The danger of investing in mining stocks is tied to the industry’s particular relationship with cash flow.
This article is disseminated in partnership with mining stocks Nations Royalty Corp. and Globex Mining Enterprises Inc. It is intended to inform investors and should not be taken as a recommendation or financial advice.
On the one hand, commodity producers will show revenue on their income statements, allowing them to demonstrate a path to profitability, requiring investors to make educated forecasts about minerals remaining economically priced into the future.
On the other hand, explorers and developers, often pre-revenue, must be evaluated with emphasis on asset quality, requiring technical knowledge the average investor simply doesn’t have.
To truly de-risk their market participation, mining investors must then commit to arduous due diligence, combing through drilling results, mineral resource estimates and economic studies, with the added task of familiarizing themselves with the language of mining that ties it all together.
However, there is an alternate route the mining curious can take, should they still want exposure, without having to burn so much midnight oil. This is where acquisition-focused mining stocks enter the picture.
Rather than concentrate their upside potential, acquisition-focused miners provide exposure to a broad portfolio, often diversified from exploration to production, as well as across asset classes, including royalties and commodity streams, spreading your money across different baskets, each carefully selected by leadership to maximize shareholder value based on the company’s investment mandate.
Investing in these holding companies, analogous to buying shares in an actively managed fund, places a premium on leadership analysis, placing the onus on the investor to build conviction in the team’s capital allocation skills before putting money to work. This is arguably a more straightforward task, compared to drawing a line between high-grade drilling and economical production, making acquisition-focused miners a less tedious but no less prospective avenue into the mining space.
In the latest edition of Stockhouse’s Weekly Market Movers, I’ll lay out the value propositions behind two such mining stocks – Nations Royalty and Globex Mining – whose underlying companies, highly transactional in nature, are guided by leadership teams that know a good deal when they see it.
Nations Royalty
Our first investment-focused mining stock is Nations Royalty, market capitalization C$170 million, which tracks Canada’s first majority Indigenous-owned public company.
Nations’ operational mandate is to attract First Nations and Indigenous groups as shareholders in a growing portfolio combining royalties, income and commodity streams, as well as annual benefit payment entitlements from strategic projects. Concurrently, the company facilitates Indigenous involvement in the capital markets, doing its part to foster economic reconciliation.
Investors in Nations Royalty gain exposure to five annual benefit payment entitlements tied to top Canadian assets across the mining lifecycle, each located in British Columbia. Here’s a breakdown:
- The high-grade Brucejack gold mine operated by Newmont, producing 258,000 ounces of gold in 2024 and ranking as one of the highest-grade mining projects in the world.
- The KSM copper, gold, silver and molybdenum deposit, under the control of Seabridge Gold, representing the world’s largest undeveloped gold project as measured by resources and reserves.
- The 8,133-hectare Premier gold project, under consideration for a restart by Ascot Resources, which is keen to expand and exploit the project’s more than 2.3-million-ounce estimated gold equivalent resource.
- The 17,125-hectare Red Mountain gold deposit, owned by Ascot Resources, where resources stand at more than 850,000 ounces of gold and 2.2 million ounces of silver.
- The brownfield Kitsault molybdenum deposit, one of the world’s largest and highest-grade primary molybdenum deposits, owned and being actively advanced by New Moly LLC, majority-owned by Resource Capital Fund.
Nations’ singularly high-quality portfolio, and approximately C$15 million in cash in the bank, is being managed by a team with significant experience directly applicable to the company’s growth plans, including the company’s new president and CEO, Derrick Pattenden, who brings more than 15 years in mining investment banking – highlighted by a stint at Canaccord Genuity – with a focus on M&A and a track record spanning more than C$20 billion in transactions. Other standout team members include:
- Director Alex Morisson, who previously served as chief financial officer of Franco Nevada, the world’s largest mining royalty company.
- Vice president of corporate development, Kody Penner, who previously lead business planning at mining major Teck Resources and started his career as an underground miner at Newmont’s Brucejack mine.
- Director, Robert McLeod, a geologist of more than 30 years with a specialization in mineralization spanning BC, Alaska, Yukon, Nunavut, Ontario and Nevada, as well as a long history advising some of Canada’s most promising mining companies, such as the Fiore Group of Companies, Dolly Varden Silver, Nexgold and West Red Lake Gold Mines.
Investors have gravitated towards the small-cap’s high-conviction operations as of late, lifting Nations Royalty stock (TSXV:NRC) by 139 per cent year-over-year, almost doubling gold’s return and more than quintupling the TSX Index’s return over the period.
Pattenden joined Stockhouse’s Ricki Lee to discuss what investors can expect during his budding tenure. Watch the interview here.
Globex Mining Enterprises
Globex Mining Enterprises, market capitalization C$131 million, is another fund-like mining stock investors should consider thanks to the underlying company’s substantial mineral asset portfolio, including 269 holdings spanning precious metals, base metals, specialty minerals and industrial compounds. Here are a handful of highlights:
- 40 portfolio properties are past-producing.
- 60 host historic or NI 43-101 compliant resources.
- Royalties stand at more than 100.
- As of January 2026, the company had C$40 million in cash and securities to fund future acquisitions.
Globex has grown its project portfolio by more than 5x since 2005, favoring slight concentrations in discovery-stage, precious and base metal opportunities, aligning itself with some of the largest and most well-respected mining companies around, including Agnico Eagle Mines, IAMGOLD and Eldorado Gold.
At the helm of this growth trajectory, Globex’s leadership team, strongly aligned with shareholders at more than 13 per cent insider ownership, has proven itself to be a magnet for value-accretive transactions, earning investors more than 210 per cent since 2021, leveraging vast experience in mining finance, M&A and business development. Here are three standout executives of particular note:
- CEO, Jack Stoch, a geologist who gained control of Globex in 1983, has been buying and selling mining projects for more than 50 years, once ranking as Quebec’s largest owner of private mineral rights.
- President and chief operating officer, David Christie, took Orford Mining public in 2017 and guided it towards an acquisition by Alamos Gold. He also ran Eagle Hill Exploration, eventually facilitating a five-way merger to create Osisko Mining.
- Director, Ian Atkinson, a former president and CEO of major gold miner, Centerra Gold, has played a part in discovering numerous significant deposits during his more than 40 years in the mining industry.
With several catalysts expected in 2026, as per the January 2026 investor presentation, including exploration programs, maiden resource estimates, a feasibility study and a project on the verge of production, Globex’s well-rounded team is confident as ever in its ability to translate capital allocation and development milestones into further shareholder value – leveraged by a tight 56,347,436 shares outstanding – with an unwavering focus on high-quality growth opportunities.
Christie sat down with Ricki Lee to shed light on Globex’s de-risked, large-scale approach to mineral exploration and development. The video will hit Stockhouse’s interview feed on February 10, 2026.
Globex Mining stock (TSX:GMX) last traded at C$2.42, adding more than 60 per cent year-over-year, thanks to a steady stream of positive news flow across its diversified portfolio.
Thanks for reading! I’ll see you next Monday for a new edition of Weekly Market Movers, where I delve into companies that sat down with Stockhouse for an interview over the past week. Here’s last week’s article, in case you missed it.
Join the discussion: Find out what investors are saying about these small-cap mining stocks on the Nations Royalty Corp. and Globex Mining Enterprises Inc. Bullboards and make sure to explore the rest of Stockhouse’s stock forums and message boards.
Stockhouse does not provide investment advice or recommendations. All investment decisions should be made based on your own research and consultation with a registered investment professional. The issuer is solely responsible for the accuracy of the information contained herein.
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