Record Gold Prices Fixed The Economics. They Did Not Fix The Timeline

Issued on behalf of Lake Victoria Gold Ltd.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Sept. 03, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- USA News Group News Commentary - Gold crossed US$5,000 an ounce for the first time in January 2026 and touched an intraday record above US$5,500 before retreating below US$4,000 by late June. Goldman Sachs Research now forecasts roughly US$4,900 by year end, driven less by speculative positioning than by central banks steadily diversifying reserves. At those prices almost any credible ounce in the ground is economic. What the price does not do is shorten the years between a permit and a plant, and that gap has quietly become the industry’s real constraint.

Companies mentioned in today’s commentary include: Lake Victoria Gold Ltd. (OTCQB: LVGLF) (TSXV: LVG) (FSE: E1K), Harmony Gold Mining Company Limited (NYSE: HMY), Gold Fields Limited (NYSE: GFI), Caledonia Mining Corporation Plc (NYSE American: CMCL), and Galiano Gold Inc. (NYSE American: GAU).

Key Takeaways

Ground is being moved, not just planned. Lake Victoria Gold has completed initial spot repairs across 14 kilometres of the access road serving its wholly owned Imwelo Gold Project in Tanzania, and clearing, stripping and levelling are advancing at the pit, tailings storage facility, waste rock dump and dam sites.

A build-once camp, not a temporary one. The construction camp is substantially complete, with electrical installation, drainage, bathrooms and generator shelter finished and the water system pressure-tested. It is the first phase of the permanent operations camp, so the infrastructure stays in service rather than being replaced later.

Timed against the weather, not the calendar. Road repairs were prioritised on the worst-affected sections ahead of a wet season that typically begins in late October or November, using laterite sourced from within the mining licence itself.

Local delivery, coordinated with the roads agency. The programme is being executed by a local Tanzanian contractor in coordination with the Tanzania Rural and Urban Roads Agency, and the repaired road also serves outlying villages rather than the project alone.

Fully permitted, but not yet a mine. Imwelo has been the subject of JORC-compliant PEA, PFS and updated PFS work, but those studies are not current under NI 43-101. No feasibility study establishing mineral reserves has been completed, and any production decision would not be based on one.

The Constraint Is No Longer Money

For most of the last decade the argument against development-stage gold companies was arithmetic. Grades were modest, capital costs were rising, and the metal was not expensive enough to make marginal deposits work. That argument has largely collapsed. At the prices seen through 2026, the economics of a great many previously marginal projects have been rewritten.

What replaced it is a scheduling problem. Morgan Stanley Research has made the point that a capital-investment super-cycle among gold producers is unlikely, because permitting and regulatory hurdles constrain how quickly new capacity can be brought forward. The metal can reprice overnight. An environmental approval cannot. A mining licence cannot. A road that floods in November cannot be graded in December.

The consequence is that the scarce asset in gold right now is not an orebody. It is a project that has already cleared its approvals and can convert a high gold price into ounces inside a few years rather than a decade. That is a narrower category than the sector’s promotional literature suggests, and it is the category Lake Victoria Gold is attempting to occupy.

Tanzania is a reasonable place to try. The country’s gold sector is in one of its strongest phases in a decade, anchored by large-scale operations in the Lake Victoria Goldfield in the northwest, and gold exports have risen sharply on the back of both higher output and extraordinary bullion prices.

What Early Works Actually Looks Like

Lake Victoria Gold Ltd. (OTCQB: LVGLF) (TSXV: LVG) (FSE: E1K) reported on September 3, 2026 that early works are underway at Imwelo, in the Chato District of the Geita Region. The detail is unglamorous, which is rather the point. Early works are where a development-stage company either demonstrates it can execute or quietly reveals that it cannot.

The access road came first. Following a survey of the full route from Katoro to Imwelo village, the worst-affected sections were prioritised and spot repairs completed over 14 kilometres, using quality laterite sourced from within the mining licence. Compaction continues, with a compactor and water bowser remaining on the road while the rest of the fleet moves to site. A broader long-term upgrade of the all-weather dirt road is contemplated.

Sequencing matters here more than scale. The repairs were timed to be finished before a wet season that typically starts in late October or November, because a road that becomes impassable in November stops the delivery of materials, equipment and fuel for months. Getting that wrong does not just delay a quarter; it delays a year.

On site, bush clearing is underway at Area C and will progress to the process plant area, while clearing and topsoil stripping advance at the pit, tailings storage facility, waste rock dump and dam sites. Topsoil is being stockpiled as a berm between the production area and the future camp to serve as a sound barrier. Stripping and levelling of the run of mine pad has commenced, with the excavated material used to build the western berm inside the licence boundary. Levelling and cutting of the process plant platform follows, ahead of civil works.

