In short: Asked whether he still likes a previous top idea that has run hard: "yes is the answer. I haven't sold a share despite the fact I've done very well on that." The reason is four decades of the same family — "Ned Goodman was a mentor of mine in my 20s and so I'm attracted to all things Goodman, including his son Jonathan and now his grandson… I know and love and trust the Goodman family." What the business is good at: "making large capital investments in companies that are making the transition from advanced exploration to production and providing what I would describe as adult supervision, much like the Lundins do with International Petroleum" — he was a partner in the grooming of Reunion Gold until its sale to G Mining, and in the G Mining venture itself. The reservation is unambiguous and repeated twice: the company "appears to be wanting to make a pivot from being merchant bankers to being active miners… I reserve my comment on that until I see how they proposed to effect that strategy," and "they're more useful to me as a merchant bank." He grants the precedent (International Corona, sold to Homestake, spun out Dundee, which formed Dundee Precious Metals) while refusing to extrapolate from it: "they've done it successfully before. I've made money with them before, but every circumstance is different… if they show me that they can make me more money as a miner, God bless."
Dundee is a merchant bank for the mining industry. Rather than digging anything itself, it puts large amounts of capital into junior companies at the hardest moment in their life — the jump from "we have found something" to "we are producing" — and then supplies what Rule calls "adult supervision": experienced people who make sure the money is spent properly. He compares the role directly to what the Lundin family does at International Petroleum.
His attachment runs four decades and three generations. Ned Goodman mentored him in his twenties; Ned's son Jonathan now runs the company; the grandson is there too. He has partnered with them on real outcomes, including grooming Reunion Gold before its sale to G Mining. He has done very well on the stock and has not sold a share.
The interesting part is where he stops. Dundee appears to want to become an actual mining operator rather than a financier. Rule has seen the family do exactly that once before — International Corona was built, sold to Homestake, and its proceeds spun into Dundee, which then created Dundee Precious Metals — so he grants that it is possible. He simply refuses to underwrite it in advance: "I reserve my comment on that until I see how they proposed to effect that strategy," and the sentence he repeats twice is "they're more useful to me as a merchant bank." Financing companies and operating mines are different businesses with different skills, and a good track record at one is not evidence about the other. He stays in the stock, watching. "If they show me that they can make me more money as a miner, God bless."
40:55I haven't sold a share despite the fact I've done very well on that. I've done business with the Goodman family for my entire adult life. The originator of Dundee, Ned Goodman, was a mentor of mine in my 20s and so I'm attracted to all things Goodman including his son Jonathan and now his grandson who are in Dundee.
In short: His example of a financier who "sticks to his knitting" — Jonathan Goodman (son of mentor Ned Goodman) assembles a financial + technical team to merchant-bank juniors. Dundee's behind-the-scenes backing turned Reunion Gold from a 250k-oz explorer into a 10M-oz deposit that was sold — "the kind of financier I want to invest alongside."
Dundee is a Canadian holding company run by Jonathan Goodman that acts as a "merchant bank" for junior miners — it doesn't dig mines itself; it puts money and expertise behind small exploration companies and supports them through the lean years. Rick admires it as the opposite of empire-building: Goodman "sticks to his knitting," backing teams he knows rather than chasing every trend.
His proof point is Reunion Gold: Dundee's quiet backing helped grow it from a 250,000-ounce prospect in Guyana into a 10-million-ounce deposit that was sold at a big profit. For Rick the appeal is being able to invest alongside a financier he trusts to hold the line in a down market — the kind of "backbone" a fragile junior needs to survive to the payoff.
4:15— What about on the finance side? Is there anyone that's done any deals in the past that you think, okay, this is different, this is someone who's changing the game here? — I don't know about changing the game. I look to the other side, somebody who sticks to their knitting. Here at the conference, Jonathan — Dundee. Jonathan Goodman. — Goodman. — Who learned at the hands of his father Ned Goodman, who was an early mentor of mine. Jonathan Goodman has figured out that his role is to assemble a financial and technical team to merchant bank, to back other companies. The job that they did with Reunion — taking Reunion from a 250,000 ounce resource explorer in the middle of the Guyanese jungle to a 10 million ounce deposit which they sold.
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Verbatim excerpts from the public transcripts (auto-pulled at each mention's timestamp, lightly cleaned). Timestamps link into the video; "source page" opens that commentator's full analysis at this row. Click a mention's header line to expand it (one open at a time). For personal study — not investment advice.