Mm-hmm.

So sometimes you just have to look at something and say, "Is life too short to do something about it?" Yes.

And am I going to make other people's lives too short by putting them in harm's way in a place where the terrorist insurgents go out of their way to kill Chinese? So I don't wanna be there.

So literally and figuratively, it wasn't being afraid of death, just not wanting to be there when it happened.

It was even more than that.

And I came to the conclusion that one of the great and sad ironies of this bull market that was coming was that people would buy into potentially fine world-class assets in many jurisdictions, and then find to their chagrin that it was taken away from them because they don't game out the consequences of a bull market in gold.

If you genuinely believe that gold will go to 5,000, which I did, of course, um, and 10,000, 20,000, on what planet do you believe that you will be allowed to keep that gold mine in a country in which if there's ever a global downturn again, the only thing that's producing cash is the gold or the silver? They will take it from you.

I mean, how do you build a partnership like that, and what did the last one teach you?

Yeah

... because the fundamentals are so strong for precious metals, but we could have a 1987 moment.

That is to say, um, something where the Dow in October '87 went from 3650-ish to 2650-ish, and that was the best buying opportunity of the entire bull market.

And so the crash of 1987, it really did seem like the world was falling in upon itself, and yet when you look back over that chart, you can't see it.

You know, certainly a person of my vintage would need glasses to be able to perceive it.

It's that minute.

So no timeframe, I did ask twice, but the sharpest thing he said had nothing to do with the price.

On what planet do you believe that you will be allowed to keep that gold mine in a country in which if there's ever a global downturn again, the only thing that's producing cash is the gold or the silver? They will take it from you.

I mean, how could the market leave gold out there valued in this company at $119 an ounce? Didn't, didn't somebody else figure this out?

Well, the short answer is that it won't.

Um, you know, NovaGold was resurrected, um, when John Paulson joined with NovaGold to take Barrick out of their stake, um, a little bit over a year ago, and the stock went from $3 to a high of 14 when the gold shares peaked.

Um, we fully expect to surpass that high.

Um, and the transaction that we've just announced, um, is only going to add kerosene to the fire.

Uh, both John and I, um ...

I mean, we're both loving the idea of working together on this because we both bring, um, similar philosophy and values, but also different skill sets into maximizing the value for the shareholders.

Um, has that ever been something you're interested in?

It's not like with watches, for example, where you can say, "Okay, this watch clearly is being sold for 20,000 euro, and if someone pays 100,000 euro for it, then it's clearly very suspicious."

Yes, 100%.

So, and there's no economic sense someone would pay so much for a Rolex if you bought it for 20.

There's kind of market prices.

There's minimal deviation, let's say, but, but not big.

In properties, it's totally different.

It's, I call it wild, wild west market.

So a luxury property which might have a value of 1 million, you can say it's 2 million, and who is to argue?

So would you be able to explain a little bit about how you first got involved in that, and what that work consisted of?

Yeah, it's funny.

Um, uh, the thing I didn't told you in our pre-call is that, uh, at first I wanted to be a doctor, and I was preparing studying, and then one day someone from the police asked me, "Why don't you join the police? You have to study three year.

You do a diploma." And I said, "No, I will be a doctor." They said, "Just, just go for the test, for the assessment center, and we will see." So I just did it, and there were 50 people who wanted to be a police officer, and only 15 was able to finishing this assessment, and I was one of them.

I said, "You have to be a policeman." So then I went to the police, and, uh, then I was an uniformed police officer.

And then a couple of years after 9/11, uh, Germany tried to, let's say, get more information about what happens with Islamic terrorism in Germany because we know as one of these criminal terrorist groups from 9/11 was from Germany.

It was in Hamburg based.

With your undercover work, what does it need to be successful and to successfully stop that terrorist financing?