After spending big on Donlin, billionaire sells stake in company with Ambler prospects
John Paulson sold a relatively small stake in Trilogy Metals around the time Trump officials announced a direct government investment in the company.
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Billionaire investor John Paulson made a splash in Alaska’s mining industry last year when he paid $800 million for a 40% stake in the huge Donlin gold project.
But while working to advance Donlin, Paulson quietly sold his position in a separate Alaska-focused company that soared in value after the Trump administration approved the Ambler Road.
That’s according to a recent filing with federal securities regulators from Paulson’s investment office, Paulson & Co.
The disclosure, first reported by Bloomberg, indicates that Paulson sold all of his nearly 9% stake in Vancouver-based Trilogy Metals between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31.
Max Graham
It was a much smaller investment than Paulson’s ownership of Donlin and a separate gold and antimony project that he has been pushing in Idaho. But the transaction is notable given the investor’s significant role in Alaska’s mining industry and his relationship with President Donald Trump.
The Trump administration said in October that it would pay some $35 million for 10% of Trilogy and approve the Ambler Road — a controversial state-proposed mining haul route in northern Alaska that’s viewed as critical to Trilogy's mining plans. (Those plans are being advanced in partnership with an Australian company, South32.)
The announcement boosted Trilogy’s stock by more than 200%. Paulson sold his entire stake in the company, more than 14 million shares, within a few months, though his disclosure does not specify the exact date.
The shares would have surged in value from about $30 million to more than $100 million in October, when the stock price briefly climbed past $10 per share. But it has since dropped to around $4.00.
Paulson has not publicly discussed his divestment, and a spokesperson declined to comment. A Trilogy spokesperson also declined to comment.
Investors buy and sell shares in companies for any number of reasons, and Paulson’s move is not necessarily a sign that he soured on Trilogy’s potential, according to Ian Lange, a professor of economics and business at Colorado School of Mines.
“Could it be a reason? Sure. It could. We don't know. But there are many other [possible] reasons,” Lange said.
Paulson may have sold the shares simply so he could focus more on other priorities, like Donlin, Lange said.
Other Trilogy shareholders, including longtime Alaska Native leader Willie Hensley, who’s also a board member of the company, disclosed gains of hundreds of thousands of dollars following the news of the Ambler Road’s approval and the government’s own investment.
Paulson initially made a name for himself, and a fortune, by betting against the housing market before the 2008 financial crisis.
Since then, he’s become known as a leading investor in companies developing gold mines, and for his ties to Trump: He hosted a Florida campaign fundraiser in 2024 and reportedly was a candidate to be secretary of the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
Donlin is Paulson’s biggest mining investment in Alaska. Beyond his direct stake in the project, he’s also a major investor in Novagold Resources, which owns the other 60% of Donlin and which Trilogy initially spun out from. And Paulson owns about 38% of another Alaska-focused company, International Tower Hill Mines, which aims to develop a gold deposit north of Fairbanks.
Meanwhile, another billionaire who’s heavily invested in Alaska’s mining industry, including in some of the same companies as Paulson, has kept his shares in Trilogy.
Investor Thomas Kaplan’s New York-based Electrum Group owns some 18.5% of the company — a stake worth more than $136 million, according to a recent securities filing by Kaplan’s firm.
Electrum also owns about $865 million in shares, or some 24%, of Novagold, the firm that’s pushing Donlin along with Paulson.
Both Donlin and the Ambler Road have generated vigorous debate locally and statewide. Supporters say the projects could create much-needed jobs and stimulate rural economies, while critics are concerned about impacts to the environment and traditional hunting and fishing.
