Podcasts about PGM

In S7E11 I sit down with Carl Hayden Smith and Pascal Michael to discuss technomagic, the PGM, UAP phenomena, out of body experiences, hyperhumanism and much more.Carl:https://www.themoc.org/https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Carl-Hayden-SmithPascal:https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Pascal-MichaelSUBSCRIBE to the ARCANVM Newsletter:⁠⁠https://ikebaker.com/newsletter⁠⁠For all things Ike be sure to visit/message him at: ⁠⁠https://ikebaker.com⁠⁠SUPPORT ARCANVM for $5/MONTH: https://patreon.com/arcanvm ⁠ FOLLOW on Facebook: ⁠https://facebook.com/arcanvvm ⁠ FOLLOW on Instagram: @a.r.c.a.n.v.m

Brethren, this Short Talk Bulletin Podcast episode was written by MW Bro Jeffrey Williamson, PGM – NY, and is brought to us by VW Bro David Koncz, PM – United #8 ME. We find ourselves at the start of a new year, and with that come new officers and new responsibilities. Some brothers serve their Lodges by accepting the next chair and traveling through the line. But does this engender leadership of our Craft? Or does it just lead to more continuing? Enjoy, and do share this and all of these Podcast episodes with your brothers and your Lodge, and especially with all new officers.

Please Support “Unshackled” at PGM.org.

Please Support “Unshackled” at PGM.org

Recording date: 23rd December 2025Olive Resource Capital executives are positioning against consensus views heading into 2026, predicting commodity strength driven by unprecedented fiscal stimulus rather than the widely anticipated recession that has dominated economic forecasts for three consecutive years.Sam Pelaez, President, CEO, and CIO, identified oil as his top commodity performer despite—or rather because of—overwhelming bearish sentiment. With Atlanta Fed GDP tracking above 3%, Federal Reserve liquidity injection, and Chinese expansionary fiscal policy, Pelaez argues the global economy will surprise to the upside. He characterised oil as "the most hated commodity" trading in oversold conditions, positioning it for recovery as excessive negative positioning unwinds against improving fundamental backdrop.Executive Chairman Derek Macpherson selected platinum as his best performer, citing structural market deficits and anticipated regulatory shifts. The critical catalyst involves potential rollback of electric vehicle mandates eliminating internal combustion engines by 2030-2035. Such policy reversals would extend ICE production timelines, directly supporting platinum demand through catalytic converter applications in a tight, supply-constrained market.In their most controversial prediction, both executives identified silver as likely to disappoint relative to extremely bullish expectations. Pelaez noted that 25-year volume-weighted data suggests silver has already corrected to average levels, with the biggest move occurring over the past eight weeks. He anticipates commodity leadership rotating from precious metals to industrial commodities as economic growth accelerates, reducing speculative interest in silver despite positive underlying fundamentals.The executives' no-recession call underpins their constructive commodity stance. Macpherson emphasized unprecedented government deficit spending globally—China's trillion-dollar stimulus, aggressive US spending, European defense funding—combined with Federal Reserve rate cuts creates liquidity-driven conditions favouring commodity performance. He stated this liquidity flow makes recession unlikely despite three years of predictions, instead creating stagflation environment supporting material demand.Specific equity opportunities include Ivanhoe Mines as top portfolio performer, offering exposure to one of the world's five largest copper mines with smelter entering commercial production this quarter, plus PGM phase one commissioning and premier zinc deposit. Pelaez highlighted severe scarcity of investable copper opportunities enhancing Ivanhoe's positioning.Merger and acquisition targets identified include Arizona Sonora in copper, where Rio and Hudbay involvement creates competitive tension and neighbour Ivanhoe Electric requires the asset for project viability. In gold, Aurion Resources adjacent to Rupert Resources in Finland faces increasing opportunity cost of inaction after 24 months without transaction. CANEX Metals pursuing hostile merger with Gold Basin neighbour represents classic merger arbitrage opportunity with potential dollar valuation from current 15-16 cent levels.Contrarian dark horse positions suggested in deeply depressed nickel and lithium markets, where extreme bearish sentiment and technical oversold conditions may create rebound opportunities despite uncertain fundamental timing.Geopolitical wild card involves potential Ukraine peace resolution, which executives believe would trigger reconstruction-driven commodity demand surge rather than market weakness from returning Russian supply. They note Russian oil already trades globally at discounts, suggesting peace could actually tighten markets as Russia reprices exports.The Olive Capital framework prioritises positioning against sentiment extremes—buying oversold energy whilst tempering precious metals expectations—rather than confident directional forecasts, explicitly acknowledging uncertainty whilst providing actionable investment thesis for navigating 2026 commodity markets.Learn more: https://cruxinvestor.comSign up for Crux Investor: https://cruxinvestor.com

