Disseminated on behalf of West Red Lake Gold Mines Ltd.
Gold mining has always been tough, but discovering and developing new mines is getting even tougher and rarer. Even when a new deposit is found, production can take years and sometimes decades.
S&P Global reported that gold exploration budgets dropped 7% to $5.55 billion in 2024, marking the lowest share in a decade. While gold still made up 45% of global exploration, the number of explorers fell 8% to 1,235. This decline came as big companies merged and fewer small explorers entered the market.
Even with record-high gold prices, companies are focusing on cutting costs and avoiding risks. Smaller explorers are struggling to get funding, making it harder for new projects to start. This is why there is a “rarity of a new gold mine today”.
Moving forward, the big question is: With a supply deficit and soaring gold prices, are gold stocks still a smart investment? Let’s take a look at how investors are responding to this market.
Glittering Gains: Gold’s Supply Crunch Boosts Stocks
Gold mining companies, especially those close to production, present strong investment potential. Global macroeconomic and political uncertainty, inflation, and a supply crunch of the metal are all combining to make gold stocks appealing. Add in record gold prices that have not yet lifted gold stock prices and optimism in the market remains high.
With gold prices at record highs and rising economic uncertainty, investors are once again turning to gold equities for big gains. However, not all gold stocks perform the same. Developer-to-producer companies have an advantage: they move from spending money on building a mine to actually producing and selling gold. This shift often triggers a stock re-rating, leading to significant returns for investors.
Investing in a Gold Bull Market
Gold, a traditional safe-haven asset, has surged to repeated record highs in 2025. On April 22, the spot price reached $3,424 per ounce and briefly touched $3,432 in early May before stabilizing around $3,244.
This rally has been driven by escalating trade tensions, a weakening U.S. dollar, and strong demand from both institutional and retail investors. Over the past year, gold has gained nearly 50%, reflecting investors’ search for stability and long-term value amid ongoing market turbulence.
The bullish momentum is further fueled by persistent inflation fears, geopolitical uncertainty, expectations of potential U.S. Federal Reserve rate cuts, and continued buying by central banks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
Moving on, if you’re looking to invest in gold during this bull market, here are your main options:
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Major gold miners/indices
These provide steady exposure to gold’s price movements with lower risk. As gold prices rise, miners generate more revenue. However, their stock prices don’t generally give a lot of additional leverage to gold’s moves.
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Developer-to-producer companies
These companies offer strong upside potential. Once a mine enters production, the company transitions from burning cash to generating revenue. This often leads to a stock price gain. Most projects that reach the construction phase successfully enter production. This makes them a relatively safe bet compared to exploration stocks.
Gold Mining Companies Gain Value
For years, Western investors ignored gold and favored tech stocks instead. But that’s changing. Rising inflation and new tariffs have pushed investors back to gold as a “safe haven”. Meanwhile, China, India, and the Middle East have been stockpiling gold for years. This has significantly strengthened their influence in the market.
The entire gold mining sector holds a market cap of $600 billion, while the top five tech companies combined are worth $15 trillion. A shift of just 1% of tech investments into gold miners could boost the sector’s market cap by 25%. If investors start to rotate some capital into gold stocks, the growth potential could be massive.
This also shows that as the gold supply tightens, existing mining companies will become more valuable.
A Rare Opportunity: West Red Lake Gold Mines Launching in 2025
Coming out of many years of investor disinterest in gold stocks, in 2025 very few single-asset gold companies will begin production. As per a BMO report from January 2025, West Red Lake Gold Mines (TSXV: WRLG; OTCQB: WRLGF) is the only single-asset company launching production in a tier-one jurisdiction this year.
There are four single-asset North American-listed companies starting up new gold mines this year. But…
- Artemis Gold: Already pouring gold and has re-rated.
- Two other projects in Mongolia and Guinea: These are riskier due to geopolitical concerns.
Thus, WRLG stands out as a strong opportunity for investors looking for growth in a safe and mining-friendly region.
Reviving the Madsen Gold Mine
West Red Lake Gold Mines Ltd. is a publicly traded company focused on restarting the Madsen Mine and exploring its 47 sq-km land package in Ontario’s Red Lake Gold District.
The Madsen Mine has a strong history, producing 2 million ounces of high-grade gold between 1936 and 1971. However, a recent attempt to restart operations failed due to an inaccurate resource model and lack of funding, leading to low gold production and high costs.
West Red Lake acquired the mine in early 2023 and has been working to fix these issues. The company just restarted the mine and is ramping up production over the second half of the year, aiming to unlock the mine’s full potential.
The Red Lake Gold District in Northwest Ontario is one of the world’s richest gold regions, with over 30 million ounces of high-grade gold mined to date.
Near-Term Producers Offer the Best Returns
West Red Lake Gold Mines believes, “Timing is everything in gold investing”.
