Gold. This has had a long base, and he keeps on thinking that we are about to break out to the upside, but we just now hit a low of just above $1,100. We should be hitting a summer rally just about now. He sees it at $1,600 a year from now. Last year people sold their golds, and are out of the sector. Have now seen stock market gains go up dramatically with it looking a little expensive, so he expects we will get new buyers coming back. One of the big issues is all the quantitative easing and printing of money. A lot of the money has stayed on the banks’ balance sheets, and hasn’t gotten into the economy. At some point he believes the banks will realize they are getting only 2% on their treasuries, and could get a bit higher return and start lending out to businesses, etc. When you get the money going into the system, your M2’s and M3’s start to kick in, and that’s when you could start to see inflation kicking up.

Silver. Absolutely loves this commodity. On a long term basis, this is going to outperform gold. About 66% is for industrial use, and industrial use has been good. But it also has a precious metals characteristic. Ratio of gold to silver historically has been on a ratio of 16 to 1. Right now we are at about 60 to 1, and he expects that ratio to come down. If gold was at $1,600, silver historically would be at $100, a 4 or 5 fold increase from where we are. He is expecting to see that. The last time we saw this was in 1980 when the gold price was around $800 and silver was at $50, a ratio of 16 to 1.

It was very nice to see the acquisition of Sulliden (SUE-T), because so many times you see gold companies making mergers just for the sake of getting bigger, rather than actually creating some real synergies. This has created a company that now has 2 key assets. They are within close vicinity and will have some benefits. Expects there will be increases in the multiple people are willing to pay.

Great management team. One issue he has always had is that it is very low grade, at 0.3 grams per ton. Last year they had some issues with some transition ore they were going through. When they were mining this, their recoveries were not as high as they had hoped. He would really like to see them with some higher grade projects.

Have one of the best management teams in the business. They are good builders of mines, good explorers, good developers and good operators. Within a gold fund, this is one of the core names you want to own. He likes to buy a company like this when they actually have some sort of miss, some sort of negative happening which impacts the stock.

One of his Top 10 holdings now. Thinks they are doing the right things. Tried to expand too fast and were cutting some corners. Brought in new management which seems to be doing the right things. Now getting into a bit of a sweet spot, their Siou mine which they are operating. On a long term basis, this mine is going to continue to operate well. Have a large land package, which ultimately they can continue to look forward to. If you want to own, Buy a little bit now and, if there is a pullback, add to it.

Went through a bit of a teething period, as many of these mines do. Cash costs were quite high. Have been able to bring them down in the last several quarters, and just came out with some good numbers. One of the concerns is that they are mining above grade at just over 5 grams per ton. If you see that grade come down, you’ll see a slight bump in the overall costs. Has had a nice run. Not the cheapest stock out there, but seem to be making a turn around right now in terms of getting things under control.

One of the best management teams out there. Instituted a 2.5% dividend. Very good at Buying cheap. Good miners and operators. However, he would love to see a mining company that has a marquee asset. Right now this has 3 decent projects, but doesn’t have that marquee that he is looking for. $1.35 would be quite reasonable.

(A Top Pick Sept 17/13. Down 37.05%.) Was almost thinking of adding it as a Top Pick again, but the timing wasn’t quite right. They are going in through a pocket of lower material now, so earnings and cash flow are not as high. Still have a lot of cash. Thinks they will continue to move forward and get their grades and production back up, but the market just doesn’t care.

(A Top Pick Sept 17/13. Down 28.99%.) A year ago this was a sort of defensive position. Had lots of cash on the balance sheet. One of their issues was that their costs were too high. They went through a bit of a turn around to bring down those costs. They haven’t brought down the costs enough. Looking at the sum of the parts, he would think there would be a number of companies that could come and buy up their assets, and break it up for the different assets.

(A Top Pick Sept 17/13. Up 41.63%.) Pays a wonderful dividend. Doesn’t have a lot of growth, which is one of its knocks. There are a couple of catalysts that could propel it. Everybody hates Argentina, and they have the Navidad asset there, one of the world’s largest undeveloped silver projects. 3.5% dividend.

The only diamond stock he owns. Has a great asset. You’ll have to wait 2 or 3 years before they are into production, 2017-2018. They are going to have a huge amount of cash flow. Very nice looking project. As they de-risk the project, you will see it rise. Have a government that seems to be clearly on side with the project moving forward.

In the last few years he has been focusing on high grades and safe jurisdictions. This one is a very high grade deposit. CapX is going to be about $100 million to get it on line. Feasibility and IRR numbers are absolutely spectacular on this project, so he very much likes it. Burkina Faso is a reasonably stable place, but he would suggest you diversify your risks by diversifying into different jurisdictions.

Has a good mine. The main focus by the company over the last couple of years has been on their smelter. They have one in Namibia, which they were required to upgrade a couple of years ago to make it more environmentally friendly. Sort of at the tail end of getting that up and running. Good management.

Good management which has created a very unique package of assets. Their big focus right now is Hard Rock in Ontario. Have a great team of people. There will be a lot of analysts’ reports coming out in the next month or two.

This company has gone through love and hate periods with analysts. For the last couple of years they loved them, but then had some issues with some of their new start up mines. Company just updated their guidance. Pays a nice dividend of 1.8%. Out of favour right now. Stock has been so beaten down that he continues to be a buyer. You can Buy at these levels, chipping away at it, but you have to be patient.

