With Gold Rallying, Mining CEOs Say ESG Scrutiny Is Intensifying – by Steven Frank, Yvonne Yue Li and Felix Njini (Bloomberg News – September 20, 2020)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Skyrocketing gold is providing a welcome windfall to the mining industry, but it’s also attracting a broader base of investors who are demanding greater attention to environmental, social and governance topics.

Interest in ESG issues has moved to the forefront in conversations with stakeholders in the past year, top executives said in the run-up to the Denver Gold Group’s Americas conference, a key annual event in the precious-metals world. Such talks come as investors snap up billions of dollars in stock offerings from once-shunned gold miners.

Generalists are looking at bullion because of the high prices and “the strong argument that the gold price can go higher,” according to Sean Boyd, chief executive officer of Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd., a top-10 gold producer.

And those investors tend to judge mining companies through an ESG lens. “They don’t want to take a lot of risk, and a big part of the risk assessment is the ESG side of things,” Boyd said in a phone interview.

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