Rick Rule

There have been de facto, as opposed to legislative, holdups on the development of American oil and gas transmission assets. In particular, as it relates to the pace of construction of natural gas liquification plants on the East Coast under Biden. That's probably over.

Of interest to Canadians would be the de-bottlenecking of oil transmission pipelines, Keystone in particular. This could move a lot of Alberta's heavy sour crude down to the US Gulf Coast refineries. They need that product to replace heavy oil imports from Mexico and Venezuela, which are no longer as prolific as they used to be.

Despite the fact that the Canadian Prime Minister doesn't see a business case for exporting Canadian natural gas to Europe, the customers do. Canada won't facilitate the Atlantic Basin gas trade, but there could be room through US facilities for Canadian nat gas to be exported from the US East Coast. Could potentially be very beneficial.

Trump administration will likely be completely ineffective with its Department of Government Efficiency. It won't do anything in particular to reduce the size of government. Trump is a transactional president, like every president before him.

Over time, the relative strength in the USD, which we've seen since the election, will continue relative to other currencies. But he sees continuing debasement of the US currency through ongoing debt and deficits.

He's not comfortable with the permitting process, but Trump administration might be able to help with permits. Gold-centric, but also antimony (which the US believes is a defense metal). 

Copper extraction from re-processing tailings. A play on both copper and energy prices. Does well when energy prices are low and copper high. Margins get squeezed when energy prices rise or copper prices decline. Nice habit of paying out substantial amounts of free cashflow.

Big run is well deserved. Margins have really increased with the price of gold. Fantastic development pipeline. Very well run.

Recently took over Reunion Mining. His hope is that these 2 mines can combine somehow. As a safeguard, acquired another development-stage asset in Brazil. Expertise in developing projects on time and on budget.

Disclosure:  He's a big shareholder, as well as a friend of management.

Very high-grade deposit. Good exploration success. Share price has kept pace with development. Not sure that someone will take them out, as the chart shows it's doing just fine on its own. Not sure they want to be taken out, institutional investors would help them fight off any approach.

Two problems with the stock. A construction project is over budget and behind. Plus, most of free cashflow comes from a wonderful mine in unstable and dangerous Mali. His average cost is much lower than currently trading.

He remains bullish on the copper industry over the next 5 years. Whether to step in here depends on your timeframe. Near term might be soft, as global economy showing signs of softness. Extraordinarily strong balance sheet. Well run given its size. Enviable inventory of zinc and copper mines, plus smelters.

Great rocks. Lousy balance sheet, which needs to be fixed with refinancing and can get ugly for existing shareholders. For most investors, he'd sell and take the tax loss. Then re-buy in 31 days depending on outcome of refinancing. New CEO is an expert in troubled companies.

Likes it. Probability that Trump gets away with tariffs is fairly small, he's just negotiating. Trump needs to be reminded that tariffs are taxes, and US taxes are already high enough. 

Increased portfolio of heavy crude, despite difficulties getting it out of Canada. De-bottlenecking the Keystone pipeline would be positive. Narrative on this name will likely be soft for a few months.

Collection of Tier 2 assets. Never been fond of Ontario assets. He likes higher quality. Could do very well with a rising price for gold, which tends to favour the marginal over the lower-cost producer.

The bellwether gold stock globally. Great range of assets. Very good balance sheet. Spectacular corporate culture. If you don't own it, you should. Expects a settlement in Panama, and the stock would rerate.

Amazing capital allocators. Only problem is that political leaders think oil usage is obsolete. A must-own.

Organic growth of internal products has done extremely well. Has become a brand name for precious metals investing, and increasingly in natural resources. Can see it being snapped up in a few years by a global financial player.

Disclosure:  He believes he's still the largest shareholder in Sprott.