Bankers from Stifel Nicolaus Canada and Aitken Mount led the offering, which attracted strong interest from institutional investors in Australia, Canada and abroad, as well as existing shareholders, Southern Cross president and CEO Michael Hudson said Thursday.

“This funding allows us to advance our drill programs, complete permitting for the underground tunnel to allow access for underground drilling, all which will provide the necessary information to complete economic studies,” Hudson said in a press release.

Sunday Creek lies 60 km north of Melbourne in Australia’s Lachlan Fold Belt, a corridor that hosts Agnico Eagle Mines’ (TSX, NYSE: AEM) Fosterville mine and Mandalay Resources’ (TSX: MND) Costerfield mine. The region has proven geology and developed infrastructure. Southern Cross’ Redcastle project sits 2 km from Costerfield’s licences and 24 km east of Fosterville, further highlighting the cluster’s exploration upside.

Sunday Creek’s 20% antimony content has drawn a lot of attention. The company could one day become a key Western supplier of this important metal, especially given current geopolitical issues, Hudson said.

The company’s Toronto-listed shares gained as much as 4% or C19¢ Friday to C$4.88, before settling back to C$4.81, still up 2.5% by press time. They have ranged between C$1.02 and C$4.95 over the past 12 months, giving Southern Cross a market capitalization of C$1.1 billion ($800m).

Initial resource

About C$53 million of the net proceeds will fund 207,000 metres of drilling to establish an inferred resource by early 2027. Some C$27 million will go toward permitting and development of a 1 km decline for underground drilling, while C$4 million is spent on a preliminary economic assessment. Another C$59 million will be allocated to exploration target expansion, regional exploration and working capital.

Southern Cross has begun the permitting process for a 600-metre underground tunnel at Sunday Creek. This tunnel will enable underground drilling next year. A formal application to the Victoria resources regulator is due by September, followed by community drop-in sessions across Mitchell Shire.

In early March, the company announced it will double its Sunday Creek exploration target. It expects to find between 8.1 – 9.6 million tonnes of ore.

The gold-equivalent grades are to range from 8.3-10.6 grams per tonne, translating potentially to about 2.2-3.2 million oz. of metal. This represents an increase of up to 88% in tonnage compared to the January 2024 target. There’s also a 15% rise in grade and as much as 120% more contained metal. Plus, the target area now covers 67% of the 1.5 km drill footprint.

Resource growth

The expansion is focused on three main areas: Rising Sun (340 metres), Apollo (280 metres) and Golden Dyke (400 metres).  

The drilling fleet now has eight diamond rigs. Seven of these focus on expansion and infill drilling between the Apollo and Christina prospects in a 1.5 km corridor. The eighth rig targets regional trends identified by past work, geophysical data and soil anomalies. A planned geotechnical program of five holes totalling 900 metres will support the exploration tunnel application.

Recent results from three deep holes at the Apollo prospect are promising. Hole SDDSC158 showed 100.5 metres at 3.1 grams gold-equivalent from a depth of 820.8 metres. This included 28.6 metres at 10.3 grams gold-equivalent per tonne and a 1.4 metre section at 142.2 grams gold-equivalent. This confirms mineralization continuity at depth, Southern Cross said.

GDP growth in the last quarter of Biden’s administration was 2.4%; in the first quarter of Trump’s administration, it is – 0.3%.

Wednesday’s Commerce Department report showed that US consumer spending rose 0.7% in March, a solid gain but consumers might of been stocking up before Trump’s tariffs took effect.

The personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index (A measure of the prices that people living in the United States, or those buying on their behalf, pay for goods and services and the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge) rose 2.3% from a year earlier, a lower annual inflation rate than in recent months but the March inflation data comes from a time before most of Trump’s tariffs took effect.

US and global stock markets went into a tizzy and still are — though since the 90-day hiatus was announced and trade deals are supposedly under negotiation they have recovered somewhat. The bond market too sold off dramatically after Trump’s announced high tariffs on imported goods on April 2.

Oil prices have collapsed because demand has cratered.

The macro situation? The US economy might be shrinking despite a blip from businesses and consumers stocking up before tariffs took effect. The US economy appears to have at least temporarily stalled.

China is canceling orders of key agricultural exports. It earlier this month halted a shipment of 12,000 tons of pork, the largest order since the pandemic in 2020. In the week ending April 17, China dropped its soybean orders to just 1,800 tons, down more than 97% from 72,800 tons bought the week before. China has switched to Brazil as its main soybean supplier.

The New York Post reports the US agricultural industry into a “full-blown crisis” as canceled orders from China are forcing farmers to lay off workers or shut down their businesses, according to a trade group.

Renowned economist Stephen Roach believes that we are heading for a ‘Stagflation for the Ages’, writing in Project Syndicate that The supply-chain disruptions during the pandemic look almost quaint compared to the fundamental reordering of global trade currently underway. This fracturing, when coupled with US President Donald Trump’s attacks on central-bank independence and preference for a weaker dollar, threatens a prolonged period of stagflation.

The US decoupling from global trade networks, especially from China-centric and US/Canada/Mexico-centric supply chains, will reverse supply-chain efficiencies that reduced inflation by at least half a percentage point a year over the past decade. The reversal is likely to be permanent.

Also, the reshoring of manufacturing to the US will not be seamless, nor accomplished in the short time with projects taking years to plan and construct. Finding workers for mostly low paying jobs seems to be an issue.

An AI overview tells us; In February 2024, there were approximately 482,000 unfilled manufacturing jobs in the US. While this is down from the 513,000 job openings in January, it’s still a significant number. Some studies project that as many as 1.9 to 2.1 million manufacturing jobs could remain unfilled by 2030 if current trends continue. 

Stagflation and gold

Frank Holmes believes investors think gold is a classic fear trade that retail investors are still sorely underexposed to.

Your author believes they should be scared, economic signs point to a coming bout of stagflation.

A stagflationary environment is one where economic growth is decelerating and inflation remains high.

Is the US on a road leading to possible stagflation and recession? An official recession being called could be just 2 months away. Tariffs are thought to be, by most, inflationary. Decelerating growth should mean more job losses on top of Federal job loss programs underway. The US, and perhaps large parts of the global economy are on the road to stagflation.

Add in the tense geo-politics at play globally from Syria to North Korea, to Taiwan, to Iran, to Israel to the Ukraine and realize that’s as gold friendly as much as Basal III.

What are good investments in a stagflationary environment. The answer is Gold and Silver.

Gold and stagflation

Gold does well in stagflationary periods and outperforms equities during recessions.

The chart below by Sunshine Profits shows the gold price climbing during the stagflationary 1970s, surging from $100 per ounce in 1976 to around $650 in 1980, when CPI inflation topped out at 14%.

In fact, gold outperforms other asset classes during times of economic stagnation and higher prices. The table below shows that, of the four business cycle phases since 1973, stagflation is the most supportive of gold, and the worst for stocks, whose investors get squeezed by rising costs and falling revenues. Gold returned 32.2% during stagflation compared to 9.6% for US Treasury bonds and -11.6% for equities.

A 2023 Forbes article asks ‘How Does Gold Perform With Inflation, Stagflation And Recession’?

How’s this for performance? In six of the last eight recessions, gold outperformed the S&P 500 by 37% on average.

During the last major bout of inflation, 1973-79, inflation averaged about 8.8% a year, while gold rocked a 35% annual return. The article notes that elevated oil prices were the primary drivers of inflation and stagflation in the 1970s.

The 2021 inflation was different from the 1970s. It was caused by government spending, supply chain disruptions and rates held too low for too long, according to Forbes. Sound familiar to what’s happening today?

When inflation started rising in March 2021 gold was trading around $1,700/oz. Over subsequent months, both gold and inflation headed higher, with the CPI topping out at 9% in July 2022 and gold reaching $2,050 in March 2022.

Forbes notes Stagflation creates economic uncertainty because it challenges the traditional relationship between inflation and unemployment. Historically, gold benefits in economic uncertainty.

Conclusion

Bad economic and geo-political news leads to precious metals being an attractive alternative to stocks.

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Before Trump’s reciprocal-tariffs announcement unleashed market chaos in early April, the leading GDX gold-stock ETF was having a good 2025. It had powered 35.6% higher year-to-date exiting March, which amplified gold’s parallel 19.0% gain by 1.9x. That was decent but on the lower side, as historically gold stocks have tended to leverage material gold moves by 2x to 3x. Their degree of outperformance reflects sentiment.

That waxed pretty bearish after Trump’s Liberation Day press conference, as the extreme fear generated by plunging stock markets sucked in gold stocks. On Friday April 4th as the S&P 500 plunged 6.0%, GDX fared worse collapsing 8.8%! That proved gold stocks’ worst down day since March 2020 during the pandemic-lockdown stock panic. But within days the miners rocketed in a violent V-bounce with their metal.

Over just six trading days into mid-April, GDX catapulted up a huge 25.1%! That amplified gold’s driving 11.9% surge by a better 2.1x. With both the metal and its miners flying higher, traders’ interest mounted. Bullish gold-stock coverage ramped considerably higher in mainstream financial media including CNBC and Bloomberg. While growing bullish psychology was fun, a serious downside risk factor suddenly arose.

Gold had soared to extreme crazy-overbought levels, which I analyzed in depth in another essay last week. Gold had rallied so far so fast it was stretched way up to 1.266x its 200-day moving average. That was only the third day since January 2011 that gold had closed 26%+ above that key baseline! In order to better understand how risky that was for gold, I examined every 10%+ gold move since January 1971.

Rocketing up to that extraordinarily-overbought level extended gold’s mighty cyclical bull born in early October 2023 to huge 88.0% gains over 18.5 months! That ranked as gold’s sixth-largest cyclical-bull run since 1971. The top four were all 1970s ones, ranging from 99% to 128% gains. But that decade where the US dollar’s gold standard was severed was a once-in-a-currency’s-lifetime shock, not very comparable to today.

Excluding all those wild 1970s cyclical bulls and today’s, the next-10-largest gold cyclical bulls over gold’s entire 54.4-year modern history averaged 58.0% gains over 13.9 months. Provocatively they peaked at an average of 1.265x gold’s 200dma, exactly where it returned last month! The average gold selloffs after those massive cyclical bulls proved big and fast, averaging hefty 15.5% gold losses over a quick 1.9 months!

So in our popular weekly newsletter on April 22nd the very next day after gold’s record $3,421 close at 1.266x its 200dma, I warned “…I’m changing my bias on gold to short, and adding some GLD puts. While gold stocks are nowhere near as overbought as gold, they will follow it lower like usual amplifying any significant selloff. So I’m starting to ratchet up our trailing stops…” Miners can’t escape material gold drawdowns!

That has certainly proven true during today’s mighty cyclical gold bull, which is also a monster upleg since gold hasn’t yet seen a single 10%+ correction! Since gold miners’ profits leverage gold’s moves, so do their stock prices. No matter how fantastic gold miners’ fundamentals become, they always get sucked into meaningful gold selloffs. This chart illuminates several previous episodes during gold’s current bull run.

From early October 2023 to late December that year, gold’s initial surge climbed 14.2% achieving gold’s first new nominal record close in 3.3 years! GDX rallied 23.5% during that span, for weaker 1.7x upside leverage. While gold wasn’t overbought at all, it still took a breather with a minor 4.2% pullback into mid-February 2024. You’d think that wouldn’t be a big deal to gold-stock traders, right? They wildly overreacted.

