MIF Shark Tank

Metals Investor Forum Oct 13, 2026 1:00:50

Summary

Eight junior resource companies faced 59 minutes of investor-style questioning from a mining newsletter writer given only 15 minutes' notice.

Equinox Gold says the market has not yet digested its July Orla Mining deal, which added 150,000 ounces of production.

Six of the eight are pre-production explorers whose value hinges on assay results rather than cash flow.

Tungsten near $3,000 per MTU (a 10-kilogram unit) is roughly 10 times its historic norm, and management expects a correction.

Panel voting put Palisades Gold first on a warrant portfolio of $1.7 billion across 330 junior resource companies, with Equinox second.

Key points on Barrick Mining

The Equinox panelist argues a producer of Barrick's scale mostly trades with the gold price rather than with company-specific news, the mirror image of Equinox's own argument that its mid-cap size lets project news move the share price.
Barrick is also named among the majors that have established a footprint in Kazakhstan, where the panel says mid- and large-cap companies are now setting up positions.

Key points on Equinox Gold

Bailey says Equinox completed the acquisition of Orla Mining in July 2026 and argues the gold market has not yet digested it: the deal added roughly 150,000 ounces to this year's production and brought a Nevada construction asset that started in August, a new team and a new chair.
Bailey says 2026 guidance is 895,000 ounces at the midpoint, so cash flow moves almost one-for-one with the gold price, and with $730 million in cash and $1.2 billion of liquidity the company can self-fund the roughly 800,000 ounces of production growth already built into projects it owns.
His central argument is that Equinox sits at a useful size: large enough to have raised the dividend 50% to C$0.09 a share, small enough that a single project can move the stock, with Greenstone wrapping up to add about 50,000-75,000 ounces, a new mine in construction in Nevada and a phase two expansion at Valentine.
Bailey frames the growth model as mine building plus acquisitions: five mines built and four companies acquired since the end of 2017, lifting production from 25,000 ounces to more than 1.1 million ounces and the market cap to roughly C$20 billion.
On costs, Bailey says with the gold price up, costs should not be up apart from items like diesel that the company cannot control, and he points to a group cost-optimization role that solicits savings ideas from the mines and shares them across the portfolio so costs stay low through the gold cycle.

Key points on Hecla Mining Company

Weber says the Keno district has produced more than 220 million ounces of silver over 100-plus years, with perhaps another 70-80 million ounces still in reserve at Hecla's Keno Hill mine.
He credits Silver North's hit rate in part to Hecla's exploration crew, with whom Silver North works closely and who share where in the stratigraphy the best veins sit and the structural architecture that hosts them.

Key points on Amex Exploration

Emperor's CEO John Floryk uses Amex as the Abitibi scale benchmark, noting Amex has drilled 600,000-700,000 metres on its deposits while Emperor has done roughly 15% of that.
He uses that contrast to argue for how much growth potential is still open at Emperor's 1.5 million ounce Duquesne West flagship.

Key points on San Lorenzo Gold Corp

Krujji argues San Lorenzo is still early, with three porphyry discoveries on Chile's Mega Porphyry Belt, a district-scale signal from a newly completed geophysical program, and a market cap of roughly C$650 million.
He says the funded plan is about 50,000 metres of drilling over the coming months to offset the three discoveries and test the numerous induced-polarization anomalies that have not been drilled, with rigs going from one to two to three by the end of the year and more expected after that.
His value anchor is the El Salvador mine sitting beside the Salvador property, which has produced 65 billion pounds of copper and 6 million ounces of gold from the same caldera-collapse setting and is owned by Codelco, a scale he says would be worth many multiples of San Lorenzo's market cap.
He claims a nearly 100% hit rate and attributes it to the technical team in Chile, the quality of the ground and the fact that induced polarization is working for them, likening the company to a racehorse ready to leave the gate.
He points to a rebuilt team, with a newly appointed CEO, new board members each involved in more than $3 billion of transactions and an outside advisor, and to management having funded the company with their own cash since 2012 until two financings completed earlier this year.

