by James Kwantes
Published first at Patreon
The junior mining sector remains on life support, with most share prices grinding lower on scant volume as summer kicks off.
Here's a highly subjective look at insiders of note who have been active, and where they are placing their bets. Sometimes the most significant part is the person buying; other times, the amount spent. Occasionally it's a powerful combination of both.
The Lundin family: The Lundin family needs no introduction. The standard bearers of the family mining dynasty are now Lukas Lundin's four sons, each of them involved in various family businesses: Adam, Jack, Will and Harry.
A major focus of the third generation is the Vicuna mining district of Chile/Argentina, home to the Filo discovery (market cap $3.25B), NGEx Minerals' Los Helados and Potro Cliffs (market cap $1.2B) and Lundin Mining's Josemaria deposit.
NGEx Minerals (NGEX-V, NGXXF-OTC) announced the Potro Cliffs discovery hole on April 4, and it was a monster: 60 metres at 7.52% copper-equivalent and 10m at 7.08% CuEq. The news sent NGEx shares from $4.40 to $5.49, with further advances to the current $7.
I followed NGEx director Adam Lundin into the stock following his April 6 purchases of 200,000 shares at $5.60-5.63.
The Lundin family has since ramped up its purchases of NGEx Resources, which has assays pending on the high-grade Potro Cliffs discovery and continues to drill higher grades at Los Helados.
Lundin family trust Nemesia filed an opening balance of 550,000 NGEx shares on May 26. Since then, Nemesia has spent more than $22 million buying in the open market at prices ranging from $6.60 to $6.99, including a $17M purchase @ $6.75 on June 22.
Patrick Evans: The CEO of Mayfair Gold (MFG-V, MFGCF-OTC) recently went above 1 million shares on Mayfair, which is advancing the Fenn-Gib gold project in the Timmins mining camp. Evans spent US$25,280 purchasing stock at US$1.58 ($2.08 CAD) on June 14, taking his ownership stake to 1.07%.
On June 14 Mayfair published an updated resource estimate for Fenn-Gib. The deposit now hosts an open-pittable resource of 3.38 million Indicated ounces at 0.93 g/t Au (up from 3.06M oz at 0.81 g/t) and a further 157,000 Inferred ounces at 0.85 g/t (previously 310,000 oz at 0.7 g/t). Mayfair is hitting much higher grades in the footwall zone, including 6.59 g/t Au over 19.6m within 4.72 g/t over 30 metres.
Mayfair recently acquired a notable 10% shareholder -- activist hedge fund Muddy Waters, whose founder Carson Block did a site visit to Fenn-Gib earlier this year. The Texas-based hedge fund is better known for its short campaigns, but was also long GT Gold, bought for $400 million by Newmont.
John Robins: The Discovery Group co-founder has been buying shares of Gold Basin Resources (GXX-V, GXXFF-OTC), which is advancing its Gold Basin oxide gold deposit in northwestern Arizona. Robins, a director, has spent $16,750 in June buying stock at 16-17 cents. He owns 4.78 million shares, a 4.4% stake.
The purchases could be significant, even if it's not a large amount for Robins -- he made more than $14.5 million from Royal Gold's $200-million acquisition of Great Bear Royalties alone.
The Discovery Group sees a lot of deal flow and has an impressive M&A track record, including the sales of Great Bear Resources ($1.8B), Great Bear Royalties, Kaminak Gold ($520M) and Northern Empire Resources ($117M). Northern Empire could be the most relevant of those transactions -- the company had about 671,000 open-pittable gold ounces at grades above 1.5 g/t when Hecla bought it in 2018.
Robins is also chairman of Fireweed Metals (FWZ-V) and K2 Gold (KTO-V) and a director of Elemental Altus Royalties (ELE-V). Other Gold Basin insiders have been buyers, including director Jim Paterson ($27,500 at 22 cents in May) and chairman Jonathan Lotz ($50,000 at 15 cents in a March share-only financing).
A maiden 43-101 resource estimate on Gold Basin is expected in the fourth quarter of this year.
Larry Childress: Fireweed's largest individual shareholder has gone above 17 million shares on Fireweed Metals (FWZ-V, FWEDF-OTC), which is advancing the Macmillan Pass high-grade zinc-lead-silver deposit and the high-grade Mactung tungsten deposit. Childress is an American engineer with a background in oil and gas who has been investing in the junior mining sector for decades. He now owns a 12.56% stake in Fireweed.
Fireweed recently published a resource update for Mactung, which hosts the world's largest high-grade tungsten deposit. At neighbouring Mac Pass, the company plans to drill 16,000 metres this season -- the largest program ever.
The campaign is off to a good start -- the first three drill holes at the Mac Pass Boundary zone hit zinc-lead mineralization, including a 73-metre interval of massive sulphides in a step-out hole.
The Lundins are also major shareholders: the family trusts own a 17.8% stake in Fireweed Metals after coming in during a November 2022 financing.
Ewan Downie: The CEO of i-80 Gold (IAU-T, IAUX) bought 10,000 shares of i-80 at $2.81 on June 22, taking his stake in the Nevada-focused exploration/development company to 2.25%.
Downie founded Premier Gold as well as the original Wolfden Resources, which sold to Zinifex for $363 million back in 2007. Ross Beaty's Equinox Gold bought Premier Gold for $480 million in 2020 and i-80 and its Nevada assets were spun out of that transaction. The spinout sports a $780-million market cap, so it's worked out fairly well for Downie.
In addition to one of Nevada's largest gold-silver endowments, i-80 is advancing its high-grade Hilltop CRD discovery at Ruby Hill.
Downie is also chairman of Wolfden Resources (WLF-V), which is developing the Pickett Mountain VMS deposit in Maine.
Disclosure: I own shares of NGEx Resources, Mayfair Gold, Gold Basin Resources and Fireweed Metals. No business relationship with any company mentioned.
