Live from the Deutsche Goldmesse: Contango Silver & Gold CEO Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse on Cash Flow, ...

Contango Silver & Gold CEO Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse says the post-Dolly Varden merger strategy is to fund growth primarily from cash flow at the Manh Choh mine in Alaska, with an explicit goal of avoiding heavy equity dilution. Near-term priorities include advancing Lucky Shot, Johnson Tract and Kitsault, alongside a 40,000-meter summer drill program at Kitsault and a resource update expected by late June. Management also pointed to valuation, permitting and diesel-cost pressures as key operating variables. The message to the market is that Contango wants to convert the merged platform into a self-funding development story rather than relying on repeated capital raises, with the hub-and-spoke approach intended to lower financing risk while preserving upside optionality at the pipeline assets. For precious-metals traders, this is more company-specific than sector-wide, but it reinforces the silver/gold developer theme: projects with cash-flow support and lower dilution are likely to command better relative valuations in a weak financing window. The next catalyst is the June resource update, with summer drilling at Kitsault likely to drive sentiment if results support a larger, more economic inventory.