Once Again, I had the pleasure of speaking with Rick Rule,
President and CEO of Sprott US Holdings Inc. He is one of my favorite people to
interview, as his wit and intellect are only exceeded by his experience and
knowledge of natural resource investment strategies. Rick is a highly
experienced investor and speculator, focusing on public and private issuers in
natural resource industries. He has personally structured, led and participated
in hundreds of privately placed debt and equity issuances for resource
companies operating globally, and domiciled in Australia, Canada, Chile, Great
Britain, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States. Rick has over
thirty years of experience in metals, mining and the natural resource sector in
general, and is a presenter at hundreds of resource and investment conferences.
Today we are talking about the
Sprott Natural Resource Symposium
which is being held July 17th
- 20th in Vancouver. This is a very different conference, in that
Sprott has vetted and has an investment in all the exhibiting resource companies.
They are vetted investment-worthy companies. Rick points out this year there
are “three themes that I see as being most interesting to investors, {they] will
be Generative Exploration, Royalty and Takeover Targets. And within those
sub-themes, there are probably going to be 35 or 40 exhibitors that fit into
one of those three themes.”
There are amazing Speakers, as well as great
networking opportunities like the “Harbour cruise.” This is a great time to go
to the
Sprott Natural Resource
Symposium in Vancouver
. It is a beautiful location with an unparalleled
resource for resource investors.
Allen Alper
Jr.:
This is Allen Alper
Jr. with Metals News and I'm here with Rick Rule of Sprott. Rick, today I'd
like to ask you a bit about your upcoming
Sprott Natural Resource Symposium
. Why don't you tell us what's exciting
about the
Sprott Natural
Resource Symposium
and what sets it apart from these other conferences?
Rick Rule:
Well, one of my
favorite questions! I don't want to run down my conference competition, but I
do, in fact, believe that this is the finest Natural Resource Investment
Conference of this type in the world.
For
the first point, it's been ongoing for 30 years. So, the conference has stood
the test of time. It wouldn't exist had it not delivered value for investors.
Specifically, I think the things that set the conference apart are first that
it's held in Vancouver, which is really the epicenter of mineral exploration
finance worldwide. As well as, of course, being a very nice place to visit in
the summer.
The
second and probably more important reason, is that unlike other conferences, no
company can exhibit in the conference if it isn't owned in Sprott managed
accounts. Now, the fact that we own it doesn't guarantee that it goes up, but
it does guarantee that we have vetted and understand every exhibitor in an attempt
to keep the quality high. Our money is involved in every company that's allowed
to visit the Sprott conference.
Finally,
the quality of our speakers is fantastic. Some of the biggest and most
reputable newsletter writers and market commentators in the world, as well as
people who have built themselves billion dollar companies, telling you about
the lessons that they learned in the mining industry and how to help you become
a better investor. People like Jim Ricker, bestselling newsletter writer, bestselling
author, former general counsel for long-term capital management, who worked out
the bankruptcy of long-term capital management.
David
Stockman, head of the office of management and budget in the Reagan
administration, author of "The Triumph of Politics". My personal
favorites are Jim Grant, Grant Williams, a great-great-great group of industry
speakers and then of course, the company leaders, the Robert Friedland's of the
world, high officials from Silver Wheaton, and Franco-Nevada.
For
those of you who care about mining investment and mining speculation, there
isn't a better use of time, this year, than coming to this conference.
Allen Alper
Jr.:
If I'm attending
Sprott Natural Resource Symposium
, will I have exposure to these
people?
Rick Rule:
Absolutely. One of
the things that's really fun is simply watching some of these great speakers
after they're done speaking, going through the exhibit hall questioning
companies. I had the good fortune to tag along with Robert Friedland last year.
One of the best mine-discoverers in the world, and watch him go booth to booth
asking questions.
This
year, unlike prior years, there will be an optional attendee cruise, a harbor
cruise. This is not a free event, you have to
book early
, but having the ability to float
through Vancouver Harbor with food and drink on me for four hours, talking to
the various speakers in a very, very, very casual setting, I think will be an
awful lot of fun. And of course, there's plenty of time to walk through and
interview the speakers, who are simultaneously exhibitors.
Many
of whom will be manning booths or holding luncheons or giving workshops during
the course of the conference.
Allen Alper
Jr.:
We talked about
companies that are exhibiting. The thing that sets them apart is they've all
been vetted by Sprott. What do you think of these companies as targets? Do you
have favorites out of these companies?
Rick Rule:
Not really. That
really depends on who the investor is and what their time frame is. We have
companies, with market capitalization as small as ten million dollars and
companies, with market capitalization as large as fifteen billion dollars and
all ranges in between.
