Tiernan Gold Advances 11 Moz Volcan Toward 2027 PFS | Chris Taylor

Tiernan Gold (TSXV: TNGD) Director Chris Taylor joins Kitco Mining at PDAC 2026 to discuss advancing the Volcan gold project in Chile’s Maricunga district, which hosts 9.8 Moz measured and indicated and total resources of about 11 Moz.

“It’s an 11 million ounce deposit, basically,” Taylor said. “The thing is huge.” The large-scale oxide heap leach project has not seen exploration in more than a decade and sits in a district experiencing renewed development activity.

Under a $3,600 gold scenario, Taylor estimates the current mine design could generate an after-tax NPV of about $3.6 billion and an IRR of roughly 47%. He noted the most recent PEA used much lower gold price assumptions and “it really basically bears no resemblance to what the project could be under a sort of modern gold price regime.”

Tiernan, which is just over 60% owned by Hochschild Mining, raised $58 million Canadian in November to advance the project toward a pre-feasibility study targeted for 2027. Taylor said the project is “it’s probably a top quartile in terms of all in sustaining costs,” while also pointing to exploration upside beyond the existing 11 Moz resource.

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To learn more about Tiernan Gold, visit: https://tiernangold.com

00:36 - Chris Taylor Background
01:19 - Volcan Project Overview
02:21 - PEA Economics Snapshot
03:15 - District Momentum
03:43 - Water Rights and Solutions
05:29 - Financing and PFS Plan
06:31 - Key PFS Challenges
08:15 - Exploration Upside Potential
09:37 - Chile Politics Tailwinds
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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Hello and welcome to Kitco Mining with me, Paul Harris, here at the 2026 Perspectives and Developers Association conference in Toronto. We are talking about the Maricunga Gold District in Chile, and I've got great pleasure to be joined by Chris Taylor, who is the director of Tien and Gold, which trades on the TSXB under the ticker TNGD. Chris, welcome back to Kitco. Great to see you, Paul. It is very great to see you, Chris, and it's been far too long. You had great success with Great Bear, and you sort of went a dark ops for a couple of years since then. You need no introduction for people that are very familiar with the space, but for those that are new to the space, why don't you give us a bit of a potted history of Chris Taylor?

SPEAKER_01 0:47

Okay, well in a in a nutshell, uh I am a structural geologist. I'm best known for our work at Great Bear and Great Bear Royalties. So those uh the project, the company was sold to Kinross a few years ago. And if you think about the$1.8 billion sale value of Great Bear and the$200 million sale value of the royalty to uh Royal Gold, um it was a$2 billion total transaction. And we did manage to sell the project pre-resource, which people um like to give me all the credit for, but really these are market dynamics as well. So it was a great win for our shareholders.

SPEAKER_00 1:21

Well, it's great to have you back, Chris, and you've got a very exciting story to tell now. Uh you have the Balkan Gold project in the Marikunga district of the Atacama in Chile, which was previously explored by Andina Mining, has a measured and indicative resource of 9.8 million ounces, total resources of what 11 million ounces. Uh, how did you get the project?

SPEAKER_01 1:40

Oh, that's a good question. And uh, you know, it's nice you're talking to me. The CEO of uh Tiernan is uh Fausta di Trapani, he's a great guy, and I highly suggest uh we have a discussion with him at some point as well. He really knows this project inside and out. Um, so Vulcan, and I know you know the project quite well from past uh past uh research as well. So uh I first looked at it several years ago, and uh the thing is huge. Like it's uh an 11 million ounce uh deposit, basically. Um it's sitting there uh completely undeveloped. Uh it hasn't seen exploration now for like over a decade, and it was very clear to me looking at the data back at the time that in the right gold price environment, this thing was going to be an absolutely monstrous uh potential project for shareholders.

SPEAKER_00 2:27

Okay, now there's a PEA preliminary economic assessment on the project. What does that look like?

SPEAKER_01 2:33

I mean this is this is a little bit funny because you have a new PEA that's been out uh for about a year on the project, and uh you know it's at like$2,400,$2,600 gold. The way this thing looks under current gold prices is actually a little bit difficult to describe. Um, maybe you'd use something like uh$3,600 gold if you take that. I think you'd get an IRR of about uh 47% on it, as the project is currently designed, and the NPV on it uh probably on an after-tax basis would be probably about$3.6 billion after tax, you know. So the thing is huge. And at current gold prices. I don't know, Paul. Like, what do you what would you estimate it would come in at?

