Company Interviews

Interview with George Bennett, CEO of Rainbow Rare Earths
Our previous interview: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/posts/rainbow-rare-earths-lserbw-us-govt-backed-miner-targets-2027-production-from-waste-processing-8115
Recording date: 9th September 2026
Rainbow Rare Earths (LSE:RBW) is pursuing a structurally different route into rare earth supply than most of its peers. Rather than mining hard rock, the company reclaims rare earths from phosphogypsum - the waste residue generated when phosphate rock is processed into phosphoric acid for the fertiliser industry. Because the rare earth content in phosphate rock is too low to mine economically on its own, it has historically been discarded in gypsum waste stacks; Rainbow's proprietary process recovers it from that existing above-ground resource using leaching and ion exchange, avoiding the drilling, crushing and milling costs that dominate capital spending on conventional rare earth projects.
The company is advancing two projects built on this model. Phalaborwa, in South Africa, is the more advanced of the two, currently 75% through its definitive feasibility study, with a post-tax IRR estimated at 38% using December 2024 spot pricing (rising to a CEO-cited 40-45% at more recent pricing), an EBITDA margin of 70-75%, and capital costs of circa $325-350 million. Rainbow currently owns 85% of Phalaborwa, with an option to move to 100% next year. Uberaba, in Brazil, is a joint venture with The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS), in which Rainbow holds 49%. A March 2026 Economic Assessment put Uberaba's post-tax NPV10 at $916 million, IRR at 45%, average annual EBITDA at $217 million over a 30-year mine life, and payback at 1.7 years; a Pre-Feasibility Study for the project formally commenced in September 2026.
Management's central argument is that the market has not yet caught up with the combined earnings power of the two projects. CEO George Bennett points to a combined attributable EBITDA estimate of circa $300 million by 2030 - roughly 75% of the EBITDA forecast for Serra Verde, a comparable Brazilian rare earths project that was recently acquired in a deal valuing it at $2.8 billion - against Rainbow's own market capitalisation of circa $250 million. Independent benchmarking cited in the interview supports the cost-position argument: Benchmark Mineral Intelligence reportedly ranks Rainbow among the lowest-cost rare earth producers in the West, while Argus Media ranks it among the highest-margin.
The investment case is also supported by third-party validation. TechMet, a critical minerals fund holding circa 12% of Rainbow, brought in the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, which has committed $50 million of project equity to Phalaborwa, convertible at Final Investment Decision (expected around Q3 2027). Mosaic, a Fortune 500 fertiliser producer, is Rainbow's partner on Uberaba. Rainbow is also evaluating a U.S. listing, having engaged BMO Capital Markets, partly in response to the disproportionate market cap uplift Mosaic received relative to Rainbow when their joint venture was announced.
Remaining funding gaps are relatively modest against committed capacity - circa $70 million at Phalaborwa and circa $50 million at Uberaba - and near-term catalysts include binding offtake term sheets and a solvent extraction technology partner selection, both expected before the end of 2026. Investors should note both projects remain pre-FID, with first production not expected until 2029 (Phalaborwa) and 2030 (Uberaba), and that some reported capital cost figures for Uberaba have varied pending finalised feasibility numbers.
Learn more: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/companies/rainbow-rare-earths
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Interview with Daniel Major, CEO of Eastport Critical Metals 
Recording date: 8th September 2026
Eastport Critical Metals Corp. (TSXV:EVI) is a Botswana-focused critical minerals explorer with exposure to copper, rare earth elements, uranium, and nickel-copper-PGM across a combined land package exceeding 4,000 km². The company listed on the TSX-V in November 2025 via a qualifying transaction with Penbar Capital and appointed Daniel Major, former CEO of TSXV-listed GoviEx Uranium, as Chief Executive Officer in July 2026.
The flagship asset is Matsitama Copper, a 1,845 km² district-scale position across six prospecting licences in an established copper district, sitting adjacent to the historic Kopano (~1% Cu) and Thakadu (~2% Cu) mines and roughly 10 km from the currently producing Moana mine. The project carries a historical - not current, not NI 43-101-compliant - resource estimate at Nakalakwana Hill of 9.9 Mt at 4,640 ppm Cu (45.5 kt contained copper), based on 2013 SRK Consulting work under the superseded SAMREC 2007 code. Drilling through 2025-2026 has extended the mineralised footprint east and west of the original zone, with three recent holes intersecting more than 100 metres of copper mineralisation at internal higher grades of 0.5% to over 1.5% Cu. Twenty priority targets have been defined across the licence, including the roughly 30 km Copper Snake trend, which the company plans to test with gravity and EM surveys in 2026 ahead of drilling.
Semarule (250 km², ~40 km from Gaborone) is Eastport's rare earth optionality, hosting a syenite-carbonatite complex with mineralised outcrop across ~15 km². 2023 rock-chip sampling returned 0.5% total rare earth oxides plus yttrium, roughly a quarter of which is higher-value magnetic rare earth oxide. An eight-hole drill program has intersected mineralisation to depths exceeding 300 metres, with a further assay batch pending at the time of the interview. Management has indicated Semarule could be spun into its own listed vehicle if results confirm scale, given rare earth and base metal investors typically seek different exposure.
