A Paul Gill Podcast Transcript
A Paul Gill joins host Brian Thomas on The Digital Executive Podcast.
Welcome to Coruzant Technologies, home of the Digital Executive Podcast.
Brian Thomas: Welcome to The Digital Executive. Today’s guest is A. Paul Gill. A. Paul Gill is a business builder and a financier with over 25 years of experience in creating, reconstructing, and growing businesses in various sectors including mining, energy, automation, and technology. Recently, he joined Triple One Metals as CEO and Director to focus on discovering metals for the green economy.
In 2004, he founded Norsemont Mining Corporation and helped guide the company take on new projects in Peru, which eventually led to a large copper asset in Peru called the Constancia Mine that was sold to Hudbay Minerals for over 500 million. To help communicate his ideas, he created Future Opportunities.
FutureOpportunities.com, which is a newsletter that disseminates news regarding technology and mining.
Well, good afternoon, Paul. Welcome to the show.
A Paul Gill: Thanks for having me on.
Brian Thomas: Absolutely. I appreciate you making the time, Paul. I know you generally are hailing out of that great place of Vancouver, British Columbia. Hopefully, I’m close there. I’m in Kansas City. Beautiful place where you’re from, but I do appreciate you making the time today.
Paul, jumping into your first question here, in 2004, you founded Norsemont Mining Corporation and led it to acquire the Constancia Mine in Peru. Which was sold for over 500 million. Could you share the key strategies and decisions that contributed to the success?
A Paul Gill: Yeah, thanks. Essentially, what we wanted to do was get into an area in which we knew the underlying commodity was going to perform very well in the next X amount of years before we were going to, uh, sell or develop that asset.
So, um, really it was either gold or copper and we ended up with copper and gold and molybdenum all in the same deposit in Constancia down in Peru. And so it was a really interesting situation in which Rio Tinto had owned the property but could only get 70 percent of it. With an underlying minority shareholder who wouldn’t sell.
So when we entered the picture, we optioned Rio Tinto 70 percent and eventually built it up and then bought the remaining 30 percent after getting a good relationship started with the minority owner. So it was a real success and it just goes to show you that mines are built, they’re not found. Thank you.
That’s certainly a success story. And we’ve talked a lot about that in challenges that entrepreneurs or business deals, those sorts of things, whether it’s merger and acquisition or some other type of transactions can be challenging. So I appreciate your insights on that. And then Paul, what motivated your recent move to Triple One Metals as CEO and director?
And what are your primary objectives for the company? Well, that’s a great question. Essentially, I’ve been doing almost the same thing since I started in the mining industry. That is discovering good opportunities and good projects and good people and putting them together. So, I’ve done that on a number of occasions with Lameko Metals.
Established a very good project called the Lelutra Graphite Project, then converted into a hiring mode and hired a executive team that included a CEO, CFO, and COO. And now we’ve graduated towards getting a large grant from the Department of Defense. Similarly, Pampa Metals, I was there as an interim CEO and helped, uh, establish the company and, uh, eventually handed that off.
So, I felt that that was a really niche spot for me to be able to fix up these companies and find management and find projects for them. So, um, that’s exactly what I’m doing with Triple One is, uh, we’ve now found the company has been sort of cleaned up a little bit. Put back on its feet. We found a really good partner on the financial side, and we think we have a bright future ahead.
Brian Thomas: Thank you, Paul. Again, I know you’ve worked in this industry for quite some time. We’ve been connected for quite some time and there was a focus there in Lomico metals. But doing these other ventures certainly makes you just jump in. Anyway, Paul, I’m going to switch to your other question here through your newsletter, future opportunities.
You disseminate news on technology and mining. What emerging trends are you currently highlighting, and how do they influence your approach at Triple One Medals?
A Paul Gill: Yeah, that’s a great question. Essentially, what I found is when you start a new company, you have to have some vision in mind as to what the end result might be, and it’s especially important to look at what the trends are now and what are the solid trends for the future.
