Silver SpaceX
I’m Calling It
I’m calling it. The gold and silver 25% and 50% correction since January is done.
Consider:
CFTC positioning in gold and silver is essentially flat.
Gold and silver in Asia are again trading at a premium. Shanghai silver is trading at an A$7 per ounce premium, while Indian gold discounts have recently turned into small premiums.
The US June jobs report came in weaker than expected at 57,000 versus 110,000, cutting the odds of a September rate hike from 67% to 50%.
Gold Miners Are Starting to Lead
Bank of America says gold and silver companies are pricing in a gold price of US$3,354/oz — around 20% below the current gold price of US$4,174/oz. That’s compared to the gold companies’ 15-year average Net Present Value (NPV).
Gold and silver shares are starting to call metal prices higher after a torrid 2026.
Michael Oliver from Momentum Structural Analysis argues that another 10% of outperformance of the GDX Index of gold miners versus the gold price would be THE BIG BREAKOUT.
Below I’ll update some of our favourite names, but first…
The American Dream… and SpaceX
American Independence Day celebrates the founding of a great nation on some powerful ideas.
The American Dream—the idea that anyone can achieve anything in the Land of the Free—is personified in South African-American Elon Musk.
He came with nothing but his wits and ambition and is now the world’s richest man.
American Independence Day celebrates the founding of a great nation on some powerful ideas.
Elon’s SpaceX has launched the US stock market to new highs.
The arc of the US stock market in 2026 may also be described by the dead weight of SpaceX insiders and investors cashing in on this trillion-dollar miracle.
The Gravity of August
Next month, while many are on the beach, the rocket fuel of index buying in SpaceX shares will encounter the gravitational pull of a 300% increase in SpaceX’s free float.
Maybe Elon can catch the SpaceX share price with some of those remarkable “chopsticks”.
While reading the Wall Street Journal online this weekend, a digital advertisement offered me a piece of “Elon” (who can resist?).
SpaceX, like Tesla, is not just a rocket company or a car company. They are the personal brands of the world’s greatest salesman, whose vision of the future is reflected in their celestial valuations.
Happy Independence Day, America—and congratulations, Elon.
After Iran… Comes Cuba?
Now that Iran is “fixed”, Trump’s attention may move to Cuba.
A handful of cranky old communists swimming distance from Florida certainly sounds like an easier win than millions of religious zealots hell-bent on making a nuclear bomb overlooking the Strait of Hormuz.
Catt Calls favourite Cuba proxy, Sherritt International (TSX: S), has, since 15 June, locked itself into exclusive negotiations with Trump’s Texan golfing buddy Ray Washburne for 120 days.
Sherritt’s choice is simple:
Be taken over by a US counterpart acceptable to the State Department; or
Fall foul of US sanctions on Cuba.
Hence Sherritt is a proper Catt Calls “No Fear Finance” proposition.
Either:
Sherritt files for bankruptcy because the combination of a leveraged balance sheet and US sanctions takes it under; or
Sherritt is recapitalised by Washburne’s Gillon Capital and approved by the US State Department to do business in Cuba.
Zero or hero. Ain’t life grand!!
Can Artificial Intelligence Help Find Metal?
Evy Hambro, Head of the BlackRock Mining Group, recently explained:
In other words, we need a lot more copper, tin, silver and other critical minerals for our data centres and electronics (See https://www.cattcalls.com/coffee-with-catt/issue-8)
As Evy says, this is a structural demand story that’s only just getting started.
The obvious question is:
Can AI help discover and develop the metals we need?
The short answer?
Yes for development. Not yet for discovery.
Mining exploration has always been a game of educated guesswork.
Geologists sift through existing drilling, geochemical and geophysical data in search of tomorrow’s mines.
The cost of finding a new mine has recently tripled to more than US$200 million.
That’s why we were interested to meet Gabriel Yoong from Material Difference.
Material Difference applies artificial intelligence to mineral exploration.
Gabriel explained that Rio Tinto has recently invested US$4 million into the business to accelerate resource drill-outs.
According to Gabriel, Material Difference delivers around 40% better drilling efficiency than industry norms by analysing each project’s unique geological data and predicting where additional metal is most likely to be found.
