Jeff Clark on Gold's Next Move, Junior Miners & M&A | CSE Podcast

🎙️ Our latest CSE Podcast episode is live - examining the outlook for gold, junior mining stocks, and what could be the next phase of the current commodities bull market.

Host Anna Serin sits down with veteran resource investor and publisher Jeff Clark of The Gold Advisor to discuss why he believes the current gold market is closely tracking the powerful bull market of the 1970s - and what that could mean for investors moving forward.

💡 Spotlight topic: Is there a second half to the gold bull market?

Drawing on historical data, market trends, and decades of sector experience, Jeff explains why he believes precious metals and mining equities still have significant upside potential. He also shares his views on financing activity, M&A opportunities, permitting reforms, and the jurisdictions he believes offer the best opportunities for investors.

📊 In this episode, we cover:
• Why Jeff believes the current gold market is mirroring the 1970s bull market
• The outlook for gold, silver, copper, and uranium
• How strong financings, increased exploration, and rising M&A activity could shape the next phase of the cycle

💬 “I believe there is a second half to this bull market, and the second half is typically bigger than the first half.” — Jeff Clark, The Gold Advisor

With exploration programs underway, financings remaining strong, and merger activity expected to increase, this conversation offers valuable insight into the opportunities emerging across the resource sector.

#AlwaysInvested

#CSEPodcast #Gold #MiningStocks #JuniorMining #PreciousMetals #Copper #Uranium #Mining #CapitalMarkets #CSE

🔴  Subscribe for more great CSE insights and interviews here: https://go.thecse.com/CSETV-Subscribe

#AlwaysInvested

STAY CONNECTED WITH THE CSE 
=============================

📧 - NEWSLETTER: https://go.thecse.com/CSE-Mailing-List-Subscribe
🎧 - PODCAST: https://blog.thecse.com/cse-podcasts/
📸 - INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/canadianexchange/
🤝 - LINKEDIN: https://ca.linkedin.com/company/canadian-securities-exchange
👥 - FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/CanadianSecuritiesExchange/
🐦 - X: https://x.com/CSE_News
📝 - BLOG: https://blog.thecse.com/
🖥 - WEBSITE: https://thecse.com/
📖 - MAGAZINE: https://issuu.com/thecse/docs

©2026 CNSX Markets Inc. All rights reserved.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Hi, my name's Anna Saren. I'm Director of Listings Development with the Canadian Securities Exchange. You're joining us for a CSC podcast. I'm joined today by my wonderful friend and colleague, Jeff Clark with the Gold Advisor. Thank you for joining me, Jeff.

SPEAKER_02 0:17

Thank you for having me, and it's great to be back with you.

SPEAKER_00 0:20

Okay, so you joined us. You come into town for the Metal Investor Forum. And the last time you were here was the Metal Investor Forum at the beginning of the year, which also coincided with VREC. And you're back here for another Metal Investor Forum, which you speak at regularly. So thank you for coming into the studio and chatting with us and providing us with an update. You know, I think the one thing that we've seen at the CSC over the past few months since we last talked is uh this continuous ability for our issuers to raise healthy sums of capital. You know, we're obviously in the winter months, so a lot of our issuers aren't necessarily on the ground yet. Some of them are, depending on where they're drilling. Um, and so we're gonna start seeing, you know, some stuff come through from our issuers as they go into work programs into the summertime. But we saw a lot of our financings were oversubscribed. We saw lots of healthy capital come in from the US and from Europe and other jurisdictions, which is always great to see that come into Canadian companies. We've also seen a lot of movement uh geopolitically with commodities and pricing, but you know, there's still gold is still doing what it was doing when we chatted last. So um, so my big question for you is are we done this bull market, or is there more to come?

SPEAKER_02 1:34

Uh in my opinion, that's easy. There's more to come.

SPEAKER_00 1:37

More to come, great.

