Eric Coffin Eric Coffin, editor and publisher of the Hard Rock Analyst newsletter, has never heard so much negativity from investors. “Everybody thinks the world is coming to an end,” he tells The Gold Report. As a contrarian, all the doom and gloom tells him the market is about to pull out of its tailspin. In this exclusive interview, Coffin talks about the hard-hit juniors in the Yukon and why it’s an area play he still believes in.
Companies Mentioned: ATAC Resources Ltd. – Bear Creek Mining Corp. – Columbus Gold Corp. – Ethos Gold Corp. – Kaminak Gold Corp. – Majescor Resources Inc. – Precipitate Gold Corp. – Prosperity Goldfields Corp. – Riverstone Resources Inc. – Silver Range Resources Ltd. – Smash Minerals Corp. – Strategic Metals Ltd.
The Gold Report: Eric, the gold bears recently outnumbered the gold bulls in Bloomberg’s weekly Gold Bull/Gold Bear Sentiment Survey for the fourth time in a year. Are you a bull or a bear?
Eric Coffin: I think the gold price is going to end the year higher, so I guess that makes me bullish, but I think of myself as agnostic.
There needs to be a return of calm to Europe for the gold price to move much higher. The currency pair trade between the euro and the dollar is going to be a big determinant to the gold price. There’s been more noise about the EU providing stimulus funds to offset all the government budget cuts in Europe. All of those countries have to deal with their debt loads. But it’s not realistic to think that they can cut their deficit and 3% off their gross domestic product year after year and realistically get any net growth.
The other side of that equation is that the U.S. has slowed down. That’ll help the gold price because a lot of goldbugs are riding on there being another round of quantitative easing. I’m not sure it’s going to happen. But as long as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke keeps saying it might happen, that’s good enough.
TGR: Stagnant gold prices are translating to equities. Canaccord reports that “sector weakness in the gold equities over the last six years has typically ended with ‘V’-shaped corrections to the upside.” Do you believe that’s what will happen this time?
EC: I sure hope so because I’m on the buy side, not the sell side. I’m going to feel pretty dumb if it doesn’t happen. We’re still in a bull market for gold. In a secular bull market, generally speaking, coming out of a dip tends to be an impressive move.
TGR: Many Yukon junior mining companies are starting their 2012 exploration programs after completing off-season financing on buyers’ terms. What types of companies are getting financing?
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