Episode 13: Mercenary Geologist Full Interview: Industrial Metals, Gold and How to Evaluate Mining Companies

1
00:00:03.240 –> 00:00:09.739
Andy Millette: Hi, all this is Andy again. I’m talking with Mickey, with mercenary geologist. How are you doing, Mickey?

2
00:00:09.760 –> 00:00:11.999
Mickey: I’m doing well, Andy, and you.

3
00:00:12.420 –> 00:00:23.619
Andy Millette: I’m doing very, very well, and for viewers and listeners that want to find you and see you. They can find you at mercenary geologist.com and Mickey, what is your Twitter handle

4
00:00:23.750 –> 00:00:26.090
Mickey: at mercenary, Geo.

5
00:00:26.580 –> 00:00:32.790
Mickey: And how many followers do you have on your twitter? well, over 47,000.

6
00:00:32.910 –> 00:00:43.250
Andy Millette: Yeah, quite the following. Well, what really attracted me to you, and why I wanted to talk to you is, I think, in this industry we talk to a lot of people that are pitching.

7
00:00:43.410 –> 00:01:11.790
Andy Millette: And you specifically have a background, an extensive background in geology. And so you’re the you’re the guy on the ground. Typically and the science to all of this. And so I wanted to talk to you specifically about the markets in general, and then we’ll go a little bit more ground floor about what you see happening. So let’s start out with the industrial metals. it looks like the economy has been slowing. and it

8
00:01:11.820 –> 00:01:24.219
Andy Millette: copper has been Well, copper has been held in the holding somewhat steady, but a little bearish, if you would, but I’m surprised at copper isn’t down more. Tell me what your thoughts are, and specifically copper in the industrial metals.

9
00:01:24.410 –> 00:01:48.649
Mickey: So regarding industrial medals, it’s all about copper, Dr. Carter. We’ve all heard the same, and it’s it is a leading and economic indicator of the world economy coppers down. It hit a yearly low here couple of weeks ago. now trading somewhere around 3, 80 on the spot. Price.

10
00:01:49.030 –> 00:01:51.690
Mickey: But there’s

11
00:01:51.830 –> 00:02:12.430
Mickey: Chinese concerns with what I view as a crater in Chinese economy. China uses about 40% of the world’s copper and recession beer. So you know, the especially copper. The industrial medals are the prices are

12
00:02:12.480 –> 00:02:15.880
Mickey: in large part a function of

13
00:02:16.180 –> 00:02:24.100
Mickey: the hedge funds and the commercial traders what they see going forward so there were,

14
00:02:24.470 –> 00:02:38.049
Mickey: a something like a 7 8 year low in that longs commercial traders and hedge funds couple of 3 weeks ago, and a copper market. So that’s tended to

15
00:02:38.700 –> 00:03:08.579
Mickey: knocked the copper price down. I am a permeable on copper. We use something on the order of 25 million tons of copper a year. We are in a supply deficit, but most concerning is is the future supplies of copper. We we use well over a Bingham canyon per year. Bingham. Canada’s one of the largest

16
00:03:08.680 –> 00:03:12.670
Mickey: for the

17
00:03:12.820 –> 00:03:38.969
Mickey: it’s start production in 1,840 and continuous production. So we you, we use that amount of copper every year, which means we’ve got to find that amount of copper every year, and we’re not doing it so long. Term. Very bullish on copper medium term bullish on a copper. I’m not even going to go there regarding short term projections of copper prices, because it’s really in control of the speculators.

18
00:03:38.970 –> 00:03:43.430
Andy Millette: Yeah, well, let’s talk about that, then. Not short term. But let’s project.

19
00:03:43.470 –> 00:04:04.720
Andy Millette: Let’s well, I don’t even want to project a timetable. Let’s assume that China works itself out not so much that they have a booming in a common economy, but let’s say they stable they stabilize within the next, which I think is something reasonable, but the next 6 to 12 months, but same to say the same thing with the Us.