SPEAKER_02 1:38

My theme has been uh, is there a second half to this bull market? The answer, in my opinion, is yes. Uh, but it's not just my opinion, it's based on history and trends and facts and data, um, you know, gut feelings, financial conditions, all you throw all that together, and the picture becomes very clear to me that yes, there is a second half to this bull market and it is ahead. Okay. Um what's interesting is I want to point out a chart that I did. Um, a lot of people are saying this is a mimic of the 1970s bull market, not the 2011 bull market. And that's been my opinion for a while now. Okay. But I went back and did a correlation coefficient between this bull market and the 1970s bull market. Okay. From 1976 to 1980, and then from ours, 2024 to present.

SPEAKER_00 2:29

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 2:30

And the the the correlation, believe it or not, is 95%. Wow. That means we're following the 70s bull market 95% of the time on a daily tick basis.

SPEAKER_00 2:44

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 2:44

So this is the 1970s bull market, which has major implications for how we look at things going ahead.

SPEAKER_00 2:51

So okay, so if I remember correctly, um, you know, that was a lead up. We also had um major inflationary pressures that were happening at the same time. Is that is that a similarity you're seeing as well, as kind of a bit of a market, so it's a line, but there's also um it was quite high inflation, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_02 3:10

Well, we we had high inflation, it came down, and now it's uh starting to come back because of the war. You know, all those pressures are pushing on supply, so uh inflation is ticking higher, it'll probably go higher. You know, the only way that's gonna come down is when the war ends.

SPEAKER_01 3:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:26

And um, it'll take some time for it to come back down. Yeah. But you notice the Fed, the U.S. Fed, did not raise interest rates at their last meeting, uh, even though inflation had ticked higher. They think it's under control. You know, whether that's true or not, it remains to be seen. But they didn't raise interest rates.

SPEAKER_00 3:42

You seem skeptical about that.

SPEAKER_02 3:45

You know, uh who knows? Who knows? Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_00 3:48

And so why do you think that they're so um aligned, these two bull markets?

SPEAKER_02 3:53

Uh that's a great question. Um you know, the 1970s bull market was a very firm, solid, uh, ever-marching higher type of bull market. Whereas 2009 was more of a mild bull market. It was a confirmed bull market, but it was more mild. There was no mania involved. Okay. We've already had two mini manias, one last October, one in January. Yeah. We've since come down, you know, pretty hard off the January highs. Okay. Um we're bounced, we've bounced back a little bit, uh, but we are following with a 95% correlation. And by the way, even if you go back to some people say, well, the bull market started in 1970, Jeff, not 1976.

SPEAKER_00 4:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 4:33

So I went back and looked at our current bull market relative to the full decade of the 1970s, and the correlation coefficient there is like 93%. Wow. That's amazing. However, you want to measure this and look at it, yeah. Um, the math says we are very closely correlated to the 1970s bull market, and that has major implications ahead. So either we're two years into what will be a four-year bull market, or we're two years into what will be an eight to ten-year bull market. Wow. So, you know, who knows?

SPEAKER_00 5:06

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 5:06

There are no guarantees.

SPEAKER_00 5:08

My my preference is the latter. Sure.

SPEAKER_02 5:12

You know, but it also implies that there's a bigger move ahead. And that's why I focused on the fact that I believe there is a second half to this bull market, and the second half is typically bigger than the first half.

SPEAKER_00 5:25

Right.

SPEAKER_02 5:25

That is borne out by what gold and gold stocks did in the latter half of the 1970s. Just the mania itself, uh, you know, everything doubled, tripled, and went 10x. There are some that went 20x. Yeah. So all of that is still ahead if we continue to mimic what happened in the 1970s.

SPEAKER_00 5:46

Okay. Okay. So either way, you're seeing that there's still great opportunity in the foreseeable future.

SPEAKER_02 5:51

Absolutely. Especially because we've had this pullback.

SPEAKER_00 5:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 5:55

If you measure the correction that we had in gold and gold stocks, silver and silver stocks from their peak in January to their bottom, yeah. That was a pretty big sell-off. We're above that now, but that sell-off, the extent of that sell-off, yeah, tells me that there's roughly a give or take, a 90% chance that that low was the low for this cycle.

SPEAKER_01 6:16

Wow. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 6:17

Now it doesn't mean we're not going to have down days, and it doesn't mean we couldn't break it. Yeah. But the odds are, based on history, that that signaled the low is in for gold, silver, and the miners.

