Bill Powers

Mark Zaret: 46-Bagger, Multi-Decade Winners, Ongoing Bets, & Buying Illiquidity When Nobody Cares

• Top takeaway Host Bill Powers brought Mark Zaret back after repeated listener requests to review his past picks on the record and hold him accountable, as Zaret himself had asked.
• He credits Zaret rather than himself for the Tenaz win, saying a significant number of his listeners made a significant amount from the pick.
• He frames the episode's core question — whether decades of patience in illiquid juniors is a superpower or an Achilles heel — and admits 18 months can feel like an eternity to him.
• He contrasts Zaret's low-profile style with the newsletter playbook of using a 50-bagger as the headline to sell the next pick, and notes none of the picks discussed are MSE sponsors or owned by him.

The guest's 46-bagger came from patient holding while management executed, with commodity tailwinds he says nobody could have predicted. Buy prospective junior small-caps when nobody cares: illiquidity is an opportunity, and building real value takes years of management execution. Judge management on capital discipline: stable share counts, no warrants, and insiders funding their own raises signal real alignment. Two multi-decade holds ended in buyouts, validating patience; failed speculations still help because tax losses offset gains from winners. Cash is now the guest's second-largest position: he urges caution on stretched valuations and better entries in six to eight weeks.

“You Can Buy $CTGO at Just Three Times Next Year’s Free Cash Flow” – Contango’s Shawn Khunkhun

• Top takeaway Powers frames the interview around the roughly 50% share decline since January 2026, asking what questions the market still wants answered about Contango Silver and Gold.
• He puts the view to the guest that management execution should outweigh geology by about 60% in a junior mining company, and raises the question of what a company with production, near-term projects and exploration at once will reward most.

Contango ORE trades at roughly three times next year's expected free cash flow, a multiple the company's president calls attractive. Shares fell about 50% since January, which the guest attributes to a broad precious-metals equity sell-off. The guest expects a mineral resource estimate for Kitsault Valley within weeks, plus drill results supporting a 2028 Lucky Shot restart. Contango retired its hedge book with debt at about 7% interest, leaving roughly $90 million in cash against $45 million of debt. Ore from the Alaska mine is trucked to Kinross's Fort Knox mill under a direct ship ore (DSO) arrangement.

Sulfide vs. Oxide Deposits: What Every Copper & Gold Investor Must Know with Dr. Rob Stevens

• Top takeaway In the Q&A, Powers relays the rule of thumb from a sharp investor friend who says that whenever a copper junior CEO claims the company will start mining the oxides to pay for the capex of the sulfides, he discounts it 100%.
• He also asks whether a standalone sulfide deposit can exist without an oxide cap or supergene enrichment, which draws out Stevens' answer that most of Canada has no oxide deposits because a northern climate and glacial erosion stripped them, leaving essentially all Canadian mining on sulfide ground.

Oxide copper and gold deposits skip grinding and smelting, cutting the capital and operating costs a mine must carry. The trade-off is recovery: oxide heap leaching can return as little as 60% where a conventional mill can exceed 90%. Supergene enrichment zones gather leached copper near the surface, building high-grade ore that can be mined early in mine life. Refractory ore locks metal inside minerals conventional processing cannot break, often forcing a roaster or pressure oxidation step. The guest urges investors to demand standalone economics before crediting an oxide cap with funding a deeper sulfide mine.

Midnight Sun’s Dumbwa Copper Deposit Extends to 6.7 km of Continuous Mineralization - Adrian O’Brien

• Top takeaway He frames the interview around one tension: Midnight Sun's chief operating officer sounds publicly excited that the drill program delivered exactly what was intended, yet the share price is down significantly since MSE's first interview — and he asks the guest to explain that disconnect from a corporate perspective.
• He presses on the grade scepticism he expects investors are applying, inviting the guest to address why people looking at 0.3 to 0.4% copper may conclude the deposit is not good enough.
• He challenges whether outside investors and institutions can build their own resource model from the company's data room and call out the limits of modelling without understanding the geology.
• He asks what investors can expect between now and the fall resource estimate — batches of drill results with further strike extensions in the headlines — and directly presses for an update on the Kazhiba oxide asset, which he notes was previously floated as a sale or toll-mining option.
• The description metadata discloses that Midnight Sun pays MSE a US$10,000 monthly coverage fee and that Powers will not buy MMA.v shares until five trading days after MSE's initial interview.

Midnight Sun's Dumbwa deposit in Zambia now runs 6.7 km of continuous near-surface copper mineralization, a third of the way through a 20 km target. The deposit is a basement dome-hosted sulfide copper system management calls nearly indistinguishable from Barrick's Lumwana, a few kilometres away. Fence drilling at 50 m hole spacing, enabled by $160-per-metre Zambian costs, defines deposit edges in one pass rather than chasing high-grade holes. Management expects ultra-low cutoffs near 0.13-0.14% copper like Lumwana, arguing today's 0.3-0.4% grade doubts and macro-driven selling ignore the margin potential. A first mineral resource estimate is targeted for the fall, with phase-one drilling finishing by mid-September and magnetics and metallurgical tests underway.

