Global Gold Rush: Josh Phair Reveals the Warning

Youtube Thumbnail with Gold and Silver Investment Expert Josh Pair on September 2026

September 11, 2026

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Craig Hemke for Sprott Money sits down with Josh Phair, CEO of Scottsdale Mint, to discuss what could be a major turning point for gold, silver, and the global financial system.

The precious metals market is entering a period of profound change, according to Scottsdale Mint CEO Josh Phair. In a September 2026 Sprott Money “Ask the Expert” discussion with Craig Hemke, Phair outlined why he believes gold and silver are evolving from tactical trades into strategic assets for investors, institutions and governments. The conversation covered Scottsdale Mint’s expansion into Wyoming, the Wyoming Reserve, central-bank gold demand, silver’s strategic importance and the possibility of greater financial instability during the remainder of the decade. Phair’s central argument was that investors should focus less on daily price volatility and more on the structural forces reshaping the global monetary system. As he put it, “The wind is at your back.”
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Scottsdale Mint Expands From Arizona to Wyoming

Scottsdale Mint has grown considerably since its founding, with Phair saying the company is approaching its 18-year anniversary and now mints products for more than 20 foreign governments and central banks. It also works with large private banks and supplies roughly 150 wholesalers worldwide. According to Phair, nearly half of the company’s business comes from overseas markets, giving it a broad perspective on global precious metals demand. The business expanded particularly rapidly during the COVID period after Scottsdale Mint chose to continue operating while other facilities were shut down. Eventually, its existing Arizona footprint could no longer satisfy the company’s power and space requirements. That helped drive the move to Casper, Wyoming, where Phair said the operation occupies roughly 60,000 square feet and is expanding further. Wyoming appealed because of its financial environment, industrial workforce and strong energy and mining economy. Phair summarized the philosophy behind the relocation with the familiar principle: “Go where you're treated best.”

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Why Wyoming Became a Precious Metals Hub

For Phair, moving Scottsdale Mint was about more than finding additional manufacturing space. He said he wanted both his company and family positioned in what he considered a stable environment during a potentially difficult decade. Casper offered an established workforce connected to energy, fabrication, manufacturing and mining. The move also helped create the foundation for another venture: the Wyoming Reserve. Phair described the Reserve as both a commercial vaulting business and an investment fund. Its vault operates within a foreign trade zone, which he said creates important advantages for assets entering the United States, particularly when tariffs are changing. Products can potentially be imported, stored, traded and financed within the zone, while the operation is subject to U.S. Customs oversight in addition to third-party quarterly audits. Phair said the facility is designed primarily for institutional and high-net-worth clients and has attracted large financial institutions and bullion businesses. He also said the State of Wyoming selected the operation for physical gold custody after a process in which JPMorgan was another finalist.
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Inside the Wyoming Reserve Opportunity Zone Fund

The investment side of the Wyoming Reserve combines a precious-metals-heavy balance sheet with an Opportunity Zone structure. According to Phair, more than 90% of its balance sheet consists of physical gold and silver, with metals marked to market daily and physically audited by a third party quarterly. The company generates business through activities including vaulting, fulfillment and management of precious metals. At the time of the interview, Phair said it had raised approximately $50 million and was in the middle of a $110 million raise, with ambitions to potentially raise several hundred million dollars over the following two years. He described the structure as something of a hybrid between a precious metals ETF and an actively managed institutional vaulting operation. Participation, however, is limited to accredited investors. Phair also discussed working with blockchain businesses interested in tokenizing real-world assets, with the Wyoming Reserve serving as custodian rather than operating as a blockchain company itself.
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Gold and Silver Are Becoming More Than a Trade

The larger theme of the discussion was the changing role of precious metals. Phair argued that monetary, geopolitical and military risks are converging, while confidence in existing financial structures is deteriorating. “Confidence is slowly eroded and then it just collapses,” he said. Against that backdrop, he believes gold and silver should increasingly be considered long-term strategic holdings rather than assets purchased primarily for short-term price movements. Central-bank and government demand is especially significant in his analysis because official institutions can create fiat currency and exchange it for scarce physical assets. That dynamic strengthens the long-term case for precious metals even when gold or silver experience sharp corrections. “It's really no longer a trade,” Phair argued, describing precious metals instead as a potential financial lifeline for families and future generations if the global monetary system undergoes a significant reset.
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Central Bank Gold Buying Changes the Investment Landscape

