I'm Charlotte Mloud with investingnews.com and here today with me is John Fenick, portfolio manager and consultant at Fenic Consulting. Thank you so much for being here. Great to have you as always. >> Thanks Charlotte. Happy new year. >> Of course. Yes, happy new year. Welcome to 2026 and of course we have so much to get into today. But before we jump into what's happening with metals and the markets, I thought we could take a look at your upcoming events. So, if you wouldn't mind sharing the details


briefly. >> Sure. Yeah. So, it's May 17 through 19 in Washington DC, May 20 through 22nd in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Uh on the ocean, we are doing two East Coast conferences. They're separated by 2 and a half hour flights. Uh so, companies are really interested in attending because it's a good use of their time. you know, as an executive myself, I don't like doing a conference, flying all the way back, you know, five hours, flying, you know, another month later, doing another one. It's like, you know,


if you can hit two groups of people that are really interested in buying equities and and mining stocks in a 4-day period, it's very helpful to CEOs. Um and uh the investors that we're we're asking to to consider this um we're screening pretty hard because we've had a couple hundred applications already and these are high-end events Charlotte so they're invitation only. So by that I mean you know we have someone fill out a one or two page form and it's going to ask questions about their background and


like what kind of experience they have and are they actively buying equities and you know we don't want someone roaming around a conference floor. This isn't a booth kind of conference. This is a, you know, professional conference where it's the one-on-one format that Beaver Creek employs, um, where you get to sit down with a CEO for 20 to 25 minutes and instead of shouting on a on a a floor full of, you know, hundreds or thousands of people, you're basically sitting there asking pointed questions


to a CEO to get a better understanding of what that stock does and if it's something you want to own. >> Well, we will have the details for both of those events in the video description. People can check them out. We'll have your contact details and people can get in touch if they would like to. Let's let's get into what's happening with the metals right now. It's a very special day for silver in particular. We saw it get to the $100 per ounce level for the first time ever.


So, we're in tripledigit silver territory finally at long last. And I know that you've been bullish on silver for years. But walk me through this $100 level. Were you expecting to see it so soon? What are the drivers? just help me situate myself here. >> Yeah, sure. Um, silver, uh, I can say this now because on our last recording, I didn't have my December 31st numbers, but our December 31st holdings just were released 4 days ago, and silver was our largest holding at 17.8%, which, you


know, I I just didn't sell any uh second, third, fourth quarter. And now I'm starting to sell some of my uh position um only because a 100 was what I told you and my clients like hey at 100 I'm going to sell a little bit right so today we were selling a little bit um and by a little bit I don't mean like 20% I mean a smaller percentage you know um we're we're just starting to pair off a little bit in some names uh we call that trimming in the portfolio management business because you can't


you know you don't have a magic crystal ball that tells you when to sell something, right? You have to look at things like RSI that we've talked about on your show before and you know support resistance and there is no resistance on silver right now, right? It's at an all-time high. So really excited that we're recording this just over 100 bucks. I think you know it can go to 106 107 in the near term but our you know kind of Q2 number has been since it hits 68 to 70 which was that range I gave you


last time. uh that that number is around 130 to 133 for us. So that's sort of where we're expecting things to hit by Q2. Um and you know it's been a rabid trade and by rabid I mean every dip has been being bought and that's not normal for silver. Uh I've watched silver every day for years and years. I mean literally my first purchase was 26 years ago. So I I've been on this um market like very very attentive since at least 2008, you know, looking every day because of what happened in in the


crisis. And um this action is like mindbogglingly good. So um with that said, I mean we we still believe in silver. There's there's obviously more reasons to believe in it now given the geopolitical backdrop and what's been happening with China. um you know it's just uh the headlines are very very supportive of higher prices and um we'll talk about gold in a minute and and and kind of like where those estimates are going since our last interview as well. >> Yeah. Yeah. We've got a couple of points


