Skip to main content

We’re in the Early Stages of a Critical Metals Bull Market | Kerry Knoll

The Deep Dive Jun 30, 2026

Summary

Kerry Knoll has started six mining companies and seen four reach production, a hit rate he attributes to building discipline rather than discovery luck

His rule is to buy metals when sentiment turns against them, acquiring projects others already drilled for as little as a few million dollars

The guest argues copper is in structural shortage because declining output meets rising electrification and AI data centre demand, with no major mines building

Ontario permitting consumed years and tens of millions of dollars on Generation Mining's Marathon project, largely through a Joint Review Panel process

Palladium at a range-bound $1,000 to $2,000 an ounce still leaves the project robust, with copper supplying nearly half the deposit's metal value

Key points on Wheaton Precious Metals

  • Wheaton Precious Metals is the streaming partner on the Marathon project's gold, and the guest says Wheaton is providing a $240 million advance — $40 million already delivered and another $200 million still to come — on top of equity it has taken in the past.
  • The guest says Wheaton reviews 60 to 80 projects a year for streaming and closes deals on only two to four, which he cites as evidence the project passed Wheaton's test.
  • Gold is a minor contributor to the project: the guest puts it at about 5% of revenue, so the Wheaton stream funds the build rather than driving the economics.
  • Wheaton Precious Metals is the successor to Wheaton River, the company the guest founded in 1991. He says the group of Frank Giustra, Pierre Lassonde and Ian Telfer bought control of Wheaton River around 2001, took it to the next level and merged it with Gold Corp, and that Wheaton Precious Metals was spun out of that merger; he describes it as now the largest company in British Columbia and one of the largest in Canada.

Robert Friedland's takeaways

  • Top takeaway The guest cites Robert Friedland — whom he calls a master — as the source of his belief that hiring the best people available matters as much as the quality of the project itself.

Randy Smallwood's takeaways

  • Top takeaway The guest says Randy Smallwood, who had been his chief geologist while Wheaton River ran the Golden Bear heap-leach mine, went on to run Wheaton Precious Metals for most of the following 20 years.

Frank Giustra's takeaways

  • Top takeaway The guest says that around 2001 he and his partners received an approach from Frank Giustra, Pierre Lassonde and Ian Telfer to buy control of Wheaton River, and accepted after about 30 seconds of thought; he credits that ownership change with taking the company to the next level and into a merger with Gold Corp.