Jamie Strauss: The Recent Move in Gold Tells Me We Are in a New Bull Market
Jamie discusses how the commodity space has grown and changed over his career. The sector is steadily advancing and beginning to take advantage of machine learning and automation. Also, the financing of projects now requires a lot more due diligence as sophisticated investors and streaming companies require it. All of these changes are making the sector very exciting.
The mining industry endures some of the most challenging market cycles, and some companies have become very strong from experiencing these challenging conditions. The world needs more mineral exploration, and overall this industry is impressive in its robustness.
A bull market is defined as a twenty percent move, and we are indeed in one if you look at where gold has come over the past year. Geopolitically the next year or so will be interesting particularly with the upcoming U.S. elections. Also, what will happen with China, Iran, and Brexit and how will all of this uncertainty affect gold.
Uranium is far less understood than gold and can have several trends that together create a massive bull market. On the other hand, gold is well followed by most investors and is less likely to experience such a confluence of events.
Mining is one of the most complex industries, and in the past, there was not much sophistication with financing. We are now past that period, and due diligence is now crucial. Jamie is working on a platform that leverages the talents of various mining professionals to build a much more cost-effective approach to conducting due diligence.
Time Stamp References:
0:40 – Early career and industry change.
4:00 – Market cycles and funding.
6:00 – Bull market and investor interest.
8:40 – Uranium market compared to gold.
12:00 – Research, financing and doing due diligence.
Talking Points From This Week’s Episode
• How the mining industry is changing.
• Only well-managed companies have survived.
• The industry is quite robust.
• Uranium is more volatile than gold because it is less understood.
• Mining financing now requires far more due diligence.
Jamie Strauss is the founding partner of Strauss Partners Ltd; he has worked as a stockbroker in the City of London for over 25 years, specializing for 20 years within the resources industry.
He was previously Managing Director of U.K. Equity product at BMO Capital Markets. Before that, he was a director of Hargreave Hale Ltd where he founded, developed and then sold a Mining institutional sales and research department. Jamie started his career in 1986 at Strauss Turnbull (subsequently bought by Société Générale). Jamie has experience in sales, research, transaction structuring, IPO’s, and syndication.
He is a non-executive director of Altius Minerals, Gold Standard Ventures, and Bacanora Minerals. He was on the board of Extorre Gold Mines until its successful sale to Yamana in 2012. Jamie is also a trustee of The Julian Baring Scholarship Fund.