Monday 30 September 2019

"Gold Exploration Vital For Future Supply": Gold In The USA - Alaskan Elephant Country.




Wood Mackenzie brings attention to the unfolding "Gold Reserves Crisis" as McKinsey calls it. The growing demand for gold from Central Banks, institutional investors and retail is facing the peak gold production and collapsing gold reserves of the major mining companies. Everything is being set for "The Perfect Storm" in the gold market:

"Exploration budgets were slashed following the fall in the gold price from the highs that were reached in 2011/2012 and they have since failed to recover. The slight rebound in exploration spend we have seen over the past couple of years has largely been focused on brownfield projects and near-mine development. This has not been sufficient to replenish mined ounces and as such peak gold supply is now a very real possibility. Wood Mackenzie."



M&A activity will only redistribute the well known and already developed reserves. The industry needs new major discoveries which are very few and far between. Years of the Gold Bear market have not only burnt alive the whole generation of investors but made mining companies extremely cautious with any exploration and investment activities. All exploration budgets were cut to the bone. The industry suffered not only dramatically reduced exploration budgets, but the return on the money invested in exploration produced very few major discoveries.




After the recent wave of M&A activities among the major gold miners, mining companies are increasingly entering into the JVs with junior miners in order to develop the new resource base:

"To secure their longevity as pillars of the gold industry, we have seen heightened M&A activity and miners focusing on their core assets. Whilst this may help to bolster balance sheets through improved operational performance and realised “synergies”, it seemingly does little to address the problem the industry is facing with regards to how to sustain current production levels. We have, as of late, noticed an uptick in some majors opting to increase their footholds in a select few juniors with promising exploration opportunities.
Agnico Eagle, AngloGold Ashanti, Kinross and Newcrest are actively investing in, or entering into joint-ventures with junior gold companies to create long-term value. Wood Mackenzie"



News about Electrum Group partnering in the new venture with gold mining legends Rob McEwen and Eric Sprott for exploration in Alaska will ignite the new wave of interest to the juniors operating in Alaska. Alaska jumped to the 5th place among safe mining jurisdictions and giant 39 Moz Donlin Gold project is getting more and more attention. Electrum Group is the major shareholder of Nova Gold which is developing Donlin Gold in JV with Barrick Gold.




With gold prices reaching new highs this year some mining analysts are starting to apply the old metrics to value "gold in the ground" when comparing juniors and their projects. Nova Gold was trading as high as $2.4B reflecting its 50% stake in Donlin Gold. It gives more than $120 valuation per oz in the ground. All projects are different, but previous Gold Bull market valuations started at $20 per oz of the inferred resources - the very initial level of resources. New mining deals will give us a better sense of the valuations. Eric Sprott and Rob McEwen will make sure that Alaska is shining bright on the radars of investors now. Increased gold prices are making the great state of Alaska as one of the most attractive in the industry: "leverage in the place where you can keep the rewards". And their own gold price projections can bring real fireworks to the exploration opportunities. As always do your own research and you will have to pick up the winners.





TNR Gold is developing the Shotgun Gold project in the Alaskan elephant country near Donlin Gold mining district. On the links below you can find more information. Barrick Gold received crucial permits to advance Donlin Gold and this new developing mining district in the US can make the promise of "Gold In the USA" providing stable supply feasible again and it can become that solution to "The Gold Mining Reserve Crisis" McKinsey is talking about:
"The Company's strategy with the Shotgun Gold Project is to attract a partnership with one of the major gold mining companies. TNR Gold ("TNR") is actively introducing the project to interested parties," commented Kirill Klip, Executive Chairman of TNR. "We may be at the beginning of a great discovery. There is a clear path on how to move this project forward using the geological and geophysical research currently available to target drilling to expand the resource and form the basis of a preliminary economic analysis. The next step is to acquire a partner that shares our vision and recognizes the growth potential and value to be added to the Shotgun project over time."






Wood Mackenzie:

Gold exploration vital for future supply.