From late December into late February, GDX plunged 19.4% for colossal 4.7x downside leverage! Then gold resumed powering higher again, on big buying from Chinese investors and central banks. By mid-May it had surged another 21.8%, driving GDX 44.5% higher for better 2.0x upside leverage. Gold had blasted into extremely-overbought territory more than 15% above its 200dma that time, so it sold off again.

Yet gold just retreated 5.7% into early June, a moderate-yet-sharp pullback. Realize corrections don’t start until 10%, anything less is defined as a pullback. That still worried gold-stock traders enough that GDX fell 11.0% by mid-June for 1.9x downside. The gold miners’ stocks couldn’t avoid getting sucked into even minor gold pullbacks, despite their earnings already soaring to records! I’ll elaborate on those later.

Gold soon resumed charging higher, forging one of its most-remarkable years ever. By late October it had powered another 21.9% higher to extremely-overbought levels. I warned earlier that month that gold’s selloff risk was high after getting so overextended! Unfortunately gold stocks really underperformed that entire surge, with GDX only rallying 33.0% for 1.5x upside. That should’ve moderated their subsequent selloff.

But sadly it didn’t, as in gold-stock-land the excitable traders seem to assume any gold retreat is apocalyptic. Trump’s election win was a big-enough surprise to unleash a massive US dollar surge, fueling gold selling. So by mid-November the yellow metal had plunged a sharp-yet-still-pullback-grade 8.0%. That was this cyclical gold bull’s largest selloff, still on the moderate side yet still terrifying gold-stock traders.

GDX not only plunged 19.5% around that several-week span for 2.4x, but continued correcting well after gold into late December! This leading gold-stock ETF eventually bottomed with a 23.4% loss which was 2.9x gold’s. Gold stocks actually suffered a 20%+ bear-market-grade selloff on a fairly-minor sub-10% gold pullback. Gold-stock speculators and investors really, really hate gold weakness no matter how mild!

Gold surged again out of that post-election pullback into late March, rallying another strong 21.9%. The parallel GDX upleg starting later in December only climbed 36.1% for 1.6x upside. Then Trump’s big reciprocal-tariffs declaration unleashed market chaos in early April, briefly engulfing gold and thus its miners’ stocks. Gold’s 4.6% pullback in just over a week proved minor again, but GDX still fell 9.8% for 2.1x.

As gold is the ultimate portfolio diversifier ideal for times of outsized stock-market volatility, it roared back 14.8% higher in a violent V-bounce! GDX soared a sympathetic 25.2% in just seven trading days, a great run but still just amplifying gold a substandard 1.7x. That blistering gold surge is what catapulted it to that crazy-overboughtness 26%+ above its 200dma. That left gold at high risk for an imminent correction-grade selloff.

Again gold’s ten-largest cyclical bulls excluding the 1970s ones averaged subsequent 15.5% corrections over 1.9 months, after cresting at an average of 1.265x gold’s 200dma. So after gold just hit 1.266x again on April 21st, odds would seem to favor another 15%ish retreat. The problem with anything rallying too far too fast is it entices in all-available near-term buyers too soon, quickly exhausting their capital inflows.

Once those burn out, only sellers remain forcing healthy selloffs to rebalance away overextended technicals and greedy sentiment. If gold saw another average post-big-cyclical-bull selloff again, 15.5% in 1.9 months would slam it way back down near $2,891 by mid-to-late June! Corrections following cyclical bulls are perfectly normal, not impairing larger secular bulls encompassing cyclical bulls and bears alike.

Yet even worse, corrections tend to bottom near 200dmas. In those top-ten gold bulls excluding the 1970s’, the subsequent corrections ended at an average of 1.024x gold’s 200dma. Ominously today that trailing baseline is still way down at $2,736, illuminating how extraordinarily-overbought gold has just been! If that forces gold to rebalance with a 15%+ correction, gold miners’ stocks aren’t going to handle it well.

Again historically GDX has tended to amplify material gold moves by 2x to 3x, which would imply a 30%-to-45% gold-stock cyclical bear coming! That whole range sounds pretty brutal, implying a major gold-stock bottoming somewhere between GDX $28.50 to $36.25. Interestingly excluding February 2024’s outlying downside leverage, GDX has amplified gold’s pullbacks during this cyclical bull by an average of 2.3x.

If that holds in gold’s coming selloff, GDX would be looking at a 35%ish loss near $34. This leading gold-stock ETF was challenging $52 in mid-April before gold grew too overbought, and was running near $49 midweek. So gold stocks still face serious downside from here if gold indeed corrects out of its most-extreme overboughtness since August 2011! Far from being a threat, such a selloff would be a great opportunity.

Just a couple weeks ago, speculators and investors alike were starting to grow excited about gold stocks again for the first time since the summer of 2020. They were starting to aggressively chase this sector’s strong upside momentum, buying in relatively-high. That briefly drove GDX a little into its own extreme-overboughtness territory 30%+ above its 200dma, when it hit 1.321x on April 16th. Buying high is always risky.

If traders liked gold stocks in mid-April, they should love these same gold miners about a third lower in maybe six weeks or so! As our existing newsletter gold-stock trades are stopped out with big unrealized gains, I’m salivating at the opportunity to redeploy after gold’s necessary selloff. Gold miners’ fundamentals have never been stronger, led by earnings forging ever-deeper into record territory quarter after quarter.

The major gold miners dominating GDX are now starting to report their full Q1’25 results. Once those are all published by mid-May, I’m going to analyze the GDX top 25’s like usual in another essay. I’ve been doing this for 35 quarters in a row now, gradually amassing some of the best fundamental data on gold miners in the world. The keystone element is their implied sector unit earnings, distilling down everything else.

That’s simply calculated by averaging the GDX top 25’s all-in sustaining costs per ounce then subtracting them from that quarter’s average gold prices. This reveals major gold miners’ average per-ounce profits, which is a great metric for how they are faring. During the last six fully-reported quarters ending in Q4’24, these have soared 87%, 47%, 35%, 84%, 74%, and 78% YoY to a dazzling record $1,207 per ounce exiting 2024!

No other sector in all the stock markets even comes close to such spectacular sustained earnings growth. And that’s going to continue accelerating in this recently-completed Q1’25. Gold averaged an amazing record $2,866 last quarter, rocketing an incredible 38.3% YoY!  A quarter earlier, the GDX-top-25 gold miners guided their full-year-2025 AISCs to a $1,512 average. Q1’s will likely shake out somewhere near there.

Assume $1,525, and that yields implied sector unit profits of $1,341 last quarter. That would prove the highest ever again by far, soaring another 70%ish YoY making for the seventh consecutive quarter of enormous earnings growth! Plenty of great gold miners are already trading at teens or even single-digit trailing-twelve-month price-to-earnings ratios even before Q1 results. This sector remains deeply-undervalued.

So if gold’s crazy-overboughtness forces a correction-grade selloff which gold stocks will amplify like usual, they are going to be much cheaper when that bottoms. As the gold miners would be screaming buys today if not for gold prematurely exhausting its near-term upside, they will look even more appealing fundamentally after a big correction or quick bear. I can’t wait to fully redeploy in this high-potential sector then.

A gold correction following a mighty cyclical bull is nothing to fear, gold’s own fundamentals remain quite strong. I elaborated on those in a gold-trade-war-refuge essay several weeks ago if you need to get up to speed. So gold’s secular bull is highly likely to continue powering higher on balance after this normal and healthy selloff. The gold miners’ stocks will amplify those coming gains, ultimately blasting far higher from here.

So don’t get caught up in mounting fear as gold stocks retreat with their metal. The whole purpose of selloffs after strong bull runs is rebalancing sentiment, bleeding off greed while fear flares. Instead of worrying, traders need to be doing their homework during post-cyclical-bull selloffs. That means researching and studying individual gold miners to uncover fundamentally-superior ones to soon redeploy in at lower prices.

The bottom line is gold’s selloff is hitting the miners. After catapulting up to crazy-overbought levels, gold is due for a correction to rebalance away overextended technicals and greedy sentiment. The past half-century of gold precedent suggests that running around 15% over a couple months. While normal and healthy within larger secular bulls, major gold stocks still tend to amplify post-cyclical-bull selloffs by 2x to 3x.

That implies gold stocks losing about a third of their value in a quick cyclical bear in coming months. So traders with existing positions should tighten their stop losses to protect more of their big unrealized gains. While a gold correction will drag gold stocks lower, the miners’ fundamentals remain their best ever. Thus the buying opportunities after this necessary gold selloff runs its course will be excellent for prepared traders.

(By Adam Hamilton)

Blackwater’s crushing circuit has reached a 17,700-tonne-per-day (tpd) rate, achieving more than full design capacity over the past 30 days, Artemis said. The mill has reached about 15,300 tpd or 93% of capacity.

“We completed construction in an industry-leading 22 months, and the team achieved commercial production in a remarkable three months from commencement of milling operations,” Artemis CEO Steven Dean said in a release.

He added that the company will soon focus on potentially speeding up the proposed second stage expansion, which is expected to raise the mine’s average annual output to more than 500,000 gold-equivalent ounces.

Blackwater, located 450 km northeast of Vancouver, is the province’s first new gold mine since Newcrest’s – now Newmont (TSX: NGT; NYSE: NEM) – Brucejack opened in 2017.  Artemis’ production milestone coincides with recent historic high prices for gold, which touched $3,500.05 per oz. last week. The price has risen about 25% this year to date.

Company shares gained 8% to C$20.42 apiece on Friday at mid-day in Toronto, for a market capitalization of C$4.61 billion ($3.34bn).

Near-capacity tonnage

Mining in Blackwater’s open pit has delivered more than 90% of its planned tonnage. Both the 400-tonne and 600-tonne production excavators are fully deployed, Artemis said. Mined tonnes and grades based on grade control modeling are reconciling favourably to the resource model.

Since milling started at Blackwater in January, the company has produced about 30,000 oz. of gold. Artemis expects to produce 160,000 to 200,000 oz. at all-in sustaining costs (AISC) of $670-$770 per oz., for the eight-month period until Dec. 31. Total forecast production for this year is 190,000-230,000 oz. of gold.

In the year’s second half, output is forecast at 130,000 to 160,000 oz. of gold at estimated AISC of $645-$725 per ounce. AISC are expected to be somewhat higher in the two months remaining in the second quarter because of continued ramp-up in production.

AISC estimates for the eight months to the end of the year include sustaining capital of about C$16 million. Artemis expects stage one deferred expenditures of C$60 million to C$75 million in the eight months to Dec. 31, including building such infrastructure as an air strip and more water treatment facilities.

Artemis also plans to spend an initial C$3 million for front-end engineering and design work for the proposed stage two expansion.

Throughput for stage one is forecast at 6 million tonnes a year with 93% gold recovery, according to a 2021 feasibility study.

In real terms, Uzbekistan’s economy grew by 6.5% in 2024, with nominal GDP reaching $115 billion, following a 6.3% real growth rate and a nominal GDP of $102 billion in the previous year.

NMMC saw its 2024 revenue soar by 30% year-on-year to $7.4 billion, equivalent to 6.4% of Uzbekistan’s GDP. The company was helped by higher gold prices and a 5.4% increase in gold production to 3.1 million ounces last year. NMMC is the fourth largest gold mining company in the world while Uzbekistan ranks 10th among gold producing nations. NMMC is also the largest contributor to Uzbekistan’s economy, accounting for approximately 20.9% of the country’s budget revenues in 2024.

