Interview with Shaun Heinrichs, President and CEO of 1911 Gold
Recording date: 11th September 2026
1911 Gold Corporation (TSXV:AUMB) is working to restart the fully permitted True North Gold Project in Manitoba's Rice Lake Greenstone Belt, a mine and mill complex that has produced roughly 2.0 million ounces since the 1930s but has sat idle since 2015. President and CEO Shaun Heinrichs took over in mid-2022 and rebuilt both the technical team and the underlying resource before committing to a restart plan, bringing in Vice President of Exploration Michele Della Libera and Lions Gate Geological Consulting to independently re-estimate the deposit. The result, a 2024 Mineral Resource Estimate of 499,000 ounces indicated and 644,000 ounces inferred, underpins a 2026 Preliminary Economic Assessment that models a post-tax NPV5% of $391 million, an IRR of 105% and a 2.2 year payback at a base case gold price of US$3,000/oz.
Rather than restart at full scale immediately, the company is running test mining across two zones, the Level 16 shaft mine and the Hinge ramp mine, using smaller equipment and narrower development than the project's previous operators, targeting 15% dilution against a history that saw dilution as high as 25% up to 80-100% under an earlier operators. Management frames this as the key operational lesson from True North's difficult past: equipment sizing, delineation drilling and mining method discipline, not resource quality, were what previously constrained the project.
On the PEA's schedule, production ramps from roughly 26,000 ounces in the first partial year to a steady-state run rate near 58,000 ounces annually by 2029, at all-in sustaining costs of $1,897/oz. The remaining capital need, largely a new crushing circuit due for delivery through October 2026, is being funded through a $30 million credit facility with Auramet International, of which the first $15 million tranche was drawn in March 2026. Management's near-term financial priority is refinancing that facility ahead of its April 2027 amortisation start, which would otherwise coincide with the early stages of the production ramp.
Beyond True North itself, 1911 Gold controls the entire 90 km Rice Lake Greenstone Belt land package, positioning the company for a hub-and-spoke growth model built around the existing, expandable mill. September 2026 drilling confirmed a high-grade structural link between the L10 zone and the larger 710-711 zone, and the company's 2026 inferred resource update for the Ogama-Rockland deposit, 45 km away, now stands at 712,000 ounces at 6.68 g/t Au. Both feed into a global resource update due in the fourth quarter of 2026. Importantly, a formal decision to commit to full-scale production has not yet been made; that decision is targeted for 2027, pending the results of 2026 trial mining and bulk sample processing. Investors should treat the current activity as a proof-of-concept phase for the operating model management intends to scale, rather than confirmation that production is already underway at design capacity.
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