PDAC: Ex-Resolute CEO chills out in Arctic after Mali nightmare

When Terry Holohan was confined for 13 days in Mali by junta officials seeking millions from the company he led, Resolute Mining (ASX, LSE: RSG), he had reason to wonder if he would ever make it home safely.

Held in the basement of a run-down office building in the capital, Bamako, the CEO found himself at the centre of a high-stakes standoff in one of the world’s most volatile mining regions. AK-47-toting soldiers patrolled outside his cell with bricked-over windows and only simple mattresses, one water tap and a bucket. The military government freed him and two colleagues in late 2024 after a $160-million settlement.

“I was never really worried about our personal security,” Holohan told The Northern Miner Sunday at the PDAC convention. “There were a lot of psychological games, like, ‘If we don’t get the money, then we’ll have to take you to the open prison where there are 30 people per cell’ and all that gamesmanship. When you’re in that situation, you’re more worried about your family because they don’t know what’s going on.”

BG Gold Managing Director Terry Holohan points to the Whale Cove project area. Credit: Blair McBride

Now, he has resurfaced on the other side of the world – in the Arctic – in one of the planet’s safest jurisdictions.  

New listing

The former Resolute boss is managing director of Nunavut-focused BG Gold, swapping the heat and political tension of Mali for the cold isolation of Canada’s Far North, where the company is preparing a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) and a public listing.

Holohan, whose resume includes top executive roles with PT Archi and Paramount Mining in Indonesia and Platmin in South Africa, brings decades of geological and management skills easily suitable to a new project in the frozen expanses of Canada’s Arctic.

For BG, having someone with Holohan’s history of building and running large mines is a “big step” to drive the company forward, BG Gold Executive Chairman Peter Bacchus said in a separate interview. 

“Terry is completely head-in-the-game and was looking for his next opportunity,” Bacchus said. “It’s a big hire for us.”

BG plans to list on the TSX in the second or third-quarter, which would make it the newest publicly-listed gold explorer in the Arctic territory. It’s also one with a history of backing from major mining figures.

Two years ago, just before BG began its first exploration season, it raised $30 million from, among others, Glencore (LSE: GLEN) founder Pinkie Green, Harmony Gold (NYSE: HMY) founder Ted Grobicki, former Gold Fields (NYSE: GFI) executives Brett Mattison and Tommy McKeith, and Andre Liebenberg, the CEO of physical uranium holder Yellow Cake (LSE: YCA).

Whale Cove

Located on the western shore of Hudson Bay, Whale Cove is 20 km west of the namesake hamlet and 1,225 km west of the capital Iqaluit. It’s also about 80 km south of Agnico Eagle Mines’ (TSX, NYSE: AEM) Meliadine. The territory’s other producing mine is B2Gold’s (TSX: BTO; NYSE-A: BTG) Goose, near Bathurst Inlet.

“The two gold mines in Nunavut have proven to us all that they can be profitable in such environments and they are in more remote places than Whale Cove in terms of access via ports and airports,” Holohan said. “They have people who understand mining and are very enthusiastic and want us to get going.”

The explorer’s near-term focus is completing a PEA for Whale Cove’s main Vickers deposit, which has grown significantly since BG acquired the project from Russian miner Nordgold in 2022.

Vickers grew from an inferred-only resource in 2020 to 23.7 million measured and indicated tonnes grading 2 grams gold per tonne for 1.5 million oz., according to an update from February 2025. Inferred resources now total 16 million tonnes at 1.8 grams gold for 900,000 ounces. The update is based on more than 12,730 metres drilled since 2024.

“We’ve done a lot of economic work over the last year in terms of what Vickers would look like,” Bacchus said. “We plan to have a PEA ready ahead of the listing. It would give investors an opportunity to wrap their heads around what the mine would look like.”

Expanding land package

BG also more than doubled its land package to about 2,000 sq. km, mainly by acquiring exploration rights this year to the 1,174-sq.-km Tavani property south of Vickers. 

Last year’s drilling at Vickers featured hole 25PB112B that cut 67 metres grading 3.6 grams gold from 204 metres depth, including 35 metres at 6 grams gold, 24 metres grading 4.9 grams gold and 14 metres at 7.9 grams gold.

Reconnaissance drilling also unveiled a new gold-bearing shear system at the CZ target, west of Vickers. Highlight hole 25PB115 returned 64 metres grading 3.1 grams gold from 5 metres depth, including 8 metres at 18.9 grams gold.

The company has more than $10 million for exploration this year. BG plans to complete about 6,000 metres of drilling at Whale Cove using two rigs and two helicopters for broader regional exploration.

Potential C$450M value

The executives declined to speculate what its market capitalization could be when it completes the IPO. However, an estimate values BG at about C$450 million based on its aim to release a PEA before going public, its 2.4-million-oz. global resource and Whale Cove’s tier-1 jurisdiction. That estimate also assumes the gold price remains around $5,000 per ounce.

And in addition to Holohan, BG hired industry heavyweights including former Gold Fields (NYSE, JSE: GFI) CEO and COO Martin Preece, who will chair the company’s advisory board, and John Munro, former head of international operations with Gold Fields. Munro played a leading role in the construction of the Khoemacau copper mine in Botswana. He’s also a non-executive director with Endeavour Mining (TSX, LSE: EDV).

“With the fundamentals on the gold price right now – and this project is high-grade – it’s a great opportunity, not only for us, but all stakeholders, especially for Whale Cove,” Holohan said. “If a mine gets going here, there’s going to be mining for decades.”