By James Kwantes
Published first at Patreon
Things are heating up both weather-wise and on the geopolitical stage, propelling gold to new highs on the regular. Pullbacks, which are to be expected, have no staying power.
Gold is at US$3,350 an ounce, for a one-year return of about 43%. These are not ordinary times. Encouragingly, the junior mining complex seems to be slowly awakening from its long slumber.
With that backdrop, some insider activity I've noticed, in companies I own and/or follow (disclosures at bottom):
The Lundins, Lundin Mining (LUN-T, LUNMF-OTC)
Lundin family members and trusts have been adding to their stakes in Lundin Mining in the wake of last year's $4.5-billion JV deal with BHP on Filo del Sol that established Vicuña Corp.
What's Next After Filo's $4.5B Exit? A Few Ideas
Since the beginning of April, president and CEO Jack Lundin has spent more than $2.5 million buying Lundin Mining stock, at prices between $10.80 and $12.65. He owns just over a million shares. Older brother Adam, the company's chairman, spent $1.5 million buying stock at $9.66 in early April and owns about three million shares; Lundin trust Nemesia also dipped into the public market in early April, spending $22.7 million at $11.35 to up their stake to 19.7%.
NGEx Minerals' high-grade Lunahuasi copper-gold discovery, to the north of Filo del Sol, is shaping up as the next jewel in the family crown. Mineralization occurs in both high-grade copper-gold-silver veins and a porphyry, a discovery announced in the latest Lunahuasi hole. That hole yielded 1.6 km of 0.87% CuEq, including 876m of 1.13% CuEq. Prior to that, hits included:
90m at 4.05% CuEq and 21m at 8.09% CuEq (discovery holes);
62m of 6.98% CuEq and 63m of 5.84% CuEq;
23m at 23.02% CuEq within 71.9m at 9.63% CuEq.
Further reading:
Guts, Glory ... and Another Lundin Moonshot? July 12, 2023
Lundins 3.0: Well-Fed and Hungry Oct. 11, 2023
Lundin Mining (LUN-T)
Price: 14.37
Shares out: 867.8 million
Market cap: $12.47 billion
Glenn Pountney, Mirasol Resources (MRZ-V, MRZLF-OTC)
This space has been a broken record on the insider purchases of Pountney, a 10% holder and prolific buyer of Mirasol shares. He's the former head equity trader at First Marathon Securities, with plenty of junior mining M&A wins since then.
The man doesn't let up.
Since the beginning of April, Pountney has spent more than $236,000 buying MRZ stock at prices ranging from 34-38 cents. He owns 9.743 million shares, a 12% stake.
In a heavily promotional arena, Mirasol is doing its best Marcel Marceau impression. The project generator is exploring for copper and gold at its 100% owned Sobek properties in Vicuña on the Chile/Argentina border (Mirasol's properties are on the Chile side).
Vicuña is one of the hottest discovery districts globally, yet Mirasol has issued just two news releases this year. As of March 2, the company was drilling a second hole into the core of a magnetic anomaly at the Potro SE target at Sobek North, just three kilometres southwest of NGEx's world-class Lunahuasi discovery.
That was more than three months ago, so Mirasol may not have hit. The company is also preparing to drill its Sobek 46 South target, on the Sobek Central property west of Filo del Sol.
In its other NR, on March 14, the company announced a 1-year, $2-million loan from John Tognetti, the Haywood chairman, who already owns almost 20% of Mirasol stock. Interest is 10% and Tognetti was granted 500,000 bonus shares in conjunction with the loan.
The loan is undoubtedly a better option than dilutive financings at these price levels. It also buys Mirasol time to make a discovery at Sobek, or perhaps monetize its Virginia silver deposit in Santa Cruz, Argentina – a mining-friendly province in a mining-friendly country. Virginia hosts 11.7M Indicated oz of silver at 357 g/t Ag and 7.9M Inferred oz at 184 g/t Ag.
Mirasol shares have been perkier of late, but remain mired near five-year lows.
Price: 0.41
Shares out: 81.1 million (88.7M fully diluted)
Market cap: $33.25 million
Larry Childress, Fireweed Metals (FWZ-V, FWEDF-OTC)
Childress, a 10% holder of Fireweed Metals, has been another regular in my insider buying articles. He's been quiet lately on that front, but recently invested $1.35 million in Fireweed's $1.80 financing (through his wife Penny's account).
