The Vancouver Resource Investment Conference is a rare opportunity for retail investors to meet junior mining company officials and listen to forecasts from investment heavyweights and newsletter writers.
What follows is a list of the more memorable predictions from the 2014 VRIC conference, which wrapped up on Monday after drawing 9,000 attendees, including 300 companies to the Vancouver Convention Centre.
Fiore Financial Corp. President and CEO Frank Giustra is sure that Goldman Sachs commodities analyst Jeffrey Currie was wrong to predict that the price of gold will fall US$1,050 an ounce by the end of 2014 from US$1,252.66 this week.
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Giustra says the price of gold has already bottomed. If he is correct, and Currie is wrong, Giustra says Currie should accept his invitation to dress up in ladies underwear and sing the Patsy Cline song “I was so wrong” in Vancouver’s Robson Square.
Sprott US Holdings Inc. Chairman Rick Rule says the price of uranium has to double within the next three to four years “otherwise the lights will start to go off in North America,” he said.
Casey Research energy investment strategist Marin Katusa is advising people to be wary of investing in new Canadian oilsands production. The view is based on estimates that new oilsands production going forward will require an oil price of US$110 just to break even. That compares to a break even price of US90 for projects developed prior to 2014 and US$65 for projects built before 2006.
Katusa is also telling investors to avoid the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin. “This is nothing more than a gas basin with oil credits,’’ he said.
HRA Advisories Editor Eric Coffin says the odds are good that we will soon see a 10% to 15% correction in U.S. equities. He says it explains the sector rotation that has sent U.S Fund money flowing into shares of companies like
Teck Resources Ltd. (
TSX: TCK.B,
Stock Forum),
Nevsun Resources Ltd. (
TSX: T.NSU,
Stock Forum), and
Capstone Mining Corp. (
TSX: T.CS,
Stock Forum).
Coffin also said a 30% to 40% increase in the S&P/TSX Composite Index is “not an unreasonable expectation.’’
However, he warned that any upside will be concentrated among a small number of stocks. “A small number of guys will be pulling the rope for the rest of the index,’’ he said.
Morning Notes publisher Michael Berry said last year’s U.S. stock market rally is a creation of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s economic stimulus policy. He can see the Dow Jones Industrial Average tacking on another 1,000 points from current levels. “Then you had better be out of the market,’’ he said.
Kaiser Online Research publisher John Kaiser says the biggest stock market gains will continue to come from early stage discoveries and so-called prospect generators who diversify their risk by bringing partners in to fund exploration concepts.