Issue link: http://resourceworld.uberflip.com/i/1125235
J U N E / J U L Y 2 0 1 9 www.resourceworld.com 27 expectations with regards to gold and they don't have a very good sense of time. I am very content personally with the progress of gold and becoming – frankly – increas- ingly content with the performance of some of the better managed gold stocks. RW: While the price of gold immedi- ately affects gold producers, does the gold price significantly affect gold explorers? RR: It affects gold explorers in the sense that a rising gold price makes investors more inclined to invest or speculate in the space and hence, lowers the cost of capital for gold explorers. Gold explorers or the TSX Venture Index would have an easier job competing for the hot speculative money spaces like cannabis were the gold price stronger. Of course, ultimately, the explor - ers for gold don't have any gold in most cases, so the increase in gold price wouldn't have a direct impact on them but it would as a consequence of altering speculators moods and lower the cost of capital. RW: To invest in gold stocks, do you prefer a particular stage of exploration or development? RR: I don't. I like to be where my compe- tition isn't. Whatever sector is particularly attractive, I will be less active in and the areas that don't have much competition in terms of people willing to write cheques is the place that I am most likely to inhabit, so during a market, my preferences will change strangely in ways that are com - pletely contradictory to the market. RW: Maybe nobody knows the answer to my next question. How high does the price of gold have to go before it ignites a general bull market in gold mining stocks? RR: I don't know the answer. I'm really a credit analyst and the question you're asking probably requires a psychoanalyst and I'm not one of those. RW: A knowledgeable mining executive told me that under current circumstances, high-risk private placement investors are only looking at very exceptional mineral properties to fund. "Interesting" proper - ties don't cut it anymore. So my question is, does this mean that junior miners are becoming more de-risked because they are being forced to choose better projects or is the difficulty in funding decent, but not exceptional projects, damaging the junior mining sector? RR: I have said for years that the junior mining sector would benefit from 500 pub- lic company bankruptcies. There are too many listings in the junior space and there is far too much money spent on general and administrative expenses in the space to the extent that investors become more discerning and refuse to fund The lame, the halt and the blind, so the saying goes. The industry as a whole would be much better off with fewer junior mining list - ings. We did a study a couple of years ago and I have to say it was a very random study. I think we picked 20 juniors with sub-$20 million market caps and we saw that in excess of 65% of the capital raised was spent on listing, audit, legal, general INVESTMENT