Interview with Tim Coughlin, President and CEO of Royal Road Minerals (TSXV: RYR).
Royal Road Minerals is a Colombia/Nicaragua-based copper-gold exploration company. Coughlin claims Royal Road Minerals rarely goes beyond feasibility into the “valley of death.” Royal Road Minerals is the largest licence tenement holder in both countries, and orchestrates traditional 'boots on the ground exploration' with a twist: a focus on post-conflict environments. The management team likes to be responsible in environments, and this allows them to punch above their weight with respect to governance and regulators.
Royal Road Minerals has 3 copper-gold projects that are about to be advanced, gold and copper. Coughlin claims they form a large exploration package.
Royal Road Minerals' exploration strategy based almost entirely on discovery, rather than acquisition. The company appears to want to dedicate itself towards longer timescales and greater rewards. Coughlin claims the management team are looking for BIG ore deposits with a strong ESG component.
In terms of jurisdictions, Royal Road minerals has a focus on post-conflict environments because these are often under-explored, highly prospective regions, troubled regions. The conflict in these regions evolves out of civil unrest, e.g. Colombia, an imbalance of wealth. These are the issues that drive people to internal conflict; Colombia is second only to Syria in terms of displaced people. Rocky Road Minerals tries to employ a high-end geopolitical strategy to gain access to these resources and mitigate risk.
One of Royal Road Minerals' chief aims is to decentralise these environments. Coughlin claims mining is a “massive catalyst” to decentralise and resolve conflict and bring in infrastructure, education and health to impoverished regions. Royal Road Minerals is painting itself as an “ethical” copper-gold miner. In the district, Coughlin claims the team now knows the geology: a high-grade gold belt and porphyry copper belt. Copper is expensive to get to, which could be JV fodder, but Royal Road Minerals could follow up on the gold assets themselves.
In terms of the business model, it is to try and get off the treadmill of equity financing A new law passed in Colombia, 2017, allows Royal Road Minerals to formalise a lot of informal gold mine operations in exchange for a 3% royalty in gold. This looks like an attractive option, with 65,000oz coming from one artisanal gold mine example.
The second part of the plan involves JVs and acquisitions. Royal Road Minerals purchased AngloGold Ashanti’s exploration vessel last year; that is a big land package. Coughlin claims the management team already know where the targets are. In terms of shareholders, Coughlin explains that Rocky Road Minerals is quite institutional for a company of its size: c. 45%.
JV discussions are happening all the time, and Coughlin discussed them. Companies are waiting for proof they can gain access to a known porphyry copper region. Royal Road Minerals has spent about US1.4M in Nicaragua, with expansion drilling (50%) planned in the next year. The company sits on US$3M. Royal Road Minerals hopes to provide a resource by the end of the year, hopefully over 1 million ounces. The immediate catalyst appears to be drilling in Nicaragua and Colombia.
Most of the team are geologists. Coughlin himself claims he spends 40% of his time on this and is 100% committed. He states he has put CA$2M into this project himself. He needs this to work. The entire management team is allegedly invested.
Company page: https://www.royalroadminerals.com/
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