Agnico Quietly Became the Margin KING of the Gold Majors

Gold averaged $3,459 an ounce in Q3 2025 and $4,512 in Q2 2026, the kind of run this entire thesis is built on.

Four of the five biggest gold miners on Earth have now filed four straight quarters of scorecards across that move (Q3 2025 through Q2 2026).

The fifth has no row in the data. Both facts matter, SilverTrade Insiders.

Start with the freshest print.

In Q2 2026, Agnico Eagle dug its gold at an all-in sustaining cost of $1,459 an ounce against that $4,512 quarterly average: an implied margin of $3,053, the widest of the four (Q2 2026 results release).

Newmont ran a $1,621 AISC and a $2,891 implied margin (Q2 2026 earnings release).

Barrick ran $1,866 and $2,646 (Q2 2026 results release).

AngloGold ran $2,039 and $2,473 (Q2 2026 earnings release).

Implied margin is just the quarterly pink-sheet average minus stated AISC: history, not forecast.

And here is the punch: Even the priciest of the four sits on an implied margin of $2,473 an ounce. The cheapest sits on $3,053. Same metal. Same quarter. Very different machines.

Implied margin, US$/oz: quarterly average gold price (2025-Q3 $3,459, 2025-Q4 $4,152, 2026-Q1 $4,876, 2026-Q2 $4,512; pink-sheet quarterly averages) minus stated AISC. Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16]
Company	2025-Q3	2025-Q4	2026-Q1	2026-Q2
NEM	$2,156	$2,850	$3,847	$2,891
AEM	$2,086	$2,635	$3,393	$3,053
B	$1,921	$2,571	$3,168	$2,646
AU	$1,739	$2,347	$2,921	$2,473

Q1 2026 was the monster quarter. Gold averaged $4,876 and Newmont’s implied margin hit $3,847 on a stated AISC of $1,029 (Q1 2026 earnings release).

Frame that number carefully: the $1,029 is Newmont’s new headline by-product basis from 2026, and the same release states a co-product AISC of $1,709.

Facts are facts. Bases are bases. We print both.

Agnico’s Q1 margin was $3,393 on an AISC of $1,483 (Q1 2026 results release).

Now rewind to Q3 2025, before the run.

Newmont was the cheap one at $1,303 (Q3 2025 release), with Agnico at $1,373 (Q3 2025 release), Barrick at $1,538 (Q3 2025 release) and AngloGold at $1,720 (Q3 2025 release).

Costs have crept at all four since.

That is what a gold boom does, and honest reporting says so.

But look at the latest step, Q1 to Q2, with the average price slipping from $4,876 to $4,512: three of the four got more expensive.

Barrick went $1,708 to $1,866 (Q1, Q2).
AngloGold went $1,955 to $2,039 (Q1, Q2).

Agnico got cheaper: $1,483 down to $1,459 (Q1, Q2).

Quiet. Relentless. That is what discipline looks like while everyone else pays the boom tax.

Stated gold AISC, US$/oz, by quarter (company releases). Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16]
Company	2025-Q3	2025-Q4	2026-Q1	2026-Q2
NEM	$1,303	$1,302	$1,029	$1,621
AEM	$1,373	$1,517	$1,483	$1,459
B	$1,538	$1,581	$1,708	$1,866
AU	$1,720	$1,805	$1,955	$2,039

Ounces tell the same story two ways.

Agnico’s payable production rebounded to 855,816 oz in Q2 from 825,109 in Q1 (Q2, Q1).

Barrick bounced from 719,000 to 796,000 attributable ounces (Q1, Q2).

AngloGold ticked up to 744,000 group ounces from 724,000 (Q2, Q1).

And Newmont, still the volume giant by a mile, slid a second straight quarter: 1,293,000 attributable ounces, down from 1,301,000 in Q1 and from 1,421,000 back in Q3 2025 (Q2, Q3 2025).

Mind the yardsticks, folks: Newmont’s ounces are attributable, Agnico’s are payable, AngloGold’s are group. Basis matters when you line them up.

Then there is the runway. Reserves are proven plus probable, full stop: measured, indicated and inferred are resources, and they never get summed with reserves.

Newmont sits on 118.2 Moz of proven and probable (16.5 proven, 101.8 probable) at a $2,000 reserve price, alongside 88.1 Moz of measured and indicated resources stated exclusive of reserves (FY2025 10-K).

Barrick holds 85 Moz (17 proven, 68 probable) at a reserve price of $1,500: a book built on $1,500 gold in a market that averaged $4,512 last quarter (YE2025 MD&A).

Agnico states 55.4 Moz with no consolidated proven-probable split, per-mine only (2025 reserves update).

AngloGold holds 36.47 Moz (7.78 proven, 28.68 probable) at $1,700 (FY2025 20-F).

One caution on Barrick: its 150 Moz measured-and-indicated figure is stated inclusive of reserves by the company’s own note, so it does not stack against Newmont’s exclusive number.
Anyone adding it to the 85 is doing the math wrong.

Reserves vs resources, million oz gold. P+P (proven + probable) is reserves; M+I and inferred are RESOURCES and are never summed with reserves. Bases as stated per company. Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4]
Company	Year	Reserves P+P	Proven / Probable	M+I resources	Inferred
NEM	2025	118.2 Moz	16.5 / 101.8	88.1 Moz	60.6 Moz
AEM	2025	55.4 Moz	NaN / NaN	47.1 Moz	41.8 Moz
B	2025	85 Moz	17 / 68	150 Moz	43 Moz
AU	2025	36.47 Moz	7.78 / 28.68	68.01 Moz	49.34 Moz

And the fifth name? Zijin Mining has no row in this data set. It does not state a quarterly US-dollar AISC per ounce in the filings we track, so it cannot be ranked on cost, margin or runway here.

That is not a gap to paper over. It is the disclosure reality, and anyone weighing Zijin against the four scorecards above should count the silence as part of the story.

Q3 2026 prints start landing in late October (Newmont’s Q3 2025 scorecard was filed 2025-10-23, per the 8-K stamp), and they settle three arguments.

Was Newmont’s $1,621 the fluke or the new normal (Q2 2026)?
Can Agnico hold $1,459 (Q2 2026)?
Do AngloGold’s $2,039 and Barrick’s $1,866 finally bend (Q2 2026, Q2 2026)?

The metal already did its part.
Now we find out who can still run with it.

Agnico Quietly Became the Margin KING of the Gold Majors

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