“Watch Out for the Ambulance Chasers” as Tungsten Heats Up | Adshead-Bell

Ahead of the July 4th weekend, Nicole Adshead-Bell, Director of Cupel Advisory, joins Kitco Mining’s Digging Deep with Paul Harris for a U.S.-focused look at the critical minerals race, the tungsten boom, new silver listings on U.S. markets, and the projects testing whether governments are serious about supply security.

Adshead-Bell says Washington is right to focus on processing as China dominates critical mineral supply chains, noting, “It’s not just the mines that we need; it’s the downstream processing.”

She also warns investors not to chase every hot tungsten story. “Watch out for the ambulance chasers,” Adshead-Bell said, arguing that real projects need strong geology, credible recoveries, saleable concentrates, infrastructure, and the right people.

The discussion also covers illegal gold mining in Latin America, why she would not bet against a Cobre Panama restart, new silver listings on the NYSE, AbraSilver’s Diablillos project in Argentina, and renewed exploration momentum in Nevada.

Recorded July 2, 2026.

Don’t forget to subscribe to the Kitco Mining & Kitco News YouTube channels to stay up to date on the latest industry news and interviews.

00:42 - U.S. Critical Minerals Push and Processing
03:14 - China Supply Chains, Permitting, and Copper
08:16 - Tungsten Spotlight: Nevada and Strategic Metals
09:48 - How to Invest in Tungsten Stocks
14:27 - Latin America Politics and Mining Stability
17:21 - Illegal Gold Mining and Security Risks
20:59 - Cobre Panama Restart Debate
24:07 - New U.S. Silver IPOs and Retail Demand
27:04 - Argentina’s Mega Silver Project
30:51 - Nevada Gold, Silver and Comstock Revival
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Disclaimer: The views expressed in this podcast are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this podcast do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Kitco Mining, Digging Deep with Paul Harris.

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Hello and welcome back to Kitco Mining's Digging Deep with me, Paul Harris, in which we take a closer look at some of the most interesting news items in the mining and exploration space. Today is Thursday, July the 2nd, and joining me today is Nicole Attit Bell of Couple Advisory. Nicole, welcome back to Kitco. Thank you very much for having me again, Paul. Happy July the 4th. We are coming into the July the 4th weekend, and because of that, I thought it would be nice to have a US focus in today's episode. But we won't be talking about the 2 billion US dollars that President Trump has earned since taking office, according to reports. But let's get into some of the things that are important to his administration, and that means critical minerals. And we're going to start with Energy Fuels, which received a conditional 725 million US dollars financing commitment from the Department of War, US Office of Strategic Capital, via a 20-year loan to support the planned expansion of critical minerals processing capabilities at Energy Fuels White Mesa Mill in Utah, and the planned rare earth element metals and ally facility to be constructed elsewhere in the US. Funding like this shows the government is perhaps looking to address the lack of US processing. That's the big elephant in the room. And this may be the correct strategy as seen by China imposing export controls on US rare earth element companies, MP materials, and USA rare earth, restricting the access to Chinese products and technologies which could have commercial or military applications. Suggesting perhaps that the US is adopting the right strategy to try and reduce China's dominance in critical minerals and critical minerals processing. Deep breath. Nicole, in broad terms, how would you rate the US government's response to the US critical minerals narrative and China's dominance? Is trying to build out the processing capacity. Is that where really the game is?

SPEAKER_01 1:56

You and I have touched on this before, Paul, in the sense that you've had governments around the world start actually talking about mining like it's a good thing and uh allowing, maybe embracing this understanding that the the world as we know it is is uh the quality of it is is relies on the products of my of the mining industry, but it's not just the mines that we need, it's the downstream processing. And I think what this shows is governments and particularly America and leading the charge in this is understanding that it's not just about mining the products, it's about having control of downstream pro downstream processing. And when you look to China, essentially every sea, every key critical mineral, copper, tungsten, rare earths, they dominate both, they dominate the downstream processing. So I think this is a very, very good sign. And I just wanted to point out one thing, actually. When you look around the world and the Western governments that are starting to talk about this thing called critical minerals and starting to wake up to the fact that maybe not the end of globalization, but security of supply is paramount to the quality of life of your country, is I think America has been a leader in this and are really putting their money, seriously putting their money where their mouth is. And if you look at what other countries have done as a consequence of America really highlighting that critical mineral uh security of supply, if you will, is paramount to a country's ongoing economic independence. I think it's a really, really positive thing.

