Scorpio Gold CEO Outlines Fully Financed 50,000-Meter Drill Program Targeting 2 Million Ounces in Nevada

Scorpio Gold is fully financed for a 50,000-meter drill program and aims to grow its 740,000-ounce resource to 2 million ounces by the end of 2026, CEO Zayn Kalyan told Investor TV. Speaking with analysts Don Durrett and John Feneck, he laid out the case for the company's Manhattan project in Nevada, and for a longer-term resource of 3 to 5 million ounces that he believes could set up a sale to a mid-tier producer.

## A drill program built to double the resource

Kalyan describes Scorpio as a late-stage exploration project in one of Nevada's most prolific gold districts, about 40 kilometers north of Tonopah, between the Walker Lane and the Carlin trend. The company has drilled roughly 20,000 meters over the past 12 months, including just over 8,000 meters since the start of the year, with three rigs active and results released every two to three weeks.

His consistency claim is specific: of nearly 80 holes drilled since early-to-mid 2024, all but about four hit mineralization, and almost all were additive to the resource. The stated resource stands at 740,000 ounces at 1.26 grams per tonne (g/t — how much gold sits in each tonne of rock), and Kalyan says internal work suggests the company has already scaled past 1 million ounces. An updated mineral resource estimate (MRE — the formal, publicly disclosed tally of drilling-supported ounces) is targeted for the first quarter of 2027.

The bigger prize is scale. The project covers an 8.5-kilometer mineralized structure that Kalyan says was never consolidated under one operator until Scorpio brought together the Gold Wedge mine and the historic Manhattan mine ground in 2021. He frames 3 to 5 million ounces as the conviction range. Drilling is now focused on the Reliance Trend, which holds the bulk of the resource, where one rig is upgrading previously uncategorized blocks; the newly identified Zanzibar Trend, a splay from Gold Wedge to Mustang Hill with a rig of its own that Kalyan says could add a couple hundred thousand ounces at fairly high grade; and Black Mammoth, a never-drilled area dense with historic workings where the company's first two holes hit mineralization.

## Grade is the differentiator

Kalyan argues the project's grade sets it apart. Nevada open-pit deposits average around 0.6 g/t by his telling, and he says there is "almost nothing" in the state with more than a million ounces at a gram per tonne or better. Metallurgy supports the story he tells: an oxide resource extending 200 meters below surface, with historic recoveries of 77% from heap leaching (stacking crushed ore and dripping solution through it to recover gold), low-70s percent from gravity alone, and 92% from a full carbon-in-leach mill circuit.

## Infrastructure next to a giant

The Manhattan ground holds assets juniors rarely control outright: water rights sufficient for a 6,000-8,000 tonne-per-day mill, plus a fully permitted 400-tonne-per-day mill and a permitted decline at Gold Wedge. Kinross holds a 2% net smelter return royalty (NSR — a cut of future metal sales) on half the resource, but Kalyan says much of the expansion ground is royalty-free.

Location matters too. He describes neighboring Round Mountain — one of Kinross's largest mines in North America, at 15 to 20 million ounces with mine life recently extended to 2038 — as unable to fill its own mill capacity with its remaining ore. Scorpio, in his framing, is the closest large-scale project to that processing hub.

## A rebuilt balance sheet, and a NASDAQ plan

Kalyan also sketched the company's reset. Founded in 2009, Scorpio produced at the Mineral Ridge mine from 2011 to 2017. He took over at the start of 2024, replaced the board — all but one director is new — and sold Mineral Ridge last year, calling the result "Scorpio 2.0."

Today he puts the company at just over $8 million in cash against burn of roughly $1 million a month, leaving the drill program fully funded through December. Ross Beatty and Eric Sprott anchored a 25-cent placement in September 2025, in-the-money warrants were fully exercised by the end of February, and the company is "very far down the road" on a NASDAQ cross-listing through the Multijurisdictional Disclosure System (MJDS — a streamlined US listing route for Canadian issuers). Drilling costs run about $450 per meter all-in, including full multi-element assays.

## Sell, JV, or build

Kalyan is direct that the endgame is a sale to a mid-tier producer, with serious merger-and-acquisition interest perhaps 18 months out. But pressed on air, he concedes the path is not fixed: nearby projects need mill capacity, and he sees potential for a hub-and-spoke consolidation within the district.

Durrett runs the build math: 3 million ounces producing 150,000 ounces a year, $7,000 gold, and an AISC (All-In Sustaining Cost — what it really costs to produce an ounce) of $2,500 leaves a $3,500-per-ounce margin and $500 million in annual free cash flow, which he argues could support a $10 billion valuation at a 20-times multiple. The analysts sketch a middle path as well: a joint venture in which a partner funds the construction costs in exchange for a 50% free carried interest. Kalyan responds that a 40% takeover premium could get through the shareholder base, a 100% premium is a different story, and his larger holders' private value estimates run higher still.

Durrett's own scorecard: a minimum two-to-three-bagger if the resource reaches 3 million ounces, with a gram-grade Nevada deposit "worth $3 all day long" — roughly $900 million — even allowing for dilution. He sizes the company at about $89 million US fully diluted, floats a buy-the-dip entry near $75-80 million if gold pulls back to the $4,100-4,400 range he expects, and says he would otherwise wait for a pivot to production, adding that he expects the company will do nothing but drill for the next two years. Feneck places Scorpio in the 2-million-ounce echelon his show tracks — he notes Lahontan's Nevada project sits about 140 kilometers away — and says 3 million ounces would move it into a more elite class.

## Macro backdrop and disclosure

The interview opens with a long macro discussion in which Durrett argues gold's slide from about $5,600 to roughly $4,700 is a warning that the S&P 500 is overextended, and both hosts expect further near-term weakness in gold stocks. That view is the backdrop for the buy-the-dip framing above, not a company fact.

Readers should also note the disclosure: the interview was disseminated on behalf of Scorpio Gold, and the channel states its operator, Global One Media, may receive compensation from the featured company in cash or securities. The claims and figures above are the participants' own.