Announcer: Wall Street Unplugged looks beyond the regular headlines heard on mainstream financial media to bring you unscripted interviews and breaking commentary direct from Wall Street, right to you on Main Street.

Frank Curzio: How’s it going out there? It’s July 22nd. I’m Frank Curzio, host of the Wall Street Unplugged podcast where I break down the headlines and tell you what’s really moving these markets. I took my daughter to Cold Stone this past weekend. Been going there, not that much. Always watching our figures. And we walked in with our masks, and there’s a guy in front of us, around 45, 50 who’s not wearing a mask. And then there’s another lady that’s just paying, getting her ice cream, and she does have a mask on.

Frank Curzio: So, pretty much in Florida, it’s mandatory to wear masks now when you’re going into stores. Not like you’re going to go, they’re going to put you in handcuffs or fine you or anything. But everyone has their sign up there. I’d say 95% of the people in Florida are doing that. Following the rules, practicing social distancing, even though you’ll see someone take a video of some idiots at a beach, and it’s like all of Florida. All of Arizona. They just infected everybody. Again, the media’s really crazy.

Frank Curzio: So, anyway, everywhere in Florida you go in the store you have to wear a mask. This guy wasn’t wearing a mask. So, the girl working there, one of the girls… There’s three of them. There’s three girls there, all around probably 17, 18 years old. The bosses aren’t there or anything. One of the girl comes out and asks the guy, “Hey, do you have a mask because it’s required?” And the guy starts being a real asshole. I mean, you saw it coming. At least I saw it coming, because the guy just looked like an ass. I mean, you can tell, I come from New York, you see it a mile away. Their demeanor, or how they are.

Frank Curzio: Anyway, he starts arguing with this girl. He said, “Why do I need a mask? Since you’re wearing one, how could I give anything to you?” Well, you could give the coronavirus to someone else. Maybe you could, maybe you can’t. But he keeps going. He’s like, “My doctor told me masks don’t work. They don’t work. I don’t know why everyone’s wearing them.” Again, the girl is 17 years old. She’s just doing her job. She’s doing what her asks her to do, and of course, the boss, at least at this place, never ever on site.

Frank Curzio: So, store policy, you need to wear a mask. Now, I talk to you about masks. I mean, I’ve read tons of study. Some of them show that masks don’t work at all. Some of them show that masks do work. The ones that show that do work are the higher quality masks which are much, much better. Compared to just those paper thin ones, and a lot of people don’t know how to use them. Well, they’ll wear them and then they’ll touch everything. As soon as they get out, they grab the mask by the mouth. So, it’s hard to tell studies.

Frank Curzio: But the bottom line is, whatever you think of masks, if there’s a possibility that they could reduce COVID or reduce the spread, just wear one. Plus, it’s store policy. You have to wear one. You have to wear one no matter what. But regardless of what I think of masks, what you think of masks, what any doctor thinks, any study you read, it’s store policy at Cold Stone and every place else in Florida, and most places in the United States that you have to wear a mask.

Frank Curzio: You want sweet cream ice cream with graham cracker pie crust sprinkles and vanilla Oreos… I swear I didn’t order that. A small cup of that, I swear I didn’t. Then just wear a freaking mask. Just wear. Just wear it and shut up. And the guy’s going back and forth, and I just told him, I said, “Dude, it’s store policy. Just wear the freaking mask.” I said freaking because I was with my daughter. I would’ve probably told him something else, because he was really being like an ass.

Frank Curzio: So, the guy takes a mask out of his back pocket… He had it on him the whole time. And puts it on. And then orders his ice cream and leaves. And then he’s kind of arguing with the lady who just paid. And he’s like, “I don’t know you should wear a mask.” And she was like, “Well, you know you should… ” And they were all fighting. And I’m just looking at that situation saying it’s a perfect example of the new America. Where if you have a different opinion than someone else, then that person’s automatically an asshole. No matter what.

Frank Curzio: I mean, it’s store policy, wear the mask. But there’s two people that one believe you wear a mask, one didn’t. And the lady started fighting back and forth. Again, the girl’s just doing her job. But it started getting heated to the point where there was so much anger, right. And it’s the way America is right now. We all have our opinions. We used to be able to vote for whoever we wanted to without worrying about Goya, or someone… You look at Steph Curry, where Under Armour CEO, Kevin Plank, went to… I forgot what it was for Donald Trump. And he came out and went against it. And he’s got a huge contract with Under Armour.

Frank Curzio: Kevin Plank was like, “All right. My fault.” It’s like you can’t have your own opinion about anything. I mean, think about it if you vote for Trump you’re a racist. Or if you don’t want to kneel for the flag, you’re definitely a racist, right. Even though that could mean something to where either your parents died in a war, or you had a parent member, or family member died in a war, and that flag means something more to you. And you’re just like, “Hey, I just don’t want to kneel for the national anthem.” You’re a racist, automatically. Everybody gets labeled, and it’s pretty crazy.

Frank Curzio: My point of this, and you guys are seeing it… I don’t care what side you’re on, but it’s so funny how you get bullied into… You even look at Hollywood. If you’re someone in Hollywood that supports Trump, good luck. Your career’s over. You’re done. You’re done. And who’s the famous actor that supports Trump? I’m not talking about James Woods or something. Someone that’s really getting movie parts right now. They halted production in most studios everywhere. But you can’t really speak out. You can’t really opinion on anything. You have to be scared in today’s times. Pretty crazy.

Frank Curzio: And that’s the same thing that’s happened with COVID right now. In terms of the response in each of our states. That should not be political at all. It shouldn’t be blue states want to close, and red states want to open. It should be the governor’s decision. Their decision based on what they see, what they believe, what they’re studying within their states. But it’s not. It’s political. Who cares people’s lives are at stake. Who cares.

Frank Curzio: Now why am I bringing this up? Because it’s important to you, it’s important to your life. I mean, what I’m seeing right now is unbelievable. We’re looking at New York… And I love New York. Most of my subscribers are in New York and California. I’m going to talk about these two places. These two cities. Highest cost of living in these areas. You make $200,000 dollars a year in most of these areas, and you can’t even make ends meet, and these people aren’t making anything close to that right now, because a lot of businesses are closed. Outside of you work at Silicon Valley, or you’re able to make money. Again, technology company’s doing great.

