Title: Rick Rule Reveals the Uranium Stocks He Owns! Show: THE EARLY STAGE INVESTOR (YouTube channel; host "Elliot") Guest: Rick Rule (clips from earlier interviews, interleaved with the channel host's narration) Date: 2026-02-13 URL: https://youtu.be/zG82-Ct6dLY Length: 13:30 Note: Clip compilation - Rick Rule's own words are the quoted interview clips (00:00-00:20 teaser, 00:40-01:20, 01:35-02:50, 07:19-08:25); everything else (balance-sheet walk-throughs, charts, "dollar cost average on red days", price-upside math) is the channel host's narration, NOT Rick Rule. Fillers (uh) removed; wording otherwise verbatim.
00:00 Out of 120 uranium juniors worldwide, there's probably only six or seven that have enough uranium to bother with. It's difficult if you like a sector not to own the best deposit [music] in the sector, and that is the best deposit in the sector. I own it because the deposit is that good. This is Elliot from the early stage investor.
00:20 In this video, we're going to dive into two of Rick Rule's favorite uranium miners. First, let's hear his philosophy on investing in uranium junior miners. He does not pick them lightly. So, this is how he thinks about investing in these juniors, then we'll go into the actual names. The movement of the market for physical uranium from a spot market where prices are indeterminate to a term market is hugely beneficial for the juniors.
00:47 There's no other mineral resource commodity in the world where a junior can lock in price and terms for the commodity over 10 years. And that means that they can get bank financing, which they couldn't have gotten 5 years ago. The difficulty with that thesis is that out of 120 uranium juniors worldwide, there's probably only six or seven that have enough uranium to bother with.
01:07 So, you have to be very careful about the wrapper that you express your preference for the juniors in. If you come into a junior and they spend their whole presentation talking to you about the uranium market, time to leave. >> Okay, so you have to be very, very careful when looking at these uranium miners.
01:25 He's saying only six or so are even worth investing in. That's how selective he is. So, in this video, we're going to talk about two of the miners that he is actually bullish on. Well, both NextGen, brilliant assets, but can you digest their DNA? Their DNA is high, and some of it misspent. I'm not really certain what benefit shareholders get from sponsoring Vancouver Canucks hockey or Formula 1 racing.
01:55 I own it despite those protests because it's the best undeveloped uranium deposit in the world. The company is doing an admirable job of de-risking it. Albeit, there are real problems in their relationship with the Mandi. It's difficult if you like a sector not to own the best deposit in the sector.
02:15 And that is the best deposit in the sector. There have been management missteps. It's pretty obvious in retrospect that selling that high-priced convert to buy pounds was a mistake. The optics were bad, too, where the management team sold the convert with ineffective voting rights on the conversion. So, the optics around that were very bad.
02:40 Having said all that, I own it because the deposit is that good. >> So, the best undeveloped uranium deposit on the planet, meaning the most valuable undeveloped uranium deposit on the planet, NextGen owns it. Here's the chart of NextGen. So, it has pumped. It's retracing a little bit. So, the way to buy an asset like this, if you're interested, is to dollar cost average slowly and only on red days.
03:03 So, the way to buy into potentially the most valuable resource on the planet when it comes to uranium is to dollar cost average slowly, right? That way you want it to fall. Let's figure out whether or not there's just enormous upside, if it's worth dollar cost averaging into an asset like this. So, NextGen is advancing the world's highest-grade, large-scale uranium project globally through its 100% owned Rook 1 project.
03:27 That's what it's all about. Rook 1 project in the Athabasca Basin of Canada. It's a world-class project, conventional hard-rock mining with ultra-high grades delivering up to 30 million pounds annually with expansion potential and robust after-tax cash flow. This is where it gets ridiculously exciting to be a uranium investor.
03:47 Look at 2040. In dark blue, we see uranium requirements, the demand. In green, we see the supply, the available supply. Massive, massive gap. That is why you want to own potentially the most valuable uranium resource on the planet in a good jurisdiction like Canada. Absolutely enormously massive for this trade, right? So yes, we want to dollar cost average slowly.
