August 6, 2026
Here’s what was covered in episode 375:
Macro Musings - Gerardo was away this week, so Nick went solo with a chart-heavy look at the dollar, Treasury yields, gold, silver, and copper — and why the macro backdrop for resource stocks finally appears to be improving.
The 10-year Treasury yield remains firmly bullish and has not broken its rising trend, while the 2-year has softened somewhat and is now hovering around its own trend line. Nick tied much of the recent movement in rates back to oil and the Iran war, with yields and inflation expectations reacting to each new round of escalation, ceasefire talk, and falling or rising crude prices.
The more important move has been in the dollar. After spending much of May, June, and July above 100 on the DXY, the dollar has broken below that level in the short term. That weakness has helped gold rally roughly $250 from its recent lows toward the $4,250–$4,300 area.
Nick revisited the correlations he has been tracking for several weeks. Earlier in the year, rising bond yields were strongly associated with falling gold. That relationship has largely disappeared. Gold is now showing little correlation — and at times even a positive correlation — with the 10-year Treasury yield, while its inverse relationship with the dollar has reasserted itself. In other words, the dollar has become the more important short-term driver of gold.
Nick also noted that the weaker dollar may not be entirely organic. He pointed to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s apparent willingness to intervene in currency markets, including buying Japanese yen, and argued that the administration has an obvious incentive heading into the midterms to weaken the dollar and support asset prices.
That brings the discussion back to the line Nick and Gerardo have repeated throughout the summer: the beatings would continue until the macro improved. Bond yields have not broken down, but the dollar finally has.
Gold successfully held the important support zone Nick had been watching. The $4,000 level briefly gave way, but the next support near $3,930 was never reached. Gold bottomed around $3,940, consolidated sideways for several weeks, and has now begun moving higher.
Nick is not yet calling the gold chart fully bullish. He believes gold needs to break above roughly $4,300 and hold there for a sustained period before the downtrend from the recent peak is conclusively broken. But the price action increasingly suggests the correction is bottoming and gold wants to resume its bull market. Silver has a similar hurdle around $63.
Market Takes - Copper broke to an all-time high, tariff uncertainty is distorting global inventories, critical-mineral policy continues to accelerate, and uranium may be setting up for its second major leg higher.
Copper was the clearest market winner this week. Futures reached a new all-time high around $6.86 per pound, decisively exceeding the highs from May and June. Nick called it about as bullish a chart as you can get.
Part of that strength comes from the unresolved U.S. tariff situation. A Section 232 investigation into copper was supposed to produce a recommendation on tariffs, but no final decision has arrived. That uncertainty has encouraged traders, consumers, and investors to bring enormous amounts of copper into the United States before any tariff potentially takes effect.
The result is an increasingly distorted global copper market. U.S. inventories have surged while stocks available in Asia have declined, forcing Chinese buyers to compete more aggressively for remaining supply. July reportedly produced a record month for U.S. copper imports, while backwardation in London is another sign of near-term tightness.
But tariffs are only half the story. Supply remains structurally challenged. Codelco, one of the largest copper producers in the world, has again indicated it will not meet its production goals. Nick pointed out that Codelco production has broadly trended lower for nearly a decade, reflecting the larger industry problem: aging mines, greater depths, declining grades, and too few major new discoveries.
That backdrop continues to reinforce the Digest Publishing thesis in copper explorers, developers, private placements, and selected producers. For several weeks, Nick and Gerardo have ranked the charts copper first, gold second, silver third, and copper continues to justify that ranking.
Nick then moved into the accelerating U.S. policy push around critical minerals. Trump’s July 20 executive order requires critical materials used in U.S. military equipment to increasingly come from domestic or allied sources. That includes copper, rare earths, tungsten, niobium, and other strategic materials.
The problem is obvious: China still controls an enormous percentage of global mining, processing, and refining for many of these materials. Nick believes that gap remains one of the most important investment themes in the market.
The government response now includes FAST-41 permitting, direct federal investments, partnerships with mining companies, opening federal and military land to processing facilities, supply-chain tracking, and restrictions on exporting critical minerals and even scrap containing those materials. The administration is also meeting directly with CEOs from the critical-minerals industry.
Nick cautioned, however, that Washington is learning how long mining actually takes. He used Trilogy Metals as an example. The U.S. government agreed last year to invest approximately $35.6 million for a 10% stake, helping propel the stock sharply higher. But the transaction still has not closed after multiple deadlines.
