Sean Boyd, CEO of Agnico Eagle Mines with Matt Bird at World Economic Forum (Davos, Switzerland)

HIGHLIGHTS

• Agnico opened two new gold mines in Canada
• Agnico has mines in Canada, Mexico, Finland, U.S., and Sweden
• Agnico finished top 5 market cap

Agnico Eagle Mines drills in remote regions like Nunavut in Northern Canada. There is so little development in Nunavut that the mining company has to build its own roads, which creates local jobs and local infrastructure. This sort of community investment, as described by CEO Sean Boyd, is exactly why mining companies actually understand sustainability and ESG principles more than people think.  

“For most companies in the mining space, ESG is not new. As a mining company, you have to earn your social license to operate those projects every single day. So we are not sitting here as an industry all of a sudden being hit on the side of the head by ESG coming out of the blue. That’s what we live with every day,” Boyd told Matt Bird, Host of the Traders Network Show, at the 2020 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “There is no question that there are bad actors in every industry, and, unfortunately, industries get tarred by the bad actors.”

Boyd says his company brings benefit to the places where it mines.

“This conference is focused on ESG, and we are able to make the case from a mining perspective where we’re having a positive impact. We’re giving opportunity, we’re providing jobs,” he said. “The best social program is a job.”

Boyd believes that message gets lost.

“We’re here in Davos to tell that story, because that story isn’t told and it needs to be told.”