(MENAFN- Investor Ideas) Streetwise Reports sat down with Bob Moriarty of 321Gold and 321Energy to hear his view on the gold/silver sector and three companies he believes are worth your attention, including one Gold company he believes has the best story in 20 years.
Bob Moriarty is the founder of 321gold, an influential website covering precimetals and mining stocks. He launched the site over 16 years ago along with his late wife, Barbara Moriarty. They later created 321energy.com.
He is also the author of a myriad of books, including Nobody Knows Anything: Investing Basics Learn to Ignore the Experts, the Gurus, and other Fools and Basic Investing in Resource Stocks: The Idiot's Guide Paperback - February 14, 2019.
321goldand 321energyhave become go-to resources for investors looking to make wise decisions, which is why we decided to sit down with Moriarty and go over his view of the current market and what stocks he believes are worth looking into.
The Silver Market
Moriarty spoke about the silver crash in 2020, saying that while it was called the Covid-Crash, he believes it was going to happen regardless and that it truly began in September 2019.
He said, "Bob Hoye, who has a wonderful service, Chartsandmarkets.com, based in Vancouver, had predicted the silver-to-gold ratio could go to 115 to 1, which would be the highest I've ever heard of. And at that time, I thought he had lost it. But in fact, in March of 2020, silver got to under US$12 an ounce, and you could buy the silver ETF for a 10% discount so that you can buy silver for under US$11 an ounce, and the silver-gold ratio hit 130 to 1 momentarily."
He continued, "Now, while I see gold and silver shares getting taken down in the event of a general market crash, physical gold and silver have done very well. But Bob Hoye and his team have predicted the silver-gold ratio could go from 120 to 1. And what I try to do is tell people in my books and in my interviews, and in my writing that what most people see as a negative is actually an opportunity. If you were to get the opportunity to buy silver at US$11 an ounce, that would be eight spectacular opportunities. Silver went from US$11 to US$30 an ounce in about six months. So, a market crash is not a good day, but it's a good thing. If you're prepared.
He ended by saying that if a big silver crash were to occur, it would be the last buying opportunity people would ever see.
When asked when this big crash would happen, Moriarty noted that Hoye predicts this crash to happen anywhere from this month to October, but either way, it would be soon.
Nothing More Real Than Gold and Silver
Moriarty also mentioned that the current political landscape could impact the price of gold and silver. When asked if the current news would hurtle people toward precimetals, Moriarty said, "The central banks are waking up, and they are hurtling money at gold and silver. So I think the answer to your question is yes. When the fraud of the debt-based financial system collapses, there will be a rush into gold and silver."
He also thought it was pertinent to point out the reasonable price of gold and silver.
"One of the things that I'd like to point out is that gold and silver are not cheap right now," he said. "If you look at the cost of housing, if you look at the cost of postage stamps, if you look at the cost of automobiles, and compare it to 40 or 50 years ago to now, you would realize that gold and silver are actually fairly priced."
He also noted that if the paper debt-based market crashes, there will be a rush into "real assets," as he says, "there is nothing more real than gold and silver."
With this, Moriarty discussed the silver company, Dolly Varden.
Dolly Varden: Spectacular Drill Results
Dolly Varden Silver Corp. (DV:TSX.V; DOLLF:OTCQX) focuses on exploring and developing precimetals deposits at its 100%-owned Kitsault Valley Project in northwest British Columbia, Canada. The project is strategically located just 25 km from deep tidewater and contains over 163 square kilometers of highly prospective mineral claims.
Within the Kitsault Valley Project land package, Dolly Varden Silver owns the advanced high-grade silver and gold deposits at Dolly Varden and Homestake Ridge. The area also hosted the past-producing Dolly Varden and Torbrit silver mines. Additional discoveries are expected due to the project's favorable location along productive geological structures and stratigraphic belts. Nearby deposits include the renowned Eskay Creek and Brucejack mines.
