Ian is currently chairman of Spanish Mountain Gold, a junior gold exploration company now preparing for mine development, as well as founder of Genagro—a private firm transforming over 180k acres of Brazilian “cerrado” into profitable, producing farmland to feed the world’s demand for protein. Both company’s management teams & boards of directors read like a global investor “dream-team,” with the legendary Jim Rogers recently becoming a director in both.

Starting out the interview I asked Ian which investment sectors offer the most promise in the years ahead, and he said he, “Feels there are two industries that are exceptional both short and long term–gold mining and agriculture.” 

Expanding further on agriculture and Brazil in particular, Ian commented that, “Brazil has more potential to supply the demand for protein that’s being driven by the Asian market. Brazil has more potential to do that more than any other country in the world. In Asia, the first thing that people do as they have the economic ability to do so, (even before they buy the 50inch television, or the other junk that we largly dont need) before they do that, they spend more money on protein. And protein to get the pork or the beef into a plate in Beijing, can take 4 to 8 times (depending whether it’s pork or beef) the agricultural acreage…[compared with] vegetables or rice—which would have been their eating pattern before. So this dramatically changes at the margin the demand for agricultural acreage.”

Commenting on Spanish Mountain Gold(to which he controls nearly a 20% stake) and it’s management team, Ian said, “I think we’ve got a very powerful one, in terms of a corporate development team I think we’ve got one of the strongest…which is there because of the merits they’ve seen, and have fortunately agreed to be a part of.”

When asked about the recent announcement and significance of famed investor Jim Rogers joining the board of directors at Spanish Mountain, Ian said, “When he started the Quantum Fund with Soros…their performance was exceptional. He’s got an ongoing interest in commodities, including gold, and he can help us both on advice, and when it comes time too, these junior projects—one of the issues that you have to face as you develop the project successfully of course, is the senior financing. We want to have a very strong team in place when we go to the lenders and the gold streamers and the others when putting the senior financing together, and I think we’ve achieved that.”

When asked about the value in the junior mining sector here, Ian said, “I was reading recently in Bob Hoye’s Institutional Adviser, that they produced research showing the relative strength of the mining shares to the gold bullion price, is at extremes only seen five times in the past 100 years. FIVE TIMES IN THE PAST 100 YEARS…and if you see it on a chart, you can see it dip down over the 100 years period, and then it bounced up sharply. So rather than a bubble, this seems to be an attractive time to be accumulating positions in these very beat up junior gold stocks. However, let’s face it—it takes courage to buy at market bottoms.”

In regards to his ultimate expectation for this bull market in gold mining and agriculture, Ian commented, “Well, certainly bull markets always mature…that’s the one thing that we can be sure of. I suspect that maturity would come…that’ll be when politicians and central banks will accept discipline. But that doesn’t seem to be on the horizon. Austerity is a form of discipline, and as you saw, last Sunday, the French voters said ‘No’ to austerity, and the Greeks are doing the same. So there’s that overused phrase nowadays that is ‘kick the can down the road’…I have to keep in mind that every paper currency has ended up worthless, and that all global currencies are now without collateral backing. I’m not a goldbug—but there’s a time to be in gold…Even after 11 years of annual gains of over 18%…I suspect I’ll be holding the gold until governments restore the necessary financial discipline.” 

………

This interview with one of the “greats” in the business only rarely heard from by the public is required listening for all serious market students and investors.

To listen to the interview, click the following link and/or save to to your desktop:

Interview with Ian Watson

Interview also posted on our YouTube Channel

To learn more about Ian visit: IanWatson.biz

To learn more about Spanish Mountain Gold and Genagro visit: SpanishMountainGold.com and Genagro.net

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Tekoa

Gary announced major news today regarding a breakdown in the U.S. dollar, a resumption of the inflation trade, as well as the potential for a 300% move in the mining shares starting right at about these levels.

