I have big news for you, my subscribers…

After a decade as Resource Maven, I’m moving on.

I’ve loved my time as a newsletter writer. I’ve learned so much about and met so many great people in the junior mining space. I’ve helped fellow investors understand how the space works and why metal prices move the way they do. I’ve led my readers into some great wins. I’ve learned what it is to own and run a business. 

Now it’s time for a change. Writing a newsletter is solo work chasing multiple stories. After a decade of that, I want to be part of a team focused on building something. And I want to learn some new skills. So I am shutting down Resource Maven and taking a position as Director of Communication with West Red Lake Gold Mines. 

I’ll explain why I’m joining WRLG in a moment. First I want to explain what I’m doing to ensure you, my amazing subscribers, continue to get expert guidance on gold, silver, uranium, copper, and the portfolio of stocks you’ve built with me.

I wanted to find someone who’s been in the metals and mining industry as long as me, someone with similar knowledge and expertise as myself, and of course someone who’s had success at stock picking. I think I’ve found that person.

Your newsletter service will continue uninterrupted, but letters will now come from…

Jeff Clark of the Paydirt Prospector.

Jeff has deep roots in the gold industry—his Dad was a prospector, and at one point the family had mining claims in Nevada, California, and Arizona. Fast forward to today and Jeff has  analyzed, invested in, and written about gold stocks for 20 years.

He initially worked with Doug Casey’s firm, and then a number of bullion dealers and newsletters since. But Jeff decided he wanted more flexibility to share his junior mining thoughts so he started TheGoldAdvisor.com, a portal to share insight into gold and gold stocks with interested investors. Jeff also wrote a great book – Paydirt: Mining For Profits With Gold And Silver Stocks – that came out last year.

The portal and book still left Jeff wanting an even clearer way to share his knowledge with junior mining investors. So he started his own subscriber-supported newsletter called Paydirt Prospector.

Just like The Maven Letter, Paydirt Prospector lets subscribers invest alongside Jeff as he explains what exploration stocks he is buying and selling and why.

Paydirt Prospector is not only about gold; Jeff also covers silver, copper, uranium, and lithium.

His newsletter is all about using geologic knowledge, exploration familiarity, industry connections, capital markets understanding, and investing experience to find the exploration stocks with the best potential to deliver big gains. Those gains might come from making a discovery, showing that a good new zone has major scale, getting bought out, or having the right assets and plans for the moment.

If that all sounds familiar, it’s because Jeff works in a very similar manner to me. We seek very similar attributes and avoid the same red flags when searching for juniors with big potential.

It means Jeff is perfect to take my place as your source of high potential junior mining ideas.

• Our similarities also mean Paydirt Prospector already covers 16 of the 30 stocks in the Maven Letter.

Jeff will initiate on another 6. Coverage will only cease on seven stocks, of which 5 are large companies that I bought as leverage on gold and therefore don’t require detailed coverage and a sixth is Morien Resources, our patience-is-a-virtue coal royalty company. The seventh is West Red Lake, which we are excluding from the conversation here because of my obvious bias!

Our portfolio similarities underline our similar approaches to investing in this sector and helped us ensure you keep getting advice on the stocks you’ve bought following my lead. (FIGURE OUT ASCU)

These are the stock already in the Paydirt Prospector or TheGoldAdvisor Portfolio where coverage will continue for you:

• Silvercrest Metals
• Artemis Gold
• Revival Gold
• Aztec Minerals
• Cassiar Gold
• Emperor Metals
• Heliostar Metals
• Hercules Silver
• Strikepoint Gold
• Vizsla Silver
• Western Exploration
• EMX Royalty
• Denison Mines
• Encore Energy
• Nexgen Energy
• Uranium Energy

Jeff will start covering the following stocks, providing initiation reports over the coming weeks to get his subscribers up to speed on the investment theses:

• Arizona Sonoran ???
• Troilus Gold
• Banyan Gold
• Scorpio Gold
• Cosa Resources
• IsoEnergy
• Skyharbour Resources

Coverage will cease for the following stocks. I’ve given my parting thought for each: (still gotta do that part)

