I recently reviewed The Mining Investor’s Handbook by Robin Bromby as a guest author on the blog of Silicon Valley Author Ann Bridge

Bromby is a veteran journalist, author, and occasional publisher well known from his four decades at The Australian, Australia’s best selling national daily newspaper.

I spend time every business day reading about the metals markets and analyzing various companies to produce my Industrial Minefinder™ investing service. One thing I have noticed about mining investing is that there are no experts (left), just a few sages wearing garments of humility. Decades of battlefield scars lie behind their frequent cautions. Bromby is one such sage.

Bromby fills the pages of his Handbook with facts and gleanings that investors need to hear, even if they don’t want to. He covers the globe, the history books, and the periodical table as he spans the mining “universe.” Seasoned mining investors who do not learn something new are simply not paying attention. I, myself, did not realize that manganese is the 4th most used metal.

Bromby’s sage shows up in the fact that he does not outwardly promote the price of any metal or miner rising. He simply lays enough factual groundwork to form the “handbook” he promises for investors to find their own. At one point I did find myself asking, “Just what does he think?”

Finally, I caught one glimpse when he spilled this view on the future of metals: “I, however, think it is a very frightening one – that will include conflicts over what resources are left. But probably the Chinese have already figured that out, and by 2030 will own pretty much everything, anyway, by selectively picking off those deposits that matter.”

“Bromby’s handbook suddenly shines as it gently reveals that the next super-cycle bull rush will span the periodic table more broadly than the last.

Bromby misses the fact that higher prices will find all the metal the world needs. In other words, more resources are discovered and developed as soon as the economic incentive is there to do so. Yet, throughout the book, here and there, he hints at what perhaps no Wall Street analyst has yet to figure out: China’s slower but continued ascension will have them mining more outwardly as their price insensitive economic model has depleted all their own low-hanging fruit. The next price boom will be more of a supply story than a demand story.

By revealing the emergence of various minor metals in the 20th century as becoming critical to advanced technology, and thus economic and military superiority, Bromby’s handbook suddenly shines as it gently reveals that the next super-cycle bull rush will span the periodic table more broadly than the last. Recent years have brought early tremors in cobalt, lithium, and vanadium – things no one talked about during the first super-cycle.

If you’re looking for information on what metals to invest in, how to analyze costs, or what jurisdictions to avoid, this handbook is not for you. Then again, maybe it is. Many mining investors lack critical perspective and often expect too much from what lies underground. They spend years, sometimes decades, following mirages in a desert where there is no golden stream. What I liked best about Bromby’s handbook is just this perspective. It forces one to think strategically. I enjoy investing in mining and Bromby’s handbook helped me remember why.

For more information on Robin Bromby and his books, please visit Highgate Publishing.

The Mining Investor’s Handbook: What you will need to know for the next bull market can be purchased through Amazon.