Mine Visit Note: Orezone

EQUINOX PARTNERS - Precious Metals Miners 
Site visit - Orezone Gold Corporation 
july 2022 Note and Videos

Watch our Research Room on Orezone

Dates July 25, 2022

Mines Visited Bomboré

Countries Visited Burkina Faso

Equinox Team CIO, Sean Fieler | Analyst, Stephen Saroki | Head of IR, Daniel Schreck


OVERVIEW

Orezone Gold Corporation (ORE Canada) is a development-stage gold mining company that owns the Bomboré asset located just south of the capital of Burkina Faso, Ouagadougou. They are in the process of building the asset, with first gold pour expected in Q3 of 2022. While in a tough jurisdiction, management has skillfully organized financing and put together a construction team that is on track to deliver the project on time and on budget in our view.

 

metrics

Market Cap  $358 million USD

Enterprise Value  $405 million USD

EV/CF  2.7x 2023 cash flow estimate

P/NAV  (5% discount) 0.48x

Resources  6.2m ounces of gold

EV/Resource  $66 per ounce of gold

Reserves  1.8m ounces of gold

EV/Reserve  $221 per ounce of gold

AISC  ~$900 per ounce estimate once in production

Thesis

We expect Orezone’s Bomboré build to be a real triumph in the mining space. While others have struggled with both schedules and budgets (IAMGOLD’s Côté and Argonaut Gold’s Magino), Orezone is tracking to be on time and on budget with the entirety of the mine build occurring during COVID. Trading at less than half of NAV, not including resources outside of reserves or exploration, Orezone should experience a re-rating as it goes from developer to producer. The additional upside in terms of its resource, the upsizing of its sulphide circuit, and the excellent exploration results, suggest that the market hasn’t internalized the opportunity here, in my view.


Trip summary

We've owned Orezone for years, seeing the company and project progress along the way, especially so in the last few years.  Now, with Bombore supposedly only a month away from production, we wanted to assess the project and progress for ourselves as a part of our ongoing research and diligence.  Making our way from the Ouagadougou to the mine site in the morning, Sean, Dan, and I were able to meet the team. We saw the processing facility, visited one of the oxide pits, the tailings storage facility, the off channel reservoir, and the core shack. We had excellent access to the team, and were able to conduct a thorough assessment of the project.


Management and governance

This visit was focused on the operating team. All in all, this is an impressive team, especially for a junior mining company like Orezone to put together. In getting to chat with them, it was clear that they were well organized and focused. In addition, they have all of the skill sets necessary to deliver the project.


John Le Roux, General Manager: He’s been everywhere in his 30 years in the mining space. This includes the Ok Tedi Mine, which at the time was owned by BHP Billiton and is one of the more prolific mining deposits in history. He improved operations there and told us that it is the only time in his mining career that he was asked to slow the rate of improvement. Previous to Orezone, he was the GM for NordGold’s 3 mines in Burkina Faso. He also held senior positions with AlacerGold, Eldorado Gold, and Centerra Gold, spending time in Turkey and the Kyrgyz Republic. He is an outstanding get for Orezone.


Ricardo Rodrigues, VP Projects and Project Manager: Previously worked as the construction manager for Perseus Mining, where he built Sissingué and Yaouré (Côte d’Ivoire), managing Lycopodium in the process. Sissingué was ahead of schedule and on budget and Yaouré was ahead of schedule and under budget.  Importantly, he was able to complete a mine on time and on budget during Covid. If I were to be building a gold mine in West Africa, Mr. Rodrigues would be on my short list of candidates to consider to lead the build. He's working with basically the same team to build Bombore.


Pascal Marquis, Senior VP Exploration: He has 35 years of mineral exploration experience, having worked at Agnico Eagle and Trillion Resources prior to joining Orezone in 2002. From discussions, he has been a long-term holder of Orezone's stock. He’s got a ton of experience in West Africa exploration, which is especially important because not all rocks are the same. He leads the geologist exploration team of four. Pascal stressed that he is IRR conscious and not just digging for rock: for instance, having built the water reservoir close to the local river using a simple gravity-fed sluice.


Ousseni Derra, Country Manager: A native Burkinabi, Mr. Derra plays a vital role in exploration, permitting, and government relations. A geologist by training, he makes sure that the Orezone has the capability to operate in a continuous and unobstructed fashion. Prior to joining Orezone in 2009, he worked for Billiton Metals, Goldfields, and Ashanti Goldfields.

