Jayant Bhandari – Firsthand Account Of Chinese Economy, Gold and Copper Demand Outlook, And Opportunities Trading Junior Resource Stocks
The KE Report w/ Shad Marquitz - (04-14-2025)
Jayant Bhandari, a private strategic resource investor that consults many high-net-worth investors, joins me to share his takeaways on the economic health of China, US and China trade relations, his outlook on copper demand and gold demand, and opportunities he sees in handful of junior resource stocks.
🔑 Key Insights from Jayant Bhandari:
🔹We start off in a general discussion about the economic health in China, since he is traveling there for a couple of months at present and have frequently traveled there for stretches of time over many years. This leads into discussions about all the recent news on US/China trade relations, tariffs, and manufacturing.
🗣 Quote: “I’m continually impressed by this country. I understand the pushback on the whole CCP thing and the perception that outside people have of China…. but, in many ways it feels very much like the United States. The quality of their roads, and tunnels, and infrastructure… things just seem to work better here.”
🌍 The US wants to bring their manufacturing back, and I fully understand that. That should never have left the United States in the first place. But at the same time, the people of China are honorable people, that take pride in their work, and they are going to continue to do what is best for them. I just hope that the 2 countries find some way to work together, rather than working against one another.
The focus then shifts to the importance of China to the whole commodities sector, since they also have most of the processing and manufacturing capacity on a global scale.
Ghost cities – residential construction is certainly a problem at present. “That industry is probably gone for now. I don’t really see much construction happening… I just see empty lots and fully constructed buildings and structures.”
Jayant outlines that China is flexible in how they employee and pay workers . When economic problems hit they actually reduce what they pay in salaries, and it helps them absorb contractions in economic activity.
“Overall, economic growth in China should continue, which means that consumption of commodities should also continue to increase.”
We get Jayant’s outlook on both gold and copper demand, why he remains quite bullish on gold, but is less certain of the future demand from China as it relates to copper.
🛠Copper pricing is often seen as the forecaster of the global economic health, but we’ve seen pricing of the red metal have extreme volatility lately. We saw copper pricing get up into the $5.20s and $5.30s a few weeks back, then crash down to near $4.00, and then rebound up again now trading over $5.60.
➤ Jayant discusses that it is hard for him to have a specific outlook on copper demand in China because of the larger adoption of electric vehicles.
“I see electric vehicles all over China, EVs have taken China by storm… but at the same time, the cost to travel using these vehicles is very cheap. So it is possible that as the efficiencies improve and more people are happy to use ride sharing options versus owning a vehicle.”
👉 Additionally, Jayant points out that since they have had EVs for a while the recycled copper from old vehicles is now starting to come into the market. It is possible that the demand for copper may actually go down in China.
⚖️ Certainly gold is a great metal to own today, simply because there will continue to be a lot of volatility in the markets.
“There will be uncertainty on if the US can bring some of the manufacturing back in country, but also as it keeps its tariff policy very moody and unpredictable. Tariff policies like these create a lot of problems with global trade.”
Pivoting over to gold equities we dive into a few of the companies where he sees and interest value proposition.
We kick off this review with Integra Resources Corp. (TSXV: ITR) (NYSE American: ITRG), following up on a prior discussion where he saw a good arbitrage trade for buying Florida Canyon and letting those shares convert over into Integra Resources.
Now that Integra has had a good move higher, he is more interested in the value being offered by the free-trading, but somewhat illiquid, Integra warrants. He outlines the pricing levels he is watching and bidding at.
“Lack of liquidity or excess liquidity can be your friend or enemy, depending on what your mindset is. When I’m patiently waiting in the market, lack of liquidity is usually my friend and I will just sit on it, hoping that someone that desperately wants to sell a big block will sell that block of shares to me.”
Next we discussed the arbitrage in pricing of NexGold Mining Corp. (TSXV: NEXG; OTCQX: NXGCF), between the recent bought deal and where the shares are trading.
He sees this as a condition making it attractive for accumulating under the pricing of the recent financing. We also talked about their rollup strategy of a couple flagship development projects under one company, and the potential advantage of getting one project into production to eventually fund the development of the other key project.
Next up we discussed the arbitrage trade with regards to the takeover of Quebec Precious Metals Corporation (TSXV:QPM) by Fury Gold Mines Ltd (TSX: FURY)(NYSE American: FURY).
At this point Jayant is mostly interested in capturing that delta in valuation of the merger, and outlines at what pricing levels he is interested in accumulating for it to make sense. He will assess whether he wants to continue holding or sell the Fury shares after the transaction has been completed later this month.
Value proposition in Group Eleven Resources Corp. (TSXV: ZNG) (OTC Pink: GRLVF), based on potential growth for the deposit, and the proximity to the Glencore project next door. He sees it as likely that these two projects will get consolidated over time, and likes that Group Eleven is cashed up and drilling for high-grade mineralization with multiple rigs at the moment.
We also check in on the large portfolio position that he has in Aztec Minerals Corp. (TSX-V: AZT), (OTCQB: AZZTF).
Jayant mentions that between their 2 projects, that he is paying more attention to the Tombstone Project because it is precious metals in Arizona, versus the Cervantes project in Mexico. Jayant is more bullish on the US as a jurisdiction over Mexico in the present permitting and geopolitical backdrop.
Coming full circle in this discussion, we highlight the mad rush into many niche critical minerals like tungsten, antimony, geranium, and rare earths due to the export restrictions from China of these metals into the US.
“Commodities find a way around restrictions. They are like water… You build a dam and water flows elsewhere. Those commodities will go to another country, and then from country x they will still go into the US.”
👉 He points to what we saw with oil, copper, and nickel after the initial price spikes when the Ukraine/Russia war got underway, but then the commodities out of Russia found other routes around trade restrictions via other countries.
Wrapping up, Jayant shares more information about why listeners may want to attend his Capitalism and Morality conference on August 22-23 this year in Vancouver.
· KER listeners get a coupon code for 10% off admission: KEReport25
https://jayantbhandari.com/capitalism-morality-2025/
🎧Click here to listen to the full interview for Jayant’s thoughts on the health of the Chinese economy, US versus China trade, his outlook on copper and gold demand, and a number of resource stocks where he sees a compelling value arbitrage.
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