Riding the Waves: Jeff Clarks Strategy for Profiting From Market Volatility

With his father being a gold prospector, Jeff Clark of thegoldadvisor.com was born to have a fondness for the precious metal. This fondness led him to work for Doug Casey's firm, but upon working there, he realized he wasn't covering enough mining stocks. He wanted to share his knowledge with other investors, which is where The Gold Advisor newsletter began. Since then, he has started his paid newsletter Paydirt and written the book PAYDIRT: Mining for Profits with Gold & Silver Stocks.

Knowing he had years of experience giving advice on mining stocks, we at Streetwise thought it would be a good idea to sit down with Jeff and go over his view of the various markets, as well as a few stocks that have piqued his interest.

Big Dips

When asked about his history with buying stocks, Clark brought us back to 2008, when the markets crashed, including the gold market. However, Clark saw this as an opportunity.

He told his readers, "If you have some speculative money, you know, you might want to consider jumping in here." This was in November of 2008, and after gold soared. This gave Clark an affinity for dips, as he told Streetwise, "I love big dips, and I cannot lie."

So, when the Covid-19 pandemic hit, Clark bought "hand over fist." 

"By September of that year, my entire mining portfolio was up 5x. It ended the year in forex, and that kind of reinforced what I had learned back in 2008. That boy, you can really make a lot of money on big crashes."

Why Mining Stocks?

While Clark likes big dips, he won't just buy any stock that is bottoming. His eyes remain on a golden prize.

"It all starts with gold for me," he said. While other newsletters may talk about the economy, interest rates, or movements in the Fed, Clark is exclusively focused on mining stocks.

He told us, "The reason is that if you're focused on the right companies, regardless of what the metal can do, and they make a discovery or make a significant expansion of the deposit, or they're a pre-producer that's about to go into production, these are all things that can really lift stock and make it even sore, almost regardless of what the metal is doing or what the Fed is doing or what or the economy is doing and that sort of thing. So, for anyone who wants to really just focus on mining stocks, that's exactly what I do.

Silver Outperforming Gold

Though Clark is focused on gold, he does mention its sister, silver.

"Silver's going to run," he said. "I have done a lot of research on silver, and when it goes on a run, it outperforms gold by a significant factor." Clark pointed out that silver is currently beaten up, though that is a good thing for investors looking to get into a space because it is undervalued, considering where the price of silver may go. 

Uranium, Lithium, and Copper

Clark also stated that he is currently watching uranium. "That bull market is currently underway," and "it's going to run for a while," he said.

"Copper is also really perking up. I have a couple of copper plays that I am really excited about," he told us. 

Then there is lithium. While the price of lithium has crashed, leading to others sticking up their noses at it, Clark said, "There are still stocks out there that are making discoveries and going into production, which can lead to big gains." 

"The lithium market is not over," Clark opined. He went on to explain how hybrid cars can sometimes use as much, if not more, lithium than full elective vehicles (EVs), and while EVs may be struggling, "hybrid sales are actually spiking."

"The amount of lithium we are going to need [for this] is going to be tremendous." Clark also stated it will pick up even more once EV sales do, so the lithium market has "a long way to go."

Canter Resources

With that in mind, we started talking about Clark's first stock pick Canter Resources Corp. (CRC:CSE; CNRCF:OTC; 601:FRA), a Canadian junior mineral exploration company advancing the Columbus Lithium-Boron Project in Nevada.

Canter is a newer company, with its IPO being announced at the end of last year. Clark noted that he is impressed by the management team at Canter. He stated they were strong. 

"These are people that can be very aggressive, know how to move a project forward aggressively, and have had success in the past."

However, he noted that his initial attraction to Canter came from the location of its project, the boron lithium project in Nevada. 

"It's surrounded by other lithium discoveries in the area," he said. "The team that is working on it, that this company bought into and hired, they believe that this particular piece of property is the most perspective of all the other lithium discoveries they've made in the area."

As far as investing goes, Clark showed that the timing is good to get involved with Canter as the stock is currently down, and with a drill program underway, with results scheduled for May, he is "pretty excited" about it.

"This is speculation like all Junior companies are, but I sure like the odds here," he ended.

As for ownership, according to Reuters, four insiders own 5.32%, or 2.71 million (2.71M) shares, of Canter Resources. From most to least shares owned, these individuals are CEO and Director Joness Lang with 3.28% or 1.67M shares, Chief Financial Officer Alnesh Mohan with 0.98% or 0.5M shares, Director and Technical Adviser Eric Saderholm with 0.59% or 0.3M shares, Strategic Advisor Michael Gentile with 4% or 2.1M shares, and Director Brian Goss with 0.49% or 0.25M shares.

Retail and institutional investors own the remaining 94.68%, including Palos Asset Management, EarthLabs Inc., Clarus Securities Inc., and Echelon Partners.

Regarding share structure, according to the company, it has 50.99M outstanding shares, 580,000 options, and 3.66M warrants, for a total of 55.23M fully diluted shares.

Canter's market cap is CA$19.44 million, and its 52-week trading range is CA$0.07-0.99 per share.

