Legendary Resource Investor Jeff Phillips on Where the Biggest Junior Resource Opportunities May Be Hiding

 

Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is one of the most successful contrarian resource investors and speculators on the planet, a friend and mentor, Mr. Jeff Phillips. Jeff, great to have you on. How are you?

Jeff Phillips: I'm doing great, Gerardo. How are you doing today?

Gerardo Del Real: I am well. Thank you for making time. As always, always great to chat. Listen, let's get right into it. It's the month of June and, as usually happens in the summertime, right, we get a little bit of a lull in the market, especially in the junior resource space.

I wanted to have you on because you and I follow, obviously, the sector very closely, but several companies specifically are doing a lot of really good exploration work that I don't think the market is properly allocating credit to.

So I thought I'd have you on. I want to start with your take on the overall junior resource space here as we get into the summer.

Jeff Phillips: Yes, basically, Gerardo, we had a pretty good run there. It really started after Beaver Creek last year in September and ran through PDAC. The market got frothy, I guess you would say. Everything anybody did, stocks were going up, people were raising money. 

And then after PDAC, we've sort of had that — they call it the PDAC curse. I don't know if it's a curse. It's just the market gets a little more lax and less excitable, and people worry about whether the bull market's over.

And what's healthy is that you want to see a lull like this, and it gives you an opportunity to be a contrarian. People aren't jumping up and down about drill results and what companies are doing, per se. Some companies are getting recognition for that, but it creates opportunity if you're looking at the right results and you're patient and you don't believe this bull market's over, which I personally don't.

I think it's just getting going, although there will be speed bumps. So you want to be looking for companies with active exploration and drilling. They may not be getting those efforts reflected right now, but typically in the fall or late summer, everybody comes back and starts speculating, and a lot of these results that have already come out will start to get revalued better, and you'll have more results out of these companies.

Gerardo Del Real: I couldn't agree more. I actually wrote an editorial here earlier today, and I was talking about how boring presents the opportunity.

And I recall back in 2022, Perpetua Resources, which was formerly Midas Gold, was trading around like the C$2.50 level. And you and I had both visited the project. Nick Hodge, my business partner, had visited the project along with us, and we couldn't believe that it was trading with a C$2.50 handle.

And you fast-forward several years later, and here in 2026, it touched the C$50 handle. And not because the deposit got better, not because they found more gold. It was all about permitting and development at the time, but because people started paying attention and assigning proper value.

Now, obviously, that's a more advanced company now. It has secured a loan to fully fund and finance the buildout of their project, but that's the kind of opportunity that we're in the space for.

When you look out there, what are you seeing company-specific-wise, if you don't mind sharing a couple of those, that has the potential to get rerated in a better market?

Jeff Phillips: Gerardo, first off, just so everyone's aware, I consult for these companies. I'm a large shareholder of the companies I mention, especially the ones that have had recent drill results and a couple of companies that have upcoming drill results.

So I'm not giving financial advice, and no way should anybody use these as recommendations. They're just what I'm looking at and what I'm doing with my own personal portfolio.

So there'd be three good examples of recent drill results that materially advance the projects. In one of those cases, they were recognized for that, and two of those I don't believe have been.

So the three companies we'll talk about initially are: Gladiator Metals (TSX-V: GLAD)(OTC: GDTRF), GreenLight Metals (TSX-V: GRL)(OTC: GRLMF), and Daura Gold (TSX-V: DGC)(OTC: DGCOF).

Gladiator Metals (TSX-V: GLAD)(OTC: GDTRF) is one we've talked about before. I talked about it late last year in multiple interviews, not just with you. They have the Cowley discovery, which doesn't have a resource on it, but that is up in the Whitehorse District in the Yukon.

Last year, they drilled five holes in a new target called Cub East, and all five of those holes hit. However, they didn't have their Class 2 or 3 permit that they were working on to drill a lot more holes.

You had to be patient from last fall, and the stock had done alright and moved up to, I don't know, I'm going to say C$1.10 on the drill results, about a C$100 million market cap. But as an early investor in Arizona Sonoran Copper that just got bought by Hudbay, I see some similarities to what they're developing there and where they're at.

