(Kitco News) Dolly Varden Silver is seeking to combine its high-grade silver district in British Columbia’s Golden Triangle with producing gold assets in Alaska through a proposed merger with Contango Ore, a transaction management says could move the company closer to becoming a North American precious metals producer.
Speaking with Kitco Mining at the 2026 Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada convention, President and CEO Shawn Khunkhun said the deal would buy “gold production cash flow” and mine development expertise to a company that has spent several years consolidating historic silver assets around the Kitsault Valley project in northwestern British Columbia.
The merger agreement, announced Dec. 7, 2025, would combine Dolly Varden’s exploration portfolio with Contango’s gold assets in Alaska. Those include the Manh Choh mine, developed in partnership with Kinross Gold, as well as additional deposits such as Lucky Shot and Johnson Tract that are being advanced toward production.
Khunkhun said the combination brings together complementary capabilities, pairing Dolly Varden’s exploration-driven growth strategy with Contango’s experience in permitting, development, and mine operations. The combined portfolio could eventually support roughly 200,000 ounces of annual gold production alongside about 5 million ounces of silver output from the Kitsault Valley project.
Dolly Varden has spent the past several years building a district-scale position around Kitsault Valley. Since Khunkhun took over as chief executive in 2020, the company has raised about $185 million and consolidated a land package of roughly 100,000 hectares across the Golden Triangle, incorporating several past-producing high-grade silver mines.
The project’s current inventory includes “64 million ounces of silver at roughly 300 grams per ton complemented by a million ounces of high-grade gold,” Khunkhun said. Dolly Varden has completed about 200,000 meters of drilling across the district and expects to release an updated resource estimate in May 2026.
Exploration success across targets, including the Wolf vein and the Homestake area, has reinforced management’s view that Kitsault Valley represents a district-scale system with potential for further resource growth.
Khunkhun said the company’s strategy is evolving as its resource base expands. “It’s now time to get the silver off the hill,” he said, referring to the shift toward defining resources and evaluating development decisions.
Shareholders are scheduled to vote on the merger at a special meeting on March 17, 2026, with closing targeted for March 26, 2026 subject to court and regulatory approvals. If approved, the combined company is expected to operate as Contango Silver and Gold and continue trading on the NYSE American under the ticker CTGO while applying for a Toronto Stock Exchange listing.
Khunkhun said the strategy is designed to provide investors with exposure to precious metals production in stable North American jurisdictions. “We’re essentially giving the precious metals investor another North American-focused gold and silver producer developer,” he said.
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