SPEAKER_00 3:13

It's not my job. My job is to ask the questions, Chris. Sorry. Uh this is gold oxide heap leach, yeah?

SPEAKER_01 3:18

It's uh it's a big heap leach operation, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:21

Okay, so the the Marikunga is as a district is is getting a second win. We recently saw the development of Rio 2's Phoenix mine, that's now in commercial production. Kim Ross Gold is in the district as well with its La Koipa mine. Everyone's looking at expanding that. Um second win for for the Marikunga.

SPEAKER_01 3:37

Yeah, exactly. I feel like sometimes um uh I'm surrounded by Kinross on so many different levels of my life, but certainly that's the case with the volcano.

SPEAKER_00 3:45

I hadn't thought about that before. Yeah, yeah. Okay, um one of the sort of key aspects there um is is is water. Water's a critical aspect in Chile. Um you've got water rights, but I guess one of the questions there is will the government allow you to draw on those?

SPEAKER_01 3:59

Well, I think with recent uh political changes in Chile, the likelihood of that going through is a lot higher. Um, but there are because there's so much activity, like you just mentioned, like, for instance, like Kinross is going back into uh production, they want to do a restart of Maricunga. That's like, I believe on the top of my head, about 10 million ounces. So there's discussion about bringing in DSAL water into this area and sharing it amongst different producers. And so that's another avenue that you could go down, uh other than just using uh like we do have guaranteed rights to the water that we have in two wells which are just off the property boundary. And so uh if that's not available though, for whatever reason, uh there is uh this lots of discussion about building up water infrastructure in the district.

SPEAKER_00 4:39

And Rio 2 for their second phase of development will need to bring in water, and they're talking about desalinated seawater. Uh speaking with uh Alex Black there, there's a number of infrastructure companies that are very keen to build and sell to various third-party uh clients.

SPEAKER_01 4:54

Exactly. The more of us that are advancing projects together, the more economic that becomes.

SPEAKER_00 4:59

Are there other potential infrastructure benefits that you can sort of piggyback on or help with uh with Rio 2, with Kim Ross and some of the other players in the region?

SPEAKER_01 5:08

Uh that's a question that might become very important at some time in the future. Uh, but at the moment, I mean the Volcan project has it's not like it lacks size. It not it's not like there's a lack of available gold. Um, you know, if we were to apply exploration to this project, it it's almost frightening uh how much there could be there. Uh so it could definitely be a very effective standalone project, notwithstanding the fact that it's absolutely surrounded by uh world-class mines.

SPEAKER_00 5:35

Well, let's talk about the sort of the work program. You raised$58 million Canadian in November last year. That's a very nice amount for a new company. Um who participated in that and what will that money fund?

SPEAKER_01 5:48

And so uh it's quite interesting. So we're now about uh I think on a fully diluted basis, just over 60% owned by Hoxchild. But we had a number of other institutional investors in the last round, a number of high net worth private investors as well. That money will basically get us to the point where we have a PFS completed on the project, and that PFS work is being um all the early stage stages of that are underway right now. So we aim to be delivering that like next year.

SPEAKER_00 6:15

Okay, 2027. Hostel brother, a 60% stake. What direction do they want Shannon to go with the project?

SPEAKER_01 6:22

Well, um I don't want to put words in their mouth per se, but I mean they are our major shareholder. They would like to see this project get as advanced as possible. That could be all the way through to production. Um, and I'd certainly they would benefit a great deal as major shareholders of the company.

SPEAKER_00 6:36

Okay. In terms of sort of getting there, what what are some of those perhaps the key challenges that uh the PFS will look to address? What are the key things that need to be put in place?

SPEAKER_01 6:46

Well, you know, I look at this uh from what is the total size of the system? We've already got 11 million ounces of gold developed, but the PEA, uh that's the most recent PEA from last year, which is out on the project, only has about 3.8 million ounces that are currently in the mine plan. Well, this is um the the crazy thing about that is I believe the cutoff uh cutoffs were calculated at$1,600 or$1,800 gold. Um it really basically bears no resemblance to what the project could be under sort of modern uh gold modern gold price regime. So the PFS is going to address uh the technical aspects of putting a mine together, but it'll also have to address what this project looks like in a current economic context.

