Meet the Team: John Sestan, VP of Project Development, Cabral Gold

In mining, the difference between success and failure often comes down to one factor: the people. Management can make or break any project, regardless of the underlying geology. For investors, evaluating management isn't just part of due diligence - it's the foundation of it. This profile examines John Sestan's background and role at Cabral Gold through the lens of why leadership capabilities determine mining investment outcomes.

Foundation in Major Mining

John Sestan's 14-year tenure with Rio Tinto provided the foundation for his project development expertise. Beginning in the early 1990s, he cut his teeth on Indonesia's first non-recourse project financing - what he describes as "baptism by fire" in understanding mine development strategies, risk management, and exposure to political risk and joint venture partner complexities.

This early experience encompassed the full spectrum of development challenges: complex financing structures, international regulatory environments, and multi-party negotiations. The Indonesian project exposure proved invaluable, providing real-world education in managing large-scale developments under challenging conditions.

His Rio Tinto experience expanded to include feasibility studies and due diligence programs across Southeast Asia and India, followed by transition into mergers and acquisitions where he led multifunctional teams structuring and negotiating transactions. This progression from technical development through strategic transactions provided comprehensive understanding of the mining value chain from multiple perspectives.

Geographically, Sestan's experience spans most continents, with exposure across bulk commodities, industrial metals, and precious metals. This breadth of commodity and geographic experience creates valuable perspective for evaluating opportunities and understanding market dynamics across different mining sectors.

Transition to Consultancy & Advisory Roles

Following his Rio Tinto career, Sestan transitioned to consultancy, leading client teams across the complete spectrum from the world's largest mining companies to micro-cap Australian market participants. This consulting experience provided exposure to different organizational cultures, development approaches, and strategic challenges faced by companies of varying scales.

The consulting phase allowed him to observe best practices and common pitfalls across numerous projects and companies, creating a valuable database of lessons learned that now informs his approach at Cabral Gold. Working with micro-cap companies particularly relevant to his current role, providing insight into the unique challenges and opportunities facing junior mining companies.

This diverse experience base shapes his fundamental project development principles, which emphasize balance between risk management and value creation, rigorous analytics and attention to detail, effective teamwork, and unwavering focus on shareholder outcomes and per-share metrics.

Strategic Approach to Project Development

Sestan's project development philosophy centers on several key principles derived from his extensive experience. The first involves maintaining balance between risk management and value creation, avoiding over-reliance on either approach. This balanced perspective proves particularly valuable in junior mining contexts where resources are limited and mistakes prove costly.

Analytics and attention to detail represent another cornerstone of his approach.

"Many people would be surprised - people are not willing to do that work," he observes, emphasizing the importance of coming to any process fully prepared with comprehensive analysis.

This preparation proves essential in financing discussions, regulatory processes, and construction planning.

His experience has also taught him the critical importance of teamwork and understanding limitations. "As you get older, you come to understand what you don't know," he reflects, noting the importance of relying on others to achieve results. This humility drives his approach to assembling expert teams and leveraging external consultants when internal capabilities are insufficient.

Most importantly, Sestan maintains unwavering focus on shareholder outcomes and returns. "Ultimately, we work for shareholders," he emphasizes. "So it's critical we keep in mind how our solutions impact their per share metrics." This shareholder-centric approach drives decision making across all aspects of project development.

Attraction to Cabral Gold & Cuiú Cuiú Opportunity

Several factors attracted Sestan to Cabral Gold, beginning with the potential of the Cuiú Cuiú district. While acknowledging he is not a geologist, his review of CEO Alan Carter's material revealed compelling exploration potential for material discovery in the region.

Carter's proven success in the area provided additional confidence. His familiarity with the region, association with the TZ Discovery on the same geological strike, and passionate commitment to the Cuiú Cuiú project demonstrated deep local knowledge and personal investment in success.