The biggest gains typically happen when a company transitions from development to production. This phase is known as the “golden runway” because substantial stock price appreciation often happens. This pattern is illustrated in the Lassonde Curve, which is a roadmap for how mining projects typically grow in value: big value gains on discovery, valuation deterioration as a project slogs from discovery to build, and then often value gains once again as production finally draws near.
WRLG’s Madsen Mine in Ontario is already built and is ready to restart production in H2 2025. Most significantly, the company has already overcome the major hurdles of permitting, financing, and development.
Conclusion
As economic uncertainty grows, gold is becoming a top long-term investment. But with fewer new discoveries, future supply looks uncertain.
Investors can find the best opportunities in companies with strong growth potential.
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- Established gold producers offer stability with proven success.
- Developer-to-producer companies like WRLG offer strong potential for major stock jumps.
- The biggest gains often come from companies moving into production, where investor interest surges.
With gold stocks back in demand, the potential for big returns is stronger than ever. In a market with few new mines, WRLG could be as a game changer.
DISCLAIMER
New Era Publishing Inc. and/or CarbonCredits.com (“We” or “Us”) are not securities dealers or brokers, investment advisers or financial advisers, and you should not rely on the information herein as investment advice. West Red Lake Gold Mines Ltd. made a one-time payment of $30,000 to provide marketing services for a term of 1 month. None of the owners, members, directors, or employees of New Era Publishing Inc. and/or CarbonCredits.com currently hold, or have any beneficial ownership in, any shares, stocks, or options in the companies mentioned. This article is informational only and is solely for use by prospective investors in determining whether to seek additional information. This does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities. Examples that we provide of share price increases pertaining to a particular Issuer from one referenced date to another represent an arbitrarily chosen time period and are no indication whatsoever of future stock prices for that Issuer and are of no predictive value. Our stock profiles are intended to highlight certain companies for your further investigation; they are not stock recommendations or constitute an offer or sale of the referenced securities. The securities issued by the companies we profile should be considered high risk; if you do invest despite these warnings, you may lose your entire investment. Please do your own research before investing, including reading the companies’ SEDAR+ and SEC filings, press releases, and risk disclosures. It is our policy that information contained in this profile was provided by the company, extracted from SEDAR+ and SEC filings, company websites, and other publicly available sources. We believe the sources and information are accurate and reliable but we cannot guarantee it.
CAUTIONARY STATEMENT AND FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION
Certain statements contained in this news release may constitute “forward-looking information” within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking information generally can be identified by words such as “anticipate”, “expect”, “estimate”, “forecast”, “planned”, and similar expressions suggesting future outcomes or events. Forward-looking information is based on current expectations of management; however, it is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking information in this news release and include without limitation, statements relating to the plans and timing for the potential production of mining operations at the Madsen Mine, the potential (including the amount of tonnes and grades of material from the bulk sample program) of the Madsen Mine; the benefits of test mining; any untapped growth potential in the Madsen deposit or Rowan deposit; and the Company’s future objectives and plans. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information.
Forward-looking information involves numerous risks and uncertainties and actual results might differ materially from results suggested in any forward-looking information. These risks and uncertainties include, among other things, market volatility; the state of the financial markets for the Company’s securities; fluctuations in commodity prices; timing and results of the cleanup and recovery at the Madsen Mine; and changes in the Company’s business plans. Forward-looking information is based on a number of key expectations and assumptions, including without limitation, that the Company will continue with its stated business objectives and its ability to raise additional capital to proceed. Although management of the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking information. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Readers are cautioned that reliance on such information may not be appropriate for other purposes. Additional information about risks and uncertainties is contained in the Company’s management’s discussion and analysis for the year ended December 31, 2024, and the Company’s annual information form for the year ended December 31, 2024, copies of which are available on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca.
The forward-looking information contained herein is expressly qualified in its entirety by this cautionary statement. Forward-looking information reflects management’s current beliefs and is based on information currently available to the Company. The forward-looking information is made as of the date of this news release and the Company assumes no obligation to update or revise such information to reflect new events or circumstances, except as may be required by applicable law.
For more information on the Company, investors should review the Company’s continuous disclosure filings that are available on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca.
Please read our Full RISKS and DISCLOSURE here.
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Most businesses that decide to act on their net-zero targets reach the same point of friction. Buying carbon credits has meant tracking down brokers, sitting through sales calls, and requesting a quote just to learn a price, sometimes with limited proof of what you are buying.
The earnings calls that quietly reframed climate from sustainability question to operating risk.
Three earnings calls in the last 18 months tell the story without any help from a press release.
Hershey, May 2024: cocoa price exposure compresses margin, and the company attributes part of the cost shock to West African weather. Olam, July 2024: coffee climate exposure quantified in the annual report. JBS, January 2025: supply chain climate disclosures expanded materially in response to investor pressure and regulatory expectation. None of these companies issued the announcement as climate news. They issued it as financial news. The climate-linked supply chain risk did not arrive with a sustainability framing; it arrived as a P&L line.
