Brent Cook: Why Americans Face Financial Hardships & How to Pick Top Mining Stocks
“I think the negativity is way overblown. Americans expect more than they actually deserve,” says Brent Cook, Co-Editor of Exploration Insights. He tells Daniela Cambone that the habit of overspending contributes to the financial hardship many Americans are experiencing, especially with inflation. Cook also shares his advice on picking valuable mining company stocks: “So you’ve gotta look at the market cap and then judge the project. Is it good, bad? Are the people good, bad? Do they know what they’re doing? And then risk-reward, because in exploration, it’s all about risk and reward.” Watch the full interview to learn Cook’s investment strategy.
CHAPTERS:
00:00 Underperformance of mining stocks
2:56 Criteria for picking valuable companies
5:02 Safer bet of investment
5:30 Copper
6:45 Silver
8:19 Advise
9:05 Inflation
11:00 Parenting
TRANSCRIPT FROM VIDEO:
00:09
Hi, Daniela Cambone here for the Daniela Cambone show on ITM Trading. So happy to catch up with an old time friend. We’ve known each other, I don’t know, since I started in this business. Well, since I started working for Rick Rule way back in the late 90s. And here we are, Rick Rule show in Boca Raton, Florida. So good to be reunited with you. How have you been? It’s been an interesting year. It’s coming out all right though. Got two new grandkids and
00:39
survived a brain tumor and a wildfire. So all good. Back at volleyball and… You know what? I wanna say thank you for sharing that. I know offline we were talking about that in depth, but I think your positivity, and that’s really who you are as a person. You just always see the good, the positive, and that’s such a good lesson, I think, for everyone watching. I don’t think anyone’s ever said I was too positive.
01:05
No, yeah, I mean, well, that you always see, you know, you can you just overcome adversity and you just keep Trucking along, you know, you don’t you don’t let it get you down. Yeah, I think that’s way to go Yeah, well speaking about not letting it get you down. I know a lot of where I don’t obviously gold gold and silver focus show here and a lot of folks are are Frustrated because you know look at the great gold price, but they’re frustrated, especially if they’re
01:34
owning shares of miners here. So let’s talk about your take on why mining stocks haven’t really taken off yet, given the great gold price that they’re dealing with. Well, I think probably number one is the rest of the market, particularly the high-tech sort of things and AI has taken off so much. And that’s where all the new money is going. And the people in general haven’t always invested in gold and that. Well, they’re getting up in age and they’re
02:04
seeing 5%, 6% at their bank. And so they’re pulling money out of this marketing and putting it into something safe for their retirement. So I think that’s what the problem is. But I also think that it’s really clear, and you’re starting to see this in the mainstream media now, that the demand for metals that we’re going to need, base metals, copper, as well as gold and silver,
02:33
deposits that are coming online or the discoveries that are coming online. So once I think the general market gets hold of that story and realizes that everything in their life depends on metal, it’ll pick up. And I think the valuations will catch up to what they should be. Obviously, we’re at Rick’s show, and I know he does a good job of cherry picking, really, the companies that can be here.
03:02
But it can be overwhelming for an investor new to the space, right? And I know we’ve spoken about this before in the past, but it’s always a good refresher of how do you find value? How do you know the companies you can trust? Yeah, you need a screen of some sort. Be that a newsletter writer like, I said, Exploration Insights, or Rick Rule, or a broker that understands the industry.
03:31
I think you need, if you’re not really in this and have some experience, you need some sort of screen. But what I do, I mean, someone asked me the day, what’s the one question you ask a company to get started? And so I asked, what’s your market cap? If you start there, then you can either add or subtract value based on all the other technical answers you get and the financial answers you get. So you’ve got to look at the market cap and then judge the project.
04:00
Is it good, bad, are the people good, bad, do they know what they’re doing? And then risk, reward, because in expiration, it’s all about risk and reward. Because obviously you’re a geo, so you understand grades, but for the normal investor, they’re like, what are you talking about? Meters per ton, and what? So, I mean, is there a shortcut? Is there a quick way to learn? Well, there’s lots of experts online for free, but in general, I think you get to what you pay for.
04:31
especially in this industry, because it’s so easy to, well, it’s so complicated, right? I mean, there’s metallurgy, there’s jurisdiction, there’s grade, there’s strip ratios. Management. Yeah, there’s all that stuff that comes into it, if you don’t. Political risk. Because some people, yeah, because people don’t understand that. It’s easy to fool them. We’ve got the biggest silver deposit in the world. Well, everyone’s saying that. Yeah. And we’re way undervalued, but then.
04:58
Over here, it’s like, we can’t get it out because the metallurgy sucks. What happens when people say, oh, safe bet is always just choose a royalty?
05:07
Safer bet. It is. It is a safer bet. It’s a safer bet. They’re all pretty highly valued. I think at the lower end of it, there are companies you can buy that are still…
05:20
have good value. But at the high end, you’re paying a lot for Franco-Nevada, but it always does good. Almost always. So are you specifically bullish a certain commodity now, like if it had to be copper, gold, silver, uranium? What projects are you liking right now? I think copper, number one, because I can see the production profile.
05:47
is not going to keep up with demand, with the electrification of the whole earth. It’s not going to keep up. And the projects out there that have been drilled off, the permitting timeline is extended to I think right now, averaging from discovery to production on average is like 15 years. So if we find a deposit today, depending on where it is, it’s 15 years till it goes in production.