SPEAKER_00 3:17

Okay, now the US, as the US beats up its processing, albeit from a very low level. Will the geopolitical fight then move on to securing resources to put into those processed plants? An analogy may be the copper space where China dominates the smelting of copper concentrates. The US has been reacting to that, responding to that. But um, you know, there's a there's a fight on for copper concentrates. Will we see that fight, that geopolitical fight even extend to other critical minerals?

SPEAKER_01 3:48

I would say yes. Uh in in some ways, it it's it's like you don't need traditional wars anymore, is is how to control a country or how to get where you want is to really cut off supply of those critical minerals. And let's face it, we're all very, very used to having an abundant amount of cheap stuff. And and I think what China has done, and and again, we've just touched on this in many occasions, is China really has a 50 to 100 year view in my in uh view in terms of how they're looking forward. And so what they're doing because of that, that was the the Belt and Roads initiative in in throughout Africa. It's about building out those long-term supply chains, it's about downstream processing, and finally the world is waking up to the fact that we have given a lot of this power voluntarily to China because NIMBYism dominates globally. Mining is not looked upon favorably, and neither is smelting. And and I think what the US is is is waking up to, and hopefully other countries such as Canada follow suit, that it's it's not just having the security of supply. So, yes, I think that will impact their geopolitical views. You've got in Latin America, some of the biggest, obviously, copper-producing nations in the world, is ensuring that you maintain good relations and that you're not only building your downstream infrastructure, but you have a security of supply. But having said that, and we have again touched on this and maybe beating this point home again, America has some very, very, very large copper deposits that are stuck in this permitting quagmire. And so it's not just about giving money to specific projects, it's also uh allowing capital markets, the public markets can fund a lot of these projects as long as they have a surety on permitting timelines. And so, again, what governments can do to really smooth the advancement of these critical minerals in each of their countries is to have a lot more clarity on permitting timelines, uh, First Nations agreements, and etc. And so I think America could also look to its own large deposit base and be able to advance those projects more quickly. And obviously, the best security of supply is not just dealing with other countries, is producing it internally.

SPEAKER_00 5:55

Given how the nature of warfare is evolving with drone warfare, first-person drones, and these are controlled by fibre optic cables. It does seem a little bit strange that we haven't yet really heard any stories about a uh a global fight for access to supplies to the ultra-high quality silica sand that you need to build uh to construct fibre optic cables. Maybe that's some point in the future.

SPEAKER_01 6:19

I mean, that's a really good point. And I what what astonishes me to some degree is myself and a number of people, we do these capital markets for geoscientist short course, and what we've observed at some of that, and normally associated with the PDASE or Roundup, and there has been a larger and larger contingent of government representation that are coming to these short courses so that they can understand, I think, the mining industry. And what's a little scary from my perspective is that you have these policy makers or these individuals that are contributing towards policy decisions at a very, very high level in government, but they don't really have an understanding, if you will, of what our industry does. And so for me, maybe one of the best things that we could see is instead of governments, at the end of the day, I don't think governments need to, governments don't have a history of making very, very positive long-term investment decisions. I don't actually think that that's that's their role. What they need to do is ease the pathway for the public markets, public companies to fund this. There's a huge amount of capital circling around the world that is looking for hard assets. And you've seen with the advent of AI, big generalist funds, that's why they're looking at mining, because AI can have a less of an influence, if you will, by taking away mining jobs. In fact, the more AI increases, the more the demand for those critical minerals because of the immense power usage that's that's associated with that. And so as I step back, it would be good to see governments perhaps having a better understanding of what it is that they need to do rather than chasing one critical mineral over here and another over here, is what we need to see is a 360-degree view of your policy approach, if you will, rather than just someone in their ear saying, well, what about this mineral or what about this commodity? I don't necessarily see a very cohesive approach to ensuring security of supply and security downstream processing from governments, and that's from the US government, Canadian government, European governments, and of course Australian governments as well.