to follow up on there. Before we get into the drivers, I want to ask you a little bit more about selling at that $100 level because it's a very psychological level and silver is a very interesting metal. People get really attached to it. they may find it difficult to sell. So, can you talk me through your process a little bit more and maybe help people understand when they might want to think about selling? >> Sure. So, I mean, $30 an ounce silver, if you look up any of our interviews


together, say 18 months ago, even 12 months ago, 30 bucks, not 100, was 11 years resistance. And it failed at 30 five or six times. I have to go back and look. So, that's major major resistance, right? That's like if we hit 100 today and bounced to 98 and closed there and then we tried again Monday and it failed again and it failed again and then it eventually just goes straight down because it's it's hitting a ceiling, right? And uh if you do the math on $30 versus $100, that's more than a 300%


gain. This isn't a long time ago on the chart, right? So you have to well not not that much, but it's it's it's a lot, right? So like I mean it it is just a tremendous amount of return in a metal, not a silver stock, right? You're paid to take risk in silver stocks. And some of these things are are just astronomically good right now. Um we talked about Buonato silver on our I think our last show. Gosh, it was like 25 26 cents US. It's trading at 73 or 74 cents US now. uh GSVRF in the states, uh


GSVR in Canada, and part of that is silver. Part of it is James Anderson is a is an aggressive CEO who made another acquisition since our last interview and picked up Bolanitos from Endeavor for a song. I'm sure Endeavor wants that price much much higher at this point. Uh because they we we said at the time of the transaction weeks ago that that was a steal and now it's a super steal. Um, so that really helps Guadawanto's production of silver in 2026 2027 in our view. Um, and it's immediately


accreative. So deals like that can really help. Another one that we just interviewed on my show, the Fenic Commodities Report was Highlander Silver. Um, that one is HLSCF in the States and Dan Earl was very impressive. uh struck me as an aggressive CEO like James Anderson as well where he's just like look we're acquiring Bear Creek. We're going to take their main project in the silver world, Karani, and we're going to develop this and Karani is a silver monster. Um Bear Creek, by the


way, is still Bear Creek. It hasn't been acquired by Highlander. The the the transaction date is next month, February. So, we'll see if that transaction goes through. Everything I heard in that interview indicates that it will go through. Um, so Bear Creek is a BC EKF in the States and we've owned Bear Creek for years. Uh, small position, but we're excited to see Bear Creek get in the hands of someone like Highlander who's just a better operator and will take this down the road, right?


Um, by the way, Highlander Silver has a very tight share structure. So when I was asking Dan about that, 60% was his own comment in in um in the share structure is owned by management insiders um institutions uh like large large holders that aren't selling. The biggest shareholder of which was the Lundine family at like almost 20%. And a billionaire family is not selling anything in this kind of a market in my opinion. So when 1/5if of the c the cap is like literally taken by that family then you have Eric spraw


taking four or 5% then you have all these other institutions taking you know 3 to 5% a piece it really is um an amazing transaction for both sets of shareholders in that case I think both Highlander and Bear Creek >> always good to get a look at the companies that you're keeping an eye on and just cuz we're talking about silver stocks a question that I am starting to see come up among our audience is all right we've had the silver price make these amazing moves higher. When are we


going to see the outperformance in the silver stocks, which is not to say that they're not moving, but I think people have really high expectations. So, any any thoughts on that? >> So, I would have agreed with that comment a few weeks ago. I don't agree with it now. I mean, some of these silver stocks have just had insane weeks this week. I mean, just this week and last week. I mean, um, you have to go back as an investor and look at the chart. Like I was looking at USA uh America's gold and silver and I was


looking at it with a client and um I think in April of last year that stock was at a dollar US and it closed uh well it's it's right now as we're trading you know at9 $9. So, a dollar to $9 in 9 months, I'd say, you know, you're in the wrong silver stocks. You know, USAS is a 2% holding for us. It's one of our top five uh silver equity positions along with physical silver and the three major silver ETFs, which I'll give everyone right now, which are Silj to midcap space doing extremely well. uh then you