Much of the credit for Uzbekistan’s recent success goes to President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, whose administration has opened up the economy and instituted a raft of legislative and administrative reforms. The government has pushed the country’s major state-owned companies towards adopting international accounting and operating standards and set them on a path to tapping international capital markets.

NMMC made its capital markets debut in October of last year with the successful placement of a $1 billion dual-tranche Eurobond. The transaction included $500 million in four-year notes with a yield of 6.70% and $500 million for seven years at 6.95%. It was the largest orderbook for an Uzbekistan issuer since the sovereign debut in 2019, peaking at $5.5 billion or 5.5x oversubscribed, as well as the first global DCM issuance from a major gold miner since June 2023. Investors hailed from around the world, including the United States, United Kingdom, Europe, Middle East and Asia.

Even with the debt issuance, NMMC remains fairly lowly leveraged for a major mining company, with a net debt/adjusted EBITDA ratio of 0.5x. The company boasts industry-leading low all-in sustaining costs of $979/ounce and a high EBITDA margin of 62%. With adjusted EBITDA of $4.6 billion last year, NMMC is well placed to invest in its capital program while still paying a healthy dividend.

NMMC’s expenditures related to the investment program totaled $580 million in 2024 is designed to continue expanding production by increasing throughput at existing mines and exploring and developing its near-mine license areas. With more than 47,000 employees, the company is vertically-integrated, with its own divisions for exploration, construction, transportation, engineering and machine-building, alongside mining, processing and refining. As a result, much of that capital investment stays within the Uzbek economy.

Some examples of capital projects financed last year include the ongoing expansion of mining capacity at our flagship Muruntau-Myutenbay deposit, the world’s largest open-pit mine. We expanded our BIOX plant for processing refractory ore with two new biooxidation units coming online in early 2025, thereby boosting capacity by 12%. We are also expanding the HMP №7 processing plant, which treats tailings from our heap leach.

As part of our commitment to sustainable development, NMMC is investing heavily in water treatment facilities with a goal of increasing the share of recycled water used in production to 40%, thus conserving 36 million cubic meters of fresh water per year. We are also renewing our mining fleet with the aim of improving efficiency and reducing environmental impact.

NMMC’s contribution to the local economy goes beyond its own operations. The company has an ongoing program to work with local industry to create new supply lines and replace imports. Goods valued at $72 million were produced under this localization program in 2024, both at NMMC’s own manufacturing facilities and at its industrial partners.

NMMC is a prime example of how the gold mining industry can have a positive economic impact well beyond its core operations. The company contributes to the government’s social programs via its tax contributions and through the dividends it pays out annually. At the same time, it invests heavily in infrastructure and encourages domestic manufacturing, all with a keen focus on sustainable development and social responsibility in the towns and villages where it operates.

The challenge going forward is for NMMC to continue to implement its transition program and to institute international best practices across its businesses while focusing on health and safety and improving working and living standards for its employees. The company is keen to maintain its competitive advantage as a low-cost producer while also investing in opportunities to increase production. Success in these efforts will ensure that NMMC and the gold mining industry will continue to play a significant role in Uzbekistan’s economy for generations to come.

* Jakhongir Khasanov is the chief financial officer of Navoi Mining & Metallurgical Company.

The initiative, led by US President Donald Trump’s senior Africa advisor Massad Boulos, is designed to accompany the bilateral minerals pacts being ironed out with both nations, which would see billions of dollars of Western investments in the region.

“The (agreement) with the DRC is at a much bigger scale, because it’s a much bigger country and it has much more resources, but Rwanda also has a lot of resources and capacities and potential in the area of mining as well,” Boulos told Reuters.

DRC is currently the world’s largest cobalt producer and the leading copper producer in Africa. The country also produces nearly 70% of the world’s tantalum, extracted from coltan. Its eastern provinces hold significant reserves of tin, tungsten and additional coltan deposits.

For decades, Congo has been at odds with the neighbouring Rwanda due to ethnic tensions and control over the region’s natural resources. The conflict escalated earlier this year when the Rwandan-backed M23 rebels attacked and seized control over parts of eastern Congo, including the strategic mining hub of Walikale.

As part of the US peace mediation process, both African nations are expected to submit separate drafts of a peace agreement on Friday, with meeting scheduled in mid-May involving US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the foreign ministers of the DRC and Rwanda to finalize the accord, according to Reuters.

For the peace agreement to succeed, Boulos said several key security concerns must be addressed: Rwanda must withdraw its troops and cease support for the M23 rebels, while the DRC must address Rwandan concerns with militias like the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).

A multinational oversight committee, including the US, Qatar, France and Togo, is monitoring the progress of the peace deal, Boulos added.

Earlier this year, Agnico overtook Barrick Mining’s market capitalization to become the world’s second-largest gold miner, just below Newmont Corp, the largest extractor of bullion by production and market capitalization.

Agnico is expanding its Hope Bay gold project in Nunavut, the northernmost province of Canada that borders the Arctic Ocean and Greenland and wants the incoming Canadian government to promote investment in infrastructure in the Arctic.

“It’s noise (Trump’s threats), but as a country, we have to take it really seriously… and we have been calling for a more formalized, structured Arctic strategy in this country,” Boyd told Reuters in an interview.

He said the company would be “way more forceful” going forward to advocate for the Arctic strategy with Ottawa, because it sees the opportunity for growth in the North.

“It’s pretty clear, based on the US interest in Greenland and the US administration’s comments around Canada and critical metals, that Canada needs to focus more on the opportunity that exists in Canada’s far north and in the communities and in the people that live in the far north,” Boyd said.

Hope Bay is expected to come back into production by early next year after the company put the mine in care and maintenance in 2023 to focus on drilling its resources.

Agnico, one of the few gold miners with assets in Canada, is betting big on the country even as some of its other peers look to sell their domestic assets.

Its strategy has paid off with investors as its share price has jumped by 45% year to date, making it one of the best-performing mining companies among its peers, Refinitiv data show.

Earlier this month, Bloomberg reported that Barrick Gold, another Canadian miner, was looking to sell it’s only mine in the country. However, Boyd has ruled out Agnico buying the asset as it’s too small.

“We’ve got a really strong pipeline of bigger projects. So our strategy isn’t to pick up smaller things and try to make them better,” he said.

Canada’s North has some of the biggest mineral resources in the world, including gold and other critical metals, but it has poor infrastructure compared to the rest of Canada. Nunuvut Premier P.J. Akeeagok, told Reuters last month that the threat from the south of Canada means it is time for the new government to step up and build the basic infrastructure in the region.

“I think there’s an incredible opportunity here in the north to bring different corridors through,” Akeeagok said.

(By Divya Rajagopal; Editing by Veronica Brown and Susan Fenton)

The miner confirmed Friday that it’s actively negotiating to buy 100% of Gold Road through an Australian scheme of arrangement — just hours after Gold Road’s shares were suspended from trading in Sydney.

Gold Road had dismissed the first approach as “highly opportunistic” and claimed it undervalued the company. Price and timing were the key sticking points, chief executive Duncan Gibbs said at the time.

Gold Fields had offered A$2.27 per share in cash, plus a variable component tied to Gold Road’s stake in De Grey Mining. In response, Gold Road proposed acquiring Gold Fields’ 50% stake in the Gruyere mine at a matching valuation. Gold Fields rejected that counter-offer and refused further talks on divesting its interest.

Now, Gold Fields is back at the table, driven by its determination to secure full control of Gruyere — one of Western Australia’s largest gold mines. Gold Road discovered the deposit in 2013 and sold a 50% interest to Gold Fields in 2016 to fund development and exploration.

Gruyere has produced over 1.5 million ounces since beginning operations in 2019. It delivered record output of nearly 92,000 ounces in the final quarter of 2024.

Gold Fields cautioned there’s no guarantee a deal will materialize. That uncertainty pushed its Johannesburg-listed shares down as much as 6.4% Friday, though the stock was up 1.6% in pre-market trading in New York to $21.66.

Gold Road’s shares, suspended early in the day due to “media speculation regarding a potential change of control transaction”, will remain trading when the market opens on May 6, unless the company issues an announcement before then.

The bid comes amid a surge in gold prices and deal-making. With gold briefly topping $3,500 an ounce last month, the sector has seen a new wave of mergers and acquisitions. Recent deals include Equinox Gold’s  (TSX: EQX) C$2.6 billion ($1.88 billion) acquisition of Calibre Mining in Canada, and China’s CMOC Group buying Lumina Gold for C$581 million ($421m).

MABC’s 2025 Economic Impact Study assesses the potential economic impact of 18 proposed critical mineral mines, six precious metal mines and three steelmaking coal mines.

The independent study examines 27 mining projects in advanced stages of development. Of the 27 projects assessed, 21 are new mining projects and six are extensions to existing mines.

BC mineral producers have among the lowest carbon footprints globally and are world leading suppliers of responsibly-produced materials, according to the report, essential for technologies like EV batteries, smartphones, MRI scanners, wind turbines and jet engines.

The study concludes the near-term economic impact of project construction represents over C$41 billion in near-term investment, thousands of jobs that will generate C$27 billion in labour income, and more than C$12 billion in tax revenues.

Mine construction would result in C$20 billion worth of goods and services being purchased from mine suppliers across the province, MABC said.

The study estimates the operation of these mines over several decades could reach C$984 billion in economic activity.

“BC has the minerals, precious metals and steelmaking coal the world needs. Mining has the potential to drive a new wave of economic growth – creating jobs, strengthening local and First Nations communities, and generating revenues for government services,” MABC CEO Michael Goehring said in a news release.

But British Columbia’s mining projects face challenging permitting backlogs. Last year, the province’s exploration sector had over 60 critical mineral projects waiting for permits in a C$38 billion ($27 billion) pileup of economic opportunities.

“BC and Canada must take urgent and bold action to assert our economic sovereignty amidst global trade disruptions and the potential for escalating trade wars. Persistent permitting delays must be addressed to accelerate the development of mining,” Goehring said.

Last year, Canada and British Columbia announced an investment of C$195 million ($142 million) into critical minerals infrastructure in northwest BC, aimed at bolstering development and safety within the region.

“The responsible development of BC’s critical minerals, precious metals, and steelmaking coal resources can secure BC’s economic future, resiliency and long-term prosperity. It’s time to get more mines built,” said Goehring.

The full report is here.

A manager for the disaster-stricken Eagle mine in Yukon on Wednesday described for the legislative assembly the huge amount of work remaining in the cleanup effort.

After the heap-leach pad slide at the Eagle mine last June, a pond began leaking and a containment berm was put up, but no engineer of record was involved, Michelle Grant, PricewaterhouseCoopers’ (PwC’s) senior vice-president told the Yukon Legislative Assembly. The mine’s Irosa Pond 2 remains leaky and can’t be repaired until it’s emptied of treated water, Grant told MLAs.

“We continue to assess opportunities to monetize gold and other precious metals held within the waste and or water materials at the Eagle Gold mine,” Grant told legislators under oath, noting the on-site inventory still exceeds C$224 million even after impairment.

The session followed Speaker Jeremy Harper’s threat of contempt proceedings last week after PwC declined to appear without a court order. PwC had given ministers and MLAs a detailed briefing on April 16 but insisted it would only testify if a judge required it.

