What Actually Makes a Good Mining Jurisdiction?
+ 4 CEO Interviews
⚠️ Not financial advice!
⚠️ Includes sponsored content!
⚠️ Your capital may be at risk!
⚠️ General & impersonal in nature!
⚠️ Read the warning at the bottom of the post!
Week 18 on Resource Talks (APR 27 - May 3)
What Actually Makes a Good Mining Jurisdiction? (Episode 1)
🔸 Kazakhstan w/ Arras Minerals
🔸 Namibia w/ Ongwe Minerals
🔸 Oregon w/ Provenance Gold
🔸 Quebec w/ Maple Gold MinesWhy Isn't This 29M Oz Gold Deposit Being Mined Yet?
🔸 Tudor Gold with Joe OvsenekIs There Gold Left in Suriname After 100 Years of Artisanal Mining?
🔸 Miata Metals with Jaap VerbaasCan You Really Grow a Gold Mining Company With 0 Debt?
🔸 Golconda Gold with Ravi SoodIs Wyoming's Gold Really Connected to the Abitibi?
🔸 Relevant Gold with Rob Bergmann
What Actually Makes a Good Mining Jurisdiction?
All companies have paid for the production of this video❗
We kicked off a new format last week.
We’re lining up four exploration executives in the same virtual room and walking each one through the same framework on their home turf. I borrowed the PESTLE framework (Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, Environmental) and gave it two tweaks for resources. The T stops meaning Technology and starts meaning Transport, because a discovery you cannot truck out is a problem on a slide deck, not an asset. And the second E stops meaning Environment-in-the-ESG-sense and starts meaning the geological environment.
The four guests, paired with the four jurisdictions:
– Darren Klinck (President, Arras Minerals Corp., TSX-V: ARK) on Kazakhstan
– Carl Joone (President and Co-founder, Ongwe Minerals Inc., TSXV: OGW / NSX: ONG) on Namibia
– former Malheur County sheriff and Provenance Gold advisor Andy Bentz alongside CEO Rauno Perttu (Provenance Gold Corp., CSE: PAU) on Oregon
– Kiran Patankar (President & CEO, Maple Gold Mines Ltd., TSX-V: MGM) on Quebec.
None of them threw rocks at each other, figurative or otherwise, but the contrasts between the four pitches were the most interesting part of the conversation.
Why Isn’t This 29M Oz Gold Deposit Being Mined Yet?
This company has paid for the production of this interview❗
Tudor Gold is a single-asset explorer-developer with an 80% operating interest in the Treaty Creek Project, located in the Golden Triangle of northwestern British Columbia. Teuton Resources holds the remaining 20% as a carried interest through to a production decision, along with a net smelter return (NSR) of approximately 0.98% on some claims. The property covers roughly 180 km² and hosts the Goldstorm gold-copper-silver deposit, which is the company’s sole focus. The interview covered the strategic direction of the project, the status of a live legal dispute with neighboring Seabridge Gold over proposed tunnel access through the Goldstorm deposit, plans for a PEA, and the 2025 exploration program.
TL;DR
Joe Ovsenek told me three things matter most for Tudor this year: completing the PEA (targeted for summer 2025, now a formal PEA rather than a PA as he initially described), buying out Teuton’s 20% stake, and reaching a negotiated resolution with Seabridge Gold over the KSM tunnel conflict. He said the BC government’s Major Mines Office recently declined to approve Seabridge’s tunnel permit application until either the two companies reach a deal or a court rules on the rights, which he views as a meaningful development in their favor. The company had roughly C$15 million in flow-through funds plus C$11.5 million from a December 2024 hard-dollar raise to fund the 2025 drill program, the PEA work, and a couple of years of G&A. Ovsenek said they are not worried about cash for 2026 activities.
What have they done for shareholders lately?
The biggest structural move was the acquisition of American Creek Resources’ 20% stake in Treaty Creek, which lifted Tudor’s interest from 60% to 80%. Ovsenek said this was announced in June and closed in September 2025. Before that, the previous management had left a structure where two 20% partners were both carried through to a production decision, which Ovsenek described as a burden and a drag on what the company could afford to do at the exploration level. By buying out American Creek, they reduced the carried interest load and can now justify spending on satellite targets beyond the main Goldstorm deposit.
