Show Notes
Recording date: 8th October 2026 September exposed a widening gap between commodity prices and resource equities. Most commodities rose over the month, yet every major resource-linked equity index fell. In this Compass episode, Samuel Pelaez and Derek Macpherson of Olive Resource Capital (TSXV:OC) argue that this dislocation stems from macro forces rather than deteriorating fundamentals, and that it is creating entry points in high-quality, liquid producers. The macro pressures are significant. Fed Chair Kevin Warsh signalled a renewed focus on inflation at Jackson Hole, and the September rate hike was followed by markets pricing in a high probability of several more. Long-term bond yields are rising in both the US and Europe, with France prominent. Elections are approaching in the US, Spain and France. Energy prices remain high, which Macpherson attributes mainly to limited Western refining capacity. Equity market gains are concentrated in semiconductors and AI-related technology, while investors seeking commodity exposure increasingly use futures, leaving mining equities behind even as copper trades near record levels. Operational results have not been the problem. Pelaez noted strong Q3 production updates from several producers, with little share price response. K92 Mining reported another strong quarter on the day of recording, and Macpherson said the company has now passed one million gold-equivalent ounces produced. Olive is responding with patience. The fund holds about 10% cash and is adding gradually, mainly to names it knows well. It expects better prices before US Thanksgiving, possibly helped by selective tax-loss selling, and aims to be almost fully deployed for the January rally it has captured in most of its five years. The fund's current priority is its liquid book. In copper, it holds Ivanhoe Mines, which it views as owning one of the world's best copper mines and one of its best PGM mines, and Ero Copper, whose Furnas project Pelaez believes the market is not valuing. In PGMs, it holds Valterra Platinum, the largest primary PGM producer. It uses Albemarle for lithium exposure and K92 Mining for gold. A recently built energy sleeve includes Freehold Royalties, Woodside Energy and GeoPark, covering royalties, LNG and upstream growth respectively. The core argument is about how to express a commodity view. Macpherson contends that investors do not need to buy small, illiquid explorers to gain PGM, lithium or precious metals exposure. Large producers offer revenue protection, liquidity and the ability to change course quickly. Smaller names tend to gain more later in a cycle, once leadership broadens, and Olive holds some for company-specific catalysts. Macpherson and Pelaez see producers becoming more active earlier in the capital structure. Kinross Gold and Alpayana closed a C$47.1 million financing in Aquitaine Metals, an Olive holding, leaving the French gold explorer with about C$92 million in cash. Kinross has also backed Sun Valley Minerals in Uruguay. These serve as validation that helps juniors in jurisdictions less familiar with mining. For investors, the key watch-items are the path of Fed policy and long-term yields, any narrowing of the gap between commodity prices and equities, and whether seasonal weakness provides the entry points Olive expects before year end. Learn more: https://cruxinvestor.com Sign up for Crux Investor: https://cruxinvestor.com/subscribe
More from Company Interviews
Interview with Heye Daun, President & CEO of Koryx Copper Our previous interview: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/posts/koryx-copper-tsxvkry-namibias-giant-copper-deposit-gets-a-major-upgrade-10548 Recording date: 20th October 2026 Koryx Copper S.A. (TSXV:KRY) is approaching the most important milestone in its turnaround of the Haib Copper Project in southern Namibia. President & CEO Heye Daun told Crux Investor during LME Week in London that the Pre-Feasibility Study will be published before the end of November 2026. He expects the results to be substantially better than the September 2025 PEA. Haib is a large Paleoproterozoic porphyry deposit with copper, molybdenum and gold, previously explored by Falconbridge, Rio Tinto and Teck. Daun’s team took control in 2024. The same group has a record of Namibian exits, including the $180 million sale of Auryx Gold to B2Gold in 2011 and the $390 million sale of Osino Resources to Yintai Gold in 2024. The March 2026 resource contains 744 million tonnes Indicated at 0.28% copper and 579 million tonnes Inferred at 0.24% copper. An infill programme of more than 55 kilometres has been completed to support the PFS. Daun cautioned that individual drill results can only move the average grade of such a large deposit so far. He pointed instead to higher-grade zones the mine plan can prioritise. The main technical change is the flowsheet. Heap leaching has been dropped from the base case after test work showed sulphide heap leaching was not viable at industrial scale. The PFS base case now crushes 48 Mtpa. Coarse particle flotation rejects about 12 Mtpa of low-grade gangue, leaving 36 Mtpa of higher-grade feed for a flotation circuit that includes Jameson cells. The PEA, by