Two Colorado Gold Mining Conferences

Ima Casanova

October 12, 2023

Last month, we attended two of the sector’s major conferences, both in Colorado: The Precious Metals Summit focused on explorers, developers, and emerging producers; and, the Gold Forum Americas showcased seven-eighths of the world’s publicly traded gold and silver companies when measured by production or reserves.

The mood at the Gold Forum Americas was quiet and reflective, perhaps not surprisingly, given the recent lack of investor appetite for gold equities and the resulting poor share price performance of many of the companies. However, the message continues to be upbeat: A focus on portfolio optimization, disciplined growth, cost control, and delivering against expectations.

At the Precious Metals Summit, one CEO commented that this market felt like the bottom of the bear market in 2015 when gold fell to USD 1,050 an ounce. However, the gold price is now in a bull market trend, with gold recently near record highs, and internal rates of return (IRR's) on many projects ranging between 20% to 50% or more. Talk about dislocation!