How much money do they have and what are they spending it on?
The last financing was a brokered offering of C$11.5 million, done in mid-December at C$0.80 per share with a half-warrant exercisable at C$1.20 for two years. Prior to that, they completed a flow-through financing of approximately C$15 million. Ovsenek said the company has enough cash to fund the PEA, run the 2026 drill program, cover up to three years of G&A, and begin portal construction if they receive the underground exploration ramp permit promptly. The 2026 exploration budget from flow-through funds (C$15 million) is earmarked for surface drilling at satellite zones around Goldstorm. Litigation costs related to the Seabridge dispute were described as running in the “hundreds of thousands of dollars”, so material enough to notice, but not material relative to the project’s scale.
Upcoming catalysts
Technical / Operational: Ovsenek said the PEA is targeted for release in summer 2026. It will examine an underground long-hole stope operation at 8,000–10,000 tonnes per day, targeting 250,000–300,000 oz gold per year over a mine life he described as 20-plus years. The plan is to mine the higher-grade core of the Goldstorm deposit first (he mentioned grades north of 3 g/t Au at the SC-1 Zone, and potentially 4–8+ g/t in specific stopes) to recover capex quickly before widening the cutoff grade. He also said metallurgical test results on the SC-1 and other zones were pending “in the next couple of weeks” at the time of recording, with initial work suggesting good recoveries at SC-1.
Corporate: Ovsenek named three explicit 2025 corporate objectives. First, acquire the remaining 20% from Teuton Resources. Second, reach a negotiated settlement with Seabridge Gold over the KSM tunnel conflict. Third, deliver the PEA.
Risks
The Seabridge legal dispute is the dominant overhang. Ovsenek said it’s the elephant in the room that colors every institutional conversation about the stock and is one of the main reasons the project has not attracted an acquirer or joint venture partner to date. The dispute is also against the Province of BC (not Seabridge directly), meaning the resolution depends on either a court ruling or a politically and commercially complex negotiation between multiple parties. There is no guaranteed timeline. A second risk is that the acquisition of Teuton’s 20% stake is still subject to agreement on price and a deal at an unattractive price could dilute existing shareholders. Third, the underground ramp permit remains outstanding, and without it, the team cannot proceed with the most cost-effective drilling approach for the SC-1 Zone. The surface drill program for 2026 is therefore focused on lower-priority satellite targets rather than the high-grade core. Finally, Ovsenek is also leading P2 Gold as a parallel management commitment, which I asked him about in the interview.
Is There Gold Left in Suriname After 100 Years of Artisanal Mining?
Miata Metals is an early-stage gold explorer operating in Suriname, on the Guiana Shield. Its flagship is the Sela Creek Gold Project (~215 km²), where they currently hold a 70% interest with an option to earn 100%. MMET also holds a 70% beneficial interest in the Nassau Gold Project (~200 km²) with the same earn-in option. The interview covered the company’s exploration progress at Sela Creek, its two active discoveries (Jons Trend and Big Berg) cash position, share structure, community relations, and what they expect for the rest of 2026.
TL;DR
Sela Creek is producing drill results now. The Jons Trend zone has grown to 750 m x 300 m and is open in all directions. A second discovery at Big Berg returned 96 m at 1.41 g/t gold from near surface about a month before the interview. Miata raised C$11.5 million in December 2025 with no warrants, and CEO Verbaas says that covers a 25,000 m drill program through 2026, leaving roughly C$10 million in the bank at the time of recording. The company just uplisted from the CSE to the TSXV. There is no mineral resource estimate yet, and Verbaas set an internal threshold of 3 million ounces before moving to infill drilling and resource definition.
What have they done for shareholders lately?
The company drilled 10,000m at Sela Creek in the second half of 2025, completed a two-rig restart in January 2026 with a fully funded 25,000m program, and delivered multiple drill results including Jons Trend intercepts of 3 g/t over 35 m (earlier results), 11.3 m at 3.58 g/t (February 2026), and 23.75 m at 5.73 g/t (April 2026). The Big Berg discovery, hole three of the current program, returned 96 m at 1.41 g/t gold from near surface (March 2026), which is the best intercept the company has reported to date. The TSXV listing completed April 23, 2026.