Recording date: 17th December 2025Olive Resource Capital's leadership team has delivered a nuanced precious metals outlook for 2026 that challenges conventional wisdom whilst identifying specific opportunities backed by fundamental analysis. In this latest Compass podcast, President and CEO Sam Pelaez alongside Executive Chairman Derek Macpherson presented a framework emphasizing selectivity over broad-based precious metals enthusiasm.The firm's highest-conviction call centres on platinum, which Macpherson identified as his top commodity pick for 2026. The case rests on three pillars: persistent market deficits, tight physical supply, and anticipated policy shifts. "The market's in deficit. It's a small market and it's tight," Macpherson explained, before highlighting a critical catalyst: "I think we're going to see some of these EV mandates are going to get rolled off. More ICE engines by 2030 or 2035 are going to evaporate." This reassessment of aggressive electric vehicle timelines supports continued internal combustion engine production, sustaining autocatalyst demand for platinum and palladium. Olive maintains significant positioning in the PGM complex to capture this opportunity.The macroeconomic foundation underpinning precious metals remains robust despite consensus recession fears. Pelaez articulated the firm's contrarian economic view: "I think the global economy surprises to the upside. The general consensus is bearish. The GDP now for the Atlanta Fed is over 3%. The Treasury and the Fed are injecting liquidity right now. China is on an expansionary fiscal policy." Macpherson reinforced this perspective, noting unprecedented global deficit spending: "China's got a trillion dollars worth of stimulus, the US is spending money like it's going out of style. The Europeans all went into deficit spending to fund their defense efforts."This liquidity-driven environment creates favourable conditions for hard assets, though Olive's leadership expects commodity market leadership to potentially rotate from precious towards industrial metals. Gold maintains its portfolio role despite moderated return expectations following 2025's exceptional 60% advance, with Pelaez noting that reduced speculation in precious metals need not preclude continued gold strength supported by central bank buying and monetary accommodation.Perhaps most controversially, both executives expect silver to disappoint investors in 2026 despite positive fundamentals. Pelaez explained: "Every person on the planet seems to be uber-ultra-mega bullish silver. I'm not saying I think silver is going to go down necessarily, but it's going to be the most disappointing because the expectations for it are so high." Technical analysis suggests silver "has already corrected up to the average" based on 25 years of volume-weighted data against gold, with "the biggest move in silver" having "already occurred literally over the past eight weeks."Macpherson acknowledged tactical opportunities, expecting a "blowoff top in silver at a higher price than where we are right now," but anticipates year-end underperformance following silver's characteristic pattern of spiking then rolling off. Olive maintains silver exposure to capture near-term momentum whilst preparing to reduce positions.The firm's strategy emphasises diversified mining equities as preferred investment vehicles, highlighting Ivanhoe Mines with its PGM production "coming online at a perfect time when the market is moving higher." This approach provides leveraged precious metals exposure whilst managing single-commodity risk through companies with multiple revenue streams and operational catalysts.Learn more: https://cruxinvestor.comSign up for Crux Investor: https://cruxinvestor.com

