Ann: December 2018 Quarterly Activities Report, page-47

I bought into EVN at $1 and NST at $1.92 soon after each other in late 2015, so I've watched them side-by-side for years. I was a bit bewildered by the extent of NST's comparative price acceleration, though it's still an excellent company.

In 2017 I sold half my NST and bought more Evolution because of their Ernest Henry deal and continually low AISC. In 2016 when Glencore was in trouble, EVN went half a billion dollars into debt to acquire 100% of future gold production from Glencore's Ernest Henry mine, plus 30% of the copper production. All mining is done by Glencore, with costs shared to EVN's advantage, but EVN selling the gold. Evolution was able to pay off this debt rapidly while also putting money in the bank, and their gold from Ernest Henry is now coming in at a negative AISC (see EVN's recent quarterly update) with years of it still to come.

The market was scared of debt and preferred NST without it over EVN with it, but borrowing for that deal was a no-brainer and its outcome is here. Meanwhile NST has been wheeling and dealing with the potential benefits still ahead. So to me, it just looks like the share prices of my two long-held goldies are coming back to where they should be in relation to each other.