. And we're very good at building companies from ground floor or maybe have a discovery and then building it up, building up the reserve to a greater level. And then what we do is then we put it on a silver platter for a major. So a Newmont, Agnico, eagle mining, Kinross, one of these major companies who do not do any exploration business themselves, they rely on companies like us to do this for them. Once we get to our level and it's at a level which is ready for a major to take. Yes, that's your exit strategy is to liquidate the company to them. It's very dangerous when you get someone like me who is good at that, which is building something up. When I start saying to you I'm going to start taking this company into production, well, that's a whole different language. That's a different ballgame. Just if I ever said that in any of my companies you should probably sell every share you have because there's nothing but failure there. In my mind, you have to leave that heavy lifting for the big boys. And believe me, the returns you make from our business model of finding something, building it, putting it up for sale, it's huge returns. And that's really our bread and butter. And I think I'm excited to tell people about it.

So when you define huge returns, let's just talk about the risk reward ratio.

Tell us the story. Well, I mean there's been several, but there's companies that we've been involved with. Is you fund these things for say you put your first $2 million in at 10 cents. Okay. And then the market starts going and you have a company behind it and your market opens up and now you're 50 cents to 60 cents. Well then you maybe raise, see another 10 million at a dollar. Okay. And the reason you're raising these funds is because you need the money to drill. That's the key word. Drilling creates value. In the mining game, you have to prove out your reserves and your resource and your asset. Well, then you get it to a dollar and then next thing you know you've had some success. Well, then it goes to $2. You go to 250. In a boom time with the market, people are speculating. In the mining game, well, that $2 value is probably going to be worth more like $4 in value. And that's how the game is created. And what majors understand is that the more you drill and the more you prove up, your market cap is only going to get greater and greater and greater. So once they get to a level where you're comfortable enough and the major is comfortable enough. They say, okay, it ticks all the boxes. We've got the resources there, the tonnage, the grade, the environmental permits are all done. This thing's ready to go to production. And by the way, this company that this major might have a mill that's in the area or a processing facility, well then they will come and give you an offer. And that's how the mining game works. That's how majors operate. That's how the biggest discoveries in the world have been operated. 40, 50 years ago, maybe even 20 years ago, majors did their own exploration and they actually had their own budgets. They would go do this type of drilling. But now they found it more of a benefit and it's more economic for these guys to rely on guys like us to do it for them.

Well, I'm really glad that you're taking the time to share this with more people because if you look at a guy like a Peter Lynch, a famous investor, and he would say only buy what you know. So for example, if you're walking by Starbucks every day and you see there's a line on Starbucks, oh, maybe I should research that as a investment to buy a Starbucks. But the average person's not thinking about precious metals mining and there's huge opportunity there. So it's one of those things that's just not in our daily consciousness. But it should be because as we discussed, inflation's at historic levels. And this is a time where fundamentally if you go into inflation or even stagflation, what has been the best, what's outperformed every market? It's been gold historically. And as you mentioned, history repeats itself. What do investors need to know as far as, or to educate themselves as far as getting that comfortability like okay, now I'm comfortable, I can put money here and this is my risk reward ratio.

I think it's. I know that theory and I know only own what you understand and what you know, that's fine and dandy. But if you're trying to create a well balanced portfolio, if you're trying to spread your dollars out and really just have exposure to everything, or trying to risk proof your portfolio, whatever it might be, whatever your investment horizons or whatever you want to do in times like right now, everybody should have exposure to, in my mind, precious metals, commodities, whatever it might be. I can only lead by example. So I mean I'm not allowed to come out here and give investment advice. That's not what I do. I used to, but I don't do it anymore. I look after my own portfolio. So, yes, we have exposures to tech stocks. Okay, well, I don't own really hardly any tech stocks to what I owned about a year ago. I mean, we had that massive run and you reallocate your portfolios and things constantly change and we're always kind of moving things around. And again, this is my portfolio. Most people just buy growth stocks and just don't worry about it and just see at the finish line. And that's a great strategy. I mean, there's no right or wrong on these kind of discussions. I just see a personal, from my homework and our expertise, which is quite substantial, that the cycles that we're seeing in the metals and mining market, they're in the early innings. We're in the end of the first, beginning of the second inning on what we believe is a super cycle. This super cycle. These are the times which create huge wealth. These are the times which. This is how you make fortunes. I look at it a little differently. I look at it times of when markets are booming and flying out of control and you see the Dow and the NASDAQ and the S and P are just skyrocketing. That's great. But the times where people historically have made the most millionaires in the world are times of uncertainty. It's when times actually are like this. When we're looking at Armageddon on the stock market, the Fed doesn't know which way it's which way is up. Well, yeah, they do. They know which way because they keep raising interest rates up. But that's a whole nother conversation. But I think it's really. This is when you get creative, when times are uncertain like we are in right now. This is the time where you can make good money. And are you going to make money on buying Netflix back or Amazon back? I'm probably going to bet against that. So really we're seeing a secular move in money flows and I think we're going to start to see it flow into the mining and metal market quite, quite substantially.

