A $40M Company Created $2B in Mining Value | John-Mark Staude - Riverside Resources

The Deep Dive Oct 1, 2026 9:21

Summary

Riverside Resources has spun out seven companies worth over $2 billion combined while its own market cap sits near $40 million.

Its next spinout, Ravenna, would hold five Mexican properties in Sonora while Riverside keeps royalties across all of them.

The guest says gold is the priority because it needs less development capital and permits faster than large copper projects.

A net smelter royalty is a cut of a mine's revenue; Riverside holds 2% stakes at Tahuehueto and Sugarloaf Peak.

Five new projects in southern British Columbia, spanning rare earths, gold and copper, extend the project-generation pipeline.

He points to a Sonora royalty project that Fresnillo is involved with, where Riverside holds a 2% net smelter return royalty over some of the claims in the key starter-pit area rather than the entire project.
He cites it as the first of the royalties he expects could bring cash flow to Riverside.

Riverside holds a 2% net smelter return royalty over the whole Sugarloaf Peak project, kept after helping create Arizona Metals to take the asset forward.
He counts Sugarloaf Peak among the royalties he expects to bring Riverside cash flow.

Capitan was a spinout of some of Riverside's Mexican assets, and the guest frames the next spinout as effectively Capitan II, this time consolidating the entire Riverside Mexico business into one company.
He says Capitan shares, which were distributed to Riverside shareholders, went from about 20 cents to $2.40 - the figure as of the October 2026 interview - and recommends holding them.
Riverside keeps a royalty on the Capitan assets, which he counts among the royalties he expects to generate cash flow.
Bringing in Alberto Rosca, who joined as VP corporate development and then transitioned up, is cited as a success in the Capitan build-out.

Blue Jay Gold is the most recent Riverside spinout distributed to shareholders; Staude says earlier Riverside holders received Blue Jay shares, recommends holding them, and discloses he holds them himself.
He describes the asset story shifting from the Geraldton Greenstone Belt to a Yukon project with a mill and what he calls a fairly high-grade gold project.
Some of the Ontario assets behind Riverside's royalty portfolio came out of Blue Jay.
Michael Graham is named as Blue Jay's new CEO.

Top takeaway He frames the interview around a valuation gap, pointing out that a company with a roughly $40 million market cap has created more than $2 billion of spinout value for shareholders.
He probes the mechanism rather than the geology, asking how Riverside finds boards and management teams and noting how hard that assembly is for project holders and dealmakers.
He pushes the thesis that incubating a company is not about drill results but about share structure, a management team and giving them a real chance to run, and he presses for which royalties could produce cash flow soon.

Top takeaway His central claim is that a roughly $40 million market cap understates what Riverside has created: seven spinouts worth over $2 billion combined in 20 years, a figure he says grew from about $1 billion only because markets rose.
He presents the next spinout as the next leg of growth - buy Riverside shares now and you get the new company - and hopes to take it public within the next year while keeping royalties.
He argues incubation, not discovery, is the real work: assemble a share structure and a management team, let that team run the company, and stay on as a shareholder.
He ranks gold first by choice because royalties are attractive, development capital is low and permitting is fast, while large copper projects take too long to permit and build.
He points to the assembled management teams as the scarce capability, naming Alberto Rosca for Capitan Silver, mining geologist Jordi Mark as respected by analysts and institutions, Julian Monco who has worked with the company since 2000, and Michael Graham as Blue Jay's new CEO.