Jason Weber's takeaways

Top takeaway Weber's core argument is that Silver North cannot be valued yet because the size of the vein system is not yet visible, and he expects the market to start reading how many ounces the system holds once this summer's assays return.
He credits his hit rate less to personal skill than to an information advantage, with 100 years of Keno district data and a close, open working relationship with Hecla's exploration crew who share where in the stratigraphy the best veins sit and the structural architecture hosting them.
He frames the district context for investors, more than 220 million ounces produced over 100-plus years with perhaps another 70-80 million ounces in reserve at Hecla's Keno Hill mine, while noting Silver North is at the far end of the district but in the same rocks and same style of mineralization.
His entry point argument is a $25 million market cap with about $10 million in the treasury, the shares at $0.25 now against $0.58 when silver hit $120 an ounce, and one target alone potentially worth $25-50 million in ounces with three more targets behind it.
On funding he says Silver North does not need to finance because the treasury covers the rest of this year's drill program and next year's drilling, and he expects in-the-money warrants to be exercised as results come in.

Jamie Keech's takeaways

Top takeaway Keech frames the session as a deliberately cold investment test: he found out who was on the list about 15 minutes beforehand, asks the questions he would use to make his own investment decision, and says he will put his own money behind his vote at the end.
On Kazakhstan he argues it is one of the frontiers that cracked open, with the 2018 mining code based on Western Australia plus fiscal and economic reform drawing majors and mid-caps in, a pattern he likens to Latin America in the early 2000s.
His gold equity view is that Equinox sits at a useful size, paying a dividend while still small enough for single-project news to move the share price, whereas a bigger miner like Barrick mostly trades with the gold price.
On Palisades he reads the warrant book as a way to play gold over the next two years, since about half the warrants expire in 2028, while noting the company may sell out of names it thinks are overvalued.
He argues insider alignment depends on how management acquired shares, pointing to insiders who bought at today's prices feeling the pain of a drop compared with holders of early option or penny-stock shares, and raises the same question about insider ownership levels across the panel.

Rylan Bailey's takeaways

Top takeaway Bailey's main claim is that the market has not yet priced Equinox's July 2026 acquisition of Orla Mining, which added roughly 150,000 ounces to this year's production and brought a Nevada construction asset that started in August, a new team and a new chair.
He expects the Orla deal to follow the Caliber pattern, where the shares languished until quarterly results showed the added production and Equinox ended the year up 150%.
His sizing argument is that Equinox is big enough to have raised its dividend 50% to C$0.09 a share and small enough that project news still moves the stock, with Greenstone adding about 50,000-75,000 ounces, a new mine in construction in Nevada and a phase two expansion at Valentine.
On growth he frames the model as mine building plus acquisitions, with five mines built and four companies acquired since the end of 2017 lifting production from 25,000 ounces to more than 1.1 million ounces and the market cap to roughly C$20 billion.
On costs he says with the gold price up, costs should not be up apart from items like diesel that the company cannot control, and he points to a group cost-optimization role that collects savings ideas from the mines and shares them across the portfolio.

Ashley O'Neill's takeaways

Top takeaway O'Neill says the warrant portfolio is what she is most excited about, $1.7 billion of warrants across 330 companies, framed as a way to play a gold and junior-resource bull market that she believes is still in its early stages and could run three years or more.
On expiry she confirms an average weighted expiration date of November 11, 2028, with about half the warrants expiring in 2028, close to 20% in 2029 and the remainder in 2030 or later, and says they may hold some names longer or take profit where they think a holding is overvalued.
She lists the rest of the value drivers: Made in America Gold, 90% owned and the largest junior land holder in Nevada, Radio Fuels, 100% owned with a 100 million pound uranium and rare earth deposit in Ontario, a portfolio of royalties, and a large gold position.
On liquidity she says Palisades holds $5 million in cash, $100 million of equity it could liquidate and about $100 million of in-the-money warrants, and is unlikely to liquidate any warrants until later on.
On alignment she notes management and insiders hold 45% with another 33% closely held, and that Ross Beatty, who owns 3%, and Pierre Lassonde, who owns 5%, are no longer technically insiders even though Beatty still attends board meetings and remains chair emeritus after stepping down as chairman at the end of July.

