'I love his aggression' - Ian Telfer on Sibanye-Stillwater CEO

The gold miners have not done themselves any favors with hiking dividends instead of acquiring more assets, said mining legend and entrepreneur Ian Telfer.

On Friday Telfer recorded Kitco Roundtable with Mining Audiences Manager Michael McCrae and Kitco correspondent Paul Harris.

Telfer has had a storied mining career and was foundational in the creation of Goldcorp and Wheaton Precious Metals.

Telfer explained why he didn't favor buybacks or dividends by the gold miners.

"The majority of the share buyers are not looking for dividends. They're looking for an increase in the price of gold. I think [the gold miners] should be using that cash to grow their assets and find more reserves and get larger," said Telfer. "The average share buyer I don't think cares about dividends in a gold stock."

Panelists on the Roundtable contrasted the weak mergers and acquisition activity in the gold space with Sibanye-Stillwater's buying spree in the battery metals space.

This past week Sibanye-Stillwater was top bidder for Santa Rita nickel mine and the Serrote copper mine in Brazil paying $1.0 billion. In September Sibanye announced that it would be spending $490 million to partner with ioneer on its Rhyolite Ridge Lithium-boron project located in Nevada, USA. Earlier in the year Sibanye acquired Eramet’s Sandouville nickel processing facilities in France for $76.82 million, and Sibanye invested $35.46 million in Keliber, a lithium project in Finland.

Neal Froneman is CEO of Sibanye-Stillwater.

"I love his aggression. One of my comments on our industry is that not enough people are doing mergers and acquisitions to grow their companies. Size matters, especially if want to attract larger investors," said Telfer

"My observation of the mining industry--and especially the gold mining industry--is that companies are most successful run by one entrepreneur with one set of eyes and one vision," said Telfer, noting Robert Friedland and Lucas Lundin as examples.

Big boards can slow a company's growth "... and the energy tends to go out of it."

"Neals doesn't have that problem. He's had such success. His board lets him go where he wants to go and it's working perfectly for him."