can choose one of these two because they both handle large cap silver stocks and that's SIL or SLVP. They do pretty much the same thing with slightly different holdings, but you're still getting that same kind of exposure. >> Okay, I think that's helpful. So, people should perhaps start to re-evaluate where they are if they don't see that outperformance in the silver stocks. I think let's take a look over at gold. So, gold has been a little bit overshadowed by silver, but gold is at


record setting levels as well. I think we're not quite at 5,000 per ounce, but we're we're really close. So, I'm sure that's that's coming up in the future. So, let's look at what's driving. What key drivers are you watching for the metal right now? >> Well, 5,000 is a big round number that a lot of banks have talked about, right? And that number will get taken out here in a matter of a couple of days, I think. Um I don't see a lot of resistance at 5,000 because what's


happened since the initial um targets were released in that range which was about a year ago honestly when you look at banks in 2025 January they were looking at like 4500 to 5,000. We talked about that on your show numerous times. Now Goldman just moved to 5400 um on gold. JP Morgan um on on their target for next year is at 6,000. Bank of America just raised their target over 5,500. So now you're seeing three huge players step up and say, "Hey, 5,400 to 6,000. We're just kidding at 5,000." So


they're seeing what we're seeing, which is the geopolitical backdrop is driving a lot of this reaction and action. [clears throat] Um, it's, you know, Venezuela, it's Colombia, it's Greenland, it's, you know, Iran. You just, just just name a country. You know, the US is is busy. It's not going to stop. Um, people think this might be like uh uh you know um uh a temporary thing. We consider it more of the new norm, you know, where where there's going to be unfortunately um


uh protectionism globally where people are taking possession of their assets, right? Like you see what happened with Venezuela? Was it really about drugs? I think it was more about oil, you know, um when you look at what's transpired. So, it's it's just um yeah, I don't want to get too political about it. It's it's just uh you have to watch the headlines every single day these days if you're in my role because you'll wake up to a new story and it's exhausting honestly. Um


but I'm not complaining because I'm very fortunate to be where I am with my investments in gold and silver and and and those related stocks. I mean it's just been uh just just life-changing honestly. So I'm very excited. >> Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. And you're right, it is constant with these geopolitical news updates. I'm sure there's going to be all kinds of new headlines coming up in the weeks and months to come. I want to also touch, usually we talk about the Fed and the


impact on gold and precious metals, but it sounds like that is essentially taking a backseat to everything else that's happening right now, but we do have the the next meeting coming up this coming week. So, what are you going to be watching there? Yeah. So January 28th is is sort of a nothing burger in terms of is the Fed going to cut rates. The Fed is not going to cut rates in our opinion on the 28th. Um, what's going to be interesting um is is what Trump um has done to Jerome Powell's mindset [laughter]


because of what's occurred in in the front lines of CNN and CNBC and every other website. Um which is, hey, we're we're you're strongly in our crosshairs. And um how does Trump react? How does Powell react to that in the presser right when he's interviewed at 2:30 Eastern on the 28th? That's going to be interesting stuff. Um, and maybe it's not interesting. I would be very happy if it wasn't interesting, right? Like markets like certainty. They like consistency. We have a consistent


message right now, which is something is broken globally and gold is telling you this and so is silver. So, we don't want Powell to derail that. Um, but you know, when anyone does what Trump did to Powell in the last couple of weeks, I mean, you we have to be prepared as investors for something like that, right? I think that's just prudent. So, um, yeah, I that I I think this year is going to be one where Powell will step down from his role and Trump will fill that role with someone that is more


on board with lower rates. I mean, we've said this again so many times in your show, but just for new listeners, I mean, Trump made his money in real estate, right? Real estate doesn't want higher rates. Um, it wants lower rates or or consistent rates. And and so uh I think he puts someone in that chair that's going to be uh playing ball with with that narrative. >> Yeah, it seems pretty much like an inevitability at this point. Although, of course, we'll see how it goes. And