One of the strongest signals discussed by Hemke and Phair was official-sector gold accumulation. Hemke highlighted what he described as a dramatic acceleration in Chinese gold purchases, contrasting modest previous monthly buying with substantially stronger reported demand in 2026. Phair’s response was to emphasize a simple strategy: “Follow in the footsteps of the giants.” Rather than attempting to predict every short-term movement in gold prices, he suggested examining what governments, central banks and major financial institutions are actually doing. In his view, a global competition is developing around ownership of physical gold, with interest increasingly extending into silver as well. This official demand matters because private investors are no longer competing only with other retail and institutional buyers; they may increasingly be competing for physical metal with sovereign actors pursuing strategic objectives. The discussion presented central-bank accumulation as one of the clearest long-term signals supporting the precious metals investment thesis.
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Silver’s Strategic Importance Is Growing

Silver featured prominently because its role extends beyond monetary demand into strategic and industrial applications. Phair pointed to the U.S. government’s treatment of silver as a critical mineral and discussed what he believes could become greater government involvement in stockpiling strategically important materials. For precious metals investors, that creates an unusual combination: silver can benefit from investment demand associated with monetary uncertainty while simultaneously facing demand connected to industry and strategic supply chains. Phair suggested investors should therefore look beyond daily fluctuations in the silver price. Short-term corrections do not necessarily invalidate the structural case if governments, institutions and industrial users continue competing for physical supply. The broader point was that the gold and silver outlook should be evaluated through supply, sovereign demand, monetary policy and geopolitical risk rather than through individual trading sessions.
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Precious Metals Allocation in an Uncertain Market

Phair also questioned whether traditional portfolio assumptions remain appropriate for the current environment. He contrasted historically modest precious metals allocations with his statement that Morgan Stanley had discussed a portfolio allocation as high as 20%, interpreting that as an important signal from mainstream finance. At the same time, he noted elevated equity valuations, concentration in major technology and AI companies, and the risks associated with bonds and broader financial instability. He acknowledged that gold and silver could still fall temporarily during a crisis as investors seek liquidity. His argument, however, is that their long-term function remains fundamentally different. Rather than trying to capture every rally or avoid every correction, investors can view precious metals as a core position designed to preserve purchasing power and provide resilience. “It almost makes it a little easier to sleep at night and to just kind of sit back and let this ride,” he said.
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Preparing for a Potential Financial Reset

Neither Hemke nor Phair claimed to know exactly when another financial crisis or monetary reset could occur. Instead, their discussion focused on identifying signals and preparing before instability becomes obvious. Phair said he looks at multiple developments simultaneously and tries to assemble them into a larger picture rather than becoming consumed by social-media narratives or daily market movements. He believes the years ahead could include a financial crisis potentially exceeding the severity of the 2008-era Great Financial Crisis. That is his outlook rather than a certainty, but it explains his decisions to relocate his family, move Scottsdale Mint’s operations and develop a precious-metals-focused vaulting business in Wyoming. The practical lesson was preparation rather than fear. “We have a responsibility not to push the doom and gloom, but to just show what could be coming and how to position in advance,” Phair said.

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Scottsdale Maple Leaf Stacker Launch

The interview also introduced the Scottsdale Maple Leaf Stacker, a one-ounce silver round launched through a collaboration between Scottsdale Mint and Sprott Money. The interlocking rounds are designed to stack together and feature Canadian maple leaf imagery. Phair described the pieces as having contrasting frosted, high-relief and highly polished design elements. Hemke highlighted their appeal not only as physical silver but also as collectible pieces and potential gifts. The product reflects the broader theme running through the interview: expanding access to physical precious metals while combining investment value with distinctive minting and design.
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Gold and Silver Outlook: Focus on the Long-Term Signals

The core message from Phair and Hemke was to separate short-term precious metals volatility from the longer-term monetary picture. Daily moves of several dollars in silver or sudden corrections in gold can dominate headlines, but they may reveal little about where the financial system is heading over the next several years. Central-bank gold buying, government interest in strategic minerals, elevated financial-market valuations, geopolitical instability and the expansion of institutional precious metals infrastructure all form part of the larger picture discussed in the interview. Phair’s approach is ultimately about positioning before rather than after a major shift. For investors evaluating the gold and silver outlook in 2026 and beyond, his message was to watch the actions of governments and major institutions, understand the structural case for physical precious metals and avoid allowing short-term market noise to obscure the longer-term trend. “You start suddenly—the puzzle comes together and you see the picture.”

