Gold has hit bottom and will eventually top $5,000 US an ounce as interest rates move higher, Canadian gold industry executive Rob McEwen tells BNN.
"I think we are at the bottom for gold. We have seen the bottom and some time this fall it will be a lot easier [for gold producers] to raise money," says McEwen, chairman and chief executive of McEwen Mining.
McEwen says a future rise in interest rates will translate into higher prices for gold, predicting bullion will eventually exceed the $5,000 mark.
"Investors need to look at the fact that gold goes through these cycles with a fair amount of regularity. At the moment the gold shares are trading at levels we haven't seen since 1999, which was a very opportune time to get into the market."
Gold was hovering around $1,394 US an ounce on Thursday after plunging earlier this week on weak data from China and worries about slowing global economic growth.
McEwen expects the industry will see very little financing over the next six months until an uptick in the price of gold sparks a new round of financing opportunities in the fall.
"At the moment it is very difficult to raise money in the sector…," McEwen says.
A recent study showed that for the first time in more than a decade Canada's mining sector did not register a single initial public offering in the first quarter of the year on the Toronto Stock Exchange or Venture Exchange.
But McEwen, the founder and former chief executive of Goldcorp (G-T 28.6 0.65 2.33%), says some members of the industry will have an easier time raising money than others.
"The mid-tier and some of the larger juniors are probably going to be active in the space and the exploration companies without any cash are going to be at the mercy of the market," he says.
However, he maintains that the big companies are doomed for the next 12 months as they tread cautiously amid shareholder criticism about the underperformance of their share prices.
"The seniors are going to be dead in the water for the next 12 months," McEwen says. "In many cases they have fired their CEOs and the boards are probably quite vulnerable in thinking they are next because they endorsed the CEO strategy."
From BNN