Frank Curzio: But overall, people are struggle to the point of, what do you do? And these economies are closed. I mean California wants to now start closing, and now you have New York that never opened. And they’re high fiving each other. You had Dr. Fauci come out and say, “Well, New York is doing it right.” New York is doing it very, very wrong. I have no agenda here. New York blood’s in me. 37 years I lived there. Loved the place. I’ll always love it. You cannot keep that economy closed.

Frank Curzio: We look back in March, and we said we have to extend the curve. What does that mean? It means that you didn’t want too many people catching the coronavirus at the same time because we didn’t have the capacity in the hospitals. We didn’t have enough ventilators. We brought ships in on the coastlines for hospitals that we didn’t even need, which is great. Better to be prepared than not. Now, we’re fully prepared.

Frank Curzio: I’m not seeing people on the streets in Florida, Arizona, Texas, where cases are so called exploding, if you hear it. Right. Nobody’s going to tell you about all the stats. Death rates are down. Hospitalization rates are holding steady, and actually starting to go down. But you’re not seeing people on the streets like they need a hospital bed, or they can’t get into ICU right now. Maybe a few areas in Miami and some places. But for the most part, no, you’re not seeing that. It’s not being reported. No way.

Frank Curzio: But what’s important is these economies are open. Florida is open. We’re practicing social distancing. Of course cases are going to explode, but look at the death rates, as a percentage of overall people who were infected. And Fundstrat just came out with something really cool where they showed the hospitalization rates, and the death rates, the percentage death rates in Florida, Arizona, Texas. Also in California, because California had cases spike, but they decided to close their economy. Florida, Arizona, Texas, not so much. But now, they plateaued and they’re going down as of the last week, which is great. Because when we came out with the studies in March, everybody had a second wave coming. You just wanted to extend that curve.

Frank Curzio: You got to close the economy, you’re going to open them back up. More people are going to get it. This may be the only solution we have if we don’t get a vaccine. A vaccine is not a guarantee. It’s not a guarantee. And if we are going to get a vaccine it’s not going to come ‘til at least Q1, 2021. Put that into perspective. We’ve been closed five months. Look at our economy. And the Fed spend 30% of GDP, 6.5 trillion. More is coming. We know the checks are ending this month. More is coming. Trillions more. It’s the only thing that’s supporting our economy right now, otherwise the market would be dead. People are struggling out there. It’s crazy. You’re a bar or a restaurant and you got to close again, good luck.

Frank Curzio: But for New York to stay closed right now… Do they think that the virus is just suddenly going to magically disappear? What if we don’t get a vaccine for two years? Remember, the quickest reported vaccine to market was four years, 1967. That was mumps. Yes, we have more resources. We have more companies working on it. Companies around the world globally. I get it. And I got to tell you something. I’ll go over the studies later in my educational segment. We’re going to talk about biotech companies, vaccine, a lot of names in that industry. Beneficiaries, who’s going to get hurt.

Frank Curzio: But when you’re looking at Pfizer and Moderna, which they use special technology, RNA technology. Immunotherapy. Helps your immune system fight against this. Their phase one studies were great. I’ve never seen this in over 15 years I’ve been covering biotech. But they’re signing deals with distribution that they could commercialize distribution and send this out as soon as this is approved like it’s a done deal. They’re in early phase one, which is crazy. And I got to tell you, if a vaccine comes out this year, are you really going to take it? I can tell you, I hope you don’t take it, because it hasn’t been tested. It needs to be tested. There has to be safety data on it. And it has to be from a massive amount of people.

Frank Curzio: You can’t force this, you can’t push this. You make a mistake, it could result in 10X the amount of deaths from the coronavirus if this triggers something else. You can’t rush this process. But you’re looking at Florida, Arizona, and Texas, mark my words, because in three months from now, they are going to wind up closing their borders to every other state, because those other states are going to start opening. They’re going to realize their economies are getting crushed like New York. And then California’s going to open back up. Again, it’s not going to magically disappear. It’s not.

Frank Curzio: And once you open up more people out there, more people are going to get it. But we understand now that the coronavirus impacts people with respiratory problems. People over 60, 65. Rates are incredibly low for women, for kids. You have type O blood, you’re almost immune, which is kind of weird. I think that’s kind of cool. There’s a lot of things that we know now. We have ventilators. We have tons of ventilators. I mean, we have the hospital beds in place. But you have to go through this process. It’s not just… You can’t just say, “Hey, just everybody stay home. We’ll be fine.”

Frank Curzio: That’s not the answer when we have a 0.04% death rate from the coronavirus in the United States. That’s insane to close these economies. And I could see the arguments about school. All the doctors. I mean, they’ve had them on all the shows saying that they have kids, “Hey, they need to go back to school.” I’m for that. However, you’re the parent. And maybe God forbid you had another that’s sick, or another kid that passed away. God forbid, oh man. You got to have a different mentality than the homeschool, online, whatever.

Frank Curzio: But overall, when you’re looking at percentages, it makes sense. Even the leading doctors of the world are saying open up the schools. You can’t take this out on the kids what’s going on. It’s a very low rate. And you got to worry about the teachers too, right. That are teaching. You don’t want them to get infected. They’re older. Some of them are even 60s.

Frank Curzio: But for New York to really be high-fiving each other because, “Hey, virus is down. Everything’s okay.” I know several people that actually just traveled to New York. They had to. And even just… Again, people involved in politics and business and stuff, it’s empty. It’s empty. They show pictures of Times Square, there’s nobody there. Are you kidding me? How are people living? How are they making money? You’re going to have to open up sooner or later. Are you going to open up in nine months from now? Holy cow. What do you think is going to happen? Look at the crime rate. Look what’s going on in these cities.

Frank Curzio: You’re going to see a massive… you’re seeing it already. The migration into Florida is amazing. Even my little town used to be really cool, quiet. I mean, they’re building everywhere. Houses are flying off the market. And everyone I know now is a real estate agent. The housing market’s flying through the roof. We’re seeing mortgage rates low. But how do you live in New York and California, where okay, I used to live there and that was great. And that’s awesome. And you have all these restaurants 24 hours, you can do whatever… All that’s gone. All the benefits of living there and paying those high costs are gone. Do you really want to live there? It’s dangerous to walk the streets in a lot of areas, in the major cities. I mean, it’s crazy.