SPEAKER_00 8:14

It does seem that the effort is very much focused on a mineral by mineral, um, on a mineral-by-mineral basis. Uh speaking to someone earlier this week who was invited to Washington to talk about tungsten as part of a tungsten round table there. The government, the US government is trying to get its head around on what tungsten is and what it's where it comes from and things like that. And uh, some of the feedback is there starting from a very, very low base of knowledge. Um, Guardian Metal Resources is potentially one of the beneficiaries of this. It announced a pre-feasibility study for its pilot mountain project in Nevada for a 4,000 tonne per day processing operation to produce about 16,000 tonnes per year of tungsten over an eight-year mine life. Initial capital investment there of about 280-290 million US dollars. First production potentially at the end of 28. Base case this gives a 60% post-tax IRR with a one-year payback. At spot, they improved to 102% and six months with a whopping rate $1.4 billion of net present value. Um, interesting disclosure included there on pricing. Spot tungsten is trading at about 304,000 US dollars per ton, um, which reminds me a little bit of an old Chris Rock routine where he talks about if bullets were really expensive, there would be no more innocent bystanders. Um, Nicole, some people have said that uh tungsten is the new lithium, but you know, I think they're very, very different markets with very different dynamics and drivers. Tungsten seems to be coming more and more investable in a way that perhaps lithium isn't. And many companies have jumped on this particular bandwagon. Um, as an investor, what are the things you look out for and steer away from when you're looking at something like the tungsten space?

SPEAKER_01 9:59

I think you do have to be very cautious because we see this time and time again in our sector. Obviously, it's very cyclical driven. You have these niche metals, if you will, that and they run really, really hard in any, you have the the the ambulance chaser section of the of the industry that will maybe it was a gold company two years ago and now is a tungsten company. So, number one, I'd be watching out for the ambulance chasing behaviour. The issue with these niche metals is there's a lack of transparency around pricing. And so truly trying to understand the long-term supply-demand drivers of these sectors, I think is somewhat challenging. So you have to be very, very careful about jumping on the bandwagon and then riding that in perpetuity because you want to often see these parabolic ups and then these parabolic downs. Yes, tungsten is a very, very different market to lithium. Lithium was a very large battery market story, if you will. Whereas tungsten is smaller, it's niche, it's strategic, it's located with defense, hard metal. So what I'd be looking for is reality. So uh recovery assumptions, the quality of the resource, the concentrate specifications, whether or not that concentrate is saleable, uh, if there are legitimate groups that are willing to do off takes with those, with those particular companies and around their assets. And so uh companies that just say, well, we've got some tunks and look at us and then see their share prices go up materially because of that, they're the ones to run screaming from. And just uh obviously, we're on a we're talking about the US here moving towards July 4th weekend. And obviously, congratulations to all our American friends out there. But we just had Canada Day yesterday here in here in Canada where I'm based. And one of the largest, best, highest grade tungsten deposits in the world, it's not a new deposit, it's MACTIM in the Northwest Territories close to the border with the Yukon owned by Fireweed Zinc. Now, that is a deposit that's been known for an extraordinarily long time, and really the challenge around advancing that in a more material quick way, it's it's around infrastructure. So given that if you have anything that produces a concentrate, you can fly your gold out, uh, but you can't fly concentrate out. And so it's also what's the infrastructure constraints? And again, this is where governments can help. Not supplying money, not acting as an equity investor. I generally think that doesn't work out that well, but putting money into long-term infrastructure projects that can open up these deposits that have been known about for a very, very long time and would be a material benefit, for instance, to Canada and the States. And so, again, watch out for the ambulance chases, and the same with every single commodity. You're looking at tungsten, you want geological quality followed by people quality.

SPEAKER_00 12:29

Now, in terms of the ambulance chases, and I'm going to make a crash generalization here, all the tungsten companies have at least a general on their board or as a special advisor. Is that just smoke and mirrors, or is there some very real value add there?

SPEAKER_01 12:44

I think to some degree, smoke and mirror mirrors ultimately boards should be comprised of directors that are fit for purpose for the evolution of that particular company in the stage of its business. And I think that you you you see again we patterns of behaviour that occur in our sector. And when one company does it, you you commonly see see other companies that follow. I I'm not sure what a general or a retired general what they really bring to the table. Maybe they can bring you some colour around defence, but uh the the whole defence applications and maybe some penetration into the defence industry, for example, in the US. But ultimately you you do want to see a fit-for-purpose board, and that's it's that's about the the realistic evolution of that business. And and you just have to be very, very wary as as an investor. You know, we've seen it in uranium on numerous occasions, we've seen it with the rare earths, we've seen it with the lithium. Uh, you just these these these niche metals where people they they sound sexy, everyone starts investing in them, and they don't really understand the reality of of where that deposit or that management team can take it. And also not just uh it's it's the timelines associated with this increase in uh in underlying commodity price and how quickly can uh pulling my uh headphones out, uh, how quickly can uh a company benefit from that? So again, you need to have a degree of caution and it's really a lack of understanding and transparency around these niche medals as to how you invest in them. And remember, it's not only buying, you always have to be you always have to be making that sell decision as well and taking money off the table.

