By James Kwantes
Published first at Patreon.com/jameskwantes
The ability to wait patiently for a happy ending is a superpower for junior mining investors.
Exhibit A may well be Dave Lotan, who’s been featured in these pages early (in my first Patreon piece, Slaughterhouse Insider Buying, on July 18, 2022) and often. For years, the Power Player has been buying shares of Aurion Resources (AU-V) and Fox River Resources (FOX-CN) in the public market (he was chairman of each company). In April/May, he monetized both positions with the buyout announcement of each, by Agnico Eagle (and subsidiaries).
Agnico steps up in Finland, buys Rupert and Aurion | April 20, 2026
Lotan was Aurion’s largest shareholder and his take from that happy ending worked out to about $41.6 million. He pocketed another $7.1 million when Agnico subsidiary Avenir Minerals bought phosphate play Fox River Resources for $94.3 million ($1.10/share) on May 4.
A key difference between Lotan and you or I, of course, was Lotan’s ability to join the board and help advance, create value and ultimately "remove the company from the battlefield," as he puts it. Patience was still required. In the case of Aurion, it was a 10-year journey through mostly bear markets from the time Lotan became chairman to this year's exit.
This July interview with Bill Powers of Mining Stock Education details Lotan's journey.
The ability to wait patiently for a happy ending is a superpower for junior mining investors.
For retail junior mining investors, it’s even more vital to track and invest with the top operators in the sector. Shining a light on them is another important focus here.
LunR Royalties (LUNR-T)
Any list of top junior mining operators has to include the Lundin family, now in its third generation. With Lukas’s death in 2022, the torch was passed to his four sons – Harry, Adam, Jack and Will – who are heavily involved in running the Lundin companies, trusts and foundation.
Lundins 3.0: Well-fed and Hungry | Oct. 11, 2023
Shares of the Lundins’ LunR Royalties (LUNR-T) have been perking up of late. LunR, the newest company in the family stable, was spun out of Vicuña exploration superstar NGEx Minerals (NGEX-T) late last year. Insiders have been loading up.
LUNR rocketed out of the gate, hitting highs of above $30 in March 2026 after a $12.25 close on its first day of trading (Dec. 19, 2025). It didn’t take long for that familiar force in junior mining, gravity, to take hold. The stock chart has since moved mostly to the bottom right, with a recent low of about $17. LUNR now trades at about $19.32 a share, for a $2.34-billion market cap.
Insiders have been loading up. On June 18, LunR chairman and CEO Adam Lundin spent almost $2 million buying shares at $19.76. He followed up on June 24 with a $935,000 purchase at $18.70 a share. When somebody drops nearly $3 million buying stock in the public market, I pay attention – even when the person is a billionaire.
Back in late March, before the share price swoon, Lundin spent about $800,000 buying shares at $26.96. He owns 830,150 shares (and another 30,000 indirectly). On July 13, Nemesia, one of the Lundin family trusts, bought another $13.69 million worth of LunR shares at $18.25, taking its stake to about 33 million shares, or 27.3%.
Trevor D’Sa, LunR’s chief investment officer, has also been adding to his stack on share price weakness. D’Sa has seen Lundin shareholder value creation up close – he was VP Corporate Development and Investor Relations at Filo until the $4.5-billion JV acquisition by BHP and Lundin Mining in January 2025. Prior to Filo he was with GT Gold, acquired by Newmont for $400 million in 2021.
Since the beginning of June, D’Sa has spent $137,000 buying LUNR at prices from $17.31 all the way up to $24.66. He has purchased shares as high as $27.82 (in late February). D’Sa has spent about $766,000 buying the stock this year.
All royalty/streaming companies involve financial engineering, but high-quality engineering tends to be far more reliable than geology. LunR recently booked its first revenue, from a silver stream at Lundin Gold’s Fruta del Norte mine in Ecuador.
Given the Lundins’ growing stable and the family’s access to deal flow, these are likely early days for LUNR. One candidate for a future deal could be a silver stream on Fireweed Metals’ large, high-grade Macpass zinc-lead-silver deposits in Yukon.
LUNR seems built for long-term growth. But there has been an uptick in royalty company M&A in recent years, including Sandstorm (US$3.5B to Royal Gold), Maverix (US$606M to Triple Flag), Nomad (US$590M) and Orogen ($US305M).