Foley, a uranium project adjacent to the Letlhakane deposit, returned a maiden RC intercept of 8 m at 553 ppm U₃O₈, supporting the company's palaeochannel exploration model. Selebi-East (nickel-copper-PGM, ~7 km east of the historic Selebi-Phikwe complex) shows Ni-Cu-Co soil anomalies over reprocessed geophysical data but remains earlier-stage with limited historic drilling.
Insiders hold 21.77% of the 33,490,774 shares outstanding, a level of alignment the company positions as a differentiator. Management's stated strategy is disciplined sequencing - inexpensive geophysics to define targets, RC drilling to confirm grade, and diamond drilling only once a target is proven - rather than funding all four commodities to feasibility within a single vehicle, with spin-outs or partnerships positioned as the likely route for whichever project demonstrates scale first.
Near-term catalysts: 2026 gravity/EM results at Matsitama's Copper Snake trend, and the outstanding Semarule assay batch.
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Interview with Justin van der Toorn, President and CEO, Greenheart Gold Inc.
Our previous interview: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/posts/greenheart-gold-tsxvghrt-multi-asset-drill-program-drives-newsflow-in-2026-9693
Recording date: 3rd September 2026
Greenheart Gold Inc. (TSXV:GHRT; OTCQX:GHRTF) is an exploration company built on the technical legacy of Reunion Gold, the team credited with discovering and delineating the multi-million-ounce Oko West deposit in Guyana. That background shapes the company's current strategy in the Guiana Shield, a gold-prospective but still relatively underexplored terrain spanning Guyana and Suriname: move quickly from geochemical sampling through trenching to drilling, and run several projects in parallel rather than concentrating resources on a single target.
Greenheart currently has three active projects in Suriname. Tosso Creek, the subject of this interview, is the newest and most remote, comprising four target areas: Maconia, Swalanga, Walaba and Sevil. A 2,000-metre diamond drilling programme has now commenced at Walaba, following up broad trench intervals including 52.0 m at 0.77 g/t Au and a higher-grade zone of 7.0 m at 4.57 g/t Au. Drilling at the recently identified Swalanga target, roughly 1 km east, is planned to follow; trenching there has already returned 56.0 m at 0.9 g/t Au. CEO Justin van der Toorn described the current drilling as a first test of whether near-surface mineralisation continues at depth, and what structural or lithological controls govern the higher-grade zones observed within the broader mineralised envelope.
The company's two more advanced Suriname projects, Igab and Majorodam, sit closer to existing regional operations and require a lower threshold of discovery to justify continued work, according to management. At Igab, a maiden drill programme returned 7.0 m at 5.82 g/t Au at the Koela target, and the company is now integrating those results with core relogging and structural mapping ahead of a planned drill test at the Cannibal Creek target. At Majorodam, a 160-hole, 11,748-metre RC programme is largely complete, though roughly 35% of assay results remain outstanding due to laboratory delays in Paramaribo; a full project review is planned once all results are received.
Management cited a cash position of approximately $85 million following the company's recent financing, which it says supports simultaneous drill programmes across all three projects without requiring near-term additional capital. Van der Toorn was explicit that this comes with a discipline requirement: avoiding over-drilling any single project ahead of its stage of geological understanding, and ensuring capital committed to the ground translates directly into results.
For investors, the near-term catalysts are concrete and sequential: assay results from the first Tosso Creek holes, the outstanding Majorodam RC results, and the refined targeting expected from Igab's ongoing core relogging and structural work. None of the three projects yet carries a defined mineral resource, and reported intervals are sampling lengths rather than true widths, so the eventual investment case depends on converting today's broad, low-grade trench and drill intercepts into demonstrated depth and grade continuity. Suriname's wet season and reliance on Paramaribo-based assay laboratories are recurring, if manageable, sources of scheduling and reporting delay across all three projects.
Learn more: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/companies/greenheart-gold
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Interview with Hayden Locke, CEO, Marimaca Copper 
Our previous interview: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/posts/marimaca-copper-tsxmari-undervalued-investment-series-with-hayden-locke-11042
Recording date: 7th September 2026
Marimaca Copper's latest drill results from Pampa Medina add meaningfully to a discovery story that has been building since late 2024. The headline intercept, SPRD-15, returned 216 metres at 1.0%+ copper plus 7.2 g/t silver, including a high-grade zone of 62 metres at 2.2% copper with 21.6 grams per tonne silver - a result CEO Hayden Locke described as the company's best yet at Pampa Medina. Multiple step-out holes to the south and west, including SPRD-17, SPRD-12, SMRD-13 and SMRD-22, confirmed continuity of the mineralised system across a broader area, with the company now defining a roughly 3km by 1.5km drill-confirmed footprint and a 1.3km by 1.3km high-grade core.
