Video: Stick to scale, grade, metallurgy, permits – exploration analyst

As record gold prices and mounting acquisitions flow money through the industry, economic geologist Brent Cook warns investors to follow basics: scale, grade, metallurgy and realistic permitting timelines.

“What do they need at that location to make a real economic discovery that a major will buy?” the adviser to the Exploration Insights newsletter said on the sidelines of the Precious Metals Summit in Beaver Creek, Colorado. He urged investors to watch for red flags like grade-smearing and nugget-effect holes that won’t carry a resource.

Cook pointed to winners in the Exploration Insights model portfolio to illustrate the kind of “real projects” he favours: Australia’s Southern Cross Gold’s (ASX: SXG) Sunday Creek discovery in Victoria; AbraSilver Resource’s (TSXV: ABRA; US-OTC: ABBRF) Diablillos silver-gold project in Argentina; and Arizona Sonoran Copper’s (TSX: ASCU; US-OTC: ASCUF) Cactus copper project in Arizona.

Watch the full interview below with The Northern Miner’s Western Editor, Henry Lazenby.