Mounir Barazi

Two Jurisdictions, One Thesis: Inside Toogood Gold's ($TGC | $TGGCF) High-Grade Discovery Strategy

• Top takeaway He frames the macro backdrop for the discussion: gold hit about $5,600 per ounce early in January, retraced to around $4,000, and stood near $4,300 around the Fed's decision on the day of the webinar.
• He argues the long-term case for gold remains solid toward much higher prices, and that junior explorers give investors magnified exposure to gold moves compared with holding the metal itself.

Toogood Gold advances two assets: an undrilled epithermal (near-surface hot-water) gold-silver system at Table Mountain, Nevada, and the Quinlan discovery in Newfoundland. Independent epithermal expert Stuart Simmons placed the gold-precipitating boiling horizon 50 to 200 meters below surface exposure, guiding shallow first drilling. Mapping defined multi-kilometer Widowmaker and Pacifico vein structures with property-wide boiling textures and surface rock samples running anomalous to multi-gram gold. Newfoundland's Quinlan zone shows visible gold in roughly half of early holes, surface grades to 76.89 g/t (grams per tonne), and stays open. A 3,000-5,000 meter maiden drill program could start in Q4 once permits land, funded from treasury plus a planned $2.5-3 million raise.

Supply Chains Under Pressure: Can the West Secure Critical Metals? | May 14, 2026

• Top takeaway Argues the biggest gap in the tungsten supply chain is APT refining — hundreds of millions of dollars to build and a long time to commission — which the Pentagon mandate is meant to force into existence.
• Breaks the tungsten chain into three stages (concentrate, APT refining, powder and heavy alloys) and argues the panel's mining projects matter because building a refinery is not commercially viable without feedstock.
• Notes China also controls two downstream antimony compounds — trioxide for electronics and flame retardants, and sodium antimony for solar applications — with no commercially mature substitutes.
• On risks, sees dilution as the biggest danger in very early-stage projects and flags policy risk from Europe moving too slowly; advises assessing risk project by project.
• Sees encouraging macro factors and supportive policy with many names still valued as juniors, but a limited rerating window as information moves fast.

China's expanded export restrictions on tungsten and antimony — over 80% of global supply — expose Western defense and technology supply chains. Panelists argue processing, not mining, is the bottleneck — APT refining turns concentrate into the intermediate material manufacturers use and costs hundreds of millions. Stefan Müller doubts the January 2027 Pentagon tungsten mandate is reachable and calls Europe's Critical Raw Materials Act a toothless paper tiger on funding. American Tungsten and NevGold plan tailings-first restarts, using low-capex early cash flow to fund main-mine builds while limiting dilution. Tungsten demand could double by 2030 with no US production since 2015; speakers urge backing projects profitable far below today's prices.

Rua Gold ($RUA | $NZAUF) Investor Webinar: Gold, Antimony, and New Zealand's Mining Renaissance

• Top takeaway Sets the macro stage for the webinar: gold set 53 all-time highs in 2025 and rose more than 65% over two years, while antimony ran from about $13,000/t in early 2024 to over $57,000/t by mid-2025 after China imposed export controls.
• Argues Rua Gold is an explorer positioned to capture that value rather than just ride the sentiment, stressing that it controls New Zealand's largest known antimony inventory and was publicly named by the resources minister in the country's critical minerals strategy.
• Frames the team-conviction case — more than $11 billion in value creation across the team, insiders buying with zero selling — and presses the CEO on financing runway, non-dilutive options, and fast-track permitting risk ahead of the election.

A preliminary economic assessment (an early-stage mine study) shows Rua Gold's first 200 meters at Old Creek already generate a profitable starter mine. CEO Robert Eckford plans a pre-feasibility study by October, backed by a 20,000-meter drill program that is adding ounces and grade. New Zealand's six-month fast-track permitting drives the rush: the mine application is due 31 October, ahead of a 7 November election. Antimony (a critical metal China restricts) is about 35% of expected revenue and draws Japanese, Korean, and US offtake interest. Eckford warns the deposit stops paying if antimony falls to $15,000 per ton, and Glamorgan's epithermal upside remains undrilled with permits expected in Q2.

Markets Crashing Now: Energy Crisis, Broken Diversification & Where to Invest

• Top takeaway Contends real diversification now means holding assets with different sensitivities to inflationary shocks, since the 60/40 equity-bond rule failed when stocks, bonds, and gold fell in parallel.
• Favors defensive stocks, energy equities, and commodities, and adds that Australian exploration companies offer cheap, leveraged exposure while defense-related minerals like tungsten, niobium, and scandium are in demand.
• Stresses the scale of the shock: 12 million barrels per day were blocked before the US-Iran truce versus roughly 5 million in 1973, while China's Iranian import networks and possible yuan-denominated oil give it slightly lower exposure.
• Traces the West's push for critical minerals, including the US Project Vault with direct government investment in commodity suppliers, to the politicization of supply chains, and expects competition between Asia and Europe for LNG.
• Warns investors to avoid energy-intensive sectors like petrochemicals for now, noting ships that passed the Strait of Hormuz have only just arrived so the pain is beginning to be felt, even as he expects eventual recovery.

The guest ties Asia's outsized energy-shock pain to import dependence: 84% of 2024 Hormuz crude was destined for Asian markets. The 60/40 portfolio (60% equities, 40% bonds) broke down because crisis correlations converge, with stagflation (weak growth, high inflation) complicating policy responses. The guest favors defensive stocks, some energy equities, and commodities because their low correlation with stocks and bonds cushions inflationary shocks. The guest traces the critical minerals race to politicized supply chains and points to Australian mining, LNG (liquefied natural gas), and explorers. Exogenous (sudden external) shocks price in worst cases quickly, so the guest expects fast recoveries as Asian equities already rebound.