Sandy McVey

Sandy McVey of West Vault Mining Inc. talks to John Kaiser | Metals Investor Forum Sept. 2026

• Top takeaway The guest presents the wait-for-a-takeover strategy as his chairman's long-standing position rather than his own: “And we started on that thesis in 2017. When Peter Palmeiro, my chairman President of Sun Valley Gold Fund. Acquired in the market, his 47% position in the company. Peter came in as chairman in 2019.” He relays that the stake has gone from an average cost of about 70 cents Canadian to a share price of about $2 Canadian, “He bought at an average cost of around about 70 cents Canadian. We're trading today $2 Canadian. So there's a three-bagger risk-free.”
• He refuses to go beyond the 2023 study “I'm not allowed to talk about what's happening today. Because I can only refer to the 2023 report.” Asked whether 2023 costs still hold, he escalates capital and operating costs at 10% a year, which he calls well above realised inflation, and notes that major construction typically runs at double the CPI “I plug in 10% a year. Super conservative. Major construction costs will run typically double the CPI.” His argument is that a rising gold price does more for the project than cost escalation takes away.
• He says financing is not the obstacle to building: he cites institutional holders of 72%, names Conway and Ruffer, says lenders are already offering debt, and puts it plainly “Getting the money to build a mine, it's not a problem.” Timing is the chairman's alone “He does not give a date when he's prepared to Seriously consider either selling or building.” and “Peter's pretty agnostic about who he talks to. If somebody like that wanted to approach him He would give them the time of day for sure.”
• He tells investors they really make only one decision: “With Westvault, you might say I only make the one decision because the second decision About when to capitalize on that. It will be made by Peter Palmeiro.” He presents the 2023 study's 15-to-18-month first-gold figure as conditional on a build being approved rather than as a schedule, and “As long as we're making money safely in a secure way We might go on like this for a number of years.”
• He declines to manage the share price and does not adopt the retail framing “So we don't really look at the share price too much. As strange as that might sound We look at fundamentals, the value of this” He says he would rather the shares tracked gold, points investors at the underlying property value and at whether management holds to its strategy, and calls it “This is a Warren Buffett quality play. And Warren said, "Do not follow the market." "The market is a madman." I might be paraphrasing a little bit.”

West Vault's Hasbrouck gold project is permitted and build-ready, but the company is deliberately holding off on construction. Chairman Peter Palmeiro, who says he built a 47% stake near 70 cents Canadian, still controls whether to build or sell. The last capital figure cited is $66 million from the 2023 report, which the guest inflates to about $100 million today. Kaiser values the shares at $7 to $11; the guest blames thin trading, a small float and no news flow for the gap. The guest frames higher gold prices as real price gains, so project economics improve as fast as costs escalate.

Sandy McVey of West Vault Mining Inc. presents at Metals Investor Forum in Vancouver | Sep 2026

• Top takeaway His central argument is that gold is in a long-term secular bull market, so the right move is to hold ready-to-build, profitable, safe Nevada gold projects rather than build or sell them.
• He says the company is deliberately patient and risk-averse and will only build or sell when it is most beneficial to shareholders, while describing himself as a builder by temperament rather than by strategy.
• On governance he points out that the person making the decisions is not a shareholder, which he presents as natural alignment with the rest of the investor base.
• He treats the upcoming raise as unproblematic given 72% institutional ownership, and expects the money needed to carry on for a few more years to be available.
• On relative value he points to Joel Snyder's work plotting projects at different levels for comparison, while conceding his own presentation was deliberately high level and left complexities for follow-up discussion.

The case rests on one Nevada oxide gold project already ready to build, not one waiting on exploration success. Oxide ore sits above the water table and heap leaches for 70%-plus recovery; a low strip ratio, waste rock per tonne of ore, simplifies mining. The guest frames patience as the strategy, building or selling only when timing serves shareholders under a chairman who holds no shares. A raise is planned shortly, and 72% institutional ownership should leave funding for the next few years unproblematic. Peer value is argued using outside research that plots projects at different development levels rather than company-published figures.