FWIW, I talked with Rick Rule over the weekend.For what its worth, me and a couple other gents had a chat with Rick at the IMW conference in Vancouver over the weekend.
We had been talking about Ivanhoe and their property in the Congo and he had also mentioned another mine in the Congo where they used to use what is essentially slave labour to haul tin ore 30km to the closest road. A bit later, one of the other guys asked if Rick had any recommendations on where to look for a 10 bagger and he suggested Alphamin. This was the tin mine he had alluded to earlier in the conversation.
He told us about the ridiculous grades compared to other tin mines in the world, (9x average) and that the local govenment is quite on board with the project. The mine would almost triple Congos current tin production. Apparently Rick was in the Congo a month or so before hand and figures that their will quite possibly be some sort of conflict in the Congo this year, due to the amount of armed men they saw driving around in trucks all the time. While I didnt specifically ask, I would assume that any sort of conflict would be negative for prices stock prices in the short term, which may be a good entry point. He made it a point for us to understand that the tin had been there for a very long time, and doesnt care about short term geopolitics.
I asked about supply demand fundamentals for tin as I know nothing of tin mining. He explained that there is expected to be some sort of a shortage in the years ahead and that new tin mines are rather few and far between. China will be losing some tin production and I asked if that is due to clamping down on polluting mines, which is part of the Zinc shortage narrative. He explained that much of China's tin production is actually placer mining along the Yangtse River and that he expects some other to come off line, as it is extremelty filthy. He went on to tell me that the Chinese have never really looked for the source of all their placer tin, and that he would absolutely love the opportunity to be involved in a company exploring for the source of the tin. I assume if the Chinese start looking, and find it, they could put massive amounts of tin mining into production.
When asked, Rick also disclosed to us his position in the company. I dont feel that it my place to share how much of a position he has, especially since I didnt see it stated anywhere on the companys website. I will say that he has what most would consider quite a significant position in the company.