(Kitco News) – Even the mining majors’ stock prices aren’t reflecting the price appreciation of the underlying commodities, and the opportunity in the mid-tier producers and juniors is even more attractive, according to Stephen Stewart, CEO and Director of QC Copper & Gold.
Stewart sat down with Kitco Mining at Xplor 2024 in Montreal. He said that even though the gold price recently hit record highs and was on a tear for many months, the rally in mining equities hasn’t happened yet.
“It hasn't even begun,” he said. “I think we're remarkably cheap. And when I say we, I'm talking about even the big guys, the Newmonts and the Barricks and the Agnicos, all of whom have performed fairly well this year, but most have not performed as well as gold has.”
Stewart said that while investors may be a little late to the gold rally, there’s massive untapped upside in the mining stocks.
“The whole rationale for investing in the mining companies and taking that additional operation risk is because you want torque, you want leverage to the gold price,” he said. “It needs one, two, maybe three quarters of heightened free cash flow for the world to take note, but when you have gold flirting with $2,800, and certainly $3,000 is on the table this year, crazier things have happened.”
Stewart also suggested investors not sleep on base metals like copper, which he believes is set for a long and sustained bull run.
“Copper is absolutely critical,” he said. “Anything that has an on-off switch has copper. And copper isn't just about the electrification of things, which is going to be huge [on the] demand side of the equation. But if you build this infrastructure, these roads, bridges, that's copper.”
“Copper is the linchpin of the economy,” Stewart added. “It has huge growth potential as we continue to electrify, irrespective of the timeframes, and I think the copper price has a very bright future.”
Coverage of Xplor 2024 was sponsored by Radisson Mining Resources.
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