CNMC Goldmine share price another SGX fairytale?

Could this be another fairytale of SGX like iFAST and AEM Holdings? Driven by the historic highs of gold price, CNMC Goldmine share price has been in a spectacular form, surging by an eye-popping 6-fold within a year. Year-to-date, CNMC Goldmine share price surged by a mighty 83%.

As gold spot price hit record levels in the past one year, interest in the precious metal increased among the investment community. Previously, I have covered SPRDR Gold ETF and e-commerce retailer, BullionStar. In this article, I will share my thoughts on a Catalist-listed gold mining company – CNMC Goldmine.

For background, CNMC Goldmine is a gold mining company that started operations in 2006 and are principally engaged in the exploration and mining of gold and the processing of mined ore into gold bars. Although the company is listed in Catalist and headquartered in Singapore, the key business activities are mainly in Kelantan, Malaysia. The company currently only has one active production mining site – Sokor Gold Field, which is their cash cow and flagship project.

CNMC Goldmine share price used to be trading at penny stock levels ($0.30 to $0.40) prior to early 2025. So those who have entered prior to 2025 would have made a killing as the counter became a multi-bagger for this group of discerning investors. Question now is whether the ongoing US-Israel military conflict against Iran will turbocharge gold price to another new record level, thereby pushing CNMC Goldmine share price to new highs as well.

Before investors get giddy-headed over CNMC Goldmine share price, it is important to put things into perspective. CNMC is a very small gold mining company which does not even feature in the global Top 20 gold mining companies. For FY2025, CNMC Goldmine produced just 26,039 ounces of gold and this pales in comparison to the big players, which typically produces million of ounces annually. Hence, those who enter at current CNMC Goldmine share price levels are paying a high premium for a small market player in the niche gold mining sector.

The biggest risk for CNMC Goldmine is that the primary asset is only the Sokor Gold Field. This represents a huge risk in terms of business concentration, something that retail investors must not downplay. Through my experience investing in AEM, I have learned the painful lesson of the risk of business concentration. AEM share price has lost its way big time due to its heavy reliance on key customer, Intel. Consequently, many investors had thrown in the towel, having lost all hope of a potential recovery of AEM share price. Indeed, AEM share price has yet to restore to all-conquering form nor its glory days till today.

Despite the small size of CNMC Goldmine, there could be some value if investors are able to stomach the risk. In this article, I will share my insights on the outlook of CNMC Goldmine share price in 2026.

Note that this is an opinion article and not meant to be a financial advice. Please do your due diligence or engage financial advisors before investing in the stock market. Furthermore, I am not vested and have never invested in CNMC Goldmine share before. Whether CNMC Goldmine share price will surge or collapse has no impact on me. Thus, this article is not meant to induce readers to make any form of investment decisions.

CNMC Goldmine share price in rampage!

CNMC Goldmine is a family-owned and family-run listed company. The founder-cum-Executive Chairman is Professor Lin Xiang Xiong while his son, Chris Lim Kuoh Yang is the CEO running the day-to-day affairs of the company. Through Innovation (China) Limited, the family controlled about 26.4% of the company shares. Between Professor Lin and his son, the family holds additional direct shares, bringing their effective total shares to about 34%.

Given that the Lin family has much skin in the game in CNMC Goldmine as they owned more than a third of the company, there is deep family commitment, making CNMC a disciplined family-run firm than a cold corporate entity. The involvement of Chris Lim as CEO suggests a long-term family commitment to the business, rather than a plan to sell it off to a larger mining major.

The average tenure for their board members is over 8 years, which is quite high. This means that they aren’t constantly changing directors, which leads to a very consistent corporate culture. The corporate culture differs much from AEM, which saw a slew of changes for its CEO, COO and CFO due to corporate governance lapses.

Interestingly, although the founder is a China-born naturalised Singaporean, the company’s destiny is closely linked to the local political landscape of Kelantan, Malaysia. The project started because of Professor Lin’s personal relationship with the Kelantan state government as an advisor. Unlike many foreign mining companies that face local protests, CNMC has maintained a 20-year harmonious relationship with the state, which is very unique in the mining industry.

The company has been aggressive share buybacks (especially in late 2021) previously, though these have slowed in 2025–2026 due to higher valuations. In the period of August and September 2025, there were insider disposal of shares when CNMC Goldmine share price was trading between $0.60 to $0.70 bandwidth. But it seems that the directors have cashed out too early as CNMC Goldmine share price continued to surge to reach a record high of $2.05 on 3 March 2026.

