by James Kwantes
Published first at Patreon
For junior mining investors who have navigated bear markets for many of the past 10 years, this feels like the other side.
Is the junior mining sector a coiled spring, still, or a hot-air balloon poised to blow a hole ahead of a precipitous fall? My money is on the former -- yes, despite a relatively ferocious correction Tuesday.
With precious metals on a tear and base metals looking strong, I have been taking note of company insiders who continue to buy in the face of rising stock prices.
Dave Lotan (Aurion Resources, Olive Resource Capital)
Lotan is a prolific buyer of shares in Aurion Resources (AU-V), the Finland-focused junior exploration company where he is chairman. He takes no salary or options, so is fully aligned with shareholders.
Since the beginning of September, Lotan has spent about $210,000 buying Aurion stock, at prices from 99 cents to $1.14. He came on as chairman back on May 1, 2017, and filed an opening balance of 7.26 million shares. Since then, Lotan has spent more than $7.5 million buying stock, at an average price of 69.5 cents a share.
The veteran junior mining investor now owns 15,822,884 Aurion shares, a 9.8% stake. That puts him just ahead of Kinross Gold, which participated pro rata in Aurion's last (unit) financing to maintain its 9.99% stake (including warrants). In late August, Aurion sold $9.29 million in equity to a strategic investor, priced in 84-cent units (one share, one three-year half-warrant priced at $1.08).
Aurion is exploring in Finland's Central Lapland Greenstone Belt (CLGB) on 100% owned ground and through joint ventures and option deals with B2Gold (BTO-T), Kinross Gold (K-T) and KoBold Metals (a private critical minerals company backed by Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates).
LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION
One valuable asset is Aurion's 30% stake in the Helmi JV with B2Gold, which borders on Rupert Resources (RUP-T)'s 4M-oz Ikkari discovery immediately to the north. The JV property line runs through Rupert's proposed Ikkari open pit, affecting economics of both open-pit and underground production.
Back in March 2024, Rupert offered B2Gold 28,644,111 RUP shares for its 70% stake in the JV, valuing B2's stake at about $103 million and implying a $44M valuation for Aurion's 30% stake (Rupert probably also needs portions of AU's 100%-owned ground for the Ikkari mine). At the time, RUP traded at about $3.60; gold was US$2,000/oz. RUP now trades at $5.50 and gold is US$4,340. In this gold price environment, with the miners printing money and M&A picking up, the stakes are getting higher, especially for RUP. Time is money.
Lotan has also been nibbling on shares of Olive Resource Capital (OC-V), a junior mining-focused investment fund in which he holds an 11.3% stake. Since Aug. 26, Lotan has spent $106,850 buying Olive shares, at prices from 5-9 cents. The stock has a one-year range of 2-9 cents.
The precious metals bull has been kind to several of Olive's holdings, which include Omai Gold Mines (OMG-V) and Sterling Metals (SAG-V). Only one of those tickers accurately reflects the stock action: Omai shares have more than quadrupled in 2025 and Sterling shares are more than a 5X in that time period. Olive also holds Aurion shares worth about $460,000 as of Sept. 30.
Lotan also owns 18.1% of Chibougamau Independent Mines (CBG-V) and just under 10% of Fox River Resources (FOX-CN).
Aurion Resources
Price: $0.99
Shares out: 161.9 million (178M fully diluted)
Market cap: $160.3 million
Olive Resource Capital
Price: 0.07
Shares out: 109.2 million (144.4M fully diluted)
Market cap: $7.64 million
Nick Campbell (Mayfair Gold)
Controlling shareholder Muddy Waters has been the focus of insider buying at Mayfair Gold (MFG-V), with other U.S. hedge funds including Heeney Capital and Oaktree Capital also betting on the Timmins gold developer.
Go Time for Mayfair Gold? | Oct. 31, 2024
CEO Nick Campbell just added to his stake near year highs for the stock, spending $88,000 at $2.20 a share. The purchase follows a spend of about $500,000 in the September $1.65/share financing that brought in Howard Marks's Oaktree Capital. Campbell owns about 1.14 million Mayfair shares.
Mayfair is advancing its open-pittable 4.3-million-oz (Indicated) Fenn-Gib gold deposit in Timmins, Ontario to a pre-feasibility study, which is expected by the end of the year. The company is also using proceeds of the last financing to complete metallurgical and detailed engineering work.
