War, Debt, and Energy Shocks Set Up Gold’s Next Move | Rick Rule

Rick Rule, President and CEO of Rule Investment Media, joins Kitco Mining’s Digging Deep with Paul Harris to assess how escalating conflict in the Persian Gulf is exposing deeper risks across energy, debt, and global resource markets. Rule warns that “30 years of underinvestment in natural resources means that we are less able to deal with shocks,” pointing to vulnerabilities across oil, LNG, fertilizer, and industrial supply chains.

On markets, Rule says rising war spending and roughly $39 trillion in U.S. debt will ultimately support gold. “Sadly, this will be good for gold,” he said, adding “I welcome a lower gold price” as a buying opportunity. He also warned the U.S. dollar could lose 75% of its purchasing power over the next decade, while underinvestment in energy, running at “over a billion dollars a day,” could drive structurally higher oil prices and mining costs.

In this interview, Rick Rule also discusses:
 • Why gold’s recent pullback may be a long-term opportunity
 • Structural oil underinvestment and future energy shocks
 • Why he met more than 90 companies at PDAC in early March and invested in none
 • BHP’s capital strategy and the Resolution copper project outlook
 • Argentina’s improving investment case

Recorded March 19, 2026

For more in-depth mining coverage, visit us here - https://www.kitco.com/mining

Disclaimer: Videos are not trading advice, and the views expressed may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc.

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_01 0:00

Kitco Mining, Digging Deep with Paul Harris.

SPEAKER_02 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. Joining me today is legendary mining investor Rick Rule, president and CEO of Rural Investment Media. Rick, welcome back to Kitco.

SPEAKER_00 0:22

Pleasure to be with you, Paul. Thank you for having me back.

SPEAKER_02 0:25

An interesting uh conversation, I think, this week. And we're going to start with this, Rick. Uh war, what is it good for in the metal space? Um, Rick, um, with the conflict going on in the Persian Gulf, what is your biggest concern there about if there is a prolonged conflict with Iran? Um, the potential threat of global recession?

SPEAKER_00 0:45

Uh I I guess I think that the biggest risk uh is simply the ongoing humanitarian concern uh around uh lives wasted uh and the potential for this to escalate and become a bigger conflict, a bigger conflict in many ways. Uh the Western world versus Islam, uh Shia Islam versus Sunni Islam. Uh this is bigger than a balance sheet item or a pocket item, although I realize that your question uh revolves around the latter. In terms of the latter, uh I think this points out a few things. It points out the lack of flex in the system, which is to say that uh 30 years of underinvestment in natural resources means that we are less able to deal with shocks, uh, possibly a review of the 70s in that regard. And the shocks aren't all coming where it was obvious. Uh in other words, we all knew that 20% of the world's petroleum volumes move through the Persian Gulf. Uh that disguises the larger fact that over 50% of the world's export volumes flow through the Persian Gulf. While we focused on oil, uh we forgot about the importance of the Persian Gulf, particularly cutter, to liquefied natural gas around the world. We also forgot that about 40% of the world's synthetic nitrogen and a substantial portion of the world's export capacity for nitrogenous fertilizer flows through the Gulf. Then, of course, there's aluminum, and last but not least, of course, is helium. The longer this goes on, the more the uh potential for the downstream effects of rising prices or increased unavailability becomes a problem. Uh we have uh some surplus crude floating in the world. We have some surplus capacity in the world. We have some ability to utilize the Yambu pipeline for crude oil exports, at least from the Saudi portion of the Gulf, through to the Red Sea. Uh we don't have the ability on a global basis to withstand a prolonged shutdown of the Persian Gulf without serious, serious downstream ramifications, particularly ramifications in the Far East, which is unusually dependent on Persian Gulf oil and or natural gas.