"In 2019, the flight to safe haven assets has happened amid concerns of a slowdown in the global economy and heightened geopolitical tensions. The final catalyst spurring the increase in gold price was central banks adopting a more dovish tone and the FED cutting interest rates. This coupled with the accumulation of negative yielding debt has thrust gold back into the spotlight.
Whilst the resurgent gold price has garnered a renewed sense of optimism in the gold industry, it has also shone a light on a structural issue that has been brewing for some time. Due to a lack of exploration spend, the gold industry is facing a potential period of secular decline in the long-term.
Exploration budgets were slashed following the fall in the gold price from the highs that were reached in 2011/2012 and they have since failed to recover. The slight rebound in exploration spend we have seen over the past couple of years has largely been focused on brownfield projects and near-mine development. This has not been sufficient to replenish mined ounces and as such peak gold supply is now a very real possibility.
Over the past couple of months, with gold breaking through $1,500/oz, it seems that exploration activity may be turning a bit of a corner. In late June, Agnico Eagle started an exploration drilling program at its Amaruq site in an effort to convert underground indicated resources. On September 4th, Polyus announced the completion of an exploration drill programme at its Sukhoi Log project that totalled 203,647 metres and are planning 30,000 metres of in-fill drilling in 2020. 
Newcrest reported on September 10th that its exploration program on the Havieron Project, located 45km east of Telfer in Australia, has four operating drill rigs, which have cut 6,166 meters and a fifth drill will begin in September. It will, however, be some time before this activity translates into reserves and ultimately into production.
Proposed exploration budgets for the largest producers in 2019 remain fairly conservative compared to the levels reached in 2012. It would therefore seem unlikely that the trend in declining reserves will be abated this year. 
Producers have been very vocal in reaffirming their strategy of cost control, portfolio management and capital discipline, particularly since the run up in the gold price. How steadfast miners will be to this strategy into 2020 and beyond, if prices continue to remain well supported, remains to be seen.


Due to insufficient exploration spend, gold reserves have depleted significantly with the global average mine life falling from 16 years in 2012, down to an estimated 11 years in 2018. However, the largest producers are not facing quite such an acute situation, with their collective average mine life still over 16 years. It is perhaps therefore not so surprising that they can afford a more calculated approach to replenishing reserves.
To secure their longevity as pillars of the gold industry, we have seen heightened M&A activity and miners focusing on their core assets. Whilst this may help to bolster balance sheets through improved operational performance and realised “synergies”, it seemingly does little to address the problem the industry is facing with regards to how to sustain current production levels. We have, as of late, noticed an uptick in some majors opting to increase their footholds in a select few juniors with promising exploration opportunities.
Agnico Eagle, AngloGold Ashanti, Kinross and Newcrest are actively investing in, or entering into joint-ventures with junior gold companies to create long-term value. Agnico Eagle announced a proposal on June 24, 2019 for an all-share acquisition of Alexandria Minerals Corporation at a $0.05 per share premium to the Chantrell Ventures Corp offer; however, O3 Mining acquired Alexandria on August 1, 2019. AngloGold Ashanti upped its stake in Pure Gold to 14.3% of the company on July 16, 2019, which owns the Madsen Gold Project in Red Lake, Ontario. Kinross purchased the near-surface, early-stage Chulbatkan project in Russia from N-Mining Limited for a total consideration of $283 million on July 31, 2019. Newcrest entered into a 70-30 joint venture with Imperial Metals on August 16, 2019, where Newcrest will be the operators of their Red Chris mine, a potential “Tier One” asset in British Columbia, Canada.
We expect to see this trend of increased M&A activity to continue, particularly amongst the more mid-tier gold producers as they look to solidify their own positions in the industry. This will likely encompass mergers with peers to unlock shareholder value and the acquisition of assets that majors have determined to be non-core. This may help to progress some later stage projects into production that have been sitting on the shelf for a number of years, but we are not anticipating a knee jerk reaction to current prices. Smaller projects which have a short payback period, in a low sovereign risk jurisdiction, are an attractive proposition and we could see a number of these projects being fast tracked into production. 
Going forward, to address the predicament of declining reserves, if prices remain elevated miners may be inclined to review their reserve and resource price assumptions."