Frank Curzio: But I don’t see how this is political. I mean, I do see it, right. It makes sense. People are going to do anything. Remember, the politicians don’t give a shit about you, they don’t give a shit me, they don’t give a shit about anybody. They don’t give a shit about any cause. Do you really think they care about Black Lives Matter? Do you really think they care about helping you? Are you crazy? They’re going to support anything that’s going to get them votes right now. They’re dying to get in there.

Frank Curzio: You get in there, and the Democrats win across the board, which is a possibility. I mean, why are they talking about removing the filibuster for? Which is insane. That’s put in place so things get done where you need support from the other side. That’s dangerous. And I’d say the same thing of Republicans, Democrats. I mean, the quest for power, the need for power, I’ve never seen it so crazy, where you’re siding with the far left… The far, far left, that believes you’re a racist if you don’t do exactly what they tell you to do. And it’s no coincidence that these people, what do they want? No guns, no police, right. Pretty easy to take over shit when you don’t have that.

Frank Curzio: But you’re going to have both sides try to get that vote and support them. But be careful because that group has the power to be bigger than democrats and republicans. It’s crazy out there. You can’t defend yourself, right? The couple in St. Louis came out with guns as they were getting robbed. They didn’t shoot anybody. Felony, right. They’re getting charged with a felony because they’re protecting their home, they’re protecting their property. The alternatives, these guys come in, who knows what happens. They want to take that right away from you. Protecting yourself.

Frank Curzio: I mean, it’s crazy. It’s crazy out there. But, you’re looking at COVID, and just why is this being so political considering the huge consequences we have, where people are dying. We’re trying to save lives. We’re trying to open up the economy. If this continues… The dire need for a vaccine, it’s never been this great. A month ago, three months ago when this first started. Started closing economies in March. It’s never been as great as now, considering I didn’t factor that in. I didn’t factor in at all that New York would keep its economy closed, or California would go back and close their economy. I didn’t factor that in, because we all knew from the beginning that once we opened up our economies, cases were going to rise, but we wanted to make sure there’s enough hospitals out there. People do get sick. Enough ICU beds. They can get taken care of, which we have.

Frank Curzio: They want to make sure the percentage death rate’s not rising, and it’s not because we’re becoming smarter about it. People who can contract this virus where it could lead to major problems and fatalities are being extra careful, and everyone around them is being extra careful. But to see on TV, and again, I try to watch all the channels. This way I get a good perspective. You want to know the consensus, because if you know the consensus that’s how you make money. But don’t be a pawn, don’t let them use you. Understand what their motives are, learn how to benefit from them in terms of making money. How do you benefit yourself? Because they don’t care about you.

Frank Curzio: They’re not closing a state or opening a state based on worrying about you contracting it and dying from COVID. No. They’re doing it based on what they’re political party believes they need to do to get more votes. And it’s insane. It’s not going to stop. It’s going to get worse through November. November’s not around the corner. We’re looking at a few months away. You think it’s sooner than later. But imagine we keep economies closed that long. Is New York going to stay closed that long? How you going to live there?

Frank Curzio: The massive expenses, the cost, the taxes in these areas. How are you going to live there if these economies remained closed? And you’re seeing fights in California with gym owners and stuff. And again, I’m not supporting gym owners, gyms and bars. I think that’s a little crazy to open up those businesses. But still, they’re like, “I’m not closing. My life’s done. My business is done. I can’t do anything. I’m not even going to get any more money from the government. People are having trouble getting those loans from the government.” Especially if they only have a couple employees. They’re fighting it and saying, “Hey, it’s my right. I can stay open.”

Frank Curzio: But when you look at the statistics, guys you got to keep the economy open. You have to slowly… It got a little quick in Florida. Now it’s coming down in Florida. Even in California, Arizona, Texas. Those are the four states. The fast rise in infections. They’ve all plateaued going down. The hospitalization rates, percentage death rates, they’re going down. They’re going down now as of last week, which is great. That’s the second wave. And that’s how you lead to herd immunity, which is a necessity… A necessity if we don’t get a vaccine, which is no guarantee.

Frank Curzio: Looking at the results, a couple companies like I just mentioned, results pretty positive. Phase one. This takes a long, long time guys. But man, you need to open up the economies, you need to position yourself, because right now, what’s going on, it’s all political. It’s resulting in a massive disconnect between Wall Street and Main Street, which you guys already know. I don’t have to tell you. But what I do have to tell you is you have to think of how you could benefit for yourselves, for your families. How do you create generational wealth? Where you’re going to see assets rise. Why? Because the disconnect is going to get bigger and bigger. What does that mean? It means the FED is going to spend a shit load of money. $6.5 trillion already out the door. 30% of GDP. Trillions on the way. It’s not just the US. Central governments around the world. See that massive package in Europe just announced the other day.

Frank Curzio: It’s not going to stop. It is not going to stop, which is great for gold. Really great for gold. Prices pushing to all-time highs, pretty close. Continue to go higher. Looking for gold stocks, making a ton of money. We’re doing very well in our portfolios. They’re up huge. But under the current conditions, how do you benefit and remove the politics out of the situation. Because this situation of the government continue to spend money is also great for this other metal that rarely gets attention ever. It’s like Steve Kerr on the Bulls, who helped Chicago win two titles. That nice freaking shot, championship. Boom. Banged it, three pointer. But Jordan gets all the credit. He’s the one that won six championships is Jordan, Jordan, Jordan.

Frank Curzio: If you don’t know, Jordan is gold in this example, and Steve Kerr is silver. Right. Nobody paying attention to it. Now they are breaking out to new highs. $22 dollars an ounce. Just surged past $22 dollars an ounce. And I’m going to have to show you how you make money off this, because I’m going to interview pretty much the smartest person in the world when it comes to silver. And that’s Keith Neumeyer. The founder and CEO of one of the world’s largest silver producers, which is First Majestic silver. A good friend. Known him for a very, very long time. Did business deals with him. The company portfolio is doing very, very well. Encourage you to venture opportunities. Given away because we’re up a lot now. Giving a lot of volatility.

Frank Curzio: But it’s amazing how silver, when you look at that market how it’s not participated as much at gold. And now it’s playing catch up and has a huge way to go. So, great stuff coming up including how Keith believes silver is going to push passed $100 dollars. It’s $22 dollars an ounce. And I know what you’re thinking. That’s crazy. The guy’s going to be talking his book. At least that’s what I thought. When you hear his thesis, he talks about the fundamental landscape of silver right now, and the demand. I’m telling you it’s going to make you a believer. I don’t know if it’s going to go to $100, but it’s definitely going to go a lot higher, and the stocks have not participated in the silver industry like the gold stocks that are well off their lows, especially over the past six months.