"These early works mark an important step as we move Imwelo from a fully permitted, development-ready asset toward construction," said Marc Cernovitch, President and CEO of Lake Victoria Gold. "Reliable site access, preparation of the core infrastructure footprints and a substantially complete build-once camp are essential to that transition and reflect our practical, disciplined approach to development. The programme is being delivered by a local Tanzanian contractor in coordination with TARURA, supporting project execution while creating lasting benefits for surrounding communities."

The Camp Is The Tell

Of everything in the update, the camp says the most about how the company is spending. Electrical installation, drainage, bathroom facilities and the generator shelter are complete, and the water system has been pressure-tested following earlier installation of water storage, power generation and plumbing.

It is being built once. The construction camp is the first phase of Imwelo’s permanent operations camp, which means the accommodation and services used by the construction workforce remain in use through operations instead of being demolished and rebuilt. Junior developers routinely spend twice on this, erecting temporary facilities during construction and permanent ones afterwards, at precisely the stage when capital is most expensive and most scarce. Avoiding that is not a headline, but it is a decision that shows up in the capital cost.

The same logic runs through the road work. Sourcing laterite from inside the mining licence avoids hauling material from elsewhere, and using a local contractor in coordination with the national roads agency keeps the work inside existing infrastructure arrangements rather than creating parallel ones.

The Neighbourhood

Imwelo sits west of AngloGold Ashanti’s Geita mine, and the company’s separate Tembo project lies adjacent to Barrick’s Bulyanhulu mine. Those operations are noted for regional and geological context only. Mineralization on neighbouring properties is not necessarily indicative of mineralization at Imwelo or Tembo, and neither operator has any involvement in the company’s projects.

Two relationships are more concrete. Barrick holds an equity position in Lake Victoria Gold, making it a shareholder rather than a comparable. And Taifa Group, Tanzania’s largest mining contractor, is contracted for civil works and contract mining, which matters for a company attempting to build with a small corporate team. Management, directors and strategic partners collectively hold more than 60% of shares outstanding.

What Production Actually Looks Like, For Scale

The four companies below are referenced solely as market and sector context. All are producing gold miners with operating mines in Africa. None of them is a peer, competitor or financial comparable of Lake Victoria Gold, which is a development-stage company with no production and no revenue. They are named because their reported costs and grades are the clearest available illustration of what the operating end of this business looks like, and of the distance a developer still has to travel.

Harmony Gold Mining Company Limited (NYSE: HMY) reported results for the year ended June 30, 2026 on August 27. Group gold production was 1,429,551 ounces, down 3% but in line with guidance, marking the eleventh consecutive year the company has met its production guidance. Underground recovered grade was 5.83 grams per tonne and all-in sustaining costs were approximately US$2,195 per ounce, against an average realised gold price of about US$3,811 per ounce, up 35.3% year over year.

Gold mineral reserves stood at 27.4 million ounces at year end, and the company paid a record R4.4 billion in dividends over the twelve months. For fiscal 2027 Harmony guided production of 1.4 to 1.5 million gold and gold-equivalent ounces. Notably, the shares fell on the day the record results were published, a reminder that in gold equities the price of the metal and the price of the equity do not always move together.

Gold Fields Limited (NYSE: GFI) operates eight mines across Australia, South Africa, Ghana, Chile and Peru, with a project in Canada. In a trading statement for the first half of 2026, the company guided headline earnings per share of US$1.98 to US$2.18, up roughly 71% to 90% from US$1.15 a year earlier.

Full-year 2026 production guidance was maintained, with output expected at the upper end of the 2.4 to 2.6 million ounce range, while total capital expenditure guidance was reduced to US$1.6 to US$1.8 billion from US$1.9 to US$2.1 billion, partly reflecting a reclassification of certain project spend to exploration. Gold Fields is a multi-continent producer of a scale entirely different from a single-asset developer, and is included to show what a mature portfolio does with a strong gold price.

Caledonia Mining Corporation Plc (NYSE American: CMCL) is the closest thing in this group to a single-asset African operator, running the Blanket Mine in Zimbabwe. Second quarter 2026 revenue was US$75.9 million, up 16% year on year, with EBITDA of US$45.8 million and profit after tax of US$30.0 million, lifting basic earnings per share to US$1.36 against analyst expectations closer to US$0.47.