20
00:04:04.810 –> 00:04:32.459
Mickey: And then we no longer have those concerns in the next 6 to 12 months. What’s that going to do to the copper price, and that’s I might be a rhetorical question. And so you would suppose Copper price will go up I’m gonna backtrack a little bit and tell you that 380 copper a significant number of copper to producers worldwide, let’s say, is the highest score dial of

21
00:04:32.460 –> 00:04:46.959
Mickey: price. Producers are under water right now. So eventually, some of that production is gonna come off. But once again the copper market. And there’s analysts, you know. I know a couple in New York that I

22
00:04:46.960 –> 00:05:07.359
Mickey: I’m in contact with on a regular basis. And we’ve all realized over the years that the short term copper price goes up and goes down, depending on what the hedge funds are doing. Funds pour in hedge funds for out, and you’ve got the same thing going on. Shine high exchange and

23
00:05:07.360 –> 00:05:09.709
Mickey: and china so

24
00:05:09.750 –> 00:05:16.520
Mickey: reason would demand. If the economy gets right now, copper price will go up, but

25
00:05:17.320 –> 00:05:33.529
Andy Millette: it’s not always a reasonable mark. and not to say that this would happen. But you could. You could see, or I could see it happening. It can be a big squeeze into copper

26
00:05:34.480 –> 00:05:50.559
Mickey: some time where you see what it like, for example, what nickel didn’t tell me. that was crazy, but that’s a much smaller market. It’s about 8% of the size of the copper market on your basis.

27
00:05:50.560 –> 00:06:14.619
Andy Millette: Well, talk to me about the other base metals like, nickel. yeah, talk to me about some of the other base metals that you well, nickel is basically productions controlled by about 5 major mining companies worldwide, and it is very sensitive to geopolitical issues. So the squeeze that happened in nickel last year which essentially.

28
00:06:14.660 –> 00:06:17.020
Mickey: destroyed

29
00:06:17.060 –> 00:06:21.460
Mickey: the the L

30
00:06:21.590 –> 00:06:38.889
Mickey: at optics, if you will. good way to put it, was basically created by the fact that Indonesian, the Philippines went to resource nationalism as they are, tend to do, and said, if you don’t smelt it here.

31
00:06:38.890 –> 00:07:01.760
Mickey: we’re not gonna sell it to you. So it click, create an artificial short. And then you have the guys coming in and shipping nickel. That was a back of rocks to the L. Me, and and so that market is very subject to manipulation. I basically don’t play any of the basemental markets or stocks

32
00:07:01.760 –> 00:07:08.970
Mickey: that are solely focused on nickel lead zinc

33
00:07:10.250 –> 00:07:11.990
Mickey: unless

34
00:07:13.390 –> 00:07:22.100
Mickey: they are integrated minors, and so those are dominated by copper producers. So

35
00:07:22.940 –> 00:07:43.359
Andy Millette: where I was, what I would say about those sorts of things right? Well, speaking of stocks are there as a sector again. This has been beaten pretty beat up, but we yet we do see the supply constraints and the coming demand. And maybe it’s not there yet, or maybe it is. But it sounds like you’d play this on the equity side.

36
00:07:43.360 –> 00:07:54.110
Andy Millette: specifically, junior equity side. How would you go about evaluating a a base metal company if you would, or a copper company that you would be interested in?

37
00:07:54.380 –> 00:08:01.249
Mickey: Probably a copper specific copper focus so

38
00:08:01.370 –> 00:08:09.550
Mickey: and the junior space. So we’re talking about companies that at the top of that

39
00:08:09.580 –> 00:08:25.740
Mickey: junior space would be advanced explorers developers. So you want high grade, large, high grade deposits, and geopolitical jurisdictions that are amenable to

40
00:08:25.800 –> 00:08:44.709
Mickey: midterm development. So I play. I have a couple, I own, a couple of those They have in particular, one especially not done well, and a lot of that has to do with what I call the old Biden administration, and it’s the

41
00:08:45.250 –> 00:08:57.860
Mickey: the war on not only fossil fuels, but the war on domestic mining. And so in the last couple of years, Biden has killed through regulation

42
00:08:57.960 –> 00:09:00.349
Mickey: or bureaucratic

43
00:09:00.630 –> 00:09:04.359
Mickey: the odd, if you will.

