Key leadership changes can be important pivot points in the history of a junior mining company.
One of those occurred recently in a company I have followed and written about in Resource Opportunities: Vior Inc. (VIO-V). Vior is a hybrid explorer/project generator that is drilling 60,000 metres at its flagship Belleterre project in Quebec, a wholly owned high-grade brownfields project.
Vior is bringing in Osisko man Mathieu Savard (below) as president and CEO, replacing longtime CEO Mark Fedosiewich who becomes Vior's chairman. It's part of an Osisko makeover that sees Vior's major shareholder -- Osisko Mining (OSK-T) owns about 23% of Vior shares -- take a dominant role.
Enter South Africa-based Gold Fields. On August 12, 2024, the No. 7 global gold miner offered $2.16 billion to acquire Osisko Mining, taking Gold Fields's ownership of the Windfall high-grade gold deposit from 50% to 100%. The closing of the deal also gave Vior a new major shareholder.
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A few things about the Vior/Osisko "makeover" caught my attention:
- Skin in the game: Savard filed an opening SEDI balance of 3.17 million shares, or about 1.26% of Vior's stock. It's a decent total for somebody who had no formal involvement in the company. Savard also filed warrants, so he's participated in Vior financings.
- Pedigree: Savard started with André Gaumond's Virginia Gold Mines in 2000, right out of university. When Gaumond sold the company and its Eleonore deposit to Goldcorp for $500 million in 2005, Savard moved over to successor company Virginia Mines.
Savard was senior project geologist for 10 years, including managing the development of Eleonore in the early years. After a short stint with Osisko Gold Royalties (OR-T), Savard became VP Exploration Quebec for Osisko Mining and most recently president of Osisko Mining.
Savard is a two-time PDAC Bill Dennis Award recipient, for being part of teams that discovered Eleonore and more recently, the Lynx zone at Windfall. The Bill Dennis award is one of the world's most prestigious exploration awards, and less than a handful of people have won it twice. Savard is one of them.
"Mathieu is a superstar. We desperately need people like Mathieu in our industry," Gaumond told me in an email. "When we were discovering Eleonore, Mathieu was the chief geologist in the field. He did an extraordinary job. At a key time I remember asking him to stay in the field for an additional week, and then another one … Mathieu never said No. I will remember that all my life, since it made a difference for the project."
Savard's tutelage under Gaumond bodes well for Vior. Gaumond is an accomplished exploration geologist who staked vast swathes of Quebec and made multiple discoveries, as well as mitigating risk by optioning projects to majors.
He engineered the sale of Virginia Gold Mines and Virginia Mines for a combined $1 billion to Goldcorp and Osisko Gold Royalties, respectively. More here: Follow the Leaders (André Gaumond edition)
Vior director Pascal Simard will step down from the board to become Vior's VP Exploration, and Osisko operators Don Njegovan and André Le Bel become Vior directors.
Vior has a similar business model as the Virginia companies (Gaumond is a Vior shareholder). The company has a large project portfolio put together by Fedosiewich, a prolific buyer of Vior stock who owns 10.39 million shares (about 4.1%).
Fedosiewich had been CEO since October 2017 when he replaced Vior founder Claude St.-Jacques in the role. He will now replace St.-Jacques as chairman; St.-Jacques and director Eric Desaulniers become strategic advisors.
Vior owns 50% (and is operator) of the Skyfall nickel project -- east of Osisko/Gold Fields's Windfall high-grade deposit -- in a partnership with SOQUEM, the Quebec government's mining exploration arm. The company has optioned its Mosseau gold project to Harvest Gold (HVG-V) and 80% of its Foothills critical metals project to Niobay Metals (NBY-V).
Vior is cashed up after raising $26.7 million in 2024.
Price: 0.215
Shares out: 250.84 million (331.57M fully diluted)
Market cap: $54 million
Disclosure: I bought Vior shares after publishing this article at Patreon. No business relationship with any company mentioned.