Allen, Joel, Rosemary, and Yolanda discuss the ongoing federal halt on US offshore wind projects and mounting lawsuits from Equinor, Ørsted, and Dominion Energy. Plus Japan’s Goto floating wind farm begins commercial operation with eight Hitachi turbines on hybrid SPAR-type foundations, and Finnish investigators seize a vessel suspected of severing Baltic Sea cables. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly newsletter on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast brought to you by Strike Tape, protecting thousands of wind turbines from lightning damage worldwide. Visit striketape.com. And now your hosts, Allen Hall, Rosemary Barnes, Joel Saxum and Yolanda Padron. Welcome to the  Allen Hall: Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I’m your host, Alan Hall. I’m here with Rosie Barnes, Joel Saxum, and Yolanda Padron. Many things on the docket this week. The, the big one is the five US offshore wind projects that are facing cancellation after the federal halt. And on December 22nd, as we all know, the US Department of Interior ordered construction halted on every offshore wind project in American waters. Uh, the recent given and still given is national security. Uh, developers see it way differently and they’ve been going to court to try to. Get this issue resolved. Ecuador, Ted and Dominion Energy have all filed lawsuits at this point. EOR says [00:01:00] a 90 day pause, which is what this is right now, will likely mean cancellation of their empire. Project Dominion is losing more than about $5 million a day, and everybody is watching to see what happens. Orton’s also talking about taking some action here. Uh, there’s a, a lot of moving pieces. Essentially, as it stands right now, a lot of lawsuits, nothing happening in the water, and now talks mostly Ecuador of just completely canceling the project. That will have big implications to US. Electricity along the east coast,  Joel Saxum: right Joel? Yeah. We need it. Right? So I, I hate to beat a dead horse here because we’ve been talking about this for so long. Um, but. We’ve got energy demand growth, right? We’re sitting at three to 5% year on year demand growth in the United States, uh, which is unprecedented. Since, since, and this is a crazy thing. Since air [00:02:00] conditioning was invented for residential homes, we have not had this much demand for electricity growth. We’ve been pretty flat for the last 20 years. Uh, so we need it, right? We wanna be the AI data center superpower. We wanna do all this stuff. So we need electrons. Uh, these electrons are literally the quickest thing gonna be on the grid. Uh, up and down that whole eastern seaboard, which is a massive population center, a massive industrial and commercial center of the United States, and now we’re cutting the cord on ’em. Uh, so it is going to drive prices up for all consumers. That is a reality, right? Um, so we, we hear campaign promises up and down the things about making life more affordable for the. Joe Schmo on the street. Um, this is gonna hurt that big time. We’re already seeing. I think it was, um, we, Alan, you and I talked with some people from PGM not too long ago, and they were saying 20 to 30% increases already early this year. Allen Hall: Yeah. The, the increases in electricity rates are not being driven by [00:03:00] offshore wind. You see that in the press constantly or in commentary. The reason electricity rates are going up along the east coast is because they’re paying for. The early shutdown of cold fire generation, older generation, uh, petroleum based, uh, dirty, what I’ll call dirty electricity generation, they’re paying to shut those sites down early. So that’s why your rates are going up. Putting offshore wind into the equation will help lower some of those costs, and onshore wind and solar will help lower those costs. But. The East Coast, especially the Northeast, doesn’t have a lot of that to speak of at the minute. So, uh, Joel, my question is right now, what do you think the likelihood is of the lawsuits that are being filed moving within the next 90 days? Joel Saxum: I mean, it takes a long time to put anything through any kind of, um, judicial process in the United States, however. There’s enough money, power [00:04:00] in play here that what I see this as is just like the last time we saw an injunction happen like this is, it’s more of a posturing move. I have the power to do this, or we have the power to do this. It’s, it’s, uh, the, it’s to get power. Over some kind of decision making process. So once, once people come to the table and start talking, I think these things will be let, let back loose. Uh, I don’t, I don’t think it will go all the way to, we need to have lawsuits and stuff. It’ll just be the threat of lawsuits. There’ll be a little bit of arbitration. They’ll go back to work. Um, the problem that I see. One of the problems, I guess, is if we get to the point where people, companies start saying like, you know what, we can’t do this anymore. Like, we can’t keep having these breaks, these pauses, these, this, you know, if it’s 90 days at $5 million a day, I mean that’s 450 million bucks. That’s crazy. But that nobody, nobody could absorb that.  Allen Hall: Will they leave the mono piles and transition pieces and some [00:05:00] towers just sitting in the water. That’s what  Joel Saxum: I was gonna say next is. What happens to all of the assets, all of the steel that’s in the water, all the, all the, if there’s cable, it lays if there’s been rock dumps or the companies liable to go pick them up. I don’t know what the contracts look like, right? I don’t know what the Boem leases say. I don’t know about those kind of things, but most of that stuff is because they go back to the oil field side of things, right? You have a 20 year lease at the end of your 20 year lease. You gotta clean it up. So if you put the things in the water, do they have 20 years to leave ’em out there before they plan on how they’re gonna pull ’em out or they gotta pull ’em out now? I don’t know.  Allen Hall: Would just bankrupt the LLCs that they formed to create these, uh, wind  Joel Saxum: farms. That’s how the oil field does it bankrupt. The LC move on. You’ve, you’ve more than likely paid a bond when you, you signed that lease and that, but that bond in like in a lot of. Things is not enough. Right. A bond to pull mono piles out would have to be, [00:06:00] I mean, you’re already at billions of dollars there, right? So, and, and if you look again to the oil and gas world, which is our nearest mirror to what happens here, when you go and decommission an old oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico, you don’t pull the mono piles out. You go down to as close to the sea floor as you can get, and you just cut ’em off with a diamond saw. So it’s just like a big clamp that goes around. It’s like a big band saw. And you cut the foundations off and then pull the steel back to shore, so that can be done. Um, it’s not cheap.  Allen Hall: You know what I would, what I would do is the model piles are in, the towers are up, and depending on what’s on top of them, whether it’s in the cell or whatever, I would sure as hell put the red flashing lights on top and I would turn those things on and let ’em run just so everybody along the East coast would know that there could be power coming out of these things. But there’s not. So if you’re gonna look at their red flashy lights, you might as well get some, uh, megawatts out of them. That’s what I would do.  Joel Saxum: You’d have to wonder if the contracts, what, what, what it says in the contracts about. [00:07:00] Uh, utilization of this stuff, right? So if there’s something out there, does the FAA say, if you got a tower out there, it’s gotta have a light on it anyways. Allen Hall: It has to or a certain height. So where’s the power coming from? I don’t know. Solar panel. Solar panel. That’s what it have to be, right? Yeah. This is ridiculous. But this is the world we live in today.  Speaker 4: Australia’s wind farms are growing fast, but are your operations keeping up? Join us February 17th and 18th at Melbourne’s Pullman on the park for Wind energy o and M Australia 2026, where you’ll connect with the experts solving real problems in maintenance asset management. And OEM relations. Walk away with practical strategies to cut costs and boost uptime that you can use the moment you’re back on site. Register now at W OM a 2020 six.com. Wind Energy o and m Australia is created by wind professionals for wind professionals. Because this industry needs solutions, not speeches, [00:08:00] Allen Hall: the dominoes keep falling. In American offshore wind, last year it was construction halts this year, contract delays. Massachusetts has pushed back the signing of two offshore wind agreements that were supposed to be done. Months ago, ocean Winds and Berroa won their bids in September of 2024. The paperwork is still unsigned more than a year later, a year and a half later. State officials blame Federal uncertainty. Uh, the new target is June and offshore wind for these delays are really becoming a huge problem, especially if you don’t have an offtake agreements signed, Joel.  