Greenstone Mine is very rare asset, said Greg Smith, president and CEO of Equinox Gold.

On Thursday Smith spoke to Kitco Mining.

Equinox Gold (TSX: EQX) is a Canadian mining company with seven operating mines. The company is forecasting 780,000 ounces of gold production in 2024 at an all-in sustaining cost between $1,565 to $1,675 per ounce.

This month the company announced first pour at Greenstone Mine, what the company calls its flagship asset. When operating at capacity, the Greenstone Mine is expected to produce approximately 400,000 ounces of gold annually for the first five years, and average 360,000 ounces of gold per year for its initial 14-year mine life, making Greenstone one of Canada’s largest gold mines, according to Equinox. Last month Equinox Gold paid $995 million to acquire Orion’s 40% interest in the Greenstone Mine.

"Greenstone is a large-scale gold mine in Canada—large reserve, lots of potential in the open pit and the underground," said Smith. "Those types of assets are very rare, especially with that kind of production profile."

So far gold mining equities haven't had that big a run in 2024 despite the metal hitting several all-time highs. The GDX, an index of gold miners, is only up 16% year to date. Smith said huge demand for just physical gold in Asia has been driving up the price of the metal, which also explains part of the disconnect with the miners. With inflation starting to tamp down, margin expansion at the gold miners should spark interest in the sector.

"We're seeing inflation easing off," noted Smith. "The gold price is running, and the operating gold companies are going to produce a lot of cash flow."

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this podcast are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this podcast do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.

Minera Alamos will see a big step up in production over the next handful of years, said Doug Ramshaw, the company's director and president.

On Tuesday Ramshaw spoke to Kitco Mining.

Minera Alamos (TSX.V: MAI) is a Mexican-focused gold miner. The company's expertise is in heap leach operations. Its Santana operation will produce 2,000 ounces this year. The company's two other projects, Cerro De Oro and La Fortuna, are scheduled to start production over the next few years. The company expects to be producing 140,000 ounces annually by 2027.

Ramshaw said Minera Alamos is built to operate in a low-cost environment.

"Build mines that can work in whatever gold price environment is thrown at you," said Ramshaw.

Ramshaw was surprised by gold's move. He expected gold to go up in 2024, but towards the end of the year. The metal has already hit several all-time highs.

"I think there's still probably upside on gold," said Ramshaw. "If you're building mines that can't make money at these prices, then you're probably building the wrong kinds of mines."

Ramshaw has 25 years as a mineral analyst and mining executive. He was a former director of Great Bear Resource, which was acquired for $1.8 billion.

Ramshaw said that Mexico is a very prospective country to operate.

"We want to build many more mines in Mexico."

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this podcast are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this podcast do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.

As more money comes into mining, this will push dollars down to the juniors, said David Garofalo, chair and CEO of GoldRoyalty.

Garofalo has a multi-decade career leading large mining companies. He was CEO of Goldcorp prior to its sale to Newmont for about $10 billion in 2019. He was also CEO of Hudbay Minerals. Garofalo is now at GoldRoyalty (NYSE:GROY), a streaming and royalty company. Some of its key assets are the Odyssey Mine, the Cote gold project and the Borborema project. The company forecasts revenue of about $15 million mid-decade, growing to three times that level by 2029.

Garofalo spoke to Kitco Mining on May 21. He said that despite gold hitting several all-time highs this year and copper futures hitting their own record last week, gold equities are still underperforming.

"We're starting to see profitability and margins starting to expand," said Garofalo. "But the big overhang for the producer universe is the fact that reserves have been declining steadily for a dozen years. We haven't seen the leverage to the gold price that equity should be providing."

Garofalo said broader interest in resources is needed for the sector to be healthy again. He believes a good Q2 performance by the major gold miners resulting from high metal prices and better cost control could see generalists return to the sector.

"I know the juniors are waiting for the seniors," said Garofalo. "Hopefully [we] see some generalist capital come into the space and buy the most liquid names. If that happens, the specialists who are kind of hiding out among the large caps will start to come down the food chain and start to invest in juniors.

Mining needs more money coming into the sector, he said.

"The specialists have been hiding out because they face significant redemption pressure, so they've had to stay in large liquid names,” said Garofalo. “But when generals start coming in and displacing them, then we'll start to see some risk capital put the work in the juniors. And that's an existential necessity for the industry."

Garofalo said the uptick in mining M&A points to a poor pipeline of projects.

"Juniors have had very inconsistent access to capital, and they're the ones that do all the heavy lifting when it comes to grassroots exploration," said Garofalo. "They make the major discoveries. The bigger producers build and operate those mines, but they don't discover them. And that's resulted in a 40 percent decline in gold reserves over the last dozen years. So, you have a shrinking pie, and that's led to cannibalization. That's led to merger activity."

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this podcast are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this podcast do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.