44
00:09:04.480 –> 00:09:27.609
Mickey: 3 of the largest and maybe 4 copper deposits in the world, and certainly some of the highest grade trilogy medals got put on a delay. They rescinded the the, the fully approved Eis to build the road in northwest Alaska that

45
00:09:27.610 –> 00:09:53.529
Mickey: basically destroy that stock. So you know, although I would say, probably trilogy medals, perhaps at current price, which is about my original cost spaces and the stock might be something you consider. But I really think we saw this during the 8 years of the Obama Administration. Basically, no minds were developed in the Us. And it looks like that’s the policy

46
00:09:54.190 –> 00:10:21.269
Mickey: of the people and control of the Biden Administration. I don’t think that’s Joe Biden, right? So you mentioned chility medals. how would you? Why do you like them specifically? And how, again, is it the geology that you see? Is it the the team that they have in place. Tell me about that. They have arguably the 2 highest grade giant copper deposits in the world

47
00:10:21.430 –> 00:10:24.120
Mickey: and the Arctic district

48
00:10:24.160 –> 00:10:46.250
Mickey: of Northwest Alaska. They need a 200 plus mile road to get out there to develop. And 99% of that road is on state plans. But there’s a very small portion on Federal lands. And and Deb Halen, the

49
00:10:46.620 –> 00:11:02.549
Mickey: Department of Interior Secretary basically is very anti development. And they’ve essentially along with couple of small Ngos. They’ve stopped that development. So it’s on hold. But

50
00:11:03.110 –> 00:11:22.340
Mickey: it’ll happen it’s someday at some day. But because it is, those 2 deposits are the best in the world, and they have. Yeah, that’s the other one, either that or the world takes a step back. And

51
00:11:22.390 –> 00:11:28.219
Mickey: yeah, I’m not saying that’s not gonna happen either. But that’s that’s something might be worth playing.

52
00:11:28.320 –> 00:11:44.069
Andy Millette: Got it? So you had mentioned offline that you have 30 years experience in geology? So when you go into a company and look at the company, let’s say you open up their their studies or their yeah, their studies.

53
00:11:44.520 –> 00:11:50.989
Andy Millette: You get what somebody like I’m not knowing like, if that’s me, I I don’t know what I’m looking at.

54
00:11:51.060 –> 00:11:59.290
Andy Millette: What is there a handful of things that you look at when you look at their studies again. That’s going to be like, Hey, I want to dig a little bit more here.

55
00:11:59.410 –> 00:12:20.539
Mickey: Yeah. So I’m a failed flaw guy. And I do have 30, 30 years as a field geologist a lot of that last 10 years in my career as a chief geologist for various juniors headquartered in Vancouver, But since then, in 2,007

56
00:12:20.540 –> 00:12:36.529
Mickey: I put the word on straight. I wanted to become a my analyst, and couple of months later, ever first mining animals, Job and I launched the Newsletter about 10 months after that. So for the last 15 years I’ve essentially functioned as a

57
00:12:36.690 –> 00:12:39.860
Mickey: as a mining analyst. So I still

58
00:12:39.900 –> 00:12:55.379
Mickey: to do site visits. But I’m not doing day to day geology. But yeah, so you look at for vital flash. You look at these studies you’re looking for a couple of things you you want

59
00:12:55.530 –> 00:13:24.899
Mickey: number one. I’m looking for things with economic studies. I want the net present value to exceed the cap. X. I mean, that’s kind of logical. When you want a good internal rate of return. You want a discount rate. This reasonable 5%, not a reasonable discount rate. You need 8 or 10, and that’s still probably low. But you see a lot of studies that have economic studies that have fatal flaw. So

60
00:13:24.900 –> 00:13:48.829
Mickey: I don’t know if you’re one of the guys. But there’s some guys can look at a balance sheet and financial statement and go. This is wrong. This is wrong, and this is wrong. I don’t really have the ability, so I rely on the other people to do that. But I can look at a 4301 feasibility, study, pre feasibility, study, and the bane of of what they do now. The

61
00:13:48.830 –> 00:13:55.820
preliminary economic analysis, which is so much fluff and start picking out fatal flaws

62
00:13:55.820 –> 00:13:58.240
Mickey: if it pays

63
00:13:58.510 –> 00:14:13.110
Mickey: passes the fatal flaw analysis. then I’m interested, and then I’ll go in and to other parts of the company. But for me, being a geologist, starts first with the project.