Heavy cleanup effort

Last June’s pad collapse unleashed millions of tonnes of waste and at least 280,000 cubic metres of cyanide-containing solution beyond containment. It triggered Victoria Gold’s receivership and set off court fights over cleanup authority. In just a year, PwC has had to boost storage, speed up water treatment, secure new financing and prepare for a court-approved sale. PwC hired a safety expert to improve safety protocols and signs across the site, Grant said.

New reverse-osmosis trailers treat mine water to meet federal standards for metal and diamond mining under the Fisheries Act. However, they still don’t meet the mine’s own licence limits. Grant confirmed there is no set date for full compliance. She also revealed that a safety berm built on Oct. 25 to contain slide debris went up without the proper engineering sign-off.

In April, the Yukon government topped-up its receivership lending agreement with PwC, adding C$115 million through Sept. 30. This ensures there’s funding for site care and remediation into the next fiscal year. That brings to C$220 million the amount Yukon has authorized to PwC for the cleanup, after C$155 million was approved last year.

MLAs probe for updates

Legislators zeroed in on water management and timetables. They pressed Grant on when the reverse-osmosis upgrade will meet discharge limits and how many of the temporary ponds still leak. They drilled into the Yukon’s C$115 million top-up – asking what’s been spent so far and what comes next.

Grant confirmed PwC has installed 400,000 cubic metres of temporary water storage and will add another 110,000 cubic metres by mid-May to limit untreated runoff.

Through April 15, the receiver has spent C$9.9 million on contracts with firms affiliated with the Nacho Nyäk Dän First Nation under its funding terms. PwC has kept 147 Victoria Gold employees on payroll, including four Nacho Nyäk Dän citizens and 50 Yukon residents.

Mine sale process

An independent review board must file its findings by June 15 and publish them by June 30. PwC will apply to court on or before June 30 to approve its sale of the bankrupt company’s assets and investment-solicitation process so bidders can review that report.

PwC took control on Aug. 14, 2024, and immediately repaired the 43-km access road to secure transport of chemicals and equipment. Victoria’s own cash-flow forecasts showed it would run out of funds by Nov. 2024 without emergency lending – underlining the receivership’s necessity, Grant explained.

Gold has climbed more than 25% this year, extending a stellar run in 2024, on the back of central bank buying, Asian investor interest, and growing haven demand. However, shares of gold miners have lagged, with some investors put off by production misses and rising costs, while others have been lured by higher returns in technology stocks and other sectors.

But with fears growing that the US economy will nosedive as President Donald Trump’s trade war intensifies, gold miners could soon catch up as bullion prices keep rallying and other asset classes become less appealing, according to McEwen, who founded Goldcorp and now leads McEwen Mining Inc.

His company — which has seen a 34% drop in its own shares over the past year — runs a handful of small mines and a portfolio of projects that it’s seeking to bring into production. While investors’ aversion to the gold-mining sector has been a headwind to those efforts, McEwen is confident that the industry as a whole is set for a revival.

“You have this cascading effect of gold’s going up, and then there’s interest in the majors, and then it goes down to the mid-tier, and then the juniors and the explorers,” he said in an interview. “When it gets down to that stage, it becomes very explosive in terms of the upward push.”

The mining veteran said bullion is still in the early stages of a bull market and expects gold equities to eventually outperform that of gold in the next two to three years, as the metal surges to $5,000 an ounce.

That’s higher than mainstream gold analysts are forecasting, but many of them have been raising their targets as prices has soared to new all-time highs.

(By Yvonne Yue Li)

Read More: Gold equities going under investors’ radar as metal continues to rise: Peter Schiff

According to Goldman Sachs trader Adam Gillard, nearly 1 million oz. were sold through the Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE) and the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) before the market closed for the Chinese

holiday. This reverses nearly all of the positions bought last week, sending China’s total onshore gold holdings down by 5% from historic highs.

While China’s share of global open interest remains at a high level (about 40%) despite the liquidation, the upward momentum seems to have temporarily peaked, Gillard wrote in a note.

The Chinese selloff took spot gold prices down close to $3,200 an ounce on Thursday morning, a level last seen on April 14.

A report released by Gillard earlier showed that Chinese investors increased their holdings by 1.2 million oz. of gold through the two exchanges last Tuesday, coinciding with the yellow metal’s record-setting move above $3,500 per ounce.

The recent price movement highlights the significant influence China has on the global gold market. In his note, Gillard pointed out that recent fluctuations in gold prices have “almost all occurred around the opening hours of the Chinese market.”

He also highlighted gold’s unique status as a “flow commodity” — meaning it is especially sensitive to large, sudden shifts in investor sentiment and liquidity.

Still, bullion remains one of the top-performing assets this year, gaining about 23% while setting multiple record highs.

Adjusted first-quarter earnings increased to $59.8 million, or $0.14 a share, from $51.2 million, or $0.13, in the same period a year ago, Toronto-based Alamos said Wednesday after the close of trading. Per-share profit missed the $0.19 consensus estimate in a survey of financial analysts.

The results sent Alamos shares tumbling about 12% to C$34.52 ($25.01) in late morning trading Thursday in Toronto. That gave the company a market capitalization of about C$14.5 billion ($10.5 billion).

“Overall, a relatively weak quarter to start the year, but the company has a clear path to improved operations for the remainder of the year,” CIBC Capital Markets analyst Cosmos Chiu said in a note Thursday. He reaffirmed his “outperformer” rating on the stock.

First-quarter gold production of 125,000 oz. came in at the low end of the company’s previously disclosed range and below analyst expectations.

CEO John McCluskey blamed a slower ramp-up at the Magino mill and lower production from the Young-Davidson property – both in northern Ontario – for the slump. The operations showed improvements in April, which the executive said would contribute to higher output and lower costs in the second quarter. Magino was integrated into Alamos’ portfolio after the company acquired Argonaut Gold last year.

Gold’s historic run is providing miners such as Alamos an unexpected tailwind. The metal, which set an all-time closing high of $3,433.55 an oz. in London last week, has gained about 40% since the start of the year.

Ontario, Manitoba catalysts

Helped by rising output at its Island Gold mine in Ontario and the development of the Lynn Lake project in Manitoba, Alamos is working on boosting gold production to about 900,000 oz. in a few years. It’s aiming to produce between 580,000 and 630,000 oz. in 2025.

First-quarter revenue jumped 20% to $333 million thanks to rising gold prices. Alamos sold 117,583 oz. of gold during the quarter at an average realized price of $2,802 per ounce. Sales were 6% lower than production due to timing, though the sale of these ounces will benefit future quarters, according to the company.

Total cash costs of $1,193 per ounce and all-in sustaining costs of $1,805 per ounce were above the top end of guidance for the first half, Alamos said. Higher share-based compensation costs and higher per-oz. costs at Young-Davidson and Magino drove the increase.

All-in sustaining costs are expected to drop about 20% in the second quarter, with further decreases planned for the rest of the year, Alamos said.

Full-year goal

Alamos also reaffirmed its full-year goal of producing between 580,000 and 630,000 oz. of gold this year.

“With a further increase in production and decrease in costs expected in the second half of the year, we remain on track to achieve our full-year production guidance,” McCluskey said. “We expect this improvement to continue over the next several years through our portfolio of high-return, low-cost growth projects.”

Higher milling rates at Magino, along with increased grades at Young-Davidson and the La Yaqui Grande mine in northern Mexico, are expected to lift second-quarter output to between 135,000 and 150,000 ounces, the company said. A more significant increase in production is expected into the second half.

“The noise in Q1/25 is not expected to last with production trending higher through the year,” National Bank Financial analyst Don DeMarco, who has an “outperform” rating on Alamos, said in a note. Earnings “should continue to grow as more and more of the portfolio upside comes online.”

Spot gold was down 2.0% to $3,221.94 per ounce as of 10:30 a.m. ET, after touching its lowest since April 14 earlier. Three-month gold futures saw a bigger drop of 2.7% to $3,230.10 an ounce in New York.

Gold has now pulled back sharply from the $3,500-an-ounce milestone reached a week ago, coinciding with improved market sentiment after the Trump administration hinted it is closing in on the first tranche of trade deals, as confirmed by US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Wednesday.

On the same day, US President Trump said he has potential deals lined up with India, Japan and South Korea. There also is a “very good chance” of securing a deal with China, he added.

“There’s hints of upcoming trade deals, and talk from China that the Trump administration had reached out. A risk-on trade is going on, leading to some profit-taking in gold’s safe-haven,” said Bob Haberkorn, senior market strategist at RJO Futures.

Despite the profit-taking, bullion remains one of the best-performing assets this year, recording a gain of 23% in 2025 while setting multiple record highs along the way.

Bullish sentiment

Analysts remain bullish on the yellow metal due to its reputation as a haven asset, as Trump’s fast-evolving trade policy continues to cast doubt on the global economy.

The latest quarterly poll by Reuters is forecasting gold prices to average above $3,000 annually for the first time, supported by global trade frictions and a swing away from the US dollar.

Last week, JPMorgan said it expects gold to average $3,675 in the fourth quarter, on its way to reaching $4,000 an ounce by the middle of next year on rising probability of a recession.

Data on Wednesday showed that the US economy contracted in the first quarter at the start of the year for the first time since 2022 due to a monumental pre-tariffs import surge. That saw traders boost wagers on four quarter-point rate cuts by the Federal Reserve this year to help prevent a recession, adding support to gold.

“While the short-term correction has been driven by improved market sentiment, the structural drivers underpinning gold’s strength remain firmly in place,” Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank, wrote.

(With files from Bloomberg and Reuters)

Africa’s top gold producer signed an agreement with members of an industry group that included Gold Fields, Newmont, AngloGold Ashanti and Asanko Mining in 2022 to purchase 20% of their annual output for the central Bank of Ghana. Purchases are settled in the Ghanaian cedi currency.

Bank of Ghana’s gold holdings rose to 30.8 metric tons in February from 8.77 tons in 2022, helping its gross reserves to hit $9.4 billion this year.

The new deal covers mining companies not participating in the central bank’s arrangement, according to a statement on X from GoldBod, a government body set up to streamline gold purchases from small-scale miners, increase their earnings, and reduce the impact of smuggling.

The companies are Golden Team Mining Company Limited, Akroma Gold Limited, Adamus Resources Limited, Cardinal Namdini Mining Limited, Goldstone Akrokeri Limited, Earl International Group (GH) Limited, Xtra Gold Mining Limited, Prestea Sankofa Gold Limited and Gan He Mining Resource Development Limited.

Gold mining countries have sought increased value from the precious metal as prices rose 29% this year, boosted by US President Donald Trump’s tariffs and geopolitical uncertainty.

“Under the agreement, the mining companies will deliver 20% of any gold they seek to export out of the country to the GoldBod in the form of doré bars,” the GoldBod statement said.

“This agreement represents a significant step toward optimizing national benefits from Ghana’s gold resources.”

The mining companies will receive payment in Ghanaian cedis, discounted at one percent of the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) spot price.

The nine gold miners produce approximately 200 kilograms of gold monthly, GoldBod’s spokesperson told Reuters.

(By Christian Akorlie and Maxwell Akalaare Adombila; Editing by Ayen Deng Bior and Ros Russell)

That result, in hole MO-25-755W1 of Monique’s B1 zone, was over a 19.5-metre interval from 697 metres depth, and included 6.2 metres at 42.7 grams gold. Hole MO-25-749 of zone B returned 20.7 metres at 6.7 grams gold from 672 metres depth, including 1.8 metres grading 135.5 grams gold. They were among results from 33 infill holes at Monique on its Novador project near Val-d’Or, about 525 km northwest of Montreal.

