10 www.resourceworld.com
D E C E M B E R / J A N U A R Y 2 0 2 0
and that either the price of oil goes above US
$60 a barrel or in five years when you turn
your key to the right your car won't start.
Which do you think is more probable? The
contrarian is the one who looks at the arithme-
tic rather than the narrative.
RW: What are your criteria for suitable
investment candidates in the mineral resource
sector?
RR: I think that resource investors very
broadly need a two-tier perspective; one is pre-
cious metals and the other is industrial materials.
I believe it's more likely than not that precious
metals prices and precious metals equities prices
continue upwards. A chart, The Barron's Gold
Mining Index, which goes back 40 years, is the
longest term equity index I know. It shows that
gold mining equities relative to other classes of
assets are just about as cheap as they have been
for any time in the last 40 years. It's obvious
looking at the chart that we are much closer to
the bottom than we are to the top.
The second lesson from the chart is that
in the nine prior recoveries from oversold
MINING OUTLOOK