Sunday 22 September 2019

Gold In The USA, Alaskan Elephant Country. CITI - Gold Can Smash The Record And Hit $2,000 As FED Cuts Rates To Zero.



Gold is back above $1,515 after two FED rates cuts and "QE light", as Jim Puplava calls it, being unleashed to keep the liquidity flowing in the financial system during the repo scare last week. "The normalisation" is finished. POTUS demands more rate cuts from the FED and pointing out to ECB which is cutting rates and going straight back to a full-blown QE. Europe managed to live without QE only for 9 months and its banking system is sinking in the record pile of debt with negative rates. Wealthy clients are being charged for their deposits. Suddenly for a lot of people, Gold provides a real alternative to cash and negative-yielding debt. After being mocked for years for its lack of yield Gold is acting as the real wealth preservation asset.

CITI is calling the gold bull market and upgrading its medium-term target to $2,000. "We now expect spot gold prices to trade stronger for longer, possibly breaching $2,000/oz and posting new cyclical highs at some point in the next year or two." The bank is basing this upgrade to its bullish case on the trade war tensions, escalating global recession risk and increased Central Banks and investor buying activity.  




FED is expanding its balance sheet already with $75B pumped into the system by repo operations last week and now we have a full u-turn in the monetary policy in the US as well. Gold price will be following the expansion of the monetary base, if history is any guide, as demonstrated on the long-term chart below.  This "QE light" is planed to support the market next week as well. 




Regarding the "one-off" FED rate cut for the "mid-cycle adjustment", I am not buying it personally (and it is easy now - we already had two rate cuts) and POTUS is pushing very hard for more rate cuts to keep economy going into the election cycle.  The chart below illustrates the very sobering picture of FED's ability to forecast the future. I have a very strange feeling, that this time FED and all other Central Banks from The BIS Club are acting already in unison as after the crash during the GFC in 2008 even if markets nominally are at all-time highs. 




It is almost like the economy and global financial system can only glide on the surface and any dip into the water, like it happened in August with tightening of liquidity, spells immediate trouble for the markets. With markets being the priority for POTUS with the most powerful tools at his disposal, including Twitter, we can witness a very interesting situation. Gold can have a new floor at $1,500, as Kinross CEO has called it, signifying the recalibration of the financial system. Further global liquidity pump and debasement of all currencies will push Gold to CITI's target of $2,000, but the general equities market will be drifting higher as well. In this case, junior miners in gold and copper can provide the life-changing opportunity for investors. We have discussed some confirmations for the Copper Bull in our previous posts.


Chart by Northstar.


After initial hesitation and a small correction, Gold is following the road maps provided by the brilliant Northstar. Every bull will be shaking out the weak hands and nobody knows the future. Always DYOR and you have to pick the winners. These charts and CITI fundamental research are working well today in my personal opinion. We will have corrections, but gold miners will start reporting results with gold priced at $1,500 now, not $500. It makes all the difference. Gold miners are literally "printing money" - producing gold with much higher margins. 




Gold ETF inflows support our observations as well. Investors are still very cautious about this rally and ETF provide them with a paper illusion of ownership of gold, but it can be traded easily. Higher prices will bring higher allocations to gold in the investment portfolios and some profits will start to seek higher returns provided by gold mining companies. 


Chart by Nicholas Winton.


As we have discussed in details, only new elephant discoveries can address the Gold Reserves Crisis. Majors will start buying resources from juniors. The very talented researcher and trader involved in the junior market, Nicholas Winton, is closely following CDNX - home of junior mining companies and, according to him, we have seen nothing during this very young Gold Bull in the junior mining space. The smart money, like Eric Sprott, are buying heavily into the best names on the market. We have all factors now finally coming together for the potential explosive move in the very small junior mining space. 




