Tier One Tony: Mining Man
January 28th, 2025, Day 1 of Discovery Silver’s acquisition of Newmont Mining’s Porcupine Gold Camp, CEO Tony Makuch addresses workers at the Hoyle Pond Mine
Tony Makuch remembers the day his father lost his job at The Hollinger Mine in Timmins, Canada.
Joseph Makuch was 67 years old, with five kids under 16 to feed. No pension, no safety net.
So what did he do? He walked into the nearby Dome Mine, shaved 17 years off his age, and got hired on the spot.
He worked underground until he was 74.
Now, Tony Makuch, Timmins local, has returned as owner and operator of the regions beating heart, its best gold mines. This is unfinished business for the Makuch family and its great news for Discovery Silver shareholders.
Discovery Silver Strikes Gold (Literally)
On January 27th, 2025, Discovery Silver (DSV:TSX) announced it had acquired Newmont Mining’s (NEM:NYSE) Porcupine Gold Camp—one of Canada’s richest gold assets.
An aerial view of the Dome Mine and gold plant, Canada’s second largest all-time producer of gold. The former open pit mine is flanked by the mine mill buildings (lower left), red mine buildings (centre), waste rock piles (centre, behind red buildings) and ore stockpiles (centre right). Porcupine Lake and the town of South Porcupine lie in the background. Photo courtesy of the City of Timmins.
What’s In The Bag?
✅ Over 16 million ounces of gold resource
✅ Three operating mines producing 280,000 ounces per year
✅ The Dome Mill—a ready-to-scale processing plant
✅ One of the richest gold districts in the world
The price tag? $425 million.
That’s 15 cents on the dollar compared to its estimated US$2.8 billion Net Present Value (NPV) assuming todays $3000 gold price.
Newmont wanted out. Tony was more than happy to take it off their hands.
Timmins: Where Tier One Canadian Gold Meets The Queen of Country Music
Timmins is famous for two things:
1️⃣ Gold—over 70 million ounces of it.
2️⃣ Shania Twain.
Before she was breaking records, Twain was singing in local bars at eight years old to help pay her family’s bills.
While she left town for Nashville, Makuch is back in Timmins, ready to turn Porcupine into a Tier One operation.
Shania Twain and her band, early years
Tier One Tony: The Money Maker
If you had bought Kirkland Lake Gold when Makuch took over as CEO in July 2016, and held through its Agnico Eagle merger in 2022, you’d have made 383% on your money.
Since Discovery Silver announced its Porcupine acquisition on January 27th, the share price has more than doubled from its C$0.85 to over C$2.00 per share.
Want to make some money? Stick with Tony.
Tony's philosophy:
“We want to create a mining company where people ask us to come and mine in their backyard. To bring a shared prosperity”
Newmont’s Fire Sale: Who Got Rich?
Since September 2024, Newmont has been offloading mines at bargain-bin prices.
The four players who pounced?
The average share price performance of the four acquirors of Newmont gold assets above is an increase of 100% since the acquisitions were announced versus a 16% increase in the Van Eck Gold ETF since September 2024!!
Buying assets from Newmont is a profitable business.
How to Buy A Gold Mine For 15 Cents on the Dollar
Discovery is paying $425 million for Porcupine, structured as:
💰 $200M in cash
📈 $75M in Discovery Silver shares (issued to Newmont)
⏳ $150M in deferred payments (spread from 2028–2031)
At current gold prices ~$3000 oz, Porcupine is forecast to make over $500M in pre tax annual operating cash flow in 2026. Newmont’s All In Sustaining Costs in 2024 were $1457 ounce so Discovery paid 1X cashflow before capex.
The US$2.8 billion Net Present Value of the Porcupine Gold Camp includes exactly zero dollars for the 10M+ gold ounces at Dome Mine.
How Does Discovery Silver Compare To Its Peers?
The single best comparison for Discovery Silver on the Toronto Stock Exchange is Orla Mining (OLA:TSX) which like Discovery has a Mexican asset and bought an operating Canadian gold mine from Newmont Mining (NEM:NYSE). The Musselwhite Gold Mine now owned by Orla is 370km northwest of Discovery’s Porcupine Gold Camp in Timmins.
The table above illustrates Discovery Silver is 1/3 the price of Orla when compared on an Enterprise Value per ounce of annual gold production, less than 1/4 the price per reserve (gold equivalent) ounce and seven times cheaper per resource ounce.