Nick said he has heard through industry contacts that the government initially believed Trilogy’s project was much closer to production than it actually is. The larger lesson is that new mines cannot simply be switched on. Major copper projects can take decades to discover, permit, finance, construct, and ramp up. That means the federal critical-minerals push is still extremely early.
The final major market theme was uranium.
Nick laid out the bullish case using numbers distilled from a recent uranium report. There are currently roughly 438 operating nuclear reactors worldwide, with projections calling for approximately 952 by 2040. Nuclear generation capacity could rise from about 372 gigawatts today to 686 gigawatts, while annual uranium consumption could grow from roughly 180 million pounds to 390 million pounds.
Supply already does not cover consumption. Current mine production is around 160 million pounds per year against approximately 180 million pounds of demand, with the gap filled through inventories, enrichment adjustments, and other secondary supplies.
The future deficit becomes much larger. Nick cited estimates calling for hundreds of millions of pounds of additional mine production over the coming decade and a potential multibillion-pound cumulative uranium deficit through 2045.
Existing producers are also struggling. Kazatomprom has reduced expectations for how much it can produce, while Cameco has dealt with operational disruptions at Cigar Lake. That reinforces the idea that even the biggest established uranium companies cannot simply turn on enough supply to meet future demand.
At the same time, utilities still have large amounts of uranium to contract. The U.S. alone consumes roughly 50 million pounds annually while producing only about 2.1 million pounds domestically, leaving the country dependent on imports for approximately 95% of its needs.
Nick cited forecasts for uranium reaching $175 per pound in 2027 and $200 in 2028, with long-term prices averaging around $120 through 2032. Yet uranium equities remain weak and the Sprott Physical Uranium Trust (TSX: U.U)(OTC: SRUUF) is trading below the value of the uranium it owns.
For Nick, that disconnect between overwhelmingly bullish fundamentals and weak investor sentiment is precisely what makes the uranium sector interesting today.
Bizarro Banter - With midterm elections approaching, Nick turned to taxes, socialism, purchasing power, women’s sports, and the devastating fires around Spokane.
Nick has already mailed his Washington ballot and highlighted several state-level issues, including Washington’s income-tax debate and a measure involving biological males competing in women’s sports. He noted the increasingly vocal opposition from prominent female athletes and sports commentators and believes public opinion may finally be reaching a tipping point on the issue.
More broadly, Nick sees a progressive political wave developing around the country as voters search for alternatives to a status quo that has failed to address debt, inflation, falling purchasing power, and household affordability.
He used New York’s proposed government-owned grocery stores as one example. The plan calls for goods to be sold below prevailing market prices, but Nick questioned how those subsidies would ultimately be paid for and noted that independent grocers and bodega owners are already organizing against the idea of competing with taxpayer-supported stores.
Nick’s larger concern is growing public support for socialism as a response to legitimate economic frustration. Neither political party has solved the underlying problems. Debt continues growing, the money supply expands, wars continue, and the purchasing power of the dollar continues declining.
But Nick argued that more government spending and higher taxes are unlikely to fix problems created in part by decades of government spending and monetary expansion. As he put it, if massive government debt were the solution, the country would have solved these problems already.
Nick closed the free portion with the Spokane fires.
Roughly 65,000 people had been evacuated and hundreds of structures damaged, including families Nick knows through school and youth sports. Air quality throughout the Spokane area has been extremely poor.
Nick pushed back against attempts to force the fires into simplistic political narratives. One of the largest fires was allegedly started intentionally by a man with a serious criminal history who had previously been investigated in connection with fires. That raises legitimate questions about the justice system and repeat offenders.
At the same time, environmental conditions clearly amplified the disaster. Lower winter snowfall, dry ground, spring vegetation that later became fuel, and winds of 40–50 miles per hour all contributed to how rapidly the fires spread.
Nick’s conclusion was that both things can be true: failures in the justice system matter, and changing environmental conditions can make fires dramatically worse. He closed by expressing support for the families affected and said donations were already being made locally.
Premium Portfolio Picks - Nick used the premium section to highlight two companies he bought this week: Almadex Minerals and Versamet Royalties.
First was Almadex Minerals (TSX-V: DEX)(OTC: AAMMF).
Almadex trades at a market capitalization of roughly C$20–C$23 million, which is approximately backed by the company’s cash, gold, and securities holdings. In other words, investors are effectively paying very little for the underlying exploration portfolio.
The company is led by PhD geologist Morgan Poliquin and his family, who have a long history of successful mineral discoveries. Almadex also owns its own drill rigs, giving it the ability to move quickly between projects while generating additional revenue by renting rigs to third parties.