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Sprott Money News Â· Global Gold Rush: Josh Phair Reveals the Warning Investors Are Missing | Sprott Money

Craig Hemke (00:01.164)
Hello again from Sprott Money, SproutMoney.com. it is September of 2026. One of the features we have every month is called Ask the Expert, and this is actually Ask the Expert number one. All kinds of great content coming from Sprott Money this month. we're gonna have a couple of Ask the Expert segments. So make sure you like or subscribe on this channel so you don't miss any of them. Diving in though on the first one.

We're going welcome in an old friend of mine, Josh Fair, who is the CEO of the Scottsdale Mint and someone we'll discuss called the Wyoming Reserve Opportunity Zone Fund Corp. We've got a special deal, and it's an exclusive thing that we're working with, Sprott Money and the Scottsdale Mint. So we're gonna talk about that too. But anyway, Josh, good to see you.

Josh Phair (01:02.054)
Great to great to see you as well. There's a few things going on these days.

Craig Hemke (01:06.084)
my goodness gracious. the air's going fast because it's just been so so crazy. but I do want to point out to people, just launched the Scottsdale Maple Leaf Stacker. It's a one ounce silver round, and you can get it right now exclusively only through Sprott Money. So you wanna get some I mean this is a really cool deal, Scott Josh. I know you've Scottsdale met his

specialized in these. I've this type of product before. but not had a maple leaf style and certainly not available through Sprott Money. I thought I'd show everybody. These are some that I've had, as you can tell, they're a little tarnished. I've had these for years, but they little ridges and they fit together in a little stack like that. It's pretty cool stuff. How about that?

Josh Phair (01:55.133)
Yeah, and th and those look those look pretty awesome. It's it obviously when you first get super shiny, but a decade later you've had out, you've been touching them. But that's a pretty cool patina. And and obviously there's ways to, you know, re polish them up or shine them up, but I kinda like that. It's almost a natural antiquing of is and I

Craig Hemke (02:02.305)
Yeah.

Craig Hemke (02:10.306)
Clean him up.

Craig Hemke (02:13.941)
Yeah. And they f they fit together. They're really cool.

Josh Phair (02:17.912)
And obviously iconic for you know, iconic Canadian imagery. And, you know, I think this was something, yeah, with the Sprott group here to to do something special and unique. And yeah, so that's kinda definitely an exciting launch. I would say in person they are amazingly gorgeous. It kinda has or a reverse proof finish. so one side's got the maple leafs frosted, super high relief, the and then the other side inset.

Craig Hemke (02:24.034)
Yeah.

Josh Phair (02:47.28)
you know, super high polish. It's a it's it's a gorgeous piece. You're gonna probably want, you know, some tubes of these and then have a few out on the desk as well.

Craig Hemke (02:55.863)
Great gift idea, you know, I would think as well. If you want to get the the kids or the grandkids, they could even fiddle with them a little bit, give ten of those babies in your Christmas stocking, you know, let the kids kind of stack and all that stuff. What the heck? Again, SprottMoney.com. exclusive there. And they are the sponsors of all this great content. So appre thank them for all that they put out by getting yourself some of these stackers today. Josh.

Scottsdale Mint is no longer in Scottsdale, Arizona. I think that's a fun place to start because you are at the forefront in the industry of broadening the scope of precious metals and bringing precious metal ownership and the values of precious metal ownership to as many people as you can. Just in a, if you can, kind of summarize why you're now in Wyoming and a little bit about the reserve opportunity zone fund that you've got up there.

Josh Phair (03:54.333)
Sure. I think next month hits our eighteen year anniversary. So Scottsdale Mint has been around for for quite a while. It's now minting for twenty plus foreign governments and central banks. It's does a lot of work with large private banks and then supplies probably about a hundred and fifty wholesalers all around the world.