06:16
So you take a bet on a copper explorer? I do. Because I think the major, what I’m looking for is a deposit that’s good enough that junior company doesn’t have to build that a major’s going to come in and buy. And the majors are desperate for good projects that make money. Because they can see their production profile. Do you like what you’re seeing in the silver space? It’s interesting. Now that Mexico’s gone to shit.
06:45
Um, you’ve got to look elsewhere for silver deposits. Where do you look? Argentina. Yeah. Bolivia.
06:55
Summon Peru.
06:59
Some in the US, not much. But really, Argentina’s really kicked in, and Bolivia kicked in. Two countries that two years ago you wouldn’t go into, now they’re popular. How about gold? Same thing. I think Australia, for sure. Scandinavia, great place to be looking. Nevada.
07:21
Central America not so much. Brazil, I like Brazil for base metals and such. And down into Argentina, Bolivia, no not Bolivia, not for gold. So overall would you say that the, I mean I think all the years we’ve been speaking, would you not say that a lot of the companies have got their act together, that it’s a much cleaner streamlined environment compared to 10 years ago? No.
07:51
No, there are still some great people doing great work and great projects, but there’s still a lot of others that are recycling old projects or just doing whatever they can jump on to, be it lithium or uranium or just to raise some money and keep going. But there are certainly some great companies and projects, and a lot of them are out there at Rick’s show. So advice to folks watching at home.
08:21
Um.
08:25
Do some good due diligence, get someone to do due diligence for you. Again, I’m gonna plug George Litter, Exploration Insights. He’s got more experience than you can imagine and I work with him. So you’ve got over 60 years of two guys looking for and developing projects around the world. I mean, you can really apply this for anything, even if you’re investing in physical gold or physical silver, I always say, do your education. I mean, obviously, ITM trading is a fantastic education. And I say, just start learning, right? Know what you’re investing in and don’t just…
08:55
listen to someone’s stock pick that they whisper to you at a conference, right? That’s probably, that’s a good idea. I’ll go along with that. Okay. That aside, let’s just get your thoughts, because you always give it to me straight. No, we’re not going to talk politics. But on the economy, because I know you have a big heart. You just feel you want to see people winning, right? I mean, who doesn’t really? But you really care about getting people off.
09:24
you know, if they’ve hit rock bottom and building them back up. And you know, we’re really living in tough times right now with the inflation that people are facing, people can’t pay their credit card debt. I mean, what’s your just overall take on what the average American is facing right now, and Canadian, I’d say. I think the negativity is way overblown. Certainly, inflation’s an issue. It’s a global issue. And it’s the result of a lot of the things that happened.
09:53
during the pandemic and we’re still working that off with the massive influx of money that came to try and save the economy from going to shit, all the issues with supply side and all these things they’re still working through. But inflation is coming down. Americans expect things, expect more than they actually deserve, I think. In a way I’m saying that
10:23
They’ll put stuff on credit card. I think I’ve only had debt on a couple of things. I’ve always paid things right off. But most people, they go into debt and they think they should have the new car and the new speedboat and the new this and that. You don’t necessarily deserve all that. Or you don’t, maybe not deserve, but you don’t need all that. Definitely don’t need it. So I mean, I think Rick Rule would agree with that because he always says he’s happy buying his shirts from Costco.
10:50
So how do you not get caught up in the want, like how do you live your life and just say, hey, I’m happy with, I mean, you’ve obviously done very well for yourself, right? And you could buy your Gucci sweater, but you choose not to. So how do you not get caught up in that? I don’t know. It’s just an attitude I must have, my parents must have got me into. I don’t know. Yeah. But you know, it’s good parenting. That’s the real issue in the US, and probably the world, but certainly US is.
11:23
kids aren’t getting as good parenting in general as they used to. I mean, my daughter, she works at an NGO, and she helps prisoners learn life skills. And almost 100% of those prisoners, it’s because they had bad parenting. They didn’t learn the right… You know, they didn’t… The parent wasn’t present? The parent wasn’t present, the parent was on drugs, the parent beat them, the parent, you know, all that sort of thing. And that’s what they grow up seeing.
11:53
I think that’s the real issue is parenting. And you have, like you said, you have young grandkids. Congratulations. I mean, are you worried for the future? I mean, again, not to bring up Rick Rule, but how can we not talk about Rick? And he says, and I’m always disagreeing with him, he thinks the world’s going to be a better place in 15 years. And maybe I’m just too jaded. And I really hope he’s right. But sometimes I just can’t see that. We’ve got, I don’t know. I mean, I’ll be surprised if mankind is here in 200 years.
12:23
I’m glad you’re healthy. But. Yes. On that note. Yeah. No, I’m glad you’re healthy. I’m glad you’re doing well. Give my love to Kim. Will do. Thank you. And we still have a match.
12:38
Thursday morning, you in? Right there on the beach. Is that really happening? I’m trying to get it going. Okay. Thursday morning, 6.30, before it gets too hot. I won’t be here anymore. But I’m, I gotta get home to my kids, Brett. Okay, okay. But it’s gonna happen. Someday. It’s gonna happen. I’m already training for it. Yeah, that’ll be fun. Brett Cook, Exploration Insights, thank you. Always good catching up with you.
13:04
And thank you for watching. We’ll have more great content coming your way, so be sure to stay tuned to the Daniela Cambone show. Here on ITM Trading, you can sign up at danielacambone.com to stay on top of it all. Thanks for watching.
SOURCES:
https://watcher.guru/news/brics-us-dollar-weakened-25-since-2020-amid-global-shift
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/warren-buffett-said-could-end-113400320.html?guccounter=1
https://www.foxbusiness.com/money/how-much-your-tax-money-goes-toward-servicing-us-national-debt