comparison, used a 28 Mtpa mill and 7 Mtpa of heap leaching. The PEA provides the baseline. It showed an after-tax NPV of $1.351 billion at 8% and $4.30 per pound copper, an IRR of 20.1%, development capital of $1.559 billion and a 3.9-year payback. It projected 92,000 tonnes per annum of payable copper over the first decade. Daun expects the PFS to show output well above 100,000 tonnes per annum, with capex between $1.5 billion and $2 billion. He said much of the capital estimate is already based on supplier quotes. Infrastructure risk has narrowed. Koryx has signed an MoA with NamPower for a 68-kilometre 220 kV grid connection, backed by solar and battery storage. It has also signed an MoU with NamWater for an Orange River supply scheme. Environmental applications were lodged in August and September 2026. Valuation is the core of the pitch. Koryx benchmarks itself at 0.24 times P/NAV, below a developer median of 0.28 times. It has about C$44.6 million in cash and no debt. Daun named project financing uncertainty as the largest barrier to a re-rating. He plans to address it in 2027 through financing certainty, technical endorsement, a strategic investor and broader institutional ownership. The development schedule points to a DFS and strategic options review in 2027, with first copper estimated in 2031. For investors, the near-term catalyst is the PFS itself. The longer-term test is whether Koryx can secure a credible funding partner for a multi-billion-dollar build. Learn more: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/companies/koryx-copper Sign up for Crux Investor: https://cruxinvestor.com/subscribe
Interview with Peter Bures, Chairman & CEO, and Michael Gentile, Strategic Advisor, of Silver Crown Royalties Recording date: 18th October 2026 Silver Crown Royalties (CBOE:SCRI | OTCQX:SLCRF) is a silver-only royalty company built around byproduct silver that does not appear in resource or reserve statements. Many gold and copper mines produce modest silver volumes. Operators are paid for that silver at the refinery but have never reported it, often because the mines predate post-Bre-X disclosure standards or because the amounts are too small to justify qualified-person sign-off. Without a reported resource, no royalty can be bought on those ounces. Silver Crown’s approach is to create them. The process starts with the operator’s refinery and metals-trader statements, reviewed under NDA. They give a payable silver-to-gold ratio grounded in actual sales. The company prefers producing mines and restarts, where that history exists. A transaction now under evaluation, and not yet signed, shows the structure. A mine with a 2:1 silver-to-gold ratio producing 15,000-20,000 oz of gold implies 30,000-40,000 oz of silver, and Silver Crown would seek a 30,000 oz annual minimum. Strategic Advisor Michael Gentile said the contracts are take-or-pay, so gold revenue covers the obligation if silver output dips. The company’s presentation adds staged investments and registration on title, and puts the royalty’s impact at about 2% of project revenue. The operator’s motivation is valuation. CEO Peter Bures said producers trade at 1-2x sales while royalty companies trade at 20-25x. Gentile framed it in NAV terms: smaller producers trade near 0.4x NAV, Silver Crown near 1x, and Franco-Nevada at 2x. A producer selling silver to Silver Crown crystallizes value on a sliver of revenue at a far higher multiple. Producers can take cash or shares. Bures said counterparties that took equity saw $1M nameplate deals grow to $3-4M in market value as the stock re-rated. Cost of capital is the constraint Gentile says he helps address. He had long avoided junior royalty companies because their discounted shares make acquisitions dilutive and the majors outbid them for quality assets. Silver Crown avoids that auction by originating its own royalties. Gentile likened the setup to Franco-Nevada in the 1980s, financing at about 5% and writing 25% IRR deals with little competition. Bures said cash flow turned positive in the second quarter of 2026 and credited Gentile’s investment with the share re-rating. Silver Crown Royalties lists 6 closed royalties across Canada, Peru, Brazil and Ecuador. It also cites a combined pipeline IRR above 25% and more than 10 active discussions at any time. The company estimates 2026 deliveries of 42,888-61,888 oz versus about 22,000 oz in 2025, and targets a first dividend in 2026. Bures expects 25% average returns to attract competitors eventually. He argued no royalty company under $1B market cap is creating new royalties today. He is also discussing parallel royalties with larger peers, splitting metals in the same orebody, though nothing is signed. The main risks are scale, counterparty performance, dependence on private data, silver price exposure and dilution from equity-paid deals and warrants. Near-term markers are the 30,000 oz transaction closing, delivery growth against the 2026 estimate, and any signed partnership. View Silver Crown Royalties' company profile: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/companies/silver-crown-royalties Sign up for Crux Investor: https://cruxinvestor.com/subscribe
