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WHY INVESTORS ARE RETURNING TO MINING STOCKS | Rob McLeod - Cambria Gold Mines

The Deep Dive Oct 5, 2026 11:08

Summary

Rob McLeod sees investors rotating toward US-domiciled critical minerals companies, with copper at all-time highs driving institutional inbound interest.

Cambria's new management is rebuilding the Premier Gold Complex restart around denser infill drilling, pushing its feasibility study to Q1 2027.

Red Mountain is positioned as the early-years profit driver, with access road construction underway and underground development starting within months.

The Mount Margaret spinout was deferred after shareholders backed keeping the copper-gold deposit, which remains open in virtually all directions.

Mount Margaret sat idle for decades after the Mount St. Helens eruption halted exploration, despite over a century-spanning history of drilling.

Rob McLeod's takeaways

  • Top takeaway Rob McLeod argues the Mount Margaret copper-gold deposit is a potential tier-one US critical minerals asset, calling it possibly the most important such project in the US, and says the deferred spinout preserves it because such deposits rarely come along.
  • He is optimistic that investor appetite for US-domiciled companies with US-based critical minerals projects will drive another market push in the next three to six months, similar to the January-February run earlier in 2026.
  • He contends the previous management at Premier failed to drill enough infill, and that building mine plans on probable reserves rather than dense drilling causes dilution — the core mistake his team is fixing.
  • He points to over one square kilometer of outcropping mineralization at Mount Margaret, with 115 historical drill holes and no work for 15 years, believing there is a good possibility it could be economic at today's prices.
  • He frames the US copper import gap as the demand case for Mount Margaret, saying Cambria aims to permit the project as fast as possible to help meet that supply shortfall.

Steve Hyland's takeaways

  • Top takeaway Host Steve Hyland notes the Fiore group's involvement in fixing the mistakes of Cambria's past restart and presses McLeod on what the restart looks like today.
  • He reveals he is personally a shareholder in Cambria and asks McLeod what catalysts investors should expect over the next 12 months.