Company Interviews

Recording date: 16th September 2026
Olive Resource Capital's Samuel Pelaez and Derek Macpherson used this Compass episode, recorded the day after the Federal Reserve's September rate decision, to address two distinct but connected investor questions: what the Fed's move means for the resource complex, and what the fund is watching for as it heads into the year's two most important precious metals conferences.
The headline takeaway is that neither guest sees the unanimous 25 basis point hike to 3.75-4.00% as a meaningful threat to their long-term commodity thesis. The muted reaction in gold and the US Dollar Index, alongside a US two-year Treasury yield already signalling further hikes, supports their view that the move was fully priced in rather than a genuine surprise to markets, even if it surprised the guests personally. More importantly for positioning, Pelaez's framing of gold's correlation with real rather than nominal interest rates offers a specific, testable lens for investors trying to judge how much further tightening the metal can absorb before its monetary debasement thesis is genuinely challenged. Investors should note the tail risk both guests raised without dwelling on: a hiking cycle aggressive enough to tip the US into recession remains a historical possibility that could force a more disruptive repricing than a single 25 basis point move.
On timing, the pair's read that the Fed is unlikely to hike again at its 27-28 October meeting, a week ahead of the US midterm elections, is a near-term calendar marker worth tracking against actual Fed communication over the coming weeks, rather than treating it as settled.
The conference-season discussion carries the more actionable content for stock-pickers. The core shift the pair identify from a market where companies needed to prove they could raise capital to one where most already have it and now need to prove they can deploy it, this reframes what investors should listen for in company presentations this autumn: tangible project milestones and catalysts, not just balance sheet strength. Olive's specific focus on finding a copper name to replace Arizona Sonoran Copper following its acquisition signals where the fund sees the next wave of M&A activity concentrating, and its continued but qualified conviction in Gladiator Metals offers a concrete example of a name investors may want to benchmark against whatever emerges from Beaver Creek and Colorado Springs.
The Bravo Mining anecdote is worth flagging as a broader behavioural point rather than a stock-specific one: both guests explicitly warn against anchoring too heavily on a name's history, whether that's a story once dismissed as overvalued or one an investor has simply stopped tracking. For a fund with Olive's track record of identifying re-rating candidates before broader market recognition, that openness to revisiting prior "no"s is itself a signal of where they expect this cycle's opportunities to concentrate: not necessarily in new discoveries, but in familiar names whose valuations or fundamentals have shifted enough to warrant a second look.
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Interview with Stephen Mullowney, Director & CEO of TRX Gold Corp.
Our previous interview: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/posts/trx-gold-tsxtnx-doubling-gold-production-through-expansion-and-re-investment-allocations-4208
Recording date: 16th September 2026
TRX Gold Corporation (TSX:TRX) (NYSE American:TRX) has spent five years turning the Buckreef Gold Project in Tanzania from a stalled exploration asset into a self-funding gold producer, and its preliminary fiscal 2026 results are the clearest evidence yet that the model is working. Full-year gold production reached a record 29,650 ounces, a 57% increase on 2025 and the top end of the company's own guidance range, while Q4 alone delivered 8,173 ounces, up 28% year-on-year. Realised gold prices which rose 46% for the full year to approximately $4,386 per ounce compounded the production gains into a run-rate EBITDA CEO Stephen Mullowney puts at approximately $80 million today, with a stated target of $200-250 million within two to three years.
What differentiates TRX Gold from many junior producers pursuing similar growth is how that growth is being financed. The company is mid-build on a new 3,500 tonnes-per-day (tpd) SAG/ball mill circuit, running alongside its existing, recently upgraded 2,000 tpd plant, for a theoretical combined capacity of 5,500 tpd which is comfortably above the 3,000 tpd envisioned in the company's May 2025 PEA. The roughly $50 million cost is being funded entirely from operating cash flow, with the company carrying zero debt and $30 million of cash on the balance sheet, plus undrawn credit facilities. Management's stated fallback, should more capital be required, is debt rather than equity which is a meaningful distinction in a sector where dilution is often the default financing tool.
The operating jurisdiction adds a further layer to the case. Buckreef sits in Tanzania's Geita Region alongside established operations run by Barrick, AngloGold Ashanti, Perseus and Shanta, giving TRX Gold access to local contractors, supply chains and banking relationships that reduce build risk relative to more frontier settings. The project itself is held through a 55/45 joint venture with Tanzania's state mining company, Stamico, with TRX Gold holding board control and capital recovery preference on its approximately $30 million project loan; management is in discussions to move toward a more standard national resource framework, which would address the currently dilutable nature of the government's 45% interest.