certainly if that happens, it'll be good for gold and silver. So maybe we take a look. We heard about the silver stocks that you have on your radar right now. Do you have any updates on the gold stock side right now? >> Yeah, sure. It would, you know, you have to mention the two the uh two ETFs because they had such a great year last year. Um GDX was up about 155%. Uh we were up 153%. So uh we missed GDX by a little over two 2% but you know GDX is fully invested at all times and it's all the big cap


stuff. So we play in the small mid and large cap spaces and we carry cash sometimes. You know earlier in the year I was carrying 8 to 10% cash on a month and and and now we're not carrying any cash. I mean our 1231 holdings we were under 1% cash. We're fully invested as of December. Um but GDX had a great year. GDXJ had a better year. It was up over 170%. Um, I will point out to people on GDXJ that the all-time high has not been made in that ETF yet. So, [snorts] the all-time high going back to


the 1112 rally was 17910 and we're trading at about 140 when we record this. So, there's a lot of upside there in the junior market and that speaks to why we buy gold and silver juniors more than just the gold large cap stuff which is also doing well. So, a couple of names for you. Um, Quest Core Mining, I I've talked to your listeners about this one before. It just struck us about a year, year and a half ago as extremely uh cheap. Um, it was trading under, I don't know, 67 cents US. It based again


there uh just recently. So, in December, it hit 7 cents US. And I'm like, this is crazy. The chart has come all the way back to where almost where we started buying it a year earlier. And this is in the hottest gold market of all time. This doesn't make any sense. But that's the beauty of tax laws selling Charlotte is that some things don't make sense. Um people sell at any price sometimes and they're just trying to get out of a position, right? And these things are illquid sometimes. Um I will tell you


that company put out its best press release ever this week um talking about this uh round of 12 holes that they drilled. Now, their property is about 2500 hectars and that's about 9 to 10 square miles. So, when you're talking about does this company have exploration upside, the answer is yes. I mean, this is their second serious round of drill holes in Mexico. Now, the state they're in is called Sonoro State. Sorry, Sonora state. Um, and that is um bucking up against the Arizona border. So, it's


it's a safer part of Mexico. It's where a lot of gold and silver miners already exist. So, it's a promining state, which we like. And you saw what happened with Shinebound, the president down there recently, issuing her first open pit permit in November. So, that really opens up the door to companies like Quest Court down the road for permitting, right? If they're going to advance a project, they're obviously going to need a permit down the road. But right now, this is an exploration


play. So, you're looking at drill results and assessing them. And the drill results we saw from QuestCore this week were outstanding. So, that one's um QQQF in the States and QQQ in Canada. Um, another one would be Triumph Gold uh TIGCF in the States. TIG in Canada. Uh John's done a fantastic job of mothballing that company until last year when like he saw what you and I have been talking about, Gold and Silver started to rally and he said, "Okay, we're going to start dusting this off


and marketing it." and he he acquired a silver project last summer for next to nothing in Utah. So that really gives them not only their gold uh tungsten antimony project which is up in Yukon, which is their primary project with 1.9 million ounces of gold, but now you've got this silver project in Utah that they're going to drill the first half of this year. So um in a hot silver market that's really additive to the stock. I think you're seeing that reflected in the stock a bit, but I I think we see a


lot more good stuff coming for Triumph this year. Um, again, because they haven't had any news for a couple of years, really, number one, and number two, their their most recent pea uh preliminary economic assessment is from 2013. So, when you're looking at prices you are using to build that report on gold, silver, tungsten, antimony, whatever, right? those prices are way long ago uh in today's market. And that's what the opportunity is in some of these juniors is as they redo or or update their