David Lotan Shows You How to Make Junior Mining Millions: Aurion & Fox River Buyouts Explained

• Top takeaway The host frames the episode's core lesson for retail investors: Lotan bought about 96-97% of his positions in the two takeover companies in the open market, so unaccredited investors do not need private deal access to win in juniors.
• He does the public math that Lotan's open-market buying across Aurion and Fox River produced a gain just shy of C$50 million, and stresses the decade-plus timeframe behind the result.
• He draws on his recent conversation with Joe Mazumdar about director incentives to get Lotan's view that reputation for doing the right thing, not compensation, should drive board decisions.
• He admits passing on Tenaz Energy at about $1.50 per share when guest Mark Zaratt pitched it on the show roughly four years ago, and says he regretted it as the stock passed $50 on its way to about $70.

Guest David Lotan built most of his Aurion and Fox River stakes buying public shares, arguing open-market bargains beat private deal access. Aurion Resources sold to Agnico Eagle Mines for C$481 million ($2.60 per share cash); Fox River Resources followed at C$94 million ($1.10 per share). Lotan ties the decade-long wait to consolidation among major gold producers; rising mid-tier buying power finally revived takeovers of juniors. The multiyear Aurion-Rupert standoff shows embarrassed, hostile bidders can drag out timelines and destroy value on both sides of a takeover fight. Management teams that refuse warrants (rights to buy future shares cheaply) and protect capital structures earn the investor trust that pays off at exit.

Planalto Copper-Gold Deposit’s Pre-Feasibility Pathway with Lara Exploration CEO Simon Ingram

• Top takeaway The host argues this pre-feasibility work appears to take Planalto most of the way toward a full feasibility study — citing a qualitative step-up he has seen in pre-feasibility studies over the years — and asks what work would remain.
• He frames the catalyst sequence as batch drill results, then an updated resource estimate, then pre-feasibility, and asks how Lara's prospect-generator portfolio of royalties, minority interests, and joint ventures is progressing.

Seven rigs have drilled over 10,000 metres across 30-plus holes at Planalto, confirming a higher-grade core of 0.6% to over 1% copper. Infill drilling — added holes between existing ones — upgrades inferred resources to measured and indicated, feeding an updated resource estimate for pre-feasibility. Drilling south of the Silica Cap pit returned encouraging intersections, while the 3 km Atlantica license awaits permits and land access. Environmental baseline studies should finish around year-end, leading to a first permit filing that takes roughly a year to review. The CEO points to a nearby BHP asset sale above $400 million as evidence of buyer appetite for small Carajás copper mines.

Navigating the Sell-Off — Watch Lists, Capitulation, & New Trends with Bill Powers & Brian Leni

• Top takeaway Bill says he is down 43% on a junior miner he bought about two and a half months ago, and that when he sized the position he estimated roughly 70% downside against up to 1,000% upside; he says this was speculative and within the realm of possibility he had accepted.
• Bill says the more uncertainty he sees in a market, the more he tranche buys and expects further downside unrelated to the company, warning that committing a full allocation in one go can be problematic while tranche buying lets you build a position over time.
• Bill says he hesitated to deploy at the January Metals Investors Forum because nothing looked cheap apart from pure exploration names, and that being right to sit and wait turned out to be the correct call in retrospect; he argues narrative supports price action and price tells you when to deploy and when to take money off the table.
• Bill says he keeps a watch list with a value assigned to each company so that when it sells off he already knows whether it is a good deal, rather than buying first and doing the work afterwards.
• Bill says he asks CEOs who claim their company is undervalued why it is undervalued and how they plan to finance it, and would steer clear of management teams with no financing plan while accepting that dilution is unavoidable for juniors.

Gold's pullback from roughly $5,500 to $4,000 has punished junior mining equities, with one host down 43% on a recent position. Tranche buying spreads entries over time, and pre-assessed downside rather than market noise decides whether a sell-off is an opportunity. Watch lists earn their keep in uncertain markets: assign a value to each company first, then a sell-off becomes a decision, not a reaction. A capitulation bottom is only real if the drop has nothing to do with the company; management exits and forced sellers can mimic bargains. Direct Ship Ore is fashionable, so demand a signed offtake letter and community buy-in before believing the near-term production story.

Scorpio Gold Confirms Round Mountain (16M AuOz) Mineralization in New 5 sq km Target – Zayn Kalyan

• Top takeaway As host, he sets the market backdrop, noting the gold price had dipped below $4,000/oz shortly before the June 2026 interview and that junior gold speculators were panicking, and asks how management can advance the company without relying on the market.
• He presses on the 2-million-ounce target, noting the company is more than halfway through its 50,000-meter program and asking whether the goal can be adjusted up or down.