SPEAKER_00 14:22

Well, I understand uh US President Donald Trump has been buying a lot of stock, and that's one of the reasons why he's made uh two billion dollars over the past uh year or so, but we won't get more into that. Good news for President Trump, though, and his hemisphere of influence, as Peru and Colombia will have right-leaning presidents, both by the narrowest of margins in the runoff votes that were tight as a gnat's chuff, as we say in Britain, with Peru's Keiko, Fujimori, and Colombia's Albalado de l'Esprie enjoying less than a 1% margin of victory. And when you factor in the first round vote, they perhaps represent just 15 to 30 percent of their electorate, which is far from being a strong mandate. But it's perhaps enough for President Trump to hold court over an increasing suite of presidents in Latin America. Um Nicole, I imagine President Trump is very pleased with the way the election cycle in Latin America is shaping up. Um, as I mentioned, the majorities aren't great, the mandates aren't particularly very strong, but the person sitting in the main chair is increasingly right-leaning rather than left-reaning. Good for Trump.

SPEAKER_01 15:28

I personally think that maybe right and left, though, those terminologies, they don't necessarily mean the same things that they used to. Uh, and you see this propensity to label things extreme right when someone doesn't like it and vice versa. So I'd be less focused on on maybe the political leanings of the of those governments and more focused on uh whether or not there's stability around their institutions, around permitting, around property rights, around regulations. And and if you have a well-functioning country with uh a strong supportive environment for developing minds, I think all those things are only the doesn't matter which government, um, they can only be good for the US and for those governments that are looking towards securing their long-term supply. And so, for example, in Brazil, you've had right-leaning, you've had left leaning, uh, you've had the same in Chile. And to some degree, the great things about those two countries is it's very, very, very difficult to change mining law and to change the fiscal regimes within those mining laws. Much more difficult than it is to do to change taxes and royalties in Australia and Canada and the States, for example. And so for me, it's less about maybe the political affiliations of the government, it's the ease of of which you with which you can do business and the transparency with which you can do business in that country. And so, for example, in Chile and Brazil, you need a majority of uh the two houses to be able to change laws. You do you do not need that in in Australia or or Canada or the state. So again, this idea of risk and how do we look at risk, it it it's uh you need to understand the the individual countries regulating and permitting environment. And obviously, security risk has a has a big part to play in that. So, yes, I think positive maybe from a news narrative and and media sound bites, but it's more understanding what's going on on the ground in countries that is the most important towards uh the US and its external security of supply policies.

SPEAKER_00 17:24

Well, thank you. Let's dig a little bit deeper into that because uh Colombia's incumbent president, Gustavo Petro, he's not going quietly. He's just uh, or his environment ministry has just created uh a natural resource, he's given the natural resource sector a big kiss goodbye by placing an area the size of Sweden off limits to oil and mining. In fact, its entire Amazon biome, nobody's ever done this before. Just been reading about that this morning. One president in the region who might want some help from the Don is Daniel Naboa in Ecuador in his fight against organized crime and drug trafficking after the keto office of its mining regulation agency, which is called ARCOM, was damaged by two explosive devices. The speculation is that these were placed by criminal gold miners as Arcrom works to tackle illegal gold mining in the country. The attack happened hours after ARCOM carried out operations against criminal mining in El Oro province. Illegal gold mining, criminal gold mining is a problem that affects several countries in Latin America: Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil. Um this is becoming a big, big issue. And recent news reports have said criminal gold from Latin America has made its way into the US Mint and the US reserves. Um and it clearly involves very organized crime. So, Nicole, um, do you think uh will criminal gold become a foreign policy stick for the US to use to help effectively get consent amongst the countries in Latin America, perhaps in a similar way as the war on drugs has done in previous decades?