SPEAKER_00 6:28

Okay. So based on what's going on on, you know, globally right now, is there certain jurisdictions that you like over others?

SPEAKER_02 6:38

Oh, definitely. Uh, my backyard, you know, Nevada, that was is is always rated a top jurisdiction.

SPEAKER_00 6:44

Isn't that is that is one of the top three, isn't it? By the center, it's always in the top. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:48

And for good reason. You know, permitting is easy. There's a la you know, ready labor force, lots of reasons.

SPEAKER_01 6:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:54

Uh the second, in my opinion, would be Quebec. Okay. Uh, I'm not putting them in any order, but Quebec would be one I'm very interested in. Okay. And then once you leave there, you're going down the ladder a little bit. Okay. You know, it doesn't mean we wouldn't invest in jurisdictions outside of there.

SPEAKER_01 7:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:10

But I really like to look. There's so many opportunities in just those two jurisdictions alone that it's you don't need to look elsewhere for 90% of your portfolio. So we're already in the most risky investing sector in the world.

SPEAKER_01 7:27

I know.

SPEAKER_02 7:28

In the junior minor. So why add to that risk with political issues? So again, it doesn't mean we won't look at, you know, I'm in Argentina, I'm in Colombia, you know, I do have some BC investment. So it doesn't mean you don't look there. It just means you don't want to denominate the the bulk of your portfolio to jurisdictions that aren't top tier.

SPEAKER_00 7:50

Um now, do you have any thoughts or opinions on um, you know, both in Canada and the US on permitting? Is that do you have any thoughts there?

SPEAKER_02 7:59

Well, obviously, since Trump come has come in, he has pushed a lot of regulations to either tighten or go away in some cases. Um it's made it easier, and there's been some spillover into Canada. Not necessarily BC.

SPEAKER_00 8:13

Well you say tighten, but but he made it more accessible, right? So hopefully we're giving more permits out to uh potential mining.

SPEAKER_02 8:22

He's made it easier to get a permit. He's shortened the time length to get a permit. Right. It doesn't mean everything is just hunky dory rosy, but it it has improved the sector because it was getting a little out of hand. It was getting a little out of hand. You can't wait around for two years for you know a drill permit or a mining permit, environmental permit. You you know, it can be more efficient than that. And he has served on make not making a political statement, but it has served to improve the environment. And that there's been a spillover in other uh countries and provinces and states as well.

SPEAKER_00 8:56

So well, I mean, I think you know, as an investor, we would like to know that if we're investing so early stage and that there is good drill results and pre-feasibility studies, and you go into finding a resource that you have the opportunity to participate all the way through. Yeah. And it would be a shame to think you get to a certain point and then you kind of are at a standstill, right?

SPEAKER_02 9:15

Yes. So you can, you know, I invest in some pre-discovery, some post-discovery, some resource builders, early, you know, pre-producers leading up to construction. The one category that probably, in all fairness, still takes a while is the development story.

SPEAKER_01 9:31

Right.

SPEAKER_02 9:32

Where they shift completely. They've got a discovery, they got a resource. Now we're gonna shift to permitting and development and engineering and all those things.

SPEAKER_00 9:39

Complex.

SPEAKER_02 9:40

That still takes time.

SPEAKER_00 9:41

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 9:41

And so the stock tends to be a little boring during those times. Right. It's just that that period is moving along a little bit quicker now, generally speaking.

SPEAKER_00 9:50

Okay. Okay, that's great. Um, any other commodities that are of interest? I mean, I know you follow you, so you follow silver and copper and what was uranium. Uranium. Okay. So tell us your thoughts on what you're seeing there.

SPEAKER_02 10:02

Uh silver, I think the audience knows, is much more volatile than gold. It's a such a small market that it doesn't take a lot of capital to impact that price, good or bad.

SPEAKER_00 10:13

It's like a toddler stepsessor, right? It's kind of, you know, it it follows you along, but it does have its sporadic own moves within itself. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 10:21

Yes, it does tend to follow gold, but it's going to be much more volatile, which can be fun on the way up, but you got to be careful on the way down, right?

