Defining the Region
A place in the sun
With hundreds of North-American listed mining companies operating across South America, flights between the two continents increasingly contain busy mining executives who shuttle between Toronto and Lima, Phoenix to Santiago and other North-South permutations. More often than not, they skip over Central America and the Caribbean entirely, with the occasional layover in Panama City. It was on such a north-to-south business commute that Canadian prospector Simon Ridgway found himself gazing out of the airplane window at the volcanic terrain of the Central American region and wondering. This was the region where he would help discover several deposits over the coming decades under Gold Group Management, the company he leads. This is also the region of focus for this report.
Lifting our perspective even higher than that 35,000 feet airplane view, we can define the “Latam North and Caribbean” as the Greater Central American region stretching from the US-Mexico border to the Equator line, including both Latam countries in Central America, the Caribbean, and the northern stretch of South America, as well as two non-Latin outliers: English-speaking Guyana and Dutch-speaking Suriname, which are regularly grouped with the Caribbean.
There are 10 countries of mining relevance in this rather disbanded region:
Mexico, the world’s top silver producer, ninth-largest gold producer, and tenth-largest copper producer, certainly does not fly under the radar of investors, yet, in some ways, it is still avoided, so to speak. Last year, mining FDI in Mexico dropped by 56%, at US$1.53 billion (2024) versus US$3.49 billion (2023), according to official figures from the ministry of economy. With the change of government in 2024 came hope, and with hope for change, amplified uncertainty.
Colombia, the second most established mining jurisdiction in the region after Mexico and Latam’s biggest coal producer, is not doing better. Colombia sits at the bottom of the Fraser Survey’s Policy Perception Index, the fourth worst after La Rioja (in Argentina), China, and Niger. Colombia’s main redeeming feature as a mining destination is the promise of an under-explored gold-copper belt, and a reprise with the upcoming 2026 elections.
While Colombia’s lack of presence at the PDAC Convention in Toronto this year was expected and Mexico’s iconic booth was noticeably missing, Guyana and Ecuador attracted significant attention. With Guyana’s thriving oil industry and Ecuador’s two large-scale mines, the two countries are luring investors into the region. Investors are also warming up to more uncertain but geologically enticing Suriname, Jamaica, Nicaragua and Guatemala, each enlivened by recent activity.
Panama and the Dominican Republic feature strongly on the world’s mining map, each feted for the region’s top tier assets, in copper and gold, respectively. They could have easily served as lodestars for investment in the region, but their journeys to success have been fraught with obstacles. In Panama, First Quantum Minerals (FQM)’s multi-billion operation has been suspended, while in the Dominican, Barrick Mining has been carefully advancing the expansion of the Pueblo Viejo gold mine, which involves a sensitive resettlement.
While investors are well-aware of world-class operations like Barrick’s Pueblo Viejo gold mine in the Dominican Republic, they are also hyper-aware of the uncertainties that have limited the mining activity in the country to just one operation. Difficulties around permitting, combined with anti-mining sentiment, have made investors circumspect about the region.
Though we do not have the data for these 10 countries specifically, Latin America as a whole is the region with the most ESG-impact allegations by local communities out of all regions, according to the IEA. The location of assets, often conflicting with indigenous lands and in highly biodiverse mesoamerican hotspots, as well as the impacts of mining-related disasters like dam collapses and massive contaminations, are all contributing to the tension. The exact factors behind a strenous social license, as well as responses from mining operators, are more amply discussed in a separate article.
With the risk of stating the obvious, this is a highly heterogenous region: varieties in climates, topography and altitude inform different technical mining environments, while differences in culture, governance and population dynamics inform different political regimes and societal beliefs around mining. Whereas Mexico, Colombia and Nicaragua are led by leftist governments, Guyana falls more in the center-left, and Panama, Ecuador, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica follow a center-right ideology. The region features a mix of tradition and technology, myth and modernity: in places like Mexico, mining goes back 500 years, while in countries like Ecuador, large-scale mining has just taken off about five years ago. Superstitions that claim gold will disappear if women enter mines coexist with some of the most successful gender-diversity programs.
“The pendulum has swung back in favor of natural resources. For a while, environmental concerns tarnished mining’s image, making us forget that without minerals, we wouldd slide back into the Stone Age. And ironically, even back then, we were mining.”
Serafino Iacono, Executive Chairman, Denarius Metals
In fact, the region’s heterogeneity also explains why it is sometimes overlooked by mainstream investors (and media). Its fanned out geography and ensuing diversity make it hard to be bundled up into a single region, which results in a lack of dedicated data. Data on specific countries often fades out against bigger jurisdictions. In industry reports, Mexico tends to be placed together either with North American countries or Latam countries, behind which it features as a more marginal player. The rest of the countries are often too small to even be avuncularly accounted for in the regional Latam mining report. Service providers themselves often serve this region from elsewhere in North or South America. Without enough data and without the ability to act as a group, the region fails to attract critical mass when it comes to investment interest. This lack of information is both a reason why the region is overlooked and why we wanted to cover it at GBR, making sure that top-tier assets and truly enticing investment opportunities do not go amiss.
The region holds some of the largest undeveloped projects in gold (like Lumina Gold’s Cangrejos), silver (such as Vizsla Silver’s Panuco) and copper (like SolGold’s Cascabel), as well as extraordinary growth stories (like G Mining Ventures), some of the the highest yielding stocks (like Lundin Gold) and some of the highest grades in the world (like Mako Mining’s San Albino mine), as well as highly prospective and pristine exploration frontiers (like Jamaica).
For these reasons alone, this region deserves to be more than a layover in our North American and South American research, but a destination in itself. We hope our report will help the region establish its place in the sun.