Watch our Research Room episode on Burkina country risk

JURISDICTION

The general perception of Burkina Faso is heavily influenced by international headlines. Between jihadist activities and coups, most investors are reticent to want to underwrite investments there. But despite this noise, we view it as one of the better mining jurisdictions in the world. Land concessions are easily attained. Exploration permits are readily given. Mining permits generally come within 12 months. To provide some context, even in Tier 1 jurisdictions like Canada, many projects take 4 to 5 years to permit. The government in Burkina understands the economic proposition offered by mining and enthusiastically supports the industry. The people line up for jobs as they pay considerably 3-4 times more than any alternatives available to them.


While there has been a rise in violence committed by jihadist militants, which is obviously concerning, our travels indicate that the corridor south of Burkina Faso’s capital (Ouagadougou), where Bomboré is located, remains a safe area in the country. We spoke with the head of security and saw some of his 20-person team. They have extensive local contacts in the villages which is essential for intel. The local community of around 15,000 people wants Orezone there due to the good, high-paying jobs and stability. There is a local military base nearby.


We actively track the security situation throughout the country, and find that the lion’s share of issues occur in the northeast and eastern portion of the country (see map). For example, Nordgold recently closed its Taparko mine, which is located 200 km northeast of Ouagadougou. However, the binary nature of security in the country is such that one region is very safe, while another is anything but. It is incumbent on miners to secure their site and logistics supply chain. While concerning from a headline perspective, security tends not to affect mining operations. In fact, we’ve recently come across a lot more difficulty in Latin America on that front than we have in West Africa. Even the coup in Burkina Faso in January 2022 had no impact on mining operations. In talking with people at the mine site, they seemed to suggest it was meaningless, having no effect either on the mine or the lives of the people.

 

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

One of the more remarkable things about Burkina Faso is that mining constitutes the vast majority of direct foreign investment. There are no Starbucks or McDonalds, not even in the capital city. Google and Facebook will not be opening offices there any time soon. Mining, on the other hand, has brought in billions of dollars in investment to the country. In addition to the 10% free carried interest, ~4% royalty, and 27.5% tax rate, the project in operation will employ about 500 hundred people, with over 90% of these people being Burkinabe. Even what is ostensibly a low-paying job as a truck driver pays more than 4x the annual per capita income in the country. Mining promotes economic development, and is offering the people of the country an opportunity for a better life.  According to the team, the Burkinabe people are the best and hardest workers regionally, and even globally. Given the regional importance of gold mining, and to Burkina in particular (80% of export value), there is a strong ecosystem of geology schools and company-specific advancement.

catalysts

The primary catalyst for Orezone is going from developer to producer, as there is commonly a multiple re-rating. Exploration will also serve as a focus as the company begins the show the potential of the land package, especially in the P17 zone. In addition, the sizing up of the sulphide circuit relative to market expectation should serve to improve the economics and NPV of the project.


bombore

Production: Expected first gold pour in Q3 2022, which we think they will hit.

 

The Processing Mill:

1.      We weren’t able to walk through the mill since the construction team is actively putting on the final touches. We could see all of the major parts from a distance, discussed each, and had a quick handshake with the commissioning manager from the Lyco team whom Ricardo worked with at Perseus.

2.      They’ve commissioned 70% of the systems, including all of the front end parts of the mill (Conveyor, Ball Mill, etc.). The only parts they haven’t commissioned (at least as of our visit) are on the back end of the flow sheet: the elution circuit (where gold is separated from carbon and returned to solution with the use of a concentrated cyanide solution) and the gold room (where a gold sludge is delivered, dried, and smelted resulting in doré gold bars).

3.      In addition, Lycopodium, who is the contractor for the processing mill build, has a sterling track record of delivering projects on time, on budget, and with the ability to do 15-20% above nameplate capacity, which for the initial circuit at Orezone is 5.2 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa). In this case, Ricardo thinks they’ll be at 70% of name plate for about a week before quickly ramping up to full production.

4.      Finally, we were also able to see how their current layout allows for the 2.2 Mtpa+ sulphide circuit.


Earth and Ore Movement:

1.      A full year’s worth of ore has already been stockpiled. While we initially had some questions about their ability to move the appropriate tonnage with 30 tonne haul trucks, their movement of ore in fact has progressed well.

2.      On top of this, given the sheer availability of ore stockpiles and the varying grade, it should be fairly easy for them to find of blend of ore that allows them to get the production that they are targeting.

3.      The oxides are very soft and easy to move. They are free dig, and don’t require explosives. However, it remains an open question if the pit will continue to exhibit that characteristic.  


Power Supply:

1.      The build planned for 14 MW of capacity provided by four 3.5 MW generators. They have two of the 3.5 MW diesel generators, and they’ve rented two 1 MW generators, giving them a total capacity of 9 MW. They will replace their currently rented units with the two additional 3.5 MW generators. The third just shipped from the US, and the fourth will leave in August. They’ve already turned the plant on once and will do so again once they fix a gen set with injector issues.

