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Dr. Robert Quartermain, CEO of Dakota Gold Corp. | Rule Symposium 2026: Rick Rule interviews

Rule Investment Media May 8, 2026

Summary

Dakota Gold's Richmond Hill resource stands at 3.5 million ounces, and management targets a prefeasibility study this year backed by about $105 million in cash.

High-grade Maitland drilling, 47 intersections averaging 11 grams per tonne over 4 meters, points to a multimillion-ounce underground deposit beside the historic Homestake mine.

Guest argues gold near $4,500 an ounce revives mineralization uneconomic at $250, making the underexplored Homestake district worth re-drilling after 30 years.

Mostly private land two miles from an operating mine, management says, should ease permitting and shorten the path to a late-2029 production start.

Quartermain's playbook: buy known mineralized districts when commodities are out of favor, then let cash flow from one project fund the next.

Key points on Coeur Mining

  • Quartermain notes Richmond Hill sits about 2 miles north of Coeur's Wharf mine, which he says has averaged 90,000 to 100,000 ounces of gold a year across roughly 40 years of operation.
  • Rick Rule points out Coeur previously held the Maitland ground and did nothing with it before Dakota Gold took it on.

Key points on Newmont

  • Quartermain says the Brucejack mine his team discovered and put into production is now a key component of Newmont and has produced what he estimates at well over 2 million ounces.

Key points on Pan American Silver

  • Quartermain counts one of Silver Standard's early projects among his wins, saying it now operates as a mine owned by Pan American.

Key points on Dakota Gold

  • Quartermain says the Richmond Hill S-K 1300 outlines about 3.5 million ounces of gold, including 2.6 million ounces measured and indicated, supporting a roughly 17-year mine life at around 150,000 ounces a year, with a prefeasibility study planned for the second half of 2026 as of the interview.
  • At the March 2026 financials the company held about $105 million in cash after a roughly $75 million February 2026 raise led by BMO and Scotiabank banking syndicates, which management says funds planned work through 2026-2028, targeting a production decision in 2028 and first output in late 2029.
  • Maitland drilling has delivered 47 intersections averaging about 11 g/t over 4 metres, which management points to as the basis for a potential high-grade, roughly million-ounce underground deposit.
  • Dakota Gold controls 48,000 acres across the Homestake district, home to the 40-million-ounce Homestake mine and essentially unexplored since about 1996, and Quartermain argues gold near $4,500 an ounce at the time of the interview makes previously uneconomic targets worth revisiting.
  • Permitting is expected to be straightforward by junior standards: about 13,000 of its 48,000 acres are private land, permits run through Lawrence County and the state of South Dakota, and the ground lies about 2 miles from Coeur's producing Wharf mine, so regulators there already know mining.

Jack Henris's takeaways

  • Top takeaway Quartermain describes Jack Henris as Dakota Gold's president, leading the company's locally based South Dakota team working the Homestake district projects.

Rick Rule's takeaways

  • Top takeaway Rule discloses he has personally been a shareholder in all of Quartermain's prior ventures and has invested alongside him for roughly 30 years, going back to the early 1990s.
  • He argues his symposium is set apart by a vetting test: every public-company exhibitor must be held in his own account.
  • He notes Coeur once owned the Maitland ground and did nothing with it, framing Dakota Gold's progress there as value created from a standing start.
  • He praises Quartermain's focus on growing the minable, recoverable portion of deposits rather than universal ounces, citing Pretium as the example.

Robert Quartermain's takeaways

  • Top takeaway His central thesis is that the Homestake district has seen no real exploration since about 1996, and with gold near $4,500 an ounce at the time of the interview versus the roughly $250 era when the 40-million-ounce Homestake mine ran, historically uneconomic ground is now the opportunity, in the shadows of old head frames.
  • He plans to build Richmond Hill first, mining near-surface, low-strip (less than 1:1) higher-grade zones early for fast cash payback, then recycling that cash flow into the high-grade Maitland underground, all within a 4-to-5-mile radius of the head office to keep costs down.
  • He sees Maitland as the district's long-term prize, citing 47 intersections running about 11 g/t over 4 metres and the potential for a significant million-ounce deposit at the Unionville and JB zones.
  • He describes his repeatable model of taking call-option-style positions in known districts when the commodity is out of favor, which he says grew Silver Standard from about $2 million to well over $2 billion in market cap.
  • He argues the February 2026 financing leaves the company funded through permitting and a hoped-for 2028 production decision, so buyers today should not face dilution, and he stresses community relations on largely private land in South Dakota.