SPEAKER_01 19:01

Well, to some degree, mining is almost the perfect money laundering approach for criminal enterprises. And I'm I'm surprised that there's to some degree there's not more of it. I think it's incredibly difficult. Um, in the same with conflict diamonds, that was a small market, you could have more an ability to understand uh uh where things are sourced from. I think it's a lot more challenging in the gold market. So I'm not entirely sure how you would go about uh implementing um uh sort of conflict gold versus legitimate gold, if you will, but just a touch on illegal mining. It look, it it's it's a real problem. And it occurs uh, as you said, throughout Latin America and Africa. You you very rarely see it perhaps in more rarely see it in uh in Anglophone countries. But I will say it's amazing when you go to the Yukon and you see all the placer mining that occurs in the Yukon and the incredible, very obvious impact that has to the environment. And then you look at expiration where it takes you six months to get a drilling permit, but you can have things happen very, very easily with placer mining. And I I I can't imagine that there's not some uh there's not some illicit backing in that as uh, if you will, probably a little bit more, a little bit quieter. But uh as governments, you you you need to be incentivizing the local governments to be cracking down on legal mining. And it's not just the flow of money and the potential money laundering linked to drug cartels that's the issue, it's also a massive amount of environmental degradation that occurs. And then legitimate mining entities, public mining companies get blamed for that, but you fly across anywhere in the Amazon, and where you see swathes of devastation, that is not public mining companies, that's illegal miners. And so it's there's I think there's a two-pronged attack there, but there's a lot of bribery and corruption that happens around these entities. And so I think it's a really, really complex problem and it's not going to be solved easily, but it really requires buy-in from governments and the regulatory agencies with probably some international support.

SPEAKER_00 20:59

Absolutely a very, very difficult uh problem to tackle there. Panama is also um looking to get more within the arc of influence of US President Donald Trump and is perhaps keen to supply the US with copper, the copper it needs, uh, via the restart of the Crawley Panama mine, which is inching towards a possible restart after Panama published a final audit report that found that the project complied with most of its environmental, legal, fiscal, and operational commitments, with an overall completion rate of uh about 88%. Minister of Commerce and Industries, Julio Morto, said Panama deserves an informed debate, not a debate driven by slogans. Nicole, it looks very much, it looks and sounds very much like the government of Panama wants first quantum's Cobri Panama mine back in production and bank back anchoring the economy. Um, but it does want the public optics to be spotless to allow that to go through. Um, would you bet against Copy Panama coming back into production?

SPEAKER_01 22:01

No, absolutely not. Just economically speaking, obviously it's a very, very material asset to the company. I think the numbers were around US $5 billion in gross metal value if you use today's copper and gold prices. And that's a material 5% of GDP to the government. So I can understand why the government really wants to have that mine restart. And you could potentially argue that the previous government they didn't deal well with when it became a very hot topic. And arguably that was also at the door of first quantum in that they weren't really managing their 360-degree community stakeholder relations very well with their local communities and with government entities. And it's very, very easy with mining for outside NGOs, etc., to come in and really uh re uh play on that fear that people have with mining because we have an industry has done an incredibly poor job of selling ourselves if you well, if you will. Look, there is never going to be a hundred percent buy-in on anything. So I think there needs to be realism on both sides and every action that we take as humans, we will impact an environment, the environment. Um you could argue that elephants impact the environment when they go rampaging through Botswana, reaching up trees left, right, and centre. So it's about how do you try and mitigate those impacts as much as you as much as you can, but also educating, proactively educating governments, local communities, and NGOs about what it is that you do. And and when you look at mining, we just we just get such a bad rap when it's probably the most scrutinized, it's the most heavily regulated industry in the world, but it also has a very, very positive economic impact. And that's not just in the supply of rural commodities that we need as a civilization, but it's also in terms of a direct economic impact to local communities, etc. So I think there does need to be open and transparent conversations, but mining companies uh need to be a lot more proactive about trying to influence that messaging, if you will, and and and not hiding and letting uh people who are anti-mining dictate to us what our industry is, because I think we have an industry that you can be very, very proud of. We just need to be more proactive in the education side of it.

SPEAKER_00 24:10

Okay, um sticking with our July the 4th theme, two new precious metals names on the New York Stock Exchange. Silver is also a critical mineral, and Thomas Kaplan and his Electrum Group have been busy IPO ing two companies with silver assets in Idaho and Guanajuato via Sunshine Silver and Cinder. Cinder is the most recent and raised 230 million US dollars, a sizable chunk below the 345 million it was potentially looking to raise. Nicole, two new well-supported silver names on the New York Stock Exchange. How important is it for your investors, US investors, to have access to silver names like these?