SPEAKER_00 7:28

Okay. Now with the Rio 2 and their Phoenix project, they've got a very large ore body there, and they took a phase development approach pretty much to do with the the water question and be able to have enough water to do it. Um will that be the approach you're looking to take with the PFS?

SPEAKER_01 7:44

It's interesting. Uh I'd like to get some feedback before answering that question. I am just a director of the company, I should be clear about that. So I don't have any special insight to how the PFS is going until I get another update. But I would think it would be logical to take a phased approach like that as well because um there's different synergies uh that could develop between this project and others in the region. I think the best way to approach it is standalone, and I think um because there's a huge exploration upside potential on this project still, notwithstanding the fact that there's already 11 million ounces, I think there should be some work done on that side uh before a finalized mine plan is put together as well.

SPEAKER_00 8:21

Well, well tell us more about the exploration upside, Chris. You've got 11 million ounces, you've got a large land package, uh a PFS, there's often that uh sort of tension between uh the part of the company that's looking ahead towards a production scenario, the exploration guys obviously want to keep going and finding more ounces. How how is that being resolved currently?

SPEAKER_01 8:38

I I'm laughing because you're talking to an exploration guy, right? So if uh if it was me and I had uh complete free reign on this project, um, you know, there would be drills turning, and there will be, you know, there will be exploration work that's done on this thing uh later this year, I would I would imagine, early next year uh in the exploration season. Uh but uh nobody has identified the causative source of all this gold at this project. So you gotta think. Like uh none of the rocks that have been drilled right now are what brought that gold into that system. And I have worked for a porphyry mining company in my past. I love porphyries, I love systems like this. I can only imagine what might be in the ground, which is pumping tens of millions of ounces into this surface, uh near surface rock package. It it could be one of these incredible scenarios where you have transformative drilling that occurs, despite the fact that you've already got a world-class mineralized system. There could be even more on top of that. So I don't want to get too excited, but but I'm excited about that.

SPEAKER_00 9:38

But your legs twitching to go, Oh, I'm just you can see my body language just totally changes, right? Wonderful. Now you you mentioned about the the the government in in in Chile. Um a new government takes office well in a in a matter of days. Yeah. The the caste government's coming in, uh, pro-business, pro-mining. Uh, what potential benefits do you see, you know, both for Tienan and obviously the the mining sector in general?

SPEAKER_01 9:59

I mean, this is part of a global trend, right? So we've seen uh a move in uh some Latin American jurisdictions away from more left-wing socialist governments to more pro-business governments, uh, and this is uh I think a reflection of that. Um I think people now, given the geopolitical backdrop in the world, I mean, and here we are talking in the aftermath of uh uh another regime change occurring as we speak in the Middle East. And so uh there's gonna be a move uh around the world to reprioritize some of these highly economic and critical projects, and this is just part of that scenario. So I could see that um with Chile having such enormous mineral resources like it sits on right now, uh, it could be a leader uh in some of the uh production of commodities that the world is desperately looking for, and I don't think uh the politically backs are gonna be turned on those sort of opportunities.

SPEAKER_00 10:51

Okay, we we've covered a lot of ground, Chris. Um why don't we end talking about some of what for you will be some of the key catalysts for the company in 2026?

SPEAKER_01 10:59

Well, I'd say follow the news flow uh because there's gonna be progress released on metallurgy, uh there's gonna be work that's being completed constantly on the PFS. Uh so I would track all of this and keep in context, like this is one of the best uh large-scale projects in the world from like uh it's probably a top quartile in terms of all insists low all and sustaining costs. Um keep these things in mind while you follow the progress on the project in the prelude to that PFS coming out.

SPEAKER_00 11:27

Well, hopefully we can get you back on the show later in the year when the PFS comes out. Until then, Chris Taylor, thank you very much for joining me today. Great to talk. Thanks very much, Paul. And once again, TN and Gold trades on the TSXB under the ticket TNGD. We have a lot more to come for the 2026 Prospectors and Developers Association conference in Toronto, so stay tuned and hit that subscribe button. I'm Paul Harris, and this is Kiko Mining.