RE:Something to dwell onA couple of exerpts from of a National Post article last Friday summarizing the activity at the The Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) Conference held last week in Toronto: Gold
Among all the discussions of building a North American critical minerals supply chain, it was difficult to find anyone at PDAC talking about gold miners, whose travails usually dominate the conference.
There’s no shortage of potential discussion points, such as the movement of many gold mining majors into copper, or the collapse of cryptocurrencies and whether this will send more investors to gold as a store of value, to name two examples.
Terry Heymann, chief financial officer at the World Gold Council, said that in 2022 central banks around the world, but particularly in China and Turkey, purchased a record amount of gold.
“Gold should be recognized as a critical mineral,” he said, adding that it’s the only mineral that is its own “financial asset class.”
Heymann predicted that in time, gold’s role as a store of value would make countries increasingly aware of the metal’s ability to ensure economic stability.
A North American Critical Minerals Supply Chain
The mining sector is expecting a huge influx of investment thanks to the United States Inflation Reduction Act which, depending on who you ask, may unlock anywhere from US $1 trillion to US $1.7 trillion of public and private funding for upstream and down-stream critical mineral projects, such as exploration, mines, refiners, recycling plants and electric vehicle battery plants. “It’s changed everything,” said Ken Hoffman, head of battery raw materials at consulting firm Mckinsey & Co. Whether it will allow Canada, the U.S. and other western countries to catch up with China in building out a supply chain remains to be seen, although optimism is on the rise.