Royal Road Minerals Ltd (TSX-V:RYR, OTC:RRDMF) is back drilling in Colombia at a moment of potential political inflexion, with new results from its Güíntar gold-copper-silver project in the Antioquia region confirming a large and growing mineralised system.
That's the headline from research by SCP Resource Finance, which maintains a buy rating and a C$0.60 price target on the Toronto-listed explorer against a current share price of C$0.19.
The first four holes of a 2,500-metre diamond drilling programme at the Güíntar-Aleman-Margaritas (GAM) project returned broad intervals typical of a porphyry-skarn system, a type of large-scale copper and gold deposit formed when magma intrudes into surrounding rock, driving mineralisation across wide zones that can support bulk-tonnage mining.
Highlights include 418 metres at 0.6 grams per tonne gold equivalent from three metres depth, and a higher-grade intersection of 176 metres at 1.2 grams per tonne gold equivalent from 18 metres, with drilling at adjacent targets Niverengo and Aleman also returning material results.
SCP frames the GAM results as the opening act of a much larger story.
Royal Road controls around 1,840 square kilometres of ground in Colombia, much of it acquired from AngloGold Ashanti when the mining major stepped back from early-stage exploration in 2019, representing a portfolio assembled for around $38 million that includes multiple targets never drilled at scale.
Among the most anticipated is El Molino, described by SCP as AngloGold's preferred target before divestment, with the company now seeking to mobilise drilling there this summer.
The political backdrop adds a further dimension. Colombia heads into a May 2026 election with the current administration of President Gustavo Petro, which tightened permitting and slowed exploration investment, set to exit, and SCP argues that exploration capital is beginning to re-engage with a jurisdiction paused for political rather than geological reasons.
Royal Road's chief executive, Dr Tim Coughlin, is a former chief geologist for AngloGold Ashanti in South America who previously led the discovery of the five-million-ounce Amulsar gold deposit in Armenia, a track record SCP highlights as central to its investment case.