Probably a lot of other names that people might hear we produce with their name on it. A lot of times people don't even know we we make it. So as you know, one of the larger private mints in the world, we're pretty actively busy. in an average year, I think last year we did I think it was around 1500 different different in different SKUs, different products. So we move a lot of volume on the investment side and we do a lot of variations of both gift and collectible. And some of it's legal tender, some of it's just it's big stuff going into a vault.

And we kind of see about almost half our business is overseas. So we see kind of see that market flow in different different spots. And during COVID, as you know, it was a weird time in the world. And as a private company, we made the decision to never shut down and we kept operating. And so we ended up picking up more and more business from other governments who were shut down for quite a long time. So the business really grew a lot during 2021. And I, you know, through a lot of prayer and time and thinking.

Craig Hemke (05:06.349)
Mm-hmm.

Josh Phair (05:14.228)
I was out of power space and I was already operating out of two buildings and there was nothing within about an hour that would that would have been able to handle the power requirements and the space requirements. So the old adage of go where you're treated best, and you know, and I kind of predicted that this is going to be a very difficult decade. we're kind of in the middle of it, and I think we're we're heading probably to the second phase of of what's gonna be a difficult decade here.

I wanted to be in a spot where my business and my family could be in a in a very stable environment. And as you may know, Wyoming is the number one sound money state. doesn't have the debt issues at all. And while it has some problems, it's rated better than any other state from a financial perspective. And it's just a it's a place of kind of like going back in time, it's kind of a no nonsense place. And so I also looked at, you know, where can you go for for labor? It's big.

In in and where I am in Casper, Wyoming now. we're in roughly sixty thousand square feet right now. It's it's in construction expanding even further. But it's an oil energy town. so a lot of fabrication, a lot of manufacturing. The largest oil sorry, the largest coal mine in the United States is about an hour and a half from here. We have eight uranium mining companies that that make Casper their home. So it's just it's a it's a spot where, you know, Kamaris very

respected here in this environment and great labor pool. And then also as you mentioned, I started another company called the Wyman Reserve. And that that company has really two elements. So I'll talk about it from from a a a business operation and and then what the fund is. So the business operation is it's a it's a vault. It's a vaulting operation in this in in this inside this facility.

That's kind of unlike some of the other ones. It it even is I believe we're one of the only, if not the only, foreign trade zone operators in the United States in with a commercial scale vault. So what that means is in the event of changes in tariffs, we're able to bring product in and store it, and it can be traded, held, loaned against, etc., for forever. So it's

Josh Phair (07:34.417)
We're also audited by U.S. Customs. So we have kind of a federal federal audit component in addition to our third-party quarterly audits. And so that vaulting operation is working with some really big, big institutions, large banks. there's you you there's some large other bullying dealers all over the world that will will say, hey, if you want to vault in in Wyoming, they're they're selecting this. So it's almost like they're they're kind of going through an omnibus account through us. We're very much focused on

Craig Hemke (07:37.325)
Mm-hmm.

Josh Phair (08:04.322)
on the institutional level and obviously also high net worth. we also just landed the state of Wyoming pretty recently. So the state of Wyoming decided it wanted to buy some physical gold and we got named as a finalist along with JP Morgan. And I did not think we were going to necessarily win win that and we end up we ended up winning it. So our facility arm guards, metal detection, x-ray

Craig Hemke (08:27.987)
Victory for the good guys.

Yeah.

Josh Phair (08:32.636)
the the armed semi trucks come through, drive-through, bollards go up and down, spikes, guard boosts, gun ports. It's it's a essentially a world class facility that that we've got here. And and you can imagine with tariffs are being applied to certain things like copper, certain rare earth minerals, artwork, other things are now getting hit. So this facility is going to be holding all types of different things. And then the other so that's the business operation of the Wyman Reserve.

Craig Hemke (08:43.669)
Very cool.

Craig Hemke (08:51.733)
Mm-hmm.

Josh Phair (09:02.298)
The other the other is that we're we're a fund. And so that's we have we sell equity in in the company and it's it's got really fantastic capital gain tax mitigation strategies. It's essentially we're in an opportunity zone. So starting actually now we even have the provision that can it can happen now through through an escrow. but Trump made opportunity zones permanent. And so our if you're an investor.

