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Live Q&A with Rick Rule and Albert Lu

Rule Investment Media Aug 20, 2026

Summary

Reading offering documents and 10-Ks is essential; Rick Rule uses a condo contract story to illustrate capital stack diligence.

Rick rates First Mining Gold's Spring Pole a 6, and Agnico Eagle's Radisson stake validates Abitibi infrastructure economics.

Lotus Resources' Chialecra uranium deposit isn't buildable at $80/lb given East African political and economic challenges, Rick says.

Inversion technique: avoiding Doug Casey's 'gotta hunch, bet a bunch' is the surest way to fail in natural resources.

In deleveraging equity plays, Rick waits for net present value of assets to exceed enterprise value before buying.

Key points on Agnico Eagle Mines

  • Rule recommends Agnico Eagle as one of three core holdings — with Franco-Nevada and Wheaton Precious Metals — for subscribers who want alpha-like returns but are unwilling to do alpha-like work or take alpha-like risks.
  • Rule describes Agnico Eagle's roughly $50 million position in Radisson Mining as a 'vote of confidence' from an investor who has more money and more expertise than Rule does.

Key points on B2Gold

  • Rule argues B2Gold has reached nameplate but not yet economic completion at Goose, with the big capital spend now behind them; if Goose operates per the feasibility study, Rule expects cash to 'gush' through B2Gold.
  • He says the rest of B2Gold's assets are performing very well, but flags 'off-balance sheet challenges' from ongoing disputes with the Mali government over the satellite deposits on the Fekola concession.
  • Rule cites B2Gold alongside Equinox as a recent example of a gold producer that went 'way behind schedule, way over budget' at Goose in Nunavut — a textbook case of the leverage-during-construction risk he warns about.
  • He says B2Gold is already selling at an attractive cashflow multiple, but that multiple is burdened by the Goose upfront capex that still needs to amortize meaningfully.

Key points on Equinox Gold

  • Rule frames Equinox as a 'three-year theme, not a three-month theme' because, despite reaching economic completion in Ontario, the company still has three mines to build — including a roughly $420 million Valentine expansion — that will absorb most of its free cashflow.
  • He uses Equinox's Ontario project as his worked example of when to buy a deleveraging equity play: he waited until the project was 'not merely economic but rather nameplate complete' and the asset's net present value clearly exceeded enterprise value.
  • Rule argues Equinox's development pipeline is 'extremely attractive' and tells him the company has a use for most of its free cashflow, so he does not expect material buybacks or dividend hikes.
  • He reminds viewers that three and a half years ago Equinox's Northern Ontario build was a billion-dollar job that turned into a billion-four or billion-five and ran way behind schedule — which is why he refused to add to his position until deleveraging was visible.
  • Rule argues lenders and shareholders have very different interests in such leveraged builds: lenders can typically sell the project to recover their loan while shareholders get wiped out — a key capital-stack lesson.

Key points on IAMGOLD

  • Despite IAMGOLD's high pre-cashflow yield and balance-sheet deleveraging, Rule says he is not an owner because of 'spotty operating results' at Côté Lake and because he sees easier names in the mid-cap gold space.
  • Rule concedes that if IAMGOLD can make Côté Lake work predictably, bring all-in sustaining costs down, and lift return on capital employed, the stock will 'do extremely well' — but he is not convinced yet.
  • He notes IAMGOLD was severely punished for being way over budget and way behind schedule at Côté Lake and was forced to liquidate most of the company's other assets to make the project work.
  • He admits that if he is wrong on IAMGOLD, the consequence is he will be 'spectacularly wrong' because the punishment was so deep.

Key points on Aris Mining Corp

  • Rule rates Aris Mining (ARIS) a 4, calling it an existing producer with the financial and physical resources to substantially grow free cashflow over the next five years.
  • He contrasts ARIS with the also-4-rated Aris Minerals (ARRAS), calling the latter a much more speculative drill-hole play; he owns both companies but for different reasons.

Key points on First Mining Gold

  • Rule rates Springpole a 6 and says it now stands a chance of being built because the gold price near $4,800 'skates everything on side,' making him more inclined than he was at $2,000 gold.
  • He describes Springpole as a large deposit with decent grade but warns that its location under a lake will increase construction expense and create permitting challenges.

