Canada’s Papua New Guinea gold rush

Australia and Canada are the world’s two dominant sources of mining capital. But despite Papua New Guinea’s proximity to Australia, it is investors in Toronto and Vancouver that have backed the country’s junior mining companies the most aggressively in the past three years.

Since 2024, PNG-focused juniors have raised more than C$91.3 million (US$65.7 million; K292 million) on Canada’s TSX Venture Exchange (TSXV), compared to the A$79.2 million (US$57.0 million; K253 million) on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), according to data compiled by Mining & Energy. Add debt funding and asset sales, and the total raised for exploration and early-stage development in PNG – all of it by TSXV- or ASX-listed companies – climbs past US$150 million.

“I think the Toronto Exchange is very open for PNG developments. Australia is as well. But I’d say Toronto is probably slightly ahead of it.”

Mark Schipperheijn, Director at Vancouver-based Ventoux Capital and a founder of PNG-focused Freeport Resources, has watched that appetite build first-hand: Freeport’s most recent raise was a C$3.5 million private placement in January 2026. “There have been some substantial financings in Canada recently to fund projects in PNG,” he says. “A lot of that is [off the back of] the success of K92 and other companies that have had tremendous success in the country.”

Hamish Bohannan, Managing Director of ASX-listed Geopacific Resources, agrees: “I think the Toronto Exchange is very open for PNG developments,” he says. “Australia is as well. But I’d say Toronto is probably slightly ahead of it.”

While Canada has proven lucrative for PNG juniors, Tim Crossley, CEO and Managing Director of TSXV-listed Adyton Resources – which this month is completing a secondary listing on PNG’s own stock exchange, PNGX – argues there’s still a gap between reality and perception.

“Adyton hasn’t missed one milestone – in fact, we’ve nailed every one, probably exceeded them. And yet the market’s still not rewarding us,” he says. “There’s still a very big PNG discount, just because of perception around jurisdictional risk, which in our view is not real.”

That discount has not stopped investors from other countries buying into PNG-focused juniors. China’s Lingbao Gold Group and XXRT Power Investment both made strategic investments in Geopacific Resources in 2024, while Indonesian contractor Petrosea injected A$23.75 million into Tolu Minerals through a loan set to convert into shares in 2026.

For a jurisdiction long considered too risky for anyone but the majors, the message from investors is increasingly hard to ignore: the money keeps finding its way to PNG.

This article is a version of one that appears in the 2026/27 edition of Mining & Energy magazine, which will be published in October 2026.