Particularly compelling was Carter's financial commitment to the venture - investing both cash and sweat equity. "A real sign of commitment," Sestan notes, distinguishing this from many other exploration company CEOs who rely primarily on shareholder funding.

The strategic opportunity lay in creating an alternative to what Carter calls "the hamster wheel" of constant expensive capital raising that characterizes many exploration companies. Rather than hoping for discoveries to offset ongoing shareholder dilution, Sestan saw opportunity to use existing resource base to generate cash flow funding future exploration and development.

"The attraction of the opportunity for me was to help create an alternative to, as Alan calls it, the hamster wheel and use the company's existing resource base to create a stream of cash flow that could fund the exploration, evaluation, development of the future mine at Cuiú Cuiú," he explains.

Two-Stage Development Strategy

Cabral's development strategy reflects Sestan's systematic approach to balancing risk and value creation. Stage one focuses on a starter project mining and processing surface oxide material occurring above primary ores. Based on the recently released updated preliminary feasibility study, this starter project demonstrates exceptional economics: 77% IRR, 10-month payback, and over $20 million annual after-tax cash flows during its initial six-year mine life at $2,500 per ounce gold.

The strategy's elegance lies in using free cash flow from the oxide project to fund stage two development of primary resources while accelerating exploration programs. This approach eliminates dependence on external financing for exploration activities while demonstrating operational capability to investors and lenders.

Stage one's surface oxide characteristics provide significant advantages. The material lies essentially on the surface, reducing waste stripping costs, particularly in early years. During the 10-month payback period, Cabral expects to mine 800,000 tonnes of ore but only 100,000 tonnes of waste - extraordinary for most mines that face large pre-stripping investments before accessing ore.

The oxide material is free-digging, avoiding drill and blast costs, while its softness reduces power-intensive crushing and grinding requirements. This proves particularly important since the starter project will rely on local diesel generators rather than grid power, making it sensitive to power costs.

Project Development Execution & Risk Management

Sestan's approach to execution emphasizes early identification and mitigation of critical path risks. Two key risk factors dominate the development plan: third-party supplier performance and weather-related construction challenges.

For equipment delivery, Cabral has identified three major long-lead components: the ADR system, sizer, and agglomerator. The company has already placed orders for the ADR system with Australian company Como Engineering, which is under construction in Perth with deposits paid and expected shipment in Q1 2025. Technical assessments for the sizer and agglomerator are complete, with supplier conversations underway. All three components must be on-site by Q2 2025 for commissioning and Q3 production targets.

Weather risk centers on completing earthworks and civils for the process plateau before wet season onset. Sestan's team identified this risk early, investing in detailed engineering using early works funding. The engineering is complete and circulated among potential contractors, enabling immediate construction start upon board approval. The program requires approximately two months and must begin in Q4 2024 to complete before wet season arrival.

This proactive risk management demonstrates Sestan's systematic approach to project development, identifying potential bottlenecks early and developing mitigation strategies well in advance of critical decision points.

International Coordination & Team Management

Operating from Australia's East Coast while managing a Brazilian project requires sophisticated coordination capabilities. Sestan has adapted to early morning and late-night calls to maintain daily communication with engineering consultants spread across the Americas and on-ground teams in Brazil.

His approach involves daily communication with construction manager Luis Solaro and country manager Rory McKnight, both based on-site in Brazil. "Quite literally, these guys are the last people I speak to at night and the first in the morning," he notes, emphasizing the commitment required for effective international project management.

The team structure reflects Sestan's philosophy of assembling fit-for-purpose capabilities. Rory McKnight, a fellow Australian who has made northern Brazil his home for over 20 years, handles in-country matters including permitting, community relations, and infrastructure preparation. His extensive local experience and established relationships prove invaluable for regulatory navigation and community engagement.

Luis Solaro brings direct regional construction experience, having built several comparable heap leach projects in the area. His ability to identify potential issues while finding optimization opportunities exemplifies the entrepreneurial spirit Sestan values in team members.

