Dispatch from Washington & Toronto 2026

Our Dear Leader who has only just returned from the sunny climate of South Africa, is back out there and has gone west to colder pastures. He was actually in Washington and theoretically New York seeing investors and Government officials before heading to Toronto for the Red Cloud Pre-PDAC event and the PDAC event itself where he was joined by Ollie O’Donnell and Paul Renken (the VSA Mining Research team). PDAC starts on a Sunday and Andrew had meetings throughout the weekend, not that he ever grumbles about working (we can assure you that rumours of retirement at 65 are very wide of the mark and we feel he will never retire, he just enjoys doing deals too much and right now he is busier than ever).

The reason he visited the USA first is that during 2025 America woke up to the need to have independence for critical metals and to no longer be reliant on China. This has changed the whole commodity environment as we all know. Mining is the new way to play AI, combined with fiat currencies being out of favour due to the global debt issue and geopolitical tension which, with the US bombing Iran and killing the Ayatollah has heightened things even more, means US capital is looking to invest in the mining sector which it hasn't for many years.  

Andrew was meeting with funds and Government agencies but also had some time to see Washington itself and here are some interesting facts he uncovered. Washington DC is not a state but a federal district. That’s why residents don’t have full voting representation in Congress. Because of the Height of Buildings Act (1910), no building can be taller than the width of the street it faces (with some limits). That’s why the skyline is so low and open. The White House has 132 rooms, 35 bathrooms and a bowling alley. The famous cherry trees around the Tidal Basin were a gift from Japan in 1912; a symbol of friendship between the two nations.

Getting close to the White House today is tricky as it is heavily guarded and undergoing extensive renovations, but Andrew tried his best.

Unfortunately, soon after he arrived in Washington the snowstorms hit New York and flights started being cancelled. He did book an Amtrak train from Washington to New York but that was cancelled a few hours after booking and despite hours of effort to try and contact American Airlines (which was impossible) he just booked an additional flight direct to Toronto to be safe and had to “bin” New York. But he reports that the meetings he had in Washington were exceptionally valuable.

Before giving the Mining Team’s feedback from Toronto, it is interesting to look back at what the team predicted this time last year as they were pretty accurate, and Andrew hit the nail on the head!

As he said 12 months ago: “I am pretty bullish on commodities full stop for 2025 as a major bull market looks inevitable soon and the geopolitical mess just helps that. Many people are saying that gold has peaked but I think it can go higher to US$3,500 and drag up other commodities like silver and copper but my top commodity pick is tungsten, which had been trading around US$325/mtu but following the Chinese export restrictions is starting to move higher and I feel we could see it up over U$450/mtu. I can also see tin significantly higher at a similar increase from US$32,000 to US$45,000.”    

We think that is pretty much 10 out of 10! Although prices went much higher than even he predicted

We will be asking for all of their predictions for the next 12 months and hope they will be as good.

This time last year, our Andrew had an idea that as he was so bullish on silver he should go and visit some Mexican Silver mines and after talking to numerous of them at PDAC, he visited Avino, Sierra Madre, Luca and Guanajuato Silver. It turned out to be a very fruitful visit and his timing couldn’t have been better. The trip generated huge interest and if you simply go to YouTube and type VSA Capital, you will see a recently recorded update on all four companies as a compilation done for PDAC. Click for VSA link

Andrew is planning another trip this August (whilst markets are quiet) so if he approaches you at PDAC, we advise you listen and accept! We don’t know for sure, but we think he has been doing research on South America, and he seems keen on uranium, lithium and tin. There again he has been talking about Namibia too (just seems to want his Air Miles!).

Andrew really enjoys the Pre-PDAC Red Cloud event and is very appreciative that they allow him to attend. It does allow plenty of time to hear from about 80 companies and to ask questions and often his top picks come from the event. The keynote speakers also give a good flavour of what is driving the sector and the theme this year was unanimous and in agreement with Andrew’s thoughts. The Bull market for mining is real and only just begun. Andrew says, “The way to play AI and the tech boom, is mining and we’ll see in mining what we have just seen in AI tech over the next 5 years”.

Andrew also believes all mining equities are being completely wrongly valued leaving them far too cheap. This is because the industry tends to always assume a 10 year life of mine. You see this time and time again and yet some of these mines go on to mine for often 100 years.

This year companies catching his eye were Tinka (TK CN), Canada Nickel (CNC CN) and Myriad Uranium (M CSE) (which has caught his and VSA’s eye before) but what has really excited him were two companies in Namibia and in the “Heye Daun stable” who has a tremendous track record; Koryx Copper (KRY CN) and Ongwe (OGW.V).