Nick said Poliquin has developed a new geological theory for targeting porphyry systems in the American Southwest and appears increasingly focused on testing that thesis. The company has several projects scheduled for drilling and recently monetized part of its royalty portfolio, providing additional capital.
While many small gold equities rallied sharply alongside gold this week, Almadex had not yet participated to the same degree. Given the balance-sheet backing, experienced geological team, upcoming drilling, and potential discovery upside, Nick was comfortable adding to his position.
Nick’s second purchase was Versamet Royalties (NASDAQ: VMET)(TSX: VMET), a company already held in the Foundational Profits portfolio.
Large royalty companies like Franco-Nevada and Wheaton Precious Metals have rallied alongside gold and are reporting strong earnings and portfolio growth. Versamet has not kept pace, despite building what Nick believes is a high-quality and rapidly expanding royalty portfolio.
The company was assembled from royalty portfolios contributed by Equinox Gold and Sandstorm Gold and has attracted backing from an unusually strong group of mining and financial investors, including B2Gold, Tether, members of the Lundin family, and Zijin through its Gold Mountains entity.
The growth has already been substantial. Versamet generated approximately $1 million of revenue in 2022 versus roughly $35 million in 2025 — a 35-fold increase. Management is guiding toward approximately 40,000 gold-equivalent ounces from its portfolio in 2028, versus roughly 20,000–23,000 ounces this year.
Nick calculated that as approximately a 97% compound annual growth rate since 2022.
The portfolio already includes several producing royalties. Its largest exposure is a 0.21% NSR on Artemis Gold’s Blackwater mine in British Columbia. Nick reminded listeners that Digest Publishing financed Artemis near C$6 in the early days of Private Placement Intel; the stock now trades around C$40 and Artemis has grown into a multibillion-dollar company.
Versamet’s other major producing asset is a 1.26% stream on Equinox Gold’s Greenstone mine, also in Canada.
Recent operational issues at both Blackwater and Greenstone have likely contributed to Versamet’s relative weakness. Blackwater experienced a temporary mill shutdown, while Equinox indicated production would likely come in toward the low end of guidance. Nick views that weakness as an opportunity rather than a deterioration of the long-term royalty thesis.
The company also has a strong management and shareholder network. CEO Dan O’Flaherty previously worked at Maverix Metals, which was acquired by Triple Flag for approximately $600 million. Chairman Greg Smith was a co-founder of Equinox Gold. Director Marcel de Groot and his Pathway Capital organization have been involved in the creation of companies including Equinox, Sandstorm, and Solaris, while the broader de Groot network provides significant capital-markets experience.
Versamet also recently acquired a royalty on Skeena Gold & Silver’s Eskay Creek development project, adding another advanced Canadian asset that could begin contributing as the portfolio matures.
With gold recovering, larger royalty companies trading strongly, revenue growing rapidly, seven producing royalties, and additional development assets coming online, Nick saw Versamet’s relative underperformance as another opportunity to add.
August 6, 2026
Here’s what was covered in episode 375:
Macro Musings - Gerardo was away this week, so Nick went solo with a chart-heavy look at the dollar, Treasury yields, gold, silver, and copper — and why the macro backdrop for resource stocks finally appears to be improving.
The 10-year Treasury yield remains firmly bullish and has not broken its rising trend, while the 2-year has softened somewhat and is now hovering around its own trend line. Nick tied much of the recent movement in rates back to oil and the Iran war, with yields and inflation expectations reacting to each new round of escalation, ceasefire talk, and falling or rising crude prices.
The more important move has been in the dollar. After spending much of May, June, and July above 100 on the DXY, the dollar has broken below that level in the short term. That weakness has helped gold rally roughly $250 from its recent lows toward the $4,250–$4,300 area.
Nick revisited the correlations he has been tracking for several weeks. Earlier in the year, rising bond yields were strongly associated with falling gold. That relationship has largely disappeared. Gold is now showing little correlation — and at times even a positive correlation — with the 10-year Treasury yield, while its inverse relationship with the dollar has reasserted itself. In other words, the dollar has become the more important short-term driver of gold.
Nick also noted that the weaker dollar may not be entirely organic. He pointed to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s apparent willingness to intervene in currency markets, including buying Japanese yen, and argued that the administration has an obvious incentive heading into the midterms to weaken the dollar and support asset prices.
That brings the discussion back to the line Nick and Gerardo have repeated throughout the summer: the beatings would continue until the macro improved. Bond yields have not broken down, but the dollar finally has.