Joel Saxum: I don’t see how the, I mean, again, I’m not sitting in those rooms. I’m not a fly on the wall there, but I don’t see how you can have something sitting out there for, it’s just say September 24. Yeah. Yeah. You’re at 18 months now, right? 17, 18 months without an agreement signed. Why is, why is Massachusetts doing this? What’s, what’s the, what’s the thing there? I mean, you’re an, [00:09:00] you are, uh, an ex Massachusetts, Massachusetts, Ian, is that what it’s called?  Allen Hall: Yeah. I, I think they would like to be able to change the pricing for the offtake is most likely what is happening as, uh, the Trump administration changes the agreements or trying to change the agreements, uh, the price can go up or down. So maybe the thing to do is to not sign it and wait this out to see what the courts say. Maybe something will happen in your favor. That’s a real shame. Right. Uh, there’s thousands of employees that have been sidelined. Uh, the last number I saw was around 4,000. That seems on the low end.  Joel Saxum: Yeah. I think about, um, the, the vessels too. Like you’re the, like the Eco Edison that was just built last year. I think it’s upwards of 500 million bucks or something to build that thing down in Louisiana, being sent up there. And you have all these other specialized, uh, vessels coming over from Europe to do all this construction. Um, you know. Of course if they’re coming over from Europe, those are being hot bunked and being paid standby rates, which [00:10:00] is crazy ’cause the standby rates are insane. Uh, ’cause you still gotta run fuel, you still gotta keep the thing running. You still gotta cook food. You still have all those things that have to happen on that offshore vessel. Uh, but they’re just gonna be sitting out there on DP doing nothing.  Yolanda Padron: You have the vessels, you have people’s jobs. You have. Regular people who are unrelated to energy at all suffering because of their prices going up for energy and just their cost of living overall going up. All because they don’t look pretty.  Joel Saxum: Yeah. The entire, that entire supply chain is suffering. I mean, Yolanda, you’re, you, you used to work with a company involved in offshore wind. How many people have, um, you know, have we seen across LinkedIn losing their jobs? Hey, we’re pivoting away from this. I gotta go find something else. And with that. In the United States, if you’re not from the States, you don’t know this, but there’s not that much wind, onshore wind on the East coast. So many of those families had to relocate out there, uproot your family, go out to Massachusetts, New Jersey, [00:11:00] Virginia, wherever, put roots back down and now you’re what? What happens? You gotta move back.  Yolanda Padron: Good luck to you. Especially, I mean, you know, it’s, it’s a lot of projects, right? So it’s not like you can just move on to the next wind farm. It’s a really unfortunate situation.  Allen Hall: Well, for years the promise of floating wind turbines has dangled just out of reach and the technology works, and the engineers have been saying for quite a while. We just needed someone to prove it at scale. Well, Japan just did the go-to floating wind farm began commercial operation this past week. Eight turbines on hybrid spar foundations anchored in water is too deep for anything fixed. Bottom, uh, it’s the first. Wind farm of his kind in Japan and signals to the rest of Asia that floating wind is possible. Now, uh, Rosemary, their turbines that are being used are Hitachi turbines, 2.1 megawatt machines. I don’t know a lot about this hybrid spark [00:12:00] type floater technology, which looks to be relatively new in terms of application. Is this gonna open up a large part of the Japanese shoreline to offshore wind? Rosemary Barnes: Yeah, I mean, at the first glance it’s like two megawatt turbine turbines. That’s micro, even for onshore these days, that’s a really small turbine. Um, and for offshore, you know, usually when you hear about offshore announcements, it’s like 20 megawatt, 40 megawatt monstrosities. However, I, I think that if you just look at the size of it, then it really underestimates the significance of it, especially for Japan. Because they, one, don’t have a lot of great space to put turbines on shore or solar power on shore. Um, and two, they don’t have any, any good, um, locations for fixed bottom offshore. So this is not like this floating offshore wind farm. It’s not competing against many onshore um, options at all. For Japan, it’s competing against energy imports. I’m really happy to see [00:13:00] a proper wind farm. Um, in Japan and they’ll learn a lot from this. And I hope that it goes smoothly and that, you know, the next one can be bigger and better. And then it’s also, you know, Japan traditionally has been a really great manufacturing country and not so much with wind energy, but this could be their chance. If they’re the country that’s really on scale developing the floating offshore industry, they will necessarily, you know, like just naturally as a byproduct of that, they’re gonna develop manufacturing, at least supporting manufacturing and probably. Some major components and then bring down the cost. You know, the more that, um, these early projects might start out expensive, but get cheaper, fast. That’s how we hope it’ll go. And then they’ll push out into other areas that could benefit from offshore wind, but um, not at the cost. Somewhere like California, you know, they have the ability to have onshore wind. They’d really like some offshore wind, some floating offshore wind. But it is a hard sell there at the moment because it is so much more expensive. But if it gets cheaper because, you know, projects like [00:14:00] this help push the price down, then I think it will open things up a lot. So yeah, I am, I’m quite excited to see this project.  Allen Hall: Will it get cheaper at the two to six megawatt range instead of the 15 to 20 megawatt range?  Joel Saxum: That’s what I was gonna comment on. Like there’s, there’s a, there’s a key here that the general public misses. For a floating offshore wind farm. So if you’re gonna do this cost effectively, that’s why they did it with the 2.1 megawatts ones because with a, with the spar product that they’re using basically. And, and I was sourcing this off at my desk, so here you go,  Rosemary Barnes: Joel. We need a closed caption version for those listening on the podcast and not watching on YouTube. Joel’s holding like a foam, a foam model of a wind turbine. Looks like it’s got a stubby, stubby holder on the bottom.  Joel Saxum: This is. Turbine. Steel. Steel to a transition piece and then concrete, right? So this is basically a concrete tube like, um, with, with, uh, structural members on the inside of it. And you can float this thing or you can drag these, you can float ’em key side and then drag ’em out, and [00:15:00] then it just fill ’em halfway or three quarters away with ballast sea seawater. So you just open a valve, fill the thing up to three quarters of the way with seawater, and it sinks it down into the water a little bit. Water level sits about. Right at the transition piece and then it’s stable. And that’s a hybrid. Spar product is very simple. So to make this a easy demonstrate project, keyside facility is the key, is the big thing. So your Keyside facility, and you need a deep water keyside facility to make this easy. So if you go up to Alan, like you said, a two to six, to eight to 10 to 15 megawatt machine. You may have to go and take, you may have to barge the spars out and then dump ’em off the spar and then bring the turbines out and put ’em on. That’s not ideal. Right? But if you can do this all keyside, if you can have a crane on shore and you can float the spars and then put the, build the whole turbine, and then drag that out as it sits, that’s a huge cost reduction in the installation operations. So it, it’s all about how big is the subsea portion of the spar? How? How deep is your [00:16:00] deep water keyside port? To make it efficient to build. Right. So they’re looking at 10 gigawatts of floating offshore wind by 2030. Now it’s 2026. That’s only four years away, so 10 gigawatts. You’re gonna have to scale up the size of the turbines. It’ll be interesting how they do it, right? Because to me, flipping spars off of a barge is not that hard. That’s how jackets and spars have been installed in the past. Um, for, um, many industries, construction industries, whether it’s oil and gas or just maritime, construction can be done. Not a problem. Um, it’s just not as efficient. So we’ll see what, we’ll see what they do.  Allen Hall: You would need 5,000 turbines at two megawatts to get to 10 gigawatts, 5,000 turbines. They make 5,000 cars in a day. The, the Japanese manufacturing is really efficient. I wouldn’t put anything by the Japanese capabilities there.  