Unlocking the Guiana Shield: Exploring District-Scale Gold at Antino with Colin Padget

In this episode we speak to Colin Padget, President and CEO of Founders Metals, a gold exploration company advancing the Antino Gold Project in Suriname.   Colin is a geologist with a strong business background and has helped lead the team through an impressive period of exploration success at Antino, with 11 discoveries identified across the property to date.   We discuss the story behind Antino, its wider district-scale potential, the growing relationship with Gold Fields, Colin’s transition into the CEO role, and why Suriname and the wider Guiana Shield could represent one of the more exciting underexplored gold regions globally. **KEY TAKEAWAYS** - **District-Scale Discovery Engine:** Founders Metals has demonstrated vast mineralization potential across its 100,000-plus hectare land package at the Antino Gold Project in Suriname, notching 11 discoveries to date. - **Tier-1 Mining Validation:** Major gold producer Gold Fields made a cumulative investment of roughly $100 million USD to secure a 19.9% stake in Founders Metals, offering both strong market validation and valuable technical collaboration. - **Blending Exploration with Business Acumen:** Transitioning from geologist to CEO requires building a balanced technical team and knowing when to steer exploration toward mineable resources rather than open-ended science experiments. - **Modern Tech Pierces the Jungle Cover:** Implementing high-resolution LiDAR and modern geophysics has revolutionized exploration through dense jungle canopy, allowing Founders to identify historic workings and uncover structural trends missed by previous operators. **BEST MOMENTS** *"It feels a bit cliché when you're an exploration company in the Guiana Shield... everyone has one of those slides in their deck where it shows West Africa and the Guiana Shield and that the continents used to be together... but it really was that."*  *"There's a validation piece that comes with having a major gold miner... take that level of interest in the company... They didn't invest in us to take it over and tell us what to do; they've been happy with what we've been doing."*  *"The number one thing is knowing, as a project geologist running a program, when does it stop being about the growth of a future resource or something that's mineable, and when does it turn into a science experiment?"*  *"Hands down, just being able to see through that cover... LiDAR is able to see through it down to the centimeter scale... We can see where there's been something dug 50 years ago, and take that as something worth going to check up on."* **VALUABLE RESOURCES** Mail:        [⁠rob@mining-international.org⁠](mailto:rob@mining-international.org) LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-tyson-3a26a68/⁠ X:              ⁠https://twitter.com/MiningRobTyson⁠  YouTube: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/c/DigDeepTheMiningPodcast⁠  Web:        ⁠http://www.mining-international.org⁠ **GUEST RESOURCES** LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/founders-metals/ X: Founders Metals Inc. (@FoundersMetals) / X Instagram: Founders Metals Inc. (@foundersmetals) • Instagram photos and videos IR Contact: Costner Morrison, Director, Investor Relations - costnerm@fdrmetals.com **CONTACT METHOD** [⁠rob@mining-international.org⁠](mailto:rob@mining-international.org) ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-tyson-3a26a68/⁠ **Podcast Description** Rob Tyson is an established recruiter in the mining and quarrying sector and decided to produce the “Dig Deep” The Mining Podcast to provide valuable and informative content around the mining industry. He has a passion and desire to promote the industry and the podcast aims to offer the mining community an insight into people’s experiences and careers covering any mining discipline, giving the listeners helpful advice and guidance on industry topics.  *This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media.* https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/