2.      According to the Feasibility Study, during the initial oxide treatment phase “the annual average electrical load on site is estimated to be 6.6 MW with a peak demand of 8.6 MW.” While this might be enough, we will be considerably more comfortable when the two additional 3.5 MW generators have reached the site. Of all the things we saw at the project, this is our greatest concern.

3.      They don’t have grid power, but are looking to figure out if grid power is possible going forward.

4.      Not specific to this operation, the rising fuel costs are a concern for all companies that use generators to provide power. It's a big chunk of AISC per ounce.


Tailings Storage Facility/Off Channel Reservoir/Etc.

1.      The Tailings Storage Facility looks great. The earthworks and the lining are complete.

2.      The Off Channel Reservoir is full of water, and there is river that runs through the land package that provides an abundance of water for the operation.

3.      All in all, the rest of the project looks great in my view.


exploration & upside

1.      The Feasibility Study only includes the 1.835 M oz in the Mineral Reserve Estimate. Orezone has a Mineral Resource Estimate of 6.162 M oz. In addition, lots of these additional resources sit in a halo adjacent to the reserves, would be included in a mine plan if current precious metals prices persist. It should be noted that the current mine plan uses pit shells designed at $1250 gold, while $1400 gold would incorporate the vast majority of these additional resource ounces (see two images with this pit concept outlined).


2.     Examples:  Notice the AMC FS Pit Design, done at $1250 Au oz, versus the Conceptual $1400 Pit Shell. The strip appears to remain similar, and yet this would conservatively add 15-25 years of mine life to the mine. These are ounces that have already been identified, but haven’t been included in a mine plan.  We see the same dynamic at Maga Hill.


3.      Exploration of the P17 Trend:  The results speak for themselves. 32.00 meters at 3.98 g/t, 12.20 meters at 10.01 g/t, etc. They are just getting started.  Some of the P17 trend is included in the mining concession (P17S), but most of is outside the mining concession. On top of this, there are several other targets on Orezone’s land package outside of the mining concession that are very attractive. Overall they want to, “convert a lot of inferred ounces that look good and expand our pits”


4.    Upsizing the Sulphide Circuit:  The current sulphide circuit, is expected to be 2.2 Mtpa, but with the right amount of sulphide ore, could be upsized to 5.2 Mtpa. This is contingent upon success than sulphide exploration success. Given what they’ve already found at P17, this decision already appears to make economic sense. Specifically, they think they have 1.2m ounces of convertible inferred suphides via 77k meters of drilling. 75% of the core drilling is done and 1/3 has been assayed. Of the overall drilling the new P17 region is just 10% of that. They are “feeling out” how big the sulphide plant should be. Orezone should be able to do this without tapping equity markets . They are soft-targeting next year for a construction decision that would take them into 2024.

 

*** END ***



*Figures and statements as of July, 2022 visit. This is an internal research note written by an analyst employed by Equinox Partners Investment Management, LLC. It is not intended for distribution. This information was intended exclusively for the person to whom it was delivered and ought not to be distributed further. Opinions are expressed throughout this note as of the date of the note. Opinions can be wrong or can prove to be right. Investment decisions are made in part as a result of mine visits and company discussions, but not exclusively so.


