North Arrow Minerals Kraaipan Gold Project is located in southern Botswana, about 40 km north of Harmony Gold’s Kalgold mine across the South African border. The interview covered the company’s exploration strategy on the 724 km² land package, the ongoing RC drilling program following up on last year’s results, the partnership with private operator Rockman Resources, and the corporate setup including management background, share structure, and treasury.
TL;DR
North Arrow has pivoted from diamonds to gold and is currently earning into Kraaipan from Rockman, with a path to 60% by spending US$5 million by June 2027 and up to 80% on completion of a PEA. CEO Eira Thomas and COO John Armstrong both have long Botswana track records from their Lucara Diamond days. The 2026 program runs in four rotations, with rotation one RC drilling complete at Target A, rotation two complete at Targets AE and AF, rotation three regional RC drilling starting in June, and rotation four planned as a diamond core program later in the year. They are waiting on the final sub-batch of rotation one assays which they expect imminently. The company has roughly C$2 million in cash plus warrants coming in, and Eira said they will be tight on funding but plan to be opportunistic on a raise. Last year’s standout hit was 30 m at 1.56 g/t gold at Target A, which they are now trying to extend along strike.
What have they done for shareholders lately
In the past year they flew the entire belt with their proprietary fixed-wing drone airborne magnetic system (Rockman’s “remote mapper”), drilled around 5,000 metres of RC across multiple transects, and completed all this for about US$1.2 million, which Eira said would have cost roughly US$10 million using a traditional heli-mag survey. They identified five distinct gold targets returning plus-gram material, extended strike length of observable surface mineralization by a few hundred metres at each of the main targets (Target A now over 700 m, AF around 450 m, AE over 250 m), and confirmed that Kalahari sand cover in the southern part of the belt is generally less than 10 m, which removes one of the main reasons the area was historically avoided. Rotation one and rotation two RC drilling are both completed, and they added a soil grid and surface sampling program between rotations two and three.
How much money do they have and what are they spending it on
Eira said they have roughly C$2 million in the bank with additional cash expected from warrant exercises. The last financing closed March 5 at C$0.24 with a half warrant for two years at C$0.36, bringing in about C$4 million. The 2026 budget is C$2.3 million, up from C$1.2 million last year. To earn the initial 60% from Rockman they need to spend US$5 million by June 2027, and Eira said after this year’s program they will have only about US$1.5 million left to spend to hit that threshold. Spending is going almost entirely into the four-rotation drilling program (three RC rotations plus a core program), surface sampling, geophysics, and program management. They will be tight on cash by year-end and plan to be opportunistic on raising more depending on results.
Upcoming catalysts
Technical: final rotation one RC assay results from Target A are expected imminently. Rotation two RC results from Targets AE and AF are expected around mid-July with a six to seven week lab turnaround. Rotation three regional RC drilling starts in early June, testing eight different transects across blind targets in the northern and central parts of the belt. Rotation four diamond core drilling is planned later in the year, target areas to be selected based on rotation one and two results. Corporate: North Arrow recently began trading on the Frankfurt exchange under symbol 9TB. John is attending Beaver Creek in September. Operational: completion of earn-in milestones toward the 60% Rockman interest by June 2027, with North Arrow expected to take over as operator once that threshold is reached.
Risks
The main risks raised or implied are funding (treasury is tight and a raise may be needed if results do not support a higher share price), permitting and land tenure timing in Botswana, and Botswana political and policy risk including the local ownership rules that Eira described as more nuanced than a flat 24% requirement. Geological risk is present because of the sand cover, and the early-stage nature of the project. Lab turnaround times are also a recurring constraint on news flow.
North Arrow CEO Interview
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