market news

Can You Actually Make Money Cleaning Up Old Mines?

March 17, 2026

Sasquatch Resources is a small Vancouver Island-based company with a handful of legacy copper-gold-silver-zinc projects in British Columbia, the most advanced of which is the Mount Sicker waste pile complex near Duncan, BC. The interview covered the company’s unconventional strategy of attempting to process old mine waste piles rather than building a new mine, the state of its permitting application with the BC government, its financial position, and the shape of its project pipeline.

The Quiet Crisis Facing Junior Mining Companies

March 17, 2026

At PDAC, I pulled aside eight companies working the less glamorous but essential side of the exploration business. The drillers, the helicopter operators, the data visualizers, the logistics providers, and the emerging technology players who make every field program possible and I asked them all the same basic questions: how busy are you, what’s holding you back, and what does a good client look like from where you’re standing. What came back was a surprisingly candid look at a bull market from the people actually doing real work.

The One Geology Question That Made CEOs Nervous at PDAC

March 17, 2026

In this Core Shack episode, I walked the conference floor and got up close with the drill core from some of the junior mining companies I’ve been following over the last couple of months. Some rocks, a lot of geologists, some CEOs, and some questions that probably made a few of them nervous.

You’re (probably) Buying the Wrong Junior Mining Stocks

March 17, 2026

Jordan Roy, is the founder of Mining Stock Monkey, a research platform focused on the mining space. In this conversation, we dug into how he actually evaluates developer-stage mining companies, from the moment a preliminary economic assessment lands on his desk to the decision of whether to invest. We covered how he reads economic studies, what he looks for in the people behind them, how he thinks about jurisdiction and financeability, and what the current gold price environment means for speculators trying to find real value in a market that is anything but quiet right now.

I Asked Rick Rule a Question the Mining Industry Keeps Avoiding

March 13, 2026

This was, by most accounts, the most crowded and buoyant PDAC in years (maybe ever?). Sushi and lobster at cocktail receptions were the normal thing, and that’s historically been a reliable contrarian indicator, according to the veterans I spoke to. Rick Rule, who said this is his fourth real bull market and expects it to be the second most dramatic of his career after the 1970s, was the most quotable voice of the bunch and set the intellectual tone for most of the conversations that followed.

Can a Junior Really Build a Gold Mine Without Major Dilution?

March 13, 2026

Inventus Mining operates the Pardo Paleoplacer Gold Project in Ontario, Canada, near Sudbury. The company is led by newly appointed CEO Wesley Whymark, who has been involved with the project since his undergraduate years and recently completed a PhD focused on paleoplacer geology. The conversation covered the nature of paleoplacer deposits, ongoing bulk sampling and toll milling through McEwen Mining, the path to a first resource estimate, a production permit, and the company’s cash position and upcoming catalysts.

Can a New Gold Mine be Built in Utah by 2029?

March 13, 2026

Revival Gold is a TSX-listed gold developer with two projects: the Mercur Gold Project in Utah and the Beartrack-Arnett project in Lemhi County, Idaho. The company is led by CEO Hugh Agro. The conversation covered 2025 drilling results at Mercur, metallurgical test work, the path to a pre-feasibility study (PFS) and eventual production, the company’s cash position, financing strategy, permitting progress, and early-stage drilling at Beartrack-Arnett.

Lithium Might Not Be the Bull Market You Think It Is

March 7, 2026

Koby Kushner of Libra Lithium talked to me about the lithium in this episode. Are we heading into a real bull market or another short-lived hype cycle? We dig into why China still drives demand and price discovery, why stationary energy storage has become the sleeper catalyst analysts underestimated, and why electrified trucks and developing markets could keep demand surprising to the upside. On the supply side, we get into the swing-supply boogeymen (Chinese lepidolite and African DSOs), what’s changed with Chinese regulations and Zimbabwe export policy, and why flooding the market again may be harder in a much larger lithium market. We also talk incentive prices for new supply, why spot prices can still spike in tight markets, what could actually flip the bull thesis bearish (clays, DLE, and policy-driven supply), and whether lithium juniors even make sense in this environment.

Can a 30,000m Drill Program Really Grow This Deposit Toward 5Moz?

March 6, 2026

This was an interview with Maple Gold Mines’ CEO Kiran Patankar, about their Québec gold story at the Douay and Joutel projects. The conversation stayed on three things: why the stock rerated, what their new treasury means for dilution risk, and what’s actually happening on the ground (a 30,000 m drill program split between Douay and Joutel, plus a near-term resource update).

What Can a Gold Explorer Really Prove With 15,000m of Drilling in Colombia?

March 6, 2026

This was an interview with Quimbaya Gold’s CEO Alexandre P. Boivin and technical advisor Dr. Stewart Redwood about early drilling at the company’s Tahami Project in Colombia’s Segovia district, next to Aris Mining’s Segovia operation. They talked about what the first-pass 5,000 m drill program at Tahami South proved, why the market sold off after results and a financing, and what they’re doing next, including a separate porphyry copper-gold-molybdenum target they say is now part of the story.

Newly Listed Explorer Looking for Gold in Namibia & Egypt

March 6, 2026

This was a catch-up with Ongwe Minerals’ (TSXV: OGW) CEO Dave Underwood and president/co-founder Carl Joone. They’re mainly chasing gold in Namibia across the Khorixas, Omatjete, and Outjo project areas, and they also have an Egypt land package in the Eastern Desert. The talk was mostly about what they’re trying to build, what the new drilling/sampling program is meant to prove, how much cash they have post-RTO, what the next financing likely looks like, and what could move the stock in the next few months.

Is It Time to Sell Mining Stocks?

February 25, 2026

Rob Bruggeman is a board member of Abra Silver, a mining investor, and a mining analyst known for taking a capital-preservation approach to the sector. In this interview he makes the case that it is not yet time to sell mining stocks, because the main forces driving gold higher, including dollar debasement, reserve diversification, rising debt, inflation pressure, and geopolitical risk, are still in play. We discussed why money flows matter more than narratives in mining bull markets, why he prefers reacting to changing trends over forecasting exact metal prices, how he evaluates producers versus juniors in a high-gold-price environment, why he is skeptical of PEA-stage economics that simply plug in spot prices, what makes a project or jurisdiction investable, and the warning signs that tell him a company is likely to waste the bull market instead of benefiting from it.