The Little Known Secret Of Buying Gold At A Discount

August 23, 2019 - OilPrice.com


Gold-mining juniors now rule the day.

And the secret to their success is discount gold.

The real leverage for higher gold prices isn’t hiding in plain sight. It’s hiding in the massive mineral reserves of junior miners.

Those miners have recently become the lynch pin for the survival of the entire industry.

And there are only three things an investor needs to know in this scenario:

1) Discount gold is what you get when you buy shares in a gold company that has proven resources but is significantly undervalued at today’s gold prices.

2) Some of these juniors are sitting on gold reserves that could determine whether or not the biggest miners in North America are able to staunch the decline in output.

3) Not all juniors are equal.

What’s discount gold today, won’t be discount gold tomorrow.

Take African Gold Group (TSX:AGG.V, OTCMKTS:AGGFF), for instance: It’s sitting on 2.2 million ounces of mineral resources in Mali, and according to a recent report, it has drilled less than 10% of its almost 260 km2 of concessions. The company’s Kobada mine is located right in the middle of one of the hottest mining venues in the world at this moment, and relative to many mines, the company is practically able to scrape the gold from the surface, resulting in comparatively low production costs.

But what’s really interesting is that AGG only has a market cap of around $12 million but is sitting on gold reserves worth billions.

The thing is …

Investors aren’t the only ones looking for discount gold: North America’s biggest miners are on the hunt, too.

The Hunt for Discount Gold

Senior minors are running out of gold to mine.

Their answer to that is a massive M&A push, so they’re looking for the right juniors to buy out to replenish their reserves.

The hunt began in earnest in 2016, when gold output fell for the first time since 2008.

Two years later, the trend was set in stone, thanks to ‘peak gold’.


Nothing made the situation clearer than the $18.3-billion mega merger of Barrick Gold (NYSE:GOLD) and Randgold in 2018, followed by the Newmont Mining’s (NYSE:NEM) acquisition of Goldcorp Inc. (NYSE:GG) earlier this year.
But now it’s about the juniors.

The cheapest way for big miners to grow is by scooping up juniors who have big reserves, low-cost production and plenty of upside.

In fact, as far back as 2017, big miners were on the hunt for the right juniors. By the first half of 2017, they had invested nearly $300 million in junior exploration companies—the highest level of investment in a decade.

Nearly half of all the equity raised by junior miners on the Canadian TSX exchange came from senior miners in 2017.
Now the game seems to have shifted to acquiring junior miners outright, or gradually, through a series of “micro deals”.
All the big miners are doing it. It’s the only way they can reverse the decline.

So, who will be the next acquisition target?

That depends on the size of the reserves, how easy they are to produce and cost setup ...

Welcome to Mali

Mali is the third-largest producer of gold in all of Africa, and the Birimian Greenstone Belt is the giant sweet spot here. It’s a massive gold belt that spans 350,000 square kilometers, stretching across seven countries.

African Gold Group’s Kobada Project is right in the heart of this.


Some 2.2 million ounces in mineral reserves has already been proved up in a 2016 feasibility study, and as mentioned before, the drilling at Kobada has focused on a tiny fraction of 259km2 of prospective concessions. These 2.2 million ounces, worth some 3.3 billion dollars at today’s gold prices, could be just the tip of the iceberg. Geologists have identified numerous other shear zones through test drilling and regional geology techniques, and African Gold Group (TSX:AGG.V, OTCMKTS:AGGFF) owns all of it.

Another major advantage for African Gold Group is that the gold is very close to surface, and easy to mine. That means it will be low-cost and highly scalable.

The deepest hole AGG has had to drill so far has only been 300 meters.

So, what about the discount gold?

African Gold Corp estimates all-in LOM sustaining cash operating costs at $788/Oz Au.

Right now, gold prices are still soaring, and promising to hit the $1500 mark.

With a market cap of only ~$11 million, that is some seriously discounted gold.

It also makes AGG a potential target for the big miners who are hunting for new gold.

But this is where the management question comes into play …

The Undisputed King of Discount Gold

Discount depends as much on who’s behind as it does on massive reserves.

In June, African Gold Group (TSX:AGG.V, OTCMKTS:AGGFF) reshaped its board of directors and management team, and brought on legendary mining figure and financier, Stan Bharti, of Forbes Manhattan, as Chairman of the Board, President and CEO.

If Bharti is interested, so will be investors. Big miners are likely to have already pricked up their ears.

That’s because Bharti knows the value of discount gold more than anyone, and he has even made it work in the middle of a financial crisis.

Not only has Bharti been in Mali already for over a decade, but he’s already turned around one company there for 20X profit.

In 2008, Bharti’s Forbes&Manhattan acquired Avion in Mali for $20 million, turned it around and sold it to Endeavour for $500 million in 2012. That Mali mine is Endeavour’s main asset today.