Frank Curzio: A lot of opportunities there. Great, great interview coming up. And later on, I’m going to break down the vaccine market, because right now, at this stage, the amount of pressure that’s being put on us finding a vaccine… Somebody finding a vaccine has never been greater since this started. Again, I didn’t picture that New York would keep their economy closed, California would decide to close their economy again. I didn’t anticipate that from someone whose been really covering this thoroughly since January. And most people talk about it in March. Talk about China’s economy closing down. Interviewing people that were quarantined in Italy and China. This is something I didn’t anticipate, and I know a lot of these vaccine stocks have moved up. You’re going to see them move up even further, because a lot of these economies, they’re basing everything on us finding a vaccine, which going to push more investors into these naves. I’m going to share those names, winners, losers, with you in my educational segment, including one name that’s completely under the radar.

Frank Curzio: Almost no analysts are covering it. Almost never mentioned on TV or in the media. And I’m going to tell you why that’s about to change. But first, let’s get to my interview with my buddy, friend, Keith Neumeyer. Keith Neumeyer, thank you so much for joining us on Wall Street Unplugged.

Keith Neumeyer: Well, Frank yeah, it’s been a while.

Frank Curzio: I know, right. I mean, we spend lots of time together. Good friend. Every time I go to Vancouver, we hang out. You always share a tequila with me, because best tequila ever, which is awesome in your office, which is great. But over the years, I just found it amazing because you’ve been doing this for three decades if not longer. And you’re always smart with your companies, where if you saw demand coming down, you always knew exactly when to cut, what to do ahead of time. I feel like your company may be better positioned right now, because what we’re seeing in silver is just this explosion. And I think what people, our listeners want to know as someone that just lives and breathes this industry, what’s going on with silver?

Frank Curzio: From my perspective, I see that gold’s taking off. I feel like this has lagged gold the whole time. And even now, even a move passed $22 dollars an ounce, you’re not really hearing people talk about on CNBC. It’s not a big deal. People talking more about stacks and everything. But what’s going on in this industry that has you so excited, because it seems like… I mean, the tailwinds, I’ve never seen them greater for gold and silver. But silver really hasn’t participated, but it’s definitely starting now, right?

Keith Neumeyer: Well it is. It’s very nice to see. I’m staring at my screen today. And the last couple days I’m in a little bit of awe. I think I’ve got to keep pinching myself just to make sure I’m awake. Because I’ve been a staunch bull for the last 18 years. The run from $5 dollars to $50 dollars back from 2002 to 2011, I was right. I called it. I think I was off by a couple years, but I still hit the price. But I didn’t predict the fact that the metal was going to drop the way it did, so substantially. It got all the way down to $13 bucks an ounce, which shocked a lot of people including myself.

Keith Neumeyer: For a metal that’s so critical in our life… Everything that we do, including this call, every waking moment, even when we’re sleeping. Silver’s working behind the scenes in all the gadgets that we use, and electric cars, solar panels, cell phones, computers, you name it. Every gadget we have requires silver, and for the ratio to get so far out of whack… I mean, the ratio between gold and silver, which is somewhere around 90 to 1 right now. It got all the way up to about 125 to 1 in March, during the big sell off in the major US markets. And that was pretty crazy time. I actually took advantage of that big dip in the price.

Keith Neumeyer: But really, if you want to look at the true price of what metal should be trading, just a couple of things. When gold was trading at these levels last time in 2010, 2011, silver was $40 bucks an ounce. Today, we’re at $22. So, just based on gold, I think there’s a lot of room there. But I think there’s even more fundamentals to drive silver much higher than even $40 is the mining ratio. We’re only mining, for every one ounce of gold worldwide, we’re only mining eight ounces of silver, which suggests this ratio, the price of this metal, needs to get much closer to the actual mining ratio.

Frank Curzio: So Keith, talk about the fundamentals of this, because I know talking to you over the past 10 years, the silver industry, you said has been in a 500 million ounce physical deficit. But I think it was as early as last month, early last month, that you were talking about delivery through the roof. Explain that to the non-silver investor, because it was something that you said. If I remember seeing that video correctly, you said it’s something that you’ve never seen before. But talk about the delivery and demand you’re seeing out there.

Keith Neumeyer: Well, we had an enormous demand psyche. I think that what happened with the US stock markets pushed a lot of people into precious metals, and it helped drive gold. But what was happening with the COVID situation, mines were shutting down worldwide. We had 50% of the world’s silver supply come offline, and stayed offline for a good 60 days or so. The buyers kept buying. So, you saw these spreads explode between what the actual price was on the COMEX to actually what the physical metal was trading for. Silver was dramatic. Gold was also pretty dramatic. It was about $100 dollars an ounce.

Keith Neumeyer: Silver is still today trading at $3 to $5 dollars an ounce above spot. It got up to about $5 to $7 dollars above spot in March. And these are numbers I haven’t seen before.

Frank Curzio: So, you’ve been… When people hear you talk about gold… you brought up a good point, right. Which is, where gold was trading last time, silver was trading over $4 dollars an ounce, right. The last time we had this market. People see you go out there and you say, “Listen, based on fundamentals, and you go over it with numbers…” And we’re not even talking about the government and what they’re doing with dollars and just inflating the markets. I don’t think anyone sees that stopping anytime soon, for many years. But you throw out a number, $100 dollars, and I can see people saying, “Well, maybe he’s talking his book.”

Frank Curzio: But, when you look at the fundamentals, do you really think that this could get over $100 dollars? And if so, how long do you think it would take for that to happen? Because the tailwinds to me, I see in silver and also gold never been greater in at least 20… Probably over 30 years. You might even say even longer I would think.

Keith Neumeyer: Well, the central banks starting buying gold three or four years ago. And then the central banks around the planet have been substantial buyers of the physical metal. And obviously there’s something up. They must know that this whole financial system is cracking before our eyes. The federal banks around the world, not just the US side, but all the federal banks are printing like crazy, trying to support their markets. Trying to support their economies. And they have the demographics against them, where you’ve got 3% of the workforce going to be retiring over the next 20 years. So, what’s that going to do to the world economy, real estate prices and everything else.