Interview with Jeremy Crozier, COO of Leviathan Metals Recording date: 18th October 2026 Leviathan Metals Corp. (TSXV:LVX) offers early-stage exposure to one of the more geologically predictable copper districts in Africa. Its 100%-owned Central Project sits on Botswana's Kalahari Copper Belt and shares a property boundary with MMG Limited's Khoemacau operations. Chief Operations Officer Jeremy Crozier said MMG acquired Khoemacau for $1.9 billion about two years ago and has since invested a further $900 million to double throughput. Those figures, as Crozier described them, frame the scale of the neighbouring system. The company's case rests on a simple geological rule. Every known copper deposit on the belt sits at the same stratigraphic position, especially where the rocks are folded into structural domes. Regional magnetic data pointed Leviathan to a dome directly south of the Khoemacau cluster, inside the same corridor that hosts the belt's known deposits. Central had never been drilled before the company started in June 2026. The first results support the model. A little over 6,000 metres of diamond core across 25 holes has intersected the target contact in 23 holes. Handheld XRF has detected copper in practically every hole. Lead and zinc, which typically accompany or surround copper in these systems, are also present. Crozier said this suggests the copper readings form part of a broader trend rather than isolated spot anomalies. The critical caveat is grade. XRF is spot data, it is incomplete and it does not provide grades. Most laboratory assays are still outstanding. Until they arrive, investors are assessing geological confirmation rather than economic mineralisation. The drilling has also sharpened the target. The fold is somewhat asymmetrical, and the northern limb has emerged as a structural system that the company views as a strong trap for copper. The 10,000-metre programme allows Leviathan to define and test targets in stages within the same campaign. Even so, current targeting covers only three or four kilometres of a 24-kilometre strike, leaving considerable ground for follow-up. Management has been measured on expectations. Crozier said he could not promise a resource or an economic study. The plan for 2027 is a faster drilling pace and more detailed exploration aimed at defining a coherent target. Jurisdiction is a supporting strength. Crozier said Botswana's Department of Mines did everything it said it would during the renewal of the main Central licence, which took place while Leviathan was negotiating the deal. The country offers established infrastructure, contractors and technical expertise, and Leviathan's crew is almost entirely Botswanan. Leviathan also has a second front in uranium. On October 19, 2026, it announced an RC and open-hole percussion programme of up to 2,500 metres at Serule and Foley. Serule adjoins Lotus Resources' Letlhakane project, and 2024 drilling by the former owner returned grades of 196 to 1,247 ppm U3O8 at depths of 65 to 130 metres. The near-term watch-list is clear. Investors should track laboratory assays from Central, the completion of the 10,000-metre programme, the definition of northern-limb targets and the first results from Serule and Foley. Assays will determine whether Central's geological resemblance to Khoemacau extends to grade. Learn more: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/companies/leviathan-gold Sign up for Crux Investor: https://cruxinvestor.com/subscribe
Interview with Bart Jaworski, CEO and Co-founder of Group Eleven Resources Corp. Our previous interview: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/posts/group-eleven-resources-tsxvzng-ballywire-strike-extends-17-12307 Recording date: 18th October 2026 Group Eleven Resources Corp. (TSXV:ZNG) is exploring the Ballywire discovery in Ireland, next to Glencore’s ground and its Pallas Green zinc deposit. Ahead of Michael Gentile’s European investor roadshow, co-founder and CEO Bart Jaworski explained how the project’s investment case has shifted since the discovery hole in September 2022. A hole cut 10.8 m grading 10.0% Zn+Pb and 109 g/t Ag and drilling since then has outlined 2 linked systems. The first is a zinc-lead-silver system that typically grades about 10% Zn+Pb with 50 to 150 g/t Ag, higher silver than is usual in Ireland. The second is a set of near-vertical copper-silver structures, each 2 to 3 m thick. Jaworski said the copper-silver system has now been intersected over 1,700 m and appears to run for most of the length of the zinc discovery. The shift in emphasis is clear. Jaworski said the company is steering its technical team toward copper, which he regards as the bigger prize. The 2 systems appear to share the same plumbing, so drilling for one should help find the other. Germanium sits inside sphalerite, the zinc mineral, and should be recovered with it, although metallurgical testwork has not yet been done. Scale remains largely untested. About 30,000 m across roughly 91 holes has gone into Ballywire, mostly into 1 of 4 gravity anomalies on a 6 km trend. Jaworski said the company is only a quarter of the way through that trend. Group Eleven held C$16.2 million in cash at June 2026, including a C$12.0 million bought deal, and had a market