Mining Monthly: April Edition
What you need to know:• The metals and mining market showed a fourth straight month of strong gains in April on the back of the escalating trade tensions.
• In April, gold was up 5.6%, silver was down 4.2%, and copper was down 9.6%. The equities outperformed the commodities, with the GDX up 6.5%, GDXJ up 7.3%, and SIL up 3.3%.
• Financings remained largely elevated during April, highlighting the institutional capital that has flowed into the mining sector recently.
• M&A started to pick up again in April as the major firms look to utilize their boosted cash flow to purchase juniors at discounted prices.
The mining industry posted another monster month in April, building on the large gains made in March. A major contributor was the escalating trade tensions between the United States and China, which undermined investor confidence in traditional assets like the U.S. dollar and Treasury bonds, prompting a shift toward gold as a safe haven. Additionally, central banks, particularly in emerging markets such as China, India, and Turkey, intensified their gold purchases. The anticipation of Federal Reserve interest rate cuts added to the bullishness for gold.
Gold was up 5.6% in the month, reaching all-time highs while the 10-year yield declined slightly. This compares to silver down 4.2%, taking the gold-to-silver ratio to new highs only seen before during the pandemic. Equities outperformed the commodity prices with the GDX up 6.5%, GDXJ up 7.3%, and SILJ up 3.3%. This outperformed broader markets with the S&P 500 and TSX down 0.7% and 0.3%, respectively. Copper posted a weak month with spot prices down 9.6% while the COPX was down 3.2%. The other metals and commodities were mixed again, with the best performer being titanium (+5%) and the worst performer being tin (-13%). We will reiterate that the gold equities are still not pricing in >$3,000/oz gold.
Similar to March, financings in April were highly elevated, with many companies benefiting from the higher commodity prices and newfound interest in the sector. We will reiterate that companies that struggled to raise $1-5M last year are now raising $10M+. M&A started to pick up in April as majors are generating record cash flow and looking to deploy capital in the distressed juniors.
Amerigo Resources is engaged in the production of copper and molybdenum concentrates with operations in Chile. Through its subsidiary, Minera Valle Central S.A., Co. has a contract with Chile's state-owned copper producer National Copper Corporation to process the tailings from El Teniente underground copper mine.
Endurance Gold is engaged in the exploration and development of mineral properties in North America and has not yet determined whether its properties contain ore reserves that are economically recoverable. The recoverability of the amounts expended on mineral interests by Co. is dependent upon the existence of economically recoverable reserves, the ability of Co. to obtain necessary financing to complete exploration and development of its mineral properties and upon future profitable production or proceeds from disposition of its mineral interests.
GIGA Metals is an exploration stage mineral resources company engaged in the acquisition and exploration of mineral properties, primarily in northern British Columbia. Co. has not yet identified any mineral resource on any of its properties that is of a commercially exploitable quantity.
Nicola Mining is a fully integrated silver mining, exploration and development company.
Santacruz Silver Mining is engaged in the operation, acquisition, exploration and development of mineral properties in Mexico, with a primary focus on silver, but also including gold, zinc and lead. Co. is focused on meeting and maintaining its primary production objective of producing approximately 1.5 million silver equivalent ounces on a yearly basis at its producing property, the Rosario Mine. In addition, Co. is exploring three other mineral properties, being the San Felipe Project (an advanced stage project), the Gavilanes Project (an exploration project), and the El Gachi Property (an early stage exploration project).
Tempo Gold is in the exploration stage and is engaged in the acquisition, exploration and development of gold resource properties in Tanzania, East Africa.
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