Keith Neumeyer: So of course, the feds are trying to prevent this recession that has to happen, but they’re preventing it as much as possible. But eventually the whole thing’s just going to disintegrate. And a lot of the big money has been coming into the gold market with the governments coming in first. That should’ve been the telegraph to the big institutions around the world that, “Hey, if the feds are buying, federal governments are buying, we better be in there buying too.” But of course they’re late. So now they’re coming into this market, driving it higher.

Keith Neumeyer: But when it comes to silver prices, which is more of a commodity… Gold is a currency. Gold is the granddaddy of all currency, and it should be in everyone’s portfolio regardless of what’s happening in the public markets. It’s irrelevant. It should always be a part of your core holdings. Silver is a little bit different. Much more speculative, much more driven by world economic conditions. But also it is dragged along sometimes a little bit kicking and screaming when it comes to silver price moving. But it is looked like as a cheap man’s gold, and is attracting a lot of investors.

Keith Neumeyer: But, I like it for the fundamentals because we’re trying to electrify this planet in new ways. We’re trying to get off oil and gas. Fuel cells, electric cars, batteries, all the electronics that we want to own, and continually purchase. Much of the planet is still much further behind the western economies. They want to also own cell phones and computers and everything else, and also electrify their countries with new technologies. So, this is not going backwards. This ball is turning, and we need a lot more silver than what we’re currently mining as an industry to supply the needs of the human race over the next couple of decades. And in order to supply the amount of silver that we require to achieve what we want to achieve, we need triple digit silver just to afford to get some of these smaller, lower grade assets into production.

Frank Curzio: All right, let’s talk about that too. Let’s talk about first Majestic now, right. You just came out with your quarterly numbers, I think around a week ago, which were very, very good considering you only had partial production, right. A lot of these mines they have in Mexico was shut down. COVID, along with gold mines around the world as well. But now they’re opened up. I look at your… Pretty sure it’s three producing mines that you have, right? In the world’s largest silver producing country. But when I look at your all in costs for two of those mines around $8, $8.50. I think the other one’s around $12.75. We’re at $22 right now. It seems like you’re perfectly positioned for this.

Frank Curzio: So, I guess let’s talk about your company, and those three projects. Because you have more projects as well, and you just… It’s a good segue, because I was going to say, what’s the growth model? And it seems like your other, I think it’s five projects. And where silver is right now and going higher, it seems like these could come on line even quicker.

Keith Neumeyer: Yeah. The last five or six years in the mining sector has been quite a challenge. The margins have been quite low. Only back in 2014, 2015, we had pretty low metal prices, and it was a real struggle. So, we ended up… We had seven mines. In 2017, we had actually seven mines operating. Over the next couple years, and the last one got shut down in mid-2019 to give us the three biggest mines that are currently operating. And they were our most profitable mines. And it just made economic sense to focus our investment dollars on the more profitable operations. And unfortunately, the other smaller, more highly costing operations, we ended up deciding to shut down, which is obviously a tough decision. But we did do it, and we’re looking at actually reopening a couple of them. So, maybe a year from now we’ll have a couple of these other ones reopened, because the metal prices are obviously doing pretty good. And they would like, obviously… We’d think they’d be profitable at these current metal prices.

Keith Neumeyer: So, there’s definitely some growth there. But I built these business through MNA. I put the company together 18 years ago, and we probably bought, I don’t know 10 mines, 10 companies over that period of time. And we’ve always got our eyes on looking for ways of growing. We’re going to produce about 24 million ounces of silver equivalent this year. 60% in the form of silver, 40% in the form of gold out of the three mines. We’re investing quite a lot of money in those… two of the operations are getting a lot of capital for expansion. So, two of the mines, the San Dimas mine and the Santillana mine should start to see increase production in 2021 and 2022.

Keith Neumeyer: So, we’ve got lots of internal, organic growth coming over the next couple years. But there’s potential that something external might occur as well.

Frank Curzio: So, talk about… I think this gets overlooked by management teams. And one of the things I loved about you from having so much experience in the industry, is when things are bad, I think you really see the separation between good management teams and terrible ones, and inexperienced ones where they’re very late to cut costs. They think everything’s going to be okay. You were never like that. But could you talk about, when I say you’re perfectly positioned because cutting costs, and you’ve become more lean than ever with this company at a time when pricing are rising. And now you’re benefiting tremendously. How much of a difference does that make in terms of margins? Because I just feel like sometimes that’s overlooked that you go through this whole period. The people who survive and come out to the next bull market are usually 10 times stronger. We saw it in 2000 with technology companies. There’s a reason why they had the best balance sheets in the world. A lot of these companies almost went out of business, and they survived and they’re stronger than ever.

Frank Curzio: But talk about that process. Has that made you leaner and stronger as a company going through that, and better positioned now that… Definitely say we’re in a bull market in silver.

Keith Neumeyer: Yeah, yeah. I’m glad you brought that up Frank. I’ve been in the business for 35 years. I’ve seen several gut wrenching bear markets that have just destroyed company after company. And fortunately I’ve surrounded myself with the very top notch management teams that can look ahead and see what the business looks like in multiple different types of environments. Mining is a very cyclical industry, and investors need to know that. I said earlier, it’s a very much of a boom and bust business. So, if you were able to survive through those weak periods, which we’ve been able to do with First Majestic, you’re dead on. You come out of these bear markets very, very strong. And we’ve done it through, quite honestly the use of technology.

Keith Neumeyer: I’m a big advocate of technology. I’ve been pushing technology on the mining sector for over a decade. Many people that run mining companies, they’re part of an old school, that old thinking. They don’t like technology. They don’t like to take risks by adopting new ways of doing things, and I’m quite different. I’m much more of a financial guy than an engineer or geologist maybe. And I look at economics more than anything, and it’s important to me to always work to try to drive down cost. It’s sometimes challenging. You’ve got increasing costs for labor. You’ve got potentially increasing cost in energy. Those two costs alone generate most of our costs, so if you could… And those costs generally you don’t have a lot of control over, but the other costs you do. And that comes into your processing costs, and your recovery of metals other than material that you’re pulling out of these mines.

Keith Neumeyer: We spend and continually spend millions, tens of millions of dollars a year on adopting new ways of doing things, and driving down costs. And actually just one comment before I shut up. Over the last five years, or six years, we actually have reduced our cost by 50%.

