The Fast Track: Low-Capex Paths for High-Grade Junior Gold
Junior gold companies talk through the lower-cost routes to production, toll-milling and nearby mills versus building their own plant, and how each choice reshapes capex, timelines, and risk.
With more than 30 years of experience in mining exploration and development, he has led some of the industry's most significant projects. He served as President and CEO of Marathon Gold, where he advanced the Valentine Gold Project, and previously as President and CEO of Stornoway Diamond, where he developed the Renard Diamond Project. His contributions to the sector have been widely recognized: he was named the Northern Miner's Mining Person of the Year in 2017 and received the PDAC Viola MacMillan Award in 2015.
David Russell is a seasoned mining executive with a track record of leading companies through project development, mine construction and strategic transitions (M&A, turnarounds). He holds a B.Sc. in Mining Engineering from Montana Tech and currently serves as President & CEO of Galleon Gold Corp., where he leads the development of the West Cache Gold Project in Timmins, Ontario. Prior to this, he founded and led Apollo Gold where he acquired the Black Fox Mine bringing it into production. Mr. Russell has held senior roles at companies including Getchell Gold, LAC Minerals / Barrick, Hecla, and Independence Mining.
Mr. Michaud, P.Geo., M.Sc. is a Professional Geologist with over 30 years’ of experience in domestic and international gold exploration and mining that includes a broad range of deposit types within North and South America, Africa, Asia and Europe.
Previously Michael served as Wesdome Gold Mines Ltd. where he is the Senior Vice President, Exploration and Resources, and Iamgold’s Chief Geologist responsible for providing global geological support for IAMGOLD’s exploration activities worldwide. He also has held roles of increasing responsibility for several exploration and mining companies including, Vice-President, Exploration for St Andrew Goldfields and was a Principal of SRK Consulting Inc.
Mr. Michaud holds an honors B.Sc. from the University of Waterloo, and a M.Sc. from Lakehead University.
Thomas Mumford (Ph.D., P.Geo) has over 15 years’ worth of experience in the mining industry as an exploration geologist. He holds a B.Sc. and M.Sc. from University of New Brunswick, and a Ph.D. from Carleton University. He has worked across Canada for numerous junior mining companies, exploring for multiple commodities. His most recent role at Scottie was VP of Exploration which he held since 2018, which contributed to the discovery of multiple new zones on the property, including the Blueberry Contact zone. Formerly an instructor and Program Head of BCIT’s Mining and Mineral Exploration Program, he now sits on the board of Thesis Gold and is a director for AME (Association of Mineral Exploration).
Replay transcript excerpt
Hello everyone. I see it was filling up fast here. Thank you for joining us today for this live discussion on lower cost routes to production. On the call we have with us today Matt Manson, President and CEO of Radisson Money, Michael Michaud, President and CEO of RPX Gold, and Thomas Mumford, President and CEO of Scotty Resources. David Russell, President and CEO of Gallium Gold, is expected to join the call. He might just be running late on a meeting. Hopefully he does tune in. If you have any on-topic questions, please feel free to submit them using the chat feature at the bottom of your screen. If you have a company-specific question or would simply like to meet with management from 1 or more of these companies, a request meeting pop-up will appear once we close off today. Just select which companies you'd like to connect with, and our team at SICK will pass your information along to each respective company. And as always, this event is being recorded and will be available for replay shortly after we conclude. With that, gentlemen, thank you for taking the time out of your day. Let's start off with some questions for the whole panel. We can get into a couple of company specific questions. We'll start with you, Matt. And we will ask around the room after when you weigh building your own mill against toll mailing or leaning on a nearby plant. What factors carry the most weight in that decision? I think it's really, I think this is something that I think all of the participants in this call have in common is, you know, proximity to existing infrastructure, existing mills, permitted tailings facilities, roads, power lines. So why kind of do it again, right? Not every, the best way to build value in a mining business is not necessarily to build your own mill and to bu...
