By James Kwantes
Published first at Patreon
Sometimes significant developments in a company's story arrive quietly.
A plain white envelope landed in my post office box recently. Inside was Fireweed Metals' management information circular and the latest details on the Lundin Group taking full control of the ship.
Fireweed is nominating Wojtek Wodzicki and Ron Hochstein as new directors, replacing John Robins and Marcus Chalk.
The Vicuña Viceroy
For regular readers of this space, Wodzicki doesn't need much of an introduction. He's the president and CEO of NGEx Minerals (NGEX-T), which is outlining the spectacular Lunahuasi copper-gold-silver discovery in the Vicuña district while developing the Los Helados deposit (NGEx owns 69%). Wodzicki was also deeply involved in the discovery of Filo's Filo del Sol deposit, which achieved a $4.5-billion valuation on a joint (50-50) Lundin-BHP bid.
What's next after Filo's $4.5B exit? A few ideas
Wodzicki and other members of the Lundin Group's Vicuña exploration team won last year's Thayer Lindsley award at PDAC for the Vicuña discoveries.
Wodzicki's elevation to the Fireweed board suggests the Lundin boys see in the Yukon's Tombstone belt their next great metals district. Fireweed already has known world-class deposits of tungsten and zinc-lead-silver. Perhaps others lurk under the surface, on or outside of Fireweed's current ground.
The latest moves follow Adam Lundin's arrival as Fireweed chairman and Filo CFO Ian Gibbs's appointment as Fireweed's president and CEO in January 2025. Jamie Beck, Filo's CEO, became a Fireweed director in June 2024.
A Golden Hue?
As for Hochstein, he is president and CEO of Lundin Gold (LUG-T), which is mining the high-grade Fruta del Norte gold deposit in Ecuador. The company produced 500,000 ounces of gold in 2024; the stock has a one-year return of almost 150%.
Lundin Gold has an amazing asset, but single-asset mining companies carry a higher level of risk. One example is Lundin sister company Lucara Diamond, whose large-diamond-producing Karowe mine is bogged down in underground development cost overruns with the stock trading at multi-year lows.
Because of Fireweed's proximity to Snowline Gold (SGD-V)'s flagship Yukon property, speculation has been building of a potential Lundin Gold bid for Scott Berdahl's Snowline and its spectacular Valley discovery -- which hosts 7.3 million open-pittable ounces (Indicated and Inferred) and counting. An updated resource estimate is pending. Hochstein's appointment to the Fireweed board will not quieten the speculation.
The purchase by Lundin Gold of another high-quality gold deposit in Canada's Yukon could be viewed positively by the market. The synergies with neighbouring Macpass are clear. In such a scenario, Lundin Gold could be bidding against Clive Johnson's B2Gold (BTO-T), which owns 9.9% of Snowline shares.
Johnson has career roots in Yukon and B2Gold has been pivoting to safer jurisdictions, including its purchase of Sabina Gold & Silver and the Back River high-grade gold deposits in Nunavut. Commercial production is expected in Q3 2025.
As for Macpass, there has been interest in gold dating back to Brandon Macdonald's tenure as Fireweed CEO, and there have been renewed indications of a golden direction lately. Fireweed's latest deck mentions "potential for intrusion-related Au targets" and this year's plans include:
Macpass: Focus on advancing regional exploration targets with the highest prospectivity by drill-testing (zinc-lead-silver-gallium-germanium & gold targets);
Mactung: Additional historical drill core scanning and expanded gold assay coverage.
John Robins is also a familiar name for regular readers. He's a formidable operator with Yukon experience and family roots, so his exit from the Fireweed board (he's a former chairman) is more than just a routine shuffling of chairs.
Robins is a co-founder (with Jim Paterson) of the Discovery Group of companies, a mining house with a great track record of shareholder value creation. His Kaminak Gold and its Coffee project in Yukon was sold to Goldcorp for $520 million in 2016; Great Bear Resources and Great Bear Royalties went for a combined $2 billion to Kinross Gold (K-T) and Royal Gold (RGL-T), respectively.
Robins owns a lot of Fireweed stock, too - as of March 20, he owned 6.28 million Fireweed shares, more than 3.4% of the total. I'm not sure how his exit from the board makes Fireweed a stronger company, actually.
The latest board moves at Fireweed Metals are the clearest signal yet that the Lundins, who own about 25% of FWZ shares, are looking at the Yukon as their next big district-scale opportunity.
Will there be a golden hue to Fireweed's future? Stay tuned.
Fireweed Metals (FWZ-V)
Price: $1.54
Shares out: 183 million (200M fully diluted)
Market cap: $280.4 million
Snowline Gold (SGD-V)
Price: $7.45
Shares out: 160.6 million (171.5M fully diluted)
Market cap: $1.18 billion
Disclosure: I own shares of Fireweed Metals and Snowline Gold. No business relationship with either company, and all investors need to do their own due diligence. This is not financial advice.
