Neil Woodyer, Chair and CEO of Aris Mining | Rule Symposium 2026: Rick Rule interviews

Rule Investment Media Jun 4, 2026

Summary

Neil Woodyer says Aris Mining can run at 500,000 ounces a year on its own, with a million-ounce path behind it.

Cash of roughly $470 million plus about $400 million a year in cash flow funds construction without new outside financing.

Gold reserves stand at 9.3 million ounces across the two producing mines, Sote Norte, and a Guyana project in study.

The Guyana project targets about 250,000 ounces a year for 20 years, but needs roughly $800 million to build.

Woodyer's method is buy and build: fund a capital-short mine, take control, then shrink oversized project designs.

Woodyer says a business he started with Frank Giustra, with three mines in Brazil and one in Mexico, was merged with Equinox after a few years.
He cites that transaction, alongside Endeavor Mining, as the earlier run of the same build-and-buy approach he is now applying at Aris Mining.

Woodyer says Aris Mining will produce about 500,000 ounces a year from Segovia and Momoto during 2027, and points to a clear path from 500,000 to one million ounces a year, which he calls a very rare category.
He puts reserves for Segovia, Momoto, Sote Norte and the Guyana project at 9.3 million ounces at roughly 6 grams per tonne.
Segovia is being ramped from about 200,000 ounces a year to roughly 300,000; the plant is already finished and Woodyer expects the step-up by the end of 2026.
Aris now owns all of the Sote Norte project in Colombia after taking a 20% interest from Mubadala, judging the original design too ambitious, and buying the remainder about a year ago; the environmental application is due in a couple of months and permitting is expected to take about another year.
The Guyana project has had a preliminary economic assessment, a pre-feasibility study is expected in a couple of months and a construction decision is hoped for around the start of 2027, on roughly $800 million of investment for about 250,000 ounces a year over about 20 years, taking output toward 750,000 ounces.

Top takeaway Woodyer presents Aris Mining as the third run of the same build-and-buy playbook he used earlier, and frames the goal as about 500,000 ounces a year now with a visible path to one million ounces a year.
He says he has worked about 40 years in mining and mine finance, starting at a Vancouver advisory firm arranging project debt before moving into M&A, and that his partnership with Frank Giustra turned Endeavor Financial into Endeavor Mining in 2008 with four or five West African acquisitions; he estimates that company is now worth about $20 billion Canadian.
He says his retirement lasted about three days before he started a second business with Giustra, three mines in Brazil and one in Mexico, which was later merged with Equinox.
He describes how Aris was assembled, with about $85 million into Calvus Gold in exchange for management and board control, funding a roughly $300 million expansion of a narrow-vein mine producing about 25,000 ounces into one producing about 200,000 ounces, followed by a 20% stake in Sote Norte and the Gran Colombia merger.
He says Aris holds about $470 million of cash and generates roughly $400 million a year, with a $400 to $450 million bond that has three to four years left to run, enough to finish Momoto and the Guyana project without going back to outside financing.

Top takeaway Woodyer says Clive Johnson, at Bima Gold, was his first client when he started about 40 years ago at a Vancouver advisory firm arranging project finance for mining companies.

Top takeaway Rule says he vets every public-company exhibitor and refuses more than he accepts, and that a company only appears on his conference floor if he owns shares himself, which he calls due diligence; he discloses that he is a shareholder in Aris Mining.
He says Rule Investment Media interviews every exhibitor before the symposium and records the whole event, including simultaneous breakouts, so attendees can watch and replay sessions.
He offers a money-back guarantee on the symposium whether attended live or streamed, and says about one tenth of the fees charged have been refunded across three decades of such guarantees.
He says Woodyer has made him money twice, and that he looks forward to hosting him at the Boca Raton symposium.

Top takeaway Woodyer says he partnered with Giustra to create a public company advising mining clients on acquisitions, mergers and finance, which in 2008 was turned into a mining company, with Endeavor Financial becoming Endeavor Mining.
He says the second business he started with Giustra, three mines in Brazil and one in Mexico, was merged with Equinox after a few years.