The macro story and the mining story are increasingly colliding.
Steve Hyland of TheDeepDive.ca joins Piggo’s Trading Desk to preview the Above & Beyond Summit, scheduled for November 22–24, 2026, in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Rather than another enormous investment convention where retail investors struggle to get within ten feet of a CEO, the summit is designed around a smaller, relationship-focused format. Hyland explains why that matters for junior mining investors, where access to management, geologists, financiers and other shareholders can sometimes reveal more than another investor presentation.
And the conference arrives during an unusually important period for resources.
Copper has recently traded at record levels as concerns about constrained mine supply collide with expanding requirements from AI data centers, electrical grids and infrastructure. The IEA’s 2026 critical-minerals outlook likewise identifies copper supply and supply-chain concentration as major strategic concerns.
At the same time, bond yields have surged as markets digest enormous government borrowing requirements and growing corporate debt issuance including borrowing associated with the AI infrastructure boom. That creates the central macro question behind this episode: What happens if the technology driving demand for physical resources is simultaneously contributing to stress in the financial system funding it?
That tension makes the mining sector especially interesting.
AI is not immaterial. Data centers require electricity, transmission equipment, cooling systems and enormous physical infrastructure. Those systems ultimately translate into demand for copper and other strategically important materials. The IEA specifically identifies AI, digital systems, high-tech manufacturing, aerospace and defense among the industries increasing the strategic importance of critical-mineral supply chains.
The conversation therefore moves from gold and silver into copper, phosphate, antimony, potash, graphene and other resource themes and into the speculative junior companies attempting to discover or develop the deposits that could supply them.
Speakers discussed include Mark Finchem, Lynette Zang, David Morgan, Jay Martin, Daryl Thomas and Spencer Gatton, alongside companies such as Blue Jay Gold, Prismo Metals, First Majestic Silver, Canadian Copper, First Phosphate, Quest Corp Mining and Rackla Metals.
For Piggo’s Trading Desk listeners considering attending, the audience code discussed during the interview is:
PT500 — $500 off the stated $750 admission price through September 20.
The broader thesis is simple:
AI may be digital, but the infrastructure underneath it is physical.
And if debt, currency uncertainty and geopolitical competition continue pushing investors toward tangible assets at the same time AI increases demand for electricity and raw materials, the next phase of the commodity cycle could increasingly become a search for the companies controlling resources still in the ground.
Disclaimer: Junior mining and exploration companies are highly speculative. Commodity prices can be volatile, and exploration does not guarantee an economic discovery or mine. Comments concerning monetary policy, future money creation, commodity prices or individual companies represent opinions and forward-looking views rather than guaranteed outcomes or investment advice.
Contact Steve:
Above & Beyond Summit — November 22–24 | Scottsdale, AZ
00:00 Welcome & Steve Hyland
00:11 Above & Beyond Summit 2026
01:01 Why Smaller Mining Conferences Win
03:03 CEO Access & Investor Networking
06:51 Debt, AI & the Hard-Asset Thesis
10:25 Critical Minerals & Mining Supply Crunch
13:09 Gold Strength & Future Monetary Policy
15:49 Stablecoins & Inflation
20:29 Speakers at the Scottsdale Summit
22:16 Junior Mining Companies to Watch
28:42 Summit Schedule & Raffle
29:56 PT500 Promo Code & Closing