LunR Royalties (LUNR-T)
Price: $19.32
Shares out: 120.9 million (125M fully diluted)
Market cap: $2.34 billion
Fireweed Metals (FWZ-V)
Fireweed Metals (FWZ-V) is another Lundin company that has seen its stock drop rather precipitously this year. After hitting $5 in April, FWZ shares dropped as low as $2.59 in late July before perking up to the current $3.41.
Larry Childress, a veteran American speculator who owns more than 10% of Fireweed shares, has been buying the dip. On Aug. 4-5, he spent $2.22 million buying shares at $3.16 to $3.25, following that up Aug. 10-11 with $641,410 worth of purchases at $3.43. Childress now owns 24 million shares, a 10.57% stake worth more than $81 million.
I wrote about Childress and his purchases of Fireweed Metals here – Whale Watching and the 10% Club | Nov. 7, 2022 – with the stock at 63 cents.
Fireweed is working on a feasibility study for its Mactung tungsten deposit, one of the world’s largest high-grade tungsten deposits and a prized asset as export restrictions on defence metals spread. The study is expected to be complete in early 2027. Fireweed’s Macpass zinc-lead-silver project is one of the world’s largest undeveloped zinc deposits. The zinc price is quietly up about 31% in the past year.
Fireweed Metals (FWZ-V)
Price: $3.41
Shares out: 227.1 million (242.3M fully diluted)
Market cap: $775 million
Galway Metals (GWM-V)
I have touched on executive Robert Hinchcliffe a few times here. The former mining analyst was CFO of Kirkland Lake Gold (the original Kirkland Lake), which merged with Newmarket Gold and was ultimately sold to Agnico Eagle for $11 billion. He also ran Galway Resources, which sold for US$340 million in 2012 to Eike Batista’s AUX.
Buys of Summer: New Whale Sightings | Aug. 18, 2024
Hinchcliffe is again shovelling money into spinout Galway Metals (GWM-V), where he is president and CEO. Since the beginning of July, he’s spent $119,000 on Galway shares at prices ranging from 0.45 to 0.523. He owns 8.75 million shares, a 6.4% stake.
Galway is drilling its 100%-owned Clarence Stream gold project in southwest New Brunswick. Early results included 48 metres of 2.6 g/t gold and 31 metres of 1.7 g/t. Clarence Stream hosts 2.71 million oz (Indicated & Inferred) at grades of 1.4 to 1.62 g/t gold.
The company is also drilling a 5,000-metre program at its Estradas VMS mine project in Quebec’s northern Abitibi. Early this year, Galway landed a JV and option deal on Estradas with DOWA Metals & Mining, a large Japanese metals conglomerate. DOWA has a 10% participating interest in the project (as well as rights to 50% of Galway’s zinc concentrate production) and can earn up to a 45% interest in the project.
A cautionary note: There have been some rollbacks and dilution along the way. When I wrote about Hinchcliffe’s purchases of Galway stock back in August 2024, he owned about 8.7% of the 84.7 million outstanding shares. The share count has since ballooned to almost 136 million and Hinchcliffe’s ownership percentage has declined to 6.4%, still considerable.
Galway Metals (GWM-V)
Price: 0.53
Shares out: 136 million (142M fully diluted)
Market cap: $72.1 million
Legacy Gold Mines (LEGY-V)
Robert Hinchcliffe’s brother Brian Hinchcliffe has also been active, buying up shares of an Idaho gold play he runs called Legacy Gold Mines (LEGY-V). Legacy is drilling its Baner gold mine property in the state’s Idaho County. Latest results include 24.4 metres of 1.44 g/t gold and 13.5 metres of 1.14 g/t, both from surface. The stock has been lively of late, closing Thursday at $1.29, up 9 cents or 7.5%.
Hinchcliffe, Legacy’s chairman and CEO, has been adding. Since April 21, the veteran operator has spent more than $285,000 buying Legacy stock, at prices from 80 cents to $1.22. He owns 2,126,400 Legacy shares, a 3.5% stake.
Hinchcliffe worked at Goldman Sachs in metals and mining and has subsequently worked with serially successful junior mining financier Harry Dobson for more than 30 years. Hinchcliffe was a co-founder of the original Kirkland Lake Gold, later serving as its president and CEO, and was also formerly executive chairman and CEO of Rupert Resources (RUP-T). Rupert was sold to Agnico Eagle earlier this year for $2.87 billion, in the transaction that saw Agnico also buy Aurion Resources for $481 million.