Frank Curzio: Wow. That’s an incredible number. Yeah, it’s an incredible number that I’m sure a lot of people don’t talk about and don’t understand. They say, “Hey, prices are good. Last time this happened, you are a much different company compared to the last bull market as well. But one of the things that I’ve really admired about you in watching you at least… I would say pretty close to a decade since I’ve known you now, is when you look to purchase companies, MNA, you’re very particular. You don’t settle. You really love to buy assets that are dirt cheap and building up your current base, which I loved, in how you created your companies in the past. The MNA market right now at silver prices higher, are you still seeing opportunities to build it that way? Is your growth plan maybe looking at MNA? Or is, “Hey, you know what, we’re sitting with a great portfolio, and let’s get those other five mines ramping.” Like you said, you’re spending a lot on CapEx. Talk a little bit about that and maybe the MNA market and so forth.

Keith Neumeyer: Yeah. Well first internally. I think I covered it a little bit. But in an environment like this, we can increase exploration. Exploration is the cheapest way of adding ounces to the portfolio. And with mills already there, actively running, it makes a lot of sense just to go drill some more holes and expand exploration budgets. So that’s step one. Step two is obviously expanding. As you develop more ounces through successful drilling programs, then you can increase the throughput at the mills increasing your production, and also generally speaking driving down your costs. So, that’s an important part of running any mining business.

Keith Neumeyer: On the MNA front, I’m one of the most patient guys there is out there. I’ve got my eyes on several assets, and have for the last decade. I work closely behind the scenes in planting seeds and I continually work on how am I going to… What’s the next move that we’re going to make to expand this business even larger than it currently is? But it always takes two to tango. You never know when these deals actually happen. But, I never stop working on MNA.

Frank Curzio: Before we go, why don’t you talk about the short position, and several which we’ve seen jump up tremendously. And now it looks like you’re seeing a bit of short covering.

Keith Neumeyer: There has been a fairly large short position on the miners. Not just for Majestic, but mining stocks generally have had a pretty large short position on them, going back a couple years. It hasn’t really been unwound until just recently. And then, specifically on first Majestic, as of a couple weeks ago, we had close to 18% of the issue in the outstanding share is short, and it turned out to be somewhere around 40 million shares short. So, that’s a pretty darn large short position that is completely now under water. And the stock today is looking crazy, and then yesterday. Last time we had a short covering rally, going back to 2016 it was pretty exciting. And back then the company was half the size it is today. We’re producing way more metal, we’re much larger, much healthier company, strong balance sheet. And with metal prices doing what they’re doing and going a lot higher, I think it’s going to be pretty hard on some of these shorts.

Frank Curzio: Even sticking to that topic, talking about the shorts, which I find is interesting, is we knew that during the bear market, where even companies that came out with good news… Whether it’s good drilling results, or whatever. Production results. It was used as a liquidity then for people to just sell, because there was just so much margin out there. But even now, you’re still seeing the short position is build up. I mean, you just talked about yours being covered and resulting in a short squeeze. I would think right now, with the market conditions, and so many favorable things compared to two or three years ago, that it would be pretty crazy taking short positions in gold stocks… I mean, some gold stocks. Some of them deserve short positions. But guys like you who are producers and been around for a while, that’s kind of surprising to me you’re still seeing that.

Keith Neumeyer: Yeah. Look, the data is always delayed by, I think it’s one monthly data we get. So, I won’t see the new short data coming out for I think a couple of weeks. I actually don’t know the date it comes out. My internal guys give it to me whenever it comes out. But nevertheless, it’ll be interesting to see. I’m sure there has to have been short covering in our stock over the last couple of days. Just based on how it’s performing. There has been a view out there that the place to be is in the US equity markets. And there’s been a huge flow of money that’s gone into the US equity markets over the last three, four, five years. And it’s done very well. There’s a lot of people who have made a lot of money. So, they short one side, they short energies, or they short miners, and they go long on tech stocks, or whatever the case may be.

Keith Neumeyer: I look at this market very similar to what happened in 2000 and 2002, when we saw the Nasdaq peak out in March of 2000 at 5000 points. And it crashed 80% over the next three years. And it was 2002 that was the beginning of the bull run in the resource sector that went 10 years. It ended in the end of 2011. So, it almost went for a full 10-year bull market. You remember that, and it was pretty fun. The stocks like First Majestic did extremely well over that 10-year period. And I think we’re entering into… I think we’ve already entered into another major bull market. I think this bull market that we’re currently in started in 2016, and I think if it goes 10 years, or even if it goes five years, we’re still in the early days.

Frank Curzio: Yeah, that definitely makes sense. It is interesting. That’s a great comparison to 2002. It’s just we would see stocks fall tremendously, except when you have our Fed spending 30% of GDP to hold this stuff up and more money coming, but it is interesting. We’re not seeing the market come down because of that, but we are starting to see metal prices rise, and certain gold stocks rise.

Frank Curzio: Keith, I really appreciate you coming on in short notice. I mean, it’s so relevant now. Nobody’s really talking about silver in America right now, which is surprising to me. Just little stories here and there. I think it’s going to blow up pretty soon as this price continue to go higher. And I love getting the scoop from you early on. And yeah, thanks so much. Great to see your success, and I know my subscribers are happy too.

Keith Neumeyer: Well, thanks Frank. And good chatting with you again. Look, if any listeners want to track me down, I’m on Twitter. Just @Keith_Neumeyer. Go to First Majestic’s website. Firstmajestic.com. Look at the company’s PowerPoint presentation. There’s lots of good information there. And any of your listeners want to look at a gold company, I’m also the chairman of a company called First Mining Gold. Go have a look at that, and I think it’s a small up and coming gold company that people should be looking at as well.

Frank Curzio: All right. Sounds great Keith. Thanks so much for joining us. And I’ll talk to you soon bud.

Keith Neumeyer: Okay, thanks Frank.

Frank Curzio: All right guys. Great stuff from Keith. Glad he came on, short notice. A lot of times I book guests on Monday or Tuesday. Try not to do it either Tuesday in the afternoon or Wednesday. But I wait ’til the last minute because I always want to be relevant to the markets. Silver’s not even being talked about that much in CNBC. It’s breaking into new highs. It’s kind of funny. I was talking about SPACs and how that market’s surging. This like three months ago, and all these SPACs are coming out. Now you saw Bill Ackmann today come on and tell you why his SPAC, which is the largest ever is going to rob retail investors less than the Goldman Sachs, and the third point to launch another one where they get the first 20% of gains, and they make a fortune. Again, Goldman Sachs always makes tons of money before anybody else. Takes on those risks.