Gold successfully held the important support zone Nick had been watching. The $4,000 level briefly gave way, but the next support near $3,930 was never reached. Gold bottomed around $3,940, consolidated sideways for several weeks, and has now begun moving higher.
Nick is not yet calling the gold chart fully bullish. He believes gold needs to break above roughly $4,300 and hold there for a sustained period before the downtrend from the recent peak is conclusively broken. But the price action increasingly suggests the correction is bottoming and gold wants to resume its bull market. Silver has a similar hurdle around $63.
Market Takes - Copper broke to an all-time high, tariff uncertainty is distorting global inventories, critical-mineral policy continues to accelerate, and uranium may be setting up for its second major leg higher.
Copper was the clearest market winner this week. Futures reached a new all-time high around $6.86 per pound, decisively exceeding the highs from May and June. Nick called it about as bullish a chart as you can get.
Part of that strength comes from the unresolved U.S. tariff situation. A Section 232 investigation into copper was supposed to produce a recommendation on tariffs, but no final decision has arrived. That uncertainty has encouraged traders, consumers, and investors to bring enormous amounts of copper into the United States before any tariff potentially takes effect.
The result is an increasingly distorted global copper market. U.S. inventories have surged while stocks available in Asia have declined, forcing Chinese buyers to compete more aggressively for remaining supply. July reportedly produced a record month for U.S. copper imports, while backwardation in London is another sign of near-term tightness.
But tariffs are only half the story. Supply remains structurally challenged. Codelco, one of the largest copper producers in the world, has again indicated it will not meet its production goals. Nick pointed out that Codelco production has broadly trended lower for nearly a decade, reflecting the larger industry problem: aging mines, greater depths, declining grades, and too few major new discoveries.
That backdrop continues to reinforce the Digest Publishing thesis in copper explorers, developers, private placements, and selected producers. For several weeks, Nick and Gerardo have ranked the charts copper first, gold second, silver third, and copper continues to justify that ranking.
Nick then moved into the accelerating U.S. policy push around critical minerals. Trump’s July 20 executive order requires critical materials used in U.S. military equipment to increasingly come from domestic or allied sources. That includes copper, rare earths, tungsten, niobium, and other strategic materials.
The problem is obvious: China still controls an enormous percentage of global mining, processing, and refining for many of these materials. Nick believes that gap remains one of the most important investment themes in the market.
The government response now includes FAST-41 permitting, direct federal investments, partnerships with mining companies, opening federal and military land to processing facilities, supply-chain tracking, and restrictions on exporting critical minerals and even scrap containing those materials. The administration is also meeting directly with CEOs from the critical-minerals industry.
Nick cautioned, however, that Washington is learning how long mining actually takes. He used Trilogy Metals as an example. The U.S. government agreed last year to invest approximately $35.6 million for a 10% stake, helping propel the stock sharply higher. But the transaction still has not closed after multiple deadlines.
Nick said he has heard through industry contacts that the government initially believed Trilogy’s project was much closer to production than it actually is. The larger lesson is that new mines cannot simply be switched on. Major copper projects can take decades to discover, permit, finance, construct, and ramp up. That means the federal critical-minerals push is still extremely early.
The final major market theme was uranium.
Nick laid out the bullish case using numbers distilled from a recent uranium report. There are currently roughly 438 operating nuclear reactors worldwide, with projections calling for approximately 952 by 2040. Nuclear generation capacity could rise from about 372 gigawatts today to 686 gigawatts, while annual uranium consumption could grow from roughly 180 million pounds to 390 million pounds.
Supply already does not cover consumption. Current mine production is around 160 million pounds per year against approximately 180 million pounds of demand, with the gap filled through inventories, enrichment adjustments, and other secondary supplies.
The future deficit becomes much larger. Nick cited estimates calling for hundreds of millions of pounds of additional mine production over the coming decade and a potential multibillion-pound cumulative uranium deficit through 2045.
Existing producers are also struggling. Kazatomprom has reduced expectations for how much it can produce, while Cameco has dealt with operational disruptions at Cigar Lake. That reinforces the idea that even the biggest established uranium companies cannot simply turn on enough supply to meet future demand.
At the same time, utilities still have large amounts of uranium to contract. The U.S. alone consumes roughly 50 million pounds annually while producing only about 2.1 million pounds domestically, leaving the country dependent on imports for approximately 95% of its needs.
