Gold prices surged above $5,000 per ounce in February 2026, with major financial institutions projecting further gains to $6,100-$6,300. Major gold producers including Orla Mining, Lundin Gold, TRX Gold, and Aya Gold & Silver reported record production results and increased dividends. GoldHaven Resources confirmed gold mineralization in bedrock at its Copeçal West Target in Brazil, validating its exploration model with anomalous gold found across all four drilled holes.

The article highlights seven companies that recently initiated dividend payments, presenting potential opportunities for dividend-growth investors. These new payouts range from modest yields of 0.3% to 2.2%, with companies spanning construction, mining, IT services, automotive technology, apparel, banking, and cruise industries. The article notes that new dividend initiations often attract momentum buyers and provide room for future growth.

Orla Mining Ltd. has declared its first quarterly cash dividend of US$0.015 per share, payable on February 10, 2026, reflecting the company's financial strength and commitment to shareholder returns.

Orla Mining reported strong Q3 financial results, beating analyst estimates with nearly $275 million in revenue and $73 million in net income. The gold mining company produced 79,645 ounces of gold in the quarter and saw its stock price rise by 13.61%.

Orla Mining reported discovering gold deposits extending 1.6 kilometers from its Musselwhite mine in Ontario, potentially supporting decades of additional production. The discovery led to a 12% surge in the company's stock price.

Newmont Corp sold its entire 13.3% stake in Orla Mining, raising $900 million in proceeds to support capital allocation priorities and streamline its equity portfolio.

Gold mining stocks are showing potential for growth, with several companies advancing exploration and production projects amid rising gold prices and optimistic market forecasts.

The United Steelworkers union has filed a complaint under the CUSMA trade deal on behalf of workers at a Canadian-owned mine in Mexico who have faced assaults and death threats after joining an independent union. The complaint calls for an investigation into the violation of workers' rights at the Camino Rojo mine, owned by Orla Mining.

Canada's main stock index hovered near four-week highs on Thursday, amid broad-based sectoral gains, as investors awaited U.S. employment data to gauge the trajectory of interest rate cuts.

Canada's main stock index opened mildly higher on Thursday, with gains in technology shares offset by losses in real estate and utilities. Investors are awaiting U.S. employment data on Friday to gauge the Federal Reserve's rate cut trajectory.

Futures for Canada's main stock index rose in thin trading volumes on Thursday as gold and copper prices increased, while investors awaited U.S. jobs data to gauge the timing of the first rate cut by the Federal Reserve. Orla Mining filed a request for arbitration against the Government of Panama under the Canada-Panama Free Trade Agreement, seeking damages of no less than $400 million.

Putting More Pressure On The Dollar Over the weekend, the U.S. State Department posted about seizing Russia's sovereign assets in the U.S. and encouraging other G-7 members to do the same.  Congress has given us the power to seize Russian assets in the U.S., and we intend to use it.  We are working with @G7 partners to see that Russia’s immobilized sovereign assets are used to remedy the damage Putin continues to cause in Ukraine. - @SecBlinken pic.twitter.com/QxJl1cwQYO — Department of State (@StateDept) May 19, 2024 The downsides of the United States doing this when it has persistently large fiscal and trade deficits would seem obvious, but apparently they're not. Other countries that aren't allied/subservient to the U.S. will be less comfortable holding U.S. dollar assets, out of fear that their assets might be summarily seized as well at some point. In fact, that already seems to be happening, as China just sold a record amount of U.S. Treasury bonds.  China ditches $53 billion of US bonds in a record sell-off: - Unsustainable debt, sanctions and theft of foreign reserves have reduced the trust in the UShttps://t.co/Bcf5zOvl5U — Glenn Diesen (@Glenn_Diesen) May 19, 2024 Vladimir Putin Envisions De-Dollarization  Near the end of President Putin's state visit to China, he fielded questions from Russian media in Harbin. In response to one question about an issue with the settlement of payments between Russia and China, Putin spoke about the extraordinary benefits America has gained from issuing the world's reserve currency, and how recent American policy had undermined confidence in the dollar. He concluded that the process of countries moving away from dollar settlements had begun and could not be stopped (text via the Kremlin, translated by Google): All countries of the world trust the American economy, its power and its stability and take these pieces of paper. But this gives a huge, seemingly inexplicable advantage to the American economy and financial system. They can also be assessed directly, in certain numbers. According to our experts, this is over 10 trillion dollars, simply unearned money that fell from the sky due to the use of the dollar as a reserve world currency. In general, the obligations of the American monetary system to the rest of the world are approximately $53.4 trillion. But as, for political reasons, the United States authorities undermine confidence in the dollar, they weaken their main, main, most important instrument of their power - the dollar itself. They cause irreparable damage ...Full story available on Benzinga.com