Frank Curzio: But nobody’s trying to talk about silver right now. And these stocks are pushing higher, but not significantly higher. Again, the last bull market here was 2011. Before that, long, long time. As Keith showed you and told you, I mean it’s a lot different now. Fundamentals are in place. It makes sense. You have so many tailwinds behind this market, and the opportunity to make money on silver stocks is much, much greater I think than making money on gold stocks. Because a lot of these things have come off 2, 300% from their lows in gold. Yet, you’re only seeing these things really starting to move higher. Up 30, 40% the past couple weeks. Some of them have doubled, some of them have done better than others, but the silver producers, where silver is now… I mean, man. The all in staying costs are pretty much under $12 dollars for most of those major producers. At least the ones that I covered. And you’re looking at prices sky rocketing here, skyrocketing. And it looks like they’re going to go a lot, lot higher.

Frank Curzio: So again, this podcast I always say is about you, not about me. Let me know what you thought of that interview. frank@curzioresearch.com. That’s frank@curzioresearch.com. Now, let’s get to my educational segment. We are looking at vaccine companies, and there’s lots of them. A lot of these names have taken off. Even names that I would say are not that good. And you’re looking at… Inovio was a company I know very, very well. This was September 11th, just vaccine company. But they were always highly promotional. I knew people in the IR department there. It’s just been a flaky company for a while, and then all of a sudden, boom. I mean, this things explodes because they’re in the vaccine market, and there’s a shot… I call it a very little shot that they could find a vaccine before everybody else. I don’t really see that happening for Inovio. It could. I hope it does. I mean, we all want a vaccine.

Frank Curzio: But you look at that company that was two bucks a year ago, $2.50. Now it’s $27, $4 billion dollar market cap. Novax another name. It was $5 dollars one year ago. It’s $140 with an $8 billion dollar market cap. CanSino biologics was $7 dollars just six months ago. It’s $28 with a $6 billion dollar market cap. Looking at BioEn Tech, that’s the one that’s partnered with Pfizer. Really good technology. Separating themselves from everybody else along with Moderna. Those two tests were very, very good. Those phase I tests. $13 dollars a year ago, now it’s over 90, which is a $20 billion dollar market cap. But when you look at this, the billion dollar market cap. Remember guys, there’s only going to be one, two winners here. And the first to the market’s going to be huge. Will be an explosion. Just vaccines, sending hundreds of millions of these everywhere. Not all of them are going to be winners, but right now they all trade as if they’re winners.

Frank Curzio: And I have to tell you, based on what I said in my opening, where very surprising, New York’s not opening really. New York City. Where California’s closing. You may see other states close. For me, Florida, Arizona, Texas are getting it right. Yes, we’re seeing an explosion in cases. Yes, you might say, “Frank, you’re an idiot. You have no idea you’re talking about,” depending on what TV channel you’re watching. For me, I don’t care what TV channel you’re watching. I’m here to make you money. I live in Florida. People are practicing social distancing. Cases are rises. They’ve plateaued, they’re starting to come down. Hospitalization rates, starting to come down. Death rates, percentages starting to come down now as of last week in all three of those states, which is great. That’s our second wave. If you want to call it the second wave. Whatever you want to say. Just like, Gold has always been in a bull market if you go back to the ’20s. Try telling to someone who bought gold in 2012, and held on through 2017. Tell them then when you’re stocks are down 90% that, “Hey, it’s still a bull market in gold.”

Frank Curzio: Love those. Love those perma-bulls. At least their getting their way right now, which is really cool because gold’s going a lot higher. So is silver. But getting back to, even the states. And how they’re getting it right. What’s going to happen when New York opens up? Are you going to see an explosion in cases? People are going to get scared in the beginning. Do we have enough hospital beds? They’ll have enough hospital beds. But not to open up that economy right now, you’re basically hoping for a vaccine. And forget whether you think that’s right or wrong. Forget if you think it’s right or wrong that California’s closing. Those two biggest economies in the US are basing their decision, which is political. But they’re basing their decision that, “Hey, we’re going to see a vaccine. That’s when we’ll open up.”

Frank Curzio: We’re not going to see one for another seven, eight, nine months, minimum. Minimum. Which means that there’s going to be a lot more money flowing into these things. All the news that comes out. Even if it’s a little bit positive, you’re going to see these things rise 20, 30% in a day. There’s a lot more money to be made on these vaccine stocks. Sounds crazy considering, and I’m going to bring up Moderna right now, which is insane. So, Moderna has a $30 billion dollar market cap. And over the past 12 months they generated $50 million dollars. $52 million, which is incredible. Which is incredible. So, it’s only trading at 530 times sales, only. 20 times book. Pretty cool. Better hope that they get this right. And we all hope they get it right. But even if they get it right, and they control the whole market, I still don’t think the market cap is justified. I mean it’s priced reflection.

Frank Curzio: But I got to tell you something. It’s probably going to go higher and push to $100, because we know that valuations don’t matter right now, which we’re seeing with tons of stocks. And we know that there’s a dire need today than there’s ever been to have a vaccine. Again, I didn’t think that we were going to see closures. And there’s so many closures again. And states closing their economies, which is crazy. I mean, you’re not hearing data out of China, even though they closed Disney in Hong Kong. Why? I don’t know. I thought everything’s okay in China. You don’t know. You don’t know what’s being reported overseas. You have no idea. They’re going to report whatever they want. They don’t want to scare the shit out of people, because they understand that their economies are already fragile pre-coronavirus.

Frank Curzio: Europe was basically in a recession. China’s growth has slowed to its slowest level in 20 years, going into this. And tensions with the US, pre-coronavirus. I mean, they could do everything in their power to say, “Well, things are much better. We’re handling this good.” I don’t care. Believe it, not. Right now we need a vaccine more than ever. So, definitely get exposure to the sector. If you’re a Curzio Venture Opportunity member, we pushed our issue out to tomorrow. Extra research on this company, because the company I follow for a long time. We made a lot of money on it once, and we stopped out a separate time. This is Curzio Venture Opportunities. But this name is now a coronavirus play that very, very few people know about. And has one of the best testing, because testing is absolutely horrible right now guys.