Nick cited forecasts for uranium reaching $175 per pound in 2027 and $200 in 2028, with long-term prices averaging around $120 through 2032. Yet uranium equities remain weak and the Sprott Physical Uranium Trust (TSX: U.U)(OTC: SRUUF) is trading below the value of the uranium it owns.
For Nick, that disconnect between overwhelmingly bullish fundamentals and weak investor sentiment is precisely what makes the uranium sector interesting today.
Bizarro Banter - With midterm elections approaching, Nick turned to taxes, socialism, purchasing power, women’s sports, and the devastating fires around Spokane.
Nick has already mailed his Washington ballot and highlighted several state-level issues, including Washington’s income-tax debate and a measure involving biological males competing in women’s sports. He noted the increasingly vocal opposition from prominent female athletes and sports commentators and believes public opinion may finally be reaching a tipping point on the issue.
More broadly, Nick sees a progressive political wave developing around the country as voters search for alternatives to a status quo that has failed to address debt, inflation, falling purchasing power, and household affordability.
He used New York’s proposed government-owned grocery stores as one example. The plan calls for goods to be sold below prevailing market prices, but Nick questioned how those subsidies would ultimately be paid for and noted that independent grocers and bodega owners are already organizing against the idea of competing with taxpayer-supported stores.
Nick’s larger concern is growing public support for socialism as a response to legitimate economic frustration. Neither political party has solved the underlying problems. Debt continues growing, the money supply expands, wars continue, and the purchasing power of the dollar continues declining.
But Nick argued that more government spending and higher taxes are unlikely to fix problems created in part by decades of government spending and monetary expansion. As he put it, if massive government debt were the solution, the country would have solved these problems already.
Nick closed the free portion with the Spokane fires.
Roughly 65,000 people had been evacuated and hundreds of structures damaged, including families Nick knows through school and youth sports. Air quality throughout the Spokane area has been extremely poor.
Nick pushed back against attempts to force the fires into simplistic political narratives. One of the largest fires was allegedly started intentionally by a man with a serious criminal history who had previously been investigated in connection with fires. That raises legitimate questions about the justice system and repeat offenders.
At the same time, environmental conditions clearly amplified the disaster. Lower winter snowfall, dry ground, spring vegetation that later became fuel, and winds of 40–50 miles per hour all contributed to how rapidly the fires spread.
Nick’s conclusion was that both things can be true: failures in the justice system matter, and changing environmental conditions can make fires dramatically worse. He closed by expressing support for the families affected and said donations were already being made locally.
Premium Portfolio Picks - Nick used the premium section to highlight two companies he bought this week: Almadex Minerals and Versamet Royalties.
First was Almadex Minerals (TSX-V: DEX)(OTC: AAMMF).
Almadex trades at a market capitalization of roughly C$20–C$23 million, which is approximately backed by the company’s cash, gold, and securities holdings. In other words, investors are effectively paying very little for the underlying exploration portfolio.
The company is led by PhD geologist Morgan Poliquin and his family, who have a long history of successful mineral discoveries. Almadex also owns its own drill rigs, giving it the ability to move quickly between projects while generating additional revenue by renting rigs to third parties.
Nick said Poliquin has developed a new geological theory for targeting porphyry systems in the American Southwest and appears increasingly focused on testing that thesis. The company has several projects scheduled for drilling and recently monetized part of its royalty portfolio, providing additional capital.
While many small gold equities rallied sharply alongside gold this week, Almadex had not yet participated to the same degree. Given the balance-sheet backing, experienced geological team, upcoming drilling, and potential discovery upside, Nick was comfortable adding to his position.
Nick’s second purchase was Versamet Royalties (NASDAQ: VMET)(TSX: VMET), a company already held in the Foundational Profits portfolio.
Large royalty companies like Franco-Nevada and Wheaton Precious Metals have rallied alongside gold and are reporting strong earnings and portfolio growth. Versamet has not kept pace, despite building what Nick believes is a high-quality and rapidly expanding royalty portfolio.
The company was assembled from royalty portfolios contributed by Equinox Gold and Sandstorm Gold and has attracted backing from an unusually strong group of mining and financial investors, including B2Gold, Tether, members of the Lundin family, and Zijin through its Gold Mountains entity.
The growth has already been substantial. Versamet generated approximately $1 million of revenue in 2022 versus roughly $35 million in 2025 — a 35-fold increase. Management is guiding toward approximately 40,000 gold-equivalent ounces from its portfolio in 2028, versus roughly 20,000–23,000 ounces this year.
Nick calculated that as approximately a 97% compound annual growth rate since 2022.