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End Notes

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By Kieran Brennan October 31, 2025
Dear Partners and Friends, PERFORMANCE Equinox Partners Precious Metals Fund, L.P. rose +36.2% in the third quarter of 2025 and is up +90.2% for the year-to-date 2025. By comparison, the Junior Gold Mining Index GDXJ rose +46.6% in the quarter and is up +132.7% for the year-to-date. Exploration stage companies were the best performing segment of the portfolio, appreciating +55.0% in the quarter. The spot gold price rose +18% in the quarter and is up +47% for the year-to-date. The letter that follows provides our thoughts on the outlook for the gold price and implications for the portfolio holdings. gold The gold bull market, initially driven by central bank buying, has evolved into an investor-driven dollar debasement trade. This second phase of the gold bull market is more explosive than the first because it draws on the approximately $470 trillion of the world’s wealth as opposed to the roughly $35 trillion of central bank balance sheets. If President Trump fans the dollar debasement fire by forcing a politicized Fed to cut rates, gold could rapidly displace the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. However, if President Trump takes a more nuanced approach to the Fed, gold should still displace the dollar as the world’s reserve currency over time with the competition between gold and the dollar taking longer to play out. Gold investors warning about fiat currency debasement is nothing new. That, after all, is why gold investors own gold in the first place. There’s also nothing new about most American investors ignoring these warnings. The dollar’s relative stability has long made concerns about dollar debasement appear quixotic. Since the early 1980’s, American inflation has been largely tolerable, the dollar has outperformed almost all other fiat currencies, and U.S. government bonds have been the safest asset to own in an economic downturn. The dollar has sloughed off so much criticism for so long that Janet Yellen likely did not imagine the chain of events that freezing Russia’s foreign exchange reserves would set into motion. With confidence in the dollar’s inertia and a bit of hubris, in our opinion, Secretary Yellen engineered the freezing of $300 billion of Russia’s foreign exchange reserves and put the world’s central banks on notice that their use of dollar reserves depends upon the tacit approval of the U.S. Treasury. Foreign governments, shocked by this policy change, sought to reduce their dependence on the U.S. Treasury and doubled their gold purchases to roughly $60-80 billion per year (potentially $100 billion in 2025). This increase in central bank gold demand drove the gold price up over +50% from March 2022 to March 2025. This bull market, in turn, gave gold the additional scale necessary to function as a more viable alternative to the dollar and damaged the dollar’s air of invulnerability. This two-fold outcome is problematic because inertia and a lack of alternatives were fundamental to the dollar’s stability. On the back of gold’s appreciation, long-ignored arguments of gold investors began sounding more plausible. Financial professionals accustomed to deriding gold investors and referring to them as insects began to worry that gold’s price action is telling them something important. Jamie Dimon aptly summed up the change of heart: “This is one of those times where it is semi-rational to own gold.” His comment captures both his continued distaste for gold and his willingness to own it. Despite the broadening acceptance of gold as an investment, markets remain skeptical of the underlying dollar-devaluation narrative. Inflation, a broad measure of the dollar’s strength, is just 2.8%. The 10-year U.S. Treasury yields 4.0%, indicating the bond market’s indifference to the dollar debasement narrative. Furthermore, the decline in the trade weighted dollar has partially reversed since early July. At this moment, the dollar debasement trade appears to be waiting for additional macroeconomic and geopolitical events to play out. Of these, none looms larger than President Trump’s effort to bend the Federal Reserve to his will. In January, the Supreme Court will likely allow President Trump to remove Federal Reserve Board Governor Lisa Cook, making the selection of the next Fed Chair even more important. If Trump nominates a loyalist like Kevin Hassett who appears more committed to pleasing the President than price stability, we could see broadening concern about the dollar’s store of value and a growing asset allocation into gold. In this hyper-politicized Fed scenario, gold could quickly become a $100 trillion dollar asset and displace the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. However, if Trump nominates an institutionalist like Chris Waller, the dollar debasement trade will likely remain in limbo for a while as markets suss out how much control Trump really has over the Fed. Either way, the U.S. bond market will not be allowed to freely adjudicate the outcome at the Fed. We expect both Treasury and Fed to proactively manage the yield curve during the particularly politically sensitive period when the Fed is cutting rates while inflation is above their stated 2% target. Treasury will keep longer-dated bond issuance to a minimum while coercing banks to keep the Treasury market well bid. JP Morgan increased its holdings of Treasuries by $80 billion in the first half of this year, and we expect other banks to follow suit. The Fed, for its part, has announced an end to quantitative tightening and its intention to shift its balance sheet from mortgage-backed securities to Treasuries. Given the likely extent of the coordinated intervention of the Treasury and Fed, the bond market will not be a good indicator of the market’s confidence