SPEAKER_02 3:22

Okay, um there's a lot to sort of dig into there, and we will. I want to sort of dig into your thoughts on the oil price and its impact on miners. But before we get to that, let's stick with a sort of the bigger macro picture. The war is costing about half a billion dollars a day, and more than$18 billion so far has been spent on it in the US, according to the bipartisan Center for Strategic and International Studies. Um the war is definitely going to increase government debt and the deficit. Will this ultimately be good for gold? And this does this um, you know, what does this mean for the US Federal Reserve's plans to cut interest rates? And with Mr. Walsh taking office in May, does that really uh change what his thinking may be about what his role is?

SPEAKER_00 4:06

Sadly, uh this will be good for gold. Uh by the way, in the United States, uh we characteristically underestimate the cost of war. The Iraq uh adventure was supposed to cost something like 500 billion, uh, and the final tab came in closer to five or six trillion. So the estimates that you're seeing uh about the aggregate cost of the war, even the direct aggregate cost of the war, are almost certainly uh understated. I think everybody needs to understand that. I think that there's enough flex, meanwhile, in the U.S. economy, that sadly this can go on without breaking things. But bending things comes at a price. The amount of borrowing that the United States has had to do on a very short term has raised even short-term interest rates, despite the preference of the Trump administration to see lower interest rates. Uh ultimately, I suspect there will be a political consensus around lower interest rates. So, irrespective of the market, my suspicion is that at the first hint of an economic slowdown, and I think we're seeing fairly broad hints of an economic slowdown already, that there will be an artificial increase in liquidity, which is to say some form of quantitative easing, and the attempt to manipulate the short-term interest rate down. This does not help the refinancing of the U.S. Treasury. The U.S. Treasury has had a consistent policy of buying in the illiquid long-term debt and replacing it with short-term debt, which means that an increasing amount of the$39 trillion in government debt that the U.S. government needs to finance, needs to be refinanced on a short-term basis. The need for fresh borrowing around social programs and around the conflict in the Gulf, combined with the rescheduling that the Treasury has to do in the next 10 years, gives us some risk of their ultimate fear, which is to say a Treasury auction where nobody shows up and they have to buy the whole issuance. Should that happen, I guess all bets are off.

SPEAKER_02 6:33

Okay. Rick, I want to bring in your conference here. You're organizing the Rule Symposium in July, and Kitko's going to be there recording with so much volatility at the moment, so much going on. You always feature a broad suite of speakers talking about the macro environment. A lot going on in the macro environment at the moment. How is that influencing or impacting your programming for your event?

SPEAKER_00 6:58

Well, unfortunately, uh I say unfortunately because our bias at the conference has always been that the government invariably makes severe mistakes. Uh last year, you'll recall we had David Stockman, who had been the director of the Office of Management and Budget under Reagan, uh talking about why Reaganomics failed politically and why the Department of Government Efficiency would fail so dismally. We were right, unfortunately. We will have a variety of speakers this year that talk about how, as an example, uh the current level of government expenditure relative to the size of GDP is unsustainable and why uh the consumer price index is not a reliable index of the rate of deterioration of the U.S. dollar, and why you need to diversify your savings and investments to protect yourself literally from Congress and the presidency. I say unfortunately, because the political prognosis that we offer up, the big picture, the macro prognosis that we offer up, is fairly grim. Uh I wish, frankly, over the last six years we had been right left less often and more and wrong more often. That has not been the case. At the conference, we believe forewarned is forearmed. And what we try to do is present a range of big picture thinkers, uh, the Jim Rickards of the world, the Nomi Prinzes of the world, the David Stockmans of the world, uh, who explain to you the way the world really is, not the way that CNBC would have you believe, not the way that Fox would have you believe, not the way that the Senate would have you believe, but the way the world really is. If you understand something about the way the world really is, uh, and you come to understand what it is that you can do to protect yourself and your family via your own portfolio, you will get through this next 10 years better than would otherwise be the case. And that's really our goal at the conference. You know, we've been advocates, Paul, as you know, uh in this conference for almost 30 years about the reasons why people should save in gold and maintain liquidity in U.S. dollars. It's been a constant theme of ours since the turn of the century. And I would remind people that had they followed our advice, some of us, myself included, have, when you have saved in gold rather than saved in freed instruments, and you look at the price of various items, uh the S P 500 in terms of investments, but residential real estate or health care or food, you are struck by how cheap things are. If you measure housing prices in gold in the period 2000 to 2025, you are struck by how cheap housing is. You are struck by how cheap your groceries are. You are struck by how cheap healthcare is. What we're trying to do at the conference is provide the same level of sophistication and service to our customers over the next 10 years that we've been able to provide for the last 25 years.