We all know the pain of the Gold Bear market, the whole generation of the investors was burnt alive, but how was it on another side on the Gold Bull? This table provides some taste for us. History never repeats itself, but it rhymes. Those who make their homework right can be rewarded very handsomely.


Chart by Northstar.


Here you can find links to our summer digest providing more information for your DYOR about the development of this Gold Bull and TNR Gold's strategic plan advancing the Shotgun Gold project.





TNR Gold is developing the Shotgun Gold project in the Alaskan elephant country near Donlin Gold mining district. On the links below you can find more information. Barrick Gold received crucial permits to advance Donlin Gold and this new developing mining district in the US can make the promise of "Gold In the USA" providing stable supply feasible again and it can become that solution to "The Gold Mining Reserve Crisis" McKinsey is talking about:
"The Company's strategy with the Shotgun Gold Project is to attract a partnership with one of the major gold mining companies. TNR Gold ("TNR") is actively introducing the project to interested parties," commented Kirill Klip, Executive Chairman of TNR. "We may be at the beginning of a great discovery. There is a clear path on how to move this project forward using the geological and geophysical research currently available to target drilling to expand the resource and form the basis of a preliminary economic analysis. The next step is to acquire a partner that shares our vision and recognizes the growth potential and value to be added to the Shotgun project over time."





Gold And The Last Snowflake Before The Avalanche: Never Fight The FED... and ECB... and BOJ... and SNB.



Chart by Northstar.



FT:

Gold price could smash records at $2,000, says Citi

Precious metal has rallied after big purchases from central banks, including China’s




Monday 16 September 2019

Oil Is Still Big, Actually, It's Very Big. But Thanks To rEVolution Energy Security Is Not Only About Oil Anymore.




Attack on oil facilities of Aramco in Saudi Arabia reminded us about the importance of oil for the global economy this weekend. All markets are totally hooked up on these events today with oil spiking as high as 20% in futures trading last night and now trading up 10%. Gold is back above $1,500 and any discussions about further potential tensions in the region are followed by the scenarios with oil hitting $100 and gold going to $2,000 very fast.




POTUS is "locked and loaded". It looks like now he will get his rates cuts from FED for the "plan A" with some kind of deal with China coming next. I do hope that "plan B" - "regional war" will be avoided. After all these events are traded by all sides involved, the very important questions will come to the boardrooms all around the globe. Energy supply is still very highly concentrated in literally most flammable regions of the world. What can be done about it to really address the energy security in the long term? The solution will be the tide of billions of dollars coming from funds who will be divesting from oil and increasing allocations to the Energy rEVolution.




Thanks to Energy rEVolution, we all do not have to be hostages of this bloody side of oil business any more. The technology is here. Collapsing costs of solar and wind provide the solution for real energy security with distributed power generation. Cheap lithium batteries change everything. Elon Musk and Tesla made electric cars possible. Now we are entering into the mass market stage of The Switch - when literally millions of people will be buying electric cars.




As we have discussed, the lithium market and juniors involved are so much hated now that it deserves a second look for all contrarians at heart. As always, do your own research and you will have to pick up the winners. You can find my posts on the links which can help you.




Lithium technology will power electric cars for years to come, but who can cross the desert now, when juniors are starving for capital and even majors are struggling with direction during the short term "glut of lithium" in China? Who will deliver 1M tonnes of lithium LCE per year starting in 2025? Who can afford to raise the needed capital and make this jump in the expansion of production facilities from 320,000 tonnes of LCE in 2018? I think that it will be safe to say that top lithium names will be the answer. Companies like a giant from China Ganfeng Lithium already have supply agreements with Tesla, BMW and Volkswagen. They have the staying power not only to survive lower lithium prices but further consolidate the market, as we have been discussing before.




