Gold & Silver Opportunities: Discovery, Development & Growth | July 16, 2026

Investor TV Jul 23, 2026

Summary

Central bank buying of over 850 tonnes took gold to record levels in January 2026, and the panel says producer margins sit at historic extremes.

Silver is heading into a sixth straight year of supply deficit, with annual mine output falling from 1.2 billion ounces toward 800 million.

Robert Eckford argues jurisdiction now outranks project size, and points to New Zealand's six-month permitting as the competitive edge.

Peter Espig's rule: fund projects that are not yet cash generative with equity, and reserve debt for producing mines expanding output.

Chris Kerlow uses a barbell portfolio — about 80% in large producers, 20% in juniors expected to generate most of the returns.

Key points on Hecla Mining Company

Shawn Khunkhun cites Hecla as the only company of its kind in North America today, in business for 140 years, and the benchmark Contango Silver & Gold merged to compete with.
He says Hecla reached a valuation of nearly $20 billion in Q1 2026 on the strength of that existing business.

Key points on Kinross Gold

Shawn Khunkhun describes Contango's mine partnership with Kinross as royalty-like: Contango has fewer than 20 employees and strong free cash flow while the operation sits in Kinross's hands, with Contango monitoring and giving input.

Key points on LaFleur Minerals

Kal Malhi says Trafigura, one of the largest gold trading firms in the world, is in the final stages of an offtake agreement with LaFleur worth about $30 million; the term sheet was executed after four months of negotiation and a site visit by their full team is scheduled for August 10, 2026.
He says LaFleur is roughly 90% ready to produce gold at its permitted Beacon mill and expects production later in 2026, with 160,000 ounces of Swanson resource on a mining lease and a permitted tailings deposit already in hand.
Malhi says the plan is to lift the Beacon mill from about 1,000 tonnes per day to 4,000 tonnes per day, and he argues new mill permits in Canada take three to five years to secure, so an existing permit lets LaFleur skip that wait.
He points to drilling at Swanson of 2.95 grams per tonne over 80 metres and 2.37 grams per tonne over 88 metres, hundreds of metres below the current resource, and says the company is working to take the deposit above one million ounces during 2026.
He says LaFleur grew the Swanson land package from 5,000 to 20,000 hectares with substantial historical non-43-101 resources, and describes the company as a three-tiered gold producer in Quebec's Abitibi belt.

Key points on Nicola Mining

Peter Espig says Nicola began mining at its Dominion project in the first week of July 2026, has been milling high-grade gold material from Blue Lagoon since January with assays above an ounce per tonne at surface, and expects to at least meet or beat the production targets it gave the market last year.
He says the Treasure Mountain silver mine will be reopened in August 2026 and back in production within 12 months of that, giving the company gold and silver revenue streams at the same time.
Espig says Nicola runs its operations to stay profitable at a $2,000 gold price and treats everything above that as upside, and he discounts the analyst price targets he hears on the panel.
He says the Merritt mill is the only facility in British Columbia permitted to process third-party gold and silver material, a position he credits for the regional toll-milling business.
Espig calls the copper exploration at New Craigmont the real elephant in the room because it sits on ground that is already a permitted mine, which normally takes 10 to 15 years to achieve, and he expects news there over the next 12 months.

Key points on Rua Gold

Robert Eckford says Rua Gold submitted a fast-track application to the New Zealand government and expects a decision any day in July 2026, which would confirm a defined six-month permitting path for the Reefton project.
He sets the milestone as a mine permit submission by the end of October 2026 and full permitting by Q2 2027, calling a fully permitted asset the key event that de-risks the company for investors.
Eckford says the PEA splits revenue roughly 70% gold and 30% antimony over about 9,000 tonnes of antimony, modelled at roughly $20,000 a tonne even though the price has moved from $5,000 three years ago to $60,000 and back to around $25,000.
He argues the antimony matters most for political reasons rather than economics: it ties the project to the critical minerals competition with China, brings down all-in sustaining costs, and puts the project near the front of the queue in permitting against peers in New Zealand.
Eckford says institutional demand in January 2026 pushed his order book above $70 million against a $30 million raise, led by large investors including Franklin, and says institutions still hold surplus cash but are far more selective than before.

Key points on Snowline Gold Corp

Chris Kerlow names Snowline as one of the most obvious examples of a quality Canadian discovery that has been financed, advanced and re-rated into the billions in market cap.

