That was a particularly good chat above from Ross Beaty, and a pretty nice roadmap of the plan to double production from Equinox Gold over the next 2-3 year. With a few mines projected to come online, that would put them up around 1.2 – 1.3 million ounces of production per year and would land them in the camp of being a Major. They have 7 mines now and will likely have about 10 in 3+ years organically plus the wildcard of additional acquisitions.

I’m biased, as a shareholder of Equinox, but have spent a lot of time following these assets from Luna Gold, to Trek Mining, and then combined with Newcastle Gold, and Anfield Gold, and then the takeover of some of Premier Gold’s assets, and then other mine acquisitions and mine sales all factoring into the roll up into Equinox Gold. Now it is a top-notch mid-tier gold producer that has the growth plan of mine development and production increases to become a Major producer and one of the big boys.

As Ross mentioned, for it’s size Equinox also has a lot of beta (torque) in the sector compared to other larger gold mid-tier producers. For that reason, even though it’s largest cap PM individual mining stock that I hold in my portfolio, it still has pretty nice moves (in both directions). I don’t expect Equinox to be a top performer on a percentage basis, but the trade-off for me is that it’s a far safer bet for me to not have to really worry about, and still get at least some leverage to metals prices. Sometimes it is nice to have a company one can trust in the stable, and I believe in their team and asset base to execute well on their business model, and thus be well bid over this coming bull cycle.

My current position, that was picked up in the later part of last year, is still well in the green since initiating it, up over 48% (but admittedly at one point in was up in my portfolio over 80%+ April and May so it’s pulled back substantially since then). Regardless, it outperformed GDX and GDXJ from their respective recent lows to recent highs, where those ETFs had gone up more in the 65% area from last year to this year. In comparison, Equinox at one point was up 161% from it’s low last year to it’s high this year. So I had only managed to capture about 1/2 of that action, but it has still been a good trade thus far, and illustrates the point abut the kind of torque EQX can have for a larger company. Also, I like having a few of the well-run, best of breed, growth-oriented production companies, that are diversified across multiple projects in my portfolio, along with some of the juniors, optionality plays, and turn-around stories.

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Didn’t you get the memo today, this rally is a nothing burger… HZU, beta silver up, up over 7% yet almost all of the stocks up a couple less. Still good but not “there” yet.