Masterclass: Investing in Gold/Silver Mining Stocks (Part 3)

Don Durrett Aug 8, 2026

Summary

Don Durrett walks through his producer, developer, and explorer checklists for getting an edge in gold/silver mining stocks.

Producers must score 7-9 on his 10-point rubric: long-life flagship mines, clean balance sheets, and at least a 5x bagger at his $7,000 gold.

Developers must check all six boxes: NPV at 2x CapEx or better, 25%+ IRR at spot, and at least a 10x bagger to absorb dilution.

Explorers shine in bear markets because they are inelastic; buy gold in the ground below 1% of spot and enter early in the Lassonde curve.

Specific calls: Alamos Gold and Kenros screen as 6x baggers in the current correction, while Vizsla Silver's NPV runs at 5x its CapEx.

The host uses Agnico Eagle as the on-screen example for his GoldStockData ratings, showing a 235A+ upside-downside quality rating

The host pegs Alamos as a current six-bagger upside in his framework but explicitly notes he does not own the stock as of the August 2026 recording
He frames the six-bagger rating as a function of an ongoing correction in gold, which he places near $4,300 per ounce

The host owns B2 and accepts its Mali exposure because the company is diversified, with roughly 50% of revenue coming from its Mali operations
He draws a hard line at single-mine Mali-only producers, which he calls a no-go, but says B2's broader asset base clears that bar

The host pegs Coeur as a current six-bagger upside opportunity in the ongoing gold correction, with gold near $4,300 per ounce
He separately flags Coeur as lacking a near-term growth pipeline, with its silver project described as far off and nothing visible in the next three years

The host groups Hecla with Coeur as a producer with no growth pipeline visible in the next three years

The host cites Discovery Silver as an example of a developer staffed with a strong management team, pointing to Tony McCouch's track record there
He uses McCouch's prior producer experience to illustrate his rule that the best developer teams are former operators from major producers

The host owns K92 but criticizes the company as too conservative, having stayed content with a single-asset, drill-focused model for years
He concedes the drill-only strategy has worked out well for K92 but says he prefers more aggressive acquirers he calls 'sharks'

The host highlights Vizsla as a rare developer whose NPV is running at roughly 5x its CapEx, well above his 2x minimum and 3x 'excellent' thresholds

Top takeaway The host's central thesis is that buying gold and silver miners is partly a bet on the metals themselves, so the only edge an investor can control is the price paid and the quality of the underlying asset
He sorts names into a three-stage framework — producers, developers, and explorers — and applies a separate checklist to each, arguing explorers are a bear-market-only trade because their inelastic valuations cannot keep up with elastic producers and developers in a bull market
On producers he requires long-life assets of at least eight years, a flagship mine of two million ounces or more, a clean balance sheet with no net debt preferred, management execution plus shareholder quality, and at least a five-bagger upside calculated against his $7,000 gold assumption
On developers he insists all six boxes be checked — NPV at roughly two times CapEx or better, an IRR of at least 25% at spot, a minimum ten-bagger upside to absorb expected dilution, a mining-friendly jurisdiction, a strong management team preferably staffed by former producer operators like Tony McCouch, a credible path to production, and meaningful insider ownership
On explorers he applies only two rules — buy ounces in the ground at less than 1% of spot, ideally 0.5%, and buy early in the Lassonde curve immediately after an 'excellent' discovery hole of at least 200 gram-meters for gold or 2,000 for silver, ideally north of 5,000