 And so, we must now return to the Team’s predictions for the next 12 months:

Andrew Monk

“My predictions last year (tungsten and silver) were so good that maybe two years in a row is tough, but we are, I believe, in a major bull market for commodities that will last quite a long time and at least 3-5 years and go through about 5 phases. Phase 1 has basically completed as that is when the precious metals themselves undergo a major rally and we have seen that with gold and silver. We are now entering phase 2 which is where other commodities rally strongly, and the producing mining stocks rally significantly as the higher commodity process flow through to huge cash flows.

My commodity pick for 2026 is uranium as I can see it at $150 as the need for energy become critical with the massive role out of data centres for AI. Nuclear has to be part of that mix. The easy way to play uranium in the UK is Yellow Cake Plc, (YCA LN) but for the adventurous I like Myriad Uranium

At the start of the year, I picked a tiny UK tin play called Tamar Resources (TMR AQSE) as my tip for 2026 and it is already up 100% but I believe it can go much much further as it is so undervalued to its nearest comparators. Also, it has now announced a £2mn fund raise and share acquisition at 3p and will be able to start drilling and this activity is what excites investors and with the tin price so strong any success will have should have a major impact. But with commodity stocks it is also important that an element of rotation is done and why if a stock has run up 10 fold even if you think it may double again, take money out and find the next 10 bagger as there are plenty out there. Also never be greedy! I do like Red Sea resources which is a pre-IPO play of gold in Egypt and the same management team as Midnight Sun which has been very successful. And whilst on early stage gold, Osingwe looks very attractive.”

Ollie O’Donnell

Last year my top pick was Sierra Madre (SM CN) (+328.6% LTM) which had a phenomenal first full year of commercial production and is now progressing an expansion of La Guitarra with nameplate capacity rising from 500tpd to up 1,500tpd by 2027 which combined with higher grade ore will mean production increases by a multiple. They have also added to their portfolio with the acquisition of Del Toro, another brownfield silver mine this time in Zacatecas.

Lithium last year turned a corner after the oversupply incentivised by prices above US$90,000/t (LCE) in 2022. Having dropped close to US$13,000/t by 2024 the market has consolidated and supply disruption at CATL’s Jianxiawo mine (3% global output) in August 2025 helped to reset the market balance. The cost curve is still lumpy meaning that in this new cycle prices price volatility is still likely, but the kind of projects needed to smooth the cost curve are now close to production.

My top pick in January was Midnight Sun (MMA CN). The company is now drilling 10,000m a month at its major deposit Dumbwa. Results have started to come out and 3.5km of the 12km+ strike length is now proven, and continuity is key here to proving a 1bn+ deposit. At that size the two key comparable transactions are Lumwana (sold to Barrick for US$7.4bn in 2011) and Tenke Fungurume (Freeport sold its 70% stake for US$2.56bn China Moly in 2016).”

Paul Renken

“Commodity wise, All the press is about energy shortages and critical minerals like copper.  If energy is such a big thing, then playing the uranium story such as Andrew’s pick is a good choice.  For me, besides copper, one of the most energy intense metals to convert from ore to metal is aluminium. Significant volumes of ore come from only a few countries; all of which China has its interests in. China has the most aluminium smelting capacity of all nations as well so world trade in the metal is largely at their behest, just like the other critical minerals.

For my stock equity choice, I debated going with some kind or mid-stream processing story, or a precious metals story.  I chose to stick with gold this year as I did last year. In this current market scenario, so many good miners have already had significant price run-ups as have many of the non-producing mine developers in the past year.

I am looking at companies whose shares failed to move this past year. That underperformance typically has been due to operational issues, corporate issues, or political risk. I was also looking for a firm which had also already performed operationally in the past and came up with London quoted Ariana Resources (AAU LN)

Ariana Resources shares underperformed last year due to delays in gearing up its second mine, the Tavsan heap leach operation in Turkey. Those final permission delays are now behind it so stockpiled ore is now moving to the leach pads and I expect improving gold production volumes to allow the share price to re-rate to catch up. Kiziltepe mine has been treating the better grade ores from Tavsan so far as well so operating life extended there too. The accumulating cash pile will help it fund its new and third mine, this time in Zimbabwe, which may have an FID decision yet this year.” 

And finally after a lot of travel and marketing in Q1 2026 we expect our Dear Leader may spend some time in the office (and maybe his lair down in Cornwall as, with a stand at PDAC, all roads seem to lead there) but he is also very clear that now is the time to be out and about finding great mining projects and also new pools of capital as this is he feels a genuine once in a life time opportunity where fortunes will be made and he is not averse to being a recipient of that! So, we expect after Easter those opportunities he has been uncovering will be visited but will it be South America or Southern Africa or maybe both? He also tells us as a final interesting fact that the CN Tower is approximately 57,626 LEGO bricks tall!