Key points on Radisson Mining

  • Rule describes Agnico Eagle's roughly $50 million position in Radisson — taken to allow underground work — as a 'vote of confidence' from an investor with more money and more expertise than himself, and says he is 'much more interested in Agnico's response than my own.'
  • He says the Agnico deal validates Ammar Al-Jundi's earlier thesis that four decades of Abitibi infrastructure (road, power, service, milling) lets orphaned deposits be trucked to existing mills instead of having to amortize their own mills.
  • Rule says he hadn't thought much about Radisson before, regarding it as a 'B2 deposit,' and personally remains 'only marginally interested' in million-ounce deposits — preferring tier-one deposits in the lowest cash-cost quartile with the best return on capital employed worldwide.
  • Despite the Agnico validation, Rule says he still does not own Radisson.

Key points on Seabridge Gold

  • Rule says Seabridge's KSM project now faces more challenges after a British Columbia judge ruled the Environmental Assessment Office failed in its 'deep consultation' duty with the small Schukleblok Shah band (around 62 people), which is being backed by the adjacent Gixxan band.
  • He calls the ruling political, arguing the Schukleblok Shah likely compared the benefit package the Tahltan extracted from Skeena and decided they could do better at KSM; First Nations make up roughly 80% of voters in that BC riding.

Key points on Franco-Nevada Corp

  • Rule recommends Franco-Nevada as one of three core holdings — with Wheaton Precious Metals and Agnico Eagle — for subscribers who want lower, more certain returns rather than the alpha-like work and risk needed to outperform.

Key points on Wheaton Precious Metals

  • Rule recommends Wheaton Precious Metals alongside Franco-Nevada and Agnico Eagle as core holdings for 'most subscribers' who want lower, more certain beta-style returns instead of doing alpha-like work and taking alpha-like risks.

Cal Everett's takeaways

  • Top takeaway Rule says he has 'a high regard' for Cal Everett, calling him financially astute, a great geologist (which people forget because of his commercial acumen), and a good promoter.
  • He suspects that if Everett is doing good things at Carlin Gold, 'there's a reason' — though Rule personally is not familiar with that specific reason.

Warren Buffett's takeaways

  • Top takeaway Rule endorses Buffett's 'if you can't figure it out on an envelope' critique of MBA spreadsheet models and embraces Buffett's principle of 'get the big things right and worry about the rest afterwards' — which underpins Rule's preference for tier-one deposits over small mines.
  • He references Buffett's self-described biggest mistake — concentrating early efforts in the textile business (Berkshire Mills), which broke over 20 years — to argue that even Buffett only had to work harder on those earlier, riskier deals and would never have made that bet if he had spent more time on securities analysis.

Doug Casey's takeaways

  • Top takeaway Doug Casey is credited with the inversion-style answer to how to guarantee failure in resource investing: the technique is 'gotta hunch bet a bunch' — trusting without verification.
  • Rule notes that Marin Katusa 'used to work for Casey' before going independent, framing Casey Research as the institutional launchpad for Katusa's career as a wholesale promoter.

Ammar Al-Jundi's takeaways

  • Top takeaway Ammar Al-Jundi pushes back on Rule's 2025 Natural Resources Investment Symposium claim that previously orphaned Abitibi deposits would remain uneconomic this cycle, arguing that four decades of road, power, service, and milling infrastructure mean deposits within 30–40 km of an existing mill can be trucked there rather than amortizing their own mill.
  • Rule says the Agnico Eagle / Radisson deal 'confirms this point of view' from Al-Jundi.

Albert Lu's takeaways

  • Top takeaway Albert Lu co-hosts the Q&A and explains the Rule Classroom structure: the base community is free for serious natural-resource investors, while Rule Plus adds priority Q&A access, monthly lectures from Adrian Day, Joe Mazumdar, and Joel Littman, and live streams with Steve Barton.
  • Lu uses Charlie Munger's inversion technique — asking how an investor would guarantee failure — to draw out Rule's 'gotta hunch bet a bunch' answer and his warnings about time-preference mismatches.

Keith Neumeier's takeaways

  • Top takeaway Rule notes that First Mining Gold (Springpole) is led by Keith Neumeier and that 'betting against Keith Neumeier for 30 years has not been a good bet' — though Rule personally still does not own the company.