Contango Silver & Gold Inc.
Contango Silver & Gold holds a 30% interest in the Peak Gold/Manh Choh JV with Kinross Gold (current gold production) and separately advances its wholly owned Lucky Shot and Johnson Tract projects in Alaska. Johnson Tract -- acquired via the Jul 2024 HighGold Mining acquisition -- is a gold-silver-copper-zinc polymetallic deposit near tidewater in Southcentral Alaska (JT Deposit: Indicated 598,000 oz Au / 673,000 oz Ag / 43.1M lb Cu, plus zinc); a $17M 2026 program is building a 3-mile access road, winterizing the camp, and advancing FAST-41 environmental permitting toward construction. The company merged with Dolly Varden Silver Corp on Mar 26 2026, adding the ~247,000-acre Kitsault Valley project in BC's Golden Triangle -- a silver-dominant historic-producer district (Dolly Varden, Torbrit, Homestake, Wolf, North Star) now the subject of an updated Mineral Resource Estimate and a 40,000-metre, $25M 2026 drill campaign. The company eliminated its gold hedges in 2026 and, following the merger, began trading on the TSX (Apr 13 2026, market-open celebration Jun 12 2026) alongside its existing NYSE American listing.
Notable vs. Peers
- Trading within 4% of its 52-week low — weak recent price momentum.
Lifecycle Milestones
Construction Milestones
5 of 5 reached- May 2023 · Source
- Jul 2022 · Source
- Aug 2023 · Source
- Reached — date not disclosed · Source
- Reached — date not disclosed · Source
Milestones are recorded only from a company's own dated disclosure. A milestone with no date shown is one we can confirm was reached but for which no date was disclosed — we don't estimate one. "Not yet reached" means exactly that, not that a date is missing. An "Expected" line likewise only ever reflects the company's own guidance (e.g. a study or permit decision targeted for a stated quarter) — most not-yet-reached milestones have none, and that absence means no such guidance has been disclosed, not that one is overdue.
Not in place: mill, tailings facility, grid power. Not yet determined: road access.
Not in place: mill, tailings facility. Not yet determined: grid power.
Not in place: mill, tailings facility. Not yet determined: grid power.
Combined view across 5 projects. Figures below are only combined where the underlying basis genuinely matches -- see the notes under each.
- 30.2%Johnson Tract Project, Alaska
- 7 yrsJohnson Tract Project, Alaska
Jurisdiction (40%)9/10
Alaska: Fraser PPI 2025 is 82.71 of 100 (rank 19 of 68), which maps to 9 on this site's scale. Alaska, USA offers stable US rule of law with permitting-timeline and remoteness as the main practical constraints; the Mar 2026 Dolly Varden merger added a second jurisdiction, British Columbia, Canada, also a top-tier mining jurisdiction. Both are stable relative to the typical junior-miner jurisdiction range.
Infrastructure (40%)1.4/10
No confirmed mill, no confirmed grid power, and no confirmed tailings facility at Manh Choh Project, Alaska (Peak Gold JV); road access not yet researched, counted at a neutral 5/10 until established.
Nearby producing mine (20%)Not yet researched
No project coordinates on file yet, so distance to a producing mine can't be measured.
Acquisition Susceptibility
A relative ranking of how closely this company matches the profile of juniors that have actually been acquired — not a probability, and not a reason to buy. Acquisitions are rare: only a few dozen significant deals happen a year across a universe of thousands of juniors, so even a high score here describes a long shot. The strongest signal in the research, a producer that already owns part of the company, is scored from its disclosed strategic shareholders. A producer that is a joint-venture or earn-in partner on the project, rather than a shareholder, isn't captured yet.
How this score is built
- Disclosed pending dealSub-score: Not scored
No pending acquisition or merger disclosed (checked)
Not scored: having no deal in flight isn't held against a company.
Weight 26.25% - Producer's strategic stakeSub-score: Not scored
No producer holds a disclosed stake on file (holder register researched) See holders
Not scored: most juniors that do get bought had no prior toehold, so a missing stake says little either way.
Weight 25% - Distance to a producing mineSub-score: Not yet researched
Distance not yet researched: no project coordinates on file
Distance can't be measured without coordinates, so excluded rather than counted as far.