One of the most impressive underground mines he has ever been to. Have haulage systems, automation, which is incredible. Was skeptical last year they would be able to get tonnage up to their target. They have beaten all their target levels. Doing a really good job. Underground reserve grade is about 2.7 grams per ton, which for an open pit would be spectacular, so this is one of the lower grades for an underground mine.

A big portion of their assets are in Russia. Because of what is going on, he doesn’t have any inclination to go down this path. Embargoes going back and forth between countries, could impact this company.

(Market Call Minute.) Short term he thinks they are still in ramp up, but long term he thinks it is a marquee asset.

(Market Call Minute.) New CEO. Doing all the right things. Will take a bit of time, but he likes it.

(Market Call Minute.)

(Market Call Minute.) This would part of a core portfolio.

(Market Call Minute.) Likes it. High grade.

(Market Call Minute.) Have lots of free cash flow coming in over the next couple of years.

(Market Call Minute.) Recently came out with some good results.

Very cheap stock. Re-jigged their IRR, which wasn’t good enough. Took away an expensive shaft that they were going to build. Have gotten it to an area where you have a very high IRR, and ultimately the valuation proposition is excellent. 2016 EBITDA target is $115 million, which should double over the next few years.

One of the newest silver mines. Have done a great job of ramping up. Will produce roughly 20 million ounces this year and make lots of free cash flow. With the money, they are going to start to initiate a dividend in Q4. Will be buying back some of their debt. Will also be putting an expansion into the mine, which will be very cheap to increase 20%-25% in throughput.

Management has a big ownership in the company. This is the newest royalty company on the block. They have the Canadiann Malartic, sort of 5% NSR, which will give them $35 million a year. 2% royalty on a number of Cdn assets including Kirkland Lake Camp Have a huge tract of land in Mexico, which he expects they will hive off and keep a royalty on.

Gold. Reached a Golden Cross technically in the last few days. These can be short-lived, but hopefully this will stay around for a while and mean that the next phase will be the new bull market. He is very encouraged by it. Starting to see interest from the US, the generalists seem to be coming back and we are seeing interest out of Asia. He sees 2 things at work. 1.) Money printing. They may increase quantitative easing, but right now they are decreasing it, but printing is going to go on for the foreseeable future as we run these big budget deficits. 2.) Believes the Chinese are going to continue to buy gold. They have been taking physical delivery of gold in record amounts.

Over the last 10-15 years has been one of the best performing gold stocks in terms of building mines, low cost of production and making profits. In the last couple of years all these stocks went down. Off about 70% from its highs. Still growing their production and are at about 720,000 ounces right now. Ultimately they will be doubling that.

Going to have a mine with an enterprise value of about $1 billion when all is said and done. Will be producing about 358,000 ounces of gold and that is a lot of cash flow and earnings that come from that. Good jurisdiction and good location.

Ontario is a safe jurisdiction. Has been some time increasing the shaft which can hoist about 3000 tons, up from about 1200 tons. They have a new management team in place. Hasn’t done it yet, but feels they are going to get close to that tipping point where this thing can make an awful lot of money. Very high-grade north of .4 ounces a ton.

He looks at this one as part of a gold portfolio in gold stocks. You shouldn’t just have one, you should have a basket. This has one of the best operation and exploration teams. Have done a great job of building out their company and assets.

Big believer in the story. Have a ton of cash. Recently acquired PMI Gold Corp, which has a property about 10 km away from their Asankrangwa project in Ghana. One of the nice things is that they are capitalized so they will be able to build their project. The asset they bought close by is in such close proximity that they could actually process the ore from that deposit at the same plant. This gives some economies of scale of putting 2 companies together. A couple of years ago, the management team bought into the company with about $20 million of their own personal money. Cheap.

Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine. How will this affect gold? There are 2 sorts of situations. In times of crisis, gold typically does well because, when people are not sure about outcomes, they feel gold will protect them. However, when people feel fear of situations, they sell everything and put it into the US$, which is ironic because the 2008 banking crisis which was falling apart with too much debt and yet the US$ rallied. Thinks you have to see how it plays out. There will be certain periods where the US$ will go up and expects there will be certain periods where gold will go up.

Political risks? As a portfolio manager, he has to diversify his risks. Tries not to put too much risk in any one country. Looking at Burkina Faso, there is some risk, but doesn’t think it is high level, but you have to be cognizant of it. There are some elections coming. Current Prime Minister, who has been in place since 1986, will be losing his chance to run again unless they change the rules. This company has a very high grade project and is trading very cheaply. If he has 3%-4% holding in this country, he is fine with that.

Just got downgraded by Moody’s. Have a pretty strong balance sheet, but has been deteriorating with lower gold prices and high cash costs that they have been running with. He has increased his holdings at times where there have been weaknesses. In a higher gold price environment, this company will actually start to make money and there will be a big re-rating on the stock. If you don’t believe gold prices are going up, you don’t need to be here.

Bought and sold this a number of times in the last 4-5 years and is currently out of it, but kicking himself somewhat. Feels he should’ve started seeing some of the signs of a turnaround. Really pulled up their socks in the last 6-9 months. Had some issues and ramped up their mines. Had a great last couple of quarters. Guidance seems to be going up. Very interested in revisiting this, but he’ll wait for a pullback.

Key thing about this company is management. Good management. Pays a nice dividend. Have 2 assets, one in Australia and one in South America. As a portfolio manager, he likes big, world class assets because it is very tough to make money with small assets. These guys are good operators and have done a great job with what he would consider 2 “okay” assets.