uh 43101s, their peas, their PFS's, um you're using gold and silver and whatever prices at much higher levels. And that's something that the average investor doesn't see a lot of times is they they miss this and then they're shocked at why a stock goes up 20 or 30%. It's because the market is coming around to the reality that we already know from talking to CEOs literally every day. You know, if you can't do that work as an investor, you have to hire someone like me or Don Derrett or


someone in that world of mining that can do this for you. you know, it's it's a lot of work to understand these things and sometimes they're buried in reports that are like a 10 Q, which is just a huge 100page plus document that you're not going to want to read on a weekend. It's not [gasps] it's not fun. Um, so we like both of those gold stocks. We think they're still both flying under the radar. >> Okay. Well, thank you for sharing on the gold side. I'm sure that will be good


for people to look into. And before I let you go, I also want to take a look at the special situations area with you. So, we've we've talked about this probably in many of our past interviews, and I think this will probably be of of even more interest to people now because I know there are people who are looking at what's going on in gold and silver and wondering what other areas they might want to rotate over to. So, any thoughts there? >> Sure. Um I'll give you two areas that um


people may not be paying as much attention to for various reasons. One is in November the US China agreement so to speak on rare earths and antimony and other you know uh critical minerals was created and we still as we record this think that is um never going to hold up. [laughter] So we are going to continue to buy inexpensive antimony, tungsten, etc. critical mineral type stocks. That's one idea. And the other one I'm going to give your listeners is PGMs. And the the main focus there for us is


going to be platinum and palladium. We'll get to that in a sec. So antimony first. Um there's two stocks uh that we own there. One is IML resources, IMRF in the states and IMR in Canada. Um, we like their Canadian uh, gold project which is right near a major. Um, and that was what originally got us interested in the stock because it's trading very very cheaply versus peers, but now they've they've said in a press release in 2025 that they're acquiring an antimony project in Europe and um,


they're doing so for a couple hundred,000. So um, very additive in in a market where critical minerals are now in the headlines. when they did that deal, Critical Minerals were just getting started. Trump had just issued his EO, you know, his executive order about Critical Minerals. And since then, you've seen the news flow on Critical Minerals just increasing. Um, and so we think that the market is just missing that they they're going to follow through on this acquisition and um and,


you know, cash up like a lot of other juniors this year and go out there and and try to, you know, get some more attention on their stock. Um, the other one is a larger cap name [clears throat] called Alcan. A L K N E and the the US ticker is A L KF and the um Canadian is, I believe, ALK. Um, really interesting story. I mean, this is the old Mandandalay Resources that merged with Alcane. Um, I own Mandandalay and I got to meet Nicker, the CEO at Beaver Creek in September through that acquisition.


just a super exec. Um really doing great things for the for the stock price I think. Um they're the largest North American antimony producer right now. I mean so a lot of companies like I metal are exploring for antimony and they're in early stages. This is a very mature uh antimony play but they're mostly known for gold. So they have three main projects and um their balance sheet is fantastic. So, you know, for investors that are looking for, you know, something that's under the radar, maybe


I metal for something with more liquidity and and larger size alkan. And now I'll tell you a little bit about platinum and palladium. So, I wrote on these two metals for SPAT back in the dark ages. And back then, they were pretty uh boring uh in terms of price. Now, they're getting really interesting. Um there's two uh ETFs I'll I'll mention so that clients can look at these charts. Um, platinum is PLT and palladium is P A L. If you look at those charts since the the Russian um uh


event that began in February of 2022, they spiked on that news because, you know, Russia is the largest producer of both metals. So, you think, okay, supply constraints, company, you know, country going to war. As you remember, I mean, a lot of people were just dead wrong and thought that would last three to six months, right? So, prices spiked for a long like like a beautiful looking chart on both. But then as people got to re recognize that a this is going to be a much longer conflict and b um Russia's


probably selling some of these metals to fund the war effort, that's not good uh for prices. So, prices really dropped like rocks in 2023 and 2024, even into 2025. They just started to move again in 25, but now they're really breaking out. So stocks that are in that area, I'll give you two as well. One is um Platinx is the former name. It's now called PTX Metals and that ticker is PNXF in the States, PTX in Canada. This is um a really interesting stock. We interviewed them on my show again, the


