Kitco News - Investors still haven't made the link between high gold prices and mining equities, said Robert Quartermain, co-chairman of Dakota Gold.
On Monday Quartermain spoke to Kitco Mining.
Quartermain has a storied career in mining. Most recently he was Executive Chairman of Pretium Resources, which he founded in October 2010. Pretium's Brucejack mine became Canada’s fourth-largest gold mine with annual production of 350,000 ounces. Quartermain was inducted into the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame in August 2022. Newcrest acquired Pretium in 2021 for $2.8 billion.
Gold has hit several all-time highs, but the gold miners are not seeing the full benefit yet. The VanEck Gold Miners ETF is only up 10% year-to-date and still well under highs hit earlier this decade.
"[Many] of the miners think the gold price is still going much higher," said Quartermain. "What we need to see is a better connection between where the gold price is and what we're seeing in the equities."
Quartermain said a generational change is partly to blame for the depressed equity prices over the past ten years.
"Over the last decade we've seen a lot of movement of money out of the gold space," said Quartermain. "Over a decade ago when we were building the Brucejack Mine, many portfolio managers with a lot of gold assets under management left or those funds were depleted
in size."
Quartermain's new venture is Dakota Gold (NYSE American: DC), a gold exploration and development company focused on advancing the Homestake District in South Dakota. Dakota Gold’s properties cover over 48 thousand acres. The district has over 145 years of gold mining history. Dakota Gold commenced drilling in January 2022. It listed on the NYSE the same year. Currently the company has four drills operating with over 279,000 feet drilled.
The company closed an investment with Orion for $17 million in exchange for ~7% ownership. Dakota has a planned $30 million exploration program for 2024.