Could you share how Gold Group Management began and the companies you helped kick-start?

As a mining prospector and financier, I was often approached by geologists with promising project ideas. When a concept stood out, I would help bring it to life by establishing a public company and advance the opportunity together with the team that brought it to me. Gold Group Management was therefore born as a platform to incubate and launch high-potential exploration ventures while reducing overheads. The first project I had was in Venezuela, but prospecting in Venezuela was difficult because much of the geology was just saprolite, clay rich material. However, while flying between Vancouver and Venezuela looking down at the volcanic landscape of Central America and the Caribbean from the air, that region sparked my interest. This is when I started focusing on previously unexplored countries like Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala.

We have had quite a bit of success in the Central American region. Our team has built a reputation in the discovery and sale of prolific deposits, such as Cerro Blanco in Guatemala (presently owned now by Aura Minerals), Natividad in Nicaragua (Calibre Mining, now in a merger of equals with Equinox), the San Martin deposit (sold to Glamis Gold which was later acquired by Goldcorp, which later merged with Newmont), or the San Jose Silver deposit, currently owned by Fortuna Silver Mines.

We now have three publicly listed companies under our umbrella: Rackla Metals (TSX-V: RAK), focused on exploration of the Tombstone Gold Belt in Yukon and NWT, Canada; Radius Gold (TSX-V: RDU), with a portfolio of projects in Peru, Mexico and Guatemala; and Volcanic Gold (TSX-V: VG), with assets in Guatemala.

What is the current focus of Radius Gold?

Radius Gold has built a portfolio of projects in Mexico, Guatemala and Peru, but the recent focus has fallen onto Peru. In Mexico, we made three discoveries at the Amalia project and brought in Pan American Silver as a JV partner that has now earned in 65% of the project. They have recently offered to buy the remaining interest on the project. Due to difficulties operating in Mexico, including pending applications for permits, we switched our focus to Peru and the Tierra Roja copper project in the Arequipa region, southern Peru. We expect to obtain the permit to start drilling in the coming months.

What is the status of the Holly project in Guatemala?

Holly holds a resource of about 400,000 oz at 9 g/t Au and sits about 40 km north of Cerro Blanco in a very prolific district. The project has great exploration potential but we ran into some issues with a small aggressively anti-mining group who actually set fire to one of the drill rigs. We have been spending the last two years talking to the local communities who support our returning to work. I just got back from a trip to meet some of the local leaders and they are keen to see us back in the country and generate employment again. 

The fact that the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, has come forward in support of mining, sends a strong message in favor of the Holly project, which sits close to the border with El Salvador.

To what extent does the resumption of activity at Cerro Blanco or Escobal influence the future of exploration in Guatemala?

We were certainly hoping to see either Cerro Blanco or Escobal in production by now, but both of these projects are still inactive. Escobal was once the world’s third-largest silver mine. Pan American has not been able yet to get back the permit to restart work. Meanwhile, Cerro Blanco was a permitted, very attractive underground mine. But the owners, the Lundin Group, decided to change it to an open pit which made the permitting very complicated; they never could get a clear open pit permit, so they sold the project. The saga goes on.  We made the Cerro Blanco discovery in 1998, 28 years ago and it is still not in production.

What could tilt the balance in favor of mining in countries with strong anti-mining opposition?

Countries in the region need employment above anything else. The typical narrative we hear is that people flee Central America due to violence, but for the most part, they are leaving because they want a better life. Before Escobal was shut down, it was employing around 1,200 people, people who never regained their jobs. Recent anti-immigration politics in the US will create an influx of people returning back to El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico, which will only exacerbate unemployment in Latin America, while the remittance money flowing from the US will dry up. The economic argument for mining in the region has never been so strong. Geologically, Central America is mostly untapped, great geology so the odds of making a discovery are still very high.

The market responded positively when we announced that Volcanic would be back to work in Guatemala – our share price doubled – which tells me there is trust in our judgment and in the huge returns that the region could potentially offer. Globally, however, the exploration sector suffers from a lack of interest from the general public. We used to dream of commodity prices like those of today, and now that we have it, the market is still lackluster.