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The gold price has now been camped out above $1,400 an ounce for a month, and silver has finally come alive above $16 per ounce, but legendary mining financier Eric Sprott had already kicked off a major junior investment spree when the metals were significantly cheaper than they are today.

The Canadian billionaire investor – also a pioneer in the gold-backed ETF industry – has splashed more than C$139 million on 16 gold and silver explorers (and some nickel on the side) since May, according to junior mining finance authority Oreninc. $127m of the total found its way to Canada-domiciled companies.