SSR’s C$712 Million Bet on Converse Delivers a C$1.34 Million Gain for Palisades
This week, SSR Mining (Nasdaq/TSX: SSRM) agreed to acquire Roxmore Resources (TSX: RM) for C$712 million. The prize is Roxmore’s Converse gold project on Nevada’s Battle Mountain Trend, just 6 km west of SSR’s Marigold Complex. Converse hosts 2.2 Moz indicated and 3.0 Moz inferred, and SSR expects it to add 150,000–170,000 oz of gold a year from 2033.
For Palisades, the deal delivered a direct win, and it confirms the thesis behind our largest holding.
A 10x on Roxmore
In December 2024, Palisades invested C$600,000 in Axcap Ventures, Roxmore’s predecessor. We later sold the shares for C$470,000, which reduced our net cost to just C$130,000, and held on to the warrants. This week we exercised and sold them for C$1.47 million, generating a net gain of C$1.34 million – more than 10x our net cost.
That is the Palisades model: back quality stories in strong jurisdictions early, hold the warrant leverage, and let the bull market, and the M&A that comes with it, do the work.
Same Deposit, Different Gold Price
Over the decades, more than ten companies explored Converse, and none built a mine. A large, low-grade, bulk-tonnage deposit is hard to sell when gold is weak.
In October 2024, with gold below US$2,700/oz, Axcap bought Converse for C$1.5 million in cash, 20 million shares and a further C$9.5 million in staged payments. Two years later, with gold above US$4,000/oz, SSR is paying C$712 million for it.
Roxmore’s team advanced the project, but the real change was the gold price. This is how gold bull markets work: rising prices turn marginal deposits into strategic assets, and producers that need ounces go shopping.
The cycle works in reverse too. In 2015, with gold near US$1,050/oz, majors cut budgets and dropped claims across Nevada. That is when Palisades began assembling the land package that is now Made in America Gold (MIAG).
Made in America Gold: Positioned for This Moment
MIAG, 90% owned by Palisades, controls about 800 km² across 10 district-scale gold projects on the Battle Mountain Trend, the same trend that hosts Converse. It is the largest gold-focused prospect generator in the US and, in Nevada, trails only Nevada Gold Mines and Kinross in land held. Its projects sit on ground previously drilled by major operators, next to Tier-1 mines including NGM’s Phoenix and Pipeline, SSR’s Marigold and i-80 Gold’s Cove-McCoy.
This week, MIAG released new exploration results. The most exciting came from Mill Creek, just 20 km from Converse, where a new target is taking shape:
- A large, coherent anomaly: surface sampling has outlined a 2 km gold-copper-silver anomaly.
- A likely intrusive source: the anomaly sits on a magnetic high interpreted as an intrusive center, the setting for gold-copper skarn mineralization.
- The right structures: it lies along the same regional structures that host the nearby Cove-McCoy and Phoenix (13 Moz) deposits, which also makes it prospective for Carlin-style gold.
- A Converse look-alike: the target model mirrors Converse itself, an intrusion-related gold skarn system centered on the Redline stock.
More work remains, but Mill Creek now joins Iron Point, Horse Mountain and Lewis among the more advanced projects in MIAG’s portfolio.
The Money Is Flowing to Nevada
Roxmore is not an isolated deal. Over the past year:
- Acquisitions: NGM bought four Ridgeline Minerals projects for US$23.2 million, including Swift, adjacent to MIAG’s Horse Mountain. AngloGold Ashanti bought Augusta Gold for about C$152 million, and McEwen acquired Golden Lake.
- Strategic stakes: SSR took 9.9% of Phenom Resources, and Centerra took 9.9% of Nevada King.
- Earn-ins: Kinross can earn up to 80% of West Point Gold’s Jefferson Canyon and is already drilling.
- The biggest of all: Barrick plans to take its North American assets, anchored by NGM, public by early 2027.
Capital is moving from the top of the industry toward Nevada’s best ground, and juniors with strategic land positions are being re-rated as discovery options.
The Bottom Line
The Roxmore deal delivered a C$1.34 million gain for Palisades and a clear lesson in how a gold bull market re-prices assets. Palisades assembled MIAG’s land through the downturn. Now that majors are paying up for Nevada ounces, it is positioned to benefit directly.
Best regards,
The Palisades Team