Sokor a golden goose

Although CNMC recorded a record profit after tax of US$52 million for FY2025, it has not been a straightforward path for the past decade. FY2020 was a watershed year as the Group suffered setbacks due to the pandemic. However, the Group managed to ride out the storm and achieved recovery soon after. For record, FY2020 was only the year in which the Group record losses (US$4.8 million) for the past 10 years.

Apparently, Sokor Gold Field is a golden goose for CNMC. An interesting observation is that after 10 years of mining gold from Sokor, the gold resource estimate rose instead of depleting. For example, the gold resource estimate in FY2015 was 506,000 ounces but as of 31 December 2024, the gold resource of the Sokor mining area were 946,000 ounces!

The increase in gold resources is likely attributed to extensive drilling conducted in 2024 at the Sokor area (specifically at the New Found, Ketubong, and Rixen deposits). Another factor is the expansion of the Carbon-in-Leach (CIL) plant in April 2025, a major capital project aimed at increasing the volume of ore the company could process daily. It boosted processing capacity by 60%, moving from 500 tonnes per day (tpd) to 800 tpd. The upgrade included a dual operating system which allows the plant to run continuously even if one circuit requires maintenance, preventing the costly “downtimes” that affected production in 2022 and 2024.

While CNMC already had one functioning underground mine, they began constructing a second facility at the Rixen deposit to access higher-grade ore deeper underground. Beyond the second undergound facility, the Group is moving on to the next phase of expansion as it is building two new vertical underground shafts at the New Found and Manson’s Lode deposits. These projects cost US$12 million and are expected to complete in 2027.

Despite the increased mining activities, the management was disciplined in managing costs – all-in cost of production for gold slipped to US$1,459 per ounce in FY2025 from US$1,477 per ounce a year earlier. The management is also very conservative as they avoid taking debts to build infrastructure. For example, the two new vertical underground mining shafts would be funded by internal resources. The group was in a net cash position of US$62.6 million as at 31 December 2025, up from US$19.1 million as at 31 December 2024.

Potential risks

As mentioned above, the biggest risk for this counter is the business concentration. CNMC has placed most of its bets on the Sokor Gold Field. Though it has been a cash cow so far, such “all-in” tactic could expose CNMC to serious vulnerabilities. Among them is the regulatory risks. The Sokor lease was supposed to expire in 2018 but CNMC managed to get the approve from the Malaysian authorities to extend to 31 December 2034. Effectively, CNMC has 8 years of lease left on Sokor, though it can be extended subject to authorities’ approval.

CNMC has also secured other areas, such as Pulai and Kelgold, to ensure they aren’t reliant only on Sokor. For Pulai, they are taking an impairment loss and have not started exploration works. As for Kelgold, CNMC considered this project as “green field” and is still in very early stages of testing. So there may be risks of not finding investment-grade gold at all.

In December 2025, CNMC revealed that its 81%-owned Malaysian subsidiary, CMNM Mining Group Sdn. Bhd., was hit with a significant tax assessment from the Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia (IRBM). The total amount demanded is RM29.57 million, which equates to approximately US$7.21 million (or S$9.4 million). The IRBM issued these notices because it disallowed management fee expenses that the Malaysian subsidiary paid to its Singapore-listed parent company, CNMC Goldmine.

As of early 2026, CNMC has appointed tax solicitors to file a formal appeal against the notices. The company stated that while the amount is substantial, it does not expect the dispute to impact its “going concern” or operational viability, especially given its record-breaking profits in 2025 driven by high gold prices.

Conclusion

Evidently, the founder has invested much energy and effort in extracting maximum value from Sokor Gold Field, such as extensive drilling and building of infrastructure to extract gold. As of 31 December 2023, Sokor has resource estimates for 6.9 million ounces of silver, 76,850 tonnes of lead and 96,270 tonnes of zinc. These resources provided revenue diversification for CNMC and mitigated the reliance on gold mining.

Whilst I love the growth narrative of CNMC Goldmine, it is difficult to envisage the company evolving into a blue-chip stock due to the limited scalability of the mining operation in Kelantan. As a mining company, CNMC’s fortune is almost entirely tied to the price of gold. Currently, the counter is flying high due to the buoyant gold prices driven by the geopolitical conflicts. In this regard, I foresee CNMC to be a highly cyclical stock that should continue to trade between $1.80 to $2.50 in 2026. Beyond that, I think this counter will remain a high-growth small-cap stock due to the company being family-owned and family-run background. Till then, enjoy the ride.

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