Joel Saxum: The problem with that is the cost of the, the inter array cables and [00:17:00] export cables for 5,000 turbines is extreme. Allen Hall: We also know that. Some of the best technology has come out of Japan for the last 50 years, and then maybe there’s a solution to it. I, I’m really curious to see where this goes, because it’s a Hitachi turbine. It’s a 2.1 megawatt turbine, as Rosemary’s pointed out. That’s really old technology, but it is inexpensive to manufacture and easy to move around. Has benefits.  Rosemary Barnes: Yeah. It also means like they, they’re not gonna be surprised with like, you know, all of. When you make a 20 megawatt offshore wind turbine, you’re not only in the offshore environment, you’re also dealing with, you know, all your blade issues from a blade that long and 2.1 megawatt turbine has blades of the size that, you know, just so mature, reliable, robust. They can at least rule those headaches out of their, um, you know, out of their. Development phase and focus on the, the new stuff.  Joel Saxum: Does anybody know who [00:18:00] makes blades for Hitachi?  Allen Hall: Rosie? Was it lm? I, I, I know we have on a number of Hitachi turbines over time, but I don’t know who makes the blades.  Rosemary Barnes: Yeah, I don’t know. But I mean, also it’s like, um, it doesn’t mean that they’re locked into 2.1 megawatts for forever, right? So, um, if the economics suggest that it is be beneficial to scale up. Presumably there will be a lot that they have learned from the smaller scale that will be de-risking the, the bigger ones as well. So, you know, um, it’s, there’s advantages to doing it both ways. It’s probably a slower, more steady progress from starting small and incrementally increasing compared to the, you know, like big, um, fail fast kind of, um, approach where you just do a big, big, huge turbine and just find out everything wrong with it all at once. Um, but. You know, pros and cons to both.  Allen Hall: Hitachi buys TPI. They got the money. They got the money, and they got the brain power. [00:19:00] Delamination and bottom line. Failures and blades are difficult problems to detect early. These hidden issues can cost you millions in repairs and lost energy production. C-I-C-N-D-T are specialists to detect these critical flaws before they become expensive burdens. Their non-destructive test technology penetrates deep to blade materials to find voids and cracks. Traditional inspections completely. Miss C-I-C-N-D-T Maps. Every critical defect delivers actionable reports and provides support to get your blades back in service. So visit cic ndt.com because catching blade problems early will save you millions. The Baltic Sea has become a chessboard under sea. Cables carry data. Pipelines carry energy as we’ve all seen and someone keeps cutting them. Finnish investigators are now saying a cargo ship dragged its anchor [00:20:00] across the seabed for tens of kilometers before severing a telecommunications cable. On New Year’s Eve, special forces seize the vessel. Four crew members are detained, but the questions still remain. Who or what is trying to cut cables and pipelines at the bottom of the Baltic Sea.  Joel Saxum: It’s not accidents like it happened on New Year’s Eve and it was, and you drug an anchor for tens of kilometers. That’s on purpose. There’s, there’s no way that this is someone, oh, we forgot to pull the anchor up. You know how much more throttle you have to put on one of these? Have you seen an anchor for an offshore vessel? They’re the size of a fricking house,  Allen Hall: so they’re investigating it right now. And four, the 14 crew members are under detention. Travel restrictions, we’ll see how long that lasts. Crew includes nationals from of all places, Russia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan. So there is a, a Russian element to this. [00:21:00] I don’t know if you were all watching, I don’t know, a week or two ago when there’s a YouTube video from and oral, which makes undersea. Equipment and defense, uh, related, uh, products. And Palmer Lucky who runs that company basically said, there are microphones all over the bottom of the ocean, all around the world. Everything is monitored. There’s no way you can drag an anchor for a kilometer without somebody knowing. So I’m a little surprised this took so long to grab hold of, but. Maybe the New Year’s Eve, uh, was a good time to pick because everybody is kind of relaxed and not thinking about a ship, dragging an anchor and breaking telecommunication cables, wind turbines have to be really careful about this. There, there have to be some sort of monitoring, installation sensors that are going on around the, all the wind power that exists up in that region and all [00:22:00] the way down in, in the North Sea. To prevent this from happening, the sabotage is ridiculous. At this point,  Joel Saxum: yeah. I mean, even, even with mattresses over the export cables, or the inter array cables or, or rock bags or rock dumps or, or burials, these anchors are big enough to, to cut those, to drag and cut ’em like it, it’s just a, it’s a reality. It’s a risk. But someone needs to be monitoring these things closer if they’re not yet. ’cause you are a hundred percent correct. There’s, so, there’s, there’s private, there’s public sides of the acoustic monitoring, right? So like the United States military monitors, there’s, there’s acoustic monitoring all up and down. I can’t actually never, I looked into it quite a while ago. There’s a name for the whole system. It’s called the blah, blah, blah, and it monitors our coastline. Like ev, there’s a sensor. Every man, it’s a couple miles. Like all, all around the EEZ of the United States. And that exists everywhere. So like you think like in international waters, guarantee that the United States has got microphones out listening to, [00:23:00] right. So, but if you’re in the Baltic Sea, it’s a little bit different of an, of a confined space. But you have Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, all along the southern and eastern coast and the, and Russia. And then you have the Fins, Swedes, Norwegian, Denmark, Germany. Everybody is Poland. Everybody’s monitoring that for sure. It’s just like a postmortem investigation is, is doable.  Allen Hall: Yolanda, how are they gonna stop this? Should they board the ships, pull the people off and sink them? What is it gonna take for this to end?  Yolanda Padron: I don’t know. In the meantime, I think Joel has a movie going on in his head about how exactly he’s gonna portray this. Um, yeah, it’s. I mean, I’d say better monitoring, but I, I’m not sure. I guess keep a closer eye on it next time. I mean, I really hope it’s, there’s not a next time, but there seems to be a pattern developing. Right.  Allen Hall: I forgot how many of those happened.  Joel Saxum: Yeah. The maritime, this is a, this is a tough reality about the maritime world. [00:24:00] ’cause I, I’ve done some work done in Africa and down there it’s specifically the same thing. There’s say there’s a vessel. Okay, so a vessel is flagged from. S Cy Malta, a lot of vessels are flagged Malta or Cyprus, right? Because of the laws. The local laws there that Cyprus flagged vessel may be owned by a company based in, um, Bermuda that’s owned by a company based in Russia that’s owned by a company based in India. All of these things are this way. There’s shell companies and hidden that you don’t know who owns vessels unless they’re even, even the specific ones. Like if you go to a Maersk vessel. And you’re like, oh, that’s Maersk, they’re Danish. Nope. That thing will be, that thing will be flagged somewhere else, hidden somewhere else. And it’s all about what port you go to and how much taxes you can hide from, and you’ll never be able to chase down the actual parties that own these vessels and that are responsible you, you, it, it’s so [00:25:00] difficult. You’re literally just going to have to deal with the people on board, and you can try to chase the channels to who owns that boat, but you’ll never find them. That’s the, that’s the trouble with it.  Allen Hall: It does seem like a Jean Claude Van Dam situation will need to happen pretty soon. Maybe as Steven Segal, something has to happen. It can’t continue to go on it over the next couple of months with as much attention as being paid to international waters and. Everything that’s happening around the world, you’d think that, uh, ships Defense Department ships from Denmark, Finland, Germany. We will all be watching this really closely UK be watching this and trying to stop these things before they really even happened. Interesting times. That wraps up another episode of the Uptime Wind Energy Podcasts. If today’s discussion sparked any questions or ideas. We’d love to hear from you. Reach out to us on LinkedIn and don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. [00:26:00] And if you found value in today’s conversation, please leave us a review. It really helps other wind energy professionals discover the show for Rosie, Yolanda and Joel. I’m Alan Hall and we’ll catch you next week on the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast.