Price: $2.10
Shares out: 133.5 million (135M fully diluted)
Market cap: $280 million
Heye Daun (Koryx Copper)
Koryx Copper (KRY-V) shares have come alive in the past couple of months, increasing about 50% as the company advances its Haib copper project in Namibia with an updated PEA.
Serially successful CEO Heye Daun continues to pile money into the company.
Since the beginning of September, Daun has spent nearly $780,000 buying stock in the public market, at prices from $1.17 to $1.54.
He owns 1.9 million shares, a nearly 2% stake. That’s up from the 1.85% Daun owned when I last wrote about him, on Aug. 1, despite a financing that added 19 million shares to the registry.
Koryx Copper
Price: $1.52
Shares out: 97.5 million (111.7M fully diluted)
Market cap: $148 million
Nemesia, Alessandro Bitelli, Erin Johnston (NGEx Minerals)
Public-market purchases are a primary focus but occasionally, unicorns land on my radar. NGEx Minerals fits the description. Recent financing purchases by NGEx insiders are significant because they come ahead of the spinout of LunR Royalties, which will hold royalties on the Lunahuasi (1%) and Los Helados (1.38%) deposits. NGEx shareholders will receive .25 of a share of LunR Royalties for every NGEx share held.
The (Lundin) Beat Goes on in Vicuña
The arrangement is expected to take effect as of 12:01 a.m. on Oct. 23. After announcing the spinco but before the effective date was announced, NGEx raised $175 million (upsized from $100M) at $25/share. Several insiders participated, beefing up their positions prior to the spinco creation.
Nemesia, one of the Lundin family trusts, spent $5 million in the financing and added another $33.1 million at $25.47 a share, taking its stake to 35.4%.
NGEx director Alessandro Bitelli, an accountant and longtime Lundin Group operator, put $1 million into the financing. Director Erin Johnston, a Filo director from 2020-25, put $250,000 into the financing and Nav Svadi, NGEx's corporate controller, bought $50,000 worth of shares.
Guts, Glory ... and Another Lundin Moonshot? | July 12, 2023
Lundins 3.0: Well-fed and Hungry | Oct. 11, 2023
Adam Lundin, who will be the president and CEO of LunR Royalties, owns 1.67 million NGEx shares.
NGEx Minerals
Price: $25.10
Shares out: 208 million (221M fully diluted)
Market cap: $5.22 billion
Alejandro Gubbins Cox (Rackla Metals, Kingfisher Metals)
Alejandro Gubbins Cox has been an active investor in junior companies exploring in northern B.C. and Yukon. Recent events at one of those companies, Rackla Metals (RAK-V), are a cautionary tale for speculators on the perils of blindly following insiders (or anybody else) into stock purchases, as well as on the risks of drill plays.
Gubbins Cox is part of a powerful Peruvian mining family that runs Alpayana, which operates four mines producing zinc, copper, silver and lead. The family has branched out by taking large equity stakes in several junior companies. Until recently, Gubbins Cox's mother, Ana Maria Cox de Gubbins, was a 10%-plus shareholder of both Snowline Gold (SGD-V) and Sitka Gold (SIG-V). She dropped below 10% in both this year after company financings.
Gubbins Cox recently spent $70,000 adding to his stake in Rackla after the stock plunged 76% on Oct. 6 after releasing dud initial assay results from its Grad gold project in Yukon. He had spent much more than that buying Rackla at higher levels, however.
Rackla is exploring for reduced intrusion-related gold systems (RIRGS) in Yukon's Tombstone gold belt, southeast of Snowline Gold's 8.8M-oz Valley RIRGS deposit. Rackla has a strong team and is run by Simon Ridgway, an experienced operator with a track record of discoveries.
EARLY INVESTOR
Back in October 2024, Gubbins Cox put $1.2 million into Rackla at 12 cents a share, increasing his stake in the company from 9.9% to 18.4%.
Rackla shares traded below 35 cents until early July, when they took flight amid excitement that the company had tagged a high-grade RIRGS similar to the one Snowline is developing. The stock traded as high as a dollar, giving the company a market cap of $160 million at one point.
