| Dear Reader, ‘Time to get out.’ That more or less sums up the conversation my wife and I had back in 2019. We were in Sudan. I was teaching geology at an international school in Khartoum, Sudan. We’d gone there to try and rediscover some of the sense of adventure we missed from my time working in Zambia, prospecting for copper for Equinox. Family told us we were crazy. They were probably right. But you only live once. Or YOLO, as the kids say now. So we went. We loved it. But being on the ground during a military coup is a couple of beers beyond ‘adventure’. It’s just dangerous. So we left. Sadly, the events that led to our departure are still playing out today. Sudan is back in the news. Thousands of people have been evacuated. It’s been grim viewing for anyone with a connection to the place. But Sudan’s descent into violence isn’t the subject of today’s email. I have a far more personal story to tell. See, I loved being ‘on the ground’ as a geologist. And I loved passing that knowledge on as a teacher. Because it turns out, we’re not doing anywhere near enough to train the next generation of geologists. Several universities here in Australia have actually closed down their entire geosciences degrees. The appetite isn’t there, they say. But that’s not true at all. The world’s appetite for natural resources — demand for stuff like oil, gas, copper, nickel, iron ore, lithium, and rare earths — continues to go up. In fact, we’re entering one of the most resource intensive decades in the history of mankind. Commitments to reach Net Zero alone nearly guarantee this. Whether you agree with the goal of Net Zero or not is another matter. But no one disputes we’re going to need VAST amounts of natural resources to make it happen. Problem is, we’ve spent a decade (and in some cases even longer) underinvesting in the supply of those materials. Worse, we’ve stopped even teaching people to look for new supply. Think on that for a moment. We’re not prospecting. We’re not building new mines. And we’re not even training people to find new resources. Not at the scale we need to meet future demand. It’s a slow motion train wreck. I’ve seen it myself, on the ground. Tired old mines. Shortages of staff. Low-grade resources being squeezed to extract every last gram of useable metal. It’s a big problem. And it can’t go on. In fact, I think it’s going to come to a head a lot sooner than anyone realises. I reckon we’re on the cusp of a major shortage of what’s arguably the most important natural resource in the world. For many industries, it’s more important than oil, gas, or lithium. It’s going to play a crucial role in the race to hit Net Zero. And we’re running out of it. (Goldman Sachs predict a major shortage in available supplies inside the next few months.) If that happens…or even the threat of it happening becomes more widely known…expect chaos. Shortages. Panic buying. Price spikes. And — for a handful of Aussie resource stocks — a big potential payday. That final point is the key one for me. I’ve been hard at work looking for the ASX-listed stocks that I think stand to do well if and when this shortage hits. I think I’ve found them. There are no guarantees, of course. This is risky investing. But I reckon I’m onto something. In fact, this whole story could be the spark that ignites the next phase of the Aussie resource bull market. It’s that important. So important that I decided to do something a little bit different…and took a small camera crew out into the bush to make a short film about it. Here’s a little sneak peek of me ‘on location’ shooting it last week: It’s going to air for the first time tomorrow morning. I’d really like you to watch it. I think it’ll help you understand the next big resource stock story to unfold here in Australia. But more than that, I think it’ll give you a good shot at capitalising on it. You’ll hear about the stocks I think stand to do best as this plays out. And you’ll even get the name and ticker of a play I recommend you make today, if you decide you want in (which is your call entirely). For the full story, all you need to do is be free tomorrow morning to catch the first ever broadcast. I’ll send you an email with a private viewing link to the whole thing. You can watch on your phone, tablet, or home computer — and it’s free. Until tomorrow morning… Regards, James Cooper,
Editor, Diggers and Drillers | 