in Trump’s economic policies. Gold will be. To the extent that investors sense that the bond market is not providing a reliable price signal, they will begin paying more attention to gold. And, should the gold price becomes the accepted indicator of U.S. financial health, the Trump administration will take action to influence it. At the very least, this will entail the Trump administration encouraging other central banks to stop buying gold or even sell gold. But the anti-gold policy options are limitless. Needless to say, the U.S. government pushback on gold will not solve the dollar’s long-term structural problems. Nor will it mark the end of gold’s challenge to the dollar. It will simply mark the next phase of financial repression. Our Gold Mines The second phase of the bull market in gold has been broadly positive for our portfolio, as a portion of the investor money flowing into gold has bid up gold mining equities as well. Where central banks buy the physical gold bullion, private wealth investors allocating to gold will also buy gold mining stocks. The GDXJ Junior Mining Index is up +132.7% for the year-to-date through September 30. Even with this year’s rapid rise in the gold mining portfolio, valuations remain cheap at spot gold prices. Our in-production portfolio trades at a 24.0% IRR as compared to a 23.4% IRR on March 31. The most dramatic mis-valuation among our gold miners continues to be in the pre-production companies. While these equities have appreciated more rapidly than our producing companies for the year-to-date 2025, they began from such a low valuation that even at twice or three times their January price, they are still undervalued. Troilus Gold, a junior gold mining company with an 11.2 million ounces gold-equivalent resource in Quebec, Canada, is a case in point. Troilus Gold shares have more than tripled in 2025, rising from C$0.31 to C$1.35 per share. The company still trades at an IRR of 30%, 0.2x price-to-NAV (using a 10% discount rate), and a price per ounce of recoverable gold of $63. When Troilus goes into commercial production in 2029, we expect it will generate annual net income roughly equal to its current market cap. Troilus historically traded at an extremely low valuation because the market did not believe that the company could finance the project's upfront capital expenditure of $1.3 billion. Throughout 2025, Troilus began addressing these financing concerns by signing an offtake agreement with a European smelter and a related letter of intent for $700 million of debt financing on attractive terms. If Troilus Gold raises the necessary equity and signs a streaming arrangement to fully fund the mine’s construction, we believe the stock will trade much closer to its NAV (using a 10% discount rate and the spot gold price) of $2.5 billion.
By Kieran Brennan October 30, 2025
Dear Partners and Friends, PERFORMANCE Equinox Partners, L.P. rose +24.5% net of fees in the third quarter and is up +54.4% for the year-to-date 2025. By comparison, the S&P 500 index rose +8.1% in the third quarter and is now up +14.8% for the year-to-date 2025. Our quarterly performance has been almost exclusively driven by our gold and silver miners. In the third quarter, the spot gold price rose +18%, and the fund’s mining portfolio returned +40%. As of this writing, 78% of Equinox Partners’ capital is invested in the gold and silver sector. The letter that follows provides our thoughts on the gold price and our gold mining holdings. Gold The gold bull market, which was initiated by central bank buying, has evolved into an investor-driven dollar debasement trade. This second phase of the gold bull market is more explosive than the first because it draws on the approximately $470 trillion of the world’s wealth as opposed to the roughly $35 trillion of central bank balance sheets. If President Trump fans the dollar debasement fire by forcing a politicized Fed to cut rates, gold could rapidly displace the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. However, if President Trump takes a more nuanced approach to the Fed, gold should still displace the dollar as the world’s reserve currency over time with the competition between gold and the dollar taking longer to play out. Gold investors warning about fiat currency debasement is nothing new. That, after all, is why gold investors own gold in the first place. There’s also nothing new about most American investors ignoring these warnings. The dollar’s relative stability has long made concerns about dollar debasement appear quixotic. Since the early 1980’s, American inflation has been largely tolerable, the dollar has outperformed almost all other fiat currencies, and U.S. government bonds have been the safest asset to own in an economic downturn. The dollar has sloughed off so much criticism for so long that Janet Yellen likely did not imagine the chain of events that freezing Russia’s foreign exchange reserves would set into motion. With confidence in the dollar’s inertia and a bit of hubris in our opinion, Secretary Yellen engineered the freezing of $300 billion of Russia’s foreign exchange reserves and put the world’s central banks on notice that their use of dollar reserves depends upon the tacit approval of the U.S. Treasury. Foreign governments shocked by this policy change sought to reduce their dependence on the U.S. Treasury and doubled their gold purchases to roughly $60-80 billion per year (potentially $100 billion in 2025). This increase in central bank gold demand drove the gold price up over +50% from March 2022 to March 2025. This bull market in turn gave gold the additional scale necessary to function as a more viable alternative to the dollar and damaged the dollar’s air of invulnerability. This two-fold outcome is problematic because inertia and a lack of alternatives were fundamental to the dollar’s stability. On the back of gold’s