Brethren, this Short Talk Bulletin Podcast episode was written by MW Bro Donald W. Hensiak, PGM – WI, and is brought to us by VW Bro David Koncz, PM 0 United #8, Brunswick ME. With the advent of a new year, many of us will be moving to different chairs in our Lodges, whether that be moving up the line or covering a vacant chair, and with this comes new parts of the ritual for us to learn. Here, we find an excellent discussion of our memorization, and why we do it. Enjoy, and do share this and all of these Podcast episodes with your brothers and your Lodge.

Brethren, this Short Talk Bulletin Podcast episode was written by RW Bro Charles O. Bierkan, PDDGM – CT, and is brought to us by MW Bro Russ Charvonia, PGM – CA. No city, save Jerusalem, interests Masons as much as Tyre, once the capital of Phoenicia. Here is some of that story. Enjoy, and do share this and all of these Podcast episodes with your brothers and your Lodge.

Brethren, this Short Talk Bulletin Podcast episode was written by Rev Bro Jan L. Beaderstadt, a member and past master of Copper Country Lodge No. 135, Hancock, Michigan; a member and junior warden of Bowring Lodge No. 414, Standish, Michigan; and editor of the Michigan Masonic Publication, From Point-to-Pointe, and is brought to us by MW Bro Russ Charvonia, PGM – CA. As a new entered apprentice, I stood and looked at that circle with the two parallel lines, and at my proficiency examination, recited it with perfection. But what does this really mean to me, a man and a Mason? And why the Sts. John? Enjoy, and do share this and all of these Podcast episodes with your brothers and your Lodge.

A new chapter is beginning at Sidney Resources (OTCID: SDRC). In this interview, CEO Sean-Rae Zalewski and COO and Treasurer Dan Hally share key developments driving the company's momentum at Idaho's Warren Mining District.From expanding their land position at the Warren District Project to making progress in isolating iridium and discussing the company's strategic partnerships, this conversation shows how the team is positioning Sidney Resources for value creation heading into 2026. Watch the full video to learn more.Explore: https://sidneyresources.com/Watch the full YouTube interview here: https://youtu.be/xXojQI9oyiwAnd follow us to stay updated: https://www.youtube.com/@GlobalOneMedia

Brethren, this Short Talk Bulletin Podcast episode was written by MW B. Stuart Parker, PGM – Manitoba, and was first delivered to a Communication of the Grand Lodge of North Dakota. Here, MW Bro Parker should like to attempt to sketch out his concept of the true heart of the Fraternity, the source of the power that Freemasonry has to develop such an intense loyalty in the hearts of the husbands and fathers and sons who are its members. Enjoy, and do share this and all of these Podcast episodes with your brothers and your Lodge.

In this Midweek Takeaway, Kevin Hornsby and Phil Carroll are joined by Leon Coetzer of Jubilee Metals to discuss a transformational period for the company. Leon explains how 2025 marked a strategic reset, repositioning Jubilee as a focused Zambian copper producerfollowing major investment across Roan and Mufulira. They explore the recovery in copper production, progress across Jubilee's Zambian operations, and the strategic disposal of the South African chrome and PGM assets. With the foundations now in place, the discussion looks ahead to 2026 as a delivery year, driven by rising copper output and long-term growth potential. Disclaimer & Declaration of Interest This podcast may contain paid promotions, including but not limited to sponsorships, endorsements, or affiliate partnerships. The information, investment views, and recommendations provided are for general informational purposes only and should not be construed as a solicitation to buy or sell any financial products related to the companies discussed. Any opinions or comments are made to the best of the knowledge and belief of the commentators; however, no responsibility is accepted for actions based on such opinions or comments. The commentators may or may not hold investments in the companies under discussion. Listeners are encouraged to perform their own research and consult with a licensed professional before making any financial decisions based on the content of this podcast. 

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Brethren, this Short Talk Bulletin Podcast episode was written by WBro Alan E. Roberts, Babcock Lodge #322, Highland Springs VA, and is brought to us by MW Bro Russ Charvonia, PGM – CA. Brother Newton was a prolific Masonic writer whose work includes many early Short Talk Bulletin, as well as “The Builders,” a seminal Masonic work suitable for all Masons, commonly available in print, ebook, and audible. Here is the story of this remarkable Reverend, Doctor, and brother. Enjoy, and do share this and all of these Podcast episodes with your brothers and your Lodge.