Al Krujji's takeaways

Top takeaway Krujji's central claim is that San Lorenzo is just getting started, with three porphyry discoveries on Chile's Mega Porphyry Belt, a district-scale read from a newly completed geophysical program and a market cap of roughly $650 million.
He says the funded plan is about 50,000 metres of drilling over the coming months to offset the three discoveries and test the numerous induced-polarization anomalies that have not been drilled, moving from one rig to two to three by the end of the year and expecting more after that.
His value anchor is the El Salvador mine beside the Salvador property, which has produced 65 billion pounds of copper and 6 million ounces of gold from the same caldera collapse setting and is owned by Codelco, a scale he says would be worth many multiples of his own market cap.
He claims a virtually 100% hit rate and attributes it to the technical team in Chile, the quality of the ground and induced polarization working for them, likening the company to a racehorse ready to get out of the gate.
He points to a rebuilt team, with a newly appointed CEO, new board members each involved in more than $3 billion of transactions and an outside advisor, and to management having funded the company with their own cash since 2012 until two financings completed earlier this year.

Guy Lebel's takeaways

Top takeaway Lebel argues 29Metals is the best kept secret in Ontario, with an Ontario project holding what he calls the largest primary copper resource in the province at the end of the paved road, and what he calls the highest grade open pit project in Canada at Opemiska in Quebec.
His Opemiska plan is to reopen the former Falconbridge underground mines, four shafts and a mill within 2 by 2 km, as a large open pit, with a possible satellite gold pit at the old Crown Pillar mine two km away where two holes returned visible gold and 7.5 metres at 1 oz/t gold with 3 oz/t silver and 1% copper, and which he plans to drill again this winter.
On timelines he says the Quebec project has a preliminary economic assessment with a PFS being prepared, while in Ontario they are drilling a new interpretation of an old ore body and an MRE is possible around this time next year.
He points to scale and funding, about $29 million against a $90 million market cap, a treasury of $18 million split between Ontario and Quebec flow-through, and drilling in both provinces, two rigs in Ontario until PDAC next year and two in Quebec to Christmas before four rigs from Q1.
On alignment and costs he says 29Metals owns the properties outright with about 10% insider ownership, and that the Quebec pre-feasibility is looking at electric trucks for many reasons, including cheaper Quebec power.

Scott Castleman's takeaways

Top takeaway Castleman frames Rackla as a tungsten re-rating story: the metal has risen roughly 10x in about a year and a half, the shares have moved from an average of C$0.18-0.20 over the past year to C$0.245 on Friday, and the market cap is about $50 million.
His price framework is that tungsten is over $3,000 per MTU, he expects a correction to $1,000-1,500 per MTU against a historic norm near $300, and at $1,000 per MTU a 1% grade becomes what he calls a $1,000 rock.
He uses Union Carbide's historic grades of 1.27 at the Canton mine, which shut down just under $300 per MTU, as the yardstick for whether Rackla's open pit potential could work.
On the ground he says they are drilling something that could be open pit-able about 55 km north of the past-producing Canton mine in the Northwest Territories, with road access to within 250 metres of the claims and about 10 km from the deposit.
On funding and interest he says they are closing a flow-through share financing mid-week with $8.5 million of hard cash on hand, that large-scale investors, offtakers and trading houses are showing interest in the tungsten space, and that insiders hold about 30% with the property 100% owned subject only to a 1% NSR and no options on it.