“These results continue to confirm the continuity and grade of the gold deposit at Monique,” BMO Capital Markets analyst Andrew Mikitchook said in a note.

Supporting 2025 PFS

He added that Probe’s 50,000-metre drill program that it started last fall is now complete and the results are to support a pre-feasibility study for Monique, expected by the end of this year.

“The results of the winter infill program will be instrumental in supporting ongoing resource conversion and will serve as a cornerstone of the upcoming pre-feasibility study—an important milestone in advancing Novador toward development,” Probe CEO and president David Palmer said in a release.

Probe shares were down 1.4% to C$2.04 apiece on Wednesday morning in Toronto, for a market capitalization of C$413.13 million. Its shares traded in a 12-month range of C$1.08 to C$2.15.

B zone strength

Another noteworthy intercept, MO-24-730W3 in zone B cut 16.4 metres grading 5.4 grams gold from 744.6 metres depth, including 5.6 metres at 30.5 grams gold.

The company is funded with C$50 million in cash and earlier this month it closed a C$45 million bought deal private placement. It included an offering of 6.25 million flow-through shares at C$3.24 each and 13.75 million common shares at C$1.82 apiece.

Mineralization at Monique has been defined from surface to a depth of 700 metres and varies between several metres to up to 100 metres in width, Probe said. The Monique gold trend zones are open along strike and at depth.

Probe’s wider Val-d’Or East properties, which include the Novador, Croinor, McKenzie Break, Lapaska and Sleepy deposits host 6.7 million measured and indicated oz. and 3.2 million inferred oz., according to a resource update last September. That represents a 77% and 131% increase, respectively, over the previous resource from one year ago.

Novador makes up the largest resource of the properties. It holds 6.4 million measured and indicated oz. and 1.5 million inferred oz., a 60% increase over the previous estimate.

Total gold demand reached 1,206 tonnes in the first three months of 2025, a 1% increase from the same period a year ago, the WGC said in a new report Wednesday. Soaring inflows into gold ETFs fuelled a 170% surge in investment demand to 552 tonnes, the highest since the first quarter of 2022, WGC said.

As gold prices set multiple record highs this year, including touching $3,500.05 per oz. last week, investors have piled into physical gold ETFs, which grew by $21 billion in the first quarter, their second highest quarterly level since the second quarter of 2020.

Gold’s average price reached $2,860 per oz. in the quarter, a 38% jump from a year ago, according to data compiled by the London Bullion Market Association.

Flows into gold

Investment flows into physical gold will probably continue to gather pace this year, the WGC said. Key factors supporting demand include continued geopolitical tensions, near-term stagflation risks, medium-term recession risks, elevated correlations between stocks and bonds and an expected increase in US deficits.

Central banks bought 244 tonnes of gold in the first quarter, 21% less than in the same period a year ago but within the quarterly range of the last three years. Persistent trade tensions will probably drive full-year central bank purchases close to the range of the past three years, according to the WGC.

First-quarter bar and coin demand rose 2.6% to 325 tonnes, which is 15% above the five-year quarterly average. China accounted for much of the increase, posting its second-highest quarter of retail investment.

Tech demand

Technology demand was little changed at 80.5 tonnes. Ongoing artificial intelligence adoption drove continued growth in the electronics sector, but uncertainty over tariffs should result in a challenging environment for the rest of the year, the WGC said.

Jewelry consumption shrank 21% from the year-ago quarter to 380 tonnes, weighed down by elevated prices. Consumption in the period hit its lowest level since the Covid-19 pandemic brought global economies to a standstill in 2020, and WGC economists predict full-year jewelry demand will be weaker than expected in 2025 on lower growth and higher prices.

Total gold supply grew 1% from a year earlier to 1,206 tonnes, with mine production hitting a first-quarter record of 856 tonnes. Recycling declined 1% as consumers kept their gold hoping for higher prices.

Mine supply this year will probably stay close to its 2024 record level, the WGC said. “Unprecedented” cash generation should allow announced development plans to advance and mine production to stay strong. While Ghana, Chile and Canada have healthy production pipelines, disruptions in Turkey and Russia and cutbacks in Australia are expected to weigh on total output.

Read More: Annual gold price forecast tops $3,000 for first time: Reuters poll

The poll of 29 analysts and traders returned a median forecast of $3,065 per troy ounce of gold for this year, up from $2,756 predicted in a poll three months ago. The estimated price for 2026 rose to $3,000 from $2,700.

Spot gold prices have risen by a quarter so far in 2025, almost equalling the 27% increase recorded for the whole of 2024. Bullion, often seen as a store of value during uncertain times, has averaged $2,952 so far this year, according to LSEG data.

“Gold looks set for what can only be described as another epic year,” said independent analyst Ross Norman. “Like in the early 2000s, gold is seeing buying on price strength which can have the effect of feeding upon itself.”

Bullion broke above the $3,000 mark for the first time in mid-March and topped $3,500 last week as the trade battle between the United States and China, the world’s two largest economies, boosted safe-haven demand, on top of persistent central bank buying.

Although the gold price has since eased to $3,273, analysts expect it to remain supported by the wild swings in US tariff policies and what are likely to be protracted trade negotiations.

“Gold’s fortune will continue to depend on other markets’ misfortune,” said Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank. Bullion will remain supported, according to Hansen, as long as the focus remains on de-dollarization and the impact of US tariffs on global growth and fiscal stability.

At the same time, analysts warned of a crowded trade, while the high prices are curbing jewellery sector demand.

“Price risks persist given the physical market is wavering and central bank flows – while positive – are slowing, while an unwinding of tariff risk and fading recession risk can stall gold’s safe-haven appeal,” said Standard Chartered analyst Suki Cooper.

Silver, meanwhile, has underperformed gold with a rise of 12% so far this year, as it doesn’t benefit from central bank buying while investment demand has been dampened by growth worries. Half of total demand for silver comes from the industrial sector.

The poll forecast an average 2025 silver price of $33.10 per ounce, unchanged from the previous survey. It has averaged $32 so far this year.

Analysts lifted their 2026 silver price forecast to $34.58 from $33.45, expecting a structural market deficit and the global clean energy transition to provide support.

“Industrial demand is currently a little hampered by oversupply of solar cells but this should work its way through. Strengthening demand from autos and AI will also help to keep the market in a deficit of supply vs fabrication demand, which will widen in 2026,” said StoneX analyst Rhona O’Connell.

(By Anmol Choubey, Kavya Balaraman and Polina Devitt; Editing by Veronica Brown and Kirsten Donovan)

China’s copper smelting industry is in a deep funk as an ever-growing number of furnaces jostle for limited concentrate supplies. Smelting capacity is up a quarter since 2021 and is set to rise around 10% this year, even as mine closures overseas keep supplies of the crucial raw material tight.

The fees smelters receive for refining ore, called concentrate treatment and refining charges (TC/RCs), are already negative and set to fall further, according to six traders and analysts. Negative TC/RCs mean smelters must pay miners or traders to process concentrate into metal, in effect paying their customers.

However, smelters are unlikely to cut significant production despite dire TC/RCs because high prices for smelting byproducts like gold and sulfur are partially offsetting losses, they said.

Record prices for gold are offsetting some of the losses for processing concentrate rich in gold, according to one trader, who said he had heard of one TC/RC deal at minus $80 per metric ton or minus 8.0 cents per pound.

Smaller, older smelters without the advanced technology to extract gold and other byproducts are likely to struggle, however, because they only account for a small part of production, according to three sources. Cuts and closures at these facilities are unlikely to drag down Chinese copper output, they said.

The copper concentrates TC/RC index hit a record low of -$34.71 per metric ton and minus 3.47 cents per pound on April 18, according to Shanghai Metals Market.

But in a sign of how the industry is powering on despite months of negative TC/RCs, analysts at Mysteel consultancy expect refined copper output to grow 10% this year.

The steady growth in refined copper output is underpinned by China’s massive expansion of copper smelting capacity, estimated by Benchmark Mineral Intelligence (BMI) at 12.78 million tons this year, up 8% from last year and 25% since 2021.

China’s refined copper output declined only 0.5% year-on-year to 3.35 million metric tons in the first quarter, according to official data.

(By Violet Li and Lewis Jackson; Editing by Saad Sayeed)

Read More: Global copper surplus to more than double in 2025 – ICSG

The spin-off includes mines across South America, Central Asia, Africa, and Oceania. Among them is the Buriticá gold mine in Colombia, the country’s largest, which has been the target of attacks by illegal miners.

Zijin, China’s largest gold and copper producer, said the move aims to accelerate its global expansion, improve asset valuation and attract international investors. Despite being in the early stages and subject to regulatory approvals, the company believes the spin-off will strengthen its market position and increase shareholder value amid rising gold prices.

Zijin Gold International will remain a subsidiary after the listing, with its financial results still included in the parent company’s consolidated statements. 

The timing of the planned spin-off aligns with a surge in global gold prices, which have hit record highs in April amid mounting uncertainty around US-China trade tensions. Rising prices could further drive the revaluation of its gold assets and reduce risks tied to overseas operations.

The proposed listing still requires approval from Chinese regulators, shareholders, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission, and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, among others.

The milestone was achieved seven months early with minimal investment by reactivating 12 km of workings acquired from First Majestic Silver (TSX, NYSE: AG). Mining kicked off at 50 tonnes per day and will rise to 150 tonnes per day by the end of December, replacing feed now sourced from Guitarra’s 500-tonne per day plant. Guitarra and Coloso are located about 200 km west of Mexico City.

“This marks another milestone event in the restart of the Guitarra Mine Complex,” COO Greg Liller said in a release.

Silver centre

Historically a major silver producer, Mexico produced 204.8 million oz. silver in 2023. That accounts for about 24.8% of the world’s silver output, according to the US Geological Survey. The country attracted around $5 billion in mining investments last year. Major companies are focusing on expansions due to stricter rules on concessions and water permits, though other companies have reported progress in securing some permits.

Fresnillo (LSE: FRES) and MAG Silver (TSX, NYSE-A: MAG) increased output at their Juanicipio joint venture in Zacatecas. Pan American Silver (TSX, NYSE: PAAS) is expanding La Colorada in Sonora. Coeur Mining (NYSE: CDE) finished a $1.7 billion  takeover of Silvercrest in February. Also, First Majestic bought Gatos Silver for $970 million in March.

Regulators have raised environmental standards: Sierra Madre secured dry-stack tailings and paste backfill permits in May last year. The permits got approved, even as government discussions about increasing royalties and a possible open-pit ban under President Claudia Sheinbaum took place.

Sierra Madre shares trading in Toronto added 3.5% to C$0.59 apiece, solidifying 12-month gains higher than 51%. It has a market capitalization of C$90.8 million.

Guitarra ramp-up

Grades at Coloso are about 1.7 times higher in silver and 1.2 times higher in gold compared to the Guitarra veins, Liller said. The widths of the veins range from less than 1 metre to over 2 metres. Ramp-up mining will thus use different methods and blasting techniques. This helps find the best mix of mining costs and grade dilution.

Coloso hosts 432,000 indicated tonnes grading 221 grams silver per tonne and 1.61 grams gold, compared with Guitarra’s 1.7 million indicated tonnes at 123 grams silver and 1.3 grams gold.

The company began Guitarra operations on the Jessica vein and at Joya Larga. They are to test mining and blasting methods to find the best cost-to-grade ratio.