How much money do they have and what are they spending it on?
Miata closed a C$11.5 million financing in December 2025 with no warrants attached. CEO Jaap Verbaas confirmed that amount is intended to cover the full 25,000m drill program at Sela Creek plus all other 2026 work. Over the six months prior to recording, 70% of spending went into the ground, with the remaining 30% covering G&A, though that ratio is expected to improve now that a second rig is running full time. There are approximately 30 million options and warrants outstanding in total, including 12 million warrants from an August 2024 financing exercisable at approximately C$0.40, which Verbaas flagged as a potential source of treasury top-up if the stock stays above that level. The Nassau project is deliberately being kept on the back burner and all exploration dollars are going to Sela Creek for now.
Upcoming catalysts
Technical / Operational: Drill results from the 25,000m program are expected roughly every four to six weeks through 2026, with Verbaas noting the last two releases came three weeks apart, suggesting the pace may be faster. Ongoing work at both Jons Trend and Big Berg will determine whether the two zones are connected along the fold hinge architecture. Five additional targets across the 14 km corridor at Sela Creek have yet to be drilled. Metallurgical test work is in progress to assess gold liberation and processing options. Nassau remains undrilled by Miata and is not a near-term focus.
Corporate: The TSXV listing is done (April 23, 2026), with the intention of accessing broader US, Australian, and European institutional flow. Jaap also said the company is actively expanding the team and the board, with the addition of a new board memeber focused on project execution expertise for later-stage development. A final insider escrow release is due in July 2026. An opportunistic capital raise is planned at a time of Miata’s choosing. So, not forced, but coming.
Risks
The stock still carries some overhang from a sharp selloff in 2025, when early expectations ran ahead of the early drill results. CEO Verbaas acknowledged this openly as the most common fair criticism investors raised with him. An insider escrow release lands in July 2026, which is probably manageable but worth watching. On the geology side, the fold-hinge controlled style of mineralization at Sela Creek is inherently discontinuous between hinge points and Verbaas says his team has the controls figured out, but the jury is still out and this is precisely the kind of thing that has surprised explorers before. Environmental and community risk is real because over a century of artisanal mining has left a visible land disturbance footprint, and formal benefit-sharing arrangements with the local Okanisi community have not yet been finalized. Mercury contamination from historical artisanal activity has not been fully assessed. And because Sela Creek is remote, the project needs to be big, that’s why Verbaas set an internal bar of 3 million ounces before infill drilling.
Can You Really Grow a Gold Mining Company With 0 Debt?
This company has paid for the production of this interview❗
Golconda Gold is a small gold producer with the flagship asset, an operating underground gold mine, in South Africa’s Barberton Greenstone Belt. They also have the Summit Mine, a past-producing underground gold-silver mine in Grant County, New Mexico, which is currently being restarted. The interview covered Galaxy’s ongoing production ramp-up, Summit’s imminent restart timeline, the plan to eventually spin Summit out as a standalone listed company, and how CEO Ravi Sood is thinking about capital allocation in what he considers a gold bull market.
TL;DR
Galaxy produced 3,693 oz of gold in Q1 2026. That’s up 25% year-on-year. The company is now debt-free and generating free cash flow every month. Sood told me they expect to start mining at Summit within 60 days from the interview date (putting it squarely in Q2 2026), with first gold and silver production through the Banner Mill targeted before the end of Q3 2026. The combined 2026 production target is around 20,000 gold equivalent ounces, with Galaxy accounting for roughly 90% of that. The headline corporate catalyst is the planned spin-off of Summit into a standalone listed US-focused gold-silver producer, targeted for late 2026 or early 2027. No equity raises or new debt are planned and Sood was explicit that he sees no need for outside capital right now.
What have they done for shareholders lately?
The most meaningful thing they’ve done is clean up the balance sheet. CEO Sood told me that heading into 2025, Golconda had a fully drawn credit facility, an unsecured note, and elevated accounts payable. Rising production at Galaxy and a higher gold price meant 2025 became the year they deleveraged all of that. By the end of Q1 2026, they’re debt-free. On the operations side, Galaxy expanded from two underground faces to four at the end of 2025, with the two new faces starting to contribute ore tonnage in Q1 2026. Development meters drilled at Galaxy were up 89% in 2025 versus the prior year, and gold production followed at up 69%. Q1 2026 production of 3,693 oz was up 7% quarter-on-quarter and 25% year-on-year. A new General Manager was also appointed for Summit in January 2026, a mining engineer with 35+ years of underground restart experience.
