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Quentin Mai of Carlin Gold Corporation talks to Chen Lin | Metals Investor Forum Sept. 2026

Metals Investor Forum Sep 28, 2026 10:47

Summary

Carlin Gold's Cortez Summit project borders the Four Mile gold structure near Elko, the Barrick and Newmont district the guest calls the world's most robust.

Shareholders will receive a spun-out 5% royalty as a dividend, with a plan to list it next year as Summit Royalties.

A $21.5 million Electrum financing at $1.30 a share, with a Canaccord component, would leave about $37 million in the treasury to fund drilling.

A 12-to-15-hole drill program awaits permitting; a 2017 Barrick joint-venture hole hit the pathfinder elements (thallium, antimony, mercury, arsenic).

The historic Ivy copper skarn north of Elko averaged 4.2% copper from 1870 to 1949, and a 3,000-metre drill program is planned.

Key points on Barrick Mining

  • Quentin Mai claims the Cortez structure extending onto Carlin Gold's ground is a driving force behind Barrick, saying Barrick's own information puts Four Mile at almost 15 million ounces in M&I at 16 g/t — about half of what the neighboring ground might hold.
  • He says the Cortez Summit project borders the same structure as Four Mile, Barrick and Newmont's project just outside Elko, Nevada, with Four Mile drill rigs active within about a kilometer of the boundary.
  • Barrick joint-ventured the project in 2017, drilled one hole that hit all of the Four Mile pathfinder elements — thallium, antimony, mercury, arsenic — and then walked away early in the Four Mile discovery period.
  • Quentin Mai suggests Barrick may not be pleased it walked away, and Chen Lin adds that with Four Mile now discovered, Barrick would have to pay a much higher price to get the ground.

Key points on Newmont

  • Quentin Mai identifies Four Mile, the Nevada gold district he says borders Carlin Gold's Cortez Summit ground, as a Barrick and Newmont project just outside Elko.

Key points on West Point Gold Corp

  • Chen Lin says West Point Gold returned almost 10 times at one point under his coverage before falling back somewhat.
  • He calls it one of the greatest discoveries in Arizona and says he visited a site and found it very impressive; Quentin Mai went on from that success to start Carlin Gold.

Cal Everett's takeaways

  • Top takeaway Quentin Mai credits Cal Everett with planning the royalty strategy — spinning a 5% royalty off Cortez Summit and later into a public royalty company — as the core of Carlin Gold's value plan.
  • He and Quentin Mai took over management of Carlin Gold in July 2026, about two months before this interview.

Chen Lin's takeaways

  • Top takeaway Chen Lin argues the royalty is the key holding: future financings may dilute the company's shares, but the 5% royalty is not diluted, and a Gold Rush- or Four Mile-scale discovery could make it worth billions.
  • He says Barrick will never give the ground away now that Four Mile has been discovered, so any suitor — Barrick included — would have to pay a much higher price.
  • He calls the Ivy copper project low hanging fruit, pointing to its historic 8% copper production year in 1929.
  • He introduces Quentin Mai as an old friend whose prior company, West Point Gold, returned almost 10 times at one point under his coverage.

Mr. Quentin Mai B.A.'s takeaways

  • Top takeaway Quentin Mai argues Cortez Summit is probably the most important and robust gold district in the world right now, bordering the same structure as Four Mile outside Elko, Nevada, and describes it as a $65 million gold endowment system.
  • He says the ground was staked in 2008 before Four Mile was discovered, sits on patented mining ground with no underlying landowner, and that the 5% royalty announced in August 2026 has driven the share price up almost 2.5x.
  • He describes the September 8, 2026 financing: Thomas Kaplan's Electrum committing $21.5 million at $1.30 per share, widened to about $30 million with a Canaccord broker component, leaving roughly $37 million in the treasury at close.
  • He recounts that a 2017 Barrick joint venture drilled a single hole that hit all of the Four Mile pathfinder elements — thallium, antimony, mercury, arsenic — before Barrick walked away, and suggests Barrick now regrets it.
  • His drill plan: 12 to 15 holes at Cortez Summit once permitting is sorted, plus a 3,000-meter program at the Ivy copper skarn once a rig is secured, and he cites Electrum's Thomas Kaplan as a shareholder who wants the ground drilled.