Furthermore, the Big Bulk claims within the Kitsault Valley Project are prospective for copper and gold deposits associated with porphyry mineralization. Major deposits of this type can be found elsewhere in the Golden Triangle region.
Moriarty noted that he had been an active shareholder in the company for years. He said that the ratio of silver to gold is about 84 to 1, which is "especially cheap," and when it comes to silver, Dolly Varden has shown "incredible progress."
"They've had a lot of resources. Their drill results are spectacular, and I think silver is going to be the most attractive metal for investors in the near term," Moriarty said.
Institutional investors have 50% of Dolly Varden's stock.
Fury Gold Mines Ltd. (FURY-T) owns 23.37% of the company with 59.5 million shares, Hecla Mining Co. (HL:NYSE) owns 10.62% with 27.04 million shares, 2176423 Ontario Ltd. owns 10.07% with 25.63 million shares, Fidelity Management & Research Company LLC owns 6.68% with 17.00 million shares, and ETF Managers Group LLC owns 2.83% with 7.20 million shares.
Sprott Asset Management LP owns 2.13% with 5.44 million shares, U.S. Global Investors Inc. owns 1.28% with 3.25 million shares, MiAsset Global Investments owns 1.16% with 2.96 million shares, DWS Investment GmbH owns 0.29% with 0.75 million shares, and Charteris Treasury Portfolio Management owns 0.2% with 0.5 million shares.
According to Market Watch , Dolly Varden has a market cap of CA$163 million, with 254.68 million shares outstanding. It trades in the 52-week range between CA$0.36 and CA$1.24.
Eloro Resources: An Extraordinary Project
The next company Moriarty touched on was Eloro Resources Ltd. (ELO:TSX.V; ELRRF:OTCBB) , which he noted has a giant silver-lead-zinc property in Lima. Eloro Resources is a mining company trading on the TSX Venture Exchange focused on unlocking the potential of its flagship Iska Iska property in southern Bolivia. This site, located in the prolific Potosí Department, shows indicators of potentially hosting world-class deposits of silver, tin, and other polymetallic minerals.
Through focused exploration and strategic mine development, Eloro Resources is working to define and maximize the value of this asset for investors and stakeholders. The company's experienced leadership team brings specialized expertise in identifying, evaluating, and responsibly extracting resources from complex preciand base metal systems in the region.
Moriarty talked about the company's location in Bolivia. He stated, "Bolivia has turned into one of the top mining spots in South America, as the rest of South and Central America have turned stupid. In relative terms right now, Bolivia is actually a great place to do business, and is very supportive of the mining industry and very pleased with the tax revenues that they're getting out."
Moriarty then recognized Eloro's latest news, the announcement of a mineral resource estimate (MRE) at its flagship project.
"The market dropped about 20% as a result," he said, commenting that it was due to two things:
1. The MRE was promised in the first quarter, making them five months late.
2. The nature of the MRE showed it was a giant deposit.
"It's a volcanic caldera," Moriarty reported. "It will end up being 2-3 billion ounces of silver, which is a giant deposit. But they had a choice: they could either go for a big number in the number of tonnes, or they could go for a high value of the minerals. If they had opted for, say, 200 million tonnes of high-value minerals, the minerals would have come in at US$60 or US$70 a tonne, which I think would have excited people. However, people would have been disappointed by the number of tonnes."
Moriarty continued, "So right now, there is a great opportunity to buy those shares very cheap because people who got bored waiting for the MRP have loaded their shares. And literally, the stock is on sale. I am a big fan of the company; I've covered it from the very beginning. It's an extraordinary project." [OWNERSHIP_CHART-440]
"There are only four or five companies in the entire world that happen to have the capacity to move it forward. But now, with some numbers in hand, someone who will get seriand will bring US$30 or US$40 or US$50 million into a drill program. And it will be a mine, and it will be one of the biggest mines."
