Esperanza | Morelos, Mexico
Portfolio Transactions
Equinox Gold
Led by Ross Beaty as Chair, Equinox Gold is a well-financed, multi-asset mining company and one of the only gold producers of scale operating entirely in the Americas. The company has seven mines and is advancing four growth projects that will significantly increase production in the near term. The company is delivering on its growth and diversification strategy, advancing from a single-asset developer to a multi-mine producer in just two years, and is rapidly advancing toward it vision of producing one million ounces of gold annually.
Previous to the creation of Equinox, several companies were merged together. In October 2016, Lowell Copper (co-founded by David Lowell, David De Witt and Marcel de Groot) acquired Anthem United and Gold Mountain to form JDL Gold. At that time the companies completed a non-brokered $60 million financing. In March of 2017, JDL Gold acquired Luna Gold to form Trek Mining at which time an additional $80 million in equity. In December, 2017 Trek Mining completed the acquisitions of NewCastle Gold and Anfield Resources and was renamed Equinox Gold and Ross Beaty became Chairman.
Solaris Resources
Solaris Resources is responsibly and sustainably advancing a portfolio of copper and gold projects in the Americas. The company’s flagship Warintza project in Ecuador hosts a high-grade open pit resource within a 7km x 5km cluster of porphyry targets defined on the property, with a number of untested, large-scale gold-in-soil and geophysical anomalies. The company is also expected to be drilling for discoveries at Tamarugo and Ricardo projects in Chile and Capricho and Paco Orco projects in Peru.
All of the exploration programs of Solaris were conceived by the late David Lowell, who made more discoveries of greater consequence than anyone in history.
As the founding Chairman of Solaris, Marcel de Groot was instrumental in the formation of the company; Mr. de Groot remained a director of Solaris until 2020.
Sandstorm Gold Royalties
Sandstorm Gold Ltd. is a gold royalty company which provides upfront financing to gold mining companies that are looking for capital and in return, receives the right to a percentage of the gold produced from a mine, for the life of the mine. Sandstorm has acquired a portfolio of over 250 royalties, of which over 35 of the underlying mines are producing.
Pathway founded the capital pool company that formed the basis of Sandstorm in 2009. David De Witt remains a Director of Sandstorm and is currently Chairman.
Sandbox Royalties Corp
Sandbox is a new, well-funded and diversified metals royalty company launched by Sandstorm Royalties and Equinox Gold. Sandstorm and Equinox are the company's two largest shareholders and together will provide Sandbox with unparalleled access to deal flow. At launch Sandbox owned 23 royalties with exposure to gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc, molybdenum, uranium, and graphite spanning production, development and exploration stage assets. Of these 23 royalties, two are from producing mines giving Sandbox immediate access to cash flow. Sandbox’s royalty portfolio assets are primarily located in mining-friendly jurisdictions in the Americas and Europe.
Sandbox intends to grow through acquisition of additional royalties, providing the company with a strong pipeline of assets all the way through from exploration to producing mines.
Marcel de Groot is the Chairman of Sandbox.
Horizon Copper Corp.
Horizon Copper is a premier copper company holding unique non-operating interests in high-grade, low-cost copper assets. Upon completion of the transaction described in the Management Information Circular dated July 26, 2022 (available on Horizon's SEDAR profile), Horizon will hold a portfolio of unparalleled copper assets including a 30% interest in the copper-gold Hod Maden project, exposure to the Oyu Tolgoi copper mine through a 25% equity ownership in Entrée Resources Ltd., and a 1.66% net profits interest on the Antamina copper mine. Horizon plans to actively grow its portfolio of assets with a focus on copper projects.
Horizon is a spin out from Sandstorm Gold and Sandstorm is Horizon's largest shareholder. David De Witt is a Director of Sandstorm and is currently Chairman.
Blue Dot Carbon
Blue Dot’s carbon credit streaming business allows the opportunity to finance projects that will generate broad environmental, social and economic benefits, while at the same time creating a diversified portfolio of carbon credits without exposure to ongoing capital or operating costs. Blue Dot’s flagship transaction is a $400 million financing agreement with Tree Global that will help restore and protect more than one million acres of African forests. The transaction with Tree Global is just the beginning for Blue Dot as the company plans to embark on a pipeline of hundreds of millions of dollars of carbon credit stream opportunities.
Marcel de Groot is currently a Director of Blue Dot Carbon.
Copper Standard
Copper Standard is a resource-stage mining company with a focus on precious metals. The Company has an option to acquire 100% of the Colpayoc Property, located in the Department of Cajamarca of northern Peru. Colpayoc is within the Yanacocha gold district, which is the largest gold district in South America and contains mainly volcanic-hosted epithermal and porphyry-hosted gold mineralization. The main target at Colpayoc is porphyry-hosted gold mineralization.
The Company is looking to grow through acquisition of other properties and exploration and advancement of those properties it already owns.
The Company is led by Marcel de Groot as President and Director and Andy Swarthout as Chairman. Mr Swarthout is a recognized leader and mineral explorer with an extensive history of ore deposit discoveries and project acquisitions in the Americas including a vast breadth and depth of experience in mineral exploration in Peru.
Sunpeak Metals Corp.
Sunpeak Metals is an exploration and development company focused within the highly prospective Arabian Nubian Shield in Ethiopia.
The Sunpeak Metals management team has a proven track record of success in the discovery and identification of volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) deposits within the Arabian Nubian Shield, having been involved in the discovery of Nevsun Resource’s Bisha Mine in Eritrea in 2003 and the development of Sunridge Gold Corp’s Asmara Project in Eritrea in 2004.
Bisha Mine (Nevsun Resources)
Senior members of the Sunpeak Metals team were involved in the discovery of Nevsun Resource’s Bisha Mine (Bisha) in Eritrea. Bisha is a large, high-grade VMS deposit located within the Arabian Nubian Shield in Eritrea and, at the initial reserve estimate prior to production, held over 28 million tonnes of high-grade gold, copper, and zinc. Production at Bisha commenced in 2011 and, to date, the mine has produced 1.25 million ounces of gold, 500 million pounds of copper, and 100 million pounds of zinc.
Asmara Mine (Sunridge Gold Corp)
The entire Sunpeak Metals team held senior management roles with Sunridge Gold and, in 2004 they began exploring the Asmara Project in the Arabian Nubian Shield in Eritrea. During their tenure at Sunridge Gold, the team completed 300,000 meters of exploration and delineation drilling to ultimately define a measured and indicated resource of over 100 million tonnes of copper, zinc, and gold within six deposits. The team then progressed four of the six deposits through feasibility before a large Chinese company acquired the Company in 2016.
Peru Copper
Peru Copper Inc. was formed for the purpose of exploring and developing the Toromocho copper project located in Peru. In 2007, Peru Copper was sold to Chinalco for approximately $860 million. The Toromocho project to date has had approximately $4 billion expended on it and is one of the largest producing copper mines in Peru.
David De Witt was a Director of Peru Copper and the Vice–President of Corporate Development from inception to the time of sale to Chinalco.