By James Kwantes
Published first at Patreon
Pay attention moments in junior mining: This morning before market open, Founders Metals (FDR-V) announced the appointment of Chris Taylor as a company director.
Taylor, of course, orchestrated one of the best buyouts in the sector when he sold Great Bear Resources (GBR-V) and its Dixie gold deposit to Kinross Gold (K-T) for $1.8 billion in December 2021.
That takeout, as well as the subsequent $200M sale of Great Bear Royalties (GBRR-V) to Royal Gold, occurred in a bear market and firmly established Taylor as an entrepreneur to watch. Offers undoubtedly came fast and furious.
But Taylor went quiet – publicly, at least. Behind the scenes, the geologist has been quietly investing in the sector and evaluating projects and opportunities. Last fall, Taylor came on as CEO of shell company Railtown Capital Corp. (RLT-P.V), which I wrote about here. Railtown has yet to identify a flagship project.
Read more about Taylor here: Young(er) and Hungry
Founders is drilling a fully funded follow-up program at its high-grade Antino gold project in southeastern Suriname, in South America's Guiana Shield. On Sept. 24 the company announced assays including 20 metres of 7.65 g/t gold (within 78 metres of 2.35 g/t) and 16.5 metres of 1.64 g/t in its Buese zone at Antino. BlackRock came on as an investor earlier this year, putting $10 million into the treasury at $1.60 a share.
The Guiana Shield is home to some of the best gold discoveries of recent years, including Reunion Gold's Oko West deposit (G Mining (GMIN-T) and Reunion Gold merged earlier this year).
Taylor's arrival on the Founders board is particularly interesting given the spate of recent insider selling at Founders. Since the beginning of August, Founders insiders have taken more than $6.7 million off the table, at prices above $2.85. At a $2.55 share price, Founders has a one-year return of about 255%.
Update: Founders shares traded slightly higher on the news in initial trading.
Founders Metals (FDR-V)
Price: $2.55
Shares out: 73.9 million (80M fully diluted)
Market cap: $188.4 milion
Disclosure: No position in or business relationship with any company mentioned, although Taylor’s appointment as a Founders director has me taking a hard look at the stock.