Blanket produced 17,360 ounces in the quarter, up 18% from the first quarter as grades improved to about 2.9 grams per tonne, though below the exceptionally strong second quarter of 2025. On-mine costs rose to roughly US$1,675 per ounce and all-in sustaining costs to about US$2,678 per ounce, and quarterly revenue came in slightly below consensus. Net cash and equivalents reached US$167.8 million. The company reaffirmed 2026 guidance of 72,000 to 76,500 ounces and continues to advance the Bilboes project, where it is still targeting a first gold pour in late 2028. Caledonia is a useful illustration of how a producer with real cash flow still finds development timelines measured in years.

Galiano Gold Inc. (NYSE American: GAU) holds a 90% interest in the Asanko Gold Mine on the Asankrangwa Gold Belt in Ghana. Reporting second quarter 2026 results on August 6, the company said it produced 69,138 ounces of gold in the first half, reaching the upper end of its indicative first-half production range.

President and Chief Executive Officer Matt Badylak said year-to-date all-in sustaining costs remained within the full-year guidance range and pointed to a strong safety performance over the period. Galiano is a single-jurisdiction West African producer, which makes it the nearest operating analogue in this group to what a built Imwelo would be, while remaining a producing company at a materially different stage.

What To Watch

The markers from here are physical and dated. Whether the access road holds through the wet season that begins in late October or November is the first real test, and it is the kind of test that produces an answer rather than an announcement. After that: completion of levelling and cutting of the process plant platform, the start of civil works, and preparation of the tailings storage facility.

The corporate markers are separate. Imwelo’s JORC-based studies are not current under NI 43-101, so investors watching for a formal feasibility study establishing mineral reserves should understand that none has been completed and that any production decision would not be based on one. Funding, contractor performance and grade reconciliation once mining begins are the variables that will determine whether early works become a mine.

The broader point is that a record gold price has changed which projects deserve attention but not how long they take. In an industry where the binding constraint has shifted from economics to elapsed time, the companies worth watching are the ones already spending on roads and pads rather than the ones still describing what they intend to build. Whether Lake Victoria Gold converts that head start into production is unproven, and the gap between a graded road and a pouring plant is where most development-stage companies are lost.

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CONTINUED... Read this and more news for Lake Victoria Gold Ltd. (OTCQB: LVGLF) at: https://usanewsgroup.com/

Article Sources:

[1] Lake Victoria Gold Ltd. corporate disclosures and news releases (Imwelo early works, access road repairs, site earthworks, construction camp, contractor arrangements, project permitting status and JORC study history). Filings are available under the Company’s profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca.

[2] Goldman Sachs Research and World Gold Council commentary on gold price levels, central bank purchasing and first-half 2026 price action; Morgan Stanley Research commentary on gold sector capital investment and permitting constraints.

[3] Public disclosures and filings of the referenced companies (Harmony Gold Mining Company Limited, Gold Fields Limited, Caledonia Mining Corporation Plc and Galiano Gold Inc.) as cited in the body of this article.

USA News Group | info@usanewsgroup.com

DISCLAIMER:

Nothing in this publication should be considered personalized financial advice. We are not licensed under securities laws to address your particular financial situation, and no communication from us should be deemed personalized financial advice. Please consult a licensed financial advisor before making any investment decision. This is a paid advertisement and is neither an offer nor a recommendation to buy or sell any security. We hold no investment licenses and are neither licensed nor qualified to provide investment advice. The material in this article is intended to be strictly informational and is never to be construed or interpreted as research material. All readers are strongly urged to perform their own research and due diligence and to consult a licensed financial professional before considering any level of investing in stocks.

This article is being distributed for Market Equities Limited, a company incorporated under the laws of Ireland ("MEL"), which wholly owns and operates USA News Group. MEL has been paid a fee directly by Lake Victoria Gold Ltd. for Lake Victoria Gold Ltd. advertising and digital media services. MEL also expects to receive further compensation as part of an ongoing digital media effort to increase visibility for the company. No further notice will be given, but let this disclaimer serve as notice that all material, including this article, has been approved by Lake Victoria Gold Ltd.

This compensation constitutes a conflict of interest as to our ability to remain objective in our communication regarding the profiled company. Because of this conflict, individuals are strongly encouraged not to use this publication as the basis for any investment decision.

Market Equities and its owners, operators, directors, and affiliates own shares of Lake Victoria Gold Ltd. which were purchased in the open market, and reserve the right to buy and sell, and will buy and sell, shares of Lake Victoria Gold Ltd. at any time without further notice, commencing immediately and ongoing, in the open market, through private placements, and/or through other investment vehicles. There may also be third parties who hold shares of Lake Victoria Gold Ltd. and may liquidate their shares, which could have a negative effect on the price of the stock.