Legacy Gold Mines (LEGY-V)
Price: $1.29
Shares out: 61.11 million (65.78M fully diluted)
Market cap: $78.83 million
TDG Gold (TDG-V)
TDG Gold (TDG-V) caught my attention back in January 2025, when neighbour Amarc Resources (AHR-V) hit some joy in the form of AuRORA, a gold-rich copper porphyry discovery. Amarc’s JV partner is Freeport McMoRan, which owns a 60% interest and can earn up to 70%. The AuRORA system continues onto TDG’s ground to the west and the company continues to drill-test its Aurora West target.
Amarc Hits the Mark, Neighbour TDG Basks in Glow | Jan. 27, 2025
TDG shares hit $1.88 back in the fall of 2025 and have fallen steadily since, to the current 47.5 cents. Michael Kosowan, TDG’s chairman and a director, has been adding on the drop. Since the beginning of May, Kosowan has spent more than $400,000 adding to his TDG stake, at prices from 44-60 cents. He owns 19.16 million shares, a 6.8% stake.
Kosowan, an engineer, has an impressive resumé. He worked for Rick Rule at Global Resource Investments and was an investment advisor at Sprott Private Wealth. He also has operational experience at major miners including Falconbridge, Placer Dome and Inco.
A note on dilution: TDG Gold’s stock trades at about the same level as it did in late January 2025 but the share count has virtually doubled since then. Porphyry exploration is expensive for juniors. Kosowan owned 11.2% of shares back then and is now at 6.8%.
TDG Gold (TDG-V)
Price: 0.475
Shares out: 281 million (307M fully diluted)
Market cap: $133.5 million
TNR Gold (TNR-V)
My focus is typically insider buying by individuals. However, there have been some interesting “special situations” this summer where the insider is a company.
One of them is Altius Minerals (ALS-T) taking a 10%-plus stake in TNR Gold (TNR-V), a small royalty company with lithium and copper royalties. TNR has a 0.4% royalty on McEwen Mining’s Los Azules copper development project and a 1.5% royalty on Ganfeng Lithium’s producing Mariana lithium project. Both projects are in Argentina. Ganfeng can buy back a 1% royalty for $900,000 (and undoubtedly will).
Los Azules is the more interesting of the two royalties. It’s one of the world’s largest undeveloped copper porphyry projects, hosting proven and probable reserves of 10.2 billion lbs of copper (at 0.453%), a Measured and Indicated resource of 5.4B lbs of copper (0.26%), with gold and silver, and a 20B-lb Inferred Cu resource. TNR also has a 7% net profits royalty on the Batidero I and II properties at Lundin Mining’s Josemaria project.
On April 6, larger royalty player Altius bought a 9.9% stake in TNR, paying $4.2 million (0.179 a share). On July 22, Altius upped its stake, buying a block of another 7.435 million TNR shares at 23 cents a share. That gives Altius 30.935 million TNR shares, a 12.9% interest.
Altius’s moves come as Kirill Klip, TNR’s executive chairman, president and CEO, fends off a proxy battle with an activist shareholder who is also increasing his stake in the company. Investor Jon Christian "JC" Evensen filed as a 10% shareholder on March 27 of this year. He’s since spent more than $2.8 million buying TNR shares at prices ranging from 18-26 cents.
Evensen owns, directly and indirectly, about 32.38 million TNR shares, a 13.5% stake. That compares to Klip’s position of 31.513 million shares, a 13.14% stake. Kirill’s son Konstantin Klip, TNR’s VP Corporate Development, owns 2.662 million TNR shares.
Some of the proxy battle for control of TNR Gold is playing out on social media. TNR’s executive chairman is a prolific X poster. So is Evensen, who is known as “The Koala” at the @YellowLabLife handle (he owns most of his TNR shares in the “Eucalyptus Resources Opportunities Fund. I LP”).
On Tuesday (Aug. 11), with an hour left in the trading day, TNR announced it would hold its annual general and special meeting of shareholders on Sept. 22, with a record date of Aug. 12. Evensen spent another $249,301 buying TNR shares at 30.2 cents on Aug. 11, for a combined position of about 33.2 million shares, or 13.85%.
AUG. 14 UPDATE: Evensen, through Eucalyptus Resources Opportunities Fund, has put forward an alternative slate of TNR directors, including himself. The others are Michael Horner (Adriatic Metals, Tinka Resources), Sandra Bates (Predictive Discovery, Elemental Altus Royalties, Adriatic) and Dusan Petkovic (Sprott Resources Lending, G Mining Ventures).