Refining operations

Sierra Madre hired a metallurgist with significant flotation experiencewho is to work as the process plant superintendent for processing at Coloso.

“Their goal will be to determine the best ratio of Coloso to Guitarra mill feed material to achieve maximum economic benefit,” Liller added.

Guitarra’s test-mining program generated $3.9 million in revenues during the three months ended Dec. 31, while milling 38,464 dry tonnes at 84% gold and 79% silver recoveries. Full-year revenues reached $6.5 million and gross profit hit $1.36 million before Guitarra achieved commercial rates on Jan. 1.

The three were arrested at their private residence in Kumasi, the second biggest city on a tip off, Ghana Gold Board said in a statement on X.

An amount of 1.9 million cedis ($133,333), 4,500 rupees, 4.36 kilograms of gold and two counting machines were found on the suspects, whose ages are 42, 35 and 22, it said. A CCTV recorder and an Indian passport were also found in their possession, it said.

Ghana is Africa’s top gold producer. The country’s gold exports rose more than 50% to $11.6 billion in 2024. Black-market trading of the metal is induced by small-scale mining activity, which represents about a third of output.

(By Moses Mozart Dzawu)

In a press release Monday, Azimut announced that Centerra is buying 9.43 million shares of the company at C$0.60 per share, for a total approximate investment of C$5.65 million. At the time of announcement, Azimut’s shares traded at $0.56 apiece.

The private placement would result in Centerra holding 9.9% of Azimut, which has a market capitalization of roughly C$47 million. By comparison, Centerra’s market capitalization is estimated at C$1.9 billion.

The equity investment represents the second of its kind made by Centerra in recent days. Last week, the Canadian gold miner announced it bought 9.9% of British Columbia-focused Thesis Gold (TSXV: TAU). In late 2024, Centerra also acquired a 9.9% stake in Dryden Gold (TSXV: DRY), whose focus is in northwestern Ontario.

Quebec exploration

The funds will be used by Azimut to advance several of its greenfield properties in Quebec. Its flagship project is the Elmer gold project, which is at the resource stage with 311,200 oz. indicated and 513,900 oz. inferred. Work is currently underway to expand the gold mineralization that has been defined over a strike length of 600 metres.

The company is also advancing the Galinée lithium discovery next to Winsome Resources’ Adina deposit under a joint venture with SOQUEM. It has also made significant exploration progress on the Wabamisk (antimony-gold, lithium), Kukamas (nickel-copper-PGE) and Pilipas (lithium) projects.

Azimut generates its exploration targets using big data analytics, enhanced by over 15 years of in-house field validation with over 500 new mineral prospects discovered across the province. 

The price forecast is one of the most bullish yet as banks and others move to increase their own estimates after gold hit a record high just above $3,500 last week. Deutsche Bank, for one, expects bullion to hit $3,700 an ounce by next year.

Already the largest shareholder in Idaho gold and antimony developer Perpetua Resources, Paulson last week bought a 40% stake in NovaGold’s Donlin gold project in Alaska from Barrick.

Asked where he expects bullion prices to head, Paulson cited a recent estimate put to him for levels at the “high $4,000 range” within three years.

“It’s a well-informed prediction. I think that’s a reasonable number,” Paulson said.

“As central banks and people look to put their money in a more stable source… I think gold will increase its position in the world,” he added.

The New York-based investor cited Western confiscation of Russia’s foreign reserve holdings after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine as a catalyst for the world’s central banks – especially China’s – to pile into gold.

“When the war started, (Russia) kept their physical gold, that was safe, but all their cash – the paper reserves – were confiscated,” Paulson said.

“So that caused other central banks to wake up and say … ‘What happens if there’s a conflict with the US? Could the US keep our treasuries, and all our savings would disappear?'” Paulson said.

He added that he sees global trade uncertainty, fueled in part by Washington’s tariffs, as further underpinning gold.

“The best place to go if your faith in the (US) dollar diminishes is gold as a reserve currency,” said Paulson, who was considered for a role in US President Donald Trump’s second-term cabinet.

Paulson declined to discuss details of conversations with Trump, but said the president has been “very pro on America first and the golden age of America, and bringing manufacturing and mining back to America.”

Mines

Paulson, who has long invested in gold, said he has no interest in expanding into copper or other metals. “Other minerals are a whole different world, so we’re concentrating our efforts in gold,” he said.

In Idaho, Paulson is the largest shareholder in Perpetua, which received its federal mining permit in January, is applying for funding from the US Export-Import Bank, and has received support from Trump’s White House.

Perpetua’s gold production is seen as financially buttressing the mine’s antimony production and ensuring a domestic supply of the metal – used in bullets and other weaponry – for the Pentagon. China has blocked antimony exports to the US.

Perpetua is working with Sunshine Silver & Refining – backed by metals investor Thomas Kaplan’s Electrum Group – to build an antimony refinery. Sunshine holds permits to build such a refinery, which would supply 40% of the nation’s needs.

“It’s a very well-established (refining) process,” said Kaplan. “We’re just upgrading it and putting it back into production.” In Alaska, the Donlin project has federal permits and Paulson said should have operating costs around $1,000 an ounce, far below current gold prices.

Paulson and Electrum are also invested in International Tower Hill, which is developing an Alaska gold mine, as well as Trilogy Metals, which aims to develop projects in Alaska’s Ambler district.

(By Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Veronica Brown and Jan Harvey)

Canada’s G Mining Ventures (TSX: GMIN) said a new feasibility study for its Oko West project in northern Guyana demonstrates improved economics compared with initial calculations released last year.

At a 5% discount rate, Oko West would generate a post-tax net present value (NPV) of $2.2 billion and a post-tax internal rate of return (IRR) of 27%, G Mining said Tuesday in a statement. That’s a 58% improvement in NPV compared with the preliminary economic assessment that the company issued last September.

Oko West is one of two projects that G Mining is counting on to anchor future output. The other, Brazil’s Tocantinzinho, started producing gold in September, with the company already booking cash flow.

The feasibility study “marks a major milestone in realizing the value of what we consider one of the world’s most exciting undeveloped gold projects,” G Mining CEO Louis-Pierre Gignac said in the statement. “It confirms a long-life, high-margin operation with strong economics, supported by a proven resource and solid infrastructure.”

G Mining is among several miners focusing on the Guiana Shield. Others include Canadian explorer Greenheart Gold (TSXV: GHRT), which has amassed a portfolio of early-stage projects in Guyana and Suriname. Founders Metals (TSXV: FDR), also Canadian, is exploring at its Antino project in southeast Suriname. The shield also hosts Newmont’s (TSX: NGT) Merian and Zijin Mining’s Rosebel gold mines, both in Suriname.

Shares of G Mining rose 1.4% to C$19.48 in Tuesday morning trading in Toronto. That gave the company a market value of about C$4.4 billion.

The company anticipates that authorities will issue a final environmental permit this quarter, and that a construction decision will be taken in the second half.

2027 target

Construction is forecast to take 34 months, G Mining said. Commissioning would occur in the fourth quarter of 2027.

G Mining envisions a payback period of 2.9 years if gold averages $2,500 per ounce. Initial capital expenditures are projected to be $972 million, a 4% increase from the $936 million that was estimated back in September.

Assuming an average gold price of $3,000 per oz., Oko West’s after-tax NPV would rise to $3.2 billion, G Mining said Tuesday. The IRR would climb to 35% and the payback period would be 2.1 years.

Located about 120 km southwest of Guyana’s capital Georgetown, Oko West will integrate both conventional open pit mining and mechanized long-hole open stoping for the underground mine.

Total gold output will probably be 4.3 million oz. over 12.3 years, G Mining said. That works out to an annual average of 350,000 oz. at an all-in sustaining cost of $1,123 per ounce.

During the first three years of commercial production, the open pit will solely supply the processing feed. Underground mining will start to contribute to processing feed in the fourth year of production.

Some 1,270 direct permanent jobs will be created by the project, according to the company.

Fast-tracking approvals

Carney’s administration plans to establish a “Major Federal Project Office” with a “one project, one review” mandate. This initiative aims to streamline environmental assessments by eliminating duplication between federal and provincial processes, thereby accelerating the approval of mining projects. Such a move is poised to benefit companies involved in critical mineral extraction, including lithium, nickel, and cobalt, by reducing bureaucratic delays.

Carney has not provided clarity on how the consent process would be expedited to meet the timeline pressures of energy and infrastructure development. This ambiguity is notable, particularly as his promise to avoid forcing projects through appears to contradict his assurances that major projects will proceed swiftly. Past provincial experiences, such as B.C.’s attempts to expedite development under similar consent commitments, suggest that balancing these priorities is fraught with legal and political difficulty.

Carney’s approach implies an acknowledgment of a de facto Indigenous veto over resource projects—but rather than confronting this head-on, he proposes to “buy in” Indigenous participation through public financing mechanisms. This creates a practical route around a hard veto by offering Indigenous communities ownership stakes that align their interests with project success.

Reconciling the urgency of certain projects with the potentially time-consuming process of obtaining consent from multiple Indigenous nations will prove tricky. It begs the question of whether or not this model serves the public interest.

On one hand, it represents a constructive shift from conflict to partnership, promoting reconciliation and potentially leading to more stable and inclusive development. It avoids the legal and ethical risks associated with imposing projects on unwilling nations. On the other hand, it raises questions about the use of taxpayer-backed funds as a means of securing project approval. There is a risk that such financing becomes a permanent cost of doing business, even for projects that may not deliver strong returns to the public.

Whether this is sustainable or fair depends on how transparent and equitable the resulting arrangements are — and whether public funds are being used to create true partnerships or merely to neutralize opposition.

Investment in critical minerals

The Carney-led government plans to invest in the development of critical minerals by: 

• Connecting critical mineral projects to supply chains via the new First and Last Mile Fund (FLMF), enhancing integration within the Canadian economy;
• Supporting clean energy and critical minerals projects through the FLMF to reduce reliance on other countries and protect Canadian jobs;
• Accelerating exploration and extraction, including from recycling, by investing in prospecting activities and 
• Attracting and de-risking investment in critical mineral exploration and extraction through additional investments and expanded tax credits. 

US tariffs

In response to US President Donald Trump’s imposition of tariffs on Canadian imports, Carney has pledged a firm stance. His administration plans to invest billions to reduce Canada’s economic dependence on the southern neighbour, including a $2 billion strategic response fund to protect Canadian workers and fortify the auto supply chain.

This shift towards trade diversification and economic resilience is likely to open new markets for Canadian mining exports, particularly in Asia and Europe, thereby reducing vulnerability to US trade policies.

Energy superpower

Mark Carney’s campaign message on energy, echoing Stephen Harper’s “energy superpower” mantra, signals a sweeping ambition — but with a broader, more climate-conscious twist. In his election night speech, Carney declared it was “time to build Canada into an energy superpower in both clean and conventional energy” and pushed for an industrial strategy that boosts competitiveness while addressing climate change.

Now leading a Liberal government, Carney faces the challenge of balancing economic growth with environmental responsibility. His platform includes plans for national “energy corridors” designed to fast-track approvals for infrastructure such as pipelines and transmission lines. He has also pledged to streamline regulatory processes to reduce delays that have long hindered energy and resource development.

Carney supports carbon capture and storage technology, a key strategy for the oil and gas sector to reduce emissions. His promise of federal backing extends to major infrastructure and extraction efforts, notably the Ring of Fire in northern Ontario. The region is rich in critical minerals essential for electric vehicles, batteries and other technologies vital to a low-carbon economy.

