Ken Kusling argues mining investors can audit early-stage projects quickly with free engineering tools, especially by focusing on rock value/NSR rather than misleading metal equivalents. He shows how to detect grade smearing, test simple cash flow assumptions, and spot when study inputs are aggressive versus grounded in recent market pricing.
Watch on YouTube ›Get the market thesis, key claims, assets, contradictions, and follow-up questions from any financial video — then unlock a version personalized to your portfolio, watchlist, and favorite speakers.
This interview is a practical, engineer-driven guide to mining due diligence. The core thesis is that non-engineers can still evaluate junior mining claims by using simple formulas and a few free calculators, with the most important starting point being rock value / NSR rock value rather than flashy gold-equivalent or copper-equivalent grades. Ken Kusling repeatedly emphasizes that the point is not to build a full mine model, but to quickly answer basic questions: is the material actually valuable enough to process, is the geometry mineable, and are the economics being presented in a way that matches the underlying geology and recovery assumptions? Kusling explains that he built the tools from decades of due diligence work on early-stage projects, acquisitions, and feasibility studies. …
Near term, the actionable edge is in screening drill releases and studies for misleading interval presentation, overly rosy recoveries, and weak sensitivity discipline. The highest-risk setup is a headline-rich project whose economics only work if commodity prices stay elevated and dilution stays low.
Over the next few months, the better projects should be those whose rock values remain comfortably above cutoff grade after realistic recovery and cost assumptions. The market will likely keep rewarding credible technical de-risking, while projects that rely on aggressive assumptions should fade once sensitivity tests or follow-up drilling expose them.
Structurally, the video argues that mining value is governed by engineering reality, not promotional framing, and that eventually the market reprices projects toward that reality. For investors, the durable advantage is learning to read technical disclosures as an engineer would: geometry, recoverable metal, cost, and time to build.
Rock value / NSR rock value is the most useful first-pass screen for early-stage projects.
He explicitly says it tells him everything he needs to know at the start and recommends people learn it first.
Equivalent grades can be misleading because changing the gold price can make the equivalent grade rise even when the commodity price falls.
He uses this as the main reason he prefers NSR over equivalent metrics.
Smearing a drill interval can make a narrow high-grade vein look like a bulk-tonnage open-pit deposit.
He explains how the headline interval can hide a low-grade remainder and alter mining-method interpretation.
Which calculator is most useful for a non-technical junior mining speculator?
He says the most valuable starting point is the rock value calculator, especially in-situ rock value and recovered rock value, sometimes called NSR rock value. He recommends getting familiar with that because it quickly tells him what he needs to know about a project at an early stage.
Why should someone learn to use rock value instead of equivalents?
He says rock value is especially useful for polymetallic deposits because it shows what the rock is worth in a more intuitive way than gold or copper equivalents. He dislikes equivalents because they can behave counterintuitively and hide what is actually driving value.
What is the risk if you rely on equivalent grades instead of rock value?
He says you may miss where the value is actually coming from across multiple metals, and you may not know which metals are really driving the economics. Rock value makes it easier to see which metals matter and how price changes affect the project.
Unlock the full claims, asset map, scores, related transcripts, follow-up questions, and AI chat — shaped around your portfolio, watchlist, favorite speakers, and risks.
