3 Gold & Silver Miners to Watch: Executive Interviews

By Sean Brodrick

I recently attended the Beaver Creek Precious Metals Summit in Avon, Colorado. 

What an amazing conference — packed full of small, underappreciated and even undiscovered companies.

While I was there, I sat down with executives from several companies to get an inside look at their operations, growth plans and what could be coming next. 

Today, I want to introduce you to a few who stood out.

And even better, I’ve included video interviews so you can hear the stories firsthand. 

These are company profiles, not formal recommendations. 

Discovery Mining: Building a Canadian Gold Powerhouse

Discovery Mining (TSX: DSV; OTCQX: DSVSF), formerly Discovery Silver, has transformed itself into a mid-cap ($6.7 billion) miner. 

In April 2025, this company was a developer of a giant Mexican silver deposit. 

A deal with Newmont has turned it into a producing Canadian gold miner with an ambitious growth plan — while still owning that silver asset.

The company's flagship is the Porcupine Complex in and around Timmins, Ontario, acquired from Newmont in April 2025. 

Porcupine includes the Hoyle Pond and Borden underground mines, the Pamour and Hollinger open pits, the historic Dome Mine and mill. 

It also includes a large exploration land package in one of Canada's richest and longest-producing gold districts.

At Beaver Creek, I talked to Discovery’s executive VP of investor relations, Mark Utting. 

He gave me the scoop on the company:

This stock is available on the OTCQX in the U.S. now, but stick through to the end of the video and Mark says Discovery is working on a Nasdaq listing.

There’s a lot to like about Discovery. 

Production is already moving higher. 

Porcupine produced nearly 235,000 ounces of gold in 2025. 

This year, management expects 260,000 and 300,000 ounces. 

At the midpoint, that’s roughly 19% growth.

And management expects output to be weighted toward the second half of the year as Hollinger ramps up, grades improve at Borden and Pamour and investments at the existing mines begin to pay off.

The latest quarterly numbers show that ramp-up is taking shape. In Q2 2026, Porcupine …

• Produced 67,309 ounces of gold, up 33% year over year and 12% from the first quarter.
• Revenue hit a record $319.1 million, while net earnings were $52.1 million, or 6 cents per share.
• Adjusted earnings came to $92.3 million, or 11 cents per share.
• Gold operating cash costs were $1,387 per ounce sold, while all-in sustaining costs (AISC) were $2,154 per ounce. That's not low, but management expects unit costs to drop as production increases.

Discovery finished the quarter with $364.3 million in cash and $607.8 million in total liquidity, giving it considerable financial firepower for expansion.

And expansion is where this story gets interesting. 

Discovery isn't aiming for 300,000 ounces a year indefinitely. 

Its goal is to more than double annual gold production to over 500,000 ounces.

In June, the company acquired Glencore's Kidd Operations, including the Kidd Met Site and Kidd Creek copper-zinc-silver mine. 

Discovery is studying the addition of a gold-processing circuit at Kidd that could eventually handle ore from Hoyle Pond, Pamour, Borden and the TVZ project.

That would free up the Dome mill to process ore from a restarted Dome Mine. 

Kidd also gives Discovery current copper, zinc and silver production plus extensive infrastructure, including tailings capacity, power and rail access.

Then there's Cordero, the silver asset that originally made Discovery Silver interesting. 

Discovery owns 100% of this enormous silver project in Chihuahua, Mexico, which contains 302 million ounces of silver reserves and ranks among the world's largest undeveloped silver deposits.

So, with Discovery, investors are getting a growing Canadian gold miner targeting 500,000-plus ounces of annual gold production, with substantial exploration upside, additional exposure to copper and zinc and one of the world's largest undeveloped silver projects waiting in the wings.

The caveats are that Porcupine will have to invest a lot of money to both raise current production and develop Cordero.

I own Discovery Mining; I bought it after the Newmont deal was announced. 

It’s run up a lot since then, and I believe it has much further to go.