64
00:14:13.820 –> 00:14:23.280
Andy Millette: Got it? let me ask you this. Well, specifically, are there any other copper plays besides trilogy metals that you would be interested in looking at

65
00:14:24.090 –> 00:14:26.490
Mickey: at this stage.

66
00:14:26.650 –> 00:14:45.819
Mickey: none. Come to mind, but you know we do have 4 of largest, highest grade copper deposits, 3 of which are are in the mainland, the Us. 2 in Arizona, really 2 in Minnesota, although it’s kind of the same

67
00:14:45.820 –> 00:15:03.810
Mickey: geologic terrain, but split by 2 companies. And they and they’re they’re gonna be wonderful copper deposits when they are develop. But unfortunately, it’s not gonna happen, in my opinion on this. as the Democrats are in charge with their

68
00:15:03.810 –> 00:15:12.840
Mickey: new grain deal. Yeah, which is interesting, too, on it’s on its own. It’s like, You have all these electrical vehicles, and

69
00:15:12.840 –> 00:15:41.570
Mickey: green energy takes base metals. It takes it takes more copper to build a an electric vehicle, and because of all the electronics in an Ev and it takes a lot more nickel, and that nickel has to be nickel sulfate which occurs in nickel oxide deposits and the and subtropics So so they talk about how they’re pro

70
00:15:41.570 –> 00:16:06.399
Mickey: new green deal. And we’re gonna do this in this and this, but then, the so called electric medals, which include nickel and and copper and cobalt trilogy metals as cobalt as a byproduct of one of their deposits north. Then they it’s nay veto, in any way, shape or form, in any way they can. those kinds of it possible.

71
00:16:07.020 –> 00:16:13.659
Andy Millette: Yeah. Well, let’s talk. let’s talk a little bit about rare Earth minerals.

72
00:16:13.950 –> 00:16:20.090
Andy Millette: yeah, what exactly are your thoughts? And then we’re metals, I guess, would be like cobalt lithium.

73
00:16:20.300 –> 00:16:27.149
Mickey: now rare. The rarers are things like

74
00:16:27.290 –> 00:16:45.819
Mickey: serium and lantern and dysprosium and Europ. And so yeah, those are the rare metals, and they’re essential for a lot of application. Very small market back end. The rare element boom in

75
00:16:45.910 –> 00:16:59.159
Mickey: 2009 to 2,011 China control most of the world’s production that’s now been remedied for the most part. But China still controls the the chain.

76
00:16:59.190 –> 00:17:17.579
Mickey: So the manufacturing chain, and so that will change. You know, we have, good sources in the United States, good sources in Canada, the other medals, the minor medals Kobe lithium

77
00:17:17.579 –> 00:17:39.799
Mickey: cobalt is almost exclusively a source of Central Act Africa the Democratic Group Department, the People’s Democratic Republic of the Condo. Yeah. But we do have. And so that market is very small, something on the order of

78
00:17:39.800 –> 00:17:50.500
maybe a hundred 20,000 tons per year, as opposed to copper, which is 25 million times per year. So

79
00:17:50.570 –> 00:18:05.260
Mickey: Those markets tend to be soft as very small. But then, again, we had significant deposits a moment, Mason, mainly as a by product. And the Us. in Idaho, where

80
00:18:05.810 –> 00:18:27.149
Mickey: the deposit is been in limbo for production of going on 20 years we’ve got the art the born I deposit in North West Alaska. We’ve got Sheep’s Creek and Montana, so we have those resources. But we’re a long way from producing that lithium

81
00:18:28.430 –> 00:18:29.470
Mickey: The

82
00:18:29.660 –> 00:18:34.500
Mickey: lithium market is controlled by 2 entities.