SPEAKER_01 24:48

I think very important. I think US investors are the most enthusiastic, particularly retail silver investors in the world. And really they play an outside interest uh influence in terms of valuation, and sometimes larger companies will ignore retail, but they really they can uh they can be an immense benefit if you get the love of the retail, and particularly the love of the silver retail. So you have a paucity of pure play silver players on uh the New York Stock Exchange, and so I think this is a very positive. Uh, you've got backed by Tom Kaplan and the Electrum Group, obviously been incredibly successful. I'd say Thomas Kaplan's is is up there in terms of his promotional ability with Robert Friedland, and you just look at some of the names that that that they've been involved in over the years. So a very, very good natural resource investing group. They understand the market, they uh they're they understand timing. I would say to your point about uh that that they raise a little bit less money than perhaps they wanted to, is traditionally you never want to go public in June or July because most of the northern hemisphere is on holidays. Uh, so it's a little bit harder to get attention, and you've had that with this perhaps this retracement in the precious metals prices. So you can't control the timing that we're driving forward to an IPO, but I think that this is a I think it's it's still very positive for the sector as a whole.

SPEAKER_00 26:08

I incidentally uh had a conversation with Ruler earlier this week, and he's been doing a lot of promotion, a lot of interviews for his his conference, the Rule Symposium, next week, which I'll be at and which Kitko will be filming at. And he he mentioned he's he's one of the latest video interviews he's just done is with a pastor that has a newsletter, and he's based in Texas, and he said his congregation is very keen on buying silver and buys a lot of silver. So uh a couple of new names on the New York Stock Exchange should have uh quite a ready audience there. Um I'm unsure if I sorry.

SPEAKER_01 26:42

No, no, no, I was just gonna say I should have also added that uh Rick Rule is also one of the best uh communicators and and uh ability to espouse on the sector in a very, very positive way for it. But I just back to I I can't emphasize enough about do not ignore US retail. Uh you do that at your peril because very, very enthusiastic mining investors and and a particular affiliation for silver and gold.

SPEAKER_00 27:08

Okay. Um I'm not sure if I can find a tenuous link to the US for this next item, but it is silver. Abra Silver announced a feasibility study for its Diablios project in Southern Catamarca to produce uh 20 million ounces per year of silver equivalent for the first five years, with life for mine production about 10 million ounces a year for 25 years, all in sustaining cost of about 20 US dollars per ounce. The company has also received environmental impact assessment approvals from the governments of Catamarca and Salta, which means it now only needs to finance the project. The project is part of the RIGI, the investment regime there of government uh of Javier MLA's government. Javier MLA um a bit of an ally for US President Trump, so maybe I found a connection there. Um Nicole, this is a big silver project. To what extent or not does the silver market need a project like this?

SPEAKER_01 28:00

I think the market does. The market needs large financiable silver projects. Primary silver supply is limited. Most silver companies there that are that are marketed at silver companies are actually either gold or copper or polymetac or polymetallic companies. And so one of the reasons I think why silver equities tend to trade at a premium in an upwards-rising silver market versus their gold, uh, their gold peers is it's it's that paucity of really good silver assets. And so I think that Diablos has scale and it's got silver torque. And so, as you said, the next test is financing, but it's also not just a test for that project, it's a test for Argentina as a whole. And and maybe Argentina is is one of those countries that can give some lessons to the rest of the world with the with the Riggi, uh, with Malay opening it up. It's it's it's a country that is over-endowed with natural resources, but the ability for companies to take those resources through the development pathway has been severely limited because of an attitude to mining that's predominated over the last decade. So I think this is not just positive for the silver sector, I think it's also a potentially very positive test for Argentina that it really is open and doing business. And again, it shows when a government decides to facilitate uh the investment and advancement of metals and mining projects in their country, they can make that happen very, very quickly. They just have to have the commitment and maybe the political wherewithal to actually make those decisions.

SPEAKER_00 29:27

So it does seem that um Argentina really does need this project to show that it's its riggy regime, it's real, that its intention to develop its mining sector is real, and that it's uh a willing and a good partner for the mining sector to develop projects.

