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Keith Neumeyer, CEO of First Majestic Silver Corp. | Rule Symposium 2026: Rick Rule interviews

Rule Investment Media Jun 4, 2026

Summary

Keith Neumeier built First Majestic Silver by buying Mexican mines abandoned during downturns and reviving them with capital and trusted local management.

His recurring pattern - First Quantum in copper, First Majestic in silver, First Mining Gold in gold - is entering out-of-favor sectors early.

First Majestic keeps $938 million cash and 60 million ounces of gold and silver in its vaults rather than sell at prices it views as low.

He screens management track records first, warning that the same mining deals resurface for decades, sometimes under new names.

First Mining Gold shows the contrarian playbook: eight nearly bankrupt companies bought in 15 months during the 2014-2015 gold-sector downturn.

Key points on First Majestic Silver

  • Neumeyer says the treasury stood at $938 million in the bank with over 60 million ounces of gold and silver held back in the vaults, and that the total had grown further by the end of Q1 2026.
  • He frames holding physical metal as a deliberate call: with silver having run from $50 to $120 and back to around $70, he sees buying rather than selling ounces at low-$70s prices.
  • He recounts buying the La Pria mine in 2004 for $3.5 million after his head of geology guaranteed 300 million ounces on the property, with production running by October 2004 and 25,000 ounces produced that first year.
  • He says the company grew from that 25,000-ounce start to roughly 31 million ounces a year as of the interview by buying assets that were unloved and starved of capital, having hit a 10-million-ounce goal in 2010.
  • He promoted 13-year company veteran Mani Alkabaji to president on January 1, 2026, handing over the presidency while continuing as CEO.

Key points on Pan American Silver

  • Neumeyer notes Pan American reached Mexico before he did, showing up in 1994 just after NAFTA was signed.

Key points on First Mining Gold

  • Neumeyer, who chairs First Mining Gold, says the portfolio he assembled in 2014-2015 is finally coming to fruition.
  • He describes buying eight nearly bankrupt companies over 15 months by approaching boards that had run out of money and lost investor patience during the gold-sector trough.
  • He calls it a blood-on-the-streets contrarian play and says he is good at picking bottoms but maybe not great at picking tops.

Key points on Wheaton Precious Metals

  • Neumeyer says that during his mid-2000s retirement he watched Frank Giustra and others putting Wheaton together, which convinced him the market had bottomed.

Key points on Snowline Gold Corp

  • Neumeyer says he helped put Snowline together after Scott Berdahl showed him a rock sample at PDAC just as COVID hit, even though his own geologists called the project too grassroots.
  • He remains a very significant shareholder and calls the company a huge success.

Scott Berdahl's takeaways

  • Top takeaway Neumeyer recalls Scott Berdahl shoving a rock sample in his face at PDAC just as COVID hit and pitching it as containing a bunch of silver.
  • He says he backed Berdahl personally — despite his geologists calling it too grassroots — because he liked and trusted him, and put the whole thing together.

Rick Rule's takeaways

  • Top takeaway Rule argues First Majestic's edge is buying long-life producing assets starved of capital and intellectual leadership — citing San Dimas — whose best days he believes are probably ahead given its exploration success.
  • He credits Neumeyer with the courage to enter Mexico and to stay in silver when few would, and with attracting a top-rate Mexican operating team rather than importing foreign management.
  • He discloses he has invested behind Neumeyer for three decades and says every public-company exhibitor at his July 2026 symposium is owned in the sponsors' accounts, which he presents as evidence the exhibitors are vetted.

Eric Sprott's takeaways

  • Top takeaway Neumeyer identifies Eric Sprott as one of First Majestic's seed investors when the company was formed in early 2004.
  • He recounts Sprott funding the $3.5 million La Pria mine purchase, with the cash arriving in about 10 days.

Keith Neumeier's takeaways

  • Top takeaway The interviewee's core stance is that silver in the low $70s is a buy and triple-digit prices remain his target — he says he coined the phrase 'triple-digit silver' in 2012 and is acting on it by holding metal back from sales.
  • He presents his business model as buying unloved, capital-starved Mexican assets and applying both intellectual and physical capital to turn them around.
  • He says Mexican families and groups were essentially bankrupt and lining up to sell when he arrived in 2002, letting him buy mines that had been shut for a decade or more.
  • He credits his long-time CEO Roman Davolov with assembling the trusted Mexican operating team he says made those cheap asset purchases possible.
  • He describes his contrarian temperament — buying when people hate a sector — and admits he is good at picking bottoms but maybe not great at picking tops.

Frank Giustra's takeaways

  • Top takeaway Neumeyer cites watching Frank Giustra and others putting Wheaton and Goldcorp together during his retirement as the signal that told him the resource market had bottomed.