Live Q&A with Rick Rule and Albert Lu

Rule Investment Media Apr 9, 2026

Summary

Rule argues Gulf-driven commodity spikes are anticipatory, not rationing, and warns credit stress could escalate into a 2008-style liquidity squeeze.

He is building personal cash because bond ETFs promise retail liquidity while holding illiquid bonds, a mismatch that could gate redemptions.

Net present value (discounted future mine cash flows) ignores cash beyond its 8-9 year horizon, so it understates long-lived copper deposits.

Thirty years of copper underinvestment, grades down to 0.4%, and a $250 billion capex gap make copper supply extraordinarily bullish, Rule argues.

G Mining's takeover of G2 Goldfields joins contiguous Guyana ground, removes financing risk, and lifts combined output above 500,000 ounces of gold.

Key points on B2Gold

Rick Rule continues to believe B2Gold is selling at a fairly substantial discount to its peers.
He sees the next test for B2Gold as what management does with cash flow from its Northern Canada (Nunavut) operations, expected 9 to 12 months after this April 9, 2026 stream.
Before that, the mine must get from economic completion to nameplate capacity, the same hurdle Equinox Gold cleared over roughly nine months.
Beyond founder and CEO Clive Johnson's resignation (he stays on the board), Rule reports no other B2Gold news.

Key points on Equinox Gold

Rule says Equinox Gold has paid off its debt and is 'swimming in cash,' leaving what it does with that cash as the open question.
He cites Equinox as the analog for B2Gold's ramp: a Northern Canada mine that ran over schedule and over budget and saw the share price cut in half.
It took Equinox about nine months after economic completion to reach nameplate capacity.
Once the mine ran as intended, he says, the company more than made up for lost time.

Key points on G Mining Ventures

Rule is 'hugely supportive' of G Mining Ventures' acquisition of G2 Goldfields and is a shareholder of both companies.
He expects the merger to unlock about $1 billion of construction and operational synergy by combining mines on the same Guyana deposit.
The combined operation should produce well in excess of 500,000 ounces of gold a year, versus 320,000 and 220,000 ounces separately.
He says the deal eliminates financing risk because G Mining is well financed and generating large free cash flow, and is accretive per share even at the 70% premium paid.
He has invested alongside the founding family behind G Mining for 30 years and describes them as personal friends.

Key points on Ivanhoe Mines

Rule ranks Ivanhoe Mines 4 on his 1-10 scale (1 best) and calls the market's reaction to the prior week's mineral resource update excessive.
He models the slower mining rate and more conservative extraction as cutting near-year production, which matters because most of the deposit's NPV sits in the early years.
The update ignores exploration success on the 100%-owned Western Forelands ground, in his view.
He also points to higher future free cash flow from the smelter and rail shipments of refined copper, plus upcoming production at the world's highest-grade zinc mine and at what he calls the largest unmined platinum-palladium resource on the planet.
He is 'very, very, very long' Ivanhoe; his stated risk is political risk in the DRC, which he is willing to take.

Key points on Northern Star Resources

Rule just reviewed Northern Star, disliked the last quarter, but keeps it at 5 on his 1-10 scale on price-to-value and gold-price leverage.

Key points on Ramelius Resources

Ramelius is under review, and Rule declines further comment in this April 9, 2026 stream.

Key points on Gogold Resources

GoGold is stalled, 'all systems stop,' until the president of Mexico issues it an operating permit.
Rule's high-level Mexican political contacts indicate the president will authorize permits for six mines this year, and he believes GoGold will benefit from that policy.
He admits his earlier critique of GoGold's tailings business plan was wrong now that the company generates about $5 million a year in free cash flow.

Key points on Aftermath Silver

Rule declines to comment on Aftermath Silver's largest project because he has not yet finished his own review of it.

Key points on ESGold

Rule is skeptical of ESGold's model of reprocessing tailings to fund exploration and limit dilution, saying he has rarely seen it succeed.
He concedes he was wrong before in dismissing a similar plan that built Glamis Gold.

Key points on Seabridge Gold

Rule says a market crash would materially affect the timing of the planned joint venture involving Seabridge Gold because building the deposit is all about the cost of capital.
A simultaneous rise in the equity cost of capital and a repricing of project debt would, in his view, very materially affect Seabridge's ability as intended counterparty to put the deposit into production.

Key points on Skeena Resources

Rule says Skeena 'goes from strength to strength,' completing yet another non-equity transaction to raise additional cash.
The company is reportedly ahead of schedule on construction; he has no word on budget.

Key points on Franco-Nevada Corp

Rule is highly confident Franco-Nevada will again sell at substantial premiums two to three years after any liquidity-crisis selloff.

Key points on Metalla Royalty

Rule calls Metalla a very good name for investors in the junior royalty space, with a valuation attractive relative to royalty peers.
He expects third-tier royalty companies, of which Metalla is one, to consolidate, in the transcript under Tether's leadership.
He says he likes the whole royalty space.

Key points on Wheaton Precious Metals

Rule groups Wheaton Precious Metals with Franco-Nevada and Exxon as names he expects to sell at substantial premiums two to three years after a crash.

Robert Friedland's takeaways

Top takeaway Rule notes he and Albert Lu recently interviewed Robert Friedland, who discussed how conventional NPV analysis ignores the substantial terminal values of long-lived copper mines.

Sean Roosen's takeaways

Top takeaway Rule says the market is much more optimistic than he is about what Sean Roosen is doing in Northern BC at Osisko Development.
He admits that whenever he has bet against Roosen, he has been wrong.

Clive Johnson's takeaways

Top takeaway B2Gold founder and CEO Clive Johnson has resigned at about age 73, having stayed until the Nunavut construction was completed.
He remains on B2Gold's board, which Rule describes as continued 'adult supervision.'

Rick Rule's takeaways

Top takeaway Rule is raising his personal liquidity 30-50% above his target of a few weeks earlier, insuring against a possible, though not probable, 2008-style credit squeeze.
He calls the recent oil, fertilizer, and helium price rises anticipatory, warns $200 crude is 'not out of line' if floating inventories run out, and suspects a global recession has begun.
He flags high-yield bond funds and ETFs, liquid vehicles holding illiquid bonds, as his biggest credit fear, expecting gated distributions to worsen panic if redemptions come.
His long-term copper thesis is, in his words, extraordinarily bullish: 30 years of underinvestment, a stated $250 billion need just to maintain current production, and demand growth that will force rationing by price.
He treats cash's negative real yield, about 4.5% income against 8-9% inflation, as an option premium for the buying opportunities a squeeze would create, as in 2009, his best year.

Charles Funk's takeaways

Top takeaway Rule expresses very high regard for Heliostar CEO Charles Funk, saying that if anyone can make the tailings-reprocessing model work, Funk is doing it.

Warren Buffett's takeaways

Top takeaway Rule traces his whole-company test for small caps like Fancamp to Warren Buffett: asking whether he would take the entire company private at its current market capitalization.

Albert Lu's takeaways

Top takeaway Albert Lu hosts the live April 9, 2026 Q&A with Rick Rule for the Rule Investment Media classroom community.
He promotes the Copper Bootcamp scheduled for April 18, 2026.