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Lab Report - powered by CEO.CA Here is the show for October 26, 2026. youtu.be/rZvuYh0H6SM?si=npO5… Over the weekend I saw a lot of commentary debating when the gold bull will have its next substantial rally, whether that's early 2027 or as late as 2029. Almost all of that debate is noise based on price, and very little is about value. When you own gold, you own an insurance policy against the death spiral of debt, the unsustainable cost of servicing it, inflation, and a broken fiat currency and debt system worldwide. Big bond buyers and central bankers are increasing their allocations to gold over US debt. China has cut its US debt holdings from over a trillion dollars to under 700 billion while buying dramatically more gold, and central bankers now hold close to as much or more gold in reserves as US debt. At 40 trillion dollars of US debt, a 4% rate is 1.6 trillion dollars a year in servicing costs against roughly 5.5 trillion in tax revenue, so the debt is only going to get worse. Even on price, the bears point to gold's $5,600 peak and its pullback to around $4,000, forgetting that probably the last $700 of that move was leverage positioning by traders hedging across many assets, not retail investors buying the top. When I X out the noise and look at the signal, I see gold as a coiled spring that is compressed and looking for an excuse to release and head higher. In copper, the value driver is everything electric: computers, appliances, cars, EVs, aged power grids, AI data centres, and now robots, while mine production is flatlining or declining as copper hits all-time highs. Chile is restating production and guidance, big mines like Grasberg are struggling, and there aren't enough discoveries and development projects to replace mines being depleted, creating a multi-year supply deficit starting this year. Yet when copper pulls back from almost $7 to $6.50, people fixate on price instead of getting greedy when prices are down. A lot of people treat silver as a leveraged play on gold, but the real torque that makes moves in the metals look like child's play is in the mining stocks: the majors like Agnico Eagle, the mid-tiers, the junior miners, the developers and the explorers. To fix the supply chain, we need every important discovery to become a development project and every development project to become a mine, yet based on the metrics I've followed for over 30 years, the stocks today are priced more like gold is under $2,000 an ounce, silver is $35 or less, and copper is under $3. That disconnect between strengthening fundamentals and underappreciated stocks is where the big opportunity is. Companies with news that I did deep dives on are New Found Gold, Onyx Gold, Argenta Silver, Fury Gold Mines. New Found Gold announced a revised Preliminary Economic Assessment and updated Mineral Resource Estimate for its Queensway Gold Project in central Newfoundland: after-tax NPV(5%) more than doubles to C$1.728 billion (C$1.7 billion) with a 126% IRR at a base case of US$3,600/oz gold, rising to C$2.225 billion and a 164% IRR at US$4,100/oz gold, while Measured and Indicated resources increase 38% to 1.92 million ounces (27.3 million tonnes at 2.19 g/t gold, plus 606,000 ounces Inferred). That is cream of the crop for development projects. Remember that resource estimates and PEAs are snapshots in time; by the time the study comes out after the drilling cutoff, ongoing drilling is already adding to it. CEO Keith Boyle notes that Queensway has a high-grade core starting at surface, close to infrastructure and a skilled workforce. Phase 1 initial capital remains in line with the earlier PEA at C$149.8 million (about C$150 million), while the revised approach for Phases 2 and 3 increases underground ounces in the mine plan by 86% and adds a separate CIL circuit at the Pine Cove mill alongside the planned Phase 2 Queensway mill expansion, improving recoveries, increasing doré poured on site and reducing smelter penalties. First mineralized material is anticipated at the expanded Pine Cove mill in Q4 2027, about a year from now, and with a C$220 million financing package completed, Queensway has a clear path to becoming a self-funded mid-tier Canadian gold producer. Don't sleep on the Phase 1 open-pit average head grade of 13.41 g/t gold (with 2.09 g/t average head grade over the 15-year life of mine producing 1.744 million ounces). Open-pit mines today profitably mine half a gram per tonne; 13.41 g/t is an underground grade in an open pit, which makes it a free cash flow machine. I focus on IRR and payback rather than NPV, and at US$3,600 gold the payback on that C$150 million initial capex is less than one year, meaning you pay off the capital quickly with initial high-grade open-pit mining and fund future expansion out of free cash flow. They have an C$848 million valuation, so in their first year of full commercial production they could generate roughly 25% of their current market value in free cash flow. They average 369,000 shares a day, with 304,000 traded by 10 o'clock Central today, which is a pretty good audience, though for a project of this quality they can still broaden it through digital marketing on platforms like X and YouTube. On the CEO.CA Pro depth of market, the buy side is stronger than the sell side near term and thins out above $2.25, and the chart shows a series of higher lows since late July, which is what you want to see. On the Lassonde Curve, they're a late-stage developer about to start moving up the right side of the curve, yet they're valued as if they're only about 25% into my green-ellipse sweet spot before the right-side run, where stories like SilverCrest and MAG Silver had wonderful runs before being taken over. Do your homework. Onyx Gold drilled 166.0 metres of 0.7 g/t gold in hole MC26-343 (including 1.6 g/t over 21.7 metres and 2.2 g/t over 9.9 metres) at Argus Main and extended the Argus trend to approximately 2.6 kilometres with new gold intercepts at Big Break and JM at its Munro-Croesus Project, 75 kilometres east of Timmins, Ontario. I've been paying close attention to Onyx since starting the Lab Report because they've put out a series of very good drill results along the Pipestone Fault corridor. Faults are the deep cracks in the earth that metal-bearing fluids use as a path of least resistance, and the Pipestone Fault is an important crack in the Abitibi with incredible mines along it. Across 31 additional drill holes, they've hit strong results at Argus Main plus first-pass gold intercepts at Big Break, 700 metres southeast (including 0.6 g/t over 22.0 metres and 0.9 g/t over 11.0 metres), and JM, a further 500 metres southeast or 1.2 kilometres from Argus Main (including 18.8 g/t over 2.3 metres with 25.1 g/t over 1.2 metres, and 1.4 g/t over 10.4 metres). Onyx controls about 8 kilometres of the Pipestone Fault corridor and has drill-tested only about 4 kilometres along strike, with 91% of its 110,000-metre program complete and assays released for only 146 of 264 completed holes (55%), so a lot of news is still to come. President and CEO Brock Colterjohn says the results expand the discovery potential well beyond the original Argus area, with gold found over a 1.2-kilometre area at Big Break and JM within the same volcanic sequence and even outside it. Looking at the maps and geophysics, the huge displacement and break in the Pipestone Fault at Big Break is textbook rock preparation that creates a conduit for gold-bearing fluids on both sides of the fault. And in the side view, you see two parallel zones with emerging additional parallel zones, great continuity, and juiced-up high grade extending down dip, limited only by the depth of drilling so far, plus emerging near-surface open-pit potential down to a couple of hundred metres. People say grade is king, but grade plus continuity is king, and Onyx has both. They have a C$142 million valuation, which I think is very inexpensive relative to what they have, and trade only 68,000 shares a day on average (20,000 so far today), so they need to up their game on digital marketing, news releases, presentations and video to broaden their audience. The buy side is stronger than the sell side, and since peaking with gold the stock has been building a series of higher lows in an important basing period that looks like an inflection point. On the Lassonde Curve, I put them only about 30% into my sweet spot on the left side of the curve, with a long way to go up the left side in one of the most prolific mining belts in the world. Do your homework. Argenta Silver identified a potential second near-surface silver system at the Mani target on its 100%-owned El Quevar Project in Salta Province, Argentina, and mobilized a third drill rig to test it. Four newly reported shallow diamond drill holes confirmed silver mineralization starting at or near surface — including 249 g/t silver over 22.0 metres (with 349 g/t over 13.0 metres, ending in mineralization) in QVD-482, 67 g/t over 38.5 metres (with 111 g/t over 13.50 metres) in QVD-481, 67 g/t over 35.0 metres in QVD-483, and 105 g/t over 17.5 metres from surface in QVD-484 — separate from the existing Yaxtché deposit, which hosts an Indicated resource of 45.3 million ounces of silver (2.93 million tonnes at 482 g/t) plus 4.1 million ounces Inferred (0.31 million tonnes at 417 g/t). This builds on previously reported hole QVD-433 at Mani, which returned 710 g/t silver over 56.0 metres continuous from surface, including 4,982 g/t (nearly 5,000 g/t) over 7.50 metres. Those are big numbers over very mineable widths right at surface. President and CEO Joaquín Marias says finding high-grade silver at surface near the main Yaxtché deposit (about 700 to 800 metres south) could be a game changer for future development, and I think that's an understatement because of the mine-sequencing optionality it gives them as the dedicated third rig runs an initial 20-hole shallow program while the other two rigs keep expanding Yaxtché. On the map, Mani lines up along an interesting structure with surface rock-chip samples in the multi-kilogram-per-tonne range — including 2,450 g/t, 6,004 g/t, 16,145 g/t and up to the lab's upper limit of 20,000 g/t silver (20 kilograms per tonne) — and in the cross section the drill hits line up beautifully with minimal shallow drilling and wide-open depth potential toward Copan. As the great mine finders say, what matters is structure, structure, structure. They have only a C$97 million valuation despite sitting on a nearly 50 million ounce resource that looks like it's growing significantly. They average 600,000 shares a day, a healthy audience that shows their digital marketing is working, and today they've traded 1.39 million shares with a lot more buy side than sell side. Like many silver and gold stocks, they're at the low end of their six-month chart on emotional sector trading rather than project fundamentals, and I think the downside is way overdone. On the Lassonde Curve, they inherited a historical resource from Phase 3, but everything they're doing is Phase 1 and 2 exploration and discovery drilling; I put them only about 10% into my sweet spot on the left side of the curve, with a nice journey ahead up the left side. Do your homework. Fury Gold Mines intersected 14.95 g/t gold over 4.25 metres true width in hole 26EC-131 at its Eau Claire Gold Project in the Eeyou Istchee James Bay region of northern Quebec, extending high-grade mineralization approximately 60 metres up-dip from historical hole ER15-572, alongside 13.15 g/t gold over 1.50 metres in hole 26EC-130 (plus 6.81 g/t over 1.39 metres in 26EC-132 and 7.03 g/t over 1.50 metres in 26EC-122). Nearly half an ounce per tonne over 4.25 metres true width is around $2,000-a-tonne rock over a very mineable width that you can mine underground all day long and make a lot of money, and 13.15 g/t over 1.50 metres is very valuable rock too. James Bay and Quebec have great geology and are one of the best mining jurisdictions in the world. They've completed 21,857 metres (46 holes) of their approximately 25,000-metre Phase 2 drill program. CEO Tim Clark says hole 26EC-131 confirms the continuity of high-grade mineralization and validates the geological interpretation, supporting the conversion of Inferred resources into the Indicated category in the next mineral resource update, which will be associated with a pre-feasibility study in 2027. Looking at the block model and long section, all the red, orange and purple high-grade zones line up nicely for an underground operation, with room to follow the system deeper, into the gap and hinge areas, and into the east extension. They should include the legend for the grey shell at the top of the model, because if you can open-pit mine the top to pay off capex and then chase the high-grade underground, that makes it even more interesting. They have a C$125 million valuation and trade only 66,000 shares a day on average (52,000 today), which tells me they need to improve their digital marketing, news releases, corporate presentations and video outreach to broaden their audience. The buy side on the depth of market is stronger until a chunkier offer at 75 cents, and I think the stock can trade up toward that as emotional sector selling gives way to the project thesis. On the Lassonde Curve, upgrading resources for economic studies, including a pre-feasibility study, puts them in Phase 3 of the curve, at a valuation that I think is dipped below where it should be given how few quality projects sit in this stage. If you're patient, they can move from Phase 3 into Phase 4 development and advance quickly thanks to Quebec's financial, permitting and community support. Do your homework on that one. @newfoundgold @OnyxGoldCorp @argentasilverag @FuryGoldMines @ceodotca I’m only an idea generator. I don’t make buying or selling recommendations. You need to speak with your financial advisors and do your homework before making any investment decisions. The best place to do that homework is on CEO.CA and I recommend you consider the Pro Membership. I use both daily and they are crucial for me to do my homework. All the best, Allan Barry Laboucan