Early drilling confirms gold mineralization in a new 5 sq km Manhattan caldera target, echoing Kinross' nearby 16-million-ounce Round Mountain producer. A caldera (collapsed volcano) can host wide, low-grade gold: the best volcanic intercept runs about 0.6 g/t (grams per tonne) over 60 metres. About 27,000-28,000 of 50,000 planned metres are drilled; an updated resource estimate is targeted for December-January toward the two-million-ounce goal. Management is evaluating historic Manhattan tailings and leach pads for partner-funded, non-dilutive cash flow, with roughly six months needed to size the opportunity. A second Mineral Ridge payment arrived in May, the final US$1 million is due in August, and a U.S. uplisting nears completion.

Fury Hits 7.86 g/t Gold over 9.43m at Eau Claire during PFS Drilling - CEO Tim Clark

• Top takeaway Host Bill Powers frames the interview as a sponsor update, pressing Tim Clark on the resource expansion catalysts, treasury strength, and the timeline investors should expect for the MRE and PFS.
• Powers highlights the recent 7.86 g/t gold over 9.43 meters press release as evidence the infill drilling is growing the resource, not just adding confidence.

Fury Gold Mines is shifting from exploration to development at Eau Claire, targeting a pre-feasibility study (a detailed mine-development study) by the second quarter of next year. Infill drilling between existing holes returned 7.86 g/t gold over 9.43 meters, and the CEO says the deposits keep adding ounces and grade ahead of a resource update. CEO Tim Clark argues Dhilmar, the private producer next door running its Eleanore mill below capacity, is an underestimated potential buyer of the whole James Bay district. The company holds roughly $60 million in liquidity including cash and a 5.8% Contango Ore stake, and management says Asian capital is actively seeking resource exposure. Management expects the resource estimate and pre-feasibility study to be rerate catalysts, with gold-price assumption upgrades alone lifting project net present value.

First Phosphate Endorsed by G7 Summit & Prime Minister Carney: New Partners & Definitive Offtake

• Top takeaway The host frames First Phosphate as no longer just a Quebec or North American deposit but a project with G7 nations behind it, and presses the CEO to separate what is new in the announcement from prior news.
• The host asks how investors should value a company with a downstream phosphoric acid plant, a 20-year mine life, and a second deposit, and notes the $15 million financing was triple oversubscribed at $2 Canadian against a $1.61 market price.

G7-level endorsement and sovereign letters of interest cover roughly half of First Phosphate's roughly $500 million mine capex, de-risking the capital stack before feasibility. Definitive offtake agreements lock in 200,000 tonnes per annum of phosphate concentrate and 60,000 tonnes of phosphoric acid at prices that float with the market. CEO John Passalacqua targets a feasibility study by end-2026, a final investment decision by end-2027, and mine production by 2029. A triple-oversubscribed C$15 million financing plus a C$16.7 million federal grant lifts access to capital above C$50 million. The company positions itself as the Western leader in onshoring the LFP (lithium iron phosphate) battery supply chain, which today is concentrated in China.

Rick Rule: I’m Buying This Type of Junior Mining Stock (Ignored Value=Opportunity)

• Top takeaway Powers opens by arguing that the market's reaction to good drill holes has become far more muted than in earlier cycles, when a successful hole was priced in before an investor could build a position.
• He reports that Orion Resources is being acquired by Agnico Eagle in an all-cash deal and asks Rule for his read on the transaction.
• He presses Rule on whether AI in mining is becoming a bubble, citing community opposition to data centres in his home state and Microsoft cancelling its Claude subscription for coders because of the cost of correcting its output.
• He notes he told Rule on a previous show that AI could replace his investment process in about five years, and asks whether that four-year horizon still holds.

Rule is buying junior mining explorers now, expecting a rough summer in the gold market to deliver the lower entry prices his watchlist requires. Drill results are landing, yet markets no longer price them in, leaving what he sees as quality discoveries underpriced. He trades the gap between price and value, ignoring pre-market moves and analyst signals that carry no information for him. At-the-market (ATM) programs, which sell stock gradually into the market, give large miners cheaper capital than brokered placements. Small Abitibi deposits now work if their ore can be trucked to existing mills instead of building a plant of their own.

Michael Gentile: “90% of My Net Worth is in Junior Mining Stocks & I’m Still Deploying Cash”

Gentile runs a concentrated venture-capital strategy in junior mining, holding roughly 35 companies with 90% of his net worth and a 5 to 10-year investment horizon. He manages risk by starting with 1% positions and scaling to 5% only if the thesis plays out, while avoiding life-with-warrant financings that attract short-term fast money. Major wins in Northern Superior Resources and Arizona Sonoran validated his process, allowing him to redeploy gains while focusing on management quality and clean capital structures.

