It’s been a decidedly busy week for Gold by Gold. The independent French outfit, which normally concerns itself with the nuts and bolts of the precious metals supply chain—mining extraction, refining, and trading—is now officially venturing into the hoarding game. At a rather candid press lunch yesterday, the firm unpacked its newly minted division, ‘Réserves d’Or’, alongside an open-to-all capital increase. Founded in 1992, the group is stepping beyond its traditional South American and European trading routes to effectively turn its balance sheet into a physical vault, giving everyday investors a direct line to holding responsible bullion.
The mechanics of the raise are straightforward enough. They’re offering a subscription price of €3.80 a share, baking in a 15% discount against the €4.46 closing price from the 8th of May 2026. You’ll need eight preferential subscription rights (DPS) to bag one new share. But what’s genuinely intriguing is the war chest’s purpose. Every penny of the net proceeds—expected to land somewhere between €1.3 million and €1.5 million—is strictly earmarked for acquiring and sitting on responsibly sourced physical gold. The subscription window runs from the 18th of May right through to the 5th of June 2026, marking a structural pivot for the group towards long-term wealth preservation.
The market seems to have completely lapped it up. When pressed on Wednesday’s hefty 4.26% bump to €4.90—and a frankly stellar 59.09% surge since the turn of the year up to this 21st of May—the company reckons the capital raise has thrust them firmly back into the limelight. Trading at €4.90 at the fixing, a full €1.10 north of the offer price even after the DPS detachment, it’s obvious investors are rediscovering the stock. CEO Patrick Schein isn’t shy about the underlying mechanics. Sitting somewhat uniquely as a listed gold player alongside industry behemoths like Barrick and Newmont, Schein attributes their stock’s recent momentum to three distinct factors: a stubborn historical correlation with spot gold, a cracking 2025 where soaring metal prices mechanically fattened their inventory margins, and this bespoke reserve strategy.
Taking a leaf straight out of the Bitcoin accumulation playbook popularised by outfits like MicroStrategy, GbG now treats gold as the ultimate, unshakeable store of value. Sure, issuing new shares is dilutive in the short run for current stakeholders, including Schein himself, but tethering the company to a tangible, universally credible asset builds serious intrinsic value over time. The maths certainly backs up the sentiment. Over the last decade, gold prices have rocketed by 257%, whilst GbG shares have climbed 163%. Zoom in on the past year, and the yellow metal is up 37% against the stock’s 31% gain. The logic holds water, even if the shares still trail their original €6-7 IPO valuation, and spot gold recently saw a minor mid-morning wobble, dipping 0.31% to $4,531.24 an ounce.
Yet, whilst Gold by Gold is busy stocking the cellars in France, other mid-tier players are aggressively ramping up operations at the coalface to feed this insatiable global demand. Over in Morocco, Canadian miner Aya Gold & Silver is quietly orchestrating a massive expansion of its own, lining up a formidable $500 million investment programme to be deployed before 2030, according to reports from the Asharq platform. Their endgame isn’t just about supercharging silver output; it’s a highly calculated move to fold gold into their operational portfolio for the very first time.
Aya already punches well above its weight amongst foreign miners operating in the Kingdom. They wholly own the Zgounder silver mine nestled deep in the Anti-Atlas mountains—Morocco’s second-largest silver asset, trailing only Managem’s Imiter site—and hold an 85% stake in the eastern Boumâadine polymetallic project, with the state-backed ONHYM holding the remaining 15%. Having already pumped some $400 million into the country, the Canadians are eyeing a hefty production hike. Zgounder churned out nearly 5 million ounces of silver last year, and the firm is banking on hitting between 6.2 and 6.8 million ounces in 2026, buoyed by frothier silver prices and significantly ramped-up sales volumes.
The financial windfall from this aggressive extraction is already glaringly obvious. Aya’s first-quarter numbers, posted on both the Toronto Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq, were nothing short of explosive. Top-line revenue skyrocketed 247% year-on-year to hit $117 million, whilst net profits went into absolute overdrive, multiplying sevenfold from a modest $7 million to a whopping $49 million. With this fresh injection of capital, they’re looking to bring commercial gold extraction online by 2029 to diversify their revenue streams even further. It’s a striking contrast in corporate philosophy: one firm systematically locking away the bullion to anchor its balance sheet, whilst another digs furiously to cash in on the global boom. Ultimately, both are placing massive, uncompromising bets on the enduring supremacy of precious metals in an increasingly volatile decade.