Dolly Varden

Next, we went on to talk about Dolly Varden Silver Corp. (DV:TSX.V; DOLLF:OTCQX), a company we have covered many times over the years. Clark has a long history with Dolly Varden, initially selling it years ago before Shawn KhunKhun came into the picture. 

That's when things really changed. Clarked credited KhunKun with revitalizing the company. And while Clark was skeptical at first, doing a lot of research on the company and its plans, he finally got back on board and recommended the stock.

"I became very interested, bought the stock, and recommended it on The Gold Advisor. And it's it's been great since then. I'm a big Shawn KhunKhun fan. He has literally transformed this company from a small project into a behemoth that is growing and is going to get a lot bigger."

Clark excitedly pointed out that some analysts have suggested Dolly Varden's Homestake mine could "have as much as half a billion ounces of silver," which would be triple what is currently reported. 

He went on to say, "This is a very big area with a lot of exploration potential. Even though they've got 140 million ounces in reserves and resources, there's a lot of growth that can still come. And Shawn himself is very adamant that he will not sell this company short, that if a major comes along and wants to buy it, then you know, they're going to have to pay a nice premium for it because he's obviously a large shareholder, too. They just did a financing, and Eric Sprott went in for a big amount. Hecla Mining owns some of it; Fury Gold Mines owns some of it. So you have a lot of people in the industry who like what they see here. It's not too late to buy the stock, in my opinion. It's, you know, one that I'm pretty excited about where it could go."

According to Dolly Varden, 48% of the company is held by institutional investors, including Fidelity Management & Research Company LLC, Sprott Asset Management LP, U.S. Global Investors Inc., Delbrook, and Extract Capital. 

44% is with strategic investors. 19% is with Fury Gold Mines. 15% is with Hecla, and Eric Sprott owns 10% himself. 

The rest, 8%, is with retail and high-net-worth investors.

The company has 283 outstanding shares.

Its market cap is CA$225M, and its 52-week trading range is CA$0.58–1.24 per share.

Arizona Gold & Silver

We then spoke about Arizona Gold & Silver Inc. (AZS:TSX; AZASF:OTC), another company that Streetwise has covered rather extensively.

Clark met Arizona's CEO, Mike Stark, a few years ago at a conference and was convinced that something exciting was happening with its flagship Philadelphia project in Arizona. 

However, he was initially attracted to the company's vice president of exploration, Greg Hahn. "He's an accomplished geologist who's had a lot of success in his life. He knows what he's doing," Clark said. So, the project is run by a good team. 

Turning to Philadephia itself, "it is becoming more apparent that there is something more here than what had been found." The Philadelphia project has yet to be drilled out, and Clark believes that there are "a lot of gaps from prior drilling that could potentially return some exciting things."

This year, Arizona Gold & Silver has two drill programs on the calendar. The first is on BLM land, still awaiting a permit. However, the second is on already permitted private land. 

With two drill programs going on simultaneously, Clark believes "2024 could be a transformational year for them." He noted that there is great potential for the company, and the stock is currently very low-priced.

Clark also showcased the private placement Arizona just completed, where "virtually the entire management team participated . . . obviously the teams sees a lot of potential and is very excited about what they might find this year." 

As for ownership of Arizona Gold & Silver, management and insiders own approximately 27.52% of the company. According to the company, 9% of the company is held by institutions.

41% is with family and friend investors. 

Arizona Gold & Silver has 71.76M shares outstanding and 53.19M free float traded shares.

The company's market cap is CA$26.96 million, and its 52-week trading range is CA$0.27−0.59 per share.

Snowline Gold Corp.

Last but not least, we spoke about Snowline Gold Corp. (SGD:CSE; SNWGF:OTCQB), a gold exploration company that Clark initially recommended in late 2021, early 2022. 

"It's obviously been a big winner for us," Clark said. After buying it for pennies, he is currently up by 14X. However, this is not the end of Snowline's story. 

"The thing about Snowline is that there is still a long way to go," he commented, pointing out that the company currently has around US$71 million in cash. "How many juniors can you find that have that much cash?" he asked.

Continuing on, he said, "Snowland has made a clear discovery in the Yukon." 

He quoted Agentis Capital, who wrote that they expect there to be over 11 million ounces of gold in it. "And that's just the valley deposit."

Clark added that someone had asked him what Snowline intended to do with this money. He believes they will find another valley.

"If you look at the map of Snowline's properties and projects, there's a lot more that it can explore. Now, we don't know if it is going to find another valley; that would be quite an accomplishment, but there's going to be a lot more drilling," and Clark thinks they are set up for a major to come a buy them.

As for ownership, according to Reuters, 11.06% of Snowline Gold is held by management and insiders. 

18526 Yukon Inc. owns 18.08%, with 27.5 million shares as a strategic investor.

17.07% is held by institutions. Crescat Capital LLC owns 6.88%, with 10.47 million shares. 1832 Asset Management LP owns 6.06%, with 9.22 million. Van Eck Associates Corp. has 1.36%, with 2.07 million, and T. Rowe Price Associates Inc. owns 1.36%, with 1.70 million. 

The rest is available for retail investors.