You are probably reading this article because you suspect the same thing is happening to your business. This piece walks through what is showing up on which earnings calls, how procurement and finance leaders are quantifying the exposure, and what serious corporates are doing about it before the regulator asks.
Where climate risk has already appeared in earnings
The pattern is consistent across resource-intensive sectors. A weather event compresses supply, the price spikes, the cost flows through the income statement, and the analyst on the call asks whether the event is anomalous or structural. Increasingly, the honest answer is the second one.
Cocoa is the cleanest example. The 2023 to 2024 West African harvest fell sharply on the back of erratic rainfall and disease. Cocoa futures more than tripled. Companies with concentrated West African sourcing absorbed the cost; companies with diversified sourcing absorbed less. The exposure was not climate as ESG topic. It was climate as cost of goods.
Coffee follows the same pattern. Brazilian and Vietnamese harvests have moved on weather more sharply across the last several seasons. Roasters with long-tenor supplier relationships and origin diversification have managed the volatility; roasters with spot-market exposure have not. Wheat, sugar, palm oil, beef: the same dynamic in different commodities, a pattern the IPCC AR6 Working Group II report projects will intensify across agricultural systems through mid-century.
What this means: climate risk is no longer a footnote in the 10-K. It is a line item the CFO has to explain on the call.
The three commodity exposures that hit margin first
For most companies with material Scope 3 exposure, three exposures dominate the near-term P&L risk.
- Concentrated single-origin sourcing in a climate-vulnerable region. If your tier-one supply for any material commodity sits in one geography, you have a concentration risk that climate amplifies. Diversification across origins is the obvious hedge, but it takes years to build and requires relationships you cannot acquire by tender.
- Supplier financial fragility under climate stress. Smallholder farmers, who supply a large share of the global cocoa, coffee, and palm oil market, do not carry the balance sheets to absorb yield shocks. When yields collapse, they exit. When they exit, your supply base shrinks, and the surviving suppliers raise prices. The risk is structural, not cyclical.
- Logistics and storage exposure to extreme weather. Hurricane disruptions to Gulf shipping, drought-driven Panama Canal restrictions, flooding in European inland waterways: each of these has moved input costs in the last three years, a pattern documented in Munich Re’s natural catastrophe data. The exposure shows up as a one-quarter event in the financial press but accumulates over time on the cost line.
TCFD and ISSB disclosure changes
The disclosure architecture has now caught up with the risk. The Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures, whose recommendations are now embedded in the ISSB’s IFRS S2 climate standard, requires companies to disclose climate-related risks across physical and transition categories, with quantification where possible.
For physical risk specifically (the climate-linked supply chain risk you are reading about), the disclosure must address both acute exposures (extreme weather events) and chronic exposures (gradual changes in temperature, precipitation, and growing seasons). The disclosure must address the time horizon over which the risk is material, the parts of the value chain exposed, and the financial impact under different scenarios.
The CSRD imposes similar requirements under European law, with double materiality (both financial and impact materiality) embedded in the assessment. The practical effect: your auditors and your investor relations team now need a defensible answer to the climate-linked supply chain risk question, and the answer needs to be quantified.
What procurement and finance can do now
Three actions matter near-term.
Map your exposure. Most companies do not have a clear view of which tier-one and tier-two suppliers sit in which climate-vulnerable geographies. Without the map, you cannot quantify the risk, and without the quantification, you cannot disclose it credibly. The map is the foundation, and World Resources Institute climate risk research provides useful public tooling to start.
Diversify and deepen, in that order. Diversification across origins reduces concentration risk, but the deeper move is to invest in the resilience of the suppliers you already have. Regenerative practices, agroforestry, soil health interventions: these reduce yield volatility under climate stress and protect your input cost trajectory.
Embed the climate spend inside procurement, not outside it. Treating climate risk as a sustainability cost line subordinates it to the ESG budget. Treating it as a procurement and resilience investment puts it in the budget that matters, which is the cost-of-goods budget that the CFO defends quarterly.
Nature-based supply chain investments are the asset class designed for exactly this purpose. They sit inside the value chain, they reduce climate-linked supply risk, they generate verifiable Scope 3 reductions, and they produce the documentation an auditor and a regulator can both test.
If you are quantifying climate-linked supply chain risk in advance of the next earnings cycle or the next disclosure period, the carbon and sustainability experts at Carbon Credit Capital can help you map your exposure and structure a Dual-Value Model response that addresses reduction, resilience, and disclosure-readiness in a single program. Schedule a consultation.
More and more small and medium-sized businesses are hearing the same question from their larger customers: What is your carbon footprint? That question now travels down entire supply chains, and it arrives next to tender requirements, certification criteria, and rising customer expectations.
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