The
question you ask is more a question that is aimed at individual investors
rather than attendees. I can tell you that my themes, the themes that I'm
interested in this year are exploration, because most people aren't interested
in it and so the exploration stocks are cheap. And also because there's no greater
way, if you're willing to take risks than building wealth through exploration.
So,
I, personally, will be interested in the prospect generators. The people who
generate exploration targets in this type of conference. But it's important to
note, too, that the best performing sector in mining for the last ten years has
been the royalty companies. Royalty and streaming companies. And we will have
several royalty and streaming companies there, from the very largest to the
very smallest. That's a sub-theme that will attract people.
For
the bigger part of the mining capital markets, I think a theme that will be of
particular interest in 2019 is going to be merger and acquisition and takeover
targets. We will have several companies present, who I think have a very good
chance of being taking over in 2018. The most prominent of which, of course, is
Nevsun, which is subject to a takeover offer as we speak.
So,
the themes that I see as being interesting to investors, the three themes that
I see as being most interesting to investors, will be Generative Exploration,
Royalty and Takeover Targets. And within those sub-themes, there are probably
going to be 35 or 40 exhibitors that fit into one of those three themes.
Allen Alper
Jr.:
Excellent! Excellent!
Now, you're going to be speaking there and you've mentioned some of the other
speakers. Who are the speakers that people absolutely have to hear?
Rick Rule:
Well, I would say on
the industry side, the best speaker at the show is clearly Robert Friedland.
For people, who weren't familiar with him, he has been serially successful in
the last 35 years in the mining business. He was responsible for the team that
discovered the Fairbanks Gold Deposit. I think it's produced 10 million ounces,
now. Gross Rosebel has produced seven million ounces, now. Boise's Bay is the
greatest nickel-copper discovery of this century. Oyu Tolgoi now provides 30
percent of the GDP of the nation of Mongolia. Kamoa-Kakula is an enormous new
copper discovery in Congo. Flatreef Deposit is a big platinum discovery in
South Africa.
One
man, responsible for financing and leading the teams that've discovered seven
world-class, absolutely tier-one deposits, doesn't get better than that. Of course, Randy Smallwood from Silver
Wheaton basically brought the carve-out and streaming ideas to the mining
business. One of the most important financial innovations, in the mining
business, in the last 20 years and not coincidentally built a company, Silver
Wheaton, from zero to a 15 billion dollar market capitalization associated with
that.
Learning
from industry leaders like this is indispensable. Another one of my favorite
speakers will be Jim Grant from The Interest Rate Observer, a venerable commentator
on general markets, but also a real, real, real gold bug. Doug Casey is always
a crowd pleaser. You can count on Doug to be insightful, brilliant and also
outrageous and entertaining. So, of course Doug will be there.
Grant
Williams, from Real Vision, is always a crowd pleaser. There will be one good
speaker after another. If somebody has a complaint about this conference, it's
that by the end of it, they will be absolutely worn out.
Allen Alper
Jr.:
Well, that's always
a good complaint.
Rick Rule:
It is. It is. There's
never too much of a good thing. I have to tell you, I think it's going to be
really hard this year not to make some money at this conference. In the
near-term, I think the takeover plays work. In the longer term, I'm certain the
exploration plays work and the royalty plays seem to work in all seasons.
Allen Alper
Jr.:
That's great. That's
great. What are your most important reason for putting on the
Sprott Natural Resource Symposium
.
Rick Rule:
The most important
reason for doing the conference, for us, is that our existing clients have said
it's an important part of their relationship with Sprott. So, the most
important single thing for me is the fact that it builds education among my
existing clients. Given that I will have 200 or 250 existing clients at the
conference, it makes absolute sense to open it up to people who are not clients
yet and give them a view of
the competency of the Sprott organization. It's our belief that when people,
who are veteran conference attendees, compare our conference with other
conferences and see the quality of our conference relative to some other
conferences that the good feeling that results from the conference will extend
to their good feeling with regards to Sprott and that we will increase our
customer base. But, my primary reason for doing the conference is that it
delivers substantial value to our existing customers. Great face time with our
existing customers is priceless.
Allen Alper
Jr.:
Yes, What will be
the topic of your presentation at the
Sprott Natural Resource Symposium
?
