TGR: So what would a careful investor look for?

Peter Spina: When investing in junior exploration gold and/or silver stocks, I first look at the management, look at their history. A company comprised of solely financial backgrounds who have no mining experience should be an obvious red flag. Junior explorers typically have to go to the capital markets to raise equity to explore and develop a project, so company with a bloated share structure to start off with will have a difficult time building a strong share price as it develops these assets. So in the junior exploration stocks, share structure also is very key.

With any of these small capitalization companies, it is typically about raising money in the public markets. So has the company been capable of obtaining a proper value of their assets for their shareholders? So ask yourself some questions: Are they communicating with the public? It's a publicly traded company; are they telling their story to the public? That's very important factor to attract investors and to preserve a small capitalization's primary key advantage which is share structure

And then, of course, the property. You want to look at various criteria in that respect including geography. I prefer locations in Mexico, Canada and Nevada for mining companies. Grades, environmental location, etc. are all very key investment decision makers.

Also look at the business model. Does the company provide any cash flow or is it expecting any near-term cash flow perhaps because it's close to production? You don't want to get into another situation like last year where your business model is entirely dependent on raising capital in the equity markets and the capital markets fall apart. However, that seems to be less of a threat if the Gold Price continues to rally and new capital sources, interest in the gold sector continues to grow. That would keep investment capital flowing into the sector at an accelerated pace

Those are several of the criteria that I look at. All things considered, you have to be very careful. The best thing an investor can do is to just do your research. Call up the company and speak with them and really get a feel for who's managing the company. Public filings provide excellent insights into the financial condition and management discussions. The resources available online add other easily accessible data and information.

TGR: It was in the mid-'90s – 1995 to be precise – that you founded GoldSeek.com. What did you see then, when everyone else was looking at the high-tech bubble?

Peter Spina: At that time, interest in the gold market related to the imbalance of supply and demand. A declining supply was coming from the major gold-producing countries, specifically South Africa, and demand was well above the supply. Investors perceived the imbalance as a market opportunity. But unfortunately it was too early. Central-bank selling closed a big part of the gap along with gold producer forward selling.

The Gold market bottomed out in the late '90s-early 2000. At that time it was about that opportunity to buy low. Today it's different. It's the interest in gold market and gold itself as money that led us to the point we are today. Gold is now finally becoming more and more recognized for historical attribute as money.

TGR: GoldSeek.com is still going strong, and more recently, you've also co-founded GoldForecaster.com. Could you tell us a bit about major trends you're recommending there?

Peter Spina: GoldForecaster.com follows the gold markets from a global perspective on a weekly basis. Right now, we're of the view that any pullbacks are excellent opportunities for Buying Gold.

It looks as if the sub-$1,000 gold phase may be coming to a close, so we're looking for gold to move up to a much higher range and, in the process, take these mining companies to much higher values. So we see a lot of opportunity in all parts of the Gold Mining stock sector. As the price gets higher and the bullishness and excitement grow, the smaller caps and the juniors will start getting a lot more interest, too.

TGR: Are we in the mania stage yet?

Peter Spina: No, not at all. I believe we're entering the next phase of this global market, which will bring it more into the mainstream. Right now the average investor still doesn't own gold. They're starting to know what's going on. They know gold is getting to a record price but not exactly fully understand why. The big institutions, the big buyers are just starting to get coming in, but it's still not a mainstream investment yet. That still may take years – not just months – to develop. The mania stage is still quite a way off.

TGR: Thank you, Peter. Any parting thoughts that you want to give to our readers?

Peter Spina: I believe the key here in the gold market is what Gold represents, what it has been and that's honest money and as we see this bull market develop, the reason for it is going to be from investment demand. It's going to from people looking for stable, honest money and with declining trust and confidence in paper currencies and as they continue to devalue, gold will become one of the choices for investors to preserve wealth.

I think we'll see some extreme volatility continuing on forward. We saw some examples of that last year and mining stocks will just amplify that. So you have to recognize that there will be some extreme wild swings in this market. Taking profits on the way up and diversifying those profits, I think, is always a great idea. Personally I am more overweight in the mining stocks. My strategy at this time would be to wait for the next significant rally and then start monetizing those profits into physical gold and silver.

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