Loading ...The world’s gold miners will be running on the spot for years to come as a surge in gold prices prompts them to secure new production from less profitable projects, according to the largest mine streaming and royalty company.
“In my mind, the industry is ex-growth,” said David Harquail, chief executive officer of Franco-Nevada Corp.
After a downturn that squeezed capital investments, most gold producers have no choice but to invest in new projects as existing mines are depleted, Harquail said Wednesday in an interview. They’ll be faced with options that are, cumulatively, unlikely to boost global gold production or lower the sector’s overall costs.
“None of those projects are really great,” Harquail said at the BMO Capital Markets mining conference in Florida. “They would have been built by now if they were.”