To be clear, those savings come after a discovery.
Mother Nature still ensures that the vast majority of exploration success comes down to luck.
The hard-bitten West Australian geologists I met alongside Gabriel were impressed enough to consider giving the technology a test run.
Thanks to my mate Roger Breuer for making the introduction.
How to Play the Bounce in Gold and Silver
Back in Coffee With Catt: Issue #1 – Nevada Gold & Mining M&A, I set out why Nevada is my favourite mining jurisdiction:
Great geology
Infrastructure
Stable jurisdiction
Access to capital
I argued that Barrick Gold, which owns the world’s most valuable gold assets in the US state of Nevada, will either break itself up or be taken over by one of its peers—or perhaps a combination of the two.
In March, I also introduced Nevada junior explorer Mackay Gold & Silver, which has since listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol MACK.
My firm, Arlington, advised Mackay on its capital raise in April 2026. Mackay went out looking for US$30–40 million, came back with US$120 million of demand, and ultimately accepted US$60 million from investors—including some of our money.
Mackay is happily living up to the man after whom it is named—Irish-American immigrant John Mackay, who consolidated the fabulously wealthy Comstock Lode gold and silver mines in Nevada.
John Mackay discovered the “Big Bonanza” in 1872, helping lift historical Comstock production to 8 million ounces of gold and more than 200 million ounces of silver.
Today, Mackay Gold & Silver CEO Darwin Green is following in his namesake’s footsteps.
On 27 June, Mackay announced the acquisition of additional Comstock Lode ground, increasing its landholding by 70%.
Darwin Green explained the importance of the acquisition:
“Land consolidation has been central to unlocking modern exploration of the Comstock District.By removing the property boundaries that have long fragmented this camp, we can test targets and structural continuations that previous operators could never pursue.This is a district that historically produced a large amount of gold and silver at very high grades, and that has seen remarkably little modern exploration.”
Mackay spent US$20 million of its recently raised capital to acquire more than 900,000 ounces of gold and over 8 million ounces of silver through the June acquisition.
Exploration is a bit like meeting the girl of your dreams. If you want to meet a smoking hot model, don’t wander aimlessly down the street. Go to the SOURCE, where the hot chicks hang out. It’s rare the hot ones hang out with deadbeats.
It’s the same with finding world-class orebodies.
Invest in the best real estate, get some world-class rock lickers, and drill, baby, drill!
I expect Mackay to drill out many millions of ounces of gold and tens of millions of ounces of silver on this fabled piece of American precious real estate.
For further reading on why Mackay represents such a unique opportunity, I recommend Doug Casey’s Expert Roundtable Substack.
Hycroft
No discussion of Nevada gold and silver would be complete without mentioning Hycroft Mining (NASDAQ: HYMC).
Hycroft’s share price is down more than 60% since its March highs.
I wish I’d sold all mine and could now buy back twice as many.
Hycroft shareholders care about the gold and silver price more than anything because Hycroft controls America’s largest undeveloped silver resource and second-largest gold project.
Hycroft is HIGH GRADE.
Look for the ongoing DISCOVERY of what Catt Calls believes could become the United States’ largest primary silver mine, producing more than 10 million ounces of silver annually by 2030.
We are hosting a site visit to Hycroft and Mackay’s projects in September.
Catt Call
At first glance, silver, SpaceX, Cuba and artificial intelligence don’t appear to have much in common.
Look a little closer and they’re all telling the same story.
Capital is chasing the future.
Whether it’s rockets, AI, data centres or electrification, every road eventually leads back to one thing:
Metal.
The market has spent the past six months shaking confidence out of precious metals investors. I think that correction is now behind us.
Instead of buying the SpaceX ETF, I bought the July US$88 silver calls.
They may expire worthless.
But investing has never been about certainty. It’s about probabilities.
My probability is that the next meaningful move in precious metals is higher.
That’s the Catt Call.
And one thing I’ve been hearing down the alley… when gold miners start outperforming the metal itself, it’s usually worth paying attention.
We’ll know soon enough.
-Simon Catt