After setting a series of new all-time-highs, gold is once again on the tip of investors’ tongues, prompting the market to wonder if an ounce’s currently more than US$5,200 price tag is a flash in the pan or here to stay.
This article is disseminated in partnership with the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada. It is intended to inform investors and should not be taken as a recommendation or financial advice.
What’s clear is that top analysts and institutions are optimistic about future price momentum, with CIBC Capital Markets seeing a peak of US$6,500 per ounce by 2027 and Ed Yardeni, president of Yardeni Research, seeing a growth runway past the US$10,000 mark by 2030, granting investors a data-driven runway on which to build a position in the precious metal.
These circumstances may nudge a more growth-oriented investor to seek out producing gold mining companies, whose direct line between profitability and shareholder value has likely already materialized in strong year-over-year (YoY) returns, ideally outperforming gold’s 82 per cent effort thanks to operational leverage.
However, I’ve always been more of a bargain-hunter at heart, leading me to wonder if I might find greater opportunities in unloved stocks, whose sound underlying companies and underperformance versus gold suggest the potential for a significant re-valuation.
I took to the floor at PDAC 2026, the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada’s yearly convention, in search of prospective candidates to put my thesis to the test, with top gold companies from across the world and the mining lifecycle only a few steps away.
Viva Gold
I first stumbled across Viva Gold, market capitalization C$30.97 million, whose stock has added only 50 per cent YoY, despite announcing a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) at its flagship Tonopah project in Nevada.
The PEA delineates the production of 404,000 ounces of gold and 354,000 ounces of silver over a seven-year mine life, entailing an after-tax net present value (5 per cent discount rate) of US$363.6 million at only US$3,200 per ounce of gold and US$27.70 per ounce of silver, substantially below current prices.
Tonopah’s net present value, more than 10 times Viva’s current market cap, is only part of the story, with the project’s deposit brimming with potential for expansion. An ongoing 2,500 metre drilling program, designed to harvest exploration upside, will test targets up to 1.4 kilometres away from the main pit area.
James Hesketh, chief executive officer of Viva Gold, who has development and built eight mines across the world, laid out the company’s value proposition for me, noting that, “we’ve got an extraordinary gold market, a unique permitting environment in Nevada and an advanced project with 86 per cent of our resource in the measured and indicated category. Feasibility study work is underway, shooting for completion probably by October 2026, while we infill drill our remaining inferred resource and complete the last of our baseline studies. We’ll then initiate Tonopah’s formal permitting process, aiming to complete it before the end of the current US administration, leading us to an estimated construction decision by the end of 2027. Based on our PEA, we see leverage to current gold prices from Tonopah’s accelerated development at multiples above our current stock price to more than C$5 per share.”
Viva Gold stock (TSXV:VAU) last traded at C$0.18.
Golden Cariboo Resources
I then found my way to Golden Cariboo Resources, market cap C$9.62 million, a junior mining company advancing its 95,000-hectare, past-producing Quesnelle gold quartz property in British Columbia, whose multi-kilometre orogenic gold system boasts geological similarities to the nearby 5.5-million-ounce Cariboo gold project and 4.7-million-ounce Spanish Mountain deposit. Highlight intercepts from Quesnelle include:
- 137.17 m at 1.55 grams per ton (g/t) gold and 16.05 g/t silver at the Halo zone.
- 263.13 m at 0.29 g/t gold from the North Hixon zone.
- 41 m at 1.35 g/t gold from the Main zone.
Drilling YoY has backed up the project’s quality and consistency, adding conviction to Halo’s development pathway with healthy intercepts in May and February , plus a new parallel gold zone discovery in September, leading Golden Cariboo to begin planning for a maiden resource estimate after only 28 drillholes.
Quesnelle’s extensive mineralization, open in all directions, still offers multiple kilometres of untapped exploration upside, making it a strong early-stage candidate to live up to its neighbors’ multi-million-ounce deposits.
Despite the project’s outsized potential and the drilling to convert it into certified ounces, Golden Cariboo stock (CSE:GCC) has given back 35.71 per cent YoY, last trading at C$0.09, granting investors a pessimistic entry point following a year of diligent, value-added developments.
Andrew Rees, director at Golden Cariboo Resources, summed up the junior mining company’s differentiated path forward, commenting that, “we’ve hit mineralization on every drillhole to date and are in the hiring process for our first resource estimate at Quesnelle, which is very rare for such an early-stage drilling operation. The deposit also remains open, with ongoing expansion drilling on one of five identified trends, allowing us to hopefully expand upon the progress we’ve already made.”
Greenheart Gold
I ended my romp across the PDAC floor by visiting the booth of Greenheart Gold, market cap C$174.14 million, a Guyana and Suriname-based spin-off following the merger between G Mining Ventures and Reunion Gold in 2024.
The company is led by Reunion’s former executive team, which is responsible for the discovery of the 5.9-million-ounce Oko West deposit, making it a good fit to explore a quartet of projects, each surrounded by multi-million-ounce deposits, backed by approximately C$30 million in treasury and robust, data-driven targets. Here’s a breakdown:
- Approximately 15 km of gold-in-soil trends defined along the western margin of the Majorodam project.
- Five target areas backed by geochemical sampling at the Igab project highlighted by 31 m at 1.36 g/t gold at the Lemon Tree target and 11 m of 9.48 g/t gold at the Koela target.
- 5 km of gold-in-soil anomalies in the northwest of the Tosso Creek project.
Greenheart has posted an eventful past 15 months, including prospective sampling at Igab and Majorodam reported in February 2025, encouraging reconnaissance drilling at Majorodam in May, followed by the acquisition of the Golden Hill project in November, which is located only 13.5 km east of Aris Mining’s PEA-stage, 6.5-million-ounce, Toroparu gold project.
This was followed by the discovery of two new mineralized zones at Koela on the Igab project and positive initial trench sampling at Tosso Creek to the tune of 86 m at 0.63 g/t gold – both reported in February 2026 – continuing to add heft to the notion that Greenheart Gold’s proximity to resource-rich projects is no fluke.
Turning a blind eye to consistently positive news flow, a strategically located portfolio, as well as 53 per cent institutional ownership – including G Mining and Dundee Corporation – the broader market has yet to key into the company’s attractive value proposition, lifting Greenheart Gold stock (TSXV:GHRT) by only 36.14 per cent YoY, less than half of gold’s recent run-up, creating a potentially asymmetric coiled-spring scenario well worth a value investor’s eagle eye.
Doug Flegg, senior vice president of corporate development at Greenheart Gold, pinpointed the company’s appeal for investors, stating that, “we’re in prospective, underexplored jurisdictions where governments are very favorable towards developing anything you find, and where we think we can get work done quickly, and after about a year-and-a-half of grassroots exploration, our portfolio is finally beginning to percolate to the surface with new leads. There are drill rigs moving to a pair of our projects over the next two-to-four weeks, followed by another, probably in Q2, and we’re well-funded to follow up on positive early-stage results. Let’s see how it goes.”
Get to know these high-conviction gold companies and hundreds more across the mining industry at PDAC 2026, which runs until March 4 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.
Look out for my article next week profiling three base and industrial mineral companies, each in attendance at the convention, that make persuasive cases for undervaluation.
Join the discussion: Find out what mining investors are saying about these gold value stocks on the Viva Gold Corp., Golden Cariboo Resources Ltd. and Greenheart Gold Inc. Bullboards, and make sure to explore the rest of Stockhouse’s stock forums and message boards.
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