In the stock of the wine reserve, so you own a piece of it. it it defers. Let's say you had a cap gain in NVIDIA stock. You made a million dollars in NVIDIA. You get to defer that cap gain for five years and get a 10% step up and basis at the end of five years. Now, we're gonna be probably installing another vault down the road in a in a rural zone. So we hope to have a 30% step on step up and basis fairly soon. That's what we're looking at.

And then let's just say you meet your debt, your your tax obligations after that five years. If you hold the stock after 10, it it's it appreciates tax-free for life, which is pretty interesting. Now, this is where this is where as an investor it's pretty, it's kind of wild. It's a vault that actually is 90 plus percent of its balance sheets is in gold and silver. Physically audited, mark to market every day, physically third party audited every quarter.

Craig Hemke (10:09.141)
Wow. Yeah.

Josh Phair (10:23.942)
We strike a new stock price based on all the business activities that I mentioned, fulfillment services, all different inv vaulting fees, and then and then the active management and holding of those metals. So we've raised right around fifty million. We're in the midst of a hundred and ten million dollar raise, but you know, I think we're gonna probably raise a few hundred million over the next next two years is kind of the goal. And we've got amazing liquidity. So we're able to buy back our own stock just with a one year hold.

Craig Hemke (10:28.672)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Josh Phair (10:52.564)
and then if someone wants to sell 10% or all of it, we simply sell down our inventory and buy that stock back. And so it's a it's kind of a hybrid between like almost almost an ETF and then what what I would say JP Morgan's trade desk does with a vault. So they they've got a vaulting operation. They're the largest. I know some of our listeners are not big fans of them, so but they they do actively manage a lot of metal, including sometimes too much, we'd say in the marketplace.

Craig Hemke (11:08.075)
Yeah. Yeah.

Josh Phair (11:21.072)
But they control a lot of silver and they're financing the mines and refineries and and operators all the way all the way through. So we're we kind of do a a similar on a much smaller smaller level in a private side. I'd say a pro we're pro metal, a pro metal company. so that's that's so having both of those tax statuses, the foreign trade zone and an OZ allowed me to to to to launch that. So I sit as co CEO of of both companies.

Craig Hemke (11:37.845)
I fascinated. I

Craig Hemke (11:51.477)
That's fascinating. D do you have to be an accredited investor to take part in this kind of thing? Okay. So that's what

Josh Phair (11:54.801)
You you you do, yeah. So if if if people wanted to to check that out, it's the Wyoming Reserve dot com. You can take a look at it. I mean we we we've got Deloitte does our tax. we we we've got it's it's almost like a public traded company is how it's run. We we want to keep it private. So it's it's it's kinda wild to watch and I we're working with a number of blockchain companies that are wanting to put real world assets onto the blockchain. So

Craig Hemke (12:01.601)
All right.

Craig Hemke (12:10.647)
Yeah, yeah. It's fascinating.

Josh Phair (12:23.35)
as so you know while we're not a blockchain company, they would be able to to put stuff in here. They would fractionalize, tokenize, and we just we just sit as the as the as the custodian of of it. So it's we even have our own rail spur here. So it's it's a it's a fun it's been a fun adventure for me. I I've now lived here for four years. So I let I did leave Scottsdale a be wonderful place.

Craig Hemke (12:30.743)
Story.

Craig Hemke (12:42.262)
Yeah.

Josh Phair (12:50.114)
and and but you know, kind of where my kids were in life, why I mean was a kind of a great change of pace to to raise my family to as well.

Craig Hemke (12:53.645)
Yeah.

Yeah. I d Josh, it's it I think for people that didn't know all of this stuff, and you're even filling in some details for me and reminding me of a few things. Obviously, you've got your fingers firmly on the pulse of what's going on in the precious metals industry around the world. You're a great follow on Twitter, I should point out, at just put it all one all together, Josh Phillip Fair with one L.

In Philip and Fair is P H A I R. And I you post videos on there and your thoughts all the time. You're a great follow. I wanna using your experience and your unique position in this industry, I this is an open-ended question, obviously, that we could you could probably answer for 20 minutes. And I haven't made the question last 20 minutes so far. how would you even summarize what we've seen so far this year in this industry?

