The Electrum Group

Thomas Kaplan, the firm's Chairman and Chief Investment Officer, drives all material investment decisions. Kaplan built his reputation and capital through founding Apex Silver Mines and Leor Energy, and he applies a deeply personal geological conviction framework to the portfolio. The investment team supports him with technical diligence, but Kaplan's macro thesis on precious metals supply scarcity is the North Star.

Electrum operates as a permanent-capital vehicle funded principally by Thomas Kaplan's own wealth, with no external redemption pressure, fund-life constraints, or limited-partner withdrawal rights. This structure contrasts with most institutional mining equity funds, which run on 7-to-10-year fund cycles. The permanent posture lets the firm remain patient through the long development timelines that large-scale mining projects require.

The firm concentrates overwhelmingly on precious metals — gold, silver, and platinum-group metals — though it also has exposure to strategic minerals that align with Kaplan's energy and resource scarcity thesis. The core geographic focus is the Americas, with significant exposure to Alaska, Nevada, British Columbia, and the Andean gold belt.

Yes. Thomas Kaplan is the founder and chairman of Panthera Corporation, the largest global nonprofit devoted exclusively to wildcat conservation. Panthera is funded in significant part by Kaplan's investment returns from the metals portfolio. The two entities are legally distinct, but the philosophical link — long-term thinking about resource scarcity and stewardship — is intentional.

The Electrum Group, ultimately controlled by Thomas Kaplan, has maintained a substantial, long-standing equity position in NovaGold Resources. Kaplan has been a director of NovaGold and is the most prominent patient-capital backer of the Donlin Gold project in Alaska, one of the largest undeveloped gold deposits globally. The position exemplifies Electrum's strategy of concentrating capital behind a small number of high-conviction resource assets.

Electrum has historically invested directly and with select, long-term partners like Sun Valley Gold, a precious-metals investment firm run by Peter Palmedo, a longtime Kaplan collaborator. The firm does not operate an open co-investment program for external limited partners, but Kaplan's network in the resource-finance world occasionally surfaces aligned capital alongside his own.

Kaplan's wealth traces to two natural-resource ventures. Apex Silver Mines developed the San Cristóbal silver-zinc-lead deposit in Bolivia into one of the world's largest silver mines. Leor Energy, an exploration company he founded, discovered the Deep Bossier shale-gas formation in East Texas, and the subsequent sale of those assets generated significant liquidity. Both fortunes predate and fund The Electrum Group's current precious-metals concentration.