Epic bull market in precious metals ignites a financing boom! Stock issuance by gold and silver mines expected to reach the highest level in more than ten years by 2025.

With the surge in precious metal prices, the amount of funding raised through stock issuance by gold and silver mining companies in 2025 reached the highest level in over a decade. Data shows that companies listed on US and Canadian exchanges last year raised over $6.2 billion through stock offerings, the highest level in at least the past 12 years. Small and medium-sized mining companies intensive equity financing activities have become the main force. The Toronto Stock Exchange's venture board listed company Hemlo Mining Corp. completed the largest transaction in the sector, with a market capitalization of $1.5 billion Canadian dollars (approximately $1.1 billion), raising $489.7 million in September last year; followed by Perpetua Resources Corp. with $374 million and Novagold Resources Inc. with $206 million. In 2025, the precious metals market saw an "epic frenzy". Gold rose by over 60% for the whole year, with prices soaring from $2650 per ounce at the beginning of the year to over $4000 per ounce, breaking historical highs over 50 times during the year and reaching a high of $4500 per ounce at the end of the year. Silver's rise was even more rapid, with spot prices accumulating the largest increase of over 170% at one point during the year, despite a single-day drop of over 10% at the end of the year, still achieving a yearly increase of about 150%. Brian Madden, Chief Investment Officer of First Avenue Investment Counsel Inc., said, "These companies are not funding when they need to, but when they can." He pointed out that many mining companies have projects they hope to advance, but may need commodity prices to enter a more clear upward cycle. He prefers to invest in larger gold mining companies that do not require market financing in the near term. In fact, the large, mature mining companies did not participate. Companies like Newmont Mining (NEM.US), Barrick Mining (B.US), and Agnico Eagle Mines did not issue stocks while their stock prices reached historical highs in 2025. Instead, most of them used the strong commodity prices to repurchase their own stocks. This situation - small companies issuing stocks, large companies repurchasing stocks - is a healthy signal for investors, and it is expected to encourage companies to continue market financing in 2026. Global X Investments Canada analyst Brooke Thackray said, "I think we will continue to see small companies seize every opportunity to raise capital, but I don't think we will see large, mature mining companies making big acquisitions - that would be a huge change." He added that in previous cycles, major gold mining companies would typically issue stocks opportunistically and use the funds for acquisitions or invest in growth projects in high volatility jurisdictions. In the current cycle, seeing companies like Barrick Mining exhibit capital discipline is encouraging. He said, "What they are doing now is very responsible. They are not really doing anything crazy." This, in turn, helps keep the stock market open for small and medium-sized gold mining companies seeking financing. Daniel Nowlan, Managing Director of Equity Capital Markets and Corporate and Investment Banking at National Bank Capital Markets, said, "For smaller companies, if they want to grow - and investors indeed want them to grow - they need to access a large amount of capital, and equity financing has always been the way to achieve this goal." It is worth noting that most of the transactions last year were oversubscribed. Daniel Nowlan attributes this phenomenon to investors' demand for exposure to precious metals and the compelling reasons provided by mining companies for the use of funds. Another motivating factor is that these companies offered stock discounts of over 3.5% to investors. He said, "Pricing is done to facilitate sales, but in most cases, you are issuing more shares based on already fairly high valuations." He also expects the hot trend of stock offerings by gold and silver mining companies to continue in 2026, at least at the beginning of the year.