83
00:18:35.680 –> 00:19:01.529
Mickey: well, let me back up and say there are 2 products. There’s harder up lithium spajamin, which is a mineral that occurs, and in pegnant types that is mainly produced in Australia. And then Brian deposits which mainly come from chilling Argentina. those are own, for the most part not wholly by 2,

84
00:19:01.530 –> 00:19:21.040
Mickey: 3, giant fortune, 500 companies, chemical companies 2 Us. Base albumar and Baton Rouge, Louisiana and fmc. and so deposits are in Argentina and Chile. But

85
00:19:21.480 –> 00:19:35.440
Mickey: those 2 players are part of the Oligopoly that controls worldwide production, manufacture and sales of lithium minerals.

86
00:19:35.670 –> 00:19:48.640
Mickey: 3 of those I mentioned to. Then there’s Sqm. I. New York Stock Exchange listed company and 2 Chinese entities. But these 5

87
00:19:49.360 –> 00:20:04.809
Mickey: companies are all in boots with each other, so they own pieces of deposits. They own pieces of the production so breaking in to lift lithium mark is very hard to do. There is, there is one

88
00:20:05.140 –> 00:20:20.760
Mickey: deposit, Nevada, that the Biden administration and conjunction with their new, great deal. It’s kind of their flagship back or pass own by lifting in America’s. It’s a new kind of a positive in place

89
00:20:20.770 –> 00:20:43.730
Mickey: they have just gotten funding through a partnership, and also the Us. Government, but that to build that plant. But the problem that I see is, it’s a bit equivocal if it’s gonna work as a tested this new process at pilot plant scale. But they have yet to

90
00:20:43.900 –> 00:21:09.140
Mickey: take that 2 to 3 orders of magnitude up to a production scale. So there will be fits and starts with backer past. So so we’ll see. Right? Yeah, we’ll see. I’m rest assured I’m not playing with the America’s stock right now, and and I always go long. I’ve never shorted anything in my life, so I always find something that go long on.

91
00:21:09.250 –> 00:21:16.059
Andy Millette: Right? Yeah. A good story. let’s talk about the precious metals. Golden silver.

92
00:21:16.370 –> 00:21:27.999
Andy Millette: you. Obviously, people are people usually invest in those because of. They see the amount of fiat that we currently have in the system, whether it’s it could be, and that’s not limited to the Us. That could be.

93
00:21:28.090 –> 00:21:41.420
Andy Millette: You know the euro. They can be. China’s transporting more than we are. So What are your us is just the best of a bad lot. Exactly. So what? What is your

94
00:21:41.490 –> 00:21:45.910
Andy Millette: really Let’s stick with that. Equities in his sense is like.

95
00:21:46.010 –> 00:22:09.310
Mickey: how would you play the goal market. You play with equities. You’re evaluating a company. How would you go about evaluating a junior gold company same way I do a base metal company. So you’ve got. I’ve already talked about project. But when I’m looking at a junior company I’m looking at 4 things. I’m looking at at the people, the project and the share structure.

96
00:22:09.490 –> 00:22:24.240
Mickey: Not necessarily in that order. I look at the project first, but you want the right people and you want to make sure they’re not a bunch of sharks and charlatans, and Vancouver

97
00:22:24.290 –> 00:22:38.870
Mickey: of their lifestyles. Right? Yeah. How do you figure that out? I mean, what’s the good I mean, do you call them on the telephone, or do you look at their Linkedin, or see what projects they’ve been? Well, I I don’t do Linkedin on

98
00:22:39.140 –> 00:22:44.689
Mickey: but no, I have a big network. and I’ve been doing this for

99
00:22:44.870 –> 00:22:50.620
Mickey: you know I’ve been playing the junior market exclusively for choose.

