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."