Near-term catalysts include continued ramp-up of the mill upgrades already boosting throughput and recovery, tangible construction progress on the new SAG/ball mill circuit, and an updated PEA expected by early 2027 that should formalise a revised, open-pit-first mine sequence. Exploration capacity is also scaling quickly, from two drill rigs currently to five within four to six months, targeting both resource growth at the existing 1.5-million-ounce-plus resource base and new discoveries across ten geophysical targets and the Stamford Bridge and Anfield zones. Recent addition to the MVIS Global Junior Gold Miners Index adds a structural liquidity catalyst on top of the operational story. The principal risks are the model's sensitivity to a sustained gold-price pullback and the still-unresolved Stamico framework renegotiation which are both worth monitoring though neither appears to threaten the current growth trajectory.
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Interview with Rob Bruggeman, Director & CEO of Outcrop Silver
Our previous interview: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/posts/outcrop-silver-gold-tsxvocg-12m-drilling-to-expand-high-grade-silver-resource-7129
Recording date: 16th September 2026
Outcrop Silver & Gold Corporation (TSX:OCG) has repositioned its investment case around a more rigorously classified, and larger, mineral resource at its 100%-owned Santa Ana project in Tolima, Colombia. The September 14, 2026 Updated Mineral Resource Estimate reports 29.9 million ounces silver-equivalent (AgEq) Indicated at 518.7 g/t, plus 27.9 million ounces AgEq Inferred at 368.5 g/t - a combined 57.8 million ounces across 13 vein systems, built on 130,006 metres of drilling. Despite total drilling nearly tripling since the 2023 maiden estimate, Indicated ounces grew a comparatively modest 23.5%, because the company applied a stricter classification standard requiring minimum drill-hole support - evidence, management argues, of a more defensible resource rather than a diluted one.
The update comes under new leadership. Rob Bruggeman, an equities analyst by background who previously chaired Aberra Silver through its growth from under $10 million to over $2 billion in market capitalisation, became President and CEO roughly five months ago. He has been explicit that he prioritised a realistic resource over headline size, and has brought in Colombia-based geologist Carlos Torres as Vice President of Exploration.
Grade remains Santa Ana's standout feature: at 518.7 g/t AgEq Indicated, it compares favourably to publicly disclosed primary silver peers, with individual veins - Las Maras, El Dorado, Paraiso and Guadual - running from roughly 590 to 855 g/t AgEq. Metallurgical recoveries of 96.3% silver and 98.5% gold, from a simple gravity-plus-flotation flowsheet, support management's view that initial capital costs can stay low, aided by existing highway, power and water infrastructure at the site.
The next catalyst is a Preliminary Economic Assessment, starting end of September 2026 and expected in early 2027. Management has sized a preliminary target of roughly 800-1,000 tonnes per day, built from combined Indicated and Inferred resources, with a minimum mining width of one metre reflecting Colombia's cost-effective, labour-intensive cut-and-fill mining methods. A pilot plant, estimated at approximately C$5 million, is planned as an execution proof point ahead of any larger build decision.
Exploration upside remains material: twelve known vein systems are not yet included in the resource, and the 17-kilometre mineralized corridor remains open at both ends. At the company's historical drilling productivity of roughly 445 ounces AgEq added per metre, reaching a stated 100 million ounce target would require an estimated 95,000 further metres of drilling - about two-and-a-half years at the current 35,000 metre annual pace.
Ownership and financing support the story: Eric Sprott holds approximately 20% and Jupiter Asset Management approximately 9%, with C$15 million cash and C$8 million in in-the-money warrants as of August 2026. Colombia's government has also repealed ten restrictive mining resolutions as of September 2026 and targeted $4 billion in mining investment through 2030. Management's explicit near-term goal is to shift the market's valuation approach from a rough in-situ ounce metric toward a discounted cash flow basis - a shift the PEA is designed to enable.
Learn more: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/companies/outcrop-silver-gold
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Interview with Robert Eckford, CEO of Rua Gold
Recording date: 16th September 2026
Rua Gold (TSX:RUA, NZX:RGI) is a New Zealand-focused gold explorer attempting one of the fastest explorer-to-developer transitions in the junior sector. Its strategy is built around New Zealand's Fast-Track Approvals regime, which sets a six-month decision window for listed projects. OceanaGold's Wharekirauponga project has already been approved through this process in under four months.
The company controls more than 120,000 hectares in the Reefton Goldfield, around 95% of a district that historically produced over 2 million ounces of gold at 9-50 g/t. Its focus is Auld Creek, a gold-antimony deposit that early miners avoided because of its antimony content. Mineralisation begins at surface. The February 2026 MRE outlined about 200,000 AuEq ounces, split between 54,000 ounces Indicated at 5.7 g/t AuEq and 148,000 ounces Inferred at 3.7 g/t AuEq.