Yeah, I, I think you're, you're, you're probably right, just based on the history of it and you know, and to your point, like in times of uncertainty, people do flock to the safety of precious metals and they have a big run. I, I also agree with you that when there's blood in the street, right. What's that, that Buffet saying, when people are fearful, get greedy and when people are greedy, get fearful. And you know, it's such a, an interesting cliche and everybody Thinks, oh, this is easy to do. It's not easy to do when you're living in it. And it takes courage and it takes a risk tolerance to be able to do that. But to your point, like that's where the fortunes are made in the. You have to be bold. So go ahead, Jonathan.

No, I mean, it's not really that difficult. It's just quite simply looking at your portfolio and just having exposure to sectors which haven't had their run yet. I mean, every market, there's a bull market out there somewhere. There's always a bull market. Even if we're looking at a terrible US Stock market, you're always going to find a bull market somewhere. Just try to find it. And I think this is a place which people don't realize and you mentioned it earlier, like, how do you. This isn't something that people have been born with like myself. This is something which, you know, if you're born in America and you're. And you're an investor, this is probably one of the last places you're going to look is into the mining game, you know, and I think it's something which it gives me great comfort in telling someone right now at this stage of the game that this is, hey, listen, take a look seriously at this space because in three, four years from now when you see these prices is up here from where they were today, you're going to be saying, damn it, I should have listened to that guy.

So if you're new to the mining game, what's the best place to sort of educate yourself? And how would you. Let's say you're talking to your daughter who was 21 and she had, let's say, $10,000 to get started. How would you tell her, okay, here's where you need to start educating yourself on this.

Well, I mean, you got the Internet, go look, whatever, gold stocks. But really keeping it simple, everything in this market in today's pricing in my mind has been clocked. Everything has been decimated in price. So really, as an entry point into the market right now, I see a huge advantage. I think that's why it's always good to have cash on the sideline because you always want to be able to pick up stocks. However, if we said this a month ago, it looked cheap then, but it's come lower. So you never want to just blow it all into one purchase. You want to just take your time and dollar cost, average this over some time. But really we're getting at levels now where prices are getting really cheap. In my mind. All right, and that goes to the gold market too. I'm talking the nasdaq, I'm talking. Everything's been, been pulled back. That's just what happens when people raise interest rates. The stock market falls. We've also seen a US Dollar which has gone completely skyrocketing straight up. And that plays a downward effect on commodities because commodities and metals and mining, oil, whatever it might be, they're all quoted in US bucks. So really, if you're coming at it and you really want to learn, well, okay, you want exposure to gold. Well, I think the best place to start is what are the largest gold companies in the world. Let's look at the market cap of these companies. Let's look and see where they are today. Let's look and see where they were a year ago. Well, you're going to find that these things are all at their 52 week lows. I love that opportunity. With what's coming up, the Agnico Eagles is one of my big picks. Newmont Mining, Barrick, whatever it might be. These are the big, big, big gold companies, if you don't want to be that specific. Then you go and look at gold ETFs, things that trade in the market, which is the basket of goods which trade like a stock, but it's like something you buy. And they have exposure to a number of different aspects in the company. Whatever that ETF is made of, if you like silver, same way, you do it the same thing. You do it exactly the same way. If you want lithium, well, there's lithium companies out there. So really, it's really a question of what you think, what you believe in is your exposure for. Do you want to protect and just put money aside because you're worried about inflation and the Fed continuing to do what they're doing, which is completely the wrong move throughout all these years. So in that case, if that's your philosophy, then you want to probably stick on the gold side. You can get out, there's other things. Copper, there's zinc, it's endless. Personally, I play all of them. And then to take it a step further, once I have my majors chosen, I will then take a little bit more risk into my portfolio and start to look at the mid cap companies or small cap companies. Because in a booming market for commodity, for metals and mining, when we have a gold price that's skyrocketing, then all of these companies rise at the same time. And so you want to have a lot of leverage. So buying a stock at $0.50 it might have made the discovery, but they're developing it, you buy it. These give you the most leverage out of all of them. And I think we're about to hit that kind of point coming up very, very soon. As soon as we kind of get back into an uptrend on the gold market, I think people are going to start to speculate again.