Locke was emphatic that Pampa Medina should be understood as a sediment-hosted copper system rather than a Chilean porphyry, drawing direct comparisons to the Kupferschiefer basin in Poland and Germany and, more pointedly, to the Central African Copperbelt's Kamoa-Kakula deposit - among the most significant copper discoveries of the past several decades. He cited an average grade thickness across the drilling of roughly 70% copper-metres plus around 10 g/t silver, though investors should note this figure sits well above every comparator cited elsewhere in the same interview and would benefit from written confirmation as the maiden resource is finalised.
On the structural side, Locke addressed two previously unresolved questions. Post-mineral dikes, while carrying negligible grade, have proven thinner in true thickness than earlier drilling suggested, reducing their expected dilution impact on any future resource. Faulting is better understood on an east-west orientation, with fewer structures expected to complicate a north-south mining approach, though further geotechnical work will be required before any underground decision.
Parallel to the exploration story, Marimaca's flagship MOD project is fully permitted and now in its detailed design and engineering phase, and is advancing toward a financing decision. The company has narrowed its lender search to three groups now in final due diligence, after which it will negotiate exclusively with one before moving into legal due diligence and long-form documentation, targeting full construction during 2027. Management describes its financing philosophy as conservative: a modest debt-to-equity ratio, no hedging, and traditional senior secured lending rather than more complex structures.
Design work at MOD has already anticipated Pampa Medina's growth, with the project's water pipeline oversized to support up to 100,000 tonnes of cathode production annually - infrastructure that any oxide material from Pampa Medina would piggyback on regardless of eventual scale. The company's larger sulfide opportunity at Pampa Medina remains a longer-dated, unquantified catalyst that management says will not be rushed.
With approximately $140 million in cash, separated development and exploration teams led by VP Exploration Sergio Rivera, and shareholder alignment behind the current dual-track strategy, Marimaca enters the second half of 2026 with two distinct, near-term catalysts: the Pampa Medina maiden resource expected by end-October, and the outcome of the MOD financing process.
Learn more: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/companies/marimaca-copper
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Interview with David Wolfin, CEO of Avino Silver & Gold Mines
Our previous interview: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/posts/avino-silver-gold-tsxasm-record-revenue-powers-three-mine-expansion-strategy-8753
Recording date: 4th September 2026
Avino Silver & Gold Mines Ltd. (TSX:ASM) enters the second half of 2026 in the strongest financial position in its 57-year history, and that strength is now being deployed toward a decision that could reshape the company's production profile. Q2 2026 revenue reached $26.8 million, up 23% year-on-year, driven by higher realised silver prices at $68.90/oz and increased throughput from La Preciosa development material. Net income of $10.9 million and EBITDA of $12.6 million both grew strongly year-on-year, and the company closed the quarter debt-free with $144.2 million in cash and $140.8 million in working capital.
That balance sheet strength underpins the company's most consequential near-term decision: whether to build a standalone processing plant at La Preciosa, its silver development project 19 kilometres from the existing Avino mill. Management estimates a facility comparable to Avino's current 2,500-tonne-per-day mill would cost $200-300 million, roughly half of which the company already holds in cash. A pre-feasibility study now underway with an independent engineering firm is expected within 8-10 months, after which Avino could move directly to a construction decision.
The case for going standalone rests on both economics and optionality. Trucking material 19 kilometres at a much larger scale would strain logistics and community relations at the volumes a full La Preciosa operation would require, and CEO David Wolfin has been explicit that a standalone plant is the better use of capital once the study confirms it. Recent drilling supports that confidence: intercepts including 7.9 metres of 1,600 g/t silver and 2 g/t gold, and a further 6 metres at 550 g/t silver, suggest underground mining grades could exceed the diluted, open-pit-based resource model inherited from the project's previous owner, Coeur Mining.
Underpinning this is Avino's first mineral reserve in company history, published in April 2026 after the company crossed the $90 million trailing-revenue threshold required under NI 43-101 to report reserves. The combined 127 million silver equivalent ounces in proven and probable reserves, alongside 301 million ounces of measured and indicated resources, gives the growth story a formal technical foundation it lacked a year ago. Average reserve mine life across the portfolio comfortably exceeds the roughly 8-year average among primary silver peers, a comparison management uses to argue for a valuation re-rating as the company de-risks.
Risks remain concentrated in execution. Costs rose alongside the cash build, with all-in sustaining costs of $38.75 per silver equivalent ounce in Q2, reflecting the expense of developing a new mine rather than deterioration at Avino itself. Copper production fell 50% year-on-year as the company processed oxidised material from historical open-pit walls, a sequencing decision expected to reverse over the next six to eight months. Investors should also note that much of the grade upside management points to remains in step-out drilling not yet reflected in the reserve model; an updated estimate is expected in Q1 2027.
For investors, Avino offers a rare combination: an operating, cash-generating mine funding a second high-grade asset, a debt-free balance sheet providing genuine optionality, and two concrete near-term catalysts: the La Preciosa pre-feasibility study, and the Q1 2027 resource update against which to track execution.
View Avino Silver & Gold's company profile: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/companies/avino-silver-gold-mines-ltd
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