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After starting the year at around US$2,040 per ounce, gold set a record high of US$2,787.04 on October 30.
Support for the precious metal took various forms. Central bank buying continued steadily, with China, India and Middle Eastern nations continuing to add to their gold reserves.
The US Federal Reserve also helped drive the price higher, slashing its benchmark rate by 50 basis points in September and 25 basis points following the US presidential election in November.
Additionally, investors flocked to gold during the year, looking for a safe-haven asset as the US presidential election loomed, and as tensions rose in ongoing conflicts between Israel and Hamas, as well as Russia and Ukraine.
Against that backdrop, which TSX-listed gold stocks have performed the best? The companies listed below have been the best performers so far this year. Data was retrieved on November 26, 2024, using TradingView’s stock screener. Only companies with market capitalizations greater than C$50 million are included.
1. Perpetua Resources (TSX:PPTA)
Year-to-date gain: 211.08 percentMarket cap: C$918.64 millionShare price: C$13.19
Perpetua Resources is advancing its Stibnite gold-antimony project in Central Idaho, US, which has received strong support from the US government. The project is nearing a construction decision, which is expected next year.
The Stibnite project lies within a historic mining district that hosted large-scale operations dating back to the early 1900s. Perpetua is working to reclaim the historic Yellow Pine and Hangar flat open pit mines, while also reprocessing historic tailings and restoring streams and fish migration routes on the site.
In the company’s November 2020 feasibility study for Stibnite, Perpetua reported an after-tax net present value of US$1.9 billion based on an average gold price of US$1,850 per ounce, providing for an internal rate of return of 27.7 percent and a payback period of 2.5 years. It also indicated a total gold recovery of 4.28 million ounces of gold over a 15 year lifespan of the mine with an annual recovery of 301,000 ounces.
The site also hosts significant amounts of the critical mineral antimony, with measured and indicated resources of 205.89 million pounds. This has allowed the company to secure funding from the US government under the Defense Production Act, with the most recent US$34.6 million being awarded on February 12.
Perpetua spent much of 2024 awaiting a critical decision from the United States Forest Service (USFS) on the authorization of its mining plan. This came in early September, when the USFS issued a draft record of decision authorizing the gold project and completed the final environmental impact assessment. The final Record of Decision is expected by the end of the year.
The dual-listed company’s most recent news came on November 18, when it reported that shares for its public offering in the United States would be priced at US$10.17 per share for US$35 million in funding before commissions and expenses. Perpetua intends to use the proceeds for down payments on long lead time materials and detailed engineering for Stibnite.
Shares in Perpetua reached a year-to-date high of C$14.97 on November 15.
2. G2 Goldfields (TSX:GTWO)
Year-to-date gain: 165.33 percentMarket cap: C$483.26 millionShare price: C$1.99
G2 Goldfields is a gold exploration and development company that is working to advance projects in South America and West Africa. Company founders were previously involved in the financing and development of the Aurora gold mine in Guyana, the country’s largest gold mine, for Guyana Goldfields, before Zijin Mining (OTC Pink:ZIJMF,SHA:601899) acquired the latter company in 2020. The company graduated to the TSX from the TSXV in April.
G2’s flagship Oko-Aremu gold project is located in Guyana’s Cuyuni mining district. The company released an updated resource estimate for the combined Oko Main Zone and Ghanie Zone in April, with an increase of 320 percent in indicated gold resources to 922,000 ounces and a 69 percent increase in total contained gold to 2 million ounces. G2 said the maiden resource estimate for Ghanie is a step toward realizing the scale of the Oko gold system.
On September 10, G2 announced it had entered into an agreement to acquire exploration rights to a 30,000 acre land package within the Oko-Aremu district, which brought its land holdings for the project to 58,000 acres. The new properties are composed of three sets of permits and host multiple historic gold occurrences, but have not been subject to modern exploration methods. G2 is working to fast-track drilling on several targets in the area.
The company is executing an ongoing drill program with six diamond drills aimed at expanding the resources at Oko.
Since the release of the updated resource estimate in April, G2 has discovered multiple new gold zones along the strike of the previously defined resource at Oko. The latest update, published on November 18, reported that assays returned a highlighted intercept with a grade of 2.9 grams per metric ton (g/t) gold over 114 meters, including an intersection of 5.3 g/t gold over 51.4 meters.
The company said it intends to complete an updated resource estimate for the project in the first quarter of 2025.
Shares in G2 Goldfields reached a year-to-date high of C$2.30 on October 21.
3. IAMGOLD (TSX:IMG)
Year-to-date gain: 128.48 percentMarket cap: C$4.27 billionShare price: C$7.54
IAMGOLD is a mid-tier gold production company with three mining assets in Burkina Faso and the provinces of Québec and Ontario, Canada.
Its oldest asset is the Essakane gold mine in Northeast Burkina Faso, which began commercial production in July 2010 and was further expanded in 2013. IAMGOLD owns 90 percent of the mine, with the government of Burkina Faso owning the remaining 10 percent.
In December 2023, IAMGOLD released a technical report for the mine, which included an updated resource estimate and life of mine plan. The company expects to produce 2.4 million ounces of gold through the end of 2028, with ore processed from the three remaining pit phases at the Essakane Main Zone and the Lao and Gourouol satellite pits.
