Mining Stock Daily The New Contango Silver and Gold: Defining Success in the Years to Come
Apr 13, 2026
Shawn Khunkhun, President of Contango Silver and Gold, focused on exploration and district-scale projects; Rick Van Niewenhuyse, CEO overseeing operations and portfolio integration. They discuss the merger’s strategic synergies. They talk sequencing projects like Lucky Shot and Kitsault, leveraging Manh Choh cashflow, planned drilling and budgets, and the milestones that will define success in coming years.
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Merger Creates Gold And Silver Complementarity
- The merger pairs Contango's gold-biased Johnson Track with Dolly Varden's silver-rich Kitsault to create complementary polymetallic exposure.
- Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse highlighted Johnson Track as gold-focused and Kitsault as silver-dominated, delivering portfolio balance and DSO synergy.
Execution Roadmap Balances Cashflow And Exploration
- Management plans to balance near-term cash flow from Mancho with aggressive exploration and development at Lucky Shot, Johnson Track, and Kitsault.
- Shawn Khunkhun detailed a sequence: Lucky Shot drill-led expansion to production, parallel Johnson Track permitting and Kitsault development to scale to ~200k oz Au and 5M oz Ag annually.
Mancho Generates Cash While Kinross Operates It
- Contango functions like a royalty owner at Mancho because Kinross operates the mine and handles day-to-day operations.
- Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse said their CFO mostly 'cashes checks' while Kinross runs operations under the JV arrangement.