Palisade's Inaugural Hard Asset Conference On Jekyll Island
Palisade Research October 25, 2017 Category: Research
What happens when you combine 60 of the industry's brightest minds with a picturesque hotel replete with historical consequence, and fuel the whole thing with booze? A networking extravaganza of epic proportions - welcome to the Inaugural Palisade Hard Asset Conference on Jekyll Island!
The Jekyll Island Club served as a perfect setting- a small island off the coast of Georgia that acted as a getaway from the hustle-and-bustle of city life in the 1900s. Many of the 19th and 20th centuries' most famous businessmen and influencers spent their summers here. Think Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, Aldrich...
Less known to most is that a secret meeting held on the island in 1910 paved the way for a banking cartel, which took hostage the world's money supply and led to a Dollar depreciation of epic proportions. Yes, this is the founding place of the Federal Reserve!
With the historic remnants of the greatest defrauding of the human race on display, a small group of high net worth investors who have fought their way out of the rat race staged an amazing event at ground zero.
(A late night boil, cooked up by our friendly staff at The Wharf, Jekyll Island)While the festivities lasted well into the wee hours of the morning, everyone made it to the Club Ballroom Parlor for breakfast, eagerly awaiting the first and keynote speaker, Eric Sprott.
Eric took the stage. In an intensely excited off-the-cuff speech, (the finer details of which were shouted from the crowd by his lovely wife Vizma), Eric spoke for over an hour about his previous conquests, why he invests in precious metals, and where he is currently investing his money. This included his thesis behind stock market darlings Kirkland Lake Gold (TSX:KL), Novo Resources (TSXV:NVO), and Garibaldi Resources (TSXV:GGI).
Wrapping up, Eric made it clear he was retired, and no longer sought out speaking engagements; but, due to the tenacity and drive of Sean Zubick and Collin Kettell, and the mark Palisade Global is making in the world of mining, he was happy to be the keynote speaker of what should surely become one of mining's most influential annual gatherings.
(Eric Sprott preaching to the resource choir)As testament to the diversity of speakers and wealth strategies, the mining Titan was followed by Matt Geiger, the young and serially-successful resource investorwho's speech was entitled, "Why I Hate Gold, But Still Own Gold Equities."
Speaking to Matt afterwards, he did admit it was both daunting and an honor to present after one of his resource idols. And while their theories differed, the common theme was apparent: gold stocks are cheap, and there is no other industry that can yield such stunning homerun returns.
Our next presenter was Peeyush Varshney, CEO, Chairman & President of Canada Zinc Metals (TSXV:CZX), who summarized the development of Cardiac Creek and the incredible land package it has in British Columbia. Comparing CZX's metrics to other zinc developers, the company is by far the cheapest zinc player, with both majors and state-owned corps knocking on their door to option its land.
After Peeyush, we enjoyed hearing from Greg Orrell, one of the longest tenured gold fund portfolio managers in the industry, president of Orrell Capital Management, and portfolio manager of OCM Gold Fund. Greg gave a compelling talk on the fundamentals of gold and the economy, his assumptions on how to capitalize in the current market, as well as a specific breakdown of OCM Gold Fund's top holdings.
As the day progressed, and despite the previous night's libations and lack of sleep, the quality of speakers and content kept us all engaged and awake; but most of all, we were hungry for the ever-increasing onslaught of undervalued investments showering the crowd with each new speaker.
Ken Berry did not disappoint. You could find Ken early each morning hammering the hotel weights, and it was immediately clear that weights aren't the only thing he's been crushing. Under his leadership as President and CEO, his company, Northern Vertex (TSXV:NEE), is on the cusp of production, and looking to spend over $10 million in new exploration.
In a nice break from the gold story, real estate investor and Robert Kioysaki contemporary Dave Zook presented case studies in real estate asset appreciation and cashflow opportunities. This included traditional real estate, ATMs, and his mega development, the Resort at Mahogany Bay Village, located in Belize on the island of Ambergris Caye. The highlight of his speech was a mug shot of Collin and Sean.
Next up our audience was taken aback with revelations of the Electric Vehicle revolution by Battery Metals expert, Mike Beck. Beck was a founder of UraMin, which you may recall parlayed a $4m uranium purchase into a sale of the company to Areva for $2.5 billion. His current projects, Cobalt 27 (TSXV:KBLT), Giga Metals (TSXV:GIGA), and LSC Lithium (TSXV:LSC), are the hottest deals in the battery metals space. Don't believe me? Just look at the stock charts following this conference, especially LSC and GIGA, to see how compelling Mike's presentation was for our crowd at Jekyll Island.
