MKL vs KGC Comparison

Markel's primary business is property and casualty insurance. The company focuses primarily on specialty lines, ranging from areas such as executive liability to commercial equine insurance. The acquisition of Alterra in 2013 added substantial reinsurance operations, which now account for a little over 10% of premiums. The company uses capital generated by its insurance operations to buy noninsurance operations in diverse areas, such as bakery equipment manufacturing and residential homebuilding.

Kinross Gold is a Canada-based gold producer, producing roughly 2.1 million gold equivalent ounces in 2024. The company had about a decade of gold reserves at the end of 2024. It operates mines in the Americas and West Africa after selling its low-cost Russian operations in 2022 in response to the invasion of Ukraine. The company has historically used acquisitions to fuel expansion into new regions and production growth. In 2022, Kinross purchased the Great Bear project in Canada. If developed as we think likely, it could produce an average of more than 500,000 ounces of gold per year for at least a decade, with its unit cash costs likely in the first quartile of the industry cost curve.