Polyus is the top 2020 market performer among biggest gold miners

Gold market explosive growth was the main story of 2020. Which gold miners have capitalized the most on the high prices of yellow metal and which have lost their luster despite market optimism?

Kitco looked at share price movement between January 2 and December 23, 2020 for the top 20 gold mining companies by production. We focused on miners listed on TSX, ASX, LSE and JSE.

Polyus’ shares have gained 73% on the London Stock Exchange since the beginning of 2020. This makes this Russian gold miner the top market performer of 2020 among biggest producers of yellow metal.

This should not come as a surprise as Polyus is the largest gold producer in Russia and fourth largest globally that boasts the lowest cost gold profile among other gold mining behemoths. The company also holds the world’s third largest gold reserves with 61 million ounces in proven and probable categories underpinning its strong growth profile.

Even though Sibanye Stillwater was hit hard by the COVID-19 disruptions, this South African gold and PGMs miner was the second best market gainer in the top 20 gold segment with 63% increase in its share price over the year.

Canadian gold miner Kinross has seen a 50% increase in its share price during the year and sits third among the top 2020 market performers. Kinross’ strong operating and market results are driven by solid and consistent performance from a diverse portfolio of mines located in three core regions: the Americas, West Africa and Russia.

Only three companies (Newcrest, Kirkland Lake Gold and IAMGOLD) out of the top 20 gold miners have seen a decline in their stock prices over the year.

This is especially surprising to see that Kirkland Lake Gold’s shares have seen a 6% decline in 2020. The company operates one of the highest-grade and lowest-cost gold mines globally and recently added 600,000 ounces of gold output annually through the acquisition of Detour Lake mine. Some market analysts think that this poor market performance of Kirkland Lake Gold was due to certain issues at Fosterville, a period of transition at Detour Lake, production ramp-up at Macassa, and necessity to explore Fosterville in order to expand its dwindling high-grade resource base.

The complete ranking of market gainers and decliners among the top 20 gold miners is below.