Interview with Nick Smart, CEO of ValOre Metals Corp.Our previous interview: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/posts/valore-metals-tsxvvo-pitch-perfect-november-2025-8623Recording date: 3rd December 2025ValOre Metals is executing an ambitious transformation from single-asset platinum-palladium explorer into an integrated precious metals producer operating across Brazil. Under CEO Nick Smart—an Anglo American veteran with 21 years of experience building and commissioning operations globally—the company is pursuing a dual-track strategy: advancing the flagship Pedra Branca PGM project towards production whilst acquiring near-term cash-flowing assets to accelerate transformation into a diversified producer.The platinum-palladium market has shifted dramatically from anticipated decline to structural deficit. Contrary to earlier predictions that electric vehicles would eliminate PGM demand, hybrid vehicles—now representing a larger automotive segment than pure EVs—actually require higher loadings of platinum and palladium in autocatalysts due to smaller engines operating at lower temperatures. This has created steady demand whilst years of low prices discouraged new supply investment.South Africa holds 90% of global PGM resources, but ageing deep-level operations face mounting operational challenges and costs. With relatively few development-stage projects globally and extended timelines for new supply even once financed, the supply deficit appears structural. Global platinum production approximates 6 million ounces annually—a fraction of gold's 120 million ounces—meaning modest demand shifts drive significant price impacts. Industrial catalyst applications and jewellery substitution for record-priced gold provide additional demand support.ValOre's Pedra Branca project in Ceará State, Brazil, offers compelling economics compared to traditional PGM operations. Most significantly, mineralisation extends to surface, enabling open-pit mining rather than the expensive 600-800 metre deep underground operations characterising South African production. This provides substantial cost advantages—open-pit mining is cheaper and faster to develop than underground operations requiring massive shaft infrastructure investment.The Pedra Branca project holds a 2.2 million ounce inferred resource at 1.08 grams per tonne, with higher-grade ore near surface providing advantages for early production economics. The asset spans 50,000 hectares with mineralisation extending over 80 kilometres, suggesting expansion potential. Infrastructure advantages—stable jurisdiction, excellent access, supportive government policies—compound the geological benefits.Accelerated Development PathwayValOre is leveraging Brazil's trial mining licensing programme, which allows demonstration-scale operations at approximately one-tenth of planned full capacity. For Pedra Branca, targeting eventual production of 150,000 ounces annually, the trial mining phase would operate at approximately 15,000 ounces per annum. Following a preliminary economic assessment by end-2026 and an 18-month construction period, the company expects H2 2028 production. This phased approach reduces capital intensity, enables operational refinement, and generates cash flow supporting subsequent expansion.ValOre is actively pursuing Brazilian precious metal projects (particularly gold assets) that have completed trial mining but require capital for full production. The company targets acquisitions in early 2026 that would provide production that same year, ramping through 2027-2028 as Pedra Branca advances. As a Discovery Group-backed entity with North American capital access, ValOre can provide financing that Brazilian-domiciled companies struggle to secure.Acquiring projects with existing operational teams, completed engineering work, and functioning demonstration plants accelerates production whilst building internal capability. This dual-track approach—near-term production via M&A alongside Pedra Branca development—aims to transform ValOre from explorer to diversified producer within compressed timeframes across multiple Brazilian operations, establishing production profile whilst maintaining leverage to potential PGM price recovery.View ValOre Metals' company profile: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/companies/valore-metalsSign up for Crux Investor: https://cruxinvestor.com

Brethren, this Short Talk Bulletin Podcast episode is brought to us by MW Bro Russ Charvonia, PGM – CA. This Short Talk was adapted from a pamphlet published by the Grand Lodge A. F. & A. M. of Illinois, entitled “What can a Mason tell a non-Mason about Masonry? Enjoy, and please do share this and all of these Podcast episodes with your brothers and your Lodge, and this one especially with any non-Masons who are interested.

In the future near-peer and peer fight, salvo competition and missiles will be the preeminent means by which one country will kinetically overwhelm the other in a fight. I discuss the way the US Navy is in an existential hazard of being woefully under-prepared to meet the threat if Western forces go toe toe with regional hegemons in the East or West. Let's anticipate the disasters now that are the Spanish in the English Channel in 1588, the British Royal Navy at Jutland in 1916, and the discovery in WWII all these battleships were not really capital ships, or had adequate armaments, yet their political dimensions compel not only their continuous construction but are the most devastating when lost. The aircraft carrier has been a signature component of US naval power and prestige for more than a century. The utility has continued to diminish since the end of WWII. The tremendous disadvantage of putting so much manpower and treasure into these single use leviathan systems in the modern world of distributed missile and PGM systems, emerging near-peer & peer adversaries and concentration of power in vulnerable systems is a recipe for future disaster. The US Navy surface fleet is in tatters and shattered by readiness, maintenance and armament issues that are critical indicators of a navy totally unprepared. It's time to clean house and fire the admirals and SES personnel. More on the carrier dilemma in Chasing Ghosts Episode #034 and Dispatch #006. References: Pro Publica: The Navy Accused Him of Arson. Its Own Investigation Showed Widespread Safety Failures. 2017 USN Ship Collisions Gregory Vistica Fall from Glory: The Men Who Sank the U.S. Navy Michael Junge Crimes of Command: in the United States Navy, 1945-2015 Gerry Doyle Carrier Killer: China's Anti-Ship Ballistic Missiles and Theater of Operations in the early 21st Century David Lee Russell Early U.S. Navy Carrier Raids, February-April 1942: Five Operations That Tested a New Dimension of American Air Power Jeff Vandenengel Questioning the Carrier: Opportunities in Fleet Design for the U.S. Navy Jeff Vandenengel interview on Midrats with CDR Salamander Ivan Gogin Fighting ships of the PEOPLE LIBERATION ARMY NAVY 1949 - 2023 Jerry Hendrix Retreat From Range: The Rise and Fall of Carrier Aviation Pacific War in WWII James D. Hornfischer Neptune's Inferno: The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal James D. Hornfischer The Fleet at Flood Tide: America at Total War in the Pacific, 1944-1945 Ian W. Toll Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941-1942 Ian W. Toll The Conquering Tide: War in the Pacific Islands, 1942–1944 Ian W. Toll Twilight of the Gods: War in the Western Pacific, 1944-1945 Jeffry R. Cox Rising Sun, Falling Skies: The Disastrous Java Sea Campaign of World War II Jeffrey R. Cox Morning Star, Midnight Sun: The Early Guadalcanal-Solomons Campaign of World War II August–October 1942 Jeffrey R. Cox Blazing Star, Setting Sun: The Guadalcanal-Solomons Campaign November 1942–March 1943 Jeffrey R. Cox Dark Waters, Starry Skies: The Guadalcanal-Solomons Campaign, March–October 1943 Samuel Eliot Morrison The Two-Ocean War: A Short History of the United States Navy in the Second World War My Substack Write me at cgpodcast@pm.me