And how where do you think it played? How do you where do you see things going in the next, you know, the rest of this year and the next?

Josh Phair (14:05.628)
I'd say probably at a high level, you're just you're kind of watching the markets are all broken. I think we can all say the dollar is breaking, you know, and and I I put out a a post on X recently that confidence is slowly eroded and then it just collapses. And I think we're watching, I think there's so many flashpoints financially.

Craig Hemke (14:14.583)
Yeah.

Josh Phair (14:34.874)
Geopolitically, and that includes now militarily, you know, we're seeing some kinetic war components. I mean, at what point is Taiwan gonna go down? and so now I I feel like so many flashpoints are happening all at once. I think the retail world is really we're kind of used to, you know, sometimes people complain like, my gosh, silver, silver went down today, it shouldn't have.

Craig Hemke (14:43.245)
Right. Yeah.

Josh Phair (15:01.562)
But they're they're not seeing the journey. They're not seeing like what what's happening. And and I would say precious metals are often a trade. But I think what what's taking place right now with the central banks, they are buying. Governments are buying, and they're buying by printing fiat out of thin air and buying a hard asset. So to own something like that is fantastic. So

The wind is at your back. And so I think what's changed is it's really no longer a trade. This, and everyone's got a different situation, but I would say it's a potential lifeline for your family, your your the next generation. you know, you live you we we live in this world, this the US, if you're in other countries, the same similar things are happening. There's going to be a financial reset at at some point. How that looks and when exactly that rolls out.

but they're actually they're actively telling us that there's going to be there's going to be something. So I I I feel like you're you're I think the trade got a little crowded late last year, and a lot of people are all around the world, in particular the Chinese as well, are whose middle class didn't exist 10 10, 20 years ago. Now they're actively, they've got discretionary income and now they're a player in hard metal. And so I think.

Craig Hemke (16:02.178)
Yeah.

Josh Phair (16:22.426)
When when too many people are coming into the trade at once, they're comp you're competing now with the big boys. And so I think we saw we did see a little, you know, a little high level shenanigans knockdown. And then obviously that played into, you know, when the Iran war started, a lot of the Gulf states had liquidity issues, meaning they they weren't able to, you know, money's not coming in well. And so a lot of them did have to liquidate some gold. And I would say gold performed exactly like it is, it's insurance.

And so I think we did see gold probably get hit a little too hard, you know. And now I think I think a lot of the nations and countries, everyone's kind of let's say normalizing. I would call it the new normal of this straight or homuse situation. and obviously, I mean I I just put out an article that says SOCGEN, Society General, which is one of the Europe's largest banks, put out an article literally that says China's buying again, are you?

And I think a lot of people were like, it's just gonna go lower and and and no one can predict exactly you know, kind of where where things are happening. And but you look at what the central banks are doing, there's a there's a battle, there's a battle for who can control the most, who can who can who can basically stack the most gold, and now they're in the silver market as well. And so they're I mean, the United States announced last August a, you know, about about this time a year ago,

It's silver's now a critical mineral. What does that mean? And now they're setting up Project Vault, which they said they're putting in some price floors. They haven't even explained fully what this means, but I can probably surmise that they're actively buying. And so they're they're buying in this market when it hit goes below a certain level, they're buying it and they're stockpiling it. It's it's fairly it's fairly simple to to look at this. So I think you just have a lot of I think there's a lot of emotions both up and down.

Craig Hemke (17:54.017)
Huh? Nine.

Josh Phair (18:21.646)
And people have to take a step back and say, Well, where are we gonna be at the end of this decade? Twenty thirty two. And I think it and it and suddenly it goes from more of an emotional trade, it just becomes more of a core position that you say, you know what, it's it's a great it's a great place to kind of protect while the rest of the world nothing makes sense. You know, really nothing makes sense. And and you know, to me it almost it makes it a little easier to sleep at night and to just kind of sit back and

Craig Hemke (18:26.647)
Yeah.

Josh Phair (18:50.554)
And and let this ride. And conversely, if you're not in or not positioned enough to make a difference, and and you know, some people some people would say five percent allocation of precious metals is all you need. Well, that in a normal market, maybe you saw Morgan Stanley again about a year ago, they put out a new portfolio that said 20%. Now, when a bank is giving that high of a percentage, it's a signal, you know, and I think.