While all information is believed to be reliable, it is not guaranteed by us to be accurate. Individuals should assume that all information contained in this publication is not trustworthy unless verified by their own independent research. Because events and circumstances frequently do not occur as expected, there will likely be differences between any predictions and actual results. Investors are cautioned that they may lose all or a portion of their investment when investing in stocks. Be extremely careful, investing in securities carries a high degree of risk; you may lose some or all of your investment.

Qualified Person: The scientific and technical information regarding the Imwelo Gold Project referred to in this article is derived from disclosure by Lake Victoria Gold Ltd. that has been reviewed and approved by David Scott, Pr. Sci. Nat., registered with the South African Council for Natural Scientific Professions, a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. Mr. Scott is a Director and Officer of Lake Victoria Gold Ltd. and is therefore NOT independent of the Company. The publisher has not independently verified any scientific or technical information in this article.

Cautionary Note on Production Decision and Mineral Resources: Although the Imwelo Gold Project has been the subject of JORC-compliant PEA, PFS and updated PFS work, these foreign-code studies are not current under NI 43-101, and the Company is not treating the JORC-based estimates or analyses as current under CIM Definition Standards. The Company has not completed a feasibility study on Imwelo that establishes mineral reserves demonstrating economic and technical viability. Any decision to commence production is not based on a feasibility study of mineral reserves and therefore involves increased uncertainty and a higher risk of economic and technical failure. There is no certainty that the planned open-pit operation will be economically viable or that production will occur as anticipated. Risks include, without limitation, variations in grade and recovery, unexpected geotechnical or metallurgical challenges, cost overruns, funding availability, weather and seasonal access, contractor performance, and operational, regulatory or permitting risks. Mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. Descriptions of early works, road repairs, earthworks, camp infrastructure, contractor arrangements and project sequencing are as disclosed by the Company and have not been independently verified by the publisher.

Cautionary Note Regarding Adjacent and Nearby Properties: References in this article to the Geita mine operated by AngloGold Ashanti and to the Bulyanhulu mine operated by Barrick, and to their proximity to the Company’s Imwelo and Tembo projects, are provided for regional and geological context only. Mineralization hosted on adjacent or nearby properties is not necessarily indicative of mineralization on the Company’s properties. Barrick holds an equity position in Lake Victoria Gold Ltd. and is therefore a shareholder rather than a comparable company, and neither Barrick nor AngloGold Ashanti has any responsibility for, or involvement in, this article or the Company’s projects.

Cautionary Note Regarding Referenced Companies: References to Harmony Gold Mining Company Limited, Gold Fields Limited, Caledonia Mining Corporation Plc and Galiano Gold Inc. are provided solely as market and sector context. None of them is a peer, competitor, or financial comparable of Lake Victoria Gold Ltd. They are producing companies at a materially different stage of development and scale from the profiled company, which is a development-stage issuer with no production and no revenue, and their production, grades, costs, earnings, reserves, guidance and share performance are not indicative of Lake Victoria Gold Ltd.’s prospects. None of the companies named has any involvement in Lake Victoria Gold Ltd., this article, or its distribution. No partnership, affiliation, sponsorship, or endorsement is implied. Gold price forecasts and market commentary cited in this article are third-party projections that may not be realised and do not represent revenue expectations for any company named, including the profiled company.

Eagle Eye Disclosure: Eagle Eye is an investor signal-intelligence platform affiliated with the publisher of this article, and this reference constitutes promotion of an affiliated product. Eagle Eye is not a broker-dealer, and nothing in the platform or in this article is financial, investment, tax, or legal advice. Data provided in the platform is for informational purposes only and may be delayed. Always do your own research before making any investment decision.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements: This publication contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation, including, without limitation: statements regarding the completion and adequacy of access road repairs and continuing compaction; the progress and sequencing of clearing, stripping, levelling and bulk earthworks across the pit, tailings storage facility, waste rock dump, dam sites, run of mine pad and process plant platform; the completion and future use of the construction camp as a permanent operations camp; the contemplated long-term upgrade of the access road; the transition of Imwelo from a fully permitted, development-ready asset toward construction; the availability of funding; and the potential for future production. Forward-looking statements are generally identified by words such as "expect", "plan", "anticipate", "target", "potential", "schedule", "estimate", "intend" or "believe", or that events "will", "would", "may", "could" or "should" occur. Such statements necessarily involve assumptions, risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond the Company’s control, including the risk that any decision to commence production would not be based on a feasibility study of mineral reserves demonstrating economic and technical viability; construction, geotechnical, metallurgical, cost, weather, contractor, financing, permitting and regulatory risks; and the other risks identified in the Company’s filings on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca. Do not place undue reliance on such statements. The forward-looking statements in this publication are made as of the date above and USA News Group undertakes no obligation to update them.

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SOURCE USA News Group