TGR: Would you recommend that individual investors invest in gold, which is currently about $900?

RM: Yes, I believe that by the end of 2010, we’ll be seeing $2,000 gold, and before the gold cycle is out, it will go up and touch $5,000, and that will be the end of the mania phase.

I don’t believe that we’re out of the woods on the financial problems, and the economy has quite a bit to shake off before it will start to look good. And there will be more people looking for answers where to put their money so they can protect it. Gold will start shining.

The annual production of gold expands the world supply by about 1% a year, whereas the money supply has been expanding at better than 8% a year around the world, so gold is in short supply. And as we talked about at the beginning, the cost of producing an ounce of gold is going up, and it’s going up rapidly while annual production is going down. It’s harder to find gold; it’s more expensive to produce gold; and it takes longer to build new mines, yet more people want to buy it.

TGR: Are there some gold companies that you are interested in that may see some of this bounce at the end of the summer?

RM: I have conflicts as I have large investments in a number of companies. One that’s good is Minera Andes Inc. They have what appears to be a very large copper discovery in northern Argentina. I like that. It’s like many others down there, but it also has production, although it hasn’t seen any cash flow from its partner yet. Production should be effectively doubled by the second quarter of next year.

TGR: How about some of the other companies you have in McEwen Capital? Can you make any comments on those?

RM: I like Rubicon Minerals Corp., which has recently reported some very interesting high grade gold results. They are the second largest landowner in the world’s richest gold district, Red Lake, Ontario, Canada. As you know, this area is my favorite spot because this is where we discovered a fabulous gold deposit that powered Goldcorp's growth and produced fantastic returns for our shareholders. Goldcorp's recent $1.5 billion takeover bid for Rubicon’s neighbor, Gold Eagle Mines, dramatically highlights the big potential of the area. Rubicon appears to be at the early stage of making an important new discovery in Red Lake. It has a strong treasury in addition to large land holdings around a new mine and a exciting new gold discovery in Alaska and Nevada, respectively.

TGR: Can you make any comment about Freegold Ventures?

RM: Some very good explorers with good experienced management. They market it well. They’ve got some interesting projects up in Alaska — one project I bid on myself, trying to joint-venture it. It had some very high-grade assay results, which they’re going to be drilling this summer. And they have two other properties they’re putting into production as well. It’s a good team, and they have the investor very much at heart.

Unfortunately, our government has put so many restrictions in place that from the time you say you have enough mineral resource or reserves to justify a mine, you’re three to five years away from generating any revenue. You have to permit it, build it, and start getting a cash flow.

I’ve met a number of Chinese mining people, and they say, “What’s wrong with you people? When we find a deposit, we put into production within a year.” That’s the competition. We have introduced our too much regulation and at the very time when a lot of our manufacturing jobs have gone off shore. Natural resources are going to be one of the sectors that keeps North America afloat. We need to abbreviate the regulatory and permitting process. The government needs to make it easier to get business done while maintaining all the safeguards for protecting the natural ecosystem.

TGR: Well said. Of course, we have to ask about your own company, U.S. Gold.

RM: We’re exploring in Nevada and Mexico; we have a couple of projects there, with two or three resource estimates coming out this quarter. We have 1.7 million ounces in Nevada in the Cortez Trend, which is right next door to Barrick’s Cortez Mine, which Barrick has stated is one of its most exciting exploration projects. This deposit has in excess of 35 million ounces of gold and it is next door. So, our drill program is to see if we can find something that looks like the next Cortez Hills deposit.

In Mexico we have about a million acres spread across three states. We have focused our drilling on the site of a historic mine where there is currently a little over a half million ounces outlined on that property by our 43-101 report, which is the Canadian standard and according to the SEC we call it mineralized material. We have another resource estimate coming out this quarter on nearby property on which are quite encouraged by what we’ve been finding.

TGR: Great. Rob, thanks for your time. We really appreciate it.

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