by James Kwantes
Published first at Patreon
Insider buying has picked up at Vizsla Royalties (VROY-V), the royalty spinout of Vizsla Silver (VZLA-T) that began trading on Aug. 26, 2024. The spinout, like the flagship, was named for a dog breed and the stocks have been anything but.
Vizsla Silver has rocketed to a $1.4-billion market cap; the spinout has already achieved a $190-million valuation on the back of progress at Vizsla's Panuco silver-gold district in Mexico and surging silver prices.
Vizsla Royalties owns 2% and 3.5% royalties that cover the entire Panuco district.
Mike Konnert, VROY's executive chairman (and Vizsla Silver's president/CEO), has spent $207,677 buying Vizsla Royalties shares in July, at prices ranging from $2.40 to $2.68.
Konnert is a young executive to watch. He co-founded mining house Inventa Capital with Craig Parry (a NexGen Energy co-founder) after partnering with Parry to sell privately held Cobalt One Energy to Aussie-listed Blackstone Minerals for $10 million in 2017.
After that win, Konnert and a prospector worked with two Mexican families for almost two years to assemble and consolidate a large silver-rich land package in Mexico, which became the Panuco project. Konnert owns 2.4 million Vizsla Silver shares, worth about $10.1 million.
Since the Vizsla Royalties spinout, Konnert has put more than $1.07 million into VROY share purchases, according to SEDI, including a private purchase of 400,000 shares at $2 back in June. He owns 992,308 VROY shares (directly and indirectly), a $2.7-million stake.
He's not the only Vizsla insider with chunky VROY buys. Engineer Simon Cmrlec, a director of both Vizslas and COO of Vizsla Silver, has spent more than $102,000 buying VROY shares in July, at $2.33 to $2.85. Cmrlec, a close associate of Inventa co-founder Craig Parry, owns about 700,000 VROY shares.
Silver M&A has been heating up, among both majors and juniors. In May, Ross Beaty's Pan American Silver (PAAS-T) announced the $2.1-billion cash-and-shares purchase of MAG Silver (MAG-T) and MAG's 44% interest in the high-grade Juanicipio mine in Mexico, operated by Fresnillo.
The following month, Summa Silver (SSVR-V) and Silver47 (AGA-V) announced a merger of (almost) equals and Torex Gold (TXG-T) snapped up beaten-down junior Reyna Silver (RSLV-V) for $36 million. Torex followed that up on July 28 by announcing the purchase of Prime Mining (PRYM-T) and its multi-million-oz Los Reyes gold-silver deposit for $449 million.
Vizsla Royalties (VROY-V)
Price: $2.71
Shares out: 70 million (79M fully diluted)
Market cap: $190 million
Golden Altitude for Altius Minerals
Action is also heating up in the royalty sector.
Altius Minerals (ALS-T) just monetized 2/3rds of a prized gold asset: its valuable royalty on AngloGold Ashanti's Silicon-Merlin (now Arthur) project in Nevada, which hosts 16 million ounces of oxide gold and counting.
On July 23, Altius announced the sale of a 1% NSR royalty on the world-class discovery to Franco Nevada for $375 million in cash, retaining a 0.5% NSR on the project.
The sale comes on the heels of Orogen Royalties' (OGN-V) sale of its 1% royalty on Silicon-Merlin to Triple Flag Precious Metals (TFPM-T) for $343 million in cash and shares (the deal also included Orogen 2.0, the Orogen Royalties spinco). Altius owned almost 20% of Orogen shares and netted about $80 million in cash and Triple Flag shares (as well as Orogen 2.0 shares) from the deal.
Base metals is Altius's bread and butter, but Altius CEO Brian Dalton has proven adept at seizing opportunities. The company is flush with cash. As he put it in the news release: "We now look forward to the ability to explore a wider set of capital allocation and deployment opportunities. ..."
Altius spent just $400,000 on the exploration grubstake that was the cost base for the 1.5% royalty, which has a present value of $562.5 million. The growing cash pile combined with the company's skilful capital allocation bodes well for shareholders.
Altius shares got only a slight bump on the news and one insider spotted opportunity. Mark Raguz, the company's VP Corporate Development, Royalties, spent $39,778 adding to his stake at $28.41 a share.
Price: $29.09
Shares out: 46.32 million
Market cap: $1.35 billion
Heye! He's buying again
Investing in entrepreneurs with track records of creating shareholder value can dramatically increase a retail investor's odds of success in junior mining. Heye Daun fits the bill.