And we’ve always been Interested in commodities such as copper and gold, and sometimes you go into graphite or lithium or some of the other more, um, scarcer or rare earth materials. And that is a philosophy that is behind future opportunities. What we’re developing is opportunities that will flourish in the future.
Sure, as opposed to one that are right in front of you right now. So the logo or the sort of slogan I use is buy low, build high. And, uh, that’s really done me well in this industry because everything you do has to have an efficiency about it and a purpose about it and a direction. And that’s what I keep in mind when we’re getting into this new phase of really important changes in the commodity prices.
We’ve seen gold break through 3000 for the first time, so we know that there’s an opportunity here. That’s why we’re establishing Triple One as a company that will be open to either gold or uranium or copper assets.
Brian Thomas: Thank you. And I appreciate putting together curating a lot of the news around precious metals in your new newsletter, future opportunities.
It gives people an opportunity to understand what’s going on, maybe get involved in and do some investing as well, but really do appreciate that. And then Paul, the last question of the day I had for you with over 25 years in creating and growing businesses across various sectors, how have technological advancements shaped your approach to business development and operations in the mining industry?
A Paul Gill: Yeah, it’s very important to understand trends and the latest trend that really has pushed our angles or angled us towards different avenues that we wouldn’t have normally taken has been technological change. The electric vehicle has come on as a big change in our economy. It’s requiring materials in which to build them.
So that’s where our focus has changed from usually. Copper gold or, or silver into lithium graphite and some of the other materials that go into the batteries for these electric vehicles. So technological change is always the driver and you have to have these materials ready for these new trends. And so I think that’s where we’ve had a look at the future and where technology is going and what kind of materials are needed to get us there.
So it, it is a, a situation where we feel we’ve, we’ve got the trends right in the past and we will in the future as well, as long as we’re very diligent about the kind of research we do and what we can achieve is, is basically identifying these opportunities and then finding projects before they get too expensive and developing them with teams that are knowledgeable about the areas.
Graphite and lithium. And we happen to have, I think, luckily enough, a very good trend of lithium and graphite in Quebec that we’ve been working at and buying properties in with Lameco. And certainly, there’s other opportunities which Triple One will take on in Quebec and in other locations in North America which are yet to be determined.
Brian Thomas: Thank you. I really appreciate you highlighting some of those other metals and compounds around some of the technologies that are evolving. You know, you mentioned the batteries, that sort of thing, but there are a lot of different materials, a lot of different metals that we don’t necessarily understand as investors and having people like you educate us on that and look at new opportunities certainly helps us invest in better minerals and materials.
A Paul Gill: Certainly, I mean, for instance, one of the materials that has really come on lately, which is very difficult to understand and very difficult to get, come by, is materials like gallium and germanium, which are used in the semiconductor industry. Gallium is the basis of the new gallium nitride semiconductors, which are really going to be, um, sort of a, Upgrade to silicon materials that are used gallium has a wider operating temperature between minus 40 and 150 degrees centigrade versus semiconductors based on silicon, which have a narrower range.
And this is why sometimes when you get into colder climates, EVs can’t charge properly because they don’t have this new semiconductor available to them. So we want to obviously get into that aspect of it. And one of our technology companies, Prometheus Technologies, is working on that. working specifically on the development of designs and end uses and the production of those types of semiconductors here in North America.
So we really feel that that’s going to be a big trend in the future as well.
Brian Thomas: Thank you. There’s just so much to learn about some of these precious metals and the different components that are used in evolving. The EV market obviously is changing and we know lithium will eventually be depleted at some point.
So we’ve got to always be looking for the next big thing. So I appreciate that. Paul, it was such a pleasure having you on today and I look forward to speaking with you real soon.
A Paul Gill: Great. Thanks very much.
Brian Thomas: Bye for now.
A Paul Gill Podcast Transcript. Listen to the audio on the guest’s Podcast Page.