The rest of the new board and senior team is also a discount gold success story that includes the former Canadian foreign minister, the Honorable Peter Pettigrew; Sir Sam Jonah, former Anglo Gold Ashanti CEO; Bruce Humphrey, former Goldcorp COO and Daniel Callow, a Glencore Africa veteran.

They’ve done it before when the setup for discount gold wasn’t nearly as brilliant as it is today.

Never Better for Discount Gold

Africa Gold Corp’s (TSX:AGG.V, OTCMKTS:AGGFF) timing is excellent.

Major miners are gunning for junior prospects. The world’s central banks are hoarding gold at a record pace. Talk about the Gold Standard is no longer just fluff. And major world powers are making every effort to disengage from the US dollar.

All of this has seen the world’s most precious metal make prodigious runs to multi-year highs.

And gold is about to soar even higher, thanks to new threats coming out of Washington for another round of tariffs on Chinese goods by September. That news has already shot gold up to new six-year highs:


While soaring gold prices might heal the hurt for some of the big miners, they won’t do anything to replenish those dwindling reserves. No matter how much gold is selling for, you still can’t get it out of the ground if you don’t have it.

For the first time in history, this is a junior game all the way, and the next acquisition will be the one that has the best discount gold setup.

For investors, that means finding the undervalued gem before the big miners swoop in.

It’s what Stan Bharti was looking for--and found. It means following the Bharti trail, which tends to lead to great discount gold.

Five companies that could swoop in on the junior miner revolution:

First Majestic Silver (NYSE:AG)(TSE:FR)

Though First Majestic recently took a significant blow, as a strong dollar weighed on precious metals resulting in a poor quarterly earnings report, there’s still a lot of bullishness surrounding the stock. Adding to the negative numbers, however, was a string of highly valuable acquisitions which are likely to turn around for the metals giant in the mid-to-long-term.

While it’s primary focus remains on silver mining, it does hold a number of gold assets, as well. Additionally, silver tends to follow gold’s lead when wider markets begin to look shaky. And with analysts sounding the alarms of a global economic slowdown, both metals are likely to regain popularity among investors.

Further boosting its portfolio, the company also entered a share-repurchase program, as it feels that its stock is. at the moment, undervalued, and will benefit all shareholders by increasing the value of the stock.

Seabridge Gold Inc. (NYSE:SA) (TSX:SEA)

Seabridge is an ambitious young company taking the industry by storm. It has a unique strategy of acquiring promising properties while precious metals prices are low, expanding through exploration, and then putting them up for grabs as prices head upward again.

The company owns four core assets in Canada; the KSM project, which is one of the world’s largest underdeveloped projects measured by reserves, Courageous Lake, a historically renowned property, and Iskut, a product of a recent acquisition by Seabridge.

Recently, Seabridge closed a major extension deal to continue expansion at its KSM project. CEO Rudi Fronk stated: "We are pleased that our EA Certificate has been renewed until 2024 under the same terms and conditions, reaffirming the Government of British Columbia's support for KSM and the robustness of the original 2014 EA.”

Great Panther Mining (NYSE:GPR) (GPR:TO)

Based in Vancouver, Great Panther is active in Brazil and Mexico where it explores for silver, gold, lead, and zinc ores. The second half of 2018 has been tough for the midcap miner, but its share price doubled last month, shortly after the acquisition of Beadell resources, which ads another 200,000 gold equivalent ounces  to its reserve base.

According to a recent statement in the press, the focus in the near-term will be on the integration of the Brazilian operations, the continued optimization of the Tucano gold mine, and advancing an exploration program to unlock the significant exploration potential of Tucano."

Now the company has managed to bump production and add to its reserves, the near-term catalyst needs to come from higher gold and silver prices.

IAMGOLD (NYSE:IAG)(TSE:IMG)

IAMGOLD is a fast-growing mid-tier gold miner with the ambition to become a major gold miner. The company produced some 214,000 ounces in Q1 2017 from its operations in South America and Africa. In June, this promising miner closed a deal with Japanese commodity giant Sumimoto to develop an Ontario gold project. The company saw its stock price fall earlier this year, but is poised for gains as gold is rallying.

Teck Resources (NYSE:TECK) (TSX:TECK)

Teck could be one of the best-diversified miners out there, with a broad portfolio of Copper, Zinc, Energy,  Gold, Silver and Molybdenum assets. Its free cash flow and a lower volatility outlook for base metals in combination with a potential trade war breakthrough could send the stock higher in H2 of this year.

Teck’s share price stabilized last year and many investment banks now see the stock as undervalued. Low prices for Canadian crude and disappointing base metals prices weighed on Q4 earnings.

Despite its struggles, however, Teck Resources recently received a favorable investment rating from Fitch and Moody’s, and will likely benefit from its upgraded score. “Having investment grade ratings is very important to us and confirms the strong financial position of the company,” said Don Lindsay, President and CEO. “We are very pleased to receive this second credit rating upgrade.”

By. Joao Piexe

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