(Kitco News) Higher metals prices are giving mining companies more capital and more strategic options, but investors are becoming less tolerant of complicated portfolios, missed guidance and weak technical oversight, according to Nicole Adshead-Bell, director of Cupel Advisory.
Speaking with Kitco Mining’s Digging Deep on June 4, 2026, Adshead-Bell said the latest wave of deal speculation, activist pressure and copper transactions shows a sector moving deeper into a growth phase. The opportunity is clear, she said, but the market is not rewarding growth without discipline.
That pressure is visible in gold, where stronger prices are rebuilding balance sheets, and in copper, where supply concerns are pulling capital back into projects and transactions. It is also showing up in governance, as shareholders demand clearer strategies and better execution.
Barrick Mining has been at the center of that debate. Reuters reported on June 1 that Barrick was weighing a possible London listing for its African business, with a potential all-share transaction involving Endeavour Mining among the options under consideration. The interview also covered discussion around a potential separation of Barrick’s North American assets.
Adshead-Bell said the logic behind simplification is straightforward.
“Investors like things that are relatively simple,” she said.
She said a cleaner structure could make sense if Barrick’s new leadership wants to reduce exposure to riskier jurisdictions and refocus the company around assets the market can more easily value. Endeavour, she added, has a history of operating in Africa and could be a more natural owner of regional assets.
Deal risk is not limited to strategy, with Allied Gold announcing on May 29 that the outside date for Zijin Gold’s planned acquisition of the company had been extended to July 29, 2026. The transaction was described in the interview as a C$5.5 billion deal with a 27% premium.
Adshead-Bell said the premium itself did not appear unusual for a mining transaction, noting that precedent premiums have averaged around 30% over long periods. The delay, she said, was a reminder that large cross-border transactions can remain uncertain until approvals and due diligence are complete.
That uncertainty is emerging as activist investors put more pressure on mining boards. Elliott Investment Management said on June 1 that it held an investment of well over A$1 billion in Northern Star Resources and criticized the Australian gold producer’s operational missteps, cost overruns and strategic direction.
Adshead-Bell said Elliott’s campaign is notable because it shows generalist investors becoming more willing to push publicly for change in the mining sector. She said shareholders have often been too reluctant to act like owners, choosing instead to complain, sell and move on.
“The biggest bugbear that any investor has in the industry is, it's not rocket science, people. Do what you say you're going to do,” she said.
That execution record has become a valuation issue, she said.
“Those companies that can do that trade at what I would call a trust premium because trust is the rarest commodity in our business,” Adshead-Bell said.
The pressure to deliver is rising as gold producers begin putting cash back into the business. In early June, Pan American Silver announced it had approved approximately $146 million for the first phase of its Timmins Camp Project in Ontario. In the same week, IAMGOLD reported an updated consolidated mineral resource estimate for Côté Gold would support an updated mine plan and technical report expected in the fourth quarter of 2026.
Integra Resources said in February that growth capital at Florida Canyon in Nevada would support expansion projects and studies for an updated technical report expected in the third quarter of 2026.
Adshead-Bell said the shift is typical as a commodity cycle matures. Investors who previously wanted buybacks, dividends and capital discipline begin asking where the next leg of growth will come from. The easiest answers are acquisitions and expansions of existing assets.
The risk is that companies move at the same time. Expansions can depend on lower cutoff grades and higher gold price assumptions, while competition for labor, equipment and project management can lift costs across the sector.
“We tend to make decisions all at the same time and then create problems for ourselves in doing that,” she said.
Copper is moving in the same direction, but Adshead-Bell said it is earlier in the cycle than gold. Central Asia Metals announced that it would acquire Cygnus Metals in an all-share transaction valued at approximately A$232 million, adding the Chibougamau copper-gold project in Québec.
Adshead-Bell said copper companies are beginning to transact, but large capital deployment decisions are unlikely until the market has more confidence in a higher sustainable price.
“I think the real number is more likely sustainable price around $7-$8,” she said.
Demand from electrification, artificial intelligence and data centers is adding to the pressure, she said, while new mine supply remains difficult to bring forward.
Higher metals prices are also changing how companies think about financing structures put in place during weaker markets. Adshead-Bell said streams, royalties, prepays and hedges can be necessary when capital is scarce, but they become more expensive when attached to a company’s primary commodity in a rising market.
The result is a sector with more available capital and more pressure to use it. Higher prices are creating room for growth, but companies still have to prove they can allocate capital, manage costs and maintain investor trust.