Franco‑Nevada Royalty Validates Value

Interview with Tara Christie, President & CEO of Banyan Gold Corp.

Our previous interview: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/posts/banyan-gold-tsxvbyn-76moz-gold-project-advances-toward-2026-pea-8866

Recording date: 1st March 2026

Banyan Gold Corp. (TSXV:BYN) enters 2026 as one of the more substantive junior gold development stories in Canada's Yukon Territory. With a 7.7-million-ounce gold resource at its AurMac project, a fully funded 40,000-metre drill program underway, and a maiden Preliminary Economic Assessment scheduled for the second half of the year, the company has a clear and near-term catalyst pipeline.

The 2025 drill program of approximately 43,000 metres targeted two high-grade zones—Airstrip and Powerline—which are expected to anchor the starter pit economics in the upcoming PEA. Intercepts of 16 metres at 9 g/t and 40 metres at 4 g/t at Airstrip, and multiple 2–3 metre intervals at 16 g/t at Powerline, represent above-average grades relative to the broader deposit. Assay results from the full 2025 campaign remain pending, with a resource update to follow. Step-out drilling has extended the deposit's surface expression by approximately one kilometre in both directions along Airstrip, reinforcing management's view that AurMac is a substantially larger system than legacy models indicated.

A separate high-grade silver discovery—18 drill hits across six shallow veins, with grades exceeding 13,000 g/t at depths as shallow as 65 metres—adds a layer of optionality not yet captured in any economic study. The most significant external data point for valuing AurMac is Franco-Nevada's February 2026 acquisition of the project royalty for $52.2 million. The royalty carries a buydown provision reducing it to 1% for $10 million—meaning Franco-Nevada effectively paid approximately $42 million for a 1% net smelter royalty. At Banyan's current market capitalisation, this implies the equity market is ascribing a fraction of the value to the full project that a leading royalty company paid for just one percent of it. That gap is the central valuation argument for the stock.

Despite a share price increase of approximately 350% in 2025, Banyan trades at under US$50 per ounce of resource. Yukon development peers trade at US$60 to US$300 per ounce. Christie noted that comparable companies were achieving the US$50/oz valuation at US$1,800 gold—implying the current per-ounce value has not kept pace with the commodity. Three investor misconceptions resolved in October 2025—heap leach versus mill, legacy shareholding overhang, and partial property ownership—had suppressed the stock relative to peers and have now been corrected.
Execution risk is reduced by full funding secured in October 2025, an early season start with five drills operating by mid-March, and contracts with senior field personnel signed ahead of competitors. The company is not seeking additional capital and is focused on delivering value from existing resources.

The PEA in H2 2026 is the defining event. It will establish the first public economic framework for AurMac and provide the foundation for any subsequent corporate transaction, partnership, or development financing discussion. For investors positioned ahead of that catalyst, the combination of resource scale, jurisdictional quality, external royalty validation, and a measurable per-ounce discount to peers represents a specific and trackable investment case.

View Banyan Gold's company profile: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/companies/banyan-gold-inc

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