And Arizona Sonoran didn't go straight up. But I kept saying that when Gladiator got their drill permit, they were going to go to this Cub East target. Not to mention, they have four other targets that haven't been drilled.

They're going to continue to drill the flagship project and put a resource on that. But this thing could grow to be quite substantial to a major copper company. And lo and behold, they came out with drill results. I think, if I remember correctly, it was about 24 meters of 3% copper and a gram per tonne gold at 190-meters depth.

Every hole hit in the new program at Cub East, and they're continuing to drill there. And they're also drilling their Cowley project, which to me looks like, when they put a resource on it, it has the possibility of having 20 to 30 million tonnes.

However, Gladiator, after being boring and sitting around C$1.10, delivered these drill results and their stock's moved up to the low C$2 level now. So it's a C$200 million market cap company. We've got some recognition, but it took a while for people to realize, hey, this is a new discovery on top of what they already have.

That's a company that's been recognized. I personally believe they're going to continue. They're fully funded, they have a massive drill program running, and I think we'll see more drill results that are excellent. I think that's going to get rerated again. However, we'll have to wait for drill results.

Would you like me to go into the other two companies, Gerardo?

Gerardo Del Real: Absolutely. Gladiator obviously has done very, very well. Massive scale there, great grade, and they've executed beautifully.

Jeff Phillips: Yes, and just so you know, I own quite a few shares and I haven't sold any shares because I actually believe that's going to be possibly my next Arizona Sonoran.

And also, there are a couple of other analogies that have been bought out in the last couple of years at some very high market caps, and I think Gladiator has got the money to continue proving that district.

So the next company would be a company that I think came out with drill results yesterday. It's not the first — it's GreenLight Metals (TSX-V: GRL)(OTC: GRLMF). 

They're drilling the Bend copper-gold VMS project in Wisconsin, which is just an interesting story in itself. The state's open for business. And with security of supply, I like US jurisdictions. I like critical metals, copper being one. They also have several other minerals in that copper VMS that are critical to the US and have been identified that way.

But I think they announced yesterday, I think it was just over 26 or 27 meters of 1% copper and 0.9 grams per tonne gold. So about a 2% copper equivalent interval. Including, I believe, about 15 meters of 1.66% copper and 1.39 grams per tonne gold. It was a pretty decent step-out from the holes they drilled last year. 

They continue to expand that deposit here in Wisconsin, a copper deposit with credits. They also had another hole that was 21 meters of 2.5%, thereabouts, copper equivalent. So every Phase 2 drill hole has intercepted significant VMS mineralization. That's what I want to see as a shareholder.

That stock came out with that yesterday. Again, in this market, there are people looking to sell, and it's trading about where it was. They're going to have more drill results, but it's a much bigger drill program. I think that thing's growing, and I think, as a contrarian — again, I own a lot of shares and I'm not selling any. I've actually bought some recently — that stock has a good chance to get rerated.

Again, these are all high risk, and if you're not a junior resource investor, you should really seek third-party financial advice if it's right for you. I'm not giving financial advice. I'm talking to people who actually understand the junior resource market.

Does that make sense, Gerardo?

Gerardo Del Real: Absolutely. And I think the timing couldn't be better for copper opportunities in America, in the US, and safe jurisdictions, given where copper is with recent highs, where copper seems to be headed, and the geopolitical turbulence, obviously, that doesn't seem to be getting any better.

You mentioned you might have two or three. You've talked about two. Do you have another one there?

Jeff Phillips: Yes, an example there is Gladiator's getting more advanced with a C$200 million market cap. But again, I analyze the companies to see, do I think they can double their market cap with what they're doing?

Gladiator's a bigger company with what's going to be a resource here by the end of the year at Cowley. But then we talked about GreenLight, which, again, that's not just a new discovery. They've actually drilled holes in that before. It was an old Rio Tinto project before Wisconsin changed their mining laws. So it's a little bit more advanced. We know there's a VMS there. We're just figuring out how big it is. And I like to see that every hole they drill shows me that it's getting bigger. 

