Industry Insights: Musings on Mining Markets
Comments on current trends
“In the current environment, you want to look for companies that are cognizant of their cash burn rate. You do not want them to turn things off. However, you want to see the companies give themselves enough runway so that when markets turn up again, they can finance at a less dilutive entry point.”
Michael Durose, President and CEO, Lavras Gold Corp.
“Our purchasers are often institutions with ESG considerations, which can sometimes write off mining. However, they are now starting to look at mining from the perspective of furthering clean technologies and the green economy. Critical minerals have also broadened the potential investor base at the back end of the structured arrangements we do.”
Lisa Davis, CEO, PearTree Securities
“Charity Flow-Through Financing leverages every C$1.00 invested by domestic or offshore mining investors into C$2.00 - C$4.00 of direct economic activity in Canada.”
David LeClaire, President and Founder, Oberon Capital
"The sector needs more consolidation, more relevance and more scale. If you are going to appeal to generalist audiences beyond the index trackers and specialized investors, you need to continue to do the right things with capital allocation and portfolio management. M&A is surely part of that, otherwise the sector risks being simply too niche."
Shaun Usmar, Founder and CEO, Triple Flag Precious Metals Corp.
“Stepping out into this market and doing M&A has proved to be very problematic. It is hard to make reasonable deals, and even when you do, it is not necessarily well received by the market. Until the market is sending us very strong signals that they are going to encourage M&A and that they are going to welcome good quality deals, we are going to focus on organic growth."
John McCluskey, President and CEO, Alamos Gold
“In today’s distressed markets, opportunities are there especially because many assets only make sense if you have a team that wants to build them. Many orphaned assets remain orphan because we have far too few mining teams wanting to build mines.”
Doug Ramshaw, President, Minera Alamos
“The reality is that there is a shrinking number of producing assets, and the big guys need to keep their pipelines flowing. Depleting reserves will drive this market.”
Ian Robertson, CEO, Kingsdale Advisors
