New York, January 22, 2026, 3:13 PM ET — Regular session
Shares of Seabridge Gold Inc (NYSE: SA) jumped 12.4% to $36.80 in mid-afternoon trading Thursday, hitting a session peak of $37.20 earlier in the day.
This shift shines a spotlight on a developer that doesn’t mine gold but behaves like a leveraged wager on it — and raises questions about whether a long-anticipated corporate shake-up will finally assign clearer values to its assets.
Late Wednesday, Seabridge revealed plans to spin off its 100%-owned Courageous Lake project into a new company, Valor Gold Corp. Shares in Valor will be handed out to Seabridge shareholders through a court-approved plan of arrangement, a Canadian legal route for corporate restructuring. The company expects a shareholder vote by June 2026. Valor is targeting listings on the Toronto Stock Exchange and the OTCQB Venture Market, aiming to start trading before the end of Q2, pending approvals. Seabridge also intends to fund Valor with C$10 million and appoint mining veteran Mark J. Ashley as CEO. Seabridge chair and CEO Rudi Fronk expressed “complete confidence” that Ashley can “realize the value” in the Courageous Lake asset. 1
Seabridge submitted the news release as an exhibit to a Form 6-K with U.S. regulators on Wednesday. 2
The gold market is heating up. Goldman Sachs boosted its end-2026 gold price forecast to $5,400 an ounce, banking on diversification buyers holding steady this year. Spot gold climbed to $4,887.82 on Wednesday, marking a gain of over 11% so far in 2026, Reuters reported. 3
Gold equities held steady Thursday. The VanEck Gold Miners ETF climbed roughly 3.4%, Newmont gained around 2%, and Seabridge stood out with a double-digit jump, breaking the group’s otherwise solid but more modest gains.
Seabridge has positioned itself as a high-beta gold play via its flagship Kerr-Sulphurets-Mitchell project in British Columbia’s Golden Triangle, claiming it already holds provincial and federal environmental approvals. 4
For investors, the spin-out pitch is straightforward: Courageous Lake will have its own scoreboard and a dedicated team pushing it forward, while Seabridge can continue promoting the KSM story without carrying another big development project on its books.
That doesn’t guarantee a smooth ride. Deal talk remains fragile in a market known to flip on a dime, and early-stage miners still depend heavily on funding windows and commodity sentiment.
Seabridge warned the reorganization is only planned and might not happen as scheduled—or even at all. It still needs the green light from the board, shareholders, courts, and regulators. If delayed, the stock could revert to following gold prices and risk sentiment, lacking immediate cash flow to support its value. 5
Seabridge is slated to appear at the AME Roundup conference from Jan. 26–28. Investors are also waiting for further details on the process leading up to the anticipated June shareholder meeting and the planned launch of Valor trading by the end of Q2. 6
