This article is a sponsored feature from Mining.com.au partner Stockworks Gold. It is not financial advice. Talk to a registered financial expert before making investment decisions.
Kinross Gold (TSX:K), a top 10 gold miner, has a cornerstone asset in Brazil — and Stockworks Gold (TSX-V:STW) may have identified an early stage analogue.
Paracatu is widely regarded as Kinross Gold’s most critical operation. Located in Minas Gerais, Brazil, the mine is a massive open-pit operation that consistently ranks as the largest or second-largest producer within Kinross’ global portfolio. In 2024 the mine produced over 500,000 ounces. Pairing that production with its low operating cost and nearly a decade of remaining mine life, Paracatu is a very rare and valuable tier one asset.
Stockworks’ Pirenópolis Gold Project lies within the Neoproterozoic Pan-Brazilian belt, the same regional system that hosts Paracatu, but about 275km to the northwest.
“We are on the same belt as Paracatu — essentially [working] on the same rocks”, says Stockworks Gold CEO Nasim Tyab, recently speaking to Mining.com.au. “There’s a major tectonic event that runs through Paracatu and we have a similar one through our property.”
An overlooked region
Stockworks Gold is a publicly traded Canadian junior mining company focused on gold exploration in Brazil, a jurisdiction Tyab says has not received much attention.
“Brazil is very geologically endowed, but it’s relatively underexplored”, Tyab says. “For every dollar spent on exploration in Canada, less than half a cent has been spent in Brazil.”
The Pirenópolis Gold Project is located in the mining-friendly state of Goiás, which saw a late-1700s gold rush. That rush occurred well before mechanised mining methods, limiting activity to shallow workings and placer recovery.
“This was a district-scale placer gold rush, but it happened before dynamite and mechanised mining”, Tyab says. “When the easy gold ran out, people moved into agriculture — and nothing meaningful has been done there since.”
Stockworks believes Pirenópolis is at an inflection point.
“You could analogue this to going into the Klondike or Australia just after the gold rush and starting to explore. It’s a very compelling setup from an exploration standpoint.”
Geology and work to date
The Pirenópolis Gold Project is interpreted as an orogenic gold system characterised by structurally controlled, stratabound mineralisation hosted in friable calcareous schists, with quartz veining and sericite-dominant alteration. These features are consistent with other large Brazilian orogenic systems, including Paracatu.
The project remains greenfields in nature, with no historical drilling. Early results include stream-sediment samples returning 3.9 grams per tonne and 4.7g/t gold, along with a 0.8g/t gold quartz-vein float sample.
Since acquiring the 100%-owned, road-accessible Pirenópolis Gold Project, Stockworks Gold has advanced its field-based exploration program significantly. Building on highly anomalous early-stream sediment results — including assays of 4.7 parts per million (ppm) and 3.9ppm gold and a 0.8g/t gold quartz float sample — the company has ramped up ground activities to systematically follow up these targets with closely spaced stream-sediment geochemical sampling, working from the original anomalies up to the headwaters to pinpoint where gold is entering the drainages.
Concurrently, crews are prospecting for additional mineralised float and cobbles and conducting broad regional geochemical sampling across previously unassessed parts of the property to expand potential zones of interest.
Stockworks has also integrated high-resolution, low-level drone airborne magnetics data collected in October 2025, which is being used to refine interpretations of underlying bedrock structures and assist in building a geological working model to support future drill targeting. The project continues to be interpreted as an early-stage orogenic gold target with geological similarities to the Paracatu belt and a large regional magnetic structural break evident upstream of anomalous samples.
“It’s a process of deduction”, Tyab explains. “When the gold stops showing up, you know the source is contained within a specific area — and the headwaters are on our property.”
Experienced team
Stockworks’ technical leadership includes President and COO David Kelsch, P.Geo., a Qualified Person with more than 30 years of global exploration experience. Tyab highlighted the team’s pedigree, noting that Kelsch and geologist Buddy Doyle were instrumental members of the Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) team behind the Diavik Diamond Mine discovery. Doyle later founded Amarillo Gold (TSX-V:AGC) in Brazil, which was sold for C$165 million.
Tyab brings decades of capital markets experience to the company. Last decade he was the president of Senco Sensors, and he has also been a director of Mohave Exploration and Production, an oil and gas company which had amalgamated with Porto Energy Corp.
“I’m on the business and finance side. I’ve been in the natural resource sector since the early 1990s, and I have raised significant capital over the years”, Tyab says.
Community understands mining
Pirenópolis is located in Goiás, one of Brazil’s most established mining jurisdictions, hosting several major operations across gold, copper, and critical minerals. In addition to Paracatu, the state is home to the Serra Grande Gold Mine near Crixás, one of Brazil’s largest and longest-running gold operations, as well as the Chapada Mine, a large open-pit copper-gold operation operated by Lundin Mining (TSX:LUN). Goiás also hosts the Mara Rosa Gold Mine, now operated by Hochschild Mining (LSE:HOC), and the Pilar Gold District, which includes multiple underground and open-pit gold deposits.
Goiás has a long mining history, skilled workforce, and regulatory familiarity with large-scale mineral development.
“People here understand mining”, Tyab says. “It’s part of the region’s history — and that matters when you’re advancing a project responsibly.”
Stockworks funded: Next steps
The company is well funded. In 2025 Stockworks Gold announced the sale of its Cabin Lake Gold property in Canada to Fin Resources (ASX:FIN) to focus on Pirenópolis. The transaction delivered cash, equity in the buyer, and a retained royalty, providing capital to advance field programs at Pirenópolis while preserving upside exposure should Cabin Lake advance.
Tyab says: “The monetisation of the Cabin Lake Gold project is a strategic step by the company to focus on the exploration of the Pirenópolis Gold project in Brazil.”
The company is awaiting current stream-sediment results before advancing to soil sampling grids and integrating geochemistry with geophysics to define drill targets.
“Once we integrate the soil sampling with the geophysics, we’ll be ready to generate drill targets”, Tyab says. “If everything goes according to plan, drilling would be in the second quarter.”
On permitting, Tyab emphasised Brazil’s efficiency. “Permitting is actually very quick”, he says. “It’s often a one-page agreement, and landowners have a royalty interest — so things move fast.”
Write to Michael McCrae at Mining.com.au
Images: Stockworks & Mining.com.au
