VIDEO — George Salamis: Major Gold Miners Making Money, but Volatility Curbing Big Decisions

George Salamis: Major Gold Miners Making Money, but Volatility Curbing Big Decisionsyoutu.be

Turmoil continues to rock the broader markets, and while the gold price has also suffered declines, George Salamis believes it's holding up well compared to other assets.

"Gold has hung in there pretty well relative to other investments — other commodities, currencies. I think it's held its own," he said at the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) convention.

Salamis, who is the president and CEO of Integra Resources (TSXV:ITR,NYSEAMERICAN:ITRG), explained that he also sees gold miners doing well, but thinks volatility is stopping them from making moves.

"I specifically look at the margins that the major mining companies are making right now — they're making a lot of money and they're building up these big war chests," he told the Investing News Network.

"Why they're not deploying that capital into M&A, for example, is a bit of a head-scratcher, but I think the market's generally speaking quite volatile right now, so it's impeding a lot of big decisions."

Integra released a prefeasibility study for its Idaho-based DeLamar project earlier this year and faced challenging reactions due to the impact that inflation had on costs.

"People have become very allergic to capital, (to) big capital outlays on projects. And mining's a very capital-intensive business, as we all know," Salamis said. "There's this hyperfocus on who's going to blow up a budget next on a new mine build or on a study, and I think that was something we suffered having come out with the first study of the year right at what hopefully was peak inflation with respect to mine building."

In his opinion, it's important to keep moving, even in today's tough financing environment.

With that in mind, Integra has two main focal points for the rest of 2022: working on its plan of operations, which is a step on the way to permitting, and continuing to drill. "We've got some really good targets that we think will lead to resource expansion and make our great project even better," Salamis noted.

Watch the interview above for more from Salamis on the gold sector and Integra. You can also click here for our recap of PDAC, and here for our full PDAC playlist on YouTube.

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Securities Disclosure: I, Charlotte McLeod, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.

Editorial Disclosure: The Investing News Network does not guarantee the accuracy or thoroughness of the information reported in the interviews it conducts. The opinions expressed in these interviews do not reflect the opinions of the Investing News Network and do not constitute investment advice. All readers are encouraged to perform their own due diligence.