Ganfeng Lithium continues its commitment to Argentina and has celebrated the closing of its $160M additional investment into Lithium Americas JV in September. TNR Gold holds NSR Royalty on Mariana Lithium project which is being developed by JV with Ganfeng Lithium as the operator and does not have to contribute any capital for the development. Ganfeng is expecting pre-feasibility and feasibility studies to be completed this year. Below you can find more information for your research.





Building The Green Energy Metals Royalty Company: TNR Gold Investor Presentation April 2019.





"Kirill Klip, Executive Chairman of the Company commented, "We are very pleased to see that Ganfeng Lithium is advancing the Mariana Lithium project in Argentina towards further pre-feasibility studies. The Mariana Lithium preliminary economic assessment ("PEA"), as announced in our news release of January 28, 2019, was the first PEA on the project that provided a potential value for the total NSR Royalty from Mariana's life of mine cashflow. TNR Gold does not have to contribute any capital for development of Mariana Lithium and our NSR Royalty does not depend on the size of ILC's share in Mariana Lithium. The 1.8% Mariana NSR Royalty is an important part of TNR Gold's portfolio. The essence of our business model is to have industry leaders like Ganfeng Lithium as operators on the projects that will potentially generate royalty cashflows to contribute significant value for our shareholders."





Building The Green Energy Metals Royalty Company: TNR Gold Reports On Mariana Lithium Royalty Holding - Giant From China Ganfeng Lithium Advances The Project In Argentina.



(From the published in March 2019, Ganfeng Lithium's 2018 Audited Annual Report.)

As always, all readers must read carefully all disclaimers, do their own due diligence and study audited reports of all companies involved in Mariana Lithium project in their entirety. Now we can discuss what we know from the published Ganfeng Lithium's 2018 Audited Annual Report in March 2019, that Ganfeng is expecting pre-feasibility and feasibility study of Mariana Lithium project to be completed in 2019. And ILC has announced in its Audited 2018 FS which was published on April 30, 2019, that Ganfeng decided to propose a budget for Mariana Lithium Project of $10 million dollars for the first 6 months of 2019. Earlier this year Ganfeng has invested an additional $160 million dollars in the Lithium Americas in order to advance their Cauchari-Olaroz lithium brine projects in Argentina. The development of Mariana Lithium Project in Salta can benefit from all R&D and learning curve of Ganfeng's development with Lithium Americas in Argentina and, hopefully, avoid the costly mistakes of other lithium brine operators.



(From the published on April 30, 2019, ILC's Audited 2018 FS.)






LEGAL DISCLAIMER

Please read legal disclaimer. There is no investment advice on this blog. Always consult a qualified financial adviser before any investment decisions. DYOR.





Thursday 12 September 2019

QE Is Back And Gold Is Back Jumping Above $1,500.



QE is back and Gold is back jumping above $1,500.

ZeroHedge reports: "ECB cuts 10 bp, QE restarted at Euro 20B pace. ECB introduces a two-tier system for reserve remuneration. The ECB lasted 9 months without QE." 

The flood gates are wide open. I guess that we can relatively safely assume that we all know the direction from here by now.  






Please, do not forget to do your own research and you will have to pick the winners.





Here are latest maps from Northstar to help us with navigation.





Gold In The Alaskan Elephant Country: The Northern Miner - Top-10, Canada-based Precious Metals Developers.





The Northern Miner presents top-10 gold and silver metals developers based in Canada. This is another brilliant presentation after "Canada's Top 10 Royalty and Streaming Companies" and I highly recommend you to visit the Northern Miner website and follow them on twitter. Today we have another opportunity to have a look at the Donlin Gold project in Alaska. The magnitude of this "arguably the most important gold project in the world" has already propelled Novagold Resources to the number one place in this rating by The Northern Miner.




You will find a lot of news and discussions these days about gold which is breaking out of its consolidation after six long years when a lot of gold bugs have literally died out and industry has changed dramatically. Yesterday, gold went vertical and was ripping through $1,445 consolidating its advance in the breakout pattern.