Childress is a private American investor who now owns, collectively, about 11.25% of Fireweed's shares – behind only the Lundins, at about 24.5%.
Fireweed shares have been on a tear since I published this piece, Fireweed's Lundin Makeover is Complete, on April 10 with the stock at $1.54.
The company has kicked off the 2025 exploration program, which will include about 12,000 metres of drilling at Macpass, 11,000 metres at Mactung and about 3,000 metres at Gayna – Fireweed's early-stage exploration project 180 km north of Macpass, in NWT.
Fireweed will also drill gold targets at Macpass for the first time, and conduct work on the North Canol Road improvement project, for which it has been conditionally granted $12.9 million by the Canadian government.
Fireweed Metals (FWZ-V)
Price: $2.19
Shares out: 205.8 million (222.8M fully diluted)
Market cap: $450.6 million
John Robins, K2 Gold (KTO-V, KTGDF-OTC)
It's been a pretty good 10-year run for Discovery Group co-founder John Robins, a prospector and geologist with a good nose for deals.
In the spring of 2016, Goldcorp bought his Yukon-based Kaminak Gold and its Coffee deposit for $520 million. Two years later, Coeur Mining came in and purchased Northern Empire Resources for $117 million.
Discovery Group's biggest score occurred in December 2021 when Kinross Gold swooped in and paid $1.8 billion ($29/share) for Chris Taylor's Great Bear Resources and its Dixie gold deposit in Red Lake for $1.8 billion.
Seven months later, Royal Gold came in with a $200-million offer for spinout Great Bear Royalties, which held a 2% NSR on Dixie. That deal yielded a $14.6-million payday for Robins, which I wrote about in my first Patreon piece.
There were some wins before those takeovers, too.
Lately, Robins has been buying shares of K2 Gold, which is exploring for gold in California and Nevada. K2 also still has the Wels property in Yukon, where Robins's great-great-grandfather prospected during the Klondike gold rush.
Since the end of May, Robins has bought $35,165 worth of K2 Gold shares at 35-36 cents. Those public-market buys came after he put $150,000 into a 15-cent financing (one share, one half-warrant at 30c).
Price: 0.35
Shares out: 151 million (214M fully diluted)
Market cap: $52.8 million
John Baker, Orogen Royalties (OGN-V, OGNRF-OTC)
Lawyer John Baker's purchase of Orogen shares is a rather unusual insider-buying entry, coming as it did after Orogen was purchased by Triple Flag Royalties (TFPM-T) for $421 million in cash and stock, or $2/share. The deal was announced on April 22, 2025.
Baker is an Orogen insider by virtue of being a director (and chairman and co-founder) of Brian Dalton's Altius Minerals (ALS-T), which owns just shy of 20% of Orogen shares.
The prize for Triple Flag was Orogen's 1% NSR on AngloGold Ashanti's Silicon-Merlin project, which hosts 16.3M ounces of oxide gold (and counting) in all categories. Separately, Altius owns a 1.5% royalty on Silicon-Merlin.
On April 24, Baker spent $108,000 to buy 60,000 Orogen shares at $1.80 each. The trade has already worked out for Baker – Orogen shares have moved to $1.93 as Triple Flag shares continue to rise in this market.
The Orogen takeover is an interesting case study on whether to sell your shares at the deal announcement – something I often do in order to re-deploy profits – or hang onto them. In a rising metals market, sitting tight after you've been right seems like a smart strategy.
In addition to cash and/or Triple Flag shares, Baker and other shareholders will receive shares of the Orogen 2.0 spinco. All of Orogen's assets except for the 1% NSR, including the company's producing 2% Ermitano royalty in Mexico and more than $15M in cash, will be transferred to the spinco.
Orogen Royalties (OGN-V)
Price: $1.93
Shares out: 202 million (210.3M fully diluted)
Market cap: $390 million
Dave Lotan, Aurion Resources (AU-V, AIRRF-OTC)
Dave Lotan, Aurion's chairman and a 10% holder, has been a regular in this space for his prolific insider buying. He's been quiet apart from some mid-March purchases, but recently dipped into the market to pick up another 30,000 Aurion shares, at 75 cents each. Lotan owns 15.63 million shares, a 10.45% stake.
