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Auriginal Mining is a Quebec-focused explorer targeting gold, copper, zinc, and silver at its 100%-owned Roger Project in the Chibougamau district. The company also holds a 25% stake in the Anik property through a joint venture with IAMGOLD (which owns 75%), as well as two earlier-stage copper properties called Mishi and Wabash. This conversation was mostly about the current 5,200m drill program at Roger, which is designed to test whether the historical gold-copper deposit sits below a deeper volcanic-hosted massive sulphide (VMS) system, with some discussion of the Anik JV and the company’s broader M&A ambitions.

TL;DR

CEO Peter Cashin told me the Roger drill program started late March 2026, the rig is now on its second hole, and roughly 750m has been drilled in total so far from the planned 5,200m across eight holes. He said the first assay results are expected mid-to-late May 2026, with results coming in batches roughly every three weeks after that. AUME is sitting on approximately C$4.8M in cash heading into a program budgeted at C$3M, leaving roughly C$2M for follow-up work. The thesis is that Roger was drilled as a porphyry for decades, but Cashin believes the historical data now points to a VMS system beneath and the drilling is designed to prove or disprove that. The target analogue is Agnico Eagle’s LaRonde deposit. Results from the Anik JV, where IAMGOLD controls both the timing and the narrative, are also expected in April or May, with lab delays being a wildcard.

What have thye done for shareholders lately?

Cashin told me that since the last interview, the team went back into historical core, did additional sampling, ran modern whole-rock geochemistry, completed downhole geophysics, and age-dated the rocks to confirm they sit in the right geological window for VMS mineralization. He said all of that came back supportive of the model. On top of that, they digitized 319 historical drill holes into Leapfrog, built a 3D model, and found that the Roger deposit ends abruptly at both ends, which he interprets as fault offsets. They also found that there’s an implied vertical displacement of about 200m to the northeast. He did say that the historical drilling never actually closed off the Roger zone at depth. The company received all required drilling permits and mobilized a rig to site, with drilling commencing March 25, 2026.

How much money do they have and what are they spending it on?

Cashin said Auriginal has approximately C$4.8M in cash heading into the drill program, the bulk of it raised through a flow-through financing completed in December 2025, which he said they haven’t really touched yet. The total budget for the 5,200m Roger program, including the digital drill-hole compilation work, is C$2.5M to C$3M. That leaves roughly C$2M in the treasury after the program, which he described as enough for follow-up drilling if the holes return encouraging results. On the Anik JV side, Auriginal’s proportionate 25% contribution to the current IAMGOLD-operated drill program there was approximately C$120,000, and thus not material to the treasury. He said he doesn’t anticipate a need to raise again in 2026 unless a discovery warrants a significantly larger follow-up program.

Upcoming catalysts

Technical / Operational: First batch of assay results from the Roger drill program expected mid-to-late May 2026. Results from subsequent holes expected roughly every three weeks through to completion of the 5,200m program (targeted for May 2026, subject to weather and drill crew availability). Visual results — meaning the presence or absence of massive sulphides in core — may be released ahead of assays if warranted. Downhole EM surveys will be run in each new Roger hole to help vector toward any VMS system. Results from IAMGOLD’s Anik drill program (8 holes, 1,600m, started January 2026) are expected in April or May 2026, but Auriginal is dependent on IAMGOLD’s timeline and lab queue.

Corporate: Cashin said he is actively looking at additional VMS project acquisitions, as he wants to build Auriginal into a focused VMS explorer. He suggested that if results at Roger are encouraging, a second drill program could be announced before all assays from the first program are even in hand. A potential announcement of a new project acquisition is also on the table, though no timing was given.

Risks

The single biggest operational risk is the spring thaw. Cashin was explicit about the warm weather in Val-d’Or, which is already pulling drill rigs off the ground, and his program is only still running because conditions near the Roger site remain below freezing. He acknowledged that the first hole was slow due to crew inexperience with the terrain and wrong bit selection, which has since been corrected. On the Anik side, Auriginal has no control over when IAMGOLD decides to release results or how much further it pursues the property, as the company is a passive minority partner. The 17.7 million warrants and options outstanding represent modest dilution potential (about 6% of fully diluted shares), but Cashin was clear a larger follow-up raise would be needed if there’s a meaningful discovery. Lastly, if the geology at the predicted interface doesn’t deliver the expected alteration and sulphide signatures, the model will need rethinking.

Auriginal Mining CEO Interview

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