Gold, silver miners sell stock at fastest pace in over a decade

Gold and silver miners last year raised the most cash through share sales in more than a decade, with smaller players leading the way as precious metal prices rallied.

Last year, more than $6.2 billion was raised by companies listed on exchanges in the US and Canada, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s the highest volume in at least the last 12 years, the data show.

A flurry of equity raises by the small- and mid-cap precious metals miners comprised the bulk of activity. Hemlo Mining Corp., a TSX Venture Exchange listed miner with a C$1.5 billion ($1.1 billion) market value, struck the largest deal in the space, raising $489.7 million in September. That was followed by a $374 million deal from Perpetua Resources Corp. and Novagold Resources Inc.’s $206 million raise.

“These companies raise money not when they want to but when they can,” said Brian Madden, chief investment officer at First Avenue Investment Counsel Inc. Many miners have projects they’d like to develop, but may have needed a clearer upcycle in commodity prices, Madden said. His firm has preferred to invest in the larger gold mining companies that haven’t needed to tap the markets lately.

Indeed, those senior miners sat on the sidelines. None of Newmont Corp., Barrick Mining Corp. or Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. took advantage of record-high share prices to sell stock in 2025. In fact, most of them used surging cash flows from buoyant commodity prices to buy back their own shares.

This dynamic — where small companies issue shares and large ones buy theirs back — is a healthy signal to investors, which will likely keep firms coming to market in 2026.

“I think we’ll see small companies continue to grab all the money they can, but I don’t think we’ll see big huge shifts of seniors going off and trying to buy other seniors — that would be a dramatic change,” said Brooke Thackray, an analyst with Global X Investments Canada.

In years past, Thackray said, large-cap gold miners would have taken the opportunity to offer shares and spend the proceeds on either an acquisition spree or on adventurous growth projects in volatile jurisdictions. In the current cycle, he said it’s encouraging to see the likes of Barrick demonstrate some capital discipline.

“They’re being very responsible at this point,” he said. “They’re not really going out and doing anything crazy.”

And that, in turn, is helping to keep the equity market open to small- and mid-sized gold miners looking to raise money. “The smaller ones, if they want to grow — and the investors do want them to grow — you need access to a lot of capital and equity has been the way to go,” said Daniel Nowlan, managing director of equity capital markets, corporate and investment banking at National Bank Capital Markets.

Most of last year’s deals were oversubscribed, a phenomenon Nowlan attributed to a combination of investor demand for precious metal exposure and the miners making compelling cases for the use of proceeds. Another incentive: the firms have offered investors shares at a discount of greater than 3.5%.

“Things have been priced to sell, but you’re doing it off of a pretty highly valued equity in most cases,” he said.

Nowlan expects the frenetic pace of share deals in the mining sector to persist in 2026, at least to start.

“We’re going to keep rolling from where we were at the end of last year,” he said.

(By Geoffrey Morgan)