During the interview I asked Gary to explain the significance of this change in the dollar trend, and he replied by saying, “In my opinion we are at a very important juncture—yesterday the dollar penetrated below 78.65. The reason that’s important is that was the level of the last daily cycle low. So what happened yesterday was we made a marginally lower low, so the dollar has reversed the pattern of higher highs and higher lows…the reason that’s important for gold or commodity investors is the dollar should generally head lower from now until the intermediate bottom which isn’t due until late June or early July, about the time that operation twist is scheduled to end. “

Commenting further on the implications of a failed dollar rally here, Gary said, “If we start to get intermediate highs and lows that reverse so that the intermediate cycle starts to stair step down, that’s a pretty strong signal that the three year cycle may have already topped…What that would indicate if that does turn out to be the case, would be that at the next three year cycle low, due probably around the fall of 2014, there’s a very good chance we could be embroiled in a severe currency crisis in the U.S. dollar—which could very possibly drive the bubble phase of the gold bull market.”

With respect to the likelihood of another 2008-style market collapse, Gary reasoned that, “The central banks around the world have made it clear that they’re not going to allow another debt implosion. They’re going to print. Europe did it in order to save Greece and Portugal–they’ve made it pretty clear that they’re just not going to let another debt implosion hit the world, so that is off the table. You see people freaking out about Spain and Italy, it’s just not going to be allowed to happen. They’re going to print money to halt those debt implosions, and the next crisis isn’t going to be the same thing that happened in 2008, we’ve know what the cure for that is, and the cure is to print money. The crisis is going to be from printing too much money. So in 2014 is when the next major, major dollar low is due, and I expect that’s the point where we’re going to get served the consequences of our actions and we’re gonna have a currency crisis.”

Concluding on the mining shares Gary added, “In my opinion the place you want to invest is the mining stocks. They are the area that has gotten the most beat up, nobody believes in them anymore, they consolidated for a year and half and then broke down instead of rallying higher, and the stocks themselves, the HUI index has just generated a tremendous, downward momentum spike that has pushed valuations in the mining sector to pretty close to the extremes that were seen in the fall of 2008. That extreme oversold level and undervaluation generated a 300% move over the next two years. I’m pretty sure this one’s going to do something very similar.”   

This was another outstanding interview with one of the world’s most successful gold traders, and is required listening for investors looking to profitably trade the gold bull market.

To listen to the interview, click the following link and/or save to to your desktop:

Interview with Gary Savage

Interview also posted on our YouTube Channel

To learn more about Gary and The Smart Money Tracker visit: Smart Money Tracker

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Thanks,
Tekoa

It was an exciting interview as usual, as decades of investment knowledge and experience pours out of Peter when he speaks. For those who don’t know, over the last 25 years Peter is one of a few people in the world to have correctly called major market tops and bottoms—warning investors of the 1987 top, the 2007 top, and the 2009 bottom—within days of their actual nominal peaks and bottoms.

During the interview, when asked about the junior resource sector, Peter said during this depressed market he has, “Committed a cardinal sin of my own…Because of how cheap they got [select junior resource shares] weeks ago, I’ve committed an extremely large sum of money, probably close to 75-80% of my investment dollars towards the junior sector…Several of them I probably have seven figures in it—I’m not saying that to brag, but to give an idea of how much I’ve so called bet the ranch here.” 

In discussing the oversold levels of one of his client companies and personal investments, Peter commented on Alderon Iron Ore. “Here’s a company that I’ve called the son of Consolidated Thompson, it has all the same management, it took all the same [corporate] maneuvers to develop a resource in Canada of iron ore—and less than two weeks ago they announce the world’s second largest steel company (and China’s largest steel company) bought a 19.9% stake at $3.42…and what did the stock do since then? As we talk it’s trading at $2.89. So the thought process is this—are the people who sold it after that news—are they smarter—or were the Chinese that paid $3.42, will they end up being smarter? I’m betting on the Chinese.”

Commenting on signs of a bottom in the junior resource market, Peter added, “I recently I posted an article that noted how many juniors were selling at a large percentage of just their cash holdings, some above, but they’re selling for less than what their cash is worth. These are things that take place at bottoms not tops. While it’s painful, and we’ve seen that pain exaggerated…when you see 1/10th of the normal volume of daily trading and the stock is down 10-15%—that’s just people selling at any price, into a no-bid market. Those markets happen towards the end of a bear move, not in the middle or the beginning.” 

