Best Mining Group in North America? Culture, deal flow, etc.

I think all of those factors will vary depending on the place but I tried to make some broad generalizations listed below. In general though if you are trying to optimize for the biggest deals, generally consistent deal flow, highest comp and best exits, I would recommend going with the Big 5, NBF or the US banks (vs. the independents).

Deal Flow

• Canaccord probably has the best deal flow of the independents as it is generally the largest independent in Canada (i.e. largest team, more resources, offices around the world, etc.) and as such will likely service bigger clients/deal sizes and have more consistent deal flow than the other places
  • For example, you might see Canaccord work on a $1B+ deal like the Yamana/Agnico/Pan American transaction which you wouldn't get at a Haywood or Cormark (but bigger deal sizes do not always mean better, etc.). I will say that Canaccord does not often do $1B+ deals as those are less common for them
• Canaccord also likely has a better mix of M&A vs. financing deals whereas some of the independents are more heavy on the financing work for junior mining companies
• In general a lot of mining deal flow is based on metal prices, so generally when metal prices are higher then deal activity will increase (i.e. it makes projects economics better, more people will want to invest in a "hot" sector) and the inverse is true too
  • For example there was a flurry of deal making as gold prices rose up to the end of the 2012's and when it decreased afterwards until 2019, deal activity was a lot more stagnant
  • Most main metal prices (i.e. gold, copper, etc.) are at all time highs now so that should be a positive for deal flow in the near term. We are starting to see a lot of major mining companies look to get bigger exposure to battery related metals like copper (i.e. BHP's takeover attempt of Anglo American, Rio Tinto takeover of Turquoise Hill, Teck Resources failed separation of its copper vs. coal business, Barrick re-negotiating to get Reko Diq back in development, etc.)

Compensation

• Comp at the independents on average is likely lower then what you would get at the Big 5, NBF or the US banks
• I think Canaccord probably has the highest comp on average vs. the other independents but it will depend on the year/deal flow
• In general though, comp at a lot of these places will be highly dependent on deal flow as I think a lot of these places operate on an "eat what you kill" basis
  • Put differently, if one of these independents has an amazing year, your bonus will likely be very good, but the inverse is also true too
  • I am guessing that the comp for junior employees are probably a bit more insulated to swings in the business where you will get less of the upside but also not be as exposed to the downside. However I think this is probably dependent on the place and applies more to the bigger places
• I will also say that some of the senior folks at these independent shops have made a lot of money as most of these places are not publicly traded such that the profit sharing is more favourable. For example I would not be surprised if some of the MD's at like Eight Capital made more than most Big 5 MD's during the cannabis boom in 2019-2021

Culture

• I have never worked at any of these places so I can not really comment on what it's like there
• I will note that I think a lot of these places are pretty lean, meaning their teams are smaller. I can imagine that there could be deals where it is just a MD with either 1 associate or analyst, which could be good from a learning experience