1911 Gold: Bringing a Forgotten High-Grade Gold Mine Back to Life

1911 Gold (TSX-V: AUMB; OTCQX: AUMBF) is a Canadian gold developer on the brink of being a producer.

In Beaver Creek, I talked to CEO Shaun Heinrichs. 

He’s a German guy with an Irish name running a Canadian company. 

Don’t get confused; I’ll let Shaun explain it all …

In the video, Shaun explained that 1911 Gold’s management is looking to upgrade its stock listing and has set a six-month time frame. 

So again, this is one you can buy on the OTCQX for now, but the plan is to move it to a major stock exchange.

Now, about the company. 

Here’s a fun fact: 1911 Gold is named after the year the very first gold discovery was made in the Rice Lake gold district in Manitoba, Canada.

Fast-forward to today and 1911 Gold’s 100%-owned True North Gold Project sits in Manitoba's historic Rice Lake gold district, where the company controls roughly 62,000 hectares.

At the center of that property is the past-producing True North mine. 

It has a fully built and permitted 1,350-tonne-per-day processing plant, along with shafts, underground workings and a tailings facility. 

The complex historically produced roughly 2 million ounces of gold, and 1911 Gold estimates that replacing the existing infrastructure today would cost more than CA$400 million.

A February 2026 preliminary economic assessment (PEA) outlined an 11-year mine life, with average annual production of nearly 48,000 ounces of gold. 

Once the mine reaches steady production, that figure could climb to roughly 58,000 ounces annually. 

And peak production could exceed 61,000 ounces in 2031.

Cash costs are projected at US$1,390 per ounce and all-in sustaining costs (AISC) at US$1,897 per ounce. 

Initial capital is estimated at CA$59.2 million, with another CA$46.7 million in pre-commercial capital over the first two years.

The timeline is moving quickly.

• Underground development began in spring 2026, with crews rehabilitating workings, upgrading ventilation, electrical and communications systems, dewatering the mine and preparing the L10 and Hinge zones for test mining.
• By September, dewatering of the A-Shaft and Level 26 was finished, and a new underground mining contractor was hired.
• Test mining is scheduled to begin this fall, followed by a production decision and potentially the restart of commercial gold production in the first half of 2027.

And True North may only be the beginning. 

The company plans to turn its existing mill into the hub of a much larger, district-scale gold operation, fed by deposits scattered across the Rice Lake property.

One of the most interesting is Ogama-Rockland, about 45 kilometers by road from True North. 

An updated August resource estimate outlined 712,000 ounces of inferred gold grading 6.68 g/t — high-grade material that could potentially become another source of mill feed.

Metallurgical testing subsequently returned gold recoveries of 96.3% at Ogama-Rockland and 93.7% at True North. 

Meanwhile, drilling around True North continues to uncover and extend mineralized zones including San Antonio West, San Antonio Southeast, Shore, L10, 710-711 and 007.

A new True North resource estimate incorporating the recent drilling is expected in the fourth quarter.

The company also strengthened its balance sheet in July by completing a CA$35.65 million financing, providing additional capital for development, drilling and the planned restart. 

Shareholder dilution is bad if you own a stock when it happens, but we dodged that bullet.

Important Caveat

There is an important caveat: This is still a development story, and 1911 Gold has not yet made a formal production decision.

In July, the company also had to correct some of the language surrounding its February PEA after a review by the British Columbia Securities Commission. 

The company said the PEA relies partly on inferred resources, that those resources have not demonstrated economic viability, and that there is no certainty the PEA will be realized.

So the potential is substantial. 

But until True North is producing gold again, the stock will be discounted because of execution, financing, resource conversion and startup risk.

Kuya Silver: A Silver Producer on the Launchpad

Kuya Silver (CSE: KUYA; OTCQB: KUYAF) is a small but rapidly growing silver producer built around the Bethania Silver Project in central Peru. 

Kuya restarted this past-producing, high-grade underground mine in 2024.

At Beaver Creek, I spoke with Kuya’s CEO, David Stein. 

What a fascinating company this is. He gives you the scoop in this video …

The Bethania Silver Project anchors a roughly 4,500-hectare land package containing multiple known silver vein systems, including Carmelitas, Tito PH and Millococha.

