Interview with Mark Morabito of King & Bay in Vancouver: Betting on Risk, Building the Future
Mark Morabito doesn’t wait for certainty. He moves when others hesitate, seizing the opportunities that may be too risky for most eyes. A former corporate finance lawyer who pivoted into the world of mining and merchant banking, he’s raised over a billion dollars and taken multiple companies from concept to the New York Stock Exchange. Through King & Bay, the firm he founded in 2003, Mark has helped build ventures in natural resources, tech, and aviation, but mining remains his sharpest edge. Today, he’s the Chairman and CEO of Intrepid Metals, a copper, silver, and zinc company in Southern Arizona with infrastructure, community support, and one of the most prized advantages in the mining world: fully cleared permitting. He’s also the Executive Chairman and Founder of Excalibur Metals Corp with mining interests in Nevada. At the core of Mark’s approach is identifying early, putting in the work, and executing relentlessly.
Q: You walked away from a career in corporate law, jumped into mining with no revenue, and even booked a spot on a Virgin Galactic space flight. What drives you to take those kinds of risks?
MARK MORABITO: I know the biggest returns come when the path is still a little foggy, because if it’s clear, it’s going to be really crowded, right? When I left corporate law, I had a baby on the way. No guaranteed income, no roadmap. But I worked with a lot of mining clients, and I was more interested in what they were building than in the work I was doing for them. So I followed that. I worked with a mentor for awhile, working in-house for a mining entrepreneur, and when he was offered a mining opportunity in Newfoundland and Labrador that he didn’t want, the person who offered it to him looked at me and said, “I think you’re ready for your first deal, you should take it.” I didn’t know everything, but I said yes and that decision changed my life. It’s the same with the decision to become a part of Virgin Galactic. I met Richard Branson in 2011, cornered him at a fundraiser, told him how much I admired his ability to build Virgin despite British Airways doing everything they could to squash it. I asked what he was working on, and he told me about this spaceflight idea not many people had heard of yet. I wired the money the next day. If something sparks my curiosity and I can see where it might go, I want in early. The upside is always in the uncertainty.
Q: You’ve said your best investment is in yourself. How does that show up in your work?
MARK MORABITO: Discipline lasts forever. It’s the foundation for everything I do, for mental clarity, physical energy, resilience. I train early in the morning with heavy punches on the bag, hard rounds, intense workouts, and it gives me a sharp focus for the day. It’s good to suffer a little bit, it teaches you to stay focused when your body’s telling you to quit. You train your body, you train your mind. It’s the best investment, and the return is better performance in everything you do.
Q: What makes the Intrepid Metals projects in Arizona stand out?
MARK MORABITO: With Intrepid, we have the kinds of projects that don’t come along very often. We’re in Cochise County, just south of Tucson, in a region with a strong track record of permitting and active support from the local community. That’s huge, permitting is often the biggest bottleneck in mining, and we’ve already cleared it. That removes a major layer of risk for any future buyer or partner. On top of that, the site is plugged into major infrastructure. There’s an aquifer, high-voltage power lines, dual rail access to the West Coast, and proximity to an interstate. From a logistics standpoint, it’s ideal. Strategically, we’ve positioned this so that a major mining company looking to acquire won’t see red flags, they’ll see green lights. Our job now is to continue de-risking the asset and proving its value in the ground. Once that happens, it becomes a prime acquisition target.
Q: What do you think people misunderstand about the mining business today?
MARK MORABITO: People still carry this outdated view of mining as dirty, slow-moving, or stuck in the past. That couldn’t be further from reality. If we want to build a sustainable future, with EVs, solar, wind, batteries, we need metals. Copper, lithium, nickel, rare earths. And you can’t 3D-print those, you must dig them out of the ground. What’s happening now is a global race for resources. China saw this coming 30 years ago. They locked up massive reserves across Africa by funding infrastructure and leveraging debt. The US fell way behind, that’s why they’re now interested in Greenland and Canada. With Trump, while we may all have our issues with him, the truth is the mining industry is seeing the most favorable conditions in decades, maybe ever. It’s one of the few truly bipartisan issues in the U.S. right now, Democrats get it too. If you want energy independence and tech dominance, you have to secure your supply chain. That means mining, building, and doing it smarter and faster than ever before.
Q: You’ve got a new silver project kicking off in Nevada. What’s the vision there?
MARK MORABITO: We’re incredibly excited about this next venture. It’s a silver project just outside Tonopah, Nevada, about a four-hour drive from Las Vegas. Nevada is a fantastic state for mining. It’s resource-rich, has strong infrastructure, and a permitting process that is generally consistent and transparent. We’re in the early stages, raising a few million to start drilling, but the geology is compelling, and the access is excellent. I’ll be spending a lot of time down there. For me, this is a classic ground-floor opportunity. We get in early, move fast, and build out the asset in a way that makes it attractive to a larger operator. It’s the same playbook, to take something raw, reduce the risk, increase the value, and position it for a strategic exit.
Q: How has being a father shaped how you approach business?
MARK MORABITO: Becoming a father changed everything. When my daughters were younger, I made the choice to be fully present whenever I was home. I showed up, I got involved in every part of their lives. That time taught me patience, humility, and how to really commit with time and energy. One of my daughters now has an MA with a Chinese certification from the University of Edinburgh. She’s fluent in Mandarin and spent her third year of business school in Taiwan. When I enrolled her in Mandarin in first grade, I had no idea it would stick like it has, but I’d spent half my career in China at that point and knew it was the language of commerce in the future. My youngest is in communications at TMU, formerly Ryerson, in Toronto, and thriving. She loves Toronto. Watching them grow into strong, smart, capable women has been the most rewarding part of my life. There are a lot of lessons in parenting that apply to business. You can’t rush development. You have to show up, every day, through the tough seasons and the quiet stretches. You have to share a vision and make sure you’re always on the same page with executing it. But the whole point of business, of life, is to create those priceless moments with your family, where you’re all helping each other to thrive.