The portfolio already includes several producing royalties. Its largest exposure is a 0.21% NSR on Artemis Gold’s Blackwater mine in British Columbia. Nick reminded listeners that Digest Publishing financed Artemis near C$6 in the early days of Private Placement Intel; the stock now trades around C$40 and Artemis has grown into a multibillion-dollar company.
Versamet’s other major producing asset is a 1.26% stream on Equinox Gold’s Greenstone mine, also in Canada.
Recent operational issues at both Blackwater and Greenstone have likely contributed to Versamet’s relative weakness. Blackwater experienced a temporary mill shutdown, while Equinox indicated production would likely come in toward the low end of guidance. Nick views that weakness as an opportunity rather than a deterioration of the long-term royalty thesis.
The company also has a strong management and shareholder network. CEO Dan O’Flaherty previously worked at Maverix Metals, which was acquired by Triple Flag for approximately $600 million. Chairman Greg Smith was a co-founder of Equinox Gold. Director Marcel de Groot and his Pathway Capital organization have been involved in the creation of companies including Equinox, Sandstorm, and Solaris, while the broader de Groot network provides significant capital-markets experience.
Versamet also recently acquired a royalty on Skeena Gold & Silver’s Eskay Creek development project, adding another advanced Canadian asset that could begin contributing as the portfolio matures.
With gold recovering, larger royalty companies trading strongly, revenue growing rapidly, seven producing royalties, and additional development assets coming online, Nick saw Versamet’s relative underperformance as another opportunity to add.
August 6, 2026
Here’s what was covered in episode 375:
Macro Musings - Gerardo was away this week, so Nick went solo with a chart-heavy look at the dollar, Treasury yields, gold, silver, and copper — and why the macro backdrop for resource stocks finally appears to be improving.
The 10-year Treasury yield remains firmly bullish and has not broken its rising trend, while the 2-year has softened somewhat and is now hovering around its own trend line. Nick tied much of the recent movement in rates back to oil and the Iran war, with yields and inflation expectations reacting to each new round of escalation, ceasefire talk, and falling or rising crude prices.
The more important move has been in the dollar. After spending much of May, June, and July above 100 on the DXY, the dollar has broken below that level in the short term. That weakness has helped gold rally roughly $250 from its recent lows toward the $4,250–$4,300 area.
Nick revisited the correlations he has been tracking for several weeks. Earlier in the year, rising bond yields were strongly associated with falling gold. That relationship has largely disappeared. Gold is now showing little correlation — and at times even a positive correlation — with the 10-year Treasury yield, while its inverse relationship with the dollar has reasserted itself. In other words, the dollar has become the more important short-term driver of gold.
Nick also noted that the weaker dollar may not be entirely organic. He pointed to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s apparent willingness to intervene in currency markets, including buying Japanese yen, and argued that the administration has an obvious incentive heading into the midterms to weaken the dollar and support asset prices.
That brings the discussion back to the line Nick and Gerardo have repeated throughout the summer: the beatings would continue until the macro improved. Bond yields have not broken down, but the dollar finally has.
Gold successfully held the important support zone Nick had been watching. The $4,000 level briefly gave way, but the next support near $3,930 was never reached. Gold bottomed around $3,940, consolidated sideways for several weeks, and has now begun moving higher.
Nick is not yet calling the gold chart fully bullish. He believes gold needs to break above roughly $4,300 and hold there for a sustained period before the downtrend from the recent peak is conclusively broken. But the price action increasingly suggests the correction is bottoming and gold wants to resume its bull market. Silver has a similar hurdle around $63.
Market Takes - Copper broke to an all-time high, tariff uncertainty is distorting global inventories, critical-mineral policy continues to accelerate, and uranium may be setting up for its second major leg higher.
Copper was the clearest market winner this week. Futures reached a new all-time high around $6.86 per pound, decisively exceeding the highs from May and June. Nick called it about as bullish a chart as you can get.
Part of that strength comes from the unresolved U.S. tariff situation. A Section 232 investigation into copper was supposed to produce a recommendation on tariffs, but no final decision has arrived. That uncertainty has encouraged traders, consumers, and investors to bring enormous amounts of copper into the United States before any tariff potentially takes effect.
The result is an increasingly distorted global copper market. U.S. inventories have surged while stocks available in Asia have declined, forcing Chinese buyers to compete more aggressively for remaining supply. July reportedly produced a record month for U.S. copper imports, while backwardation in London is another sign of near-term tightness.
