White Gold's maiden PEA outlines a C$1.9B Yukon mine — and management calls it a starting point

White Gold has released its maiden preliminary economic assessment (PEA) for its Yukon gold project, and the study describes a mine of real scale. It outlines a 9.5-year, 12,000-tonne-per-day open-pit operation producing an average of 188,000 ounces of gold per year, peaking at 223,000 ounces per year over the first five years. At a base-case gold price of $3,600 per ounce, the company puts the after-tax net present value (NPV — future cash flows translated into today's dollars) at C$1.9 billion using a 5% discount rate, with a 38% return. At $4,500 gold, that after-tax value rises to C$3 billion with a 52% return.

The more telling message, though, is how management frames the study. Donovan Pollitt of White Gold's management team calls it "a great starting point, not an ending point" — and the details behind that framing are what investors should focus on.

## A deliberately conservative setup

A PEA is the earliest economic study a company can publish on a deposit. It is preliminary in nature, and a later pre-feasibility study (PFS) would test its assumptions with more certainty. Pollitt argues White Gold built realism into this one. The team derived its numbers from other operating mines in the north and says it "loaded up" capital costs. Year one assumes an 85% throughput ramp-up rather than 100% from day one — Pollitt notes that many studies assume full throughput immediately. Because infrastructure is a challenge in the Yukon, the plan carries all onsite power generation via diesel generators, plus buildings, a mill, a tailings management facility (where processed mine waste is stored) and a new landing strip for fly-in, fly-out operations. All of it sits inside the capital estimate and is reflected in the milling costs per tonne.

The scope is also narrow. Only two-thirds of the current resource is included in the PEA, and the plan contains no underground mining. Most importantly, the resource estimate is two years old: none of last year's drilling or this year's program is reflected in the study.

## The drilling lever

That stale resource is where the company sees its main growth path. White Gold has three drills turning onsite, targeting 15,000 to 20,000 metres this year under Dylan Landgeel. For context, Pollitt says the entire roughly 3-million-ounce deposit was defined by about 90,000 metres of historical drilling, so this year's program adds a meaningful percentage to that total. The stated goal is to increase ounces per share for White Gold shareholders.

Beyond resource growth, Pollitt points to levers a PEA cannot fully capture. Deeper holes drilled at Golden Saddle this year could support an underground mining component in a future study. Metallurgical optimization and geotechnical work to refine pit wall angles should also firm up at the pre-feasibility stage.

## The W2 spinout

The company is also preparing to separate its non-gold ground. At the time of the interview, White Gold was set to spin out W2 Critical Minerals at its annual general meeting the following day. The new company would hold a selection of properties that returned positive geochemical samples for copper, silver, molybdenum and other critical elements. Shareholders would receive one W2 share for every five White Gold shares.

## Market reaction and management's 2026 plan

Pollitt describes the initial market response as positive, with the stock up and brokers characterizing the study as conservative. He lays out three levers for 2026. First, drilling: he calls assay results from the expanded program the single biggest value-creation lever if it grows known zones and tests new ones. Second, institutional digestion of the PEA: he argues that typical 30–40% discounts for PEA-stage projects would point to the share price going materially higher — his view, not an independent valuation. Third, marketing: more conference attendance and one-on-one meetings with fund managers to broaden institutional ownership.

## The takeaway

The core message of the video is that this PEA is a base case built to withstand scrutiny — full capital load, ramp-up allowance and diesel power all priced in — on a resource that includes only two-thirds of current inventory and none of the last two years of drilling. The watch items from here are assay results from this year's 15,000–20,000-metre program, the scope of the next study (an updated resource and a possible underground component), and completion of the W2 spinout.

One caveat: CEO.CA notes the coverage is brought to you by White Gold, so the commentary is management's own framing of the numbers.