SPEAKER_02 10:27

Okay, well, I'm really looking forward to participating in the event again, Rick. Let's uh move the conversation on to talking more about sort of resource themes. Higher oil prices uh will bump the only sustaining cost of gold miners by some 200 US dollars per ounce by some estimates. And obviously they're going to be a big deal for the large copper mines that have a lot of trucks running around hauling. Or, Rick, how are you factoring oil prices into your valuations of companies at the moment?

SPEAKER_00 10:55

I continue to believe, well, let me rephrase that, I continue to hope that the Persian Gulf conflict is of less than six months duration. Uh I don't know what evidence I have to believe that's true. Uh I I just hope. And so I hope that the oil cost increase in the near term is an aberration. Paul, you know from our previous discussion that I believe uh late 2028, early 2029, uh that we'll have structurally higher oil prices, not as a function of conflict. And I hope that the major mining companies use the current high oil price environment as a way to protect themselves from the oil shocks that are almost certainly coming. What we see uh in the oil markets now is uh temporary response to a geopolitical circumstance. What the mining industry needs to prepare itself for structurally is the fact that the oil industry itself has been underinvesting in sustaining capital investments to the tune of over a billion dollars a day for three or four years already, and is almost certain to do so in the period 2026 and 2027, notwithstanding higher oil prices. The impact of this sustaining capital deferral isn't immediate in terms of production declines, but it is structural, meaning that the longer you go on without making the sustaining capital investments, the more impaired your ability to produce when higher prices return is. For illustration, one need only look at Petavesa, the state oil company uh in Venezuela, or PMEX, the state oil company in Mexico. The consequence of two decades of sustaining cap uh of a lack of sustaining or new project investment has meant that both state oil companies, despite massive reserves, have experienced almost exponential declines in productive capacity. We are seeing that circumstance, while not as dramatic as it was in Venezuela. We're seeing that circumstance around the world, where state-owned and private firms are uh deferring sustaining capital investments. What that means is that the spike in oil prices that we've seen as a consequence of the Gulf War are likely to become structural rather than episodic in the future. And my hope is that the mining industry uses this current shock to prepare themselves for uh a period of higher sustained energy costs.

SPEAKER_02 13:34

Okay. Um I'm gonna push back on you a little bit, Rick, because you've said many, many times that hope is not an investment strategy. So whilst you hope that the conflict ends within six months, um looking at the downside that extends beyond six months, how are you looking at allocating your capital? You said uh the conflict will ultimately be good for gold, so presumably that's potentially good for gold producers. Um, I know you like the oil majors. We've spoken about this before before, and as you mentioned, you saw the prospect of oil prices rising before this conflict started. Do you like oil majors such as ExxonMobil? But do you see other opportunities in the oil space, such as the shipping companies, the oil service companies, et cetera? Where are you allocating capital to in the event of that downside scenario?

