Agnico Eagle Has Been a Gold Mine for Shareholders -- And It's Just Getting Started

2025 was a great year for gold stocks, as prices of precious metals soared. Demand came from several quarters, including both the perception of gold as a store of value during troubled times and a host of new applications for silver as well as copper and other industrial metals.

Companies that mine gold and silver shared in the precious metals boom, and Agnico Eagle Mines (NYSE: AEM) was enjoyed substantial gains in 2025. Bu the question on everyone's mind as 2026 opens is whether the bull market can continue to lift shares of gold stocks like Agnico Eagle. The first article in this series for the new Voyager Portfolio gave a brief overview of the portfolio of mining properties Agnico Eagle has put together, and today, you'll learn more about how the miner has kept ahead of its peers and maintained a world-class operation.

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The simple equation driving Agnico Eagle's success

One reason that commodity-based businesses are attractive is that they're relatively simple to evaluate. It costs money for Agnico Eagle to dig holes in the ground, extract gold and other valuable metals, and then process them into a form it can sell. The commodities market determines the prices that Agnico Eagle gets for its gold. The difference is profit.

During the third quarter of 2025, Agnico Eagle extracted roughly the same amount of gold it did the previous year. However, the price it realized when it sold that gold was almost $1,000 per ounce higher than it had been 12 months earlier. Meanwhile, although inflation caused some of Agnico Eagle's expenses to rise, the impact was minimal. Total cash costs remained climbed less than $75 per ounce and remained below the $1,000 level. All-in sustaining costs, which include capital expenditures and some other outlays that don't necessarily show up in the cash-cost calculation, rose modestly from $1,286 to $1,373 per ounce.

As a result of the leverage generated from its mining operations, Agnico Eagle's adjusted net income climbed by over half a billion dollars to $1.085 billion. Free cash flow nearly doubled to $1.19 billion. And with bullion prices having moved above $4,500 per ounce recently, the $3,476 per ounce realized gold price that Agnico Eagle brought in during the third quarter only stands to rise as 2026 begins.

Putting technology to work

Even with gold prices soaring, Agnico Eagle isn't losing its cost-control discipline. The company has engaged in optimization initiatives designed to keep expenses down through the use of new technology.

For instance, Agnico Eagle has focused on productivity at its Kittila mining project in Finland . By using lessons learned from previous efforts in Nunavut, Agnico Eagle has cut minesite costs by 4% and development costs by 8%. Yet ore volumes have risen 13%, and haulage has jumped 38%. Increased throughput means more revenue for the miner, and reduced costs improve margins and boost profits.

Underground automation has also assisted in boosting productivity at reasonable costs. At LaRonde Zone 5, Agnico Eagle has been able to raise production rates continuously . Ramp development has been 20% faster at the Odyssey mine due to the use of automated procedures between worker shifts. And elsewhere, efforts to optimize utilization and payload capacity of haul trucks have shown early signs of progress.

How can Agnico Eagle keep gaining momentum?

With the gold miner having seen its revenue triple since 2020 and net income having risen more than 500%, there are good arguments that investors in Agnico Eagle have already made the easy money. Yet with five-year gains of 171% for Agnico Eagle's stock, some shareholders seem unconvinced that the company can sustain its recent good fortune. In the final article of this series, you'll see Agnico Eagle's growth plans and why they're attractive enough to justify our adding the Canadian mining giant to the Voyager Portfolio.

Dan Caplinger has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.