But tariffs are only half the story. Supply remains structurally challenged. Codelco, one of the largest copper producers in the world, has again indicated it will not meet its production goals. Nick pointed out that Codelco production has broadly trended lower for nearly a decade, reflecting the larger industry problem: aging mines, greater depths, declining grades, and too few major new discoveries.
That backdrop continues to reinforce the Digest Publishing thesis in copper explorers, developers, private placements, and selected producers. For several weeks, Nick and Gerardo have ranked the charts copper first, gold second, silver third, and copper continues to justify that ranking.
Nick then moved into the accelerating U.S. policy push around critical minerals. Trump’s July 20 executive order requires critical materials used in U.S. military equipment to increasingly come from domestic or allied sources. That includes copper, rare earths, tungsten, niobium, and other strategic materials.
The problem is obvious: China still controls an enormous percentage of global mining, processing, and refining for many of these materials. Nick believes that gap remains one of the most important investment themes in the market.
The government response now includes FAST-41 permitting, direct federal investments, partnerships with mining companies, opening federal and military land to processing facilities, supply-chain tracking, and restrictions on exporting critical minerals and even scrap containing those materials. The administration is also meeting directly with CEOs from the critical-minerals industry.
Nick cautioned, however, that Washington is learning how long mining actually takes. He used Trilogy Metals as an example. The U.S. government agreed last year to invest approximately $35.6 million for a 10% stake, helping propel the stock sharply higher. But the transaction still has not closed after multiple deadlines.
Nick said he has heard through industry contacts that the government initially believed Trilogy’s project was much closer to production than it actually is. The larger lesson is that new mines cannot simply be switched on. Major copper projects can take decades to discover, permit, finance, construct, and ramp up. That means the federal critical-minerals push is still extremely early.
The final major market theme was uranium.
Nick laid out the bullish case using numbers distilled from a recent uranium report. There are currently roughly 438 operating nuclear reactors worldwide, with projections calling for approximately 952 by 2040. Nuclear generation capacity could rise from about 372 gigawatts today to 686 gigawatts, while annual uranium consumption could grow from roughly 180 million pounds to 390 million pounds.
Supply already does not cover consumption. Current mine production is around 160 million pounds per year against approximately 180 million pounds of demand, with the gap filled through inventories, enrichment adjustments, and other secondary supplies.
The future deficit becomes much larger. Nick cited estimates calling for hundreds of millions of pounds of additional mine production over the coming decade and a potential multibillion-pound cumulative uranium deficit through 2045.
Existing producers are also struggling. Kazatomprom has reduced expectations for how much it can produce, while Cameco has dealt with operational disruptions at Cigar Lake. That reinforces the idea that even the biggest established uranium companies cannot simply turn on enough supply to meet future demand.
At the same time, utilities still have large amounts of uranium to contract. The U.S. alone consumes roughly 50 million pounds annually while producing only about 2.1 million pounds domestically, leaving the country dependent on imports for approximately 95% of its needs.
Nick cited forecasts for uranium reaching $175 per pound in 2027 and $200 in 2028, with long-term prices averaging around $120 through 2032. Yet uranium equities remain weak and the Sprott Physical Uranium Trust (TSX: U.U)(OTC: SRUUF) is trading below the value of the uranium it owns.
For Nick, that disconnect between overwhelmingly bullish fundamentals and weak investor sentiment is precisely what makes the uranium sector interesting today.
Bizarro Banter - With midterm elections approaching, Nick turned to taxes, socialism, purchasing power, women’s sports, and the devastating fires around Spokane.
Nick has already mailed his Washington ballot and highlighted several state-level issues, including Washington’s income-tax debate and a measure involving biological males competing in women’s sports. He noted the increasingly vocal opposition from prominent female athletes and sports commentators and believes public opinion may finally be reaching a tipping point on the issue.
More broadly, Nick sees a progressive political wave developing around the country as voters search for alternatives to a status quo that has failed to address debt, inflation, falling purchasing power, and household affordability.
He used New York’s proposed government-owned grocery stores as one example. The plan calls for goods to be sold below prevailing market prices, but Nick questioned how those subsidies would ultimately be paid for and noted that independent grocers and bodega owners are already organizing against the idea of competing with taxpayer-supported stores.
Nick’s larger concern is growing public support for socialism as a response to legitimate economic frustration. Neither political party has solved the underlying problems. Debt continues growing, the money supply expands, wars continue, and the purchasing power of the dollar continues declining.
