Mining’s old guard needs strong medicine
A new report details subpar investor returns in the mining industry over the last decade, particularly big cap diversified companies which have not adapted to new realities.
Precious metals streaming pioneer Randy Smallwood joined The Northern Miner‘s Canadian Mining Symposium, Oct. 12-13 in London, U.K., to discuss gold vs. cryptocurrencies, streaming’s role in supporting critical minerals development, and his long career in mining.
Smallwood, president and CEO of Wheaton Precious Metals (TSX: WPM; NYSE: WPM), started out as a claims staker before earning a geological engineering degree. He said he developed a “healthy respect” for mining by being involved in all stages from exploration and defining a resource to mine development and operations.
“There’s not many people in this industry that get to see the full spectrum all the way through,” he said. “I think that’s probably the benefit that I’ve taken into how I’ve gone forward in business is to always have respect for how hard it is to find a good mine and do everything we can to make sure that we get the best from it.”
Smallwood recently wrapped up a three-term as chair of the World Gold Council and also discussed the organization’s 247 gold initiative, and its recent movie premiere of Gold: A Journey with Idris Elba.
Watch his entire conversation with Editor-in-Chief of The Northern Miner, Alisha Hiyate:
2 Comments
OTOH/IMHO
Just incredible that anyone needs persuading of gold’s enduring value. But they were persuaded quite readily into thinking there was somethings stable about “stablecoins,” until SBF upset the applecart, whatever in hell that is supposed to mean. Read “crypto,” think “klepto.” And yet, a return to hard money- something tangible- an actual store of value- would be as simple as making the so called “security strip” in the money that the CB’s are out to remove entirely and replaced with CBDC’s, out of not Mylar (!) but hologrammed gold foil(!!). But the truth is, the owners of the privately owned CB’s want it all for themselves. Getting it out of their hands will be harder than prying the ore from the bowels of the Earth.(!!!)
Cash Poor
No matter where the price of Gold (or any asset for that matter), now with the ability to fractionalise it and tokenise it, people can still afford to buy it by the pip, the convenience of this method means that physical reserves (including those held in institutional custody for large order) becomes almost obsolete become , if demand for physical ownership falls.
Now sum physical reserves become “locked down” unless required for manufacturing release, for the investor, Gold really becomes money again.