CAREER

Upon the closing of the sale of Regent Mercantile Holdings Limited’s stake in Traxys along with Regent’s co-investors in June 2024, Mr. Dattels focussed on the establishment of the Primary Commodity Fund. The fund was founded by Mr. Dattels and his partners to take advantage of its relationship with Traxys. The fund’s relationship with Traxys has enabled it to make direct investments into minor metals and rare earths alongside its ability to trade large liquid metals on exchanges and OTC markets. The Primary Commodity Fund was successfully launched in January 2025.

In December 2023, Mr Dattels temporarily became non-executive co chairman of Pasofino Gold Limited a Canadian-based mineral exploration company listed on the TSXV (VEIN). Pasofino, through its wholly owned subsidiary, currently owns 100% of the Dugbe Gold Project (prior to the issuance of the Government of Liberia’s 10% carried interest). The 2,302 km² Dugbe Gold Project is in southern Liberia and situated within the southwestern corner of the Birimian Supergroup which is host to most West African gold deposits. He resigned his position in April 2025 when the company struck a co-operation agreement with the majority shareholder Hummingbird Resources PLC to dedicate his full-time effort to the Bermuda based Primary Commodity Fund he co-founded and launched in January 2025.

Polo made an investment in Caledon Resources PLC in 2008 and became its largest shareholder owning approximately 29%.  Caledon was at the time a coking coal producer and explorer in the Bowen Basin of Queensland, Australia.  It acquired the mothballed Cook Mine in late 2006 and re-commissioned the operation and introduced an innovative new underground mining methodology. The Company also purchased the nearby Minyango exploration concessions in 2006 and has conducted a number of drilling programs in preparation for a feasibility study.

Polo’s controlling interest in Caledon Resources PLC was sold at a profit to China’s Guandong (Australia) Pty Ltd generating approximately $100 million.

In 2007, Mr. Dattels founded an AIM listed mining company called Polo Resources Limited. Polo is a natural resources investment company focused on investing in undervalued resource companies and projects with strong fundamentals and attractive growth prospects.

Polo also has a successful record of investing other companies in the uranium sector including:

Berkeley Resources Limited,
Impact Minerals Limited,
A-Cap Resources Limited, and
Marenica Energy Limited.

In aggregate the uranium investments sold generated over 70% cash on cash returns for Polo.

As a result of successful investments, Polo has made substantial dividend distributions of $113.9 million in 2010 and $71.4 million in 2011 providing high rates of return to its shareholders.

In 2005 he founded UraMin Inc., which acquired and developed uranium assets in Africa. UraMin owned exploration and development uranium properties in Namibia, the Central African Republic and South Africa. The company was sold in August 2007 to Areva, the French Government-owned, fully integrated uranium producer, marketer and processor of uranium and nuclear reactor supplier, for cash consideration of approximately $2.5 billion.

Since 2000, he has completed several financings, either directly or through Regent Mercantile Bancorp Inc., for:

Apollo Gold Corporation
Royal Standard Minerals Inc.
Guyana Goldfields Inc.
European Minerals Corporation
Defiance Mining Corporation (merged with Rio Narcea Gold Mines Ltd., which in turn has been merged with Lundin Mining Corp.)
Weda Bay Minerals Inc. (sold to Eramet SA)
Apac Minerals Inc. (which became Golden China Resources Corporation which in turn merged with Sino Gold Mining Limited)
African Gold Corporation (now Mwana Africa PLC)
Red Dragon Resources (now Brazilian Gold Corporation)

In 2000 he founded and became the Chairman of Finelot PLC, listed on AIM, which was readmitted as Caledon Resources PLC, a Chinese gold explorer. Subsequent to the sale of its Chinese assets, Caledon acquired the Cook Mine and became an Australian coal producer. Caledon was sold to Guandong Rising (Australia) Pty Ltd in 2011 for an all cash consideration of £313mm.

In 1993 Mr. Dattels financed and was Chairman of International Gold Resources Corporation, which he led from an exploration and development stage company to its eventual sale in 1996 to Ashanti Goldfields Company Limited for approximately C$130 million. Its principal asset was the Bibiani Mine in Ghana. The Bibiani Mine went on to become an important gold producer for Ashanti. During this time he also financed a number of junior exploration companies actively involved in exploration in Indonesia and Mongolia.

In 1987 Mr Dattels formed International Pursuit Corporation, a mining development/exploration company. He resigned as a director in 2002 when the company amalgamated with Apollo Gold Corporation. International Pursuit was an active investor in mining projects in Asia and Canadian oil and gas.

In late 1982 he joined Barrick Gold Corporation and was one of the key executives during its formative years, where he was involved in the company’s growth from a capital base of $10 million to a market capitalization of over $2 billion when he left in early 1987. During his time at Barrick, he was a Director and Executive Vice President of Corporate Finance. His responsibilities included the completion of acquisitions as well as debt and equity funding for such acquisitions. In addition he managed Investor Relations for Barrick. In April 2018, Stephen wrote a tribute to his former colleague Peter Munk, founder and President Emeritus of Barrick Gold, who had recently passed away which can be found here.

From 1976 to 1982 Mr Dattels was in house counsel and a senior executive at Venturetek International Limited, a Toronto based Venture Capital Company. Venturetek invested in a diverse number of businesses including technology and consumer products.