Copyright © 2026 Knight Sac Media. All rights reserved.https://www.siliconinvestor.com/subject.aspx?subjectid=51681National Gold has negotiated a purchase agreement with PDG/KN for the Salamandra property in Mexico. The property consists of seven epithermal deposits with the most advanced being Mulatos. PDG spent US$30 million here drilling 511 holes (295,000 feet) and taking 994 channel samples to outline a 3.4 million ounce deposit using a 0.8g cutoff. PDG took Mulatos all the way through feasibility and came up with a heap leach project with a capex of $120 million ($240 total cost) and cash costs of $150. A large portion of the permitting process was completed, when PDG/KN dropped the ball. There are several big company reasons for PDG’s need to get rid of Mulatos. The low POG forced a lowering of the capex to bring total costs more in line. This in turn lead to a paring down of the deposit size to key in on the high grade portion of the pit at Estrella (1,163,000 oz of 3.1g). At this point the wheels came off for big PDG, as now they were “stuck” with a deposit that is below their size threshold, and that had to be split with 30% partner KN to boot. There was also a tax loss capture to PDG/KN if a transaction could be effected. Clearly Mulatos was going to require a different production model than the one PDG/KN was prepared deliver. Other majors in large measure were in the same boat, and Mulatos slipped into the “twilight zone”, and was shopped to mid-tiers and juniors. And how many of those are there around? Into this breach stepped NGT’s Albert Matter. I spent an hour with him last week not only discussing NGT, but delivering funds to participate in a private placement. In the interest of full disclosure, I purchased 500,000 shares at 15 cents (with warrants to buy 250,000 more at 25 next year), and as an indication of my long term commitment, readers should know that American investors are prevented under US securities laws from selling this “restricted” stock for a full year. So much for the free flow of global capital.. At any rate, it didn’t take me long to realize that Mr. Matter is someone you want on your side of the table in a deal negotiation. And deal with PDG /KN he did, twice in fact. To make a long story short, the first deal was too front loaded, requiring NGT to come up with plenty of hard cash early on. I think Matter was betting that the junior market would be so impressed with the tremendous bargain (I certainly was) he got with PDG, that capital would be priced accordingly. Viewable on the second quarter results (also note the flat working capital) is $166k (CDN) (37k will be returned to 3rd quarter numbers) trying to get the story out. But, in all too familiar drill in this sector, the market delivered it’s verdict: severely underpriced capital. But, rather than folding his tent, Matter went about his game plan spending his early stash of cash hiring Behre Dolbear (BD) and a top geologist to do a through due diligence on Mulatos from the point of view of a mid-tier producer model. The outcome of this can be viewed ...https://www.siliconinvestor.com/images/Logo380x132.pnghttps://www.siliconinvestor.com/subject.aspx?subjectid=5168138013210