SPEAKER_01 10:29

Right, right.

SPEAKER_02 10:30

Uh for copper and uranium, they kind of have a similar thing. There's a supply-demand issues. Now there's political support, there is environmental support for all of this. And so you have some tailwinds, some structural tailwinds behind both of those markets that really support them, what I think will be for years to come.

SPEAKER_00 10:50

That's so.

SPEAKER_02 10:50

So I I really like opportunities in copper and uranium as well.

SPEAKER_00 10:54

Okay, that's great. So, as an investor in the space, what would be what would be your go-to investment right now? Is there any, is there a golden child of investments right now as far as it doesn't have to be a specific company, but you're looking for this?

SPEAKER_02 11:09

Oh, well, it it isn't that for me. I I I you know I've written a book on the subject, but but I'm I'm looking for the you know, the starting point is the three legs of the stool, the people, the property, the projects. Um, so it all starts there for me. And I'm not, it's not commodity driven. It's more company driven.

SPEAKER_00 11:29

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 11:30

Because you have to have a company, you're not just investing in the commodity. In fact, you're not investing in the commodity at all. At all. You can't you don't have any access to that commodity whatsoever. Um, so it's a it's company, and you so now you have to look at the structure of that company and does it meet the kinds of things that could give this a double, triple, 5x, 10x return on your investment. That's what you're looking for.

SPEAKER_00 11:54

What are the three Ps again?

SPEAKER_02 11:56

People, yeah, politics, and projects as last, you know, and I do look at them at that in that order. Okay. You know, every once in a while somebody will say, Did you see the drill result of XYZ? And if I hadn't seen it, I don't ask about the drill result. I say, Okay, well, who's behind it and where is it?

SPEAKER_01 12:12

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 12:13

That's the two things I want to know.

SPEAKER_01 12:14

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 12:15

Because if it's in, you know, uh East Africa, yeah, and no offense, anything right there, um, and it's someone whose last company was a marijuana company. Yes, I'm sorry, but I'm just matter how good the drill result was. Yeah, yeah. I'm just not. So and it doesn't mean I'll always be right, but I'm putting the odds in my favor. Yeah, that's the whole idea. I'm reducing my risk and improving my odds of a return. So projects, you want something like my grandma's chocolate chip cookies, big and rich.

SPEAKER_01 12:45

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 12:45

You know, you want people to have done before what you're investing in, yeah. And you want to be in a providing jurisdiction. That those you you do those three things, and you're already 90% ahead of the curve.

SPEAKER_00 12:56

Uh, you know, we see some of the legacy groups that have really um come back over and over again with some of our issuers on the CSE. It's nice to see them so actively involved and engaged. Um, so we continue to see that from you know, from various groups. A lot of the names that everyone knows, you know, we see the Sprouts and you know, um, the Londones and all those guys participate. So that's really nice to see.

SPEAKER_02 13:19

Um And this is a time for the I'm sorry to interrupt, this this is a time to do it, and they have been doing it. Yes, financings are sky high, they they they're oversubscribed. I've even had a hard time getting into some of them, their bought deals, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:32

The amounts they're I've seen a few bought deals, which is something that we don't see very often, but that's right, that's right.

SPEAKER_02 13:39

And so we're seeing more of that. And the amounts that they're getting financed are just you know, really, really strong. You know, a company that had a tough time raising two million five years ago now is oversubscribed at 10 or 20.

SPEAKER_00 13:52

I know, it's great.

SPEAKER_02 13:53

And what that means is there's implications for that. And what that means is assuming they are disciplined with their funds. Yes. Um, and that's why you always have people, always your strongest thing you want to look at. Um, but as long as they're disciplined, you know, we're pro the odds are high that we're probably gonna see more discoveries in this cycle if you're investing in the pre-discovery or the resource builders, I call them. So that's great. It's gonna advance our industry simply because there's more money going into the ground, and that's a great thing for all of us, I think.

SPEAKER_00 14:23

Okay, so um, you know, this is uh something that we I've heard over the years, but I feel like it's starting to change was sell and man go away. I don't think that's a thing anymore. Do you?