How much money do they have and what are they spending it on?
Sood confirmed the company is now debt-free and is adding to its cash position every month from Galaxy’s free cash flow. Ravi’s own math puts Galaxy’s operating margin at around US$2,000 per ounce at a gold price of US$4,500, with a true all-in cost of approximately US$2,500/oz when you add South Africa’s government royalty (currently 7% of revenue, which at US$5,000 gold equals roughly US$350/oz) and underground development spending not captured in the reported AISC. That development spending is the biggest cash item. Sood flagged that it’s running at roughly US$10 million per quarter at Galaxy. Sustaining capex on the processing side is sub-US$1 million per quarter. No financing is planned and Sood said he has all the money he needs for the current plan and wouldn’t know what to do with extra capital even if someone handed it to him.
Upcoming catalysts
Technical / Operational: Appointment of a mining contractor at Summit Mine, which Sood said was imminent at the time of the interview. Mobilisation of that contractor and first ore from Summit is targeted before end of Q2 2026. First gold and silver doré production through the Banner Mill is targeted before end of Q3 2026. Continued ramp-up of Galaxy toward 30% plant utilisation in 2026 (up from 20% in 2025), with Q4 2026 expected to be when the two new faces begin contributing materially to quarterly output. Exploration drilling at Summit deposit is planned for 2027, not 2026.
Corporate: Spin-off of Summit as a standalone listed US gold-silver producer is targeted for late Q4 2026 or early Q1 2027, contingent on Summit reaching profitable production. Sood said the corporate and legal structure for the spin-off is already in place from planning done in 2025.
Risks
The single biggest near-term risk is Summit execution. Sood said the contractor hasn’t been appointed yet, the mine hasn’t moved a tonne, and this is a full restart of an operation that hasn’t run in decades. Any delays push back the Q3 2026 first-production target, the spin-off timeline, and the market re-rating that Sood explicitly identified as the most important catalyst for the stock. At Galaxy, the main operational risks are labour (skilled underground workers are a finite pool in the area) and equipment availability which Sood mentioned as things keeping him up at night. Grade variability at Galaxy is a structural feature of the greenstone ore bodies, and while Sood expects this to average out over time as they mine more faces, it means quarterly production numbers will swing and shouldn’t be taken in isolation. On the macro side, the stock has already given back most of a six-month run from its 52-week high of C$4.18 to around C$2.42, and Sood acknowledged this correlates with a pullback in junior gold sentiment even as the company’s own news has been positive. A sustained gold price pullback would directly compress margins, though the sliding-scale South African royalty (7% at high margins, down to 0.5% near break-even) provides some built-in cushion.
Is Wyoming’s Gold Really Connected to the Abitibi?
This company has paid for the production of this interview❗
Relevant Gold is an early-stage gold explorer operating entirely in Wyoming, USA. The company controls roughly 55,000 acres across two separate camp areas spread across five projects. The main interview topics were the results from last year’s first drill program at the Apex target, the upcoming 2026 drill campaign (the largest in the company’s history), the Lewiston project’s early results and the polymetallic signal coming out of it, and the recently closed C$12M financing.
TL;DR
Relevant Gold just banked roughly C$12M through a non-brokered raise and is mobilizing three rigs across two camps starting in June 2026, targeting 12,000 to 15,000m this year as the first leg of a two-year, 30,000m discovery program. The primary targets are Apex and BPEX at Bradley Peak, and the Burr trend at Lewiston in South Pass. Last year’s 12-hole program at Apex returned modest grades (best intercept was 4 g/t Au over 1.3m) but CEO Bergmann says the alteration footprint confirmed a fertile orogenic system and the company is now hunting for the high-grade shoots within it. First batch assay results from this year’s program are expected around September 2026. Strategic shareholders Kinross Gold Corporation, William G. Bollinger, and Rob McEwen all participated in the recent financing and maintained their positions. Bergmann was clear that this is a “discovery, vector, or kill” year. If they don’t see multi-gram, multi-metre intercepts or at least continued strong vectoring over this two-year window, they’ll move on to other targets in their portfolio.
