QGold's Boardroom Coup: Banking on Elite Talent to Unlock Oregon Gold

TORONTO, ON – December 03, 2025 – In the high-stakes world of junior mining, where promising geology is often overshadowed by empty coffers, a company’s most valuable asset can be its leadership. Q-Gold Resources Ltd. (TSXV: QGR) just made a formidable move to bolster that very asset, signaling a decisive pivot from exploration to serious commercial development. The appointment of Jamsheed Mehta, the recently departed Vice-Chair of BMO Capital Markets, to its Board of Directors is more than just a personnel update; it's a strategic masterstroke designed to unlock capital and pave a path to production.

For a junior explorer with a market capitalization hovering under C$20 million, attracting a figure with over three decades of experience at the highest echelons of Canadian finance is a significant tell. Mr. Mehta is not a typical junior board appointee. His career at BMO, one of Canada’s premier mining investment banks, culminated in a role where he helped shape equity capital markets strategy and sat on the committee that oversaw the bank's own equity risk exposures. This is a man who understands, from the inside out, what it takes to get a mining project financed.

Paired with the concurrent appointment of Scott Moore, a former mining CEO with a track record of securing significant project financing, as VP of Corporate Development, QGold is broadcasting a clear message to the market: it is building the team to transition its flagship Quartz Mountain Gold Project from a geological concept into a tangible, revenue-generating asset.

The Strategic Blueprint: Assembling a Financing Powerhouse

The challenge for any junior miner is bridging the chasm between a positive mineral resource estimate and the hundreds of millions of dollars required for mine construction. This is where QGold's recent appointments become critically important. Jamsheed Mehta’s value lies not just in his advisory capacity, but in his vast network and profound understanding of institutional capital.

During his 31-year tenure at BMO, he advised mining companies at every stage, from grassroots explorers to global producers, on financing strategies for everything from initial drilling to complex M&A. His role on the Equity Capital Commitments Committee gave him a rare perspective on risk assessment from the underwriter's side of the table. He knows precisely what institutional investors need to see in a project’s economics, jurisdiction, and management team before they are willing to write a nine-figure check. This experience is invaluable for a company like QGold, which, despite its promising assets, reported a working capital deficit earlier in the year and is now entering its most capital-intensive phase.

“We are honoured to welcome Jamsheed Mehta to the QGold Board,” said Peter Tagliamonte, President and CEO of QGold, in the company’s official announcement. “Jamsheed’s deep expertise in equity markets and his strategic insight into mining finance will be invaluable as we continue to advance our exploration and development initiatives.”

This move is a deliberate attempt to de-risk the financing pathway for QGold's primary objective: bringing its Oregon-based gold project to life.

The Target: Unlocking Quartz Mountain's Potential

The leadership overhaul is squarely focused on advancing the Quartz Mountain Gold Project, QGold’s flagship asset in southern Oregon. Acquired from major producer Alamos Gold in October 2025, the project arrived with a significant geological pedigree and a stamp of validation. As part of the deal, Alamos Gold not only received cash and shares but also retained a 9.99% equity interest in QGold, signaling its belief in the project's upside even after its divestiture.

The project's technical merits are compelling. A recent NI 43-101 technical report outlined an indicated mineral resource of 1.54 million ounces of gold and 2.05 million ounces of silver. Crucially, the deposit is described as amenable to conventional open-pit mining and heap-leach processing—a combination that typically results in lower capital and operating costs compared to more complex underground operations. Alamos Gold’s own internal studies prior to the sale reportedly showed a robust 23% internal rate of return (IRR) at a conservative $1,400 gold price, suggesting the project's economics could be highly attractive in the current market.

QGold is not wasting time. The company has already engaged the respected engineering firm Kappes, Cassiday & Associates to complete a Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA). The PEA is a critical commercialization milestone that will translate the mineral resource into a comprehensive economic model, providing key metrics like Net Present Value (NPV), IRR, and initial capital cost estimates. The results of this study, expected in the coming months, will form the backbone of the company’s future financing efforts, and having Mehta on board to shape and present that story to the market is a distinct advantage.

Navigating the Path to Production

While capital is key, it's only one piece of the puzzle. Execution is paramount, and that's where the appointment of Scott Moore as VP Corporate Development comes in. Moore’s career demonstrates a deep understanding of the operational and regulatory hurdles inherent in mine development. As the former CEO of Euro Sun Mining, he stewarded the Rovina Valley project in Romania, one of Europe's largest undeveloped gold deposits. His tenure there was marked by two key achievements highly relevant to QGold's ambitions: navigating a complex European permitting environment by championing an environmentally sensitive mine plan, and successfully raising C$22.3 million in a bought-deal financing that attracted significant institutional demand.

This dual expertise in financing and permitting is directly applicable to Quartz Mountain. Oregon, while having a mining history, has a rigorous regulatory framework. QGold has proactively engaged SLR Consulting, a firm with specific expertise in Oregon's permitting landscape, to advance environmental baseline studies and develop a stakeholder engagement plan. The stated goal of utilizing the U.S. federal FAST-41 program to streamline environmental reviews shows a sophisticated, forward-thinking approach to de-risking the project timeline.

By assembling a team with Mehta’s financial acumen and Moore’s development and execution experience, QGold is building a complete commercialization engine. This strategy reflects a growing trend in the junior resource sector: success is no longer just about the quality of the rock, but the quality of the team assembled to develop it. For investors, this dual-track approach of securing a promising asset and immediately backing it with a Tier-1 leadership team provides a much clearer, more credible path from prototype to profit.