Rick Rule: The Reason to Exit Silver, What Rick is Buying & Why Copper is Still a 'Coiled Spring'

Palisades Gold Radio Jan 8, 2026

Summary

Rick Rule expects 2026 to be a good year for resource investors but cautions that 2025's outsized gains will not repeat.

He plans to sell his silver because the original undervaluation thesis has already been met after the price doubled.

Agnico Eagle, Wheaton Precious, and Franco-Nevada still trade below Rule's net-present-value estimate even after gold's 65-70% move.

Copper remains a coiled spring: 30 years of underinvestment plus 15-year permitting timelines mean supply cannot catch up.

Rule prefers Exxon for oil and gas, arguing deferred sustaining capex will create a 2028-2029 supply squeeze.

The guest argues Agnico Eagle and the senior gold miners are cheaper today at $4,000+ gold than they were at half the price because the move from $3,000 to $4,200 is all margin, with announced margin roughly doubling while reserves and production have also grown.
Rick Rule says he used proceeds from selling 25% of his junior portfolio in August 2025 to add to Agnico Eagle alongside Franco-Nevada and Wheaton, rotating from junior speculation to investment-quality beta in the gold space.
He frames the math as net present value of future cash flows versus enterprise value, and says at a sustained $4,000 to $4,200 gold price these senior names remain undervalued on his framework.

Rick Rule lists Franco-Nevada as one of the senior gold royalty and streaming names he has been buying recently, alongside Agnico Eagle and Wheaton, as part of his shift from junior speculation to investment quality.

The guest includes Wheaton Precious Metals in the senior gold package he bought with his August 2025 junior-sale proceeds, citing the same margin-expansion logic he applies to Agnico Eagle and Franco-Nevada.

Top takeaway Rick Rule argues 2025 was delayed performance for precious metals, with gold compounding roughly 9% annually since 2000, and he expects 2026 to be a good year for resource investors while warning a repeat of 2025's manic returns is unlikely.
He says he is likely to sell his physical-trust silver soon because the thesis that took silver from $25 to $70 to $80 has played out, and he preaches disciplined selling once the original reason to own has occurred.
He argues the US will most likely inflate away the real value of its roughly $155 trillion in obligations the way it did in the 1970s, and he views his gold position as a response to the fiscal setup rather than as a trade.
He says he sold 25% of his junior portfolio in August 2025 to recoup all capital invested since 2020, then rotated the proceeds into senior gold (Franco-Nevada, Wheaton, Agnico Eagle) and into hated oil and gas, arguing juniors are now overpriced relative to seniors.
On copper, he says the metal remains a coiled spring after 30 years of industry underinvestment, citing the Resolution deposit's 28 years in permitting as an example, and he suggests Glencore, the Teck-Anglo combination and Amerigo as names to research.

Top takeaway Rick Rule calls Eric Sprott his former mentor and cites Sprott's advice that investors should play team ball and visibly support management teams they believe in via private placements.
He notes he is still the largest shareholder of Sprott, his former employer, and references the Sprott physical silver trusts as the vehicle that lets large buyers acquire silver in size.