Weight 22.5% - Lifecycle stageSub-score:5.5/10
Stage: Production
Feasibility and permitting score 10, where deals cluster, and production 5.5; earlier stages score less, down to 1 at grassroots.
Weight 15% · 57% here - JurisdictionSub-score:9/10
United States: jurisdiction score 9/10
Our jurisdiction score, used as is: higher means lower political and permitting risk.
Weight 6.75% · 26% here - CommoditySub-score:10/10
Primary commodity: Gold
Gold 10, copper 8, silver 5, nickel and uranium 4, others 2: most majors' deals are for gold.
Weight 4.5% · 17% here
Weight is each input's share of the full score. “Here” is its share of this company's score: inputs that aren't scored are left out and the rest re-weighted, never counted as zero.
Your Rankings
Management Team
Over 30 years in the resource sector, including serving as Vice President of Exploration for Placer Dome from 1990 to 1997. Formed NovaGold Resources in 1998, acquired the Donlin Gold project in southwest Alaska, and served as its President/CEO from 1999 to 2012, advancing the project to a 40-million-ounce gold discovery. NovaGold spun out Trilogy Metals in 2011, and he served as Trilogy's President/CEO from January 2012 before becoming President & CEO of Contango ORE in 2020.
Chartered Professional Accountant holding a Bachelor of Technology in Accounting from the British Columbia Institute of Technology, with over 18 years in mining-sector executive management. Served as Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Secretary of Alexco Resource Corp. from December 2014 until the company's acquisition by Hecla Mining Company in September 2022, and earlier was CFO of Goldgroup Mining Inc. (2010-2014) and of the Grosso Group and its member companies (2007-2010). Appointed Executive Vice President - Finance of Contango ORE, Inc. in July 2023, becoming Chief Financial Officer & Corporate Secretary of what is now Contango Silver & Gold Inc. in January 2024; also joined the board of Avino Silver & Gold Mines Ltd. in 2025.
Certified Professional Geoscientist (CPG) with over 20 years of experience executing mineral exploration programs. Previously served as Chief Exploration Geologist for the Pogo Gold Mine in Alaska and as Principal Geologist, Exploration for Teck Resources at its Vancouver head office. Currently Vice President of Exploration at Contango Silver & Gold Inc., where he serves as a Qualified Person under SEC Regulation S-K 1300.
Insiders, Investors & Smart Money
Notable shareholders and insiders whose involvement is worth knowing about, plus what we're seeing from institutional/large-investor activity.
Contango's real institutional backing is not on its share register but in its mine: it owns 30% of the Peak Gold joint venture that operates Manh Choh in Alaska, with Kinross Gold holding the other 70% and running it, and the venture has been paying Contango cash -- a US$9 million distribution in the second quarter of 2026 alone. Kinross owns no Contango stock, and Royal Gold sold out of the shares entirely in 2020, keeping royalties instead. Insiders both bought and sold over the past year: director Clynton Nauman bought 10,000 shares at $18.56 in April 2026 and chief executive Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse bought in June, against larger selling by the chief financial officer and others.
No notable insiders tracked for this miner yet.
Reports, Presentations & Documents
Contango Silver & Gold holds 30% of the Peak Gold joint venture with Kinross Gold, which produces from the Manh Choh mine in Alaska and trucks the ore to Kinross's Fort Knox mill. It owns 100% of the Lucky Shot and Johnson Tract projects in Alaska and, since its 26 March 2026 merger with Dolly Varden Silver, the Kitsault Valley project in British Columbia's Golden Triangle. Its attributable measured and indicated gold resources total 1,308,020 oz, combining 30% of Manh Choh's 699,000 oz with Johnson Tract (598,000 oz), Kitsault Valley (394,700 oz) and Lucky Shot (105,620 oz), plus 676,820 oz inferred. Johnson Tract's May 2025 initial assessment shows a post-tax NPV5% of US$224.5M and a 30.2% IRR at US$2,200/oz gold over a 7-year life, and work in 2026 includes a 3-mile access road and federal permitting. All-in sustaining cost for 2025 was US$1,616 per ounce sold, and Contango began trading on the TSX on 13 April 2026 alongside its NYSE American listing.