Rick Rule:
I will be speaking
about exploration. It's been 20 years since we had a good exploration market. The
major mining companies have both under-invested and invested poorly in
exploration, meaning that their exploration and development pipelines are
empty. When good deposits are discovered, they're getting taken over at
eye-popping multiples. Witness yesterday’s bid for Arizona Mining at 1.8
billion dollars, a huge premium to the market capitalization that existed right
before the bid, or going farther back, the takeover of Mariana by Sandstorm and
of course, the takeover of Reservoir by Nevsun, and now the proposed takeover
of Nevsun by Lundin.
When
good discoveries are made in a market where good discoveries are rare, they are
taken over at real premiums. This does a couple things. It adds hope and it
adds liquidity to the market. And it sharpens the market for successful
exploration. I think the unsung theme in the Junior Resource Market in 2019
will be exploration, so that's what I will talk about. Gretzky said that he
became a great hockey player by skating to where the puck was going to go,
rather than to where the puck is. I think the puck is “going to go” to
exploration, so that's what I'll be speaking about.
Allen Alper
Jr.:
Great. That's a
great insight. What do you think are the two main reasons that investors
absolutely have to go to this
symposium
.
Rick Rule:
Well, I think there
are two reasons. We will have great general discussions, educational
discussions. We will have discussions from people like David Stockman, talking
about global politics from an insider's perspective. Jim Ricker's talking about
what could go wrong in the economy, from somebody who has seen it firsthand at
long-term capital management. So, great education, but probably more important
than that, people who invest, either directly as company CEOs or indirectly, like
myself as a money manager and equity investor and lender. People who invest
billions of dollars a year will give you practical information about how to
invest and in many cases talk about things that they are investing in,
personally.
Beyond
that, the ability to visit with the management teams of companies that you own
or should own in a one to one setting, where you actually get to meet these
guys, not read about them in newsletters, not read their press-release, but
actually talk to the CEO, talk to the Chief Financial Officer. Talk to the
geologists. This is invaluable if you're a serious investor or speculator in
minerals.
Allen Alper
Jr.:
Absolutely! Now,
let's talk a little bit about the timing of this. Why is this the right time to
go to Vancouver.
Rick Rule:
Pretty simply,
because we started this conference about 30 years ago, with our friends at
Agora. We wanted to do it in Vancouver because we wanted to do it around the
theme of small cap and micro-cap mineral stocks, Vancouver being the epicenter
of that business. And there is no better city in the world when the weather is
nice than Vancouver. And the weather is nicest in Vancouver at the end of July
and the beginning of August. So, given that we wanted to have it in Vancouver,
we wanted to have it in the best possible weather.
It's
worth noting, of course, that the fireworks festival also takes place that time
of year. An event separate and apart from the conference that attracts 250,000
people to the shores of Vancouver. So, the combination of a really
intoxicatingly beautiful city, at its best possible time, in a conference where
somebody who works hard will almost certainly make money, I think is a very,
very compelling value proposition.
Allen Alper
Jr.:
Excellent!
Excellent! So, is there anything else you'd like to add about the
Sprott Natural Resource Symposium
.
Rick Rule:
No. You already have
me breathless. I'm looking forward to seeing you and many of your readers/investors
at the conference. I really do believe that people will have a great time and
people will come away from it making money.
Allen Alper
Jr.:
We're looking
forward to it, and we are looking forward to helping our readers/investors make
much, much more money, by attending such an excellent venue.
Click on this
link to register for the
Sprott Natural Resource Symposium
and the Harbour Cruise
.
You can always email Rick Rule at
Rrule@sprottglobal.com
, and Rick has offered all MetalsNews
readers the opportunity to have their natural resources portfolio ranked by
Rick Rule. Just email your natural resources portfolios to Rick. It's important
to put both the name and the stock symbol for each stock in your portfolio in
the body of the email. Rick will then get back with his rankings of the
companies that are in your natural resources portfolio on an absolutely no
obligation basis.
Sprott Natural Resource Symposium Contact Information:
Register for Sprott Natural Resource Symposium
When
Tuesday, July 17, 2018 - Friday, July 20, 2018
7:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Pacific Time
Where
Fairmont Hotel Vancouver
900 W Georgia St.
Vancouver, British Columbia V6C 2W6
Canada
+1 604-684-3131
Planner
Cali Farnham
Sprott US Holdings Contact Information:
Contact Sprott
Sprott U.S. Holdings, Inc.
1910 Palomar
Point Way, Suite 200
Carlsbad, CA 92008
Brokerage Services
Sprott Global
Resource Investments Ltd.
Telephone:
800.477.7853
Email:
contact@sprottglobal.com
Separately Managed Accounts
Sprott Asset
Management USA, Inc.
Telephone:
866.531.8746
Email:
contact@sprottusa.com