Aurion is exploring on both 100% owned ground and JV ground at its vast property in Finland's Central Lapland Greenstone Belt. A key asset is Aurion's 30% stake in the Helmi joint venture with (70% owner) B2Gold, ground that neighbour Rupert Resources (RUP-T) needs to optimize its high-grade open pit at the Ikkari discovery.
Price: 0.79
Shares out: 149.6 million
Market cap: $118.2 million
Christian Kargl-Simard, Blue Moon Metals (MOON-V, BMOOF-OTC)
Blue Moon was founded by John McClintock way back in 2007 and has undergone major changes in the past year. The company recapitalized, including a financing involving Wheaton Precious Metals (WPM-T), and brought two projects in Norway into the portfolio, adding to its flagship Blue Moon zinc-silver project in eastern California.
Blue Moon did a 10-for-1 rollback and resumed trading on March 14 of this year.
Christian Kargl-Simard, a metallurgical engineer and former investment banker, came on as CEO on Nov. 1, 2024. Since the stock resumed trading, he has purchased a net $176,395 in shares, at prices ranging from $2.40 to $3.51.
Kargl-Simard is coming off a recent M&A win – last year he sold Adventus Mining (ADZN-V) to Silvercorp for $235 million. Adventus, an Ecuador-focused exploration and development play, had previously merged with Ross Beaty's Luminex Resources (LR-V).
Price: $3.18
Shares out: 51.5 million
Market cap: $163.7 million
John Brussa, John Festival, Cardinal Energy (CJ-T, CRLFF-OTC)
Lawyer John Brussa is a veteran Calgary lawyer and oilpatch player. Lately he's been loading up on shares of Scott Ratushney's Cardinal Energy, an oil-weighted producer where he sits on the board.
Since April 7, Brussa has spent just over $500,000 on Cardinal shares, paying between $5.01 and $6.02 a share.
Other Cardinal insiders have also been active. Director John Festival, a chemical engineer, has spent about $670,000 buying stock in the same period, paying between $6.10 and $6.50. Festival was CEO of BlackRock Ventures when it sold to Shell Canada in 2006 and CEO of BlackPearl Resources when it merged with Lundin company International Petroleum Corp. (IPCO-T) in 2018.
Oilpatch billionaire Murray Edwards owns 25.5 million Cardinal shares, a 15.8% stake that yields him about $1.53 million in monthly dividends.
Price: $6.49
Shares out: 161 million
Market cap: $1.04 billion
Mike Rose, Tourmaline Oil (TOU-T, TRMLF-OTC)
When billionaire oilpatch operator Mike Rose buys stock, he doesn't fool around.
On May 30, he bought $314,000 worth of TOU, at $62.76.
On May 16, he bought $325,000 worth at $63.00.
On May 15, he bought $318,000 worth, at $63.63.
For the month of May, Rose's buying binges totalled about $1.89 million in TOU shares. He owns directly or controls, through the Rose Foundation, more than 9.5 million shares, a $611-million stake.
Before founding Tourmaline in 2008, Rose founded, ran and sold two large oil and gas companies:
Duvernay Oil sold to Royal Dutch Shell for $5.9 billion in 2008;
Berkley Petroleum sold to Anadarko for $1.5 billion in 2001, eclipsing a hostile bid from Hunt Oil.
Rose is well-connected, both familially and politically. His wife, Susan Riddell Rose, is the daughter of Clay Riddell, the oilpatch billionaire who founded and ran Paramount Resources and other companies. Riddell died in 2018.
Rose was a signatory to an April 30 letter from Canadian oilpatch CEOs urging new prime minister Mark Carney to cut red tape and encourage investment in the oil and gas sector. On June 1, Rose was among several energy executives to meet with Carney in a behind-closed-doors roundtable.
Price: $64.30
Shares out: 379.2 million
Market cap: $24.4 billion
Disclosure: I own shares of NGEx Minerals, Mirasol Resources, Fireweed Metals, Orogen Royalties, Altius Minerals, Aurion Resources, and Cardinal Energy. No business relationship with any company mentioned. This article is not financial advice, and all investors need to do their own due diligence.
