A Wild Story of a $2 Million Bet That Turned Into $2 Billion That Might Happen Again 

In 2014, mining entrepreneur Bryan Slusarchuk stepped off a small airplane in the mountainous Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea, welcomed by sweltering heat, the distrust of locals, and a lot of curiosity.

Slusarchuk had left a cold Canadian winter and an equally frigid environment for gold equities when he decided to bet big on a story about gold potential in a place not many had been. A former stockbroker who specialized in the sometimes wild west world of mining and commodities, Slusarchuk wasn’t a stranger to risk, but there was a sense on this trip that the opportunity was big enough to warrant a huge roll of the dice.

Recalling the early days of the situation, Slusarchuk noted, “I was introduced to this story of gold in the Highlands of PNG by a great friend and entrepreneur, Carson Seabolt. I was skeptical at first, but after a week or so of looking at information, I was intrigued enough to do a much closer assessment of the situation.”

He remarked that Barrick Gold owned the asset and that it had briefly operated as a mine in the past. But for several years, it had the operation on care and maintenance. According to Slusarchuk, “The operation never made any money, and it was essentially moth-balled. However, geologists close to us believed that the biggest prize had not yet been drilled.”

“The guys who had built the mine and mill prior to Barrick had completely tripped over dollar bills to pick up pennies, mining an area that ultimately proved to be the least interesting area of the project by a long shot. So, after that look, we decided to make Barrick Gold an offer that we figured was a low-ball. We said we would put $2 million upfront and make some other payments down the road based on success,” recalled Slusarchuk.

The surprising thing, they called the bluff, and the next thing they knew, they were “scrambling around to put together the $2 million” to buy what they believed would be a “world-class gold asset.”

The team named the company K92 Mining, which was a phonetic adaption of the local town the journey began in, Kainantu. Now, the company has traded to a market cap in excess of $2 billion based on some amazing exploration success via drilling growth in production that is fast transforming the startup into a significant gold mining company on a global basis.

The company has grown to over 1600 employees and contractors at its mine site and is in the midst of huge expansion, which will see $300 million invested into the site over the next 18 months. The massive win has spread to early shareholders who were in when the stock was at $0.35 and saw it rocket to more than $10.

When asked about the success and the $2 million bet turning into $2 billion, Slusarchuk was quick to note, “This has been an amazing win for early investors and speculators, and it took a lot of guts for us to put the deal together, but the real driving force behind this success, in my opinion, has been John Lewins, who is K92’s CEO. John has done the hard work, and a lot of people love to take credit for the hard work, but he has truly done it all here.”

He continued, “From spending month after month onsite during the early days when it was tough, to negotiating the big financing deals such as the recent $100 million credit facility closing, he deserves much of the credit. It takes a whole team, though, and as John often notes, K92 has an amazing asset geologically, but the best asset of the company is it’s people.”

Not one to rest on his laurels, Slusarchuk has decided to make one more big bet on Papua New Guinea. However, he has made some forays into situations outside of mining, such as buying 50% of a professional basketball team in the Canadian CEBL league, which is similar to the G-League in the United States.

“The real story here is K92 and the amazing success the team has had. That said, I haven’t been as excited since those early days of K92 as I am today and that is because I’ve just been able to negotiate a huge new situation in PNG,” said Slusarchuk when discussing the next big project in the works.

He continued, “We have tied up, through a variety of licenses and license applications, a 2166 sq km commanding land package within the country, including land contiguous with K92’s project. Lots of historic drilling, lots of gold and copper, and as is similar to the early days on K92 – we bought this when nobody seemed to want gold.”

Moreover, the entire Papua New Guinea landscape is on the rise. Slusarchuk explained, “The fact the world’s largest gold miner, American-based Newmont, has just entered PNG over the past month and K92’s ongoing success will make PNG a more and more well-known jurisdiction. Geologically, it’s known as the Land of Giants for a reason.”

Slusarchuk went on to explain that Great Pacific Gold (trades as GPAC on the TSX Venture in Canada and as FSXLF on the OTC in the US), is the vehicle they have the new projects within. As the CEO of Great Pacific Gold, he notes, “With a strong cash position and team with a record of technical success in PNG, we are well positioned. We are blessed to have John Lewins as a Director, and we have a lot of similar shareholders to the groups that funded K92 early on. I expect a big 2024 for GPAC.”

While Newmont, which just entered PNG in a big way in recent days, is a multi-billion dollar company, as is K92 Mining, Great Pacific Gold has a sub $100 million market cap and will start to attract some serious attention from any speculators who like high-grade gold. While it seems like a bet with real risk, Slusarchuk sees it as a bet with real upside.