Next on the docket was a close friend of Palisade Global, Gregor Gregersen, showcasing the technology and benefits of his 600-ton gold and silver vault in Singapore, which stands to quickly become the world's largest gold and silver storage facility. I hope our readers will not even consider locking up their hard assets in any facility before speaking to Gregor about the weaknesses that abound in traditional storage avenues. In addition to having the most secure, insured, state of the art facility in the industry, Gregor has by far coolest business cards... ever... 
(Gregor Gregerson's business card is just to cool!)
Next we heard from those at the helm of one of Palisade's largest positions, Ali Zamani and Brian Roberson of Mexican Gold (TSXV:MEX). Their focus was the massive upside in the Las Minas project; Brian took this occasion at Jekyll Island to confirm their most recent drilling update, complete with 77 meters of mineralization, visually the most important holes to date.
After a quick break, the final two were ready to go. Geoff Hampson's Para Resources (TSXV:PBR) struck a chord with the majority of the investors at our conference. Para executes a unique strategy of finding projects close to production or already in production, with adjacent land packages yet unexplored. Para then is able to use the proceeds of the mine to fund its own exploration, thus minimizing dilution and ensuring a steady, dependable cashflow-cashflow the exploration team can utilize to keep exploring indefinitely, without fear of a depleting treasury.
At their Colombian mine, Para has also implemented a brilliant solution to the problem of unauthorized artisanal miners depleting their asset. In addition to this solution being fully endorsed by said miners and the Colombian Government, it has accounted for a 200% increase in gold production at their mine in El Limon. This stands atop an already robust portfolio which promises to exceed 100,000 ounces of gold production by 2020.
Keeping true to Palisades goal of delivering speakers with a diverse range of theories and opinions, Adrian Day educated our audience on how badly gold companies spend their money, the systemic and overlooked problems in the industry, and how knowing those dangers and reacting appropriately can create great opportunities in the space for the sophisticated and educated investor.
As the primary speaking segment of the conference drew to a close, we all prepared for an historic dinner. Held in the storied Federal Reserve/Aldrich Room, the very room the Federal Reserve was originally conceived, keynote speaker G. Edward Griffin gave an engaging and thought-provoking speech on his book, The Creature From Jekyll Island. To listen to this incredible insight into the history of the Federal Reserve, tune into Palisade radio, as the recorded version of this speech will be released in the coming weeks.
On the final day, our attendees subjected themselves to a golf tournament at the Jekyll Island Golf Club. This was a great chance to pair up in small groups and spend an afternoon getting to know other attendees, the speakers, and our sponsors. Despite the previous night's raging party, there was plenty of drinking left to be done. My group may have been spotted shot-gunning beers and crushing cans with our bare hands. In the end, our attendees listed the tournament as one of their favorite parts of Palisade's Hard Asset Conference.
After golf, Collin organized two more presentations. Palisade's very own Denis Laviolette captivated the audience with the advancement of New Found Gold's (formerly Palisade Resources) flagship projects in Newfoundland, Ontario, and Nevada. While still private, publicly-traded company ThreeD Capital (CSE:IDK), which owns 24% of the company, sky-rocketed 50% in the next two days.
The last presenter was Dr. Sarath Malepati, who developed the EZC Pak, a 5-day tapered immune support pack designed to be a much-needed substitute to the world's best selling antibiotic, the "Z-Pak." As Dr. Sarath boasted of an impressive sales production and increased orders, Sean decided to do his own due diligence a month prior, visiting every pharmacy in New York City to see if it did, indeed, carry the product. It did. Proudly displayed as well, front row and center. As such, we noted several attendees who usually stick with the mining space happy to get involved in this medically-oriented retail placement.
The conference was a short three days; we have already received an incredible amount of feedback and the stories are still pouring in. Highlights include a thin Swedish investor with a propensity for Miller Lite, crushing all the locals in a make-shift arm wrestling tournament at a local watering hole. Just one of many notable moments none of us will soon forget.
We want to thank our sponsors for making this conference a reality. Likewise, we'd like to thank the speakers and attendees who traveled from every corner of the globe to attend this remarkable weekend.
Such was the success of the event that it will be held annually going forward. Due to the feedback of our guests and our incredible personal experience, we do intend to keep the size of the event small and intimate. We do not intend to change the venue. We hope to see some of you all again there next year, along with some new faces, and another round of world class speakers. We hope everyone had as much fun as we did; we can't wait for the next Palisade retreat.
All of the talks, along with a series of unpublished interviews from the weekend, are set to be released in the coming days on Palisade Radio. Be sure to sign up for our free newsletter and we will drop them directly in your inbox!
Thank you all again for an incredible weekend.