John Prowse

John Proust is the founder, Chairman and CEO of Japan Gold Corp. (TSX Venture Exchange: JG), the first foreign mineral exploration company to focus solely on Japan. Resource investors know him as the person who opened Japanese gold exploration to the majors: he spent years securing first-mover ground before listing the company in 2016, signed a country-wide alliance with Barrick Gold in 2020, and in September 2026 closed a strategic alliance with Solidcore Resources plc — the Kazakhstan-listed gold producer formerly known as Polymetal — that commits roughly US$50 million of capital to Japan Gold's projects.

Proust has spent more than 35 years in Canadian capital markets as a founder, financier, and principal shareholder of public resource companies. He holds the Chartered Director (C.Dir.) designation from McMaster University's DeGroote School of Business and has held executive or board roles with companies listed on the TSX Venture Exchange, the Canadian Stock Exchange, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, and London's AIM. Beyond Japan Gold, he is Chairman and CEO of Southern Arc Minerals, an Indonesia-focused explorer, and a director of Rise Gold, which is working to restart the historic Idaho-Maryland gold mine in California.

His method is to control district-scale ground near past-producing mines under a stable regulatory regime, then bring in majors to fund the proof. The Barrick alliance covered 28 of Japan Gold's roughly 30 projects, with Barrick sole-funding the initial evaluations; it concluded in September 2025 after about $23 million of funded work. The Solidcore deal that followed commits C$35 million (US$25 million) of exploration spending over 36 months across five target areas in Hokkaido and Kyushu, letting Solidcore earn in — fund work to gain a percentage interest in a project — up to 49% through pre-feasibility, alongside an equity placement at a 50% premium to market and a royalty sale to OR Royalties.

For investors, Proust's interviews and filings are a running read on whether major producers will treat Japan as a serious gold address. The things to watch are drill results from the five Solidcore target areas and any second major entering the country. One record-keeping note: video captions of his interviews, including the Pixys source video, render his surname as 'Prowse'; Japan Gold's filings and major financial outlets spell it Proust.