Natural Resources · Capital · Governance · Execution

Advisory for
the whole journey.

Watauga Pty Ltd · Sydney

Watauga is a Sydney advisory practice working with natural resources companies and their boards across Australia and the United States — at the point where capital structure, governance and execution meet, and through the full market cycle.

What we do Contact

Overview

Across the company lifecycle

Independent judgement. Accountable execution.

Capital structure

Governance and leadership

Shareholder situations

Project execution

Financial analysis

Long relationshipsAustralia–US perspectiveAligned incentives

Australia · United States

Between two allied markets.

Australia holds world-class resources. The United States holds the deepest capital markets and a growing need for secure supply. Watauga works across both — Australian and American, with a career spent between Sydney and New York — helping companies and boards read each market and move between them.

Capital

North American investors, lenders and markets for Australian projects.

Supply

Critical minerals and energy supply between allied economies.

Boards

Directorships on ASX-, TSXV- and OTC-quoted resource companies.

Services

Five disciplines.
One accountable relationship.

Watauga partners with a limited number of natural resources companies through their hardest phases — restructuring, governance, development and protection.

Balance Sheet Restructuring

We help boards and owners reshape the capital structure to fit the cash generation and risk of the underlying assets.

Refinancing and maturity management
Creditor negotiation and workouts
Stressed recapitalisations
Royalty and stream structuring
Capital-return policy

Corporate Governance

Small and mid-cap boards are thin by necessity. We help build boards and executive teams capable of carrying the company through development, operations and change.

Board composition and NED search
Chair and committee structuring
Executive hiring
Succession
Governance frameworks
Listing readiness

Shareholder Activism

We have sat on both sides of the table — as shareholder and as director — and support constructive engagement and considered board responses.

Campaign strategy
Shareholder engagement
Board renewal
Vulnerability reviews
Proxy support
Settlement structuring

Project Execution

Studies do not build mines; disciplined owners do. We bring owner-side operating judgement to the transition from study through construction, ramp-up and steady state.

Study review and value engineering
Contracting strategy
Owner's team design
Schedule and budget governance
Operational readiness

Financial Analysis

Decisions deserve better than the promoter's model. We build and stress the numbers so boards can defend their decisions and investors can understand the downside.

Project and corporate models
Independent valuation
Peer benchmarking
Scenario analysis
Investment papers
Transaction support

How we work

Built around the company,
not the transaction.

Senior engagement with operating accountability, structured for relationships that outlast any single assignment.

Long relationships

We work with a small number of companies, stay through the unglamorous stretches and measure the relationship over years rather than a closing date.

Australia and the United States

Our work runs between Australia and North America, with reach into Asia — informing our view on capital, governance and operations in natural resources.

Aligned incentives

Commercial terms are structured for sustained engagement and, where appropriate, agreed outcomes — with senior accountability throughout.

Leadership

Founder-led advice grounded in operating, financing and board experience.

P. Ryan Welker

Founder & Managing Director

Twenty-plus years in natural resources across operations, financing and board service. Co-founder and Chairman of Vitrinite, a Queensland coking coal company. Director of ASX-, TSXV- and OTC-quoted resource companies. Previously in natural resources advisory, structured finance and equity capital markets across the United States and Australia. Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD); BA (Hons) International Accounting & Finance.

Board roles

Current appointments

Private · Coking coal

Vitrinite Pty Ltd

Chairman & Co-Founder

Queensland Bowen Basin coking coal.

ASX: X64 · Gold

Ten Sixty Four Limited

Non-Executive Director

Board oversight across capital allocation, performance, governance and financing strategy.

TSXV: BMR · Copper

Battery Mineral Resources Corp.

Non-Executive Director (appointed June 2026)

Canadian-listed copper company with operations in Chile and the United States.

OTC: UARI · Uranium

Uranium America Resources