Have you seen the new reality show, “Gold Rush Alaska”? There are many things that make it worthwhile watching.
For one, the show really exemplifies the “American Spirit”, which is, in most cases, the human spirit. The show follows the trials and tribulations of six men from Sandy, Oregon who have been devastated by the ongoing destruction of the US economy by its own Government and who put all their life savings into one last crapshoot. They decide to pool what is left of their savings and drive up to Alaska and try to mine for gold in the hope that they can find enough gold within a few months to make money.;)
Gold Rush Alaska – Click to Enlarge
The other reason it is of interest to us is because here at TDV we spend a lot of time researching and investing in “junior miners”. And while these guys don't even qualify to be called “junior”, it is interesting none-the-less to watch a bunch of guys with very little experience rooting around up in Alaska looking for gold.
There is “risk taking” and then there is taking “stupid risks”. This one falls under the latter. Why? Most of them have families and they literally took all their life savings and gambled it all on something in which they couldn't have a greater than 1 in 20 chance of having any sort of success whatsoever.
They had about $100,000 between them and they plan to use it all to spend the summer in Alaska digging for gold. I give them a 1 in 20 shot of finding anything – and I think that is conservative. But even if it was a 1 in 5 shot it'd still be far too much risk. They'd be better off just going to a blackjack table and putting it all on one hand of blackjack where they have nearly a 1 in 2 chance of winning.
They may say that it is worth the risk because the potential reward could be much more than a 100% gain on their money. But even if the expected return is $2 million (20 times their money) they'd still be better off putting their $100,000 on a roulette table and saving themselves the risk of being eaten by bears or getting “beaver fever“.
In fact, they would have been much better off just buying a $25/month subscription to The Dollar Vigilante! An investment of $100,000 into the TDV Portfolio of stocks would have return an annualized return of $51,500 (51.5%) last year. Many of our holdings were up over 70%.
And considering that many of our junior gold stocks, including one we just featured in our January issue of TDV, which came out yesterday, has “20 bagger” potential, according to our Senior Analyst, Ed Bugos, that means that they could even hit the jackpot they say they are looking for – all without leaving the comfy confines of their couch.
Considering that the company we featured in the January issue of TDV has numerous world class geologists and mining management with decades of success in the industry, this ragtag crew of wanna-be miners would be much better off investing their $100,000 into this one mining company who already has discovered nearly one million ounces of gold and who look like they have the definite potential to find upwards of 5 million ounces.
The most interesting of the characters on the show is 65 year old Jack Hoffman who is the only one with any mining experience. He spent time in Alaska 25 years ago is now “living out his dream” by returning to Alaska to search for gold. His mantra is, “No guts, No glory”. There is no question he has a lot of guts but his chance of glory is pretty small.
He better hope the royalties they receive from the television show tides them over because this is one mining speculation we don't hold out much hope for!
The same can't be said for many of the world's best junior gold mining speculations which we feature to Premium Subscriber's each month. Don't waste your time going up to Alaska, Subscribe today!