Frank Curzio: The testing that’s going on is absolutely horrible. I’ve been through it with my daughters. They’re both negative. My other daughter has to take another test. Her Crohn’s has been flaring up, so say a couple prayers if you feel bad to see a kid in pain. But we’ve been talking to her doctor. Doctor said, “Well, they stick a swab down your throat.” He’s like, I almost threw up. They got to do it for five seconds. Other people say, the one up your nose, where it’s extremely uncomfortable. But a lot of people are taking tests where they just put it a little bit up their nose, or just a little swap in their mouth, and they’re not accurate. We’re seeing it everywhere across the board. There’s not like cherry picking examples in Florida, Orlando, whatever. It’s all over the place. The data’s insane.

Frank Curzio: This is a company that has technology. It’s been around for a while. First recommended this in 2011, and now it just became a COVID play. Don’t want to give away too much, but that pick is going to come out tomorrow for you guys at CVO. But get exposure to the sector. You’re a CVO member you’re going to realize why I love this stock so much. It’s a very high risk, super high reward company. But if you’re seeing a pullback in some of these names… Moderna was a little bit higher, now it’s 80. Inovio I think was in the 30, mid-30s. It came down a little bit. Get a little exposure to these names, because any positive news is going to push these things up 20, 25%. Investors are going to flood into these names, because right now, what we’re doing, and what states and some of the governors are doing in some of these states, they’re praying that… The only way they’re going to open is if they get a vaccine.

Frank Curzio: COVID’s not going to magically disappear by keeping people home. It’s going to continue. Again, we wanted to slow that curve. We did it. It was all planned. We did a great job of it. Now you open up the economies, you’re going to see it surge as long as we keep those death rates, hospitalization rates down. And they are. And those three states, even though everybody probably thinks differently depending on what channel they’re watching in the media of how Florida’s… I live here. Things are great. The economies are open, people are doing okay. Not everything is open. We’re not at 100% capacity, but things are definitely better.

Frank Curzio: And if they were fully closed, there’s so many companies, so many people that would be in so much trouble. We’re going to see that in New York, we’re going to see that in California. And I really feel bad for those people in some of those businesses, because you’re closing the economies when we have a death rate of 0.04% from the coronavirus, which is insane. We know so much more about this virus today than we did five months ago. I understand the overreactions, I understand why everybody was wrong. It makes sense. This is something that never happened before on this level, where we’re closing economies. I get it. I don’t care about people who were wrong. People are out there, doctors, or whatever.

Frank Curzio: But right now, what we know about this virus is we should be opening schools, and we should keep economies open, because death rates are down. And that’s what we care about. The fatality rates. Not how many people contract it. So, definitely get exposure to this sector if you haven’t already. If you have, congratulations. You’re up a ton. But a lot of these names have much, much more upside considering California’s closed, New York has no intentions of opening back up. Going to be praying for a vaccine. There’s going to be that much news. When they announce results, any positive results, it’s going to be on CNBC.

Frank Curzio: We saw what happened with Moderna. Moderna pushed the entire market up 1000 points when they first came out with their study. Then they came out again and pushed the market up. It’s going to continue to be that way going forward, especially over the next two months. More phase one data, secondary data, safety data. All this stuff is going to be important. It’s going to be pushing the whole entire market up, but especially these vaccine companies. Definitely, definitely get exposure to some of these names. And before you get exposure, before you buy them, don’t look at the fundamentals, because you’re going to laugh.

Frank Curzio: Make sure you put a stop on it in case I’m wrong, which I have been before. I’m right more times than I wrong. I wouldn’t be doing this guys. So, put a stop loss in some of these names, but definitely get exposure because you’re going to see these names explode even higher. Now that New York’s not open, California’s closing, who knows what other states are going to close. They just sit there magically think that COVID is going to disappear over the next six months, which is definitely not going to happen.

Frank Curzio: Okay guys. So, we launched Unlimited Income last week. Got tons of positive reviews. We kept that price point extremely low for you. It’s a newsletter that you guys wanted. So, I’m not surprised that we’re seeing enormous demand. We’re doing very, very well with that newsletter. It is a great product. Lots of names already in it. We had beta versions of it. So, I appreciate all the positive feedback. We do have a 30-day money back guarantee. We haven’t had anybody, as of now, just buy it and say… Usually, you have that… When you see the quality. You see how to really buy income stocks, where you have to focus on these companies that are growing, that also have a nice yield, instead of just looking at yield and getting smoked.

Frank Curzio: It doesn’t matter if you have a 5% yield and you’re not growing. It’s pretty crazy, because your stocks probably going to be down 20%. Makes the yield meaningless. So, a fantastic product run by Genia Turanova. It’s amazing that people pay for this. They look at the portfolio and they actually take time to email us and say, “Say you so much for the price point. This newsletter’s great. The design is great.” We appreciate, we listen to you. This is the newsletter you wanted us to launch. Again, we’re about our customers, we’re about you. That’s why our business is growing. We’re doing very well right now. We always focus on our customers. We ask you what newsletter you want. I interview a lot of people. A lot of people could run these products that I know. I have great contacts doing this podcast for over 10 year… Over 12 years now.

Frank Curzio: So, we launched that thing. And if you’re interested, just hit me up at frank@curzioresearch.com. But, if you’re listening to this, chances are you’re on an email list and you got that email from us with our promotion. Definitely sign up through that promotion. That price is for all listeners, all the followers, just for you. And it is an incredibly, incredibly cheap price to sign up. So, great stuff. Great launch. Thanks for being patient with that. With COVID and everything, we wanted to push that out about a month ago, and pushed it out now. But really great stuff.

Frank Curzio: Also, be sure to check us out at Curzio Research YouTube page. Also you could tweet me at @FrankCurzio. I try to tweet at least three, four, five times a day. Lots of fun, controversial. And again, that YouTube platform, Curzio Research is doing very well. We’re going to do more videos. We’re actually setting up our office now, which is cool. I don’t know if you might’ve heard a little bit of an echo here. But we’re just doing the whole entire office, and Daniel is going to be joining me as well. Doing a podcast with me. Going to be doing live podcast. Going to be videotaped. It’s going to be really, really cool.

Frank Curzio: So, great, great stuff guys. And as always, thanks so much for listening. Really appreciate all your support. I’ll see you guys in seven days. Take care.

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