Fenic Commodities reported 7 cents back in September. Uh the stock ran to 11 cents. They did a financing. It was of the life financing version where you can immediately sell your shares and hold the warrants if you so choose. And that put a lot of selling pressure on the stock in October, November, December. And it just started to turn in December. And now that you're seeing platinum and palladium rally, it's turned a little bit more this year, maybe up 10, 20%, you know, from those levels. But it's


got a long way to go. I mean, they have a lot of platinum and palladium and nickel in in the ground. Um, they also have copper and gold. Um, and they have multiple projects. They're also in the uranium business. And um, uranium is hot right now, too. So, it's like when you look at that stock, it's it's it's really a deep value play because there's hardly any way to lose as long as commodity prices stay higher. The only way you lose is if they keep missing on drill results, which they haven't done,


right? They they haven't been missing. The stock is just flying under the radar because there's so many of these juniors um Charlotte that just don't get the the attention they deserve. And and the other one I'll mentioned is Stillwater, which is in the US. Uh Stillwater Critical is PG EZF in the States, PGE in Canada. Um they did a life financing as well in December. Did not help the stock at all. the stock got crushed. Um, heavy selling combined with tax loss selling. Um, we put out a note in December to our


our subscribers and said this is just temporary. I mean, like you got to if you didn't build a position before, this is your time. And [snorts] we bought more um I guess in the 18 to 20 cent range there. And and and now the stock is over 40 cents as we record this. I think it closed uh somewhere in the 44 to 45 range which is just a beautiful week. Um but uh they are in Montana. They're connected to a major which is called Subany. Um and they have a lot of stuff on the ground there and they're


just when you have a company that's transformed like that from just being an explorer with a small cash balance to now having all this cash like you can actually follow through on what you want to do. I mean, Mike Rowley has been telling me this for years. He's like, "Hey, when I get to a a market where I can cash up, I'm going to drill and I've got the team to really go after it." And that's what they're going to do in 2026. So, I think that's what the market is


starting to recognize. It's like, oh, the metals these guys are exploring for are really going up in price and now they have the cash balance to drill. So, there's two for you. >> Well, thank you very much for going into those ones. I think that's really interesting. and we can wrap it up there. I think we've done a good job going through what's happening right now, unless you had any final words that you would leave investors with. >> No, it's it's it's really the same theme


that I I say on probably 50% of our shows, which is you have to work with a professional in this market. Um, look, I know a lot of retail clients of mine that beat me last year that were up more than 153%. And I'm like, hey, congratulations. I'm happy for them. you know, like it is it is not easy doing this. Um, but let me just say that our risk that we're taking is much lower than the average, you know, fund that I compete with. I'm very I I look at risk every week and and um not all stocks are


considered equal, right? If you're buying something that's up a,000% like a rare earth stock this summer, um it's not the same as buying something like PTX Metals, which is trading at like a 40 RSI, right? like you're you're not taking the same risk there. This stock over here with the 40 RSI is just starting to move up. This one over here is already cats out of the bag, right? You're chasing performance over here. So, as value managers, we play it much safer than most. And so, in a hot hot


year like last year, we're going to be average. But guess what? You know, our 10-year track record just came out a couple days ago. and our 10ear record is I'll put it up to up against anyone uh in the business globally. Um we we produce some serious returns over time for investors and we're really proud of that. >> Well, I think that's a great note to end on. So, thank you once again for coming on to talk about everything that's going on and we'll have you back soon.


>> That's great. Thanks a lot, Charlotte. >> Of course. And once again, I'm Charlotte Mloud with investingnews.com and this is John Fenick with Fenic Consulted.