100
00:22:50.760 –> 00:23:02.899
Mickey: 31 years now I’ve been doing it. So I have a big network. I’ve got brokers in Vancouver. I got a broker in San Diego people that I have

101
00:23:03.100 –> 00:23:17.060
Mickey: as much or more experien as I have. You know. Word amount previous track record me to meet the Ceos, meet the Vpx and look them in the eye, and

102
00:23:17.060 –> 00:23:45.619
Mickey: be a judge of people, you know, and so sometimes you get fool, but not very often do I get fooled by that. So you want them to have a track record of success. You know they’re all Bill themselves as entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. Well, if their track record shows that they bankrupt 3 companies, then previously, then I would say, you’re neither anymore, and you’re nothing but a scamster.

103
00:23:45.620 –> 00:24:07.590
Mickey: and there are plenty of those we call. I call it mining the stock market lifestyle companies in Vancouver, and they live in West Van and multi 1 million dollar houses, and they collect the salary, and they spend most of the money they raised on G, and A to support their lifestyle.

104
00:24:07.590 –> 00:24:35.709
Mickey: Yeah, I I’ve made the mistake in investing a few, a few of those myself. You get your balance. And so then, share structure. You want a tight share structure where the people that are the management have plenty of skin in the game. they participate in a private placement, so they are operating in their best interests, and therefore the share the regular shareholders best interest

105
00:24:36.080 –> 00:25:04.750
Mickey: tightly held. you know you want. look at the amount of money that goes in the ground versus the gna every year. So you want a significant amount of that goes to drilling. And then finally, especially in a bear market. I will argue. We’ve been in a bear market for the Junior since 2,012, so we’re in our twelfth year of that right now. I don’t see it ending anytime soon.

106
00:25:04.750 –> 00:25:13.369
Mickey: But cash in the bank, or the ability to raise cash without further dilution to existing shareholders.

107
00:25:13.530 –> 00:25:17.820
Andy Millette: Yeah, so about that. So how much cash do you like to see in the bank?

108
00:25:18.320 –> 00:25:40.610
Mickey: Millions? Millions? The more the better. Now, obviously, yeah. And so it takes, you know, if if a company has less than a million bucks, that means they’re not be doing anything much over the next year, because it’s arguably going to cost you. I’m gonna throw out a number plus or minus 3 quarters of 1 million dollars a year just to keep

109
00:25:40.710 –> 00:25:47.010
Mickey: the lifetime in the building and and pay the fees, you know.

110
00:25:47.130 –> 00:25:50.159
Mickey: so it would be in a public company, and

111
00:25:51.170 –> 00:25:56.350
Mickey: Tmx, the Toronto Venture Exchanger or the Toronto. Stop exchange.

112
00:25:56.560 –> 00:26:13.490
Andy Millette: Let’s let’s talk about projects. and this is all of the mining company. Or is there all of the different metals that you analyze? Is there a place that you or didn’t say place? Are there places you would not go to? So, for example.

113
00:26:13.540 –> 00:26:29.449
Andy Millette: a place it could be. It could be North America for all I know. Yeah, I mean, we’re we’re not out of. If somebody has a great project with high grade, they how many is in the bank, but they’re in, you know.

114
00:26:29.460 –> 00:26:36.400
Andy Millette: some place that’s not stable that you don’t trust. What are those? What’s a red flag for Africa?

115
00:26:36.650 –> 00:26:57.899
Mickey: I’ve never played in Africa, and I have no intent to do that because of corruption, resource, nationalism coups, you know. A couple of years ago Burkina fossil was the new place it was, and then I had a coup, you know. So Africa

116
00:26:58.340 –> 00:27:02.769
Mickey: I’ve got burn in hating before.

117
00:27:03.220 –> 00:27:04.780
Mickey: there are

118
00:27:04.930 –> 00:27:11.170
Mickey: green agendas, geopolitical concerns, and

119
00:27:11.230 –> 00:27:26.490
Mickey: mining friendly companies in Europe, such as Sweden and Finland. They’ve been difficult lately. generally, I speak Spanish, so I’ve focused historically.