04:12 The upside could be enormous for patient investors. So here's a look at their deposit. To the left, you see the CN Tower for scale, just an enormous skyscraper. And then the image shows how deep and big and massive their stack of underground uranium is, and then they have room for expansion, right? Deposit remains open in all directions. Here are the numbers.
04:37 Economics based on probable reserves of 239 million pounds, total measured and indicated resources of 256 million pounds. So that's at $100 per pound, that's 25 billion dollars worth of uranium. We're talking about a multi-decade supply crunch. So really, it doesn't get more exciting than that. So just a phenomenal story, but you still have to be careful when investing in assets with phenomenal stories, because the financial situation could be murky.
05:07 So let's dive into their balance sheet. How much capital do they have? Are they drowning in debt, or do they have plenty of liquidity? Because if they have zero liquidity, then they're going to have to get financing. Either they're going to have to take on a massive amount of debt, which could hurt shareholders later on if they can't repay it, or they have to issue a lot of shares, right? So it does matter.
05:23 So this is their most recent balance sheet. We have total assets of 1.566 billion dollars. We have total liabilities of 647 million dollars. So on the surface, it looks very good. They have way more assets than liabilities. But if you look at current assets, these are the assets that they can actually liquidate and spend within a year.
05:44 And then current liabilities, these are the assets they have to pay within a year. It looks like they're going to have to go to the market and raise some capital. Right, this is as of September 30, 2025, the situation could have totally changed, but that is in the short term not ideal. Looks like they're underwater by a few hundred million dollars.
06:02 So, that's probably why Rick Rule is saying he's not a fan of how it's been managed, but if you want to access to eventually, potentially a hundred billion dollars of the uranium they have in the ground, you're willing to ride out some short-term smaller share dilution or capital raises, right? So, that's one of the risks associated with this asset.
06:21 They have so much capital in their stock price that they can easily issue equity and pay for this and pay for anything else they need in the short term. But, it looks like they're going to have to they're going to need some money to really get this asset producing. It's going to take a lot of time, but for now they're just sitting on it, letting it get more and more valuable. But, yeah.
06:40 Huge capital raises needed in the future. Potential dilution. Not ideal, but still, when you have the best uranium mine on the planet, what happens is the big players like Cameco circle. So, the second your stock dips, some of the bigger players might want to just stack shares and take it over.
07:00 So, this asset probably does have a pretty high floor. It's going to take time for them to get it out of the ground, but the longer it takes, the more valuable the uranium becomes because the more extended the uranium supply crunch becomes. That is NextGen. That is one of Rick Rule's favorite assets. Here's the other.
07:19 What attracts me to Paladin is the whole development pipeline in Paladin. And the fact that Paladin will be, I think, a prime beneficiary of the market's move to term contracts. Their ability to finance these mines into production with certainty around the ability of Paladin to sell specified amounts of pounds at specified prices over time.
07:45 I suspect that Paladin will enjoy as a consequence of these contracts cost of capital that are 350 or 400 or 450 basis points lower than would be faced by a gold developer or a copper developer or a coal developer. The fact that you can lock in production volumes and prices for a 20-year or 30-year term is a factor that the entire market is overlooking around uranium.
08:15 And it's probably the critical structural change in that market. And Paladin is prime beneficiary. >> So he's bullish on Paladin because it's another massive mine. So that's the theme. He likes high-quality big assets. So Paladin, NextGen. So let's dive into Paladin. Market cap 5.7 or so billion dollars. Not huge numbers. Right? Meaning there's potentially more upside if uranium's in the multi-decade supply crunch and can absolutely skyrocket.
08:47 Let's take a look at its financials, its balance sheet. Total assets 1.1 billion dollars. Total liabilities 300 million dollars. Pristine, beautiful balance sheet. Current assets 263 million dollars. Current liabilities 100 million. So this balance sheet is more pristine than NextGen's. So that's kind of what Rick Rule was getting at.