SPEAKER_01 29:43

Absolutely. And and again, back to the economic impact is, and this is where the the the industry needs to be actively educating, is it is amazing when you go into an area and that's maybe an area that's that's that's economically deprived, and you just see this very, very material impact when not even a mine is being built, but when an exploration company is there and and and materially investing in local communities. And again, you don't see Amazon when it goes and builds a new Amazon distribution center, which has a material economic, uh material environmental impact. These are very, very large buildings. Um, they're paying their employees a minimal wage, they're not investing in local communities, they're the mining industry, just by the nature of its beasts, to get to get in uh local acceptance. There is always very overt investments into local communities. These are high-paying jobs versus the average anywhere in the world. If you work in mining, you're generally getting paid more, and then there's a multiplier effect. And so I think if I was Malay too, I would be looking at this and just trying to ensure that this process is as smooth as possible so that you can hold it up as a flagship. Look, this is what mining can do if it's done properly.

SPEAKER_00 30:54

Excellent. Well, let's bring things back around into the US. And with that, um, I'll use the early this week. I interviewed uh BlackRock Silver, Andrew Pollard, the CEO there. Um, they've got uh the Tonopar West Silver project uh in the Walker Lane trend in Nevada. That uh video will soon be on our YouTube channel, so please look out for that. And uh I also want to sort of uh bring things to a close, if I may, by talking about another couple of projects in the US that have recently put out uh some important news. Uh, congratulations to Integra Resources, who announced an updated feasibility study for its Florida Canyon mine in Nevada, uh, looking to increase production there from about 70,000 ounces a year to 82,000 ounces a year, and to Paramount Gold Nevada for an initial assessment it did on its sleeper gold project also in Nevada. They're looking at producing about 65,000 ounces a year there for 17 years. And of course, a final shout out to McKay Gold and Silver. I just interviewed them. That again will be uh available on our YouTube channel soon. They IPO'd they raised more than 60 million US dollars, they've put together the Comstock District near Reno at the northwest of the Walker Lane trend in Nevada. That's looking very exciting. Uh Nicole, let me sort of bring you in here. Um, the Comstock is one of those very, very famous names in US gold production history. Um, they've got a great team, they've raised a lot of money, they've got a uh very big high-grade target there. The Comstock produced more than 8 million ounces of gold and almost 2 million ounces of silver. That's looking like it's going to be very, very interesting.

SPEAKER_01 32:33

It is, and I think what you're seeing with all this activity in Nevada is obviously it's a very, very long-duration mining jurisdiction, but we're still finding world-class assets there, whether it's Anglo Gold with silicon and now renamed Arthur, with this resurgence of activity and also tying up old areas, being able to consolidate multiple contiguous land positions into one package, that really makes it easier to do the work. And as you said, it's uh with the Comstock load, it's a bunch of very smart geological mines that are involved in that. It's a proliferic district, and it's also about stepping back and applying some new geological thinking. And I think what what Nevada can show you to the rest of the world in a mature mining district with a supportive regulatory environment, uh, with a transparency around permitting, albeit I would say longer and longer lead times for it to be able to get your permits for certain things, but it shows that even in mature dis uh jurisdictions, there's there's a lot of expiration excitement to come. And so absolutely agree. Congratulations to all those companies. And it's great to see with George Salamis and the team at Intregura coming out with that, uh, been able to increase their production from an asset that's been around for a very, very long time. So again, it just shows you can take, if you've got a bunch of smart people and a very good management team, that they can continue to extract and ring value out of uh what would be arguably considered to be old assets and sometimes labeled tired old assets.

SPEAKER_00 33:59

Absolutely. I think one thing that really came out of the conversation I had with Darwin Green, CEO of MAKE Gold and Silver today, was that uh that historical production that mentioned came out of the Comstock load. They've got a uh a blind target which they called Occidental. It looks to be uh, you know, it's a mile or two away, it's about three miles long, it looks to be very, very similar. That's one of the things they're looking to drill in to see if uh it is there or not. Very exciting news if that hits. Um that's it for this week. Nicola Tabel, thank you very much for joining me.

SPEAKER_01 34:31

Thank you very much for having me.

SPEAKER_00 34:34

And to all our viewers, have a great July the 4th holiday weekend. And if you like what you see, don't forget to hit that subscribe button. You can catch me and the KitCo team next week at the 2026 Rule Symposium in Bokaraton, Florida. Until then, I'm Paul Harris, digging deep for Kitco Mining.

SPEAKER_02 34:51

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