SPEAKER_00 14:22

Uh I have not invested in the tanker stocks except indirectly. Uh the tanker day rates are going crazy. And uh to the extent that the Straits of Hormuz open up, I would expect those day rates to stray strong for about six months. So speculators might look at the tanker stocks. I don't know enough about them to invest in them themselves. But Paul, I have a natural hedge in the sense that my anticipation of structurally higher energy prices uh meant that I was a fairly substantial oil and gas investor before the turmoil in the Gulf. And mercifully, uh through some quirk of fate, uh the oil companies that I invested in were largely producers outside the Gulf and weren't particularly responsive to Gulf liftings for their profits. Uh companies like Exxon, that are primarily U.S. companies, or Equitable or Devon, uh, or the seven Canadian, pardon me, the eleven uh Canadian intermediates that I've talked about, where their production uh comes from Western Canada, uh have all, I would suspect, been fairly substrong net beneficiaries of higher crude prices in the near term. So I have uh, in effect, a natural hedge. I also believe that the fiscal outcome of the Gulf Conference, uh the Gulf conflict, pardon me, uh will be higher structural debt and deficits uh in the United States, uh, a continuation of the circumstance that will inevitably lead to declining purchasing power in the U.S. dollar and a higher nominal, which is to say U.S. dollar quoted gold price. So my suspicion is uh fortunately for me, uh unfortunately for most investors, uh this circumstance will work out in a way that is beneficial to my own portfolio and harmful, decidedly harmful to the world.

SPEAKER_02 16:19

Okay. Now, since the conflict started, gold has lost about$500 per ounce. And uh the past couple of days, the GLD, one of the main indexes there, has fallen below its 50-day moving average. Is this uh a buying opportunity risk? Uh sorry, is this the buying opportunity Rick? Is it or is there more pain to come still, do you think?

SPEAKER_00 16:39

I think that depends on your time frame. Uh for me, it's absolutely a buying opportunity. I believe, as we've stated before, Paul, that the U.S. dollar will lose 75% of its purchasing power, real purchasing power, over 10 years. Uh, and I believe that gold will maintain its nominal purchasing power. Given that I think that the price of gold goes higher every 10 years, uh it goes higher over 10 years, I welcome a lower gold price. Uh I particularly welcome the weakness in the gold equities, uh, which I thought were not unreasonably priced before this recent decline. So while I suspect that the near-term impact of this decline is overdone, uh for selfish reasons, I would like to see it continue. Uh I would like to increase my personal holdings of physical gold and my savings accounts. Uh, and I would like to increase my holdings of gold equities and my investment accounts. You and I talked as recently as the PDAC, where I was actively looking for junior gold stocks to invest in. I had 90 conversations at the PDAC, and I walked away unable after four days to invest any money whatsoever. I personally would love to see lower gold prices. I'd love to see lower prices on investment grade gold equities, and I'd particularly love to see lower prices on the speculative gold equities because I'm actively trying to increase my exposure to those sectors. I realize that some of your listeners have a shorter term perspective than I, and the deterioration in price in their existing holdings may or may not be unnerving to them. Given that I've been in this business for 45 years, I've experienced this kind of cyclicality and volatility before. It doesn't bother me a bit.

SPEAKER_02 18:31

Okay, um, I want to just take a bit of a sidestep uh before I get on to my next question, Rick. Um the fact you saw 90 companies, over 90 companies at PDAC and did walked away without writing a check for it for any of them. We've talked about this before. Uh a lot of CEOs are very bad at talking about their business, talking about their business plan, and exciting investors as to why they should invest with them. Is that one of the things that sort of happened here? Or sorry, at PDAC?

SPEAKER_00 18:59

Uh probably in 10 conversations, that was the problem. Uh a bigger problem was the juxtaposition of price to value. Uh when I asked people to describe not what they thought that their company might be worth if everything went well two or three years from now, but rather what it was worth today, which is to say what my downside was. Probably 70% of the people I talked to literally had never considered the question, which was a bit unnerving to me. They didn't know what their company was worth on a liquidation value basis. Similarly, uh when I used the class the questions that we've posed at the Rule Classroom, which by the way anybody can access for free, uh, ruralclassroom.com, when I asked the question uh about funding the answer to unanswered questions, which is to say, if you raised money, uh, what would be the most important use of funds in terms of increasing the market's understanding and your understanding of the value of the assets? Probably 80% of the companies that I talked to were unprepared to answer the question because they'd never asked themselves the question. So there was a real disconnect at the conference between the market capitalizations of the company uh and uh either the valuations that existed today, uh and in many cases a disconnect between uh whatever value that was and the management's understanding of that value, and then uh the use of proceeds, a rational use of proceeds. Uh there were very few stories that were, I thought, compelling juxtapositions of value today and intelligent business plans going forward. There was no shortage of good projects, there was no shortage of good opportunities, there was even no shortage of good people. Uh what there was was a shortage of all those attributes in one company wrapper uh at a price I was prepared to pay.

