The Dirt on Gold Miners
Adam Sharp

This week I’m reporting from the Rick Rule Investment Symposium in beautiful Boca Raton, Florida.

The event is built for gold and silver bugs. There are around 1,000 of us here.

Dozens of publicly-traded mining and royalty companies are represented as sponsors, speakers, and attendees.

What makes this conference unique is that Rick only allows companies to sponsor which he has a personal investment in. So there’s a screening effect which boosts the quality of the companies we hear from and talk to.

I’ve spoken to dozens of mining executives so far. And the conversations have been fascinating.

Here’s what I’ve learned…

A Red Tape Nightmare

A major takeaway from my conversations so far is that red tape in the industry is out of control.

The permitting process for a new mine in the United States can take up to 20 years or even longer in some cases. Here are the hard stats via Mining Engineering:

A recent report from consultancy S&P Global found that the timeline from the discovery of a mineral deposit to a producing mine takes an average of 29 years in the United States.

This is the second longest in the world behind only Zambia and has damaged Washington’s efforts to boost output of critical minerals such as lithium, nickel and other metals for the energy transition, said the report.

29 years from discovery to production! Second only to Zambia, where projects take 34 years to get off the ground. Insanity. This is the amount of red tape miners have had to deal with.

And it’s why the majority of companies at this conference don’t operate in the United States (yet). Most of the action is in Mexico, South America, and Africa.

And it’s not that we don’t have gold and other valuable minerals in the U.S. We are blessed with plenty of rich deposits. But the permitting and mine approval process has been horrendous. That has been the bottleneck.

For example, yesterday I spoke with the CEO of Luca Mining. All their mines are in Mexico. Why? It’s simple. Their permitting process takes under 5 years, rather than 20.

Time is money, and miners don’t want to waste a third of their life slashing through red tape. And investors won’t back projects which won’t even begin producing revenue for 29 years.

Over the past 50+ years, America’s vast mineral wealth has largely been wasted. But this is finally changing.

Rain After a Drought

All of this is why President Trump’s natural resource reforms are so badly needed.

We laid out what he’s already accomplished last month:

President Trump has only been in office for less than half a year. But already his administration has made major strides addressing these critical issues.

He declared an emergency under the Defense Production Act, allowing for expedited permitting and funding for critical minerals.

DJT has also declared a National Energy Emergency to fast-track pipeline construction and drilling.

He has appointed pro-energy candidates to key positions such as the Chair of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).

And he’s learned from the mistakes of his first term. Back then, many of Trump’s natural resource policies were set by executive order. Unfortunately, these were easy for Biden to undo with his own counter-orders.

This time around, the Trump admin is planning for the long-run. They are embedding policies into law, so it will be far more difficult for a future administration to undo these statutes.

Needless to say, the miners I’ve spoken to with U.S. operations are thrilled by Trump’s reform program. And even miners with foreign operations think that Trump’s changes could spur other countries to speed up their own processes.

Things are looking up for America’s natural resource sector. More development, exploration, and investment. More high-paying jobs and economic growth. And far better opportunities for investors.

Suddenly, mining projects in the U.S. are going to boom. Domestic natural resource projects are now investable. Previously, it was nearly impossible for domestic projects to get funded due to all the red tape.

As a result, we expect to see a capital rotation into gold, silver, and other mineral stocks over the coming years.

America is set to re-take our rightful place as a natural resource powerhouse. The world is gobbling up ever-increasing amounts of minerals, and our goal should be complete self-sufficiency.

Perfect Timing

Trump’s much-needed natural resource reforms come at an interesting time. The United States’ debt load is finally approaching the tipping point.

Inevitably, there will be vast sums of money printed over the coming years. More waves of inflation are virtually certain.

As we discussed yesterday, we’re likely to experience stagflation similar to the 1970s. Take a look at the chart below, which shows how gold stocks performed vs the S&P 500 from 1970-1980. Gold stocks are in red, and the S&P in blue.

Source: Bullion Vault

Before this year, gold and silver miners had lagged the broad stock market significantly.  But that changed starting in January. So far the largest gold miner ETF (GDX) is up about 46% in 2025.

But as you can see from the chart above, the sector could have much further to run (more on that here). I’ve taken zero profits and don’t plan to any time soon.

With Trump’s reforms, we’re set to see a boom in investment, exploration, and production. It’s morning for miners in America (and elsewhere).

This is an exciting time to invest in the mining space. And we’re just getting started.

Adam Sharp has been a financial writer and Fed watcher since 2008. He is a contrarian who specializes in non-traditional assets. Adam founded and sold Early Investing, a newsletter about alternative investments. Sharp lives in Maryland with his wife, two children, and two dogs.

dailyreckoning.com