Gold Majors Prioritize Shareholder Returns Over New Mine Builds

The gold market is experiencing its strongest performance in generations, but major gold mining companies are prioritizing shareholder returns over new mine builds. According to a recent report, Barrick Mining returned $1.50 billion to shareholders in a single quarter this year, while cutting its capital expenditure guidance.

Kinross Gold has also bought back roughly $1.1 billion of its own stock since April 2025, reducing its share count by about 4%. This trend is consistent across the senior tier, with buybacks, dividends, and asset consolidation absorbing windfalls, while capital budgets remain flat or trimmed.

This approach may be due to lessons learned from previous market cycles, where balance sheets were wrecked by projects sanctioned at the top of the market. Management teams are now exercising restraint, and shareholders have rewarded them for it.

The consequence is a development gap, as mines deplete and majors must eventually replace reserves through either exploration or acquisition. This creates opportunities for junior and mid-tier mining companies to fill this gap with defined, permitted deposits that carry study-stage certainty.

RUA GOLD's Auld Creek gold-antimony project in New Zealand has entered the fast-track regime, offering a potential solution to this challenge. The project boasts a maiden Mineral Resource Estimate of 0.3 million tonnes Indicated grading 5.67 g/t AuEq for 54,000 ounces, and 1.3 million tonnes Inferred grading 3.66 g/t AuEq for 150,000 ounces.

The positive Preliminary Economic Assessment shows an after-tax NPV at a 5% discount rate of US$42 million with a 17% IRR and 3.3-year payback at US$3,300 per ounce gold and US$27,000 per tonne antimony. The project's antimony component adds value, separating it from single-metal projects of similar size.