VA Carbon (Jamie's private company) invests in carbon credit generation and sales, positioning investors for exposure to forced decarbonization trends while providing hedge against inflation from climate regulation, regardless of one's ideological stance on climate policy

Mining is often described as 'Dungeons and Dragons for middle-aged adults'—a hobby element where investors build portfolios of junior mining companies, maintain relationships with CEOs, conduct site visits, and participate in speculative discovery plays while accepting significant downside risk for potential outsized returns

People consistently make larger investments in private placements at market peaks (when sentiment is most bullish) and smaller investments at market troughs (when sentiment is most bearish), which is the opposite of optimal contrarian positioning and explains why average returns suffer from retail timing

Jamie Keyes operates Resource Insider as a subscriber-funded private placement newsletter with no company sponsorship or promotional revenue, investing 6-18 months ahead of public market listings in early-stage private companies before they go public

Jamie Keyes positioned heavily into gold deals starting in summer 2020 at prices 50% below market value with warrant packages, but those positions collapsed 50%+ within 6 months when gold rally ended, demonstrating the danger of chasing trending themes rather than investing contrarian

Resource Insider shifted strategy substantially in 2021-2024 away from pure junior mining towards private cash-flowing businesses (like the Frac terminal partnership in North Dakota) and energy infrastructure to reduce volatility and provide diversification outside the stock market

Investment decisions should distinguish between three independent factors: the asset quality (geological or business fundamentals), the management team's execution capability, and the current market/commodity cycle timing, with many investors conflating these and making poor bets by focusing on only one dimension

Macro/commodity cycle factors have had larger impact on Resource Insider's returns than individual company stock picking ability, with uranium being a macro call that delivered one of their best return profiles despite moderate company selection work

Jamie Keyes came from pure technical mining engineering background (VMS exploration, mine design, engineering contractor roles) with no stock market involvement, entering mining investment through business/finance education gained at Equinox Gold, not through investment interest

Retail investors in junior mining typically have little interest in early-stage resource companies until commodities spike (when valuations are at cyclical peaks), leading to poor risk-adjusted returns despite access to information available to professional investors