(Kitco News) - The gold sector is entering an aggressive growth phase driven by high prices, falling production, and increased investor appetite for mergers and acquisitions, according to Nicole Adshead-Bell, Director of Cupel Advisory.
“We’re in the part of the commodity cycle, given the very strong gold prices, where investors are moving away from focusing on balance sheet and dividends to saying, where is the growth coming from?” Adshead-Bell told Kitco Mining. “M&A is the name of the game now.”
Major gold miners produced 1.5 million fewer ounces in Q1 2025 compared to the previous quarter, even as all-in sustaining margins exceeded 60%.
Goldfields’ recent $2.6 billion acquisition of Gold Road Resources underscores the trend.
“It’s replicating what we saw last cycle, where there was a huge amount of consolidation in the Australian gold sector with internationals coming in,” she said. “Then, in the downturn, you saw a plethora of assets being sold, and that formed the foundation for what are now the largest Australian gold companies.”
Adshead-Bell also highlighted the discovery of Lundin-BHP’s Vicuña project, the biggest copper find in 30 years. The resource hosts 28 million tonnes of copper, 81 million ounces of gold, and 1.5 billion ounces of silver, though development is complicated by high arsenic content.
Meanwhile, China is intensifying its investments in Latin American copper. “This isn’t random. China has a 50 to 100-year view on resource security. They’re filling the vacuum left by the U.S., Canada, and Europe,” Adshead-Bell said.
In the U.S., projects like Resolution Copper remain stalled by permitting and legal challenges. “I would expect that you could potentially see this tied up in the courts for years,” she added,
On financing, Adshead-Bell praised i-80 Gold’s recent $135 million private placement. “They did the right thing – better to recapitalize now than death-by-a-thousand-cuts later,” she said.
With the sector at an inflection point, Adshead-Bell believes investor focus will continue to pivot: “We’re past the capital discipline phase. Now it’s all about who can grow – and fast.”
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