Video News/In Focus with Jeremy Szafron

(Kitco News) - Gold and silver mining stocks represent a generational opportunity that is still in its early innings, with the largest gains yet to come, according to Don Durrett, author and founder of GoldStockData.com. Speaking with Kitco News, Durrett said he is working with conservative targets of $7,000 gold and $200 silver, levels at which he estimates the major gold miners could return roughly five times their money and the top silver names six to eight times. He argued that even a simple ETF could deliver a four to five-fold return without the need to pick individual stocks, though he cautioned that mining shares are volatile, with gold falling 29% and silver 55% from their January highs during the recent correction. Durrett, who tracks roughly 870 companies and owns 168 of them, compared his conviction to Michael Burry's Big Short bet, calling gold "a certainty" where the only real question is timing. He added that he expects a wave of mining sector mergers and acquisitions as cash-rich producers move to acquire junior miners.