Precious Metals
Frank Trotter on Wealth Disparity, and More Top Quotes from a San Francisco Investment Show
Frank Trotter on Wealth Disparity – and More Top Quotes from a San Francisco Investment Show
Weeks ago we were delighted to attend an investment conference in San Francisco called The Silver Summit & Resource Expo.
Speakers included well-known voices in the investment community such as Grant Williams, Frank Holmes, Frank Trotter, and Rick Rule. The show was also supplemented with people that have helped to build multi-billion companies: precious metals pioneers such as Ross Beaty, Rob McEwen, and Keith Neumeyer, or mine-finders such as David Lowell.
After attending the show, we reached out to some of the speakers that had piqued our interest. We asked them to send us a key talking point along with the data to back it up.
Jeffrey Christian, from CPM Group, supplied us with a quote and data on the silver market. In his analysis, he’s found the price of silver is highly related to the net additions and net withdrawals in the silver market. When investors buy silver, the price rallies. When net inventories are dropping, the opposite happens. He noted, “If investors want to buy 100 million oz per year, as they are in 2015, prices will decline from current levels. If they want to buy 150 million oz or more, as they did a few years ago, prices will rise back to $20-25/oz.”
Frank Holmes of U.S. Global Investors, in his note to our team, focused on the depreciating currencies of economies that heavily rely on commodity exports. After showing how these national currencies have fared against the U.S. dollar, he added that it is important to see some stabilization in these currencies before investors can expect to see any bounceback in resource demand.
Frank Trotter of EverBank showed us a chart on less-examined effects of the Fed’s policies since the Financial Crisis affecting wealth disparity. Specifically, he is looking at total household financial assets – in other words, who is holding the wealth in the United States. Frank writes, “The Fed policy has created an asset owners bonanza. From 2008 to 2014, Total Household Financial Assets have grown $19.5 trillion; our estimate is that $15 trillion, or 80% is enjoyed by the top 8% of households.”
This last point brought up by Trotter is something that we’ve talked about regularly. Specifically, in this chart of the week we showed that the top 10% of earners are the only group that has fully recovered since pre-crisis levels of income, and that the amount of Americans below the poverty line has increased by 9.4 million since 2007. The Philadelphia Fed, for example, has admitted that these policies have likely contributed to income equality, but this information is still not talked about enough by the public.
The next two Cambridge Shows are in mid-January: Vancouver Resource Investment Conference 2016 (Jan 24-25, 2016) and the Cantech Investment Conference in Toronto (Jan 26, 2016).
Mining
Visualizing the New Era of Gold Mining
This infographic highlights the need for new gold mining projects and shows the next generation of America’s gold deposits.


Visualizing the New Era of Gold Mining
Between 2011 and 2020, the number of major gold discoveries fell by 70% relative to 2001-2010.
The lack of discoveries, alongside stagnating gold production, has cast a shadow of doubt on the future of gold supply.
This infographic sponsored by Novagold highlights the need for new gold mining projects with a focus on the company’s Donlin Gold project in Alaska.
The Current State of Gold Production
Between 2010 and 2021, gold production increased steadily until 2018, before leveling and falling.
Year | Gold Production, tonnes | YoY % Change |
---|---|---|
2010 | 2,560 | - |
2011 | 2,660 | 3.9% |
2012 | 2,690 | 1.1% |
2013 | 2,800 | 4.1% |
2014 | 2,990 | 6.8% |
2015 | 3,100 | 3.7% |
2016 | 3,110 | 0.3% |
2017 | 3,230 | 3.9% |
2018 | 3,300 | 2.2% |
2019 | 3,300 | 0.0% |
2020 | 3,030 | -8.2% |
2021 | 3,000 | -1.0% |
Along with a small decrease in gold production from 2020 levels, there were no new major gold discoveries in 2021. Meanwhile, annual demand for the yellow metal increased by 10%, up from 3,651 tonnes to 4,020 tonnes.
The fall in production and long-term lack of gold discoveries point towards a possible imbalance in gold supply and demand. This calls for the introduction of new gold development projects that can fill the supply-demand gap in the future.
Sustaining Supply: Gold For the Future
Jurisdictions play an important role when looking for projects that could sustain gold production well into the future.
From political stability to trustworthy legal systems, the characteristics of a jurisdiction can make or break mining projects. Amid ongoing market uncertainty, political turmoil, and resource nationalism, projects in safe jurisdictions offer a better investment opportunity for investors and mining companies.
As of 2021, seven of the top 10 mining jurisdictions for investment were located in North America, according to the Fraser Institute. Here’s a look at the top five gold-focused development projects in the region, based on measured and indicated (M&I) gold resources:
Project | M&I Gold Resource, million ounces* | Grade (grams/tonne) | Location |
---|---|---|---|
KSM | 88.4Moz | 0.51g/t | British Columbia 🇨🇦 |
Donlin Gold** | 39.0Moz | 2.24g/t | Alaska 🇺🇸 |
Livengood | 13.6Moz | 0.60g/t | Alaska 🇺🇸 |
Côté Gold | 13.6Moz | 0.96g/t | Ontario 🇨🇦 |
Blackwater | 11.7Moz | 0.61g/t | British Columbia 🇨🇦 |
*Inclusive of mineral reserves. **See cautionary statement regarding Donlin Gold’s mineral reserves and resources.
Located in Alaska, one of the world’s safest mining jurisdictions, Novagold’s Donlin Gold project has the highest average grade of gold among these major projects. For every tonne of ore, Donlin Gold offers 2.24 grams of gold, which is more than twice the global average grade of 1.03g/t.
Additionally, Donlin Gold is the second-largest gold-focused development project in the Americas, with over 39 million ounces of gold in M&I resources inclusive of reserves.
Novagold is focused on the Donlin Gold project in equal partnership with Barrick Gold. Click here to learn more now.

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