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Odd Fellowship isn't something that can be joined casually.  It requires a certain amount of effort to be expended on behalf of those joining the lodge to fill out an application, pay the application fee, and proceed through the interview and initiation.  For the applicant, this process should ensure that they get an opportunity to find out about the nature of the lodge to which they are applying.  For the lodge, this process should help them decide if this applicant should become a candidate for membership and, ultimately, a member.  For the process to work as intended, the Interviewing Committee must do a thorough job of investigating the applicant and find out if they will make a good member of the lodge.  Just like in many other areas of Odd Fellowship, however, that doesn't always happen as intended.  Too many lodges treat the Interview as a formality; a speed bump on the path to getting as many people in the lodge as possible as quickly as possible.  Ray Jackson, PGM of Illinois, joins us to talk about the application and interviewing process and how it is supposed to go when done properly, and some of the ramifications of it not going properly.  The Shoutout goes to another West Virginia Lodge, Harrisville #99.  In the Odd Podge, Toby previews his upcoming 50th Birthday Party (hint: it's also a fundraiser), Ray remembers a departed long-time member in Illinois, Ainslie shares the positive outcomes of holding an open meeting at his lodge, and Mike talks about visiting Ainslie's lodge for that open meeting—and then gives us all a shocking surprise!

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Brethren, this Short Talk Bulletin Podcast episode was written and is brought to us by MW Bro George Braatz, PGM and PGS – OH, as well as Past Executive Secretary of the Masonic Service Association of North America. Here we find an excellent discussion of two four-letter words that are important to Masons. Enjoy, and […]

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There's been plenty of buzz around Sidney Resources Corp. (OTCID: SDRC), and we're here to cut through the noise. CEO Sean-Rae Zalewski and COO & Treasurer Dan Hally join Stocks to Watch to share what's driving the company's momentum and to spotlight the potential of the Warren Mining District in Idaho.From the reasons why there aren't gold bars yet, to the progress on polymetallic separation involving platinum group metals, gold, silver, and rare earth elements, this in-depth interview covers everything investors need to know as Sidney Resources advances its strategy. Learn more about the company's opportunities for revenue, its plans to progress from explorer to developer and producer, and more.Learn more: https://sidneyresources.com/Watch the full YouTube interview here: https://youtu.be/eCXLPUus8rIAnd follow us to stay updated: https://www.youtube.com/@GlobalOneMedia

There's been plenty of buzz around Sidney Resources Corp. (OTCID: SDRC), and we're here to cut through the noise. CEO Sean-Rae Zalewski and COO & Treasurer Dan Hally join Stocks to Watch to share what's driving the company's momentum and to spotlight the potential of the Warren Mining District in Idaho.From the reasons why there aren't gold bars yet, to the progress on polymetallic separation involving platinum group metals, gold, silver, and rare earth elements, this in-depth interview covers everything investors need to know as Sidney Resources advances its strategy. Learn more about the company's opportunities for revenue, its plans to progress from explorer to developer and producer, and more.Learn more: https://sidneyresources.com/Watch the full YouTube interview here: https://youtu.be/eCXLPUus8rIAnd follow us to stay updated: https://www.youtube.com/@GlobalOneMedia

As precious and critical minerals shape the future, Sidney Resources' (OTC Pink: SDRC) is strategically positioned for long-term growth with its diversified polymetallic portfolio.In this interview, three key members of Sidney Resources' leadership team, CEO Sean-Rae Zalewski, COO & Treasurer Dan Hally, and Project Geologist Steve Dobson, share insights into the factors driving the company's upward trajectory. From strategically located mining claims that offer a distinct advantage to their development plans and timeline, this conversation provides investors with an exclusive look at Sidney Resources' ongoing progress in exploring and advancing the Warren Mining District of central Idaho.Discover how Sidney Resources is unlocking value from Idaho's gold, silver, platinum group metals (PGMs), and rare earth elements (REEs) in the full video.Explore: https://sidneyresources.com/Watch the full YouTube interview here: https://youtu.be/w3zRqbOFg14And follow us to stay updated: https://www.youtube.com/@GlobalOneMedia

As precious and critical minerals shape the future, Sidney Resources' (OTC Pink: SDRC) is strategically positioned for long-term growth with its diversified polymetallic portfolio.In this interview, three key members of Sidney Resources' leadership team, CEO Sean-Rae Zalewski, COO & Treasurer Dan Hally, and Project Geologist Steve Dobson, share insights into the factors driving the company's upward trajectory. From strategically located mining claims that offer a distinct advantage to their development plans and timeline, this conversation provides investors with an exclusive look at Sidney Resources' ongoing progress in exploring and advancing the Warren Mining District of central Idaho.Discover how Sidney Resources is unlocking value from Idaho's gold, silver, platinum group metals (PGMs), and rare earth elements (REEs) in the full video.Explore: https://sidneyresources.com/Watch the full YouTube interview here: https://youtu.be/w3zRqbOFg14And follow us to stay updated: https://www.youtube.com/@GlobalOneMedia