Rather than drill for years to build scale, management has taken this starter resource straight into permitting. Auld Creek was accepted as a Fast-Track listed project in July 2026. The substantive application is due in October 2026. CEO Robert Eckford expects the six-month clock to start in November, with a decision targeted for Q2 2027.
The April 2026 PEA supports a compact underground operation. It models 5.5 years of production at about 26,665 AuEq ounces a year, with initial capital of $132.6 million and AISC of $1,850/oz. At $3,300/oz gold, the after-tax NPV5% is $42.4 million, with a 17% IRR and 3.3-year payback. At $4,700/oz, the NPV rises to US$113.0 million and the IRR to 36%. Eckford is clear that this starter case exists to secure a permit. The plant is being designed to expand from 250,000 to 500,000 tonnes a year under a hub-and-spoke model, with a second Reefton deposit expected to emerge by Q1 2027.
Drilling continues to strengthen the resource. Rua Gold has completed 19,600 metres at Auld Creek. Recent results include 0.6 metres at 82.9 g/t gold and 24.8% antimony, and the company has reported its first visible gold at the project. The deposit extends over 1,000 metres along strike and more than 500 metres down dip, and remains open in all directions. An updated MRE and PFS are due in Q4 2026.
Antimony is central to the financing plan rather than the valuation. Eckford said metal traders are drawn to the by-product in a way they would not be to a gold-only project. The company is in offtake discussions with around four groups and expects traders to take part in project financing from mid-2027.
The balance sheet is in good shape. A C$33 million raise in January 2026 was heavily oversubscribed. Cash stood at about C$25 million at the time of the interview. That funds the PFS, permitting and a 9,000-metre maiden drill programme at the Glamorgan epithermal project on the North Island, which begins in Q4 2026. Key risks are permitting timing, modest starter-case economics at long-term prices, project financing terms and antimony price volatility.
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Interview with Caitlin Jeffs, President & CEO of Red Metal Resources
Recording date: 16th September 2026
Red Metal Resources Ltd. (CSE:RMES) is a Vancouver-based explorer focused on the Carrizal copper-gold-silver-cobalt property in the coastal cordillera of Chile's Atacama region, near Vallenar. President and CEO Caitlin Jeffs is a geologist who began her career with Placer Dome and later co-founded Fladgate Exploration Consulting. With fellow Red Metal director Michael Thompson, she took Kesselrun Resources from its 2012 founding to a sale to Gold X2 in December 2025.
The company's distinguishing feature is its funding model. Chile allows small operators to mine up to 5,000 tonnes per month on individual concessions and sell ore to state-run ENAMI processing plants. Red Metal rents selected claims to experienced artisanal miners and takes a 10% net sales royalty paid directly by the plant. At the Farellon 1/8 concession, a 1.5% vendor royalty reduces Red Metal's net share to 8.5% until the vendor has received $600,000. The arrangement also gives Red Metal underground access to observe the mineralisation. It has the option to buy bulk samples at the plant price and keeps its exploration rights.
The first operator, Minera KMT SpA, signed in May 2026 with a seven-month development period and a minimum rate of 2,500 tonnes per month thereafter. It delivered about 592 tonnes of copper sulphide ore to ENAMI last August, roughly four months early. Red Metal can cancel the lease if the minimum is missed for three consecutive months. Earlier small-scale mining on the ground averaged 1.87% copper. Jeffs expects similar grades that could produce a royalty of $35,000 to $50,000 a month. Final ENAMI assays and settlement for the first deliveries are pending. A second lease over the Irene and Margarita claims, with operator Catalina, targets the same monthly rate within about six months.
The larger prize is exploration. About 9,000 metres of drilling has tested roughly 1.5 km of a 5 km vein system. It showed continuous mineralisation with better grades and widths towards 200 metres depth. Mapping has traced about 15 km of veining towards the historic Carrizal Alto mine, which flooded in 1891 at around 500 metres depth. A LiDAR survey and a 3D IP survey have followed. The southern IP block produced chargeability anomalies over the drilled zone and over veins mapped at surface. Northern-block results are still to be released. Jeffs is targeting an underground operation grading 1% copper or better across three parallel veins, with a long-term goal of 50 to 100 million tonnes. Drilling is planned for late 2026 at about US$350 per metre. The full path could require 50,000 to 100,000 metres.
Red Metal has 61 million shares outstanding and about 80 million fully diluted, with options and warrants priced between 6 and 15 cents. Cash was about $300,000 at the time of the interview, so new funding is needed before drilling. The key watch items are the first ENAMI settlement, KMT's progress towards 2,500 tonnes per month, northern-block IP results and the first holes of the late 2026 programme.
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