Robert Quartermain sees $4,000 gold as attractive after starting at $140

Quartermain, co-chair and largest shareholder of Dakota Gold, came out of retirement to build Richmond Hill, which he says would be the sixth mine he has taken from discovery to production. He handed the chief executive role to Jack Henris in August. Speaking at the New Orleans Investment Conference, he said Dakota may use a gold price of about $3,000 an ounce in the project’s feasibility study, compared with $2,300 in its 2025 initial assessment. “You build lots of buffer in,” he said. He put industry costs at roughly $1,600 to $2,000 an ounce and said miners remain profitable at current prices. He also said he holds physical gold, which accounts for most of his net worth.

Richmond Hill is 2 miles from Coeur Mining’s Wharf mine, which has produced more than 4 million ounces. The July 2025 initial assessment outlined annual output of about 153,000 ounces from a heap-leach operation. Dakota acquired its option in 2022 and is targeting production in 2029. The project is on private land, with its main permits handled by Lawrence County and South Dakota, Quartermain said. He cited that permitting route as one reason he returned to mining. Construction could create 300 to 400 jobs, he said, while a law change this year allows Lawrence County to share in mining revenue.

The company has not completed a full feasibility study or arranged financing. A pre-feasibility study is due in the fourth quarter, followed by a feasibility study in the first half of 2027. The 2025 assessment estimated capital costs at roughly $400 million; Quartermain said the next study must reflect inflation. Dakota reported about $99 million in cash at the end of June after raising $75 million this year, which he said should fund work through the feasibility study. Although he did not rule out issuing shares, he said that is not the plan now, citing possible convertible debt, a silver stream, royalties and forward gold sales as alternatives.

Quartermain also pointed to Dakota’s Maitland ground, along strike from the former Homestake mine. The company has 47 drill intersections there averaging about 10.7 grams of gold per tonne over 4 meters. He wants Richmond Hill cash flow to finance further drilling. At Hemlo in Ontario, where he worked underground for Teck in the early 1980s, he sees another opportunity: Hemlo Mining Corp. bought the mine from Barrick in a deal valued at up to $1.09 billion that closed in November 2025. Quartermain said the mill, built for 10,000 tons a day, now processes about 3,800, leaving room to increase ore feed.