capitalization of C$224.1 million at September 2026. Drilling has stepped up to 4 rigs, with a fifth possible later this year. The company is targeting about 70,000 m of drilling, most of it in 2027. Jaworski said that includes about 50,000 m at Ballywire and about 15,000 m on a target he described as a mirror image of Pallas Green, south of Glencore’s deposit on the Limerick volcanic complex. The presentation lists approximately 67,000 m funded and up to 75,000 m subject to detailed planning. The share register adds weight. Glencore holds 12.8% of basic shares and Michael Gentile 13.6%. Glencore invested in 2019 and joined the board in 2020. Gentile first invested in 2020, 2 years before the discovery hole, and Jaworski said his following has helped lower the company’s cost of capital. The policy backdrop is supportive. Jaworski said copper and germanium are classed as critical under the European Union’s Critical Raw Materials Act and zinc is not. Ireland offers 6 mines permitted over 60 years, established infrastructure and nearby European smelters. Jaworski also pointed to the new Irish Minerals Fund as a possible future source of local support. The watch-list for 2027 is drilling on the 3 untested gravity anomalies, the first holes into the Pallas Green look-alike target and any metallurgical testwork on germanium. Together, those results will show whether Ballywire is a single deposit or the start of a larger camp. View Group Eleven's company profile: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/companies/group-eleven-resources-corp Sign up for Crux Investor: https://cruxinvestor.com/subscribe
Interview with Brian Miller, Director & CEO of Astra Exploration Our previous interview: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/posts/astra-exploration-tsxvastr-largest-drill-plan-tests-district-scale-at-la-manchuria-12013 Recording date: 18th October 2026 Astra Exploration Inc. (TSXV:ASTR) is a gold-silver explorer focused on Argentina and Chile. Its flagship is the La Manchuria project in Santa Cruz province, within Argentina's Deseado Massif. The company is preparing to start its largest drill campaign to date, and CEO and co-founder Brian Miller set out the investment case at Michael Gentile's European roadshow. La Manchuria hosts two styles of mineralisation. A bulk disseminated system begins at surface and remains open. Miller puts grades in this system could average up to 10 g/t gold. Its hilltop location supports the case for open-pit mining. The project also hosts high-grade veins, typically 1-2 metres thick, carrying 50-100 g/t gold and silver in the kilograms per tonne. The Basalto zone, discovered in March 2026, is a high-grade vein exposed at surface, and its most recent step-out returned 2.0 metres at 80.5 g/t gold and 44 g/t silver. The company has deliberately held off on an updated resource estimate. A small resource already exists, and Miller says drilling has shown the deposit is substantially larger. Astra will only publish an update once it believes it can outline about a million ounces, a threshold that gives investors a clear benchmark against which to judge progress. Phase IV begins in November with two drills. The programme is planned at a minimum of 10,000 metres and up to 20,000 metres, with the final figure driven by results. About 5,000 metres are targeted before year-end, about 5,000 metres in the first quarter of 2027, and up to a further 10,000 metres after that. The first assays are expected around February. Beyond Manchuria Hill, which covers about 1 km², the company has defined five priority regional targets across a 4 x 4 km area. Breccia, directly along strike to the southeast, will be drilled first. La Pampa, to the northeast, is the other standout. In Chile, Astra will drill its 100%-owned Don Mario project in the Maricunga belt in early 2027. Field work in 2026 aligned every geological dataset on a single 2 km by 2 km high-sulphidation epithermal target. About 2,500 metres in roughly seven holes should deliver a go or no-go decision. A strong result could lead Astra to seek a joint venture partner quickly. Astra holds just over C$12 million in cash. The company's latest presentation lists about 137 million shares outstanding, no warrants, and strategic investors holding about 64% of the company, including Gentile with about 15%. The stock has been under pressure and recently traded around C$0.36, close to its 52-week low. The district offers infrastructure optionality. Patagonia Gold, Astra's partner on La Manchuria, has heap leach production at Cap-Oeste and owns the Martha flotation mill, which is on care and maintenance. Pan American Silver's Manantial Espejo plant nearby is also on care and maintenance. Miller believes a project of around a million ounces could support a profitable open-pit starter operation, while a larger discovery would attract a different class of acquirer. The key risks are drilling outcomes, the absence of an updated resource and share-price weakness that could make future financing more dilutive. View Astra Exploration's company profile: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/companies/astra-exploration Sign up for Crux Investor: https://cruxinvestor.com/subscribe