Illustration of Vancouver mining financier and environmentalist Ross Beaty. (ANTHONY JENKINS/THE GLOBE AND MAIL)

Illustration of Vancouver mining financier and environmentalist Ross Beaty.
(ANTHONY JENKINS/THE GLOBE AND MAIL)

He pays little attention to the daily trading noise, or to prophesies that the commodity supercycle is over. Even on a day when gold is nosediving, he remains bullish about the five- to 10-year prospects as long as monetary expansion and currency volatility remain rampant – and China, he feels, has come back nicely. Gold, he insists, has very good legs because “it is the only currency that is not being debased” and it is difficult and costly to bring new supply on-stream.

That said, he scoffs at doomsday predictions of precious-metal bugs who, he says, build their models on an irrational view of the world. For their scenarios to unfold, there would have to be a complete breakdown of the monetary system.

Mining man Ross Beaty: Between a rock and a green place | Globe and Mail