• Aris Mining – as I wrote only a few weeks ago, Aris is a rapidly growing gold producer tapping high grade rocks at low costs. It trades as a discount to peers for two reasons: its mines are in Colombia and its larger (for now) operation gets about 40% of its ore from small-scale local miners, which is enough of a different approach that it perhaps deters some people. The thesis here is that investors get less picky about jurisdiction as a gold market builds; they instead prioritize profits and growth. If that happens as Aris ramps up output, the coincidence should work well for investors.
• Calibre Mining – CXB is working well, providing outsized leverage to gold as this bull market gets underway. The outperformance is all to do with Valentine, the huge new gold mine in Newfoundland that will produce first gold in the first half of next year. Continued exploration success at its Nicaraguan operations also helps. My parting guidance is to hold until first gold at Valentine and then sell, because mines rarely ramp up without problem.
• Oceanagold – OGC is going its job of providing outsize leverage to gold thanks to its significant production growth. I will hold this stock as long as I think the bull market is still running.
• Liberty Gold – I bought Liberty Gold because I think large advanced gold projects in the US will attract extra attention as this bull market progresses. Liberty’s large, simple gold oxide resource at Black Pine puts it in that category. While Jeff likes that thesis, he can’t get past the boredom of permitting that will dog LGD for the new few years. I agree that’s a challenge. At an impasse, we decided to cease coverage on this stock.
• STLLR Gold – I bought STLLR Gold as an optionality play – STLLR controls __ million ounces of gold in Canada and trades at a lower Enterprise Value Per Ounce than any of its peers. Optionality is buying companies with large undervalued gold resource in the expectation that generalist investors will do the same. As with Liberty Gold, Jeff sees the argument but can’t stomach all the infill drilling, engineering, and permitting that is ahead for STLLR in the coming years. We decided to cease coverage on this stock as well.
• Morien Resources – I have owned Morien for a long time. The thesis has never changed – the stock will be owrth multiples of its current value if/when Kameron puts the Donkin mine into full production, and even more if Kameron decides to expand the mine into a long-wall operation. But the path to production has been difficult. The project is now idled for a second time after a roof fall (normal in underground coal mines and acceptable as long as infrequent and fully addressed) prompted a Stop Work Order from the Nova Scotia authorities…and the regulatory process to get that Stop Work Order lifted was unacceptably slow and insufficient. After the second event, Kameron officially shuttered the mine – not because they wanted to but because they needed to send a clear message that the province needs to improve its mine inspection capabilities if it wants to have an underground coal mine in the province. And that is where the situation sits today. I think it will get resolved and the mine will start up again (Morien has been doing an incredible job getting local communities to help push for a restart), but I have no idea when. If you have held this stock as long as I have…I will continue to hold out of hope and the faith that the re-rate should be significant. Will it account for all the delays? Who knows. 😉
• West Red Lake Gold Mines! I am clearly very biased on this one! Jeff likes the story but to ensure a clean transition with no hint of bias, we will cease coverage of West Red Lake Gold. (I’ll make sure Jeff knows what he’s missing by not covering the stock!)

I want to make this change but I hated the idea of abandoning all of you loyal subscribers. The answer was to find a replacement I think will serve you as well as I would have served you as you invest in this new precious metal bull market, young uranium bull market, and pending copper bull market.

I am confident Jeff is that person. He works as hard as I work, he is honest, ethical, and reliable, he is very well connected in the junior mining world, he communicates well, and he has a good nose for sniffing out strong new deals.

• Peter Krauth is also shifting to work alongside Jeff!

His Silver Stock Investor newsletter will become a sister publication to Paydirt Prospector, like it was to The Maven Letter. They’ve already started brainstorming ideas of how to make the publications stronger.

Lots of continuity. Lots of opportunity ahead. And Jeff will provide all the expertise and effort needed to guide you as you make the most of the bull markets to come.

Watch for a welcome letter from Jeff tomorrow. And he said to tell it comes with a couple free gifts…

Why West Red Lake Gold Mines?

I’m hitching my wagon to West Red Lake Gold Mines for this gold bull market.

WRLG is working to put the Madsen mine back into production. Madsen was built in 2020; it went bankrupt after only 18 months.

It was not the deposit’s fault. The miner, Pure Gold, made bad decisions on multiple levels, from starting on a low-grade zone because it was near surface rather than a high-grade zone that required more mine development to leasing all kinds of things (office trailers, underground equipment, even the primary crusher!) to reduce the build cost but then ending up with steep operating costs to putting down and reloading ore multiple times (a cardinal sin in mining) and so leaving gold scattered all over the ground.

The things the made Madsen fail are fixable. West Red Lake will show that: the company will put Madsen back into production soon as a small but nicely profitable operation that offers bigger potential if deep exploration works.

But that’s just the first part of the story. Madsen is a stepping stone, a test case. The vision at WRLG is to build the next mid-tier Canadian gold miner. The hunt is already well underway for the next acquisition. 

I’m excited to join a strong group of people with big vision and lots of drive. WRLG is still a junior, so it’s in my wheelhouse, but I will get the chance to learn a huge amount about mine operations, M&A, and actually being part of a company (instead of always an armchair quarterback!). 

I am more than happy to answer any and all questions about West Red Lake Gold Mines. (That is my job now, after all!)