appreciation, long-ignored arguments of gold investors began sounding more plausible. Financial professionals accustomed to deriding gold investors and referring to them as insects began to worry that gold’s price action is telling them something important. Jamie Dimon aptly summed up the change of heart: “This is one of those times where it is semi-rational to own gold.” His comment captures both his continued distaste for gold and his willingness to own it. Despite the broadening acceptance of gold as an investment, markets remain skeptical of the underlying dollar-devaluation narrative. Inflation, a broad measure of the dollar’s strength, is just 2.8%. The 10-year U.S. Treasury yields 4.0%, indicating the bond market’s indifference to the dollar debasement narrative. Furthermore, the decline in the trade weighted dollar has partially reversed since early July. At this moment, the dollar debasement trade appears to be waiting for additional macroeconomic and geopolitical events to play out. Of these, none looms larger than President Trump’s effort to bend the Federal Reserve to his will. In January, the Supreme Court will likely allow President Trump to remove Federal Reserve Board Governor Lisa Cook, making the selection of the next Fed Chair even more important. If Trump nominates a loyalist like Kevin Hassett who appears more committed to pleasing the President than price stability, we could see broadening concern about the dollar’s store of value and a growing asset allocation into gold. In this hyper-politicized Fed scenario, gold could quickly become a $100 trillion dollar asset and displace the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. However, if Trump nominates an institutionalist like Chris Waller, the dollar debasement trade will likely remain in limbo for a while as markets suss out how much control Trump really has over the Fed. Either way, the U.S. bond market will not be allowed to freely adjudicate the outcome at the Fed. We expect both Treasury and Fed to proactively manage the yield curve during the particularly politically sensitive period when the Fed is cutting rates while inflation is above their stated 2% target. Treasury will keep longer-dated bond issuance to a minimum while coercing banks to keep the Treasury market well bid. JP Morgan increased its holdings of Treasuries by $80 billion in the first half of this year, and we expect other banks to follow suit. The Fed, for its part, has announced an end to quantitative tightening and its intention to shift its balance sheet from mortgage-backed securities to Treasuries. Given the likely extent of the coordinated intervention of the Treasury and Fed, the bond market will not be a good indicator of the market’s confidence in Trump’s economic policies. Gold will be. To the extent that investors sense that the bond market is not providing a reliable price signal, they will begin paying more attention to gold. And, should the gold price becomes the accepted indicator of U.S. financial health, the Trump administration will take action to influence it. At the very least, this will entail the Trump administration encouraging other central banks to stop buying gold or even sell gold. But the anti-gold policy options are limitless. Needless to say, the U.S. government pushback on gold will not solve the dollar’s long-term structural problems. Nor will it mark the end of gold’s challenge to the dollar. It will simply mark the next phase of financial repression. Our Gold Mines The second phase of the bull market in gold has been broadly positive for our portfolio, as a portion of the investor money flowing into gold has bid up gold mining equities as well. Where central banks buy the physical gold bullion, private wealth investors allocating to gold will also buy gold mining stocks. The GDXJ Junior Mining Index is up +131% for the year-to-date through September 30. Even with this year’s rapid rise in the gold mining portfolio, valuations remain cheap at spot gold prices. Our in-production portfolio trades at a 24% IRR as compared to a 25% IRR on March 31. The most dramatic mis-valuation among our gold miners continues to be in the pre-production companies. While these equities have appreciated more rapidly than our producing companies for the year-to-date 2025, they began from such a low valuation that even at twice or three times their January price, they are still undervalued. Troilus Gold, a junior gold mining company with an 11.2 million ounces gold-equivalent resource in Quebec, Canada, is a case in point. Troilus Gold shares have more than tripled in 2025, rising from C$0.31 to C$1.35 per share. The company still trades at an IRR of 30%, 0.2X its NAV (using a 10% discount rate), and a price per ounce of recoverable gold of $63. When Troilus goes into commercial production in 2029, we expect it will generate annual net income roughly equal to its current market cap. Troilus historically traded at an extremely low valuation because the market did not believe that the company could finance the project's upfront capital expenditure of $1.3 billion. Throughout 2025, Troilus began addressing these financing concerns by signing an offtake agreement with a European smelter and a related letter of intent for $700 million of debt financing on attractive terms. If Troilus Gold raises the necessary equity and signs a streaming arrangement to fully fund the mine’s construction, we believe the stock will trade much closer to its NAV (using a 10% discount rate and the spot gold price) of $2.5 billion. New Board Seat at Gran Tierra Energy On September 30, portfolio company Gran Tierra Energy announced that Brad Virbitsky has joined the board on behalf of Equinox Partners. While it is a relatively modest-sized position in the fund, we believe there is significant value to unlock, and we can help realize that value through our participation in the boardroom.