SPEAKER_02 21:10

Okay, fair enough. Um let's move on to talking about BHP, which has had a busy week. BHP CEO Brian Henry is to step down. It uh also announced that it's uh filed the environmental papers or permit applications for a$5 billion new concentrator at its Escondida copper mine in Chile, and that's to maintain actual production rate at some 460,000 tonnes per day, and that's just to stand still. Also, this week the US Forest Service completed a land exchange with the Resolution Copper Project in Arizona, which is a joint venture between BHP, the minor partner, and Rio Tinta, the major partner. Um, that's the second largest undeveloped project in the world. Um, Rick, BHP, one of the biggest diversified miners in the world. Brian Hemi, you know. One hand he's going out on a high with all of these things underway. A lot of challenges, a lot of things to execute for his successor. Interesting time for somebody to take the helm at a big mining company.

SPEAKER_00 22:15

I think if you were going to step down in the next five years or so, this is the right time to do it. Handing a successor capital expansion program, which needs to happen at BHP, is timely. The successor, of course, managed, among other things, uh BHP's iron business, uh the biggest part of BHP's business, and a business where they have ongoing opportunities and challenges. I'm interested in all the changes that are taking place in BHP, and I view them very positively. The access to instrumental financing by BHP in the form of a$4.2 billion stream with Wheaton, uh, the innovative approach to addressing the capital stack on the capital needs that BHP has, those needs being evident with$4.5 billion at Vacunya with this long overdue concentrator expansion, with the possible debottlenecking at Olympic Dam, and then with the general need in the copper industry, as you and I have discussed before, Paul, to fund$250 billion constant 2025 dollars, non-inflation adjusted dollars, over the next 10 years to maintain their copper production at current levels. Uh BHP, I think, has done a good job of beginning to address the absolutely amazing construction and capital uh schedule in front of both BHP individually but the copper industry at large. Uh they should be congratulated for their forward-thinking and aggressive steps.

SPEAKER_02 24:13

Okay, uh Brandon Craig will be the new CEO at BHP. Now, Rick, uh after 22 years, resolution, uh after 22 years after the resolution joint venture was formed, uh it's now got the go-ahead, it's now done the land swap. And so potentially the path is clear to actual development now. But will the partners actually go ahead with a construction decision? The the conflict in the Gulf, the copper price has fallen from around six US dollars a pound to about$5.50 today. Um the Iran conflict, um, will that potentially tighten the break more strongly on the purse strings and inhibit copper investment, at least in the short term?

SPEAKER_00 24:51

Well, that's a hell of a project. Uh and when the local permitting, if the local permitting issues fall away, um that thing's gonna get built. Uh it's absolutely wonderful opportunity, over a billion tons uh of reserve and resource, uh grading uh about 1.5% copper, which is three times the average mine grade worldwide, in the central valley of Arizona, with access to water, power, roads, all the infrastructures in place, the labor's in place, access to smelters in place, in the middle of the most robust capital market, private capital market in the world, uh the United States, uh, with uh sudden uh acceptance, both in capital markets and in political markets, that the United States uh needs to expand its productive capacity in a whole range of raw materials, but particularly copper. Uh I think the wind's really truly in the sales of the resolution project now. Uh and I think once they solve the local permitting issues, local and state permitting issues, that this thing's a go. Uh and I I think they have a window, uh two and a half year window to get this thing financed uh and start building. Uh and I think that they're aware of the fact that they have a fairly short window to get started.

