As CEO of US American Exploration, John Owen brings decades of experience in mining and mineral properties to two distinctly different ventures: the Rex gold exploration project and Harvest Gold Organics, a growing manufacturer of soil amendments. Guided by curiosity, independent validation and a willingness to challenge conventional assumptions, Owen explains how overlooked resources can reveal new opportunities—and why disciplined leadership matters in both exploration and manufacturing.
One of the properties I became involved with was the historic Congress mine north of Wickenburg, Arizona. Congress was a significant gold producer in the early 1900s, producing roughly 400,000 to 500,000 ounces of gold before winding down around 1911. There was also another period of mining in the early 1990s that produced approximately 75,000 ounces before operations eventually stopped.
Those operations left behind roughly two million tons of historic tailings (finely ground rock).
When I originally became involved with the property, my interest was mining. I knew there was gold remaining in the tailings, and that was certainly part of what made the property interesting.
What I didn’t anticipate was discovering another potential use for some of the mineral material itself.
Over time, we began looking more closely at certain naturally occurring silica-rich materials and whether they might have value outside of mining. That eventually led to years of testing and product development and, ultimately, to Harvest Gold Organics.
The Rex Project is something entirely different. It is a gold exploration project in central Arizona and is being advanced as an exploration property based on geology, geophysics, geochemistry, mapping and drilling.
They are different businesses with different objectives and different paths forward.
If there is a common lesson I’ve taken from working on both, it’s simply to keep asking questions. Sometimes you start looking at a property or a material for one reason and learn something you weren’t expecting. I’ve been fortunate to work with professional geologists, engineers, scientists and businesspeople over the years, and many of the best decisions we’ve made came from being willing to listen to what the information was telling us rather than trying to force a predetermined outcome.
That lesson has come up repeatedly throughout my career.
In mining, materials can sit for decades because everyone has looked at them through the same lens. That doesn’t necessarily mean the earlier people were wrong. They may have been looking for something completely different, using the technology and economics that existed at the time.
The same principle applies outside of mining.
Before spending a lot of money trying to create something completely new, I think it’s worth taking another look at what you already have. That might be a material, a piece of property, old data, a product that never went anywhere, or even an idea somebody dismissed years ago.
In an ever-evolving world of change; technology, markets and science, what wasn’t economical or useful twenty years ago may look very different today.
I’ve also learned not to assume that because something has been looked at before, every question has been answered.
That is particularly true in mining. A district may have been explored extensively for copper, for example, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it was evaluated the same way for gold. Different commodities can require different geological models, different exploration methods and different questions.
My advice is simple: stay curious.
I’ve been in the mining space for a long time and I’m still learning. Some of the most interesting opportunities I’ve been involved with came from going back and taking another look at something, other people had already passed over.
“I think leadership becomes less about being the person in the room who knows everything and more about making sure the right people are in the room in the first place.”
— John Owen, US American Exploration