Some First Nations groups with claims in the area oppose development, which could take a decade to implement judging by other projects. Environmentalists say it will release the same global warming gases from the region’s muskeg that the electric-battery vehicle metals it would produce are supposed to limit.

Canada’s elected Prime Minister has also committed to advancing transportation and energy projects in the Arctic, paired with a planned expansion of the country’s military presence in the region.

Environmental commitments

While promoting mining development, Carney’s administration also maintains environmental commitments, such as upholding the industrial carbon tax and imposing caps on oil and gas emissions. This approach aims to ensure that mining growth aligns with Canada’s climate goals. 

Despite facing challenges such as taxation, immigration and political influences, including Trump’s rhetoric, Canada’s natural resource development was a common topic brought up by the two main political parties.

Carney’s recent victory signals a proactive approach to strengthening Canada’s mining industry, a significant contributor to the country’s economy. The sector accounted for nearly 20% of the country’s gross domestic product in 2022, alongside C$422 billion ($305 billion) in exports.

PM and Liberal Party head Mark Carney, who’s leading in the polls, has pledged to approve resource projects within two years and broaden exploration tax credits as part of a plan to make Canada both an “energy superpower” and “the global supplier of choice for critical minerals.”

Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre, meanwhile, has vowed to open a resource-focused project office with an even shorter time limit – one year – to get “shovels in the ground” as fast as possible.  He also says he’ll build long-discussed infrastructure for Ontario’s Ring of Fire region, a set of three new roads and power lines linking future mines with the southern road network. Even so, his platform is thin on details about mining.

“Both parties would unlock stronger growth via major infrastructure and resource development, but each differs in approach,” Scotiabank Economics Vice President Rebekah Young said in a report issued Friday. “A complicated jurisdictional landscape, compounded now by global uncertainties, means either party would have its work cut out to spur greater investment.”

Critical minerals and industrial metals have emerged as essential economic building blocks in recent years as the world gears up for the coming energy transition. In the United States, President Donald Trump recently signed an executive order to increase American critical mineral production to dent China’s dominance after launching a Section 232 probe on all critical mineral imports – a process that typically results in tariffs.

‘Energy superpower’ goal

“Making Canada an energy superpower starts with critical metals and minerals, vital components to build everything from solar panels to electric vehicles,” Carney said last week during a campaign stop in Vancouver. “The market for these minerals is currently dominated by China and Russia. That must change.”

In his first election campaign, Carney has pledged to “kick-start” the “clean energy supply chain” by investing in critical minerals, spurring private investment and supporting early-stage mining companies.

If elected, Carney is proposing to adopt “Buy Canada” standards for products such as steel and aluminum while putting an increased focus on feedstock for battery supply chain buildouts.

First and Last Mile

A key measure included in the 67-page Liberal platform is the creation of the First and Last Mile Fund, an investment vehicle that Carney says will connect critical mineral projects to supply chains by supporting on-site development, processing and refining capacity.

Carney also wants to broaden the Critical Mineral Exploration Tax Credit by including critical minerals necessary for defence, semiconductors, energy and clean technologies to the list of qualifying minerals.

A Liberal government would also expand eligible activities under Canadian exploration expenses to include the costs of engineering, economic and feasibility studies for critical minerals projects.

“All of these measures taken together will make Canada the global supplier of choice for critical metals and minerals,” Carney said.

Repealing obstructive laws

Poilievre, Carney’s main rival for the top job, has vowed to repeal various policies passed under former Liberal prime minister Justin Trudeau – including the Impact Assessment Act known as Bill C-69.

He calls Bill C-69 the “No More Development” law, saying it “makes it impossible to build the mines, pipelines and other major energy infrastructure Canada needs.” Removing it would trigger a boom in the country’s resource sector, he says.

“We will get big projects built again by repealing the Liberal anti-development laws and regulations that have cost us half a trillion dollars in lost investment over the last decade,” Poilievre said in a campaign document posted on his party’s website. “We’ll also work with Indigenous partners to process and sell our clean natural resources to get foreign countries off burning higher-emission fuels and fight climate change.”

Although the 30-page Conservative platform has a section on Canadian energy and resources, “mining” and “minerals” don’t appear at all in the document. The word “mines” is mentioned once.

If he becomes PM, Poilievre has vowed to accelerate priority resource projects and usher in “One and Done” approvals. He would create a single Rapid Resource Project Office to streamline all regulatory approvals into one application and environmental review, in cooperation with the provinces, with a target of six-month decisions and a one-year maximum timeline.

Fast-tracking projects

A key pledge for miners involves building the infrastructure project to Ontario’s Ring of Fire region, which is known for its vast potential but slow progress towards getting any mines built. A Conservative government would approve federal permits to harvest chromite, cobalt, nickel, copper and platinum in the area, Poilievre says.

In the Conservative leader’s view, these measures would give the Canadian economy a boost of several billion dollars, “allowing us to become less dependent on the Americans, while our allies overseas would no longer have to rely on hostile regimes for these metals, turning dollars for dictators into paycheques for our people.”

Like neighbours Mali and Niger, Burkina Faso is pushing for greater control over its resources and revised its mining code last year, creating a new state mining company, Société de Participation Minière du Burkina (SOPAMIB).

It used SOPAMIB to gain control of two industrial gold mines previously owned by a London-listed Endeavour Mining in a deal finalized late last year.

Prime Minister Jean Emmanuel Ouédraogo said in a speech broadcast on national television late on Monday that the government planned to further expand control over its resources.

“SOPAMIB has already recovered two industrial mines, notably Boungou and Wahgnion, and this will continue,” he said.

The mining sector reforms have worried investors. But Burkina Faso’s military-led government says change is needed to maximize revenue from the country’s vast gold reserves and reboot an economy hit by insecurity.

Gold prices have risen by over 25% this year, fuelled by geopolitical instability and US President Donald Trump’s erratic trade policies.

Burkina Faso, which has been fighting Islamist militants since 2015, produced over 57 tons in 2023.

Mining companies operating there include Canada’s IAMGOLD and Australia’s West African Resources Ltd.

The new mining code prioritizes national expertise and local suppliers, part of what the government calls a revolution in how its mineral wealth is managed.

Burkina Faso’s relations with traditional Western allies have deteriorated since the military seized power in two coups in 2022, and it has pivoted toward Russia for security and economic cooperation.

Last week, it granted an industrial mining licence to Russian miner Nordgold for a gold project in the Kourweogo province of Burkina’s Plateau-Central region.

Ouédraogo said existing state-controlled mining initiatives have been successful, with the National Precious Substances Company collecting over eight tons of gold in 2024 and more than 11 tons in the first quarter of this year, primarily from artisanal sources.

The government is also establishing a national gold reserve for the first time in its history, he added.

“We should see more of the benefits of mining in Burkina Faso not just the consequences that the population suffers,” he said.

(By Maxwell Akalaare Adombila; Editing by Jessica Donati, Louise Heavens and Joe Bavier)

On Monday, Melbourne-based boutique fund Datt Capital, which holds a major stake in Koonenberry, went public with its concerns over the composition of Koonenberry’s board and proposed incentives to be issued to directors.

Datt chief investment officer Emanuel Datt told MINING.com it had first engaged with Koonenberry about six weeks ago over the nomination of a Datt representative to the Koonenberry board.

“They were very much opposed to any sort of board change,” he said.

“It made us think, well, we own over 10% of the company, we’re in a fairly strong position. We’d like a nominee on the board, but if we need to go through a formal shareholder, process, we’ll be going for two seats rather than just one.”

Datt then formally moved resolutions under section 203D of the Australian Corporations Act, calling for the removal of non-executive directors Darren Glover and George Rogers.

Rogers was a co-founder of Koonenberry, while Glover joined the board last year after selling the company its Lachlan project.

Datt said neither had public company experience or a track record of value creation.

“Ultimately, the board in its present incarnation, it’s fine if it’s a micro-cap company, and when the operations are still fairly speculative,” he said. 

However, shares in Koonenberry are up by around 200% year-to-date, including almost 70% in April, following exploration success at its Enmore project in New South Wales.

It started the week with a market capitalization of around A$70 million ($45 million).

“This looks like it could be a very real major gold discovery, and effectively, that’s when you’ve got to start preparing for the company’s evolution,” Datt said. 

“We’re really of the belief that you’ve got to have the right sort of experience and expertise around the board table to guide the company towards that outcome of maximising shareholder value in the medium term.”

Datt is proposing the appointment of Datt partner Tony Gu as its board representative and geologist and former IGO (ASX: IGO) exploration manager Tim Kennedy as an independent non-executive director.

Remuneration objections

Koonenberry was criticized for not disclosing Datt’s proposed board changes to the ASX and instead, announcing a new incentive package for directors on April 10.

The incentives included the issue of performance rights to employees if the company reported single drill intercepts of at least 20 gram metres and 50 gram metres of gold and the company achieving a volume-weighted average share price (VWAP) of at least A3.75c for 10 consecutive days.

Managing director Dan Power is set to receive roughly 2 million performance rights for achieving at least one 20 gram metre gold hit and at least one 50 gram metre gold hit.

Datt estimates the package could result in a potential A$5.4 million dilution to shareholder value, assuming a A20c share price, and could dilute existing shareholders by almost 6%.

Datt would prefer to see vesting conditions based on tangible metrics, such as JORC gold resource quantities, combined with a 30-day VWAP metric.

“I don’t think what we’re proposing is controversial in any way, shape or form,” he said. 

“I really think it’s just a situation where the incumbent board are very tight and cosy and are obviously granting themselves pretty rich performance right schemes with very low vesting conditions.”

Datt said the company’s move had received support from other Koonenberry shareholders.

“That has been from smaller investors, or even medium-sized investors, that are just tired of companies taking too many liberties. It’s like correcting your own homework.”

Emerging discovery

Koonenberry listed on the ASX in late 2021 with a focus on its namesake project in New South Wales.

Shares drifted lower in the years after listing due to limited exploration success and in October 2024, Koonenberry acquired a package of new projects in NSW, which included two joint ventures with Newmont Corporation (NYSE: NEM).

Newmont has acquired 80% of the Junee project, with Koonenberry free carried to commercial production, while Newmont can earn up to 80% of the Fairholme project by spending A$5 million on exploration.

While Newmont has been drilling both projects this year, Koonenberry has had the most success at its 100%-owned Enmore project.

Enmore is just 20km south of the Hillgrove gold-antimony project, a historical mine which is currently being redeveloped by Larvotto Resources (ASX: LRV).

Earlier this month, shares in Koonenberry surged by as much as 40% after it reported a hit of 170m at 1.75 grams per tonne gold (g/t) from 77m, including 18m at 9.95g/t gold from the first hole at the Sunnyside prospect.

It followed that up with 172.9m at 2.07g/t gold in the second hole, and today, reported 102m at 1.10g/t gold in the third hole.

The company’s other major shareholders are fellow Melbourne-based funds Lion Selection Group (ASX: LSX) and Lowell Resources Fund (ASX: LRT).

Koonenberry did not respond to a request for comment, but in the statement released Monday, it said it was considering the validity of Datt’s notices.

Meanwhile, Datt spent A$831,609 purchasing Koonenberry shares on market yesterday to take its stake in the company from 11.3% to 12.8%.

The Xatśūll First Nation is part of the larger Secwepemc (Shuswap) nation, located in the Cariboo region of the Canadian province.