Its second operation is the Westwood mine, located in Southwest Québec. The site consists of 120 titles, one mining lease, one surface lease and three tailings leases covering an area of 1,925 hectares. Commercial production at Westwood began in July 2014.
IAMGOLD also holds an operating stake in the Côté Gold mine in Ontario. The gold company repurchased a 9.7 percent interest in the mine from its partner Sumitomo Metal Mining (OTC Pink:STMNF,TSE:5713) in December, bringing its share of the mine back up to 70 percent.
After starting operations early in 2024, IAMGOLD announced on August 2 that the Côté gold mine had reached commercial production, defined as 60 percent capacity. On October 15, it reported that on a 100 percent basis, Côté had produced 68,000 ounces of gold in Q3 and 103,000 ounces since the start of the year. IAMGOLD expects to reach a 90 percent throughput rate of 36,000 metric tons per day by the end of 2024 and will continue to make improvements in 2025 to achieve nameplate capacity.
In its November 7 Q3 update, IAMGOLD reported that Essakane and Westwood produced 329,000 and 99,000 ounces of gold through the first three quarters, both up significantly year-on-year.
Shares in IAMGOLD reached a year-to-date high of C$8.52 on October 21.
4. Mineros (TSX:MSA)
Year-to-date gain: 118.46 percentMarket cap: C$385.23 millionShare price: C$1.42
Mineros is a mid-tier gold producer focused on Latin America.
Its primary assets are the Nechi alluvial mine in Colombia and the Hemco property in Nicaragua. Nechi features a cyanide- and mercury-free recovery extraction process using gold-hosted sands mined from closed ponds.
The company’s Hemco operations consist of the Panama and Pioneer mines, and also have an arrangement to process ore from third-party artisanal miners. Mineros is expecting to begin production from the Porvenir satellite deposit at Hemco in 2027, which it says will add 44,700 ounces of gold output per year.
On September 30, Mineros released its operating results for the year’s third quarter. In the announcement, the company reported producing 159,056 ounces of gold through the first nine months of 2024. This represents a 16 percent decline from the 188,730 ounces produced during the same period in 2023. The drop was due to discontinued operations at its Gualcamayo property in Argentina. However, the company noted that its operating assets recorded a 1 percent increase from 157,669 ounces in 2023.
The company’s most recent news came on November 15, when it announced the Colombian Superintendent of Finance had approved a public tender offer from Sun Valley Investments to acquire between 8.5 and 10.63 percent of the issued and subscribed ordinary shares of Mineros via the Colombia Stock Exchange.
Mineros has until December 3 to accept the offer, but the deadline may be extended to December 23. Sun Valley currently has a 24.9 percent stake in Mineros.
Mineros reached its year-to-date high of C$1.49 on November 27.
5. Jaguar Mining (TSX:JAG)
Year-to-date gain: 104.97 percentMarket cap: C$293.44 millionShare price: C$3.71
Jaguar Mining is a mining and development company that owns several gold-mining complexes near the city of Belo Horizonte in Minas Gerais, Brazil.
Jaguar’s MTL complex hosts the Turmalina mine and a processing plant. According to the company’s Q3 production update released on October 10, the mine site produced 6,479 ounces of gold, a decrease from the 8,529 ounces produced in the same quarter of 2023.
In addition to mining operations, the MTL complex is home to the advanced stage Faina project. A December 2023 resource estimate from the project pegged measured and indicated resources at 1.43 million metric tons of ore with an average grade of 5.08 grams per metric ton (g/t) gold for 233,000 ounces of contained gold. Inferred resources stand at an additional 232,000 ounces of gold from ore grading 5.09 g/t.
In Jaguar’s management and discussion analysis on August 7, the company reported it is accelerating development at Faina to define its ore structures. Ore taken from the site during the second quarter was processed by the Turmalina plant, and gold recovery exceeded expectations at 414 ounces. The company said production from stoping should gradually increase through the start of 2025 to 15,000 metric tons per month, before reaching full capacity of 25,000 metric tons in 2026.
The company’s other producing mining operation is the Caete complex, which includes the Pilar gold mine and the Caete processing plant. In Q3, the mine delivered 10,433 ounces of gold, an increase from the 8,787 ounces produced in Q3 2023.
Jaguar announced on September 5 that it had progressed on access development at the Pilar mine’s BA zone in the first half of the year, with 374 meters completed across five sub-levels. Processing the 30,547 metric tons of ore feed generated from those activities in H1 resulted in 4,032 ounces of gold at an average grade of 4.64 g/t.
The most recent news came on November 8, when the company released its Q3 financial results. The report said it produced 49,918 ounces of gold during the first nine months of 2024, a decrease from the 52,222 ounces produced in 2023. While it attributed this decrease to a 16 percent reduction in processed ore, that reduction was largely offset by 24 percent higher head grades.
The report also indicated that development increased to 4,622 meters from 3,837 meters the previous year.
Shares in Jaguar Mining reached a year-to-date high of C$5.69 on September 23, alongside a surge in the gold price.
Securities Disclosure: I, Dean Belder, own shares of Calibre Mining.