Brian Arkell serves as VP Exploration, generating resource estimates and mine plans while managing test work that feeds into engineering design calculations. This technical foundation ensures development planning is based on robust geological understanding and metallurgical data.

Financial Strategy & Market Positioning

Sestan's financial approach reflects his shareholder-focused philosophy and understanding of capital market dynamics. The starter project's economics provide compelling investment metrics while requiring relatively modest capital investment compared to traditional mine development projects.

The 77% IRR and 10-month payback at $2,500 gold provide substantial margin for gold price volatility while generating significant returns. More importantly, the project's cash generation capability eliminates dependence on ongoing equity financing that typically dilutes shareholders during development phases.

Current market conditions provide additional tailwinds.

"Fortunately, we've got a very supportive gold market as well, which is always helpful," Sestan observes. "Nice to have a bit of a tailwind."

However, the project's economics remain robust across various gold price scenarios, providing resilience during potential market downturns.

The company maintains multiple financing discussions for project funding, with Sestan expecting completion within coming months. This will trigger board review and final investment decision, providing full authorization for construction commencement.

Technical Confidence & Risk Assessment

Sestan's technical confidence stems from comprehensive risk assessment and detailed engineering work. The team has identified 80-90 risks during recent workshops, with seven showing potentially severe consequences and two falling within the highest concern category defined as severe consequences with highest probability.

This systematic risk identification enables proactive management of potential negative outcomes while maintaining awareness of project vulnerabilities. Importantly, Sestan's balanced approach also identifies opportunities for performance improvement, including potential for a fifth heap leach pad that could add 25% production capacity using spare agglomerator and sizer capacity.

"We believe that we have a P50 construction and operational estimate," he explains. "In other words, there's an equal chance of outperformance and underperformance." This realistic assessment provides credible foundation for investor evaluation while acknowledging inherent uncertainty in any development project.

Long-Term Vision & District Potential

While focused on starter project execution, Sestan maintains clear vision of broader district opportunity. The starter project is designed specifically to support phase two development of larger primary resources, with all design decisions evaluated for their contribution to long-term value creation.

"At all times, we must ensure the project design has an eye on its principal objective, which is to support a phase two development of Cuiú Cuiú."

This strategic perspective prevents short-term optimization that could compromise future expansion opportunities.

The starter project contributes to long-term development in multiple ways: generating cash to accelerate exploration while minimizing shareholder dilution, exposing primary ore through oxide removal in areas with 50-60 meters of overlying material, and providing operating base and full permitting for brownfield expansion rather than greenfield development.

Current Results & Forward Outlook

Under Sestan's project development leadership, Cabral has progressed rapidly toward construction decision for the starter project. Permitting processes near completion with community consultations representing the final step, while detailed engineering focuses on critical path items and long-lead procurement.

The company's transformation from exploration-stage asset to near-production operation validates Sestan's strategic approach to phased development. Rather than continuing the traditional exploration company funding cycle, Cabral has created a pathway to cash generation that supports long-term district development.

Looking ahead, key milestones include project financing completion, board investment decision, and construction commencement targeting H2 2026 production start. Concurrent exploration programs at targets like Machichie and PDM provide potential for resource expansion and additional value creation.

For investors evaluating Cabral Gold, Sestan's track record of systematic project development, risk management focus, and shareholder-centric decision making provides confidence in execution capability. His experience across major mining companies, consulting environments, and international project development creates unique perspective on navigating the challenges ahead.

As he summarizes his excitement about Cabral's future:

"We have a strategy that makes sense given the current state of the capital markets and our existing financial resources. So it's a low risk, short term way of bringing cash flow into the company and Cabral being independent of the vagaries of the capital markets."

With experienced leadership, proven development strategy, and compelling project economics, Cabral appears well-positioned to execute its vision under Sestan's project development guidance.