When asked about the recent directorship appointment of famed investor Jim Rogers to the board of Spanish Mountain Gold (one of Peter’s largest investments and consulting client), he commented, “Having been acquainted with Jim over the years, and probably one of the handful of experts that I look up to…putting his name on this would serve no financial reward to him that he couldn’t gain elsewhere…I have to assume he believes there is validity and hope for them to develop [a producing mine]. If and when they succeed, no one is going to say, ‘Oh, Jim Rogers was the key,’ but if it fell on it’s face, blew up or turned into a nightmare scenario, his name would get stained, and I don’t see a man of that [stature] taking that risk unless he feels there is really something of value there…it would come as no surprise to me…that he and or some of his closest friends end up becoming shareholders as well.”

This was just a short sampling of the many issues(the stock market, energy, Europe, & more) Peter spoke about during this must-listen interview. It is required listening for all serious investors.

To listen to the interview, click the following link and/or save to to your desktop:

Interview with Peter Grandich

Interview also posted to our YouTube Channel

To learn more about Peter visit “The Grandich Letter” at Grandich.com

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Tekoa

Additionally, here is a short YouTube commentary I recorded yesterday, sharing some commentary on the Jim Sinclair’s recent announcement that  investors need to consider personal geographical diversification in the years ahead.  In a time of growing social unrest, it may be a wise call indeed.

Starting out with the global markets overall, Jim indicated we are currently in a “false calm.” He said, “We have not gotten past the aftermath of MF Global, the distrust of COMEX is enormous, a lot of companies are just not permitted to use COMEX anymore…We’ve had a few naked short raids of the gold market, and I think they go hand in hand with some of the gigantic dollar swap exercises that have—I believe—dumped at least $2 trillion dollars into the system in the last several weeks alone…We’re on the verge of  Europe fracturing Tekoa. I think it’s happening right in front of our eyes.”

In respect to the described “New Feature” of the gold market, Jim said, “Some really big tectonic shifts have happened, and this has been going on now for about three months…the phenomenon simply stated—and I feel privileged to know one particular gold trader who fills me in on it…it goes like this: the naked short ambushes happen on the ‘paper side,’ and these are nothing new, we’ve been seeing them for years. I think the main perpetrator is JPM, but there’s also participation with Goldman Sachs and Bank of America, they all help in selling gold and silver that they do not own and do not post collateral for. So I call it the ‘bad guys’ who push down the price with paper ambushes, and then the ‘good guys’ say, ‘Oh, you want to play that game? fine. We’ve got billions here, and we’re going to force some gigantic physical purchases here in the mid-$1600 range, and just to add pain, we’re going to pyramid them, so they’re larger at every ten dollar drop in price.’…This is very new. The good guys…they’re money comes from the East–we’re talking China, Russia, and other entities in the East.”

On the US Dollar, Jim commented that, “Something big is happening, and I call it the Iran sanction backfire. The US has tried to isolate say, Japan, China, Russia, and India…and it’s really not working…those nations are organizing, and they’re bringing about an anti-dollar group…One of the most dangerous things to a hierarchy is a decentralized ‘backlash’ and organization if you will…[BRIC nations currently resemble] a series of islands that all work together against the criminal, corrupt core, that has become the dollar regime. The biggest recent single event regarding this backfire has been the abuse of the SWIFT bank transfer system…I’ve been told that an Eastern Coalition coming out of Asia somewhere, is going to be an alternative to the SWIFT banking settlement system…SWIFT is going to get a competitor. Right now SWIFT has a monopoly. If you remove the monopoly from SWIFT, you remove the superhighway for dollar-based trade settlement. This is very big.”

As an additional comment on the US dollar, Jim said, “I think the US dollar is under absolute revolt in the rest of the world. They’re sick of a few things…The foreigners are sick of the Fed ruining and debasing the dollar. They’re also sick of unspeakable bond fraud, if not counterfeit, of mortgage bonds, Fannie Mae bonds…and not a single prosecution of the big banks that are considered too big to fail.”

This was yet another powerful interview with Jim Willie, a must listen for those seeking alternative global economic event news perspective.

To listen to the interview, left click the following link and/or right click and “save target as” or “save link as” to to your desktop:

Interview with Jim Willie

Interview also posted to our YouTube Channel

To learn more about Jim and the Hat Trick Letter, visit: GoldenJackass.com

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Tekoa