On this week's Stansberry Investor Hour, Dan and Corey welcome Nick Hodge to the show. Nick is the editor of Underground Alpha at Digest Publishing and an expert natural resource investor.

Nick kicks off the show by discussing how he got into natural resource investing. He says that he began with a focus on clean technology but switched lanes after the great financial crisis hit. Sharing a case study, Nick talks about antimony miner Perpetua Resources and notes that "the smart money is now here" in the natural resource space. Nick also makes his bullish case for $5,000 or $6,000 gold over the next 12 to 18 months – there are more buyers than sellers, the metal is "underowned," and crypto traders continue to enter the space. (0:00)

Next, Nick says his specialty is evaluating junior miners, so he dives deep into what he looks for in each company – both in terms of share structure and management. After that, Nick covers human psychology versus the cyclical nature of natural resources, the U.S. outsourcing the production and refining of rare earths and minerals to China, and why the federal government is now scrambling to reverse the outsourcing. He explains that we're still at the very beginning of this growth trend, so there's time for investors to profit for years to come. (19:39)

Finally, Nick explains the nuance in precious metals investing, including the difference between heavy and light rare earths. He then shares the name of a technology company he likes today that tracks and digitizes mining-company data. Nick says that it "brings mining out from the opaque nature that it has into a transparent nature." And he closes with a conversation about the importance of investing in precious metals in such rough economic times. (39:00)