09:10 He owns NextGen because of its ridiculously high-quality mine, but he's not a fan of necessarily their financials. Well, Paladin has just It's just a ridiculously high-quality company at this point. I mean, this is what gets me excited. This is the chart of Paladin. It has not reached hyper-speculative mania bubble levels. It's forming a basing pattern.
09:30 This one excites me a little more than NextGen cuz it has not run quite yet. Could it easily go up 25% from here? Absolutely. Let's look at the fundamentals of this asset. Well, here's what's going on currently. Langer Heinrich Mine ramp up the full mining and operations underway. 2.
09:47 3 million pounds produced in the first half of fiscal year 2026. Full year 2026 production expected to trend towards the upper end of guidance, 4 million pounds in 1 year. So, they're getting that ramped up at potentially a good time to cash flow. Growth via Patterson Lake South project. High-grade conventional near surface project located in the premier Athabasca Basin.
10:08 So, those are their two huge assets. Balance sheet flexibility enhanced balance sheet following completion of equity raising. Okay, so they raised equity to finance probably their acquisition of Vision, which was a phenomenal asset near NextGen's asset in the Athabasca Basin. So, they raised equity, printed some shares, that's probably why the stock hasn't skyrocketed yet.
10:29 Enhanced balance sheet following the completion of share equity raising provides capital to progress development of the Patterson Lake South project. It continues to progress and ramp up the Langer Heinrich Mine. $280 million in cash and investments as of December 31, 2025. So, they're ready to go, right? Patterson Lake project is here, Langer Heinrich Mine is here. Namibia and Canada.
10:51 The Langer Heinrich Mine average cost to produce $40 per pound. These mining companies that have weathered the uranium winter are going to cash flow insane amounts and just make huge profits, right? It costs $40 per pound at this massive mine to get uranium out of the ground. They can sell it for $100 plus.
11:12 That is huge profits. They're very well positioned for a multi-decade supply crunch in uranium. This mine has a massive amount, 77.5 million pounds. So, 15% of that seems contracted out. 85% is market related prices or uncontracted. So, they get to benefit from just huge upside in the price of uranium.
11:32 That's one insane project, right? $100 * 77 million is 7.7 billion dollars worth of uranium. Patterson Lake South project, 9 million pounds per year average annual production target over a 10-year mine life. So, this is another massive deposit. 93.7 million pounds of uranium of probable mineral reserve. Initial mine life 10 years.
11:56 It's going to take them 3 years to construct it. Again, personally, that's what I want to see. If we're in a If we have a multi-decade supply crunch ahead, I don't necessarily want to see people digging up all the uranium quickly, dumping it on the market for whatever quick profits they can make when they can wait 10 years and get paid maybe double.
12:12 The spot price of uranium could be $200 per pound. So, it's kind of better to push your revenues out to where your profit margins could be huge. Way bigger than they are now, right? We want these mines to be cash-flowing. It's so difficult to become a producing mine. This mine Paladin has a incredible chance of that.
12:31 They believe that this mine is going to have a payback of 2.4 years. So, within 2.4 years, they're going to get paid back for all the costs associated with mining it. And then they're going to have 8 years of just huge cash flow. Operating cash cost $11 per pound. All-in sustaining cost $15 per pound. Ridiculously inexpensive asset.
12:51 This is right next to NextGen's asset. So, the cost to produce up in the Athabasca region is insanely low. That's why these mines are so valuable. So, bottom line, Paladin's a cash cow. NextGen could become a cash cow. And these are just ridiculously high-quality assets. They're two of Rick Rule's favorite assets. Again, he doesn't buy smaller-cap uranium miners lightly.
13:16 But, these two he is bullish on. Thank you for following. If you want me to dive in any other assets, reach out. The goal is to cover as many early-stage assets that can provide life-changing returns is possible on this channel.