Peter Espig's takeaways

Top takeaway Espig says he runs Nicola to be profitable at a $2,000 gold price and treats everything above that as upside, and he discounts the bank price targets quoted on the panel.
He argues investor expectations shift with the price: two years ago a $4,000 gold forecast would have been celebrated, whereas now a pullback from $5,600 is read as gold doing badly.
He lays out a staged plan of generating cash from Dominion and Treasure Mountain, accumulating, pursuing acquisitions and then funding copper development, on the view that you cannot rely on equity markets for liquidity.
On financing he says debt only suits a cash-flowing company with long visibility, that Nicola carries no debt, and that he would never take on debt to fund exploration.
He sees junior silver producers trading below the metal itself and expects US family offices, long overexposed to technology, to begin allocating to mining and exploration.

Robert Eckford's takeaways

Top takeaway Eckford says his single most important milestone is having Rua Gold fully permitted within 12 months, starting with a mine permit submission at the end of October 2026 and completion by Q2 2027.
He says jurisdiction is the decisive factor for investors and that New Zealand's differentiator is permits in six months, with the fast-track decision expected any day in July 2026.
He takes a deliberately conservative view of antimony, modelling about $20,000 a tonne to reach the 70/30 revenue split and declining to forecast the price, while saying the project should stand on gold alone with antimony as a byproduct.
Eckford says the antimony matters most because it places the project inside the critical minerals debate with China, giving it political support with domestic and foreign governments and project certainty that peers lack.
He says the January 2026 raise was oversubscribed, with a book above $70 million against a $30 million target, and that institutions are sitting on surplus cash but are now very selective about where they deploy.

Shawn Khunkhun's takeaways

Top takeaway Khunkhun argues a junior without cash flow has three options - sell to a major, develop alone, or buy cash flow - and says the merger with Contango Silver & Gold was the third, pairing Contango's gold output with Dolly Varden's silver resource.
He says Contango is producing about 60,000 ounces of gold a year and roughly $100 million of free cash flow, and states an ambition of 5 million ounces of silver and 200,000 ounces of gold a year.
On silver he says the sixth consecutive year of supply deficit matters more than bank forecasts: mine output has fallen from about 1.2 billion ounces a year to 800 million against demand near a billion, while industry now takes about half the metal versus roughly 10% decades ago.
He says the Dolly Varden resource stands at about 65 million ounces of silver at roughly 300 grams per tonne plus 1 million ounces of gold near 5 grams per tonne, with an updated estimate that could push silver past 100 million ounces.
He treats the Kinross partnership and the Lucky Shot restart, targeted for production by 2028 on about $50 million of spending, as bridges funding work on the flagship Dolly Varden project in British Columbia's Golden Triangle and on Johnson Track.

Kal Malhi's takeaways

Top takeaway Malhi says LaFleur bought assets from Monarch in 2023 because he expected gold to run, and that the value lift is meant to come from expanding the permitted mill and growing the resource rather than from a higher share price.
He says Trafigura's roughly $30 million offtake negotiation is in its final stages after four months of term-sheet talks, with a site visit scheduled for August 10, 2026, though he stresses the outcome is not assured for regulatory purposes.
He says the Beacon mill is around 90% ready to produce and should be delivering gold later in 2026, and that the target is to expand it from about 1,000 to 4,000 tonnes per day.
He says drilling at Swanson - 2.95 grams per tonne over 80 metres and 2.37 grams per tonne over 88 metres, hundreds of metres below the current resource with the system still open - supports a push from a 160,000-ounce deposit toward more than a million ounces.
On risk he names commodity prices, permitting and community relations, and argues LaFleur is covered on the latter two because Val-d'Or is a long-established mining town with infrastructure already built for mining.

Chris Kerlow's takeaways

Top takeaway Kerlow says CG Wealth runs a barbell approach, putting about 80% of assets into majors as the stable base and using the other 20% on emerging names intended to generate roughly 80% of returns through selective, high-quality stock picking.
He ranks his screening criteria in order: geology first, jurisdiction second, and the management team third, and says he is willing to work higher-risk jurisdictions where due diligence supports it.
He cites an investment made around three or four years ago in Bolivia that he says has grown roughly tenfold, paid back more than the original investment in dividends, and is now the fourth largest deposit discovered in the world.
He stays constructive on silver, pointing to industrial demand from AI infrastructure and the electrical capacity data centres need, and calls the recent pullback a good time to accumulate as central bank buying paused.
He says the biggest mistake retail investors make is letting fear and greed set entry and exit points, and that M&A is still in the early innings and should pick up as commodity prices stabilise.