120
00:27:26.690 –> 00:27:40.529
Mickey: and Latin America proved chile. But those countries now have left leaning, if not absolutely socio Communist in the case of Chili

121
00:27:41.270 –> 00:27:58.540
Mickey: through James. So so I’m less like in tune. I still own stocks, operating or exploring, and especially Peru. I lived in Peru for a couple of years in the late nineties.

122
00:27:58.960 –> 00:28:25.469
Mickey: so it’s tough. But historically, I would say, I look at North America and South America, and I’ll include Mexico in North America. if the world’s in a bit of a funky stage right now we’ve got Trudeau. I like to call Justine Turtle, but you know, and he’s all on this

123
00:28:27.240 –> 00:28:31.960
Mickey: yes, g

124
00:28:32.090 –> 00:28:53.319
Mickey: de, I I prefer to call die d i e. first nations thing. So it’s a. It’s becoming more and more difficult in Canada. I’ve already talked to you about how it’s more and more difficult, at least temporarily, in the Us. And Mexico is undergoing some

125
00:28:53.370 –> 00:29:13.019
Mickey: changes in its mining law right now. So it’s a. It’s a tough game right now. But historically, my success has mainly been in North and South America, North and South America in terms of picking stocks. And you know, we have a unique

126
00:29:13.040 –> 00:29:35.290
Mickey: sort of goal here. We we’re looking for doubles in 12 months or less, and then we sell half. So you take your capital out and call it the power it to. and you know about this. Yeah. So you’re doubling and retaining your your base cash. And and we done. We’ve done very well, and that hit on

127
00:29:36.030 –> 00:29:39.930
Mickey: over 50 of the stock picks. And what

128
00:29:40.010 –> 00:29:54.110
Andy Millette: 15 years?

129
00:29:54.220 –> 00:30:01.790
Andy Millette: with somebody just again starting out, or it could be somebody that has some tenure like myself. and I’m still learning

130
00:30:02.030 –> 00:30:14.110
Andy Millette: your top 5 rules of thumb in playing the juniors, whether it be industrial metals or precious metals. What what are you looking for

131
00:30:14.410 –> 00:30:29.580
Mickey: a minimum. And maybe that’s change of always going. You, you want to start with a minimum of $50,000, and you want to split your speculations. These are not investments there. Pure speculations

132
00:30:30.110 –> 00:30:39.679
Mickey: it’s kinda like gambling, but it’s like on the to the Casino. If you’re good at card, you play black jack or poker, you don’t go to the roulette wheel. You play

133
00:30:39.740 –> 00:30:57.509
Mickey: things that you have the ability to skew lots in your own paper, so, you know. Go out and find with your 50,005 or 10 stocks. You’ll hit on it in a in a good market with good stock picks. You’ll hit on a couple of them, and you get your fiber

134
00:30:57.510 –> 00:31:10.679
Mickey: 2 or 5 or 10 baggers which will cover the ones you pick that aren’t gonna perform, and there certainly will be some And then I think you want to find somebody

135
00:31:11.780 –> 00:31:16.970
Mickey: like me. You want someone a news ladder rider that

136
00:31:18.190 –> 00:31:22.259
Mickey: that has experience and has a track record. And

137
00:31:22.270 –> 00:31:34.860
Mickey: you know, talk to talk to the guys that have been doing this for a long time and have good ideas. you know. but I’ll be honest with you right now.

138
00:31:34.970 –> 00:32:00.509
Mickey: I am trying to take. I start taking money out of junior stock market, and the last run up in gold. So that was 3 years ago to the day when everybody was in the feeding frenzy and putting money will email in the private place. I’m selling like crazy. And and I had a really good year because I saw all this money. We, we raised 3 billion dollars

139
00:32:00.510 –> 00:32:26.070
Mickey: in this business. And I say we because I participated in some of those price private places, not very many. But when people and and a generalist investor came in and through their money at him in 4 months. That’s those stocks became free Trading and all the pros were in, and that included people like me and everybody else trying to get their money out as soon as

140
00:32:26.530 –> 00:32:29.800
Mickey: price of gold crater stocks went down and

141
00:32:29.860 –> 00:32:37.309
Mickey: bunch of retail speculators got burned again. So But you know.