Bethania is still a small operation, but production is ramping quickly. 

In Q2 2026, Kuya mined a record 5,097 tonnes of mineralized material, 66% more than in Q1, and processed 23,912 ounces of silver, or 30,559 silver-equivalent ounces.

June alone produced a record 13,273 silver-equivalent ounces. 

The quarter's average silver grade was 5.9 ounces per tonne, or about 183 grams per tonne, while silver recovery averaged 79.7%.

Those numbers improved toward quarter-end: June's silver grade reached 6.66 ounces per tonne and recovery climbed to roughly 82%.

Kuya says it has previously achieved recoveries above 90% when processing higher-grade material.

Two things make Kuya particularly interesting to me.

First, it has unusually high exposure to silver: About 87% of Bethania's Q2 revenue came from silver, rather than the lead, zinc or gold byproducts that provide much of the revenue at many "silver" miners.

Second, its known resource — 14 million ounces inferred and indicated — was discovered with one 5,000-meter drilling program. 

Now, the company is running a 20,000-meter drilling program, including roughly 10,000 meters of underground drilling aimed at extending known mineralized structures near existing workings.

That could create significant upside potential if the drilling program successfully expands Kuya’s known silver resource. 

While Kuya is focused on ramping up Bethania, it also has a juicy pipeline. 

Kuya also owns the Silver Kings Project in Ontario's historic Cobalt silver district. 

AND it has an exploration joint venture in Saudi Arabia.

Funding Its Next Stage of Growth

Financially, Kuya remains very much a company in ramp-up mode.

Q2 revenue was $1.25 million, bringing first-half revenue to $2.7 million, more than double the $1.3 million generated in the first half of 2025.

The company posted a $2.8 million net loss for the first six months as spending increased on mine development and building out the operation. 

But Kuya finished June with a healthy $25.5 million in cash, following its CA$25.5 million financing earlier in the year.

Kuya does not currently report a quarterly AISC comparable to a mature producer. 

Its 2023 Bethania PEA, however, estimated life-of-mine AISC of about $12.15 per silver-equivalent ounce at the planned 350-tonne-per-day operation.

Ramping Up

As I said, Bethania is ramping up. 350 tonnes per day is where the story gets much more interesting. 

Kuya is targeting 150,000 to 200,000 silver-equivalent ounces in 2026, with production heavily weighted toward the fourth quarter as underground development opens additional mining areas.

The company reached a 100-tonne-per-day mining rate at the end of March and is constructing a new underground ramp designed to support the Phase 1 expansion to 350 tonnes per day.

At that rate, the PEA envisioned approximately 1.37 million silver-equivalent ounces in the first full year — potentially several times the company's expected 2026 output.

Kuya is also considering buying the Camila flotation plant that currently processes Bethania ore. 

Camila currently has 150-tonne-per-day capacity, and Kuya plans to expand it to at least 300 tonnes per day if it completes the acquisition. 

Owning its processing capacity should give Kuya better control over scheduling, recoveries and costs than its current toll-milling arrangement.

This is essentially a silver-production ramp-up and exploration story happening at the same time. 

Bethania is already generating revenue, yet management's Phase 1 production target is many times today's output.

If I’m going to pick nits, Bethania is still a very small operation; it hasn't yet demonstrated the 350-tonne-per-day expansion, and Kuya remains loss-making while investing heavily in growth.

If Kuya can successfully scale Bethania while maintaining grades and improving recoveries, however, it could look like a very different silver producer a year or two from now.

So, those are three miners from Beaver Creek. 

Discovery Mining is working to become a much larger gold producer.

1911 Gold is bringing a historic Canadian mine back to life. 

And Kuya Silver is looking to turn a small operation into a much more significant silver producer. 

Each faces its own challenges. 

And as I mentioned earlier, these are profiles, not formal recommendations. 

But they’re exactly the kinds of companies I went to Beaver Creek to find. 

I’ll be keeping a close eye on their progress and I’ll let you know when there’s something worth sharing.

All the best, 

Sean