From sitting on drill rigs at the age of eight to running investments for Li Ka-shing, Hong Kong’s billionaire business magnate, Warren Gilman has extensive experience in the mining and investment industries.
Gilman currently runs Queens Road Capital (TSX:QRC), a TSX-listed investment firm, based out of Hong Kong, focused on investing in private and public resources companies.
Investing for Mr Li is just one part of Gilman’s lore in the industry. His deep belief in the uranium industry is the other. He explains that he first became involved through an investment in NexGen Energy (TSX:NXE), citing that “it is a spectacular orebody.”. It was the geology that first grabbed his attention, but it’s the economics behind the industry itself that has kept him invested.
What sustained Gilman’s interest was the glaring mismatch between supply and demand. “We’re talking about a mine supply of 100 million pounds a year with reliable global demand sitting at 200 million pounds a year. This is a massive, multi-year deficit that is growing.”
This wasn’t a cyclical shortfall, like we see with the occasional deficits in copper. Gilman notes that this was a multi-year gap that was widening. Such a deficit creates powerful investment conditions where even modest demand growth or supply disruptions can trigger price increases.
Gilman emphasises that his investment philosophy focuses less on demand forecasts and more on supply constraints. Uranium, similarly to gold, silver, and copper, is supply-constrained and that scarcity underpins long-term value.
Nuclear is gaining tailwinds as it is increasingly seen as essential for the green energy transition and for energy security. We’re seeing increasing government support for the industry, reinforcing its strategic role.
Gilman sees the current environment as one of the best in two decades for junior miners. “Rising commodity prices have transformed previously marginal projects into highly attractive prospects,” Gilman says.
As a result, juniors are able to access a much broader and deeper investor base. And this environment means that exploration companies are able to advance projects that might have struggled to attract attention just a year ago.
At Queens Road Capital, Gilman’s strategy is shaped by caution and longevity, avoiding jurisdictions with high geopolitical risk. His guiding principle was inherited from his time managing investments for Li Ka-Shing and is simple, “invest only in assets that your grandchildren will still own decades from now”.
Much of the interest in uranium is centered on Canada’s Athabasca Basin, which is home to some of the richest uranium deposits in the world. For investors like Gilman, Athabasca represents the ideal combination of geology and jurisdiction.
Gilman’s uranium thesis fits into the key macro themes that he sees driving mining in 2026, including debasement trade with a flight from the US dollar into hard assets like gold, silver, uranium, and other commodities in general.
Electrification is another major trend that Gilman points out. “You’re going to continue to see electrification and energy independence, and that plays right into the hands of nuclear.”
And finally, government intervention is the final theme driving 2026 with subsidies and policy support reshaping project economics. Gilman points out that this is “a theme that you need to be very conscious of and make sure you’re on the right side of it because it can lead to the development of projects that are, on a standalone basis, highly uneconomic”.
For those wanting to explore these themes further, Mining.com.au is hosting a webinar today with Skyharbour Resources (TSX-V:SYH), a company active in Canada’s Athabasca Basin. The discussion will provide fresh insights into uranium exploration and development in one of the world’s premier uranium jurisdictions, tying directly into the supply-side dynamics that Gilman highlights as central to the investment case.
Write to Amy Rotman at Mining.com.au
Images: Unsplash
