Greg Johnson

Greg Johnson is the CEO and Chairman of Metallic Minerals Corporation and one of the most prolific project-builders in North American mining. Resource investors know him best as a co-founder of NovaGold Resources and a co-recipient of the PDAC Thayer Lindsley Award for the discovery of the 40-million-ounce Donlin Gold deposit in Alaska — a deposit that has anchored NovaGold's value for two decades and was ultimately partnered with Barrick.

His career spans more than 35 years advancing large-scale precious and base metals projects from early exploration through feasibility. Beyond Donlin, he was a key contributor to the Galore Creek copper-gold-silver project (partnered with Teck) and the Ambler copper-zinc belt in Alaska (partnered with South32). Johnson has raised more than $650 million in equity financing across five exploration and development companies, and he served as President and CEO of Nevada Copper Corp., where he led the Pumpkin Hollow copper project in Nevada through key development milestones.

Johnson focuses on district-scale assets in established and emerging mining jurisdictions — Yukon silver and gold at Metallic Minerals' Keno Hill-area projects, Colorado copper-silver-PGM at La Plata, and historically productive U.S. belts. His method is straightforward: tie up large land positions in proven geology, advance them with disciplined drilling and metallurgy, and bring in major partners or royalty funding when scale demands it. He has been recognized with the Yukon's Robert E. Leckie Award for environmental stewardship and for collaborative work with Alaska Native Corporations and Canadian First Nations.

For investors watching the copper-electrification thesis — and the August 2026 Pixys discussion of copper's "new supercycle" — Johnson's track record at Pumpkin Hollow and La Plata makes him a credible voice on which copper projects can clear the permitting, capital, and metallurgy hurdles that have stalled the rest of the industry. He continues to publish updates through Metallic Minerals and speaks regularly at mining investment conferences, including 121 Mining Investment.