Another company that would be an earlier-stage company that had drill results would be Daura Gold (TSX-V: DGC)(OTC: DGCOF). Daura just completed a drill program down in Argentina at the Cerro Bayo project. It was a Phase 1 program.

Bear in mind, this is a 28,000-hectare land package. That's a big land package right in the middle of a very well-known silver-gold epithermal district, with multiple mines in that area of Argentina. It's a big land package. They did their first-pass-ever drill program on that package on just a few of the targets. Eighteen hundred meters — I mean, that's not that much drilling.

The drill results came back. In two of those targets, they had something like 16.35 meters of 1.72 grams per tonne gold equivalent, including almost four meters of 6.3 grams per tonne gold equivalent. They had another hole that was 15 meters of 1.9 grams per tonne gold equivalent, including 3.6 meters at 6 grams per tonne gold equivalent.

And if you really want to note something in the drill results, what I took note of is that there was an intercept in one of the holes that was 739 grams per tonne silver over 1.8 meters.

This is a first-pass program. Again, the stock has actually sold down a little bit, mainly because people were expecting some massive discovery. Well, they didn't, in my opinion. They've made a discovery. They proved this is a fertile epithermal system with only 1,800 meters.

So I think Daura Gold — and that's not even their flagship project. It's their projects in Peru. But that's a very exciting project, joint ventured from Latin Metals (TSX-V: LMS)(OTC: LMSQF), a prospect generator.

There's definitely going to be more drilling there. And that's very early stage, but Daura Gold, if you're patient and you do your due diligence, I think is an excellent speculation.

So all three of those companies have delivered great drill results. And I have several others. I'm looking forward to seeing their drill results, and I'm very excited about what's coming out soon.

Gerardo Del Real: You've definitely seen markets, Jeff, where there isn't quality exploration work happening, where budgets are being allocated and spent on all sorts of things that don't really add value. I see the opposite happening right now.

You mentioned those three companies all doing excellent work, but I think throughout the sector we've seen companies really get back to quality exploration work. And I'm really, really looking forward to the second half of this year because I think we're in for a pretty significant rerating.

Anything to add to that, or final thoughts before I let you go, Jeff?

Jeff Phillips: Yes, I'll give you one more. If people are watching drill results, again, wrapping that up, all three of those companies reported results that advanced their projects materially, in my opinion.

Gladiator demonstrated discovery, growth, and scale. GreenLight demonstrated continuity and expansion. And Daura validated a large new epithermal system. So you have two copper plays in the beginning with Gladiator and GreenLight, and then Daura, which is a precious metals, brand-new thing. All three of those did that.

Another company that I'm really excited about, I think we'll see drill results probably before Rick Rule's conference — Rule Symposium on Natural Resource Investing July 6–10 in Boca Raton, Florida — which is coming up right around the corner.

And if you haven't registered, they're full, but you can do the online version. It's a great conference.

Kincora Copper (TSX-V: KCC) will be there. I know you're going to be at Rick's conference, Gerardo. And Kincora's got two drill programs running. And again, I'm patient. One's being run by Anglo. They've spent almost C$20 million, I think, on drilling over the last year and a half. They continue to drill, looking for these massive copper-gold porphyries that Australia is famous for in that district. So that's ongoing.

Kincora is also drilling its 100%-owned Cobar gold project. And I suspect we'll see results before Rick's conference. I think they'll time that. And I think with that technical team and the fact that they're fully cashed up, there's no financing coming in Kincora. You're either a shareholder or you're not. I'm pretty excited with a C$40 million market cap.

So that's another copper company. So there's three copper companies for you and one gold-silver. But your listeners should do their due diligence on those companies. I think they all offer excellent speculation.

Gerardo Del Real: No, I couldn't agree more. Jeff, it's always a pleasure. Looking forward to seeing you at Rick's conference. And again, just really excited about the second half of this year. Thank you so much for your time.

Jeff Phillips: Can't wait to see you at Rick's conference, Gerardo, and I think it's going to be a great second half of this year.

Gerardo Del Real: Agreed. Thank you. I appreciate it.

Jeff Phillips: Thank you, Gerardo.