Lastly, Moriarty added his excitement for this project. "I mean, it's a really exciting project and a project that's so exciting to go into production."
According to Reuters, 17.85% of the company is held by management and insiders.
CEO Thomas Larsen has 9.14%, with 7.03 million. Independent Director Francis Sauve has 2.34%, with 1.80 million. VP and Secretary-Treasurer Jorge Estepa has 1.95%, with 1.50 million, and CFO Miles Nagamatsu has 1.73%, with 1.33 million.
Institutional investors hold 17.95%. Crescat Capital LLC has the most in this category at 15.59%, with 11.98 million shares, and Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. has 2.36%, with 1.81 million.
The rest is with retail investors.
Market Watch notes Eloro has a market cap of CA$$165.06 million and 76.77 million shares outstanding. It trades in the 52-week range between CA$2.10 and CA$4.29.
New Found Gold: The Best Story in the Last 20 Years
Headquartered in Vancouver, New Found Gold Corp. (NFG:TSX.V; NFGC:NYSE.American) is a gold company advancing exploration on its wholly-owned Queensway Project. This substantial 1,662 km2 gold asset is strategically located just 15km from the Trans-Canada Highway near Gander, Newfoundland and Labrador.
Through systematic drilling along the high-potential Appleton Fault Zone, the company has delineated 16 significant gold discovery zones so far. Recent results have expanded the known 4.1 km long mineralized corridor to an average width of 400m, reaching up to 500m in certain areas. Significant untested gaps still remain within this broad mineralized envelope that continues to demonstrate strong potential for additional near-surface gold resources through ongoing exploration and drilling campaigns.
Moriarty stated that New Found Gold is a 100% grassroots discovery, of which he has been aware for the past 20 years. He called the company's first drill hole a "homerun out of the park."
"It was a spectacular hole, which was really locked on their part. But they had done an extraordinary job of selecting the ground. It's about six or eight miles away from Gander, Newfoundland; the Canadian highway runs right through the project. Nobody knew what was there. Yet, they picked off all this wonderful ground, and they have hundreds of spectacular intercepts."
While the company has no intentions of releasing an MRE at this time, Moriarty opined that it doesn't need one. While New Found Gold has 16 drills running, no one can speculate how big this will be, but Moriarty said, "It is going to probably be the best story in the last 20, maybe even 50, years."
Moriarty also shared how he was impressed by New Found Gold's geologists and management team.
"It's a bunch of younger guys who went out, took a chance, and hit a home run right out of the park," he said, noting, "its probably the safest company to invest," as it is a Canadian company and according to Moriarty, "if you shut mining down in Canada, the whole country shuts down."
Moriarty went on to say, "Okay, what the market needs more than anything else is a giant homerun that everyone, not just people in the business, will recognize. I want to see something that wakes people up who have never considered investing or resource stocks before ... the opportunity is so incredible across the board. But you have to have a leader show the potential, and I think New Found Gold is going to be the best story in 20 years, maybe 50 years. And that's why I have all the respect in the world for everyone in the company. They have done just an incredible job."
According to Reuters, management and insiders own 5.25% of the company. Founder, CEO, and Chairman Collin Kettell has 2.90%, with 5.16 million shares, and President Denis Laviolette has 1.22%, with 2.18 million.
39.97% is with strategic investors. Palisades Goldcorp Ltd. has 26.30%, with 46.77 million shares. Sprott Mining Inc. has 13.67%, with 24.30 million, and 2176423 Ontario Ltd. has 4.98%, with 8.86 million.
Institutional investors hold 3.53%. Van Eck Associates Corp. has 2.71%, with 4.81 million shares, and Integrated Advisors Network LLC has 0.38%, with 0.68 million.
The rest is with retail investors.
New Found Gold has a market cap of CA$1.01 billion, according to Market Watch, and 178.25 million shares outstanding. It trades in the 52-week range between CA$4.03 and CA$7.60.