142
00:32:37.660 –> 00:32:41.889
Mickey: hook on with, and I wouldn’t say to it with 1, 2, or 3

143
00:32:42.070 –> 00:32:52.780
Mickey: people in the business that have a track record. you know, they write news letters that their their pundits on

144
00:32:52.800 –> 00:33:03.869
Mickey: business TV and check them out. See what they do look at their track record. If they have a good track record then you might do it. You know, I came in

145
00:33:04.660 –> 00:33:08.169
Mickey: to this business and I started

146
00:33:08.580 –> 00:33:29.379
Mickey: the website, totally web based. I was the first guy to have a totally web based newsletter in 2,008. I started the end of April of 2,008 at the beginning of the financial crisis, because there were a bunch of Newsletter riders who had made a bunch of picks, and they got burned because of

147
00:33:29.380 –> 00:33:45.189
Mickey: that, not the naked. Just the economy was greater and right before the global economic crisis. So I got in at the bottom, and you could argue that somewhere in what’s going on in Toronto Venture Exchange right now. we’re probably

148
00:33:45.320 –> 00:33:49.979
Mickey: at or near the bottom. But we’ve been at or near the bottom for the last

149
00:33:50.110 –> 00:34:01.999
Mickey: 2 and a half years. So when it’s gonna turn around, but there’s bargains out there I’ve chosen to take money out. And so I’ve become conservative.

150
00:34:02.000 –> 00:34:20.329
Mickey: Well, I’ve always been conservative. That’s why we trade the way we trade in a very high risk, environment, high risk, I reward. So we we apply conservative methodologies to our trading math. philosophy.

151
00:34:21.130 –> 00:34:33.930
Mickey: but the point remains that you get in and near the bottom, and you have to be patient right now, because I really don’t see the bear market turn around

152
00:34:33.940 –> 00:34:37.109
Mickey: for the Junior Resource sector any time soon.

153
00:34:37.440 –> 00:34:38.940
Andy Millette: Yeah.

154
00:34:39.040 –> 00:34:46.930
Andy Millette: Okay. If somebody has any more questions or would possibly like to add you to their network or

155
00:34:47.000 –> 00:35:12.709
Mickey: even even work with you on picking stocks. How would they mention your website again, and how it? What’s the best way for them to reach out to you. Well, the website is mercenary geologist.com I’ve become. I am basically semi retired right now, trying to wait this fair market out, and I’ll come back in at some point But I respond to all

156
00:35:12.710 –> 00:35:41.070
Mickey: emails contact at mercenary geologist.com, unless you’re a troll. And you responded to me. Yeah, at mercenary. Geo. Is the Toyter feed. that’s a one way deal. We do not respond at all. On Twitter. We put stuff out on Twitter. But if you want to contact me contact, me via email. And

157
00:35:41.280 –> 00:35:49.960
Mickey: and I run a free subscription service. I make my money with

158
00:35:49.980 –> 00:35:58.520
Mickey: through sponsorships. by companies. Currently, I’m 0 sponsors because

159
00:35:59.630 –> 00:36:11.859
Mickey: I don’t know what to do in this business right now. So you know what I’m doing today. Before we I spent about 30 min on a phone before our our session was

160
00:36:12.000 –> 00:36:39.129
Mickey: scheduled. And I’m talking to 2 brokers and 2 bankers, and I’m chasing interest rates right now. So I have a 90 day, T. Bill, that expires on Thursday, and I’m looking for a better than 5% on my next email. So I’ve gone more and more to cash and the pen just collecting interest, trying to keep up in one way, shape or form with inflation. So

161
00:36:39.320 –> 00:36:51.139
Andy Millette: alright. Well, I want to thank you so much for your time. we really do appreciate it, and I’ll put all that for our listeners and our viewers. I’ll put all the show notes, all of your contact information in the showed up.

162
00:36:51.350 –> 00:36:55.689
Mickey: All right. Thanks a lot, Andy. It’s my pleasure. It’s my pleasure. Thank you.