Do you want to be in bonds? Do you want to be in equities are at all time highs? They could keep going. But you even had the Fed has put out warnings. The valuations are some of the highest it's been. So what is it a third of our stock markets based on a handful of tech AI companies? So a a a crisis there could send, you know, ripples through the economy.

Craig Hemke (19:20.333)
Right.

Craig Hemke (19:37.815)
Mm-hmm.

Josh Phair (19:47.291)
And that doesn't mean that gold gold and silver couldn't go down, you know, what I would call temporarily in those types of situations, but it's gonna perform quite, you know, it should perform quite well long term. And so this is I think I think we're all kind of digesting what the heck is going on and where are we going.

Craig Hemke (20:04.885)
it is pretty easy to lean in real close and have all this stuff coming at you, you know, a hundred miles a minute. And you you the the old adage of s not seeing the forest from the trees 'cause all so much in front of you. I wanna I I wanna ask you one last question because I I was having a discussion with an old friend of mine yesterday, and I asked him and I said, Have you

You know, you you track the central bank gold demand, you know, like I do. And you just assume everybody follows this stuff, right? Right? But they don't. the Chinese went through a long period where they weren't buying any gold, at least not officially. And then that restarted a couple of years ago. In the last couple of years, it's been maybe a metric ton in a month, maybe a half a ton. Last year, all of 2027 or 2025, they purchased 27 metric.

Tons. They just bought 20 tons in August, bringing their total year to date to 80. So when you talk about the signposts, if you're willing, you know, if you kind of brush aside all the stuff that's coming at you so fast, that something is pending. I mean, isn't that what is that something we should all be going, huh? Well, that's really interesting. What do you make it?

Josh Phair (21:23.585)
you know, I I I like the slogan, fall in the footsteps of the giants. You know, I already mentioned buying things where the wind's at your back. you know, I'm not gonna say anything is completely easy because it's not, but that I knew there was a highly likely chance that all this was going to happen during COVID shutdowns. And that's why.

Craig Hemke (21:29.953)
Yeah.

Josh Phair (21:47.375)
I visited this facility and I looked for a place for special taxation. I didn't know the tariff thing was going to come as quickly as it did, but I had an idea that it might, based on the Smooth Hawley Act or what happened during the Great Depression. And I think if you want to dive into what people believe, what did the Smooth Hawley Act do? Which was it delayed economic recovery? But then some critics will even say, was it done on purpose to allow a transition?

Craig Hemke (21:54.615)
Right.

Craig Hemke (22:14.22)
Yeah.

Josh Phair (22:14.83)
of the world economy. So here we are now. You know, a lot of people are frustrated going, hey, this tariff thing, you know, th there's a number of reasons for it, trade, different things, but are they going to do this to create an environment where we could see another transition? So to me, I I put my chips, I moved my family, you know, I I I moved my business. I think we had roughly 20 families that moved up from Arizona to to Wyoming. And

Craig Hemke (22:17.687)
Yep.

Josh Phair (22:43.492)
So, you know, here we are. So I'm not gonna say it's an easy, but you you kind of look at the odds, you know, and I I I I I put things on I pin them on the wall essentially. All the all the different things I'm thinking about, what I'm seeing, and and you start suddenly the puzzle comes together and you s and you see the picture. Because it is you can get and you and I have talked about this in the past, you know, social media can you can you can be you can be caught up, you could either be disgusted or give up.

Craig Hemke (22:59.873)
Yeah. Yeah.

Josh Phair (23:13.038)
Or just in your in a doom cycle. And I think when but when you step back and you say, you know what, there are things in life that I can be happy about. And you also can be like, I'm blessed that I'm seeing things that other people aren't. So I I think you you say it on some of your things. You're not a soothsayer. neither am I. But I think a lot of people are not reading the tea leaves and they're not putting it together because no one's going to show you this. They're not going to lay it all out for you, especially the the government is not. They're not going to tell you what's going to happen.

the banks are rarely going to tell you where we're headed either. They're only allowed to say certain things, but even they are fairly bullish on precious metals. So I I think this is, yeah, this is where this is kind of where I think it's a a wonderful opportunity to, you know, to be positioned for what we're about to face over the next number of years, which is going to be

Craig Hemke (23:51.303)
Yeah. Yeah.

