In today's podcast Rob interviews John Scurci, the Partner & Portfolio Manager and COO of Corona Associates Capital Management, a discretionary global macro long/short hedge fund seeking absolute returns, with a core strategy focused on precious metals and global mining equities. 

John’s began his career on Wall Street working for the likes of Morgan Stanley, and with a career spanning forty years, has built a wealth of knowledge and experience of global markets especially in the commodities and resources space. 

We discuss the relationship between gold and the US dollar, the presence of bitcoin in the mining industry, and the best and most effective ways of strategically investing and playing in the precious metals mining market today.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• 60 to 70 percent of all the new capital that has entered the US equity markets, has come from companies repurchasing their stock. This is in contract some a few decades ago when this practice was illegal. John foresees a day in the not-too-distant future, when the practice once again becomes outlawed.
• Corona began as an effort to capitalise on what they perceived was a misperception in the markets of where they were headed, specifically their view on valuations, value, and the role of gold and debt. John and his associates took a very different view, and believed that big returns in the markets are driven by changes in perception.
• In terms of general equities, John looks at balance sheets, cash flow statements, market cap and valuation when it comes to investment opportunities in gold and silver. 
• Our global economy does not expand without the expansion of debt. We’re at a point where the world has the greatest amount of debt in history. The world’s economies aren’t expanding at present, and are in fact on the verge of contracting.
• The price of gold measured in dollars has gone up, even though the value of the dollar itself has also gone up. The dollar has risen because of a constant bid for dollars themselves in order to repay debt. Gold is rising because of fear. 
• Gold is not a commodity. It’s money. Around 180,000 tons is known to exist and all of it is owned. It can be traded at any time. This makes it a form of currency.
• Although they are two precious metals, the fundamental difference between gold and silver, is that gold is the primary monetary metal, and it is what the central banks own. Therefore, it is the instrument used by the banks if they ever need instant currency.
• The world is starved in terms of alternative currencies and means to store wealth. John’s own view is that bitcoin is not an effective way to do this because of its volatility, and because of the simple fact that the amount of electricity used to perpetuate it is extraordinarily inefficient. 
• Uranium is going to be a very important source for our energy requirement in the coming years. There are environmental risks that need to be planned and managed, and also factored into the cost of uranium production. But it is clean from an emissions viewpoint and relatively plentiful.

.BEST MOMENTS

‘What Wall Street really is, is a financial product factory’

‘We were about to shift into an era of real assets’

‘Gold is not an easy asset to value from a financial perspective’

’The dollar is the world’s most certain funding currency’

’The amount of money that is required in order to move the needle is absolutely breath-taking to think about’

’The only reason to sell gold is to manage its price'

VALUABLE RESOURCES

Dig Deep – The Mining Podcast on iTunes

Corona Associates Capital Management - http://www.coronacap.com

John Scurci on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-scurci-ba907979/

ABOUT THE HOST

Rob Tyson is an established recruiter in the mining and quarrying sector and decided to produce the “Dig Deep” The Mining Podcast to provide valuable and informative content around the mining industry. He has a passion and desire to promote the industry and the podcast aims to offer the mining community an insight to peoples experiences and careers covering any mining discipline, giving the listeners helpful advice and guidance on industry topics.

Rob is the Founder and Director of Mining International Ltd, a leading global recruitment and headhunting consultancy based in the UK specialising in all areas of mining across the globe from first world to third world countries from Africa, Europe, Middle East, Asia and Australia. We source, headhunt and discover new and top talent talent through a targeted approach and search methodology and have a proven track record in sourcing and positioning exceptional candidates into our clients organisation in any mining discipline or level. Mining International provides a transparent, informative and trusted consultancy service to our candidates and clients to help them develop their careers and business goals and objectives in this ever-changing marketplace.

CONTACT METHOD

rob@mining-international.org

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-tyson-3a26a68/

www.mining-international.org

https://twitter.com/MiningConsult

https://www.facebook.com/MiningInternational.org

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC69dGPS29lmakv-D7LWJg_Q?guided_help_flow=3