What have they done for shareholders lately?
The company drilled 12 holes at Apex in 2025, with all results released in a single batch earlier this year. Every hole hit anomalous gold in a consistent 70 to 150m alteration halo on the hanging wall of the main shear zone, though the best individual intercept came in at only 0.4 g/t Au over 1.3m, which nothing to write home about on its own. Over at Lewiston, 17 holes drilled across the seasons returned gold in every hole across multiple shear panels to about 140m vertical depth. More recently, rock chip sampling along the extended Burr trend at Lewiston returned surface samples grading 25 g/t Au, 2,200 g/t Ag, 12% Cu, 4% Pb, and 1.3% Bi, a polymetallic signature that’s a bit of a head-scratcher for what’s supposed to be a pure orogenic gold story. The company also flew a VTEM airborne geophysical survey over South Pass (data being processed) and is actively flying the same survey at Bradley Peak, with the South Pass survey partially funded by a Wyoming state grant. A new secondary shear called BPEX was confirmed about 200m northwest of Apex, with two holes showing it is also mineralized. On the corporate side, the company listed on the OTCQB in the US and says combined daily trading volume across both exchanges has grown from roughly 3,000 shares/day 18 months ago to 150,000 shares/day now. Two new board members were added: Larry Taddei (former CFO of MAG Silver) as an independent director, and Mal Karwowska (background in capital markets and corporate development) as a strategic advisor pending AGM election.
How much money do they have and what are they spending it on?
Relevant Gold closed a non-brokered private placement plus LIFE Offering in April 2026, raising C$12,056,718 in two tranches at C$0.50/share. This was short of the original C$15M target, which Bergmann attributed to market volatility around Middle East tensions at the time of announcement. Kinross Gold Corporation and William G. Bollinger each maintained approximately 19.9% ownership positions. Rob McEwen also participated. In addition, roughly C$2.7M in outstanding warrants are expected to be exercised in June 2026 (the warrants are in-the-money and Bergmann says they’re already trickling in weekly). The bulk of the freshly raised capital goes to the 12,000 to 15,000m drill program across Apex and Lewiston, at an all-in cost of approximately US$550/m using oriented diamond core. The company’s base monthly burn rate (G&A plus property costs) is under C$120K/month. Marketing spend is expected to increase by roughly 30% from its current base.
Upcoming catalysts
Technical / Operational: VTEM geophysical survey results and interpretation for Bradley Peak camp are expected soon (data being processed now). The same data for South Pass camp is already back and being processed. Final drill targeting and hole planning announcements are expected before drill mobilization. Apex and BPEX drilling begins at Bradley Peak around early June 2026. Lewiston/Burr trend drilling begins at South Pass around early July 2026. First batch of assay results is targeted for around September 2026 (the team is aiming to have something before the Beaver Creek conference). Regular exploration-in-progress updates will be issued throughout the drilling season.
Corporate: Permit expansion at Bradley Peak into a full plan of operations (expected this summer) will significantly expand the disturbance footprint and pad flexibility. New board member Mal Karwowska’s election is pending the upcoming AGM. Warrant conversions (~C$2.7M worth) are expected to close through June 2026.
Risks
The most immediate operational risk is lab turnaround time. Bergmann acknowledged the industry is drilling hard this year and expects labs to be slower than before, which could push assay results past the September target window. The company still needs to raise additional capital for the second year of the two-year 30,000m plan, so another equity raise is coming, with timing depending on market conditions and drill results. The geological risk at Apex is there, too because the previous intercepts were not great, and while Bergmann frames the alteration as proof of a fertile system, the market will need to see genuine multi-gram, multi-metre results from the 2026 season to shift the narrative. At Lewiston, the polymetallic signature (gold, silver, copper, lead, bismuth) at the Burr trend is unexplained. Bergmann said the team doesn’t yet have enough data to determine whether this is a VMS system, an intrusion-related gold system, or simply a long-lived orogenic structure with multiple fluid pulses, which means the targeting rationale there carries added uncertainty until more drilling data comes in.
Upcoming Interviews
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