A moment in the sun: Why timing is of the essence
First of all, let’s rewind to why investors should make a stop and take a look at this region. One reason is that they just have to. According to Discovery Alert, 50% of the world’s global gold production comes from mines over 20 years old, with ore grades naturally declining since most producers usually bring the highest grade portions of the deposits early into the mine plan. The reserve replacement crisis is true for other precious and base metals. The fundamentals for copper, gold and silver have never been better, and the synchronization is uncanny, since typically precious and base metals follow opposite directions. Yet in 2025, both gold and copper reached record highs, silver maintained levels above the US$30/oz psychological line.
This is pushing copper prospectors to follow the Andean copper belt that extends from Chile and Peru into Ecuador; gold prospectors to go beyond the well-known belts like Abitibi spanning Ontario and Québec, to the little explored Colombian Cauca gold belt or the Guiana Shield; silver explorers within Mexico are also looking again both within and outside the famous Faja de Plata Belt, into emerging ones like the Sierra Madre Occidental. In other words, the Latam North and Caribbean region has the right commodities, with gold, copper and silver at the forefront, even if its politics are sometimes strongly left.
The exploration potential in key commodities like gold and silver have made the region more detectable to new and bigger players in recent years. Having a major on your company register is a big boon for a developer, said Canadian explorer G2 Goldfields, after AngloGold Ashanti became a 15% shareholder. “Prior to this investment, we were extremely undervalued, but the endorsement from a major company like Anglo certainly took away some of that perceived risk that weighed on the stock,” said Dan Noone, CEO of G2 Goldfields, who is developing the Oko-Ghanie gold project in Guyana.
“Limestone is Jamaica’s next frontier, possessing vast deposits of both high-grade pharmaceutical and industrial grade. While the bauxite market and reserves are at maturity, limestone presents a significant opportunity for economic diversification and export growth.”
Donna Marie Howe, CEO, Jamaica Bauxite Mining (JBM)
Below is a rundown of other recent entrants to the region:
- In Jamaica, Barrick Mining and Freeport McMoran entered earn-in JVs with Geophysx and C3 Metals, respectively.
- In Colombia, Agnico Eagle invested over CAD52 million in Collective Mining, and Freeport also announced an earn-in on Max Resources’ Cesar project. Copper Giant Resources (formerly Libero Copper) also attracted the sponsorship of the Fiore Group, with Fiore’s CEO, Frank Giustra, becoming a key shareholder.
- In Guyana, Luxembourg-based La Mancha acquired over 16% of G Mining Ventures, supporting the acquisition of Reunion Gold by G Mining. AngloGold Ashanti increased its stake in explorer G2 Goldfields from 11.7% to 15%.
- In Ecuador, streaming and royalty companies, including Wheaton Precious Metals, Franco Nevada and Osisko Gold Royalties, have offered financing backing for large development projects like Cangrejos and Cascabel. Hancock Prospecting’s subsidiary, Hanrine, also signed an earn-in of up to 80% for Titan Minerals’ flagship copper project, Linderos.
Top shareholders like Franklin Templeton and Sprott sit on the registers of Mexican players like Silver Tiger Metals, and mining billionare Pierre Lassondo and his merchant bank Trinity Capital Partners own 40% of Mexico-Chile explorer Fuerte Metals (formerly Atacama Copper). Newmont, BHP and Jiangxi Copper feature on SolGold’s registry, backing its Cascabel copper-gold project in Ecuador.
Acquisitions have also been flying high. Some prominent transactions include Equinox Gold's acquisition of Calibre Mining for CAD2.6 billion currently pending approval by the Courts in British Colombia; Coeur Mining’s acquisition of SilverCrest for US$1.7 billion completed this year. At around the same time, First Majestic completed the acquisition of Gatos Silver for US$970 million.
While these large acquisitions of existing, producing mines centered around Mexico, acquisitions of advanced development assets focused on new gold belts in the region. Ecuador has been of noteworthy attention. CMOC just announced the acquisition of Lumina Gold and its Cangrejos gold project in Ecuador, for CAD581 million. Last year, Silvercorp Metals completed the acquisition of Adventus Mining, which is developing the El Domo project together with Salazar Resources. Guyana also sparked interest, with G Mining Ventures acquiring Reunion Gold and its Oko West gold project last year.
Mexico has also been the arena of lower-value transactions focused on brownfield, former operating mines, some under care and maintenance but with a promise to produce again in the right hands. In 2023, under an inauspicious government that threatened to ban open pit mining and passed a series of regulations hampering exploration, the value of mining assets crumbled, but deft buyers saw an opportunity, knowing that while politics are transitory, mining is not. Silver Storm Mining and Sierra Madre acquired formerly producing mines from First Majestic, namely La Parilla and La Guitarra, both in 2023; La Guitarra declared commercial production this year, while La Parilla is progressing through financing for a restart soon.
A convergence of high-commodity prices and low valuations, on the back of a structural deficit in exploration and discoveries, set the perfect scene for increased M&A. Given the momentum in the global M&A cycle, heightened transactional activity in the region recently, and buzzing commodity prices, we believe the timing is ideal for the Latam North and Caribbean to start getting noticed. Celebrating 30 years since joining Coeur Mining, CEO Mitchell Krebs, reflected on the current momentum: “Mining is finally getting its moment in the sun, something that we are not used to as an industry, but I think this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the industry to step forward, showcase what we do and how we do it, especially here in the US and Mexico.”
Coeur is the fourth-largest silver producer and sixth-largest gold producer in Mexico.
Article header image courtesy of Barrick Mining