Josh Phair (24:07.428)
some major financial crisis, though maybe the likes that we've not seen. I know they call it the great financial crisis was what, fifteen years ago, f s you know, starting in eight, you know, do the real estate. But I think whatever we're facing ahead is is potentially gonna be, you know, make that look like a pimple.

Craig Hemke (24:24.435)
d the the daily stuff, you know, the we're down three dollars today and we're up two dollars the next day and you know, all that stuff is just a distraction. Man, I I that's what I w tell people on my side. Stay focused on you know, the math is the math. What are the signs that are there? You know, we're not you mentioned having the things on the wall. There's one side is the John Nash, right? That's got all the strings and he's in his garage and he's right. I that's I

Pretty sure that's not what we're doing here. We're j we're connecting the pretty obvious signs that are there if you stop long enough to notice.

Josh Phair (25:01.968)
Would agree. And, you know, and everyone looks at things differ through a different lens. And so y I think, you know, unfortunately, I'm gonna feel I won't feel bad for people that saw it, digested it, and decided to discard it and not prepare for it. I I do feel bad for those that maybe don't have the education or the understanding of of what's happening, or they don't have the resources to make something happen. I think that's gonna be up to

Craig Hemke (25:06.604)
Yeah.

Craig Hemke (25:17.409)
Right. Right.

Craig Hemke (25:25.89)
Right.

Josh Phair (25:29.304)
for each and every one, if you we are blessed, you know, to then hopefully be able to bless other people along the way, whether that's just immediate family or beyond. And I think that's so we I think we have a responsibility not to push the doom and gloom, but to to just show, you know, what what what could be coming and and how to position in advance.

Craig Hemke (25:49.804)
Right. How do you yes, how do you not necessarily take advantage, but how do you with the if you were granted some advanced foreknowledge, you know, of what is likely coming, how would you take steps now to prepare rather than just simply react when it's all upon you? And Josh, you've done a fant in the time I've known you, which is g geeze, I don't know, dozen years? I mean it's been a while.

Josh Phair (26:13.424)
Probably probably. Yeah, at least.

Craig Hemke (26:16.329)
I I just have always appreciated your friendship and I've always admired your courage to to follow and take action on what you've seen and clearly what you built in Wyoming is fantastic. And I I know that I I I'm thrilled that the folks at Sprott Money see that too and they wanted a partnership with your company. And I I'm very excited to see where it goes from here.

Josh Phair (26:40.538)
Well, appreciate your work as well and yeah, in the relationships. It's a at the of the day, it's a while it's a big dollar industry worldwide, it's a small, there's only there's not that many people really in this in this space. And so I I appreciate people that stick with it and add add value to people and what they do. So definitely thanks for having me on.

Craig Hemke (26:55.031)
Yeah.

Craig Hemke (27:03.849)
It's it was great to visit with you. And again, I just remind everybody, Sprott Money, found at SproutMoney.com or 888-861-0775. If you want to talk to them about these great new one ounce maple leaf stacker, god, that's a hard thing for me to get out. check them out. They're on the Sprott Money site. I think you'll be, I like I said, I these things they're I've always thought that was one of the coolest things. The original ones I've had.

I've let get tarnished because I keep them in my desk. They're fun to kind of stack and move around and all that kind of stuff. Very cool product. Glad your working was brought money. Scott or Scott. Josh. Scott, what in the world? You know what? Not my it's not that I'm now 60 years old and a grandpa and starting to lose it. Thank you, Josh. I appreciate that. Josh, thank you so much for your time. It's always great to visit with you.

Josh Phair (27:45.596)
Scott's Dale, that's your minds. Yep. I'll forgive you. I'll forgive you on this one. I'll forgive you on this

No, no, no, no, no, no.

Josh Phair (28:01.123)
Absolutely. Thank you.

Craig Hemke (28:02.882)
From all of us, Sprott Money, SproutMoney.com. Again, keep an eye on the site. This is just Ask the Expert Number One. And all kinds of additional content going as we go through what's going to be a very volatile month of September. So make sure you like or subscribe so you don't miss any of it. And we'll see you again soon on this channel.

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