Warren Irwin | Discerning Mining Scams from Bre-X until Today: Top Fund Manager Shares Insights

At PDAC 2018, top-performing natural resource hedge fund manager Warren Irwin (Rosseau Asset Management Ltd.) shared his insights with Mining Stock Education regarding mining stock scams from Bre-X until today. In this interview, Warren shares his first-hand experience of the Bre-X Minerals fraud of the 1990’s. Warren turned $250,000 of his own money into over $5,000,000 as Bre-X’s share price rose. Fortuitously, as he explains in the interview, he sold his stock near Bre-X’s stock price peak. Warren then immediately began shorting the stock and holds the rare distinction of being one of the only people to profit from both Bre-X’s share price rise and fall. Over his more than three decades of natural resource investing, Warren has seen all types of mining stock scams. In this 40-minute interview, he shares regarding some of the most-frequent types of mining scams that occur today and what the mining stock investor should be aware of. For the serious resource investor, this is a “must-listen” interview. Warren Irwin’s G-10 Special Situations Fund (US) LP earned the top position in 2016 among the 4,099 hedge funds tracked by BarclayHedge with a 156.32% annual return. Other Rosseau funds also took the second and sixth spots with returns of 155.94% and 128.89% , respectively. 0:05 Introduction of topic and guest 1:29 Warren Irwin’s background and fund information 2:50 Warren describes his first-hand experience with and investment in Bre-X Minerals 13:59 In which category of mining company (exploration, development or producer) do we most-often see scams and why? 15:05 What does a mining producer scam look like? 16:30 Where do you most frequently see dishonesty in official regulatory filings? 20:16 Are there certain commodities that are easier to perpetuate a mining scam with and why? 22:23 What is your experience with niche metal scams? 24:25 What type of mining scam works most effectively today compared to what scams worked well twenty years ago? 25:51 Can you speak regarding any current-day mining scams? 27:05 If you knew a company was a scam, would you still buy its stock if you knew you could profit from trading it? 29:50 What are your thoughts regarding Pretium Resources and Novo Resources? 34:19 Are there any mining jurisdictions where you see high potential reward, yet also substantial risk but you are still willing to take a bet on that jurisdiction?