Gubbins Cox was a buyer on the way up, adding more than $1.6 million worth of RAK shares at prices from 60-95 cents between Aug. 5 and Sept. 23. Rackla shares crashed from 87 cents to 20.5 cents on Oct. 6 following disappointing assays. Rackla CEO Ridgway and director Tom Garagan have also bought stock since; Ridgway bought 100,000 shares at 20 cents and Garagan bought 100,000 shares at 19 cents.
Gubbins Cox owns 32.5 million Rackla shares, a 19.9% stake worth about $5.36 million.
He is also a 10% holder of Kingfisher Metals (KFR-V), Dustin Perry's B.C.-focused exploreco. Kingfisher's flagship project is Highway 37, a consolidated porphyry property surrounded by the likes of Newmont, Teck and Skeena Resources in northwestern B.C.'s Golden Triangle.
In March of this year, Gubbins Cox spent $229,260 increasing his Kingfisher stake, at prices from 28-30 cents. He owns 9.13 million KFR shares, a 10.3% stake worth $2.5 million.
He also owns a 14.4% stake in GreenLight Metals (GRL-V), which just released assay results at its Wisconsin VMS project, and a 12.5% stake in RAMP Metals (RAMP-V), which is exploring for gold in Saskatchewan.
Rackla Metals
Price: 0.165
Shares out: 163 million (174M fully diluted)
Market cap: $26.9 million
Kingfisher Metals
Price: 0.275
Shares out: 89 million (124.5M fully diluted)
Market cap: $24.5 million
Michael Kosowan (Eminent Gold)
The last time I wrote about Kosowan, the TDG Gold (TDG-V) director was loading up on TDG shares following neighbour Amarc Resources' rich copper-gold porphyry hit on neighbouring ground in northern B.C.
Amarc Hits the Mark, Neighbour TDG Basks in Glow | Jan. 27, 2025
Kosowan has since been named TDG's chairman. He is up to 17.77 million TDG shares (about 6.4%), the vast majority purchased at less than half the current share price, and TDG has since proven that Amarc's high-grade mineralization extends onto their Greater Shasta zone at the neighbouring property.
Lately Kosowan has been adding shares of Eminent Gold (EMNT-V), which is drilling a follow-up program at its Hot Springs Range project in northern Nevada. He is an Eminent director.
From Oct. 9-15, Kosowan bought 200,000 EMNT shares at an estimated price of 31 cents (there is no price registered for a 150,000 purchase). He owns 6.5% of Eminent's stock.
Kosowan is a mining engineer who has worked on the operational side with Placer Dome, Inco and Falconbridge, as well as the finance side with Sprott Private Wealth and Sprott Global Resources. He is also a director of Torq Resources (TORQ-V).
Eminent Gold
Price: 0.30
Shares out: 78 million (102.3M fully diluted)
Market cap: $23.4 million
TDG Gold
Price: 0.93
Shares out: 276 million (306M fully diluted)
Market cap: $257 million
Glenn Pountney (Mirasol Resources)
The junior mining sector has found a pulse and the beat also goes on for veteran junior mining investor Glenn Pountney. He started accumulating Mirasol Resources (MRZ-V) shares in the long bear market and continues to add to his stake, as the company prepares to drill a project in the Vicuña district.
Whale Watching and the 10% Club | Nov. 7, 2022
Pountney, head equity trader at First Marathon Securities in the 1990s, has spent about $1.1 million in 2025 buying Mirasol stock, at prices ranging from 33-47 cents. He sometimes nibbles (a $175 trade here, a $208 trade there) but also buys in size, such as on Sept. 8 when he bought $173,160 worth of MRZ at 36 cents. Pountney now owns
Among Pountney's wins since he became a private investor are the original Norsemont Mining, bought by HudBay for $520M in 2011, and Klondex Mines, purchased by Hecla Mining in a US$462-million deal.
Mirasol has been monetizing non-core assets as it pivots to exploration on its 100%-owned Sobek properties, in the Vicuña district on the Chile side. The company is refining a drill target at its 46 South target on the Sobek Central property, with drilling planned for early November. 46 South is seven kilometres west of BHP/Lundin's Filo del Sol deposit.
Mirasol Resources
Price: 0.43
Shares out: 81.85 million (88M fully diluted)
Market cap: $35.2 million
Disclosure: I own shares of Aurion Resources, Mayfair Gold, Snowline Gold, Mirasol Resources and NGEx Minerals (soon, LunR Royalties). No business relationship with any company mentioned. This article is for informational purposes only and all investors need to do their own due diligence.