By Kieran Brennan October 30, 2025
Kuroto Fund Wins HFM 2025 US Performance Award
By Kieran Brennan October 30, 2025
Dear Partners and Friends, PERFORMANCE Kuroto Fund, L.P. appreciated +16.6% in the third quarter and is up +51.6% year-to-date 2025. By comparison, the broad MSCI Emerging Markets Index rose +11.0% in the third quarter and is up +28.2% for the year-to-date. Performance in the quarter was driven primarily by our investments in Nigeria, with additional strong contribution from our largest position, MTN Ghana. A breakdown of Kuroto Fund exposures can be found here . Portfolio Changes During the third quarter, we initiated a position in Solidcore Resources, a company described in our February webinar . Solidcore is similar to the oil companies we profiled in our Q2 2025 letter in that it is a competitively advantaged commodity producer. The company’s main asset is a long-lived and low-cost mine, the management team is among the best in the region, and the infrastructure they are building will make them a natural consolidator of regional assets. Given the subsequent increase in commodity prices, we ended up purchasing the bulk of our position at a 40%+ free cash flow yield. Solidcore is now a top 5 position in the fund. We funded our purchase of Solidcore by reducing our Georgia Capital position weighting from 17% to 11% and by selling our stake in a Greek consumer-focused business. In the case of Georgia Capital, while the discount to the sum of the parts value decreased from 50% to a more reasonable 30%, we still see it as a compelling investment opportunity. Georgia Capital’s portfolio of oligopolistic businesses is growing earnings double digits, buying back stock, and trading at a single digit, look-through price-to-earnings multiple. The sale of our Greek investment was driven by stock appreciation combined with a management change that led us to re-underwrite our investment. GHANAIAN AND NIGERIAN MACRO Over the past decade, Nigeria and Ghana have endured a seemingly unending series of self-inflicted macro problems. Inflation increased to over 30% in both countries, and the currencies depreciated 64% and 79%, respectively. Ghana defaulted on its domestic and foreign debt in 2023, and Nigeria imposed onerous capital controls for multiple years. However, 2025 has been a turning point for both countries. For the first time in over a decade, investors in these markets are experiencing macroeconomic tailwinds. In Ghana, since the beginning of the year, the currency has appreciated 43% vs. the U.S. dollar, GDP growth averaged over 6%, the budget has been in primary surplus, inflation declined from 24% to 9%, and debt to GDP declined from 62% to 43%. Ghana’s macro environment has improved due to three factors: One, Ghana’s debt restructuring is mostly finished, and the country now has a much smaller interest expense burden, which should decline further as the central bank lowers rates to be more in line with the decline in inflation. Two, the new government which assumed power in January has cut spending 14% in real terms. Three, the country has been helped by the large increase in the gold price, which is both the country’s largest export and a significant component of Ghanaian central bank reserves. Ghana now has 4.8 months of import cover, half of which is held in gold bullion. Whether Ghana can maintain this strong start to the year is an open question, but the fundamentals are certainly in a better place than they have been in the past decade. In Nigeria, President Tinubu’s bold reforms upon taking office are finally starting to have some effect. In 2023, Tinubu eliminated the local fuel subsidy which consumed about 40% of the government’s annual revenues, floated the currency which resulted in a 68% depreciation, forced a recapitalization of the banking sector, and removed the board of the notoriously corrupt national oil company and replaced them with technocrats who formerly worked at companies like Exxon and Shell. While not perfect, the scale of the reforms is impressive by any standard. A year later, inflation has fallen from over 30% to the high teens and is expected to fall to single digits next year. Economic growth has increased from less than 3% to over 4%. Oil production is up more than 10% and oil theft is down 90%. Importantly, the exchange rate has been stable for a year and anecdotally, we are hearing that conditions on the ground are night and day different, businesses are looking to invest, and banks are willing to lend. We initially invested in Ghana and Nigeria in 2018 with the expectation that both countries would eventually adopt a sane set of macroeconomic policies. While it took longer than we expected, sane policy is gaining traction in both countries, and our superior companies are getting re-rated to more sensible, albeit still very cheap, valuations. In Ghana, our main investment has been in MTN Ghana, which has compounded at approximately 25% in U.S. dollar terms since 2018 despite all the on-the-ground challenges. The stock’s historical return understates our investment performance because we increased our weighting at opportune times. The total contribution to our P&L has been +$17.7 million over that time frame, resulting in a +24.9% cumulative contribution to fund returns. Our Nigerian investment results have also been strong. While our initial entry was poorly timed, we added counter-cyclically, and as a result have generated +$9 million of P&L, contributing a cumulative +15.0% to the fund’s return. Our experience in both markets underscores the importance of our investment strategy of looking at out-of-favor markets to find competitively advantaged, well-run businesses at unusually cheap valuations. NEW BOARD SEAT AT GRAN TIERRA ENERGY On September 30th, portfolio company Gran Tierra Energy announced that Brad Virbitsky has joined its board on our behalf. While it’s a relatively modest position size in the fund, we believe there is significant value to unlock and we can contribute to that process through our participation in the boardroom. Sincerely, Sean Fieler & Brad Virbitsky