SPEAKER_02 26:19

Okay. Corporate is uh a critical mineral, of course, and other big critical minerals news this week, with Orion Pioneers announcing they've raised 2.2 billion US dollars, uh, a mining fund there for critical minerals, which is their largest fund raised to date by the investment firm. 61% of that, they said, is already committed. Um, what does this financing or this fund tell you about the appetite for critical minerals investment at the moment, Rick?

SPEAKER_00 26:45

I think it tells you a lot. Uh I think it tells you, first of all, that the political winds of change are blowing fairly strongly, which is to say that the institutional investor, uh, who five years ago probably would have devoted that capital to something like nursing homes, uh, suddenly has, if nothing else, the political cover uh to invest in things like critical minerals. I think it also reflects the understanding both at the political level and also in the private capital markets level, about the fact that the next 10 years are going to represent a fertile, a fairly fertile investment climate for well-thought-out investments uh in industrial and strategic materials. And in fairness, it points out one other thing, which is to say despite some mistakes, the incredible successes enjoyed by the Orion group in the last 15 years. This$2.2 billion raise uh isn't a raise that's behind a group that has not been successful. These people through the bear markets have been consistently pretty good stewards uh of their investor capital. Uh I know uh I competed against them years ago privately, and then as part of SPROT, uh I can tell you that they took more aggressive risks than we did, and they managed those risks fairly well. So I think some of that$2.2 billion raise has to do with a more fertile climate. Some of it has to do with a 15-year track record of success. I congratulate them on that raise.

SPEAKER_02 28:22

Now, in terms of actually deploying that capital, that could potentially be a challenge because a lot of the critical minerals are low-volume markets. A lot of the critical minerals proponent companies are relatively small. Orion, you know, they tend to like to perhaps make larger investments into bigger projects. How would you think they'll sort of seek to bridge that disparity?

SPEAKER_00 28:43

I competed against Orion in the$100 million credit and the$150 million credit. They'll do fine. Uh I have no concern. Uh the bigger risk uh for capital deployers in the space has been politics, which is to say that you would deploy to a project that then got lost in permitting or somewhere else, or was unable to access on the one hand, uh higher risk equity, on the other hand, uh lower risk development capital. Those risks are receding. Uh capital markets are, with the exception of oil and gas capital markets, increasingly receptive to, as an example, project debt at the construction level, takeout debt after economic completion, uh, and certainly uh equity. Uh so I think that this raise has taken place uh in a in a fairly generous timeframe for Orion and their partners. I note, too, that the roster of partners for Orion now uh includes the government of Qatar uh and uh uh at least in elliptical fashion, the U.S. government. Uh Orion seems to have fashioned uh a very uh interesting and deep pocketed uh coalition of people that are taking advantage of the new direction of at least the U.S.'s perception uh of its market needs around critical minerals. And I suspect that the definition of critical mineral critical minerals may continue to expand. Uh one notes as an example that uh almost 40% of the world's helium flows through the Gulf. Uh there are probably uh very ample geological uh sources of helium uh in the United States and Canada. So that might be uh uh an avenue to explore. Uh certainly one would need to view copper uh as a critical metal. But coming uh to the stranger parts in the periodic uh table, things like gallium and germanium, the simple expedient of putting a gallium or germanium recovery circuit on a large porphyry uh might be an intelligent use of funds. I remember 15, 20 years ago when the molybdenum price went crazy, the industry addressed the molybdenum shortage not by building molybdenum mines, but rather putting uh molybdenum recovery circuits uh on copper streams in copper-gold porphyries. Uh, there will be a lot of opportunities to deploy that capital uh in the range of what are considered to be critical materials. And uh doing that within the geopolitical sphere uh of influence that the United States is now trying to cause to occur.

