Rick Rule, who is President and CEO at Sprott US HoldingsInc., is one of my favorite people to interview, as his wit and intellect areonly exceeded by his experience and knowledge of natural resource investmentstrategies. Rick is a highly experienced investor and speculator, focusing onpublic and private issuers in natural resource industries. He has personallystructured, led and participated in hundreds of privately placed debt andequity issuances for resource companies operating globally, and domiciled inAustralia, Canada, Chile, Great Britain, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland andthe United States. Rick has over thirty years of experience in metals, miningand the natural resource sector in general, and is a presenter at hundreds ofresource and investment conferences.