By Kieran Brennan August 1, 2025
Dear Partners and Friends, PERFORMANCE Equinox Partners Precious Metals Fund, L.P. rose +13.2% in the second quarter of 2025 and is up +39.7% for the first half of 2025. By comparison, the Junior Gold Mining Index GDXJ rose +18.7% in the quarter and is up +58.7% for the first half of the year. Our meaningful year-to-date underperformance relative to the GDXJ reflects the continued discount at which our companies trade compared to peers. Specifically, our portfolio of producing companies trades at an average internal rate of return (IRR) of 24%, roughly double the 11.5% IRR of the broad universe of gold miners that BMO covers. the gold mining bull market is young The skepticism that characterizes the gold mining sector stands in sharp contrast to the enthusiasm in the broader stock market. The animal spirits that have propelled popular stocks like Wingstop and Robinhood to an average of nearly 80 times 2025 earnings remain totally absent among gold mining investors. One indication of the sober mood that dominates the gold mining sector is the use of gold price assumptions below spot in net asset value (NAV) calculations. Looking at four important sell-side houses for the sector, their models include an average long-term price assumption of $2,400 per ounce, representing a 28% discount to the quarter-end spot price. 
By Kieran Brennan July 24, 2025
Dear Partners and Friends, PERFORMANCE Equinox Partners, L.P. rose Equinox Partners, L.P. rose +11.6% net of fees in the second quarter and is up +24.1% for the year-to-date 2025. By comparison, the S&P 500 index rebounded +10.9% in the second quarter and is now up +6.2% for the year-to-date 2025. Our portfolio has performed well across the board this year, with our gold miners, oil and gas producers, and emerging market businesses all appreciating. We were particularly gratified by the long-overdue outperformance of several of our earlier stage gold companies in the first half of this year. With markets and complacency on the rise, we think it prudent to address the non-negligible risk of an economic downturn. Beware the Next Recession 
By Kieran Brennan July 23, 2025
Dear Partners and Friends, PERFORMANCE Kuroto Fund, L.P. appreciated +21.3% in the second quarter and is up +30.1% for the first half of 2025. By comparison, the broad MSCI Emerging Markets Index rose +12% in the second quarter and is up +15.3% for the first half of 2025. Key performance drivers for the fund have been our large position in MTN Ghana, as well as the strong returns from our holdings in Nigeria and the Republic of Georgia. A breakdown of Kuroto Fund exposures can be found here . Despite Kuroto Fund’s outperformance in the first half of the year, our portfolio remains very attractively valued. Given the diversity of business models we own, it is difficult to find metrics that provide an accurate picture of the value and quality of our portfolio in the aggregate. In the absence of an alternative, our portfolio’s weighted average price-to-earnings multiple of 7.3x 2025 earnings, dividend yield of 5.2% and ROE of 24.7% will have to do.
By Dan Donohue May 1, 2025
Dear Partners and Friends, PERFORMANCE Equinox Partners Precious Metals Fund, L.P. rose +23.4% in the first quarter of 2025. Over the same period the price of gold rose +18.9%. The fund’s performance was driven by strong returns from both the producing and exploration stage companies as gold crossed $3,000 per ounce. Trump's New Economic Policy Trump’s New Economic Policy has roiled markets and bolstered investor gold buying globally. While the violent market gyrations remain a focus for our team, we have also been thinking through the long-term effects of Trump’s policies. In this latter endeavor, Nixon’s 1971 New Economic Policy has proven an invaluable guide. The policy similarities between Nixon’s first term and Trump’s second are striking. Both presidents declared emergencies, raised tariffs, cut spending, reduced foreign aid, blamed foreigners, devalued the dollar , proposed tax cuts, attacked the Federal Reserve chair, and directly managed consumer prices. There are, of course, also meaningful differences. Most notably, Trump has raised tariffs more, devalued the dollar less, and has not imposed formal wage and price controls. Nevertheless, the policy resonance is striking.
By Kieran Brennan April 30, 2025
Dear Partners and Friends, PERFORMANCE Kuroto Fund, L.P. appreciated +7.3% in the first quarter of 2025, while the broad MSCI Emerging Markets index rose +3.0%. Kuroto performance for the quarter was driven primarily by the strong performance of our operating companies in Georgia and Ghana. A breakdown of Kuroto Fund exposures can be found here . Returning to Brazil Though the Kuroto Fund didn’t invest outside of Asia until 2014, as a firm we began investing in Brazil in the late 1990s and made our first sizable investment there in 2004. We have followed the market ever since. Given our love for the country of Brazil and admiration for many of the companies there, it has been challenging for us to remain mostly absent from Brazilian capital markets for the past decade. We stayed away for a variety of reasons, but primarily because we didn’t like the valuations on offer. So it is with more than a bit of enthusiasm that we were able to make two substantial investments in Brazil this January, taking our portfolio weighting in the country from 0% to 10%. Brazil remains a macroeconomic and political adventure, but today’s valuations are incredibly attractive. The Brazilian stock market is down over 40% in US dollars over the past 14 years. 
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