The Xatśūll first filed a judicial review on April 15 with the Supreme Court of BC against the province’s minister of mining and critical minerals, the minister of environment and parks, the provincial deputy permitting officer, major mines offices, and the Mount Polley Mining Corporation (MPMC) to overturn two provincial decisions authorizing MPMC to raise the height of the dam at its tailings storage facility (TSF).

“As part of regular mine operations at Mount Polley, we recently received government approval to raise the height of our TSF by 4 metres. This kind of work is a normal and necessary part of operating any mine that stores tailings using a dam structure,” MPMC said in a statement on April 16.

The First Nation alleges provincial decision makers allowed work to proceed without an environmental assessment, which is legally required in the circumstances.

“This is the same dam that breached and so devastated the Xatśūll territory in 2014. The impacts of that environmental disaster are still harming the Nation’s rights, culture and way of life today,” Xatśūll said in a statement on April 25.

On August 4, 2014, a breach at the Mount Polley copper-gold mine sent the equivalent of 2,000 Olympic swimming pools of mining waste into a creek, tearing a swath as much as 45 metres wide down the previously metre-wide waterway.

Ten years after the dam breach, 15 charges were laid against Imperial Metals (TSX: III), the parent company of MPMC, and engineering firm Wood Canada for alleged violations of the federal Fisheries Act, arising from the failure of the TSF at the Mount Polley mine.

When the Xatśūll Nation filed the judicial review on April 15, it said it notified Mount Polley the same day that it intended to file an injunction to halt construction of the tailings dam raise and subsequent operations of the tailings dam facility at increased dam height until a decision was made by the court.

Imperial Metals released a statement on April 23 acknowledging Xatśūll “alleges that the provincial decision-makers approved this work using a process that did not include what it considers to be a legally required environmental assessment, and that the decisions were made in breach of alleged duties owed to Xatśūll as an Indigenous people.”

“Throughout the permitting process, [Imperial and MPMC] have actively engaged with Xatśūll and the Williams Lake First Nation, including providing funding for independent reviews and implementing recommendations to enhance operations,” the company said in the statement.

“The Williams Lake First Nation and MPMC have maintained a positive working relationship for over a decade, formalized through a Participation Agreement which was renewed in 2022, and the Williams Lake First Nation are supportive of the provincial decisions and Mount Polley’s current permitting applications under review.”

In its statement on April 25, Xatśūll said that Brian Kynoch, president of Imperial Metals, informed Xatśūll that Mount Polley “would not be agreeing to hold off on construction” and that “construction had already begun.”

“In light of this development, Xatśūll was compelled to file its injunction application on an urgent basis.”

Xatśūll said it anticipates its injunction application will be heard by the Supreme Court in early May.

Minting of the so-called “Mosi-Oa-Tunya” 22-carat coins, named after the iconic Victoria Falls, was scrapped in July, central bank Governor John Mushayavanhu told Bloomberg in an interview at the time.

The coins are now available again through the nation’s lenders at a “time of attractiveness” of bullion, according to Persistence Gwanyanya, a central bank monetary policy committee member.

“Gold is more attractive to the market at the moment and it supports our value preservation efforts,” Gwanyanya said Sunday in a phone interview. “We are taking advantage of firm gold prices and re-injecting the gold coins into the market.”

Two banks confirmed the sale of newly-minted coins — the Central Africa Building Society, or CABS, a subsidiary of Old Mutual Zimbabwe, and a local unit of the South African lender Nedbank Group Ltd. The coins were first issued in 2022 as a store of value for pension funds and individuals seeking a safe haven from frequent bouts of inflation and currency volatility.

“We are pleased to inform you that the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has reintroduced the issuance of gold coins through authorized dealers,” CABS said in a client notice issued over the weekend.

The coins are an “alternative investment option” which can be used to enhance investment portfolios with a “valuable asset,” Nedbank said in its client notice. The coins are sold in denominations ranging from one-tenth of an ounce to one ounce of gold.

A surge in global gold prices by about 25% so far this year, fueled by the uncertainty of a trade war launched by the US, is widely expected to be a boon for Zimbabwe, a primary producer of the precious metal.

The value of Zimbabwe’s gold shipments jumped to $395.9 million during the first quarter from $303.1 million a year earlier, according to data from Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.

(By Ray Ndlovu)

Spot gold rose 0.3% to $3,330.38 an ounce by 11:30 a.m. ET, having dropped as low as $3,268.62 earlier in the day. US gold futures saw similar swings, from down 1.7% to a 1.5% gain at $3,347.20 per ounce.

Bullion declined during the early hours of trading as improved optimism over a US-China trade deal from last week lingered. However, the market remains skeptical over an agreement can be reached. Last week, Beijing shot down US President Donald Trump’s assertions that the two countries were discussing a deal.

Moreover, Trump also claimed last week that his administration has already struck 200 trade deals, but refused to reveal any other details.

While “a nervous sense of calm has returned” in the global marketplace, “the idea that multiple deals could be wrapped up within weeks seems overly optimistic,” Charu Chanana, a strategist at Saxo Capital Markets, told Bloomberg.

Investors now look ahead to key US data due this week to gauge the impact of tariffs on the economy. These include the job openings report on Tuesday, Personal Consumption Expenditures on Wednesday, and the nonfarm payrolls report on Friday.

Too bullish?

Gold’s recent selloff accelerated as traders bet on signs that its explosive rally may have run too fast.

Hedge fund managers cut their net-long US futures and options positions on the metal to the lowest in 14 months, the latest Commodity Futures Trading Commission data show.

Shifts in options positioning — which last week saw trading volumes on the SPDR Gold Shares ETF surpass a record 1.3 million contracts — could point to an overheated market in the short term as prices run ahead of fundamental drivers, according to Barclays Plc.

Still, bullion remains up by about 25% this year, setting multiple records along the way, as Trump’s aggressive trade policy and fears about the global economy spurred demand for haven assets.

The gains have also been supported by inflows into gold-backed exchange-traded funds, central bank purchases and signs of strong speculative demand in China.

(With files from Bloomberg)

The company also intends to change its ticker symbol on the New York Stock Exchange from GOLD to B, effective at the start of trading on May 9, 2025. Barrick’s shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange will continue to trade under the ABX ticker.

The move reflects Barrick’s ongoing expansion into copper, complementing its gold business. The miner is investing $6 billion to develop the massive Reko Diq copper-gold project in Pakistan, expected to begin operations in 2028 and last for at least four decades. It is also expanding its Lumwana copper mine in Zambia, aiming to position it among the world’s largest copper operations.

Chief executive Mark Bristow said the change underscores Barrick’s vision of becoming “the world’s most valued gold and copper exploration, development and mining company.”

“Along with our world-class portfolio of six tier one gold mines, we are building a substantial copper business which will be a meaningful contributor to growing our production volumes in the coming years and beyond,” Bristow said in a statement.

“Gold remains core to our foundation,” he added, citing projects such as the Pueblo Viejo expansion in the Dominican Republic and the Fourmile gold project in Nevada.

Mali dispute

Meanwhile in Mali, Barrick faces mounting challenges as an ongoing dispute with the African nation continues to impact operations at its flagship Loulo-Gounkoto complex.

At least four Barrick subcontractors employing hundreds of workers have begun laying off staff, Reuters reported on Monday, adding that some have stopped receiving payments for months.

According to Reuters, the following subcontractors have either suspended activities or started liquidation procedures:

• BLY Mali, a subsidiary of drilling services firm Boart Longyear, said it is liquidating after its contract suspension left it “irremediably compromised.”
• ETASI, a heavy equipment rental company, announced a full suspension of its workforce.
• ATC, a metal construction company, issued layoff notices after a temporary work stoppage expired.
• MAXAM, a civil explosives contractor, is planning a temporary work stoppage affecting about 120 employees.
• SGS, a Swiss-based contractor, was granted a three-month suspension beginning February 1.

Last week, Malian authorities escalated the dispute with the Canadian miner, which began in 2023 after the current regime took power and introduced a new mining code, by closing Barrick’s office in Bamako, citing alleged tax arrears.

Operations at Loulo-Gounkoto, Barrick’s largest African asset, have been suspended since January after Mali seized around three tonnes of gold over alleged unpaid taxes. Authorities had already been blocking the company’s gold exports since November.

Despite these developments, Barrick’s employees in Mali have continued receiving salaries, a Reuters source said. Around 40 Malian employees from Loulo-Gounkoto are being temporarily transferred to Barrick’s Kibali mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with a total of 100 staff identified for relocation.

In February, Barrick signed a draft agreement to resolve the dispute, but Mali’s government has yet to ratify or implement the deal.

(With files from Reuters)

The company, formerly called Polymetal, reiterated its full-year guidance of gold equivalent production at 470,000 oz.

Solidcore, Kazakhstan’s second largest gold miner, said its first quarter sales declined by 67% to 38,000 oz. of gold equivalent after the temporary shipment delays with a strong recovery expected in the second half of 2025 as toll-processing returns to normal conditions.

(By Anastasia Lyrchikova and Anastasia Teterevleva; Editing by Andrew Osborn)

Read More: Solidcore eyes Gulf financing in post-Russia strategy

The rise in gold prices has led to a shift in consumer behaviour, with traditional gold products such as gold ornaments and jewellery giving way to gold bars and coins as a means of investment.

Gold jewellery consumption slumped 26.85% year-on-year to 134.531 tons during the first quarter, while consumption for gold bars and coins surged 29.81% to 138.018 tons, driven by investors seeking safe-haven assets amid geopolitical uncertainty and economic volatility.

China’s domestic gold production rose 1.49% year-on-year to 87.243 tons in the first quarter of 2025.

Including gold produced from imported materials, which totalled 53.587 tons, China’s total gold output reached 140.830 tons in the first quarter, up 1.18% from a year earlier.

(By Violet Li and Lewis Jackson; Editing by Christian Schmollinger, Janane Venkatraman and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)

In a tense exchange of letters this week, Yukon Legislative Assembly speaker Jeremy Harper urged that PwC’s senior vice-president and another representative attend a committee of the whole meeting to provide witness testimony. During an assembly debate on Friday, a contempt motion was put forward, the Canadian Press reported. That followed the company’s legal counsel saying in a reply letter that the government lacks the authority to compel its attendance to the meeting.

In response to the government’s claim that senior vice-president Michelle Grant could be “sanctioned” if she doesn’t attend, counsel Peter Ruby with Goodmans LLP said it’s a threat that PwC must take seriously.

“We ask that you please promptly provide the compelling authority on which you rely so that it may be properly considered,” Ruby wrote.

The back and forth comes almost one year since a heap leach pad failure at the Eagle site last June caused a landslide. The accident unleashed millions of tonnes of material and at least 280,000 cubic metres of cyanide-containing solution left the pad’s containment, according to government estimates.

About six weeks later, Victoria was placed into PwC receivership by court order after the Yukon government was dissatisfied with the company’s clean up efforts.

Contempt motion adjourned

Debate on the contempt motion was adjourned until Monday, and PwC’s appearance before the assembly is expected on Tuesday, CP reported.

However, PwC maintains that it would only attend the assembly to provide testimony if it was ordered by a court, Ruby said.

It wasn’t clear if such an order had been made and the websites of Goodmans and PwC offered no information on it.

PwC also intends to ask a court that the “threat of sanctions” made in Harper’s Wednesday letter be stayed under the terms of the receivership order, Ruby added.

The Northern Miner has requested comment from Harper and Goodmans.