On my Horizon: Sendero Resources

One of the pleasures of writing “Talking My Book” is that people call me about companies they think I might be interested in. Just such a call came from Jeremy Gillis, who had read my Kestrel article with interest and who thinks the world of Bernie Kreft. Off to a good start I’d say.

Gillis is an Englishman who talks fast and has a work history which includes twelve years at Yamana Gold. My ears perked up. Yamana is the gold company Peter Marrone turned around, expanded and eventually sold to Pan American Silver in a deal worth about $4.8 billion dollars.

As he had mentioned in his email initiating our conversation, Gillis had a company he thought I might be interested in: Sendero Resources (SEND.V). A copper prospect in Argentina. With copper trading at all time highs in the wake of Trump’s 50% tariff announcement, the mineral obviously interests me. But, well, Argentina. Country risk is a thing as is jurisdiction with the country. The election of Javier Milei in 2023 has reduced the country risk, but, well…it’s a pause.

A trip to the Sendero website is revealing. First, the company holds a significant piece of highly prospective copper/gold ground. 211 square kilometres of which the company owns 120 outright and has an option on the rest. Second, this ground is surrounded by copper/gold discoveries and mines owned by some of the most respected mining companies in the world: Filo Mining, Lundin Mining, and NGEx Minerals. Third, there has been significant historic drilling on the property, 8 million dollars worth as well as surface sampling, ground magnetic surveying and IP geophysical surveying. Sendero has this data and has constructed a property-wide GIS database.

All good so far. Time to take a look at the share price. Yikes! As recently as February 2024, SEND traded at $4.70, by late 2024 it was trading for less than $0.25. (I’m astonished I didn’t buy in February 2024.) What the heck happened? And why is it trading at $0.47 today after a 10:1 rollback?

In our phone conversation, Gillis made the observation that “rocks don’t change, people do”. Indeed. And those changes are recorded in the 2024 company press releases culminating in a January 2025 press release Sendero Resources Corporate update and new Foundational Strategic Investing Group. A whole new ballgame with a new CEO and new Chief Geo and a new Strategic Investing Group,

Sendero is delighted to welcome the new Foundational Investing Group led by Peter Marrone, Founder, Chairman & CEO of Yamana Gold and Allied Gold. Additional shareholders include Pat DiCapo, founder and CEO of PowerOne Capital Markets, and Eduardo Elsztain, a prominent Argentine Industrialist.

Whatever happened in 2024 is now ancient history and the company has been entirely remade and, to a degree, recapitalized. Its new management team are deeply experienced “big company” geos with a clear understanding of what it takes to put together an actual mine. Marrone, when the time comes, can walk the company into the offices of the major mining companies and financing houses. It is, on a first pass, a pretty complete package.

Now there is a bit of debt to be settled and I’ll have to dig into the permitting situation. But the real question is whether or not there is an economically attractive deposit somewhere on, well, under the 211 square kilometre land package.

The drill results reported in 2024 are suggestive. And the property is in the right neighbourhood,

The Vicuña is a Miocene metallogenic belt in the southern Cordillera which links the prolific El Indio and the Maricunga Belt. Both porphyry (Cu-Au-Ag-Mo) and epithermal (Cu-Au-Ag) styles of mineralization are known at large scale (>550Kt Cu, 40t Au), including Filo del Sol (Filo Mining, TSE:FIL), Josemaria (Lundin, TSE:LUN), and Los Helados (NGEX, TSE:NGEX), and Caserones (Lundin) in the vicinity

Between the historic drilling, sampling, ground magnetics and IP there is a good chance that a skilled exploration geologist will be able to use the GIS database and construct a geological model of the Sendero ground. Is it similar to the Lundin Group’s Josemarie project a few kilometers to the south?

Maybe. Whatever it is, and Gillis was wonderfully emphatic on this point, if it is anything, it will have serious size. Likely low grade, but lots and lots of low grade.

Which is why I am going to be following SEND: Peter Marrone is not a novice. He did well with Yamana and is doing well with Allied Gold (AAUC.T). He can read the data and he likes “size”. If he is leading the Investing Group, it is very unlikely that Sendero has nothing.

I hope to do a deeper dive in a few weeks. For now Sendero is on my horizon and coming into radar range.

(Disclaimer: I do not presently own shares in Sendero. I may buy in the future. This is not investment advice. Do your own due dilligence. Call the CEO.)