We have addressed this tectonic shift in the financial world in-depth as well as here. Gold is rising with the coming tsunami of the record amount of debt with negative rates. Not only gold bugs are talking about it but institutions like pension funds are facing very sobering reality when we are not discussing the return on the invested capital, but the return of that capital.



Quite suddenly for a lot of people, they have the realisation that gold provides something precious that the growing pile of negative-yielding debt doesn't. Wealth preservation. Gold was dismissed by so many before "because it does not provide yield." So now, compared to the negative rates of return even on some junk bonds, it does. The manager of the largest hedge fund in the world, Ray Dalio, is calling gold as safe heaven in this paradigm shift for markets. Now we are in a very good company: Central Banks and billionaires are buying gold.




Below you can find more information about the Gold Reserves Crisis which is explained very vividly by McKinsey. Now you can better understand the place of Donlin Gold among the gold deposits in the world. Development of this 39M oz giant will build a major mining camp on the US soil and will bring life and infrastructure to the whole south-west part of the great state of Alaska. TNR Gold is advancing Shotgun Gold exploration near Donlin Gold mining district and is looking for the strategic partner to grow together in "The Alaskan Elephant Countryin the USA.





Trade Wars, Gold And Billionaires: Gold Price Going To $1,700 Soon Says Billionaire Paul Tudor Jones - Bloomberg.



Gold is banging on the $1350 door and the breakout above this resistance area can bring the fireworks before 4th of July this year. With all market observations of the extreme valuations, it is important that people who can move the real money in order to address these dislocations of capital will join our happy early investors' crowd. We are in a very good company now with our observations about the all-time low valuation for gold adjusted for 1980 consumer purchasing inflation formula.




It is interesting to note that among gold bulls and other fellow billionaires Thomas Kaplan is sighted as well:

"Jones comments also follow recent bullish sentiment from other billionaires. Last month, Thomas Kaplan, chairman and chief investment officer of Electrum Group, said in an interview with David Rubenstein on Bloomberg Television that he could see gold prices rally as high as $3,000 to $5,000 within a decade."

Electrum Group is the major shareholder of Nova Gold which is developing the Donlin Gold project with Barrick Gold in the great state of Alaska.




"Since investing roughly US$70 million to acquire a 28 percent stake in Novagold Resources Inc. in 2009, American billionaire Thomas Kaplan and his Electrum Group of companies have taken a keen interest in some of the more intriguing mineral exploration companies and projects in Alaska and across Canada's North. 
Kaplan, an Oxford-educated historian that began investing in natural resources in the 1980s, knows that gold has served as a currency throughout mankind's written history and believes the precious metal continues this role in society today. 
"Gold is not a commodity, it is a currency with the longest known provenance we have – actually gold and silver," he asserted in 2011. "And, that is extremely important because when you start looking at something no longer as a commodity but as a currency, you have to really assess; what is that market, is it deep enough to give people the opportunity to play?" 
Kaplan believes the gold market is not deep enough, which is one of the reasons he invested in Novagold, a Vancouver, B. C.-based junior that owns 50 percent of the 39-million-ounce Donlin Gold project in Alaska. 
"To us, Novagold is the right story at the right time," Kaplan, Novagold's chairman, penned in the company's 2018 annual report. "It represents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make the very lowest risk/highest reward trade in gold." 
While Kaplan is an outspoken advocate for gold, investments made by private equity funds managed by Electrum go beyond the precious metal to include junior mining companies exploring for nickel and platinum group metals in the Yukon; zinc and copper in Alaska and diamonds in Nunavut. "Electrum Group funds strategic exploration." North of 60 Mining News"



We have discussed in depth the McKinsey's Gold Reserves crisis and you can find this analysis on my blog. According to McKinsey: "Reserves by major Gold companies have declined 26% from 2012 and now below 2007 levels." M&A will be only part of the solution for some companies as it only redistributes the same Gold reserves, we need new discoveries and new elephant projects coming online just to address the gap between growing demand and available supply.




