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The 2026 Gold Crunch: Why Smart Money Wants Scalable Permitted Assets
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 18, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Equity-Insider.com — T...
About this update from Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd.
[{"type":"text","content":"The 2026 Gold Crunch: Why Smart Money Wants Scalable Permitted AssetsIssued on behalf of Lake Victoria Gold Ltd.\nVANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 18, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Equity-Insider.com — The gold sector is undergoing a pivotal shift. Institutional capital is completely rethinking how it values recoverable ounces. According to the World Gold Council, a weakening dollar and global uncertainty are driving a strategic rotation toward projects with clear, scalable production pathways and simple metallurgy[1]. With mining development timelines stretching further out, the market is placing a significant valuation premium on fully permitted, de-risked assets[2]. Companies like Lake Victoria Gold Ltd. (TSXV: LVG) (OTCQB: LVGLF), Eldorado Gold (NYSE: EGO) (TSX: ELD), Centerra Gold (NYSE: CGAU) (TSX: CG), Integra Resources (NYSE-A: ITRG), and Northern Dynasty Minerals (NYSE-A: NAK) (TSX: NDM) each represent distinct, undervalued operational answers to this new mandate for extraction efficiency and regulatory certainty. The macro setup is compelling. February saw a historic US$5.3 billion in global gold ETF inflows, marking the strongest two-month start on record[3]. Smart money is positioning for asymmetric upside, specifically targeting operations that can swiftly convert sovereign demand into near-term production. This demand base is rapidly broadening into 2026. Lake Victoria Gold (TSXV: LVG) (OTCQB: LVGLF) has announced metallurgical testwork results confirming that gold at its fully permitted Imwelo Project in Tanzania can be recovered at up to approximately 97% using conventional processing methods. That number matters: for a retail investor, a 97% recovery rate means almost none of the gold in the ground is lost during processing, which directly supports the economics of getting a mine into production. The testwork confirmed that Imwelo's mineralization is largely free-milling, meaning the gold does not require complex or expensive treatment to extract. Roughly 84% of gold is directly cyanide-leachable, and gravity testing confirmed a strong recoverable gold component of approximately 42-47% across multiple test programs. In plain terms, a significant share of the gold can be pulled out early in the process before the ore even reaches the leach circuit, which reduces both cost and operational risk. “These m...