Last year, Daun and business partner Alan Friedman sold Osino Resources (OSI-V) and its Twin Hills gold project in Namibia to Shanjin International Gold for $368 million in cash, yielding an $11.2-million payday for the mining engineer. His Ecuador Gold & Copper merged with Ross Beaty's Odin Mining in 2016 to form Lumina Gold, which sold to CMOC for $581 million earlier this year.
Daun previously co-founded Auryx Gold, which advanced the Otjikoto gold project (now mine) in Namibia and was bought in 2012 by B2Gold (BTO-T) for $180 million.
Daun was born in Namibia and he's back on familiar ground. Lately he's been loading up on shares of Koryx Copper (KRY-V), where he's president and CEO after a change of management control. Koryx is advancing the large-scale Haib copper project in Namibia.
Daun put $350,000 into Koryx's recent financing, which raised $25 million at $1.05 per share. Prior to that, since the end of May, Daun spent more than $524,000 buying KRY shares, at prices ranging from 97 cents to $1.14. He owns 1.314 million shares, a 1.85% stake.
Price: $1.03
Shares out: 71.2 million (86.1M fully diluted)
Market cap: $73.4 million
Trading in His "Genes"
This item is less "insider buying report" and more "interesting person SEDI report."
Investment banker Eugene "Gene" McBurney was the "M" in GMP Securities (Griffiths McBurney & Partners), the Canadian investment bank swallowed by Stifel Canada in 2019.
McBurney was a securities lawyer turned turned pro hockey agent turned investment banker, who partnered with Gordon Capital's Brad Griffiths to form GMP in 1995.
GMP brought in Mike Wekerle from First Marathon Securities to run trading operations, and the company was a swashbuckling investment powerhouse for the next 20 years.
Wekerle is back in the mining finance game with Altitude Capital Consultants; McBurney runs ECM Capital Advisors.
On July 15, McBurney filed an opening SEDI balance for 120,000 shares of Kuya Silver (KUYA.CN), where he was appointed a director on June 30. Kuya's flagship project is the Bethania silver-lead-zinc project in central Peru.
Price: 0.395
Shares out: 121.38 million (165M fully diluted)
Market cap: $48 million
The Vicuña Vacuum Re-activates
One of Wekerle's co-workers at First Marathon before "Wek" jumped ship to GMP was Glenn Pountney, First Marathon's head equity trader. National Bank Financial bought First Marathon in 1999; Pountney left in December 2000.
Pountney hasn't lost his touch, or his appetite for junior mining stocks. HudBay's purchase of the original Norsemont Mining for $520 million in 2011 resulted in a $28-million payday for Pountney, a 10%-plus Norsemont shareholder. Pountney also went over 10% on Klondex Mines, purchased by Hecla Mining in 2018 for US$462 million.
One of Pountney's favourite plays is Mirasol Resources (MRZ-V), a project generator pivoting to exploration at its 100% owned Sobek properties in the prolific Vicuña district of Chile/Argentina. Mirasol had properties staked in Vicuña prior to Filo's high-grade Filo del Sol discovery hole, and the company has since added to its land position.
Mirasol has spent the summer monetizing non-core assets. On June 16, the company announced an MOU to sell its 19.6M-oz Virginia silver deposit in Santa Cruz, Argentina, for US$8M and a 2% royalty. A month later, Mirasol sold its Nord projects in Chile for US$2.5 million plus a 2% NSR royalty.
Pountney is a prolific MRZ buyer, spending millions of dollars in recent years, and July has been no exception. He has bought more than $267,000 worth of Mirasol shares at 33-39 cents since the Virginia silver sale announcement in mid-June. He now owns 10.493 million Mirasol shares, a 12.8% stake. Haywood founder John Tognetti owns 16.43 million Mirasol shares, a 20% stake.
The (Lundin) beat goes on in Vicuña
Mirasol has yet to hit pay dirt at its properties in the Vicuña district. But it's a rich district, as NGEx Minerals (NGEX-T) shows with each new assay result, and it's also a district where riches can take time to be uncovered, as demonstrated by the Filo experience.
Price: 0.35
Shares out: 82 million (90M fully diluted)
Market cap: $28.7 million
Disclosure: I own shares in Altius Minerals, Orogen Royalties, Mirasol Resources and NGEx Minerals. No business relationship with any company mentioned. This is not financial advice and all investors need to do their own due diligence.