Altius specializes in securing royalties on long-life assets across lithium, potash, base metals, iron ore and renewable electricity. The $3.7-billion company, which bought Lithium Royalty Corp. in late 2025, already holds a 0.5% NSR on Ganfeng’s Mariana lithium project in Argentina. On Monday, Altius booked Q2 royalty revenue of $30 million, a record, and adjusted earnings of $7.6 million.
TNR Gold (TNR-V)
Price: 0.32
Shares out: 244 million (260M fully diluted)
Market cap: $78 million
Mayfair Gold (MFG-V)
Another interesting one is Mayfair Gold (MFG-V), a gold developer with an Ontario deposit and strong backers that I’ve touched on several times in this space. Controlling shareholder Muddy Waters, which won a Mayfair proxy fight in 2024, is a U.S. hedge fund best-known for its short campaigns against companies like Sino-Forest. Lesser-known are the piles of money the fund has made going long high-quality gold plays.
Muddy Waters - and a Golden Opportunity? | May 7, 2024
Muddy Waters installed its preferred chairman, Darren McLean, at Mayfair. He is an ex-K2 & Associates vice-president and current Muddy Waters consultant who has been doing some insightful interviews lately, such as this one: Darren McLean interview with Money of Mine.
The company is working on design and engineering for its Fenn-Gib gold deposit as well as environmental approvals on an expedited permitting timeline after releasing a pre-feasability study in January. Fenn-Gib was a stranded asset in large companies, including Barrick, Lake Shore Gold, Tahoe Resources and Pan American Silver. The deposit hosts 4.3 million ounces of open-pittable gold, Indicated, with a life-of-mine average gold grade of 1.29 g/t and a higher-grade starter pit.
Muddy Waters continues to accumulate. Since the beginning of July, Carson Block’s fund has spent about $1.9 million buying Mayfair shares at prices ranging from $3.22 to $3.68. CEO Drew Anwyll recently spent $139,061 buying stock at $3.66. Anwyll is an engineer who was previously COO at Generation Mining. He replaced Nick Campbell on May 4.
Muddy Waters’s involvement likely increases the odds that other large U.S. funds will jump aboard. One already has: Howard Marks’s Oaktree Capital, which spent $14.85 million in a financing a year ago to secure a 6.7% stake in Mayfair.
As for the stock, it went public at $1.85 a share back in March 2021, with gold at about US$1,700 an ounce, and shares have failed to gain any traction. Mayfair did a 2-for-1 share consolidation late last year and the stock now trades at $3.55. Below where it did coming out of the gate.
During that time, Mayfair grew the open-pittable resource to 4.3 million oz Indicated (from 3.3Moz) and gold trades at US$4,400/oz. The deposit is along a highway, in the storied Timmins, Ontario mining district and near other mines and exploration projects. The math doesn’t seem to add up, which may explain the piles of money Muddy Waters is spending to increase its stake.
Mayfair Gold (MFG-V)
Price: $3.55
Shares out: 67.1 million (70M fully diluted)
Market cap: $238.2 million
Prospector Metals (PPP-V)
Finally, B2Gold (BTO-T) has been maintaining its 19.5%-plus stake in Prospector Metals (PPP-V) through public-market purchases. I have a conflict of interest as I’m doing some communications consulting with Prospector, which is exploring its ML gold-silver-copper project in Yukon.
Prospector shares rocketed from dimes to above a dollar in early October 2025 on a high-grade discovery at ML. B2Gold, already a shareholder, upped its stake in Prospector in a financing. On Wednesday (Aug. 12), Prospector shares took the elevator down after assay results from the first three drill holes (out of 68 completed so far this season) fell short of expectations.
Between those two consequential moves, B2Gold was buying in the market at prices ranging from $1.30 to $1.54. In transactions between April and June, the gold miner spent about $2.3 million buying Prospector shares. B2Gold owns 31,232,128 Prospector shares, a 19.5% stake.
Prospector Metals (PPP-V)
Price: 0.83
Shares out: 160.28 million (181.82M fully diluted)
Market cap: $133 million
Disclosure: I own shares of LunR Royalties, NGEx Minerals, Fireweed Metals, Altius Minerals, Mayfair Gold and Prospector Metals. I also have a business relationship with Prospector. This article is for educational purposes only and should not be taken as financial advice. All investors need to do their own due diligence.