Barrick Gold is developing together with NovaGold 40MOZ giant Donlin Gold in Alaska - "arguably the most important Gold project in the world." So where will you be looking for the new elephants? Maybe in the Alaskan Elephant Country. 




Barrick Gold received crucial permits to advance Donlin Gold now and this new developing mining district in the US can make the promise of "Gold In the USA" providing stable supply feasible again and it can become that solution to "The Gold Mining Reserve Crisis" McKinsey is talking about:
"The Company's strategy with the Shotgun Gold Project is to attract a partnership with one of the major gold mining companies. TNR Gold ("TNR") is actively introducing the project to interested parties," commented Kirill Klip, Executive Chairman of TNR. "We may be at the beginning of a great discovery. There is a clear path on how to move this project forward using the geological and geophysical research currently available to target drilling to expand the resource and form the basis of a preliminary economic analysis. The next step is to acquire a partner that shares our vision and recognizes the growth potential and value to be added to the Shotgun project over time."




Gold In The USA: Kirill Klip GEM Royalty TNR Gold Presentation May 2019 - Gold In The Alaskan Elephant Country.






LEGAL DISCLAIMER

Please read legal disclaimer. There is no investment advice on this blog. Always consult a qualified financial adviser before any investment decisions. DYOR.





Gold In The Alaskan Elephant Country: TNR Gold Shotgun Gold Presentation April 2019.





"The Company's strategy with the Shotgun Gold Project is to attract a partnership with one of the major gold mining companies. TNR Gold ("TNR") is actively introducing the project to interested parties," commented Kirill Klip, Executive Chairman of TNR. "We may be at the beginning of a great discovery. There is a clear path on how to move this project forward using the geological and geophysical research currently available to target drilling to expand the resource and form the basis of a preliminary economic analysis. The next step is to acquire a partner that shares our vision and recognizes the growth potential and value to be added to the Shotgun project over time."






LEGAL DISCLAIMER

Please read legal disclaimer. There is no investment advice on this blog. Always consult a qualified financial adviser before any investment decisions. DYOR.





  

The Northern Miner:

Top-10, Canada-based Precious Metals Developers.

Canadian gold and silver juniors are leading project advancement at home and abroad, as precious metals exploration and development enjoy boom times again. 
The following are the top-10, Canadian-headquartered precious metals companies that are developing projects but not yet in commercial production, ranked according to market capitalization in early July. Royalty and streaming companies are not included in the list.
1. NOVAGOLD RESOURCES
$2.38B market cap
Vancouver-based Novagold Resources’ (TSX: NG; NYSE-AM: NG) flagship project is its half interest in the large but remote Donlin Gold project in southwestern Alaska, which is a fifty-fifty joint venture with Barrick Gold (TSX: ABX; NYSE: GOLD).
Donlin Gold is one of the world’s largest undeveloped gold deposits, boasting measured and indicated resources of 541 million tonnes grading 2.2 grams gold per tonne for 39 million contained oz. gold, plus 92 million inferred tonnes grading 2 grams gold per tonne. (The measured and indicated resource includes 505 million tonnes of proven and probable reserves at similar grades.)
The latest updated feasibility study of Donlin Gold envisions an open-pit mine that would produce 1.5 million oz. gold annually in the first five years of operation, and 1.1 million oz. gold per year over a 27-year life.
For 2019, Novagold says it expects to spend US$13 million to fund its share of expenses at Donlin Gold, and US$11 million for general and administrative costs.
It says its goals for 2019 include: advancing Donlin Gold toward a production decision; maintaining an effective corporate social responsibility program; promoting a strong safety culture; and safeguarding the company’s treasury, with cash and term deposits totalling US$157 million as of May 31.
A year ago, Novagold sold its half stake in the Galore Creek copper project in northern B.C. to Newmont Mining for US$275 million, with the resulting funds directed to Galore Creek. Teck Resources owns the rest of Galore Creek."