CXB Reduces Risk Calibre Mining reduces risk with Valentine Mine
Imaru Casanova, manager of VanEck International Investors Gold, invests in both large senior and small junior miners for the fund. As of July 31, she had increased junior miners to 28 per cent of the fund’s portfolio, up from 21 per cent at the start of 2024.
Casanova raised her junior miner holdings to give the portfolio more “torque” in a bull market for bullion, as these stocks typically respond most to gold prices. However, the stock market has not reflected this strategy. Despite the fund’s 23.6 per cent gain this year, it trails behind her VanEck ETF competition in 2024.
“The small developers haven’t provided the leverage we’d expect in a year like this,” she says. “These stocks should be thriving.”
G Mining Ventures, which Casanova has held for years, is her largest junior miner position at 4 per cent of the fund, boosted by a recent acquisition that increased its capitalization. New positions added this year include Artemis Gold (CVE: ARTG) and Calibre Mining Corp (TSE: CXB) (OTCMKTS: CXBMF), both based in Canada.
“We had been avoiding Calibre for a long time because they were producing in Nicaragua, which was too risky for us,” Casanova said.
“But they completed the acquisition of Marathon Gold recently in January, which added a mining asset in Canada that will be in production soon. That really just transformed the company, de-risked it.”