Gold's M&A rush

NovaGold Resources (TSX: NG) on Wednesday announced plans to buy the 40% stake it doesn't already own in Donlin Gold Holdings, creating a company valued at $4.2 billion.

Why it matters: Mining M&A has hit the motherlode this year.

• There were $26.3 billion in deals in Q2.

  That's up 68% quarter over https://pages.marketintelligence.spglobal.com/rs/565-BDO-100/images/Global-Industry-Merger-Acquisition-Trends-Q1-2026-Report-020626.pdf?version=0" target="_blank">quarter, and is the second highest quarterly total since S&P began tracking the metric in 2013.

Driving the news: NovaGold is acquiring the stake it does not own in the Alaskan gold miner from Paulson Advisers, creating a new U.S.-domiciled company that plans to be listed on the NYSE.

• This would create the "largest gold development project in the U.S.," https://novagold.com/novagold-enters-into-definitive-agreements-to-acquire-100-of-donlin-gold/" target="_blank">per the announcement.
• Paulson has a stake in NovaGold Resources that will leave it with a 40% economic interest in the new business that will be dubbed (wait for it) NovaGold Corp.

Flashback: Donlin was valued at roughly https://novagold.com/novagold-and-paulson-advisers-announce-1-billion-10056/" target="_blank">$2 billion a year ago, when Paulsen and NovaGold took a 50% stake in the business.

The big picture: The price of gold had been surging, and is currently 20% above its price from one year ago, despite retreating from its peak.

• Growing AI infrastructure and energy transition needs have driven up demand for goods like copper, gold, lithium, and rare earth elements.
• The Trump administration has also aggressively sought to increase gold production.

  Last week, it moved forward with a plan to auction off sections of water surrounding American Samoa for https://apnews.com/article/american-samoa-trump-deep-sea-mining-72aa92757d931508e983310fd2555149" target="_blank">potential deep-sea mining.

Between the lines: Starting a new mine is costly and time-consuming, and some attempts, including the American Samoa plan, have already hit populist backlash.

That's only helped M&A.