Franco-Nevada Just Wrote a $450M Check - Here’s Why.
When Franco-Nevada, the #1 gold royalty company in the world, writes a $450 million check, pay attention.
💰 $400M in royalties & debt
📈 $50M in equity
Paul Brink, CEO of Franco-Nevada, summed it up best:
“Tony is not only a proven mine builder, he is one of a very small group that wants to build mines.”
Translation? Franco bets on winners
The Porcupine Gold Camp discovered around 1910 has yielded over 70 million ounces of gold.
Why Did Newmont Sell So Cheap?
Newmont’s been dumping smaller mines at rock-bottom prices for three key reasons:
1️⃣ Environmental liabilities—Closing costs for Porcupine could be $722M, but progressive rehabilitation and mine life extension defer and reduce these costs.
2️⃣ Risk management—Newmont doesn’t want the headache of managing smaller mines when it takes the same effort to manage a larger mine.
3️⃣ Backward-looking pricing—Newmont reserves are calculated at US$1400 an ounce, less than half todays gold price of ~ US$3000 an ounce.
Newmont offloaded a Tier One gold camp for a fraction of its worth - that’s a company making gift for Discovery shareholders. The Newmont CEO never visited the Porcupine gold camp in Timmins. Tony Makuch and his family live in Toronto and Timmins.
Discovery Silver’s Future: Tier One Status Incoming
🔹 Porcupine’s unimproved value at US$3000 ounce gold: US$2.8 billion
🔹 Cordero’s NPV at US$34 ounce silver: US$2.5 billion ie “an acceleration of money”
🔹 Total: US$5.3 billion/CAD$7.6 billion or C$9.50 per DSV share.
The implied value per Discovery Silver share of C$9.50 ~460% higher than todays C$2.06 share price.
This arithmetic does not include Discovery’s 10M+ ounce inventory at the Dome Mine. Consider Tony Makuch’s father Joseph retired after working the Dome Mine at the age of 74. Tony is 66 years young and his Vice President of Mineral Processing, Gord Leavoy, ran the Dome Mill from 2005-2011 under former owner Goldcorp.
Dome is a company maker in its own right and could easily contribute ~300,000 ounces of annual gold production to the Porcupine Gold Camp once the Discovery team have resumed their generational stewardship of Dome.
Dome’s 10 million ounces of gold come for free to Discovery Silver shareholders.
Tony’s End-Game: 1M+ Oz Gold Equivalent Production Per Year
The Porcupine Gold Camp is prime gold real estate in one of the worlds top mining jurisdictions.
Makuch and his team have the capability and the desire to turn Porcupine into a +500,000 ounce per year gold producer.
The neighbouring 130,000 gold ounce per year Pan American Silver owned Timmins West gold mine, formerly owned and run by Tony Makuch’s Lakeshore Gold, could offer scale and operating efficiencies if combined with Porcupine.
Recently Mexico’s new Sheinbaum Government have indicated they intend to accelerate permitting for new mining projects to create jobs. Discovery’s Cordero Project is the worlds largest undeveloped silver reserve and could produce 37 million ounces of silver equivalent or over 400,000 ounces of gold equivalent ounces per year.
We asked Tony Makuch if Discovery Silver (DSV) was his legacy;
“I’m not doing anything else but DSV. I’m 66 years old and DSV is my final act”
For Tony, this isn’t just another gig.
It’s unfinished business.
For investors, it’s a chance to buy a future Tier One gold & silver producer at an 80% discount.
Discovery Silver’s Cordero Project in Mexico is the worlds largest undeveloped silver reserve and will produce 37 million ounces of silver equivalent per year.
Final Verdict: Buy A Tier One Gold Producer On Sale Today: Discovery Silver.
Tony Makuch doesn’t do small.
He built Kirkland Lake into a $13 billion giant. Now, he’s back home in Timmins, holding the keys to one of the best gold deals of the decade.
He bought a Tier One Gold Camp for 15 cents on the dollar.
He has $450M in backing from Franco-Nevada and $170 million spare cash
He’s got his eye on producing 1 million ounces of gold equivalent a year.
Opportunities to buy great assets with quality management at great prices come rarely.
The question is: Are you watching from the sidelines, or are you getting in before the market catches up?