But Nick argued that more government spending and higher taxes are unlikely to fix problems created in part by decades of government spending and monetary expansion. As he put it, if massive government debt were the solution, the country would have solved these problems already.
Nick closed the free portion with the Spokane fires.
Roughly 65,000 people had been evacuated and hundreds of structures damaged, including families Nick knows through school and youth sports. Air quality throughout the Spokane area has been extremely poor.
Nick pushed back against attempts to force the fires into simplistic political narratives. One of the largest fires was allegedly started intentionally by a man with a serious criminal history who had previously been investigated in connection with fires. That raises legitimate questions about the justice system and repeat offenders.
At the same time, environmental conditions clearly amplified the disaster. Lower winter snowfall, dry ground, spring vegetation that later became fuel, and winds of 40–50 miles per hour all contributed to how rapidly the fires spread.
Nick’s conclusion was that both things can be true: failures in the justice system matter, and changing environmental conditions can make fires dramatically worse. He closed by expressing support for the families affected and said donations were already being made locally.
Premium Portfolio Picks - Nick used the premium section to highlight two companies he bought this week: Almadex Minerals and Versamet Royalties.
First was Almadex Minerals (TSX-V: DEX)(OTC: AAMMF).
Almadex trades at a market capitalization of roughly C$20–C$23 million, which is approximately backed by the company’s cash, gold, and securities holdings. In other words, investors are effectively paying very little for the underlying exploration portfolio.
The company is led by PhD geologist Morgan Poliquin and his family, who have a long history of successful mineral discoveries. Almadex also owns its own drill rigs, giving it the ability to move quickly between projects while generating additional revenue by renting rigs to third parties.
Nick said Poliquin has developed a new geological theory for targeting porphyry systems in the American Southwest and appears increasingly focused on testing that thesis. The company has several projects scheduled for drilling and recently monetized part of its royalty portfolio, providing additional capital.
While many small gold equities rallied sharply alongside gold this week, Almadex had not yet participated to the same degree. Given the balance-sheet backing, experienced geological team, upcoming drilling, and potential discovery upside, Nick was comfortable adding to his position.
Nick’s second purchase was Versamet Royalties (NASDAQ: VMET)(TSX: VMET), a company already held in the Foundational Profits portfolio.
Large royalty companies like Franco-Nevada and Wheaton Precious Metals have rallied alongside gold and are reporting strong earnings and portfolio growth. Versamet has not kept pace, despite building what Nick believes is a high-quality and rapidly expanding royalty portfolio.
The company was assembled from royalty portfolios contributed by Equinox Gold and Sandstorm Gold and has attracted backing from an unusually strong group of mining and financial investors, including B2Gold, Tether, members of the Lundin family, and Zijin through its Gold Mountains entity.
The growth has already been substantial. Versamet generated approximately $1 million of revenue in 2022 versus roughly $35 million in 2025 — a 35-fold increase. Management is guiding toward approximately 40,000 gold-equivalent ounces from its portfolio in 2028, versus roughly 20,000–23,000 ounces this year.
Nick calculated that as approximately a 97% compound annual growth rate since 2022.
The portfolio already includes several producing royalties. Its largest exposure is a 0.21% NSR on Artemis Gold’s Blackwater mine in British Columbia. Nick reminded listeners that Digest Publishing financed Artemis near C$6 in the early days of Private Placement Intel; the stock now trades around C$40 and Artemis has grown into a multibillion-dollar company.
Versamet’s other major producing asset is a 1.26% stream on Equinox Gold’s Greenstone mine, also in Canada.
Recent operational issues at both Blackwater and Greenstone have likely contributed to Versamet’s relative weakness. Blackwater experienced a temporary mill shutdown, while Equinox indicated production would likely come in toward the low end of guidance. Nick views that weakness as an opportunity rather than a deterioration of the long-term royalty thesis.
The company also has a strong management and shareholder network. CEO Dan O’Flaherty previously worked at Maverix Metals, which was acquired by Triple Flag for approximately $600 million. Chairman Greg Smith was a co-founder of Equinox Gold. Director Marcel de Groot and his Pathway Capital organization have been involved in the creation of companies including Equinox, Sandstorm, and Solaris, while the broader de Groot network provides significant capital-markets experience.
Versamet also recently acquired a royalty on Skeena Gold & Silver’s Eskay Creek development project, adding another advanced Canadian asset that could begin contributing as the portfolio matures.
With gold recovering, larger royalty companies trading strongly, revenue growing rapidly, seven producing royalties, and additional development assets coming online, Nick saw Versamet’s relative underperformance as another opportunity to add.