Investors Pushback, Skill vs Luck, & Director Incentives – Junior Mining Insights with Powers & Leni

Brian Leni shares his investment in Aurion, demonstrating that patience with a thesis can pay off despite significant timing delays. The hosts argue that director compensation should be scrutinized, warning that cash-heavy pay packages can signal misaligned shareholder interests. Leni and Powers advise building a disciplined process focused on downside protection and avoiding narrative-driven hype.

Howard Marks’ “You Bet”: Process, Probability, & Proposition Applied to Junior Mining Speculation

Powers argues that junior mining investors must separate decision quality from outcomes, as luck and skill both drive results in speculative resource markets. Junior resource markets are less efficient "alpha markets" where skilled investors can find an edge, making probabilistic thinking essential for success. Evaluating the "proposition" — the odds relative to the price paid — matters more than simply identifying the best company or project.

“Eighty Thousand Ounces of Gold Production in 2027” projects Contango’s CEO Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse

Contango projects 2027 gold production of 75,000–80,000 ounces as the Manh Choh mine transitions to the larger South Pit, lowering costs after current pre-stripping. The company expects to eliminate its hedge book and all debt by year-end 2026, positioning it to capture full upside from current gold prices. A June resource update for the Kitsault Valley project targets near 100 million ounces of silver, followed by a major 40,000-meter drill program.

“Massive Discovery”: 5.3km Continuous Copper Strike Now Defined says Midnight Sun’s Adrian O’Brien

Midnight Sun has defined continuous copper mineralization over a 5.3km strike at its Dumbwa target in Zambia, drawing a clear geological analog to Barrick's neighboring Lumwana mine. The company is running four drill rigs at roughly 10,000 meters per month and $160 per meter, with the fully funded first 11km of strike expected to be completed by the end of Q3. O'Brien outlines plans to monetize the Kazhiba near-surface oxide resource (2.33 Mt at 1.41% Cu) to fund Dumbwa exploration non-dilutively, while pending assays are being processed at Intertek after QA/QC delays.

“We'll Have the Largest Silver Resources of Any Company on the Planet”: Ross Beaty on Lumina Metals

Lumina Metals controls a copper-silver deposit in Poland with over 1.5 billion ounces of silver resources, which Ross Beaty argues is the world's largest undeveloped silver deposit. The company benefits from a cooperation agreement with KGHM and proximity to an underfed local smelter, providing a clear path toward a mining license within five years. Beaty explains that recent post-IPO share volatility stems from warrant exercises and selling pressure, with plans to pursue a U.S. listing after twelve months to attract silver-focused retail investors.

Newmont’s Stellar Q1, Arizona Capex Blowouts & Trump’s Project Vault with Analyst Joe Mazumdar

Mazumdar argues that major gold miners are returning free cash flow to shareholders via dividends and buybacks rather than funding major growth projects, constraining future supply. Recurring capital cost overruns at underground projects like South32's Hermosa highlight that majors can absorb financial blows, while similar blowouts can be fatal for junior miners. Trump's proposed critical minerals price floors and project vault could incentivize domestic mine development, though Mazumdar questions the mechanics of government intervention in commodity markets.

Shady CEOs, Dirty Directors & the DCF Dilemma?! – Junior Mining Insights with Powers & Leni

Bill Powers and Brian Leni share firsthand experiences with dishonest CEOs and directors, warning investors that misplaced trust in management is a common pitfall in junior mining. The hosts analyze specific regulatory actions, including a BCSC (British Columbia Securities Commission) settlement for late insider reports and an OSC (Ontario Securities Commission) enforcement application against Emerita Resources. The discussion highlights the DCF (Discounted Cash Flow — a valuation method estimating future cash flows) dilemma for development-stage companies, questioning the reliability of projections used to justify project economics.

Three Stock Picks Reviewed & Jurisdictional Insights Most Miss with Massif Capital’s Will Thomson

• Top takeaway As host, Bill Powers steers the interview through Thomson's past picks and asks how his political-risk background shapes his analysis of jurisdictions like Niger and Mexico.
• He relays his own anecdote advising an African copper company CEO to hire a well-connected lobbyist (a fixer) to get a mining license application onto the right desk.

Factor-model work suggests commodity price explains little of resource equity returns beyond about 90 days, as daily moves cancel out. Thomson argues long-term returns come from management execution and project delivery, not from forecasting commodity prices. Country risk is company-specific: Global Atomic advanced in Niger by meeting license terms while peers lost assets. Investors should read the mining code and company-state relationship before dismissing jurisdictions like Niger or the DRC. Thomson prefers jurisdictional risk over geological risk because no work can add copper underground once drilling says otherwise.