John Dorward

John Dorward is a finance and resources executive who serves as Chief Executive Officer and Executive Chairman of Roxmore Resources (TSX: RM), the company advancing the Converse Gold Project on Nevada's Battle Mountain trend. Converse holds 5.57 million ounces of measured and indicated gold (a resource category with enough drilling to define grade and continuity with reasonable confidence) plus 0.42 million ounces inferred, and ranks among the largest undeveloped gold projects in the United States not owned by a major producer. Resource investors know Dorward as the executive who built Roxgold from junior explorer to gold producer and delivered it into a roughly C$1.1 billion combination with Fortuna Silver Mines.

As President, CEO and a director of Roxgold for more than eight years, he led the high-grade Yaramoko mine in Burkina Faso from early development to a first gold pour in November 2016 and commercial production in July 2017. Roxgold also held the Séguéla project in Côte d'Ivoire, which Fortuna later advanced to production. The combination with Fortuna, completed in July 2021, valued Roxgold at about C$1.1 billion (roughly US$894 million at the time). Earlier, Dorward was Vice President of Business Development at Fronteer Gold and held finance and business development roles at Mineral Deposits and Leviathan Resources.

After Roxgold, he led Vital Metals as Managing Director through the startup phase of its Nechalacho rare earths project in Canada's Northwest Territories (2021-22). In May 2024 he became Executive Chairman of Ausgold, whose Katanning Gold Project in Western Australia agreed in August 2026 to a takeover by OceanaGold valuing the company at about A$776 million. He also serves as a non-executive director of Robex Resources, which is redeveloping the Kiniero gold project in Guinea.

His approach is consistent: pair large, underdeveloped gold assets with junior-company speed and institutional capital, then let studies and drill results set the pace. At Roxmore, built with former Roxgold colleagues through the 2025 combination with Taura Gold, that has meant a positive preliminary economic assessment (PEA — an early-stage study of whether a project's economics work) in April 2026, a C$30 million private placement in February 2026 with participation from Australia's L1 Capital, graduation to the Toronto Stock Exchange, and a 30,000-metre infill and extension drill program running with three rigs. At Roxgold, the same playbook emphasized disciplined financing alongside safety and community programs in Burkina Faso.

For investors, Dorward's record offers a case study in the developer-to-producer transition: Yaramoko built and sold, Katanning into an agreed takeover, and Converse now working toward an updated resource estimate targeted for early 2027. As with any junior developer, Converse still carries financing and execution risk, and study-stage economics can change with prices and costs — the record shows delivery, not certainties.