SPEAKER_02 31:54

Okay. Now, Orion Partners is in good company. The uh the World Bank IFC, the International Finance Corporation, is increasingly investing in critical minerals. They were part of a consortium where they put together a consortium of international lenders to fund$1.4 billion to Rio Tinto and its Rincon project in Salta, in Argentina. I was in Salta, Argentina just this week and went past there. Um IFC is advised by Appian Capital Partners, which is also also has large billion dollar funds that are allocating capital to the space. It does seem that the big funding organizations really, really want to position themselves in the critical minerals and get things moving. Uh, I want to sort of focus this question onto onto Salta because I've I've just been there. There's a lot of projects there. There's a couple of silver projects getting close to development. There's a big copper project, Taka Taca, First Quantum Minerals, their projects getting towards a uh a development stage. Um, Argentina does seem to be the place to be now, or increasingly the place to be. What's your view of what's happening in Argentina and how its investability is evolving?

SPEAKER_00 33:03

Uh I I think uh given the continued polling strength of the president, uh, that Argentina is de-risking. There are lots of risks uh associated with Argentina. Their inflation rate has fallen from astronomical to merely too high, which is to say 30%. The cost of living for Argentines has skyrocketed, and one wonders how long they will be willing or in fact able to endure that. In other words, how temporary are the reforms that are making Argentina investable? I choose to take the positive view because so much has been achieved so quickly, and thus far the Argentine people have been fairly durable with their shocks. The loosening of uh capital controls and currency controls means that money that's been frozen inside Argentina for 70 years is trying to escape. Uh people who have had capital trapped in Argentina would like to get some of that capital across the border in Uruguay or someplace like that, just in case uh the progress that the country's made proves to be transitory. To the extent that Mr. Millet is able through the Rigi or other uh instruments to bring foreign direct investment into the country to replace some of the domestic capital that's leaving, uh, and to the extent that inflation falls further and real wages begin to go up as a consequence of investments, Argentina may be the best place to invest in the hemisphere. I note that there's some competition for that right across the mountains, where in Chile the voters decided to thank and excuse the socialists who were so busy trying to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in Chile. So one could say, at least in the near term, that most of South America uh is becoming increasingly attractive, politically attractive for investment, uh, after I would suggest several years of um uh backsliding. I'd be interested in your opinion as a South American uh on that same question.

SPEAKER_02 35:18

I I would uh pretty much concur there's been a widespread shift towards the right, and with the the prevailing narrative about metals and mining in general, but also critical minerals, there's a lot of intention to take advantage of this very unique opportunity to benefit from them. Certainly, my time in Celta last week that was very, very evident. People recognize that there's a window of opportunity that the country has never had. Uh, the combination of a permissive government, the alignment of different sectors of government towards the common goal, i.e., minerals development, a much improved fiscal and regulatory regime and stability. Um, it's pretty much all systems go. There's a lot of infrastructure existing, there's a lot of infrastructure that's required. Um, Argentina is going to become a you know a mining powerhouse in a way it hasn't been before, and uh it's gonna be a big competitor for Chile and other jurisdictions, I think.

SPEAKER_00 36:16

Yeah, I'm very fond of Salta. I uh I envy you that trip. Uh separate and apart from the investment characteristics, I enjoy the place.

SPEAKER_02 36:25

Um the city is one thing, but being up four or five thousand meters for successive nights uh is is quite something else and not as enjoyable. Um that's all we've got time for this week. Rick Rule, thank you very much for joining me today.

SPEAKER_00 36:39

Uh Paul, thank you. Before I sign off, I'd like to invite your listeners to come to the Rural Investment Media site where I will rank your portfolios for free. Go to ruralinvestmentmedia.com, list your natural resource stocks. I'll rank them for free, no obligation. One being best, ten being worst. I'll comment on individual issues where I think my comments might have value.

SPEAKER_02 37:00

Well, thank you for that. And uh one other plug for you, Rick. Uh, we've spoken a lot about copper today. You're holding a copper investment boot cap on Saturday, August 18th. Um, rural media, you'll be able to go there and sign up for that. Um, that's looking to be a very uh good thing as well. Um, and of course, if you like what you see, don't forget to hit that subscribe button. I'm Paul Harris, digging deep for Kitco Mining.

SPEAKER_01 37:25

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