A recession would tend to be good for a gold stock, not the...

A recession would tend to be good for a gold stock, not the other way round. First, interest rates would tend to go down and therefore gold prices would go up. Second, lower interest rates increase the attractiveness of stock market investment. Third, a recession would lower energy prices and therefore gold mining costs. For me, the reasons against buying SBM shares include the unknown management quality of the new CEO, who was part of the disastrous executive teams under Craig Jetson and Dan Lougher. If he is reasonably good, then shareholders will make lots of money from the current huge pile of cash. Otherwise, the current market cap's discount to net cash holding means little as gold mining executives are notorious for wasting shareholders' funds on ego boosting projects or group think decisions.

BTW, I wonder what prevents SBM from taking over CYL, whose shares they've owned for many years. CYL supposedly owns a number of rich deposits but lacks the capital to mine them profitably.