Okay, last question before we get to the tip of the week. What does it mean to be a fully funded, ongoing drill program?

So that means, remember I said to everybody, I said, you want to make sure companies are drilling because that's the only way that you can bring value to a company that' growing and that's important. That's what we do. We like to put things together and then once we start drilling, we don't want to stop, we want to keep going. Sure, you might take a stop and you have to look at some geophysics differently or we have to move a drill rig over here. Or just logistically you might have to change something. But you want to make sure that what you're investing in is, it's not like somebody that, okay, I'm going to go drill 5,000 meters here this summer. Okay, okay, drilling's finished. Let's wait for our results. And then, you know, you're going back, you know, you suddenly it's, it's, it's the end of the summer. Well, the next drill program set for the following spring. Well, what's the point? I mean, what happens from the end of the end of summer to the next spring? Well, really there's no value added coming into your company. So you want to make sure that we are like all, like all my companies, we generally like to drill 24, 7, 12 months of the year nonstop. And that just, you know, and the reason why we're able to do that is we're able to raise substantial amounts of money on our projects from the good geologists, from these good projects because they, you know, they, let's just say they qualify. You know, if you have a bad project, you're not going to drill it all the time. But if we have good projects, we can drill them and drill them out.

Okay, well, this has been fascinating and your mentorship as far as mining precious metals has been invaluable. But now we are at that point in the podcast, Jonathan, where we, I'm going to put you on the spot and ask you of your tip of the week. A website, a resource, a book, something else actionable for the auto passive income listeners to go improve their Businesses improve their lives. What have you got?

I just got a book and I got it for Father's Day and I'm suddenly just picking it up now. It's a health book and it's actually been just. I mean, listen, I'm 47 in three months. I live very healthy, I'm quite fit. But I'm getting to the age now where I'm starting to worry about health a little bit and just making sure that I'm going to make it. I've got two kids as well so I want to be around for a long time. But it's the new Tony Robbins book and I am going through it and I love it and I have to. Sorry, just do this. Kayla, what's the name of that book? Life. I'm going to get it to my wife's right here and I'm going to tell you the tip on this book. But I started reading this thing and I love it and it's giving me just a lot of. It's just self comfort awareness. It's just giving me the right, it just puts me in a right frame of mind. And I'll have the name of this book here shortly actually. Is it in my bag here? No, it's coming. It's called Life Force by Tony Robbins. There you go. Sorry it took me so long but it was sitting in my bedroom. That is my tip. I think it's a book that everybody should look at. Health is important and I wouldn't be doing what I'd be doing if I wasn't healthy. So there you have it.

Yeah, I'll have to check that out. I have not heard that book. It must be new.

It's new. Yep. Actually got it right here. Just came out and I'm not, I'm not promoting it. I don't know Tony Robbins if from, you know, at all. So I've never met the guy. But it's a great book.

All right, well I'll definitely be checking it out. I love that. I think it's Confucius. It says a healthy man wants, you know, a thousand different things but a sick man only wants one. So.

Well said.

It's, you know, it's so true. Well, my tip of the week is learn how you can diversify your portfolio, protect yourself against inflation and learn more about the mining game. Go to Star and that's the two R's. Peakminingltd.com we will have a link to the website. Starpeakmininglimited.com Jonathan Moore are we good?

We're good. I always like talking rocks. I'm sorry if it bored some people, but I try to make it as interesting as possible and it's. Listen, just, just pay attention to these markets, people. Don't be scared by them. Just realize this is the time where people can make very good money. You just got to be strategic and just stand by it.

Yeah, absolutely. Now, is there anything I should have asked you? I didn't ask you.

You know, life is good. So, you know, good luck to everyone out there. And, you know, I, you know, if you need me back, just, just let me know when.

All right. Well, I want to thank you. I want to thank the listeners and remind them the only way, the only way we're going to get the quality of guests like Jonathan Moore is if you do us three little favors. You gotta follow rate. Review the podcast. Send a screenshot of that review to supportlandgeek.com we're going to send you a free signed copy of Dirt Rich. And if you want to learn more about passive income, schedule a call. Go to landgeek.com training and learn how flight school can really make a huge difference. Life. Move the needle. Start building that passive income quickly, safely and efficiently with Scott Todd as your Sherpa. And schedule a call. So, Jonathan, I always end this silly way. I go, 1, 2, 3, let freedom ring. Thanks, everybody.

Thank you. Thanks for listening to the Art of Passive Income podcast. Podcast.

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