SPEAKER_02 14:34

For the mining sector, if you look at gold, yeah, look at the gold price, yeah. It's it's it's has a little volatility and it's basically flat. Okay, but there is one week where historically, over the past 50 years, the gold price has dipped very strongly, and that is your last opportunity to buy for the year. Okay, and that is during the Independence Day holidays in both Canada and the U.S. That week uh gold puts its low in on average. Obviously, the you know, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:05

Who knows what's gonna happen? No crystal ball.

SPEAKER_02 15:08

But after that, that that's it. Okay. That would be the low for the year on average historically. So instead of sell a May and go away, I say stay in May and buy the holiday. That's what I love it. And and history bears that out. So I think that's a good strategy for people to look at, keeping in mind that each year can be different, but that's what the average shows over the last 50 plus years.

SPEAKER_00 15:34

Yeah, amazing. Okay, so you're gonna come back in September for another Metal Investor forum, and I hope you can make the time to come and see us again. What do you think we're gonna be talking about in September? We'll have hopefully some good drill results back from some of our exploration work that's happened over the summer. Yep. What what do you think we're gonna be talking about in September?

SPEAKER_02 15:53

Uh well, uh my crystal ball is broken, but yeah. Oh, great. Sorry. Yeah. No, but there will be lots of drill results out by then. There'll be more coming because you know there's a delay from when they finish drilling to when all the assays are out. So it assays will last throughout the rest of the year. Yeah. So it'll be exciting to see that. And uh there's some juniors out there that are drilling six figures of meters. Uh, you know, I mean, they're it it's almost hard to say they're not gonna grow. They're they're probably gonna grow. Some of these companies are gonna make a discovery, some of these companies are gonna double their resource. Yeah, and so that's very positive, just not just for the industry, but for us as investors.

SPEAKER_00 16:36

Well, and I think maybe sometimes people forget when we see this much capital that's flowing into the exploration space specifically, but the mining space as well, is you know, for the exploration space, because there's starts and stops, and there's times of the year that you can't do it, all of a sudden, if you can raise a bunch of capital, this is buying new equipment, this is hiring staff, this is you know, adding infrastructure. There's a lot, there's a lot that waves that come from that.

SPEAKER_02 17:02

Yes, it also adds to the possibility or the increase in MA mergers and acquisitions. So we've already seen that. It is, and this was part of my talk was one reason or one characteristic of a second half bull market is a a significant increase in MA.

SPEAKER_01 17:20

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 17:21

And the valuation of the companies now versus you know, 10 years ago is much lower. Right. Even when the gold price was m uh much lower than we're lower than than it was then. Yeah. And so that implies that, and I did the math on it, it implies like a seven to eight X return on the better companies that get bought out. That's the kind of potential we're looking at. We didn't have that back in 2011. Right. We have it today because the gold price is so high, valuations are so low, and the majors are just printing money right now. They're printing cash record levels from Barrick, Agnigo, Newmont, all these guys. So uh, you know, they're sitting on so much free cash flow and generating so much free cash flow. I do think we're gonna see a significant uptick in an MA. And so if you like juniors and explorers and developers, I do stick with a big one, the best you can find, because the odds of them getting bought out are much higher now than they were two years ago.

SPEAKER_00 18:20

I love it. I love it. Thank you so much for coming to join me, Jeff. And I hope that you have some time in September and we will uh revisit this conversation.

SPEAKER_02 18:29

We'll make time because the market will be a little different then. We'll see what's what happens between now and then. But all I can tell you is I'm I'm definitely remaining long. I have lots of cash, you know, uh, in case we do get another big sell-off. Yeah, but I am not selling anything. I'm not even taking profits. I'm remaining long. Okay, and I'm strategically adding as we as we go along in this bull market.

SPEAKER_00 18:50

I love it. I love it.

SPEAKER_02 18:51

So remember, stay in May and buy the holiday.

SPEAKER_00 18:53

Stay in May and buy the holiday.

SPEAKER_02 18:55

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 18:55

And um, you and I will reconnect in September and see how things went.

SPEAKER_02 18:59

That's great. I I look forward to it. Thanks, Anna.

SPEAKER_00 19:01

Thank you, Jeff.