Deutsche Goldmesse, May 2023

The Deutsche Goldmesse is the major precious (and critical) metals and mining event in Europe. Not only is Germany the most populous and prosperous nation in the European Union, Germans have been avid precious metal and mining investors over the last century.

Kitco sent their Mining expert, Michael McCrae, to cover the Deutsche Goldmesse, organized in Germany's financial capital, Frankfurt. 

An overview of all contributions can be found in the playlist

A few examples:

Frisby gave the rationale for gold: the key argument for gold is insurance, said Dominic Frisby, author of FlyingFrisby.com. 

Frisby spoke to Kitco at Deutsche Goldmesse in Frankfurt, Germany.

"I'm a big believer in the maximum of putting five or ten percent of your net worth in gold and then hoping it doesn't go up," said Frisby, noting the metal's longevity as a store of value. "The instinct for gold is the most deep-rooted commercial instinct in the human race. In a nutshell, that is why you should own gold: because there is a permanence to it that no other substance has."

Frisby said gold does best when trust in the system is low, noting heightened culture wars and other conflicts. "Financial crises seem to get more frequent," said Frisby. "You can just feel trust in the system generally eroding."

Frisby is a fan of Bitcoin and believes investors should hold both. "There's a real generational divide between gold and Bitcoin," said Frisby. "Bitcoin has proved to be the most fantastic educational tool. It has educated people about fiat money and the nature of money."

Coverage of Deutsche Goldmesse 2023 sponsored by Defiance Silver. 

"How many banks are going to need to fail?' - Matterhorn's Matthew Piepenburg on financial contagion. This spring's spate of banking failures portends more to come, said Matthew Piepenburg, partner at Matterhorn Asset Management. Earlier this month Piepenburg spoke to Kitco at Deutsche Goldmesse in Frankfurt, Germany. 

In March Silicon Valley Bank was seized by the California Department of Financial Protection. Signature Bank also failed this spring. Piepenburg warned the sector is under stress.  

"It's just a symptom of a greater problem in the credit markets credit events," said Piepenburg. "A policy of raising rates at 100 miles per hour in a very short period of time is too much, too fast, too late."

Piepenburg said that banks were basically buying U.S government bonds at a top and "..when there was a run on the bank they had to sell at the bottom and that affected their capital." 

"When this crisis came out in March I said you ain't seen nothing yet," said Piepenburg. "There's going to be more to come and there's only so much the FDIC can insure." 

Piepenburg noted that the number of regional banks is decreasing, and the ones that are running are stressed, noted Piepenburg. 

"How many banks are going to need to fail and how much will it cost to support these depositors to avoid a contagion? This loss of faith in banking is going to have to be contained in some way.

"We'll see but I know that a lot of regional banks are going to have to raise their...checking account rates if they're going to keep deposits from going into money markets. That's going to affect their margins. If they get runs that's going to affect their viability. There's a lot of fingers pointing at these regional banks right now, and it's tragic and sad and it's not totally surprising." 

... and finally a typical mining contribution:

‘Time to staff up’ - Fireweed Metals quickens pace

With a large capital injection and more targets, Fireweed Metals CEO Brandon Macdonald is growing the company. Earlier this month Macdonald spoke to Kitco at Deutsche Goldmesse in Frankfurt, Germany. 

Fireweed Metals (CVE:FWZ) is advancing its 100% owned, district-scale, 940-square-km Macmillan Pass project in Yukon, Canada, which is host to the Tom and Jason zinc-lead-silver deposits. 

Other projects are the recently acquired Mactung Project, an undeveloped tungsten resource. Fireweed also acquired 100% of the 128.75 km2 Gayna River project located 180 kilometres north of the Macmillan Pass property. It is host to extensive mineralization including critical minerals zinc, gallium and germanium as well as lead and silver, outlined by 28,000 metres of historic drilling and significant upside potential. 

The company also raised $35 million in December. The Lundin Family and Associates became the largest shareholders in the company (17.85%) while other major shareholders maintained or increased their shareholdings.

“With the intended pace that comes along with all that, it was absolutely the right time to staff up,” said Macdonald.  In May the company hired a new operations manager. The company also added more geologists and a corporate development position. 

Fireweed Metals is a Discovery Group company. Last decade Discovery Group’s Kaminak Gold, also focused on targets in the Yukon, was acquired by Goldcorp for $520 million.