Why Following Eric Sprott Blindly Is Now Costing Investors Money
NIA has a long-standing view that many investors today are largely uneducated when it comes to researching natural-resource stocks. Instead of doing independent work, they often default to buying whatever Eric Sprott is invested in, assuming that endorsement alone is sufficient. While Sprott’s involvement is certainly a positive signal, this reflexive behavior has increasingly led to valuation distortions, where capital chases name recognition rather than underlying asset quality.
There are notable exceptions. Companies such as Highlander Silver (TSX: HSLV) and Heliostar Metals (TSXV: HSTR) remain deeply undervalued despite Sprott involvement. However, a growing number of Sprott-backed companies now trade at undeserving premiums relative to comparable… or in some cases clearly superior… companies in which he is not invested.
For investors who actually do their own research, the smarter strategy may be the opposite of the crowd: identify the highest-quality silver company that Eric Sprott is not personally invested in, where expectations remain muted and upside potential is therefore far greater.
Minaurum Silver gained 6.82% yesterday, reaching a new 52-week high of $0.47 per share, yet it still trades 44.71% below its August 2020 all-time high of $0.85. Just three weeks ago, the company set out to raise $10 million to fund a planned 25,000-meter silver resource-expansion drilling program for 2026. Investor demand was so strong that Minaurum instead raised $25 million… 2.5× the original target… allowing the company to double the planned 2026 drill program to 50,000 meters.
While Sprott Asset Management holds a position in MGG, there is no indication that Eric Sprott himself has made a personal investment. That absence may be precisely what makes this opportunity so compelling.
Until this week, the company operated under the name Minaurum Gold, making it easy for silver-focused investors, algorithms, and screeners to overlook entirely. The recent name change to Minaurum Silver removes that visibility barrier… but the underlying asset quality has been there all along.
To Eric Sprott’s credit, he is a humble, down-to-earth investor who has openly acknowledged that he is not a mining or geology expert, but rather a capital allocator who relies on others for technical judgment. For that reason, we place far greater weight on the judgment of Minaurum Silver’s original financial backer, J. David Lowell, who is widely regarded as the greatest mine finder of all time.
Lowell funded Minaurum through Lowell Copper, the primary operating subsidiary of Solaris Resources (TSX: SLS), a company with a market capitalization approaching $2 billion. But Lowell was not just a successful explorer… he fundamentally changed how the world finds copper. As co-creator of the Lowell–Guilbert porphyry copper alteration zoning model, his work still underpins modern exploration programs globally. Lowell discovered La Escondida in Chile… the world’s largest copper mine… after five previous groups walked away, and later built Arequipa Resources into a $1.1 billion sale to Barrick Gold.
When Lowell backed a project or a team, it reflected discovery-level conviction… not narrative, not capital flow, but geology proven right before the market understood it.
Lowell’s backing reflected confidence not only in Minaurum’s geology, but in its founding technical team, led by David M. Jones and Dr. Peter K.M. Megaw.
Jones and Megaw are responsible for two of the most important mineral discoveries in Mexico’s modern mining era. Los Filos (1995) was a blind, district-defining gold discovery that catalyzed the emergence of the Guerrero Gold Belt as a world-class gold province. Juanicipio (2003) became the world’s largest primary silver producer and proved that even mining districts with centuries of history… such as Fresnillo… can still host exceptional, undiscovered deposits at depth.
That depth of technical pedigree has only strengthened recently. Minaurum has added Ruben Molina to its technical team, formerly of SilverCrest Metals, where he played a key role in advancing the Las Chispas silver-gold deposit from discovery through development. During Molina’s tenure at SilverCrest, the company evolved from an early-stage explorer into one of the highest-quality silver developers in the world, with its share price appreciating by 10,000%+ from cycle lows as Las Chispas was derisked and built.
That process culminated in Coeur Mining acquiring SilverCrest in February 2025 for approximately US$1.7 billion, at a time when silver was trading near $32/oz. With silver now trading near $71/oz, the implied value of Las Chispas today would almost certainly be materially higher… arguably in the US$4–5 billion range under current metal-price conditions.
What makes Molina’s addition particularly relevant is that Minaurum’s Alamos Silver Project is arguably the closest undeveloped analog to Las Chispas today: a high-grade, district-scale epithermal silver system in Mexico, owned 100% by the company, fully permitted, and now backed by a technical team that has already taken a comparable asset all the way through to a multi-billion-dollar acquisition.
Yet despite this convergence of elite geology, proven discovery track records, and now late-cycle operational experience, Minaurum Silver’s current market capitalization at $0.47 per share of approximately US$174.3 million, even after incorporating the shares issued in its recent financing… remains a fraction of what comparable assets have ultimately commanded.
Importantly, that financing leaves Minaurum fully funded for its expanded 2026 drill program of 50,000 meters, removing capital risk at precisely the stage where value creation historically accelerates.
Ultimately, Minaurum Silver represents the type of opportunity that rarely exists in today’s silver market: a company backed not by hype or momentum, but by elite discovery judgment, proven mine-building experience, and a fully funded path toward rapid value creation.
While much of the sector trades on association and name recognition, Minaurum stands out as a case where the right people identified the right geology long before the market noticed.
As the company enters a decisive 2026 drilling phase with 50,000 meters planned